bers be still in the same principles with the present, and show that we have nothing to expect but a continuance of the same practices, it is not easy to conjecture what would be the result, nor what means would be resorted to for a correction of the evil. True wisdom would direct that they should be temperate and peaceable. But the division of sentiment and interest happens unfortunately to be so geographical, that no mortal can say that what is most wise and temperate would prevail against what is more easy and obvious.

“ I can scarcely contemplate a more incalculable evil than the breaking of the union into two or more parts. Yet when we review the mass that opposed the original coalescence; when we consider that it lay chiefly in the southern quarter ; that the legislature have availed themselves of no occasion of allaying it, but, on the contrary, whenever northern or southern prejudices have come in conflict, the latter have been sacrificed and the former soothed; that the owners of the debt are in the southern, and the holders of it in the northern division; that the antifederal champions are now strengthened in argument by the fulfillment of their predictions; that this has been brought about by the monarchical federalists themselves, who, having been for the new government merely as a stepping-stone to monarchy, have themselves adopted the very constructions of the constitution, of which, when advocating it before the people, they declared it insusceptible; that the republican federalists, who espoused the same government from its intrinsic merits, are disarmed of their weapons—that which they denied as prophecy having become true as history—who can be sure that these things may not proselyte the small number which was wanting to place the majority on the other side? And this is the event at which I tremble, and to prevent which I consider your continuance at the head of affairs as of the last importance.”

The opponents of Mr. Jefferson regarded this letter as designed to influence the mind of Washington against the original friends of the constitution, who were now generally the supporters of the administration. Whatever were the motives which dictated it, it failed to effect the object imputed to the writer, as is evident from a subsequent conversation with Washington, as related by Mr. Jefferson himself. He represents Washington as having said, “ that, with respect to the existing causes of uncasiness, he thought there were suspicions against a particular party which had been carried a great deal too far. There might be desires, but he did not believe there were designs, to change the form of government into a monarchy. There might be a few who wished it in the higher walks of life, particularly in the great cities, but the main body of the people in the eastern states were as steady for republicanism as in

in

the southern. Pieces lately published, and particularly in Freneau's paper, seemed to have in view the exciting opposition to the government, and this had already taken place in Pennsylvania as to the excise law. These pieces tended to produce a separation of the union, the most dreadful of all calamities: and whatever tended to produce anarchy, tended, of course, to produce a resort to monarchical government. He considered these papers as attacking him directly, for he must be fool indeed to swallow the little sugar-plums here and there thrown out to him. In condemning the administration of the government, they condemned him; for if they thought that measures were pursued contrary to his judgment, they must consider him too careless to attend to, or too stupid to understand them. He had, indeed, signed many acts which he did not approve in all their parts, but he had never put his name to one which he did not think eligible on the whole.

“ As to the bank which had been the subject of so much complaint, until there was some infallible criterion of reason, differences of opinion must be tolerated. He did not believe that the discontent extended far from the seat of government. He had seen and spoken with many Maryland and Virginia during his last journey, and had found the people contented and happy. He defended the assumption of the state debts on the ground that it had not increased the total amount to be paid. All of it was honest debt, and, whether paid by the states individually, or by the union, it was still alike a burden on the people. The excise he defended as one of the best laws that could be passed, nobody being obliged to pay who did not elect to do so."

Mr. Hamilton, who also urged Washington not to decline, wrote to him while on a subsequent visit to Mt. Vernon, as follows: “It is clear, says every one with whom I have conversed, that the affairs of the national government are not yet firmly established ; that its enemies, generally speaking, are as inveterate as ever; that their enmity has been sharpened by its success, and by all the resentments which flow from disappointed predictions and mortified vanity; that a general and strenuous effort is making in every state to place the administration of it into the hands of its enemies, as if they were its safest guardians; that the period of the next house of representatives is to prove the crisis of its permanent character; that if you continue in office, nothing materially mis. chievous is to be apprehended; if you quit, much is to be dreaded; that the same motives which induced you to accept originally, ought to induce you to continue till matters have assumed a more determinate aspect; that, indeed, it would have been better for your own character that you had never consented to come forward, than now to leave the business unfinished, and in danger of being undone; that, in the event of storms

a

arising, there would be an imputation either of a want of foresight, or a want of firmness ; and in fine, that on public and personal accounts, on patriotic and prudential considerations, the clear path to be pursued by. you will be again to obey the voice of your country, which, it is not doubted, will be as earnest and unanimous as ever."

Mr. Randolph, the attorney-general, who also wrote to the president on the same subject, seems not to have taken a side with either party. He says: “ It can not have escaped you, that divisions are formed in our politics as systematic as those which prevail in Great Britain. Such as opposed the constitution from a hatred to the union, can never be conciliated by any overture or atonement. By others it is meditated to push the construction of the federal powers to every tenable extreme. A third class, republican in principle, and thus far, in my judgment, happy in their discernment of our welfