CH. V.] MADISON AND CLINTON ELECTED. habit of looking forward to, he asked, -"Shall it lie unproductive in the public vaults? Shall the revenue be reduced? Or, shall it not rather be appropriated to the improvements of roads, canals, rivers, education, and other great foundations of prosperity and union, under the powers which Congress may already possess, or such amendment of the Constitution, as may be approved by the states? While uncertain of the course of things, the time may be advantageously employed in obtaining the powers necessary for a system of improvement, should that be thought best." Availing himself of this "last occasion" of addressing the national legislature, after soliciting their indulgence for his errors, and expressing his gratitude for their confidence, he said,— "Looking forward with anxiety to their future destinies, I trust that in their steady character, unshaken by difficulties, in their love of liberty, obedience to law, and support of the public authorities, I see a sure guarantee 1808. of the permanence of our republic; and retiring from the charge of their affairs, I carry with me the consolation of a firm persuasion that Heaven has in store for our beloved country long ages to come of prosperity and happiness." The election for president and vicepresident resulted in large majorities for the republican candidates. Mr. Madison received the entire votes of Vermont, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio; and also thirteen votes from New York, nine VOL. III.-14 105 from Maryland, and eleven from North Carolina; a hundred and twenty-two in all, out of one hundred and seventysix. Pinckney received all the votes of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Delaware, with two from Maryland, and three from North Carolina; making a total of forty-seven. Clinton received six from New York; and Monroe wisely did not proceed to the last stage in the contest. James Madison was therefore chosen president. George Clinton was also chosen vice-president again; all the electors of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, voting for him; with thirteen from New York, nine from Maryland, and eleven from North Carolina; in all a hundred and thirteen. While for Rufus King, the same who had supported Pinckney voted, fortyseven in all; and Vermont and Ohio gave their nine votes to Langdon; and three of Clinton's supporters for the presidency in New York, voted for Madison as vice-president, and the other three for Monroe; and there was one vote lost by a vacancy amongst the electors of Kentucky. At this last session of Congress under Thomas Jefferson's administration, the principal interest centred in the debates, reports, and conclusions, concerning the embargo. In substance, this memorable enactment was a failure. Neither belligerent had been influenced by it to a change of policy. Neither "Decrees,' nor "Orders," had been repealed. France had made no offer of a sacrifice for America's interests. Great Britain still swayed the sceptre of the seas, in 1808. vincible. The United States were the poorer by some "fifty millions of exports,"—"the treble of what war would cost us," as Mr. Jefferson himself admitted the night before he vacated his seat in the Capitol. By smuggling, by permits from the governors of the states, by ballast licenses from the president, the embargo was customarily evaded. Safe and prosperous voyages made by the ballast-licensed ships had demonstrated the futility of the great pretext at home, for laying on the embargo. The justly boasted surplus was being wasted by the inevitable defalcation in the revenue. The men of highest mark in the country were opposed to the continuance of it; and in favor of it were seen the party leaders under Jefferson, and the southerners, who approved it because it crippled their "natural enemies," the men of the eastern states. It had inflamed the internal animosities of the Union. It had not won a solitary ally. And it had rendered war with England almost a necessity. Towards the close of November, a committee of the House reported on the foreign relations of the Union, and submitted three resolutions for consideration: 1st. That the United States cannot, without a sacrifice of their rights, honor, and independence, submit to the late edicts of England and France. 2d. That it is expedient to prohibit the admission of either the ships or merchandise of those belligerents into the ports of the United States. 3d. That the country ought to be immediately placed in a state of defence. 1808. exclaimed Mr. Josiah Quincy, in the House, November 28th, in a speech on the first resolution, "we meet some gentlemen of the majority, wringing their hands and exclaiming—'What shall we do? Nothing but embargo will save us. Remove it, and what shall we do? Sir, it is not for me, an humble and uninfluential individual, at an awful distance from the predominant influences, to suggest plans of government. But to my eye, the path of duty is as distinct as the milky way; all studded with living sapphires; glowing with cumulating light. It is the path of active preparation; of dignified energy. It is the path of 1776. It consists, not in abandoning our rights, but in supporting them, as they exist, and where they exist on the ocean, as well as on the land. It consists, in taking the nature of things, as the measure of the rights of your citizens; not the orders and decrees of imperious foreigners. ers. Give what protection you can. Take no counsel of fear. Your strength will increase with the trial, and prove greater than you are now aware. I shall be told, 'this I shall be told, 'this may lead to war.' I ask, 'are we now at peace?' Certainly not, unless retiring from insult be peace; unless shrinking under the lash be peace. The surest way to prevent war is not to fear it. The idea, that nothing on earth is so dreadful as war, is inculcated too studiously among us. Disgrace is worse. Abandonment of essential rights is worse." But These resolutions were warmly discussed in the House: the first two passed by a large vote, the last unani "At every corner of this great city," mously. In the Senate, a motion was CH. V.] EFFECTS OF THE EMBARGO. made by Mr. Hillhouse to repeal the embargo act, and was ably advocated by the mover and others. It was opposed by Mr. Giles and the republican Senators with much earnestness. "Mr. President," said Mr. Giles, November 24th," the eyes of the world are now turned upon us: if we sub1808. mit to these indignities and aggressions, Great Britain herself would despise us; she would consider us as an outcast amongst nations; she would not own us for her offspring; France would despise us; all the world would despise us: and what is infinitely worse, we should be compelled to despise ourselves! If we resist, we shall command the respect of our enemies, the sympathies of the world, and the noble approbation of our own consciences. Mr. President, our fate is in our own hands; let us have union, and we have nothing to fear. So highly do I prize union, at this awful moment, that I would prefer any one measure of resistance, with union, to any measure of resistance. with division. Let us then, sir, banish all personal feelings; let us present to our enemies the formidable front of an indissoluble band of brothers: nothing else is necessary to our success. qual as the contest may seem, favored as we are, by our situation, and under the blessing of a beneficent Providence, who has never lost sight of these United States in times of difficulty and trial, I have the most perfect confidence, that if we prove true to ourselves, we shall triumph over our enemies." Une On the 2d of December, the question was taken on the resolution, and it was lost by a vote of twenty-five 107 against six. In accordance with the third resolution of the House, noted above, $475,000 were appropriated to fortifications, principally at New York; four frigates were ordered to be got in readiness for actual service; nearly four thousand seamen were directed to be enlisted in addition to those already in the service, and additions were also made to the marine corps. While, however, the Senate voted so strongly against the policy of repealing the embargo act, the greater part even of the friends of the administration had no expectation that it would be continued many months longer. Some thought it ought to be repealed in the spring; some, that it should be prolonged to the 1st of June, and a few, to the 1st of September; but none were desirous of extending it further. Looking forward then to the change of policy, va rious expedients connected with the repeal were proposed; but they were all postponed on the 10th of February, by a vote of sixty-five to fifty-five. "In the mean while the embargo was pressing with increased severity on every class of the community, whether producers or consumers; and this pressure, joined to the political opposition in the federal party, drove the people of New England, where that party was most numerous, and where the embargo was most felt, to a point of disaffection which had never before been witnessed in the United States. Many, therefore, entertained strong hopes that some course would be taken during the present session, by which the industry and enterprise of the country would be again put into activity, 1809. its vessels be once more suffered to venture on the ocean, and perhaps be permitted to arm in their own defence, if not to make reprisals. Indeed there was no one who did not admit that war would be preferable to the continuance of the embargo beyond a time not very distant; and every day was adding to the number of those who believed that time already arrived."* ing his course was not approved by the legislature of Massachusetts, had resigned his office of Senator, made to the president the following communication;-that from information received by him, and which might be relied on, it was the determination of the ruling party in Massachusetts, and even New England, if the embargo was persisted in, no longer to submit to it, but to separate themselves from the Union, at least until the existing obstacles of foreign commerce were removed; that the plan was already digested, and that such was the pressure of the embargo on the community, that they would be supported by the people. He further said, that a secret agent of Great Britain was then in New England, by whose intrigues every aid would be proffered by that government to carry a project into execution, which would at once render the restrictions on the commerce between the United States and Great Britain nugatory, and all future opposition unavailing.* The danger thus threatening the Union was deemed paramount to all other considerations, and the president, with his cabinet, concluded that it would be better to modify their interdiction of commerce in such a way, that while employment It was early in January that an act for enforcing the provisions of the embargo was passed, an act which, as Mr. Tucker says, armed the executive with new powers; and these powers, so much at variance with the spirit of our institutions, and the general lenity of the laws, afforded further materials for exciting popular odium against the administration, which was then charged with being as ambitious of arbitrary power at home, as it was submissive to the will of Napoleon abroad. The administration, continues the president's biographer, "and the majority who supported it, were, before Congress rose, turned from their purpose of trying the embargo a few months longer, from fear of the growing disaffection of the New England states, which they had reason to believe was producing consequences, not only subversive of the authority of the laws, but dangerous to the continuance of the Union. It has appeared by subsequent disclosures, that in the month of February, Mr. John Quincy Adams, who had supported the itively denied that there was ever any intention in administration in the embargo and other measures of policy, ever since the affair of the Chesapeake, and who, find * Tucker's "Life of Jefferson," vol. ii., p. 285. * In regard to Mr. Adams's accuracy on the point in question, a good deal of doubt has been expressed, and prominent members of the federal party have pos New England to attempt the dissolution of the Union. On the contrary, they charge Mr. Adams with having taken the course he did, in order to gain the favor of the democratic party, and they point to his having soon after been sent on a foreign mission as a proof of the correctness of their views respecting him and his motives. CH. V.] THE THIRD PRESIDENT. was afforded to American vessels, Great Britain and France should still feel the loss of American commerce." 1809. 109 to teach posterity to dwell upon with delight," as they believed, the address proceeds: Acting on this view of the matter, "In the principles on which you Congress passed a law for repealing have administered the government, we the embargo after the 4th of March, see only the continuation and matuas to all nations except Francerity of the same virtues and abilities, and Great Britain, and inter- which drew upon you in your youth dicting with them all commercial inter- the resentment of Dunmore. From course whatever, whether by exporting the first brilliant and happy moment or importing, either directly or circuit- of your resistance to foreign tyranny, ously. This measure has always since until the present day, we mark with been known under the name of the non- pleasure and with gratitude the same intercourse law. It passed on the 27th of uniform, consistent character, the same February, by eighty-one votes to forty. warm and devoted attachment to libWith the 3d of March, 1809, the erty and the republic, the same Roman administration of Thomas Jefferson love of your country, her rights, her reached its close, and the tenth Con- peace, her honor, her prosperity. gress terminated its second session.* Mr. Tucker indulges himself in several eulogistic paragraphs respecting the administration of the third president, its wisdom, its ability, its success, etc., and he quotes in full the address which was presented to Mr. Jefferson by the legislature of Virginia, on the 6th of February, in testimony of their esteem and approbation. A brief extract or two from this address may not be inappropriate in concluding our narrative of Mr. Jefferson's public life. After recording the "points of his administration, which the historian would not fail to seize, to expand, and * For some remarks on Mr. Jefferson's administration, now just at its eventful close, see Appendix at the end of the present chapter. The reader who wishes to look at the third president's character from the point of view of those who do not admire or respect him, may also consult with advantage a caustic review of the life and character of Thomas Jefferson, in the "New York Review" for March, 1837, pp. 5–58. "How blessed will be the retirement into which you are about to go! How deservedly blessed will it be! For you carry, with you the richest of all rewards, the recollection of a life well spent in the service of your country, and proofs the most decisive, of the love, the gratitude, the veneration, of your countrymen. "That your retirement may be as * As an offset to these laudatory expressions, we may quote from the report of a committee of the legislature of Massachusetts, made in January, 1809, in which the state of the country at the time is depicted in the following terms: "Our agriculture is discouraged; the fisheries abandoned; navigation forbidden: our commerce at home restrained, if not annihilated; our commerce abroad cut off; our navy sold, dismantled, or degraded to the service of cutters or gunboats; the revenue extinguished; the cause of justice interrupted; the military power exalted above the civil, and by setting up a standard of political faith, unknown to the Constitution, the nation is weakened by internal animosities and divisions, at the moment when it is unnecessarily and improvidently exposed to war with Great Britain, France, and Spain." |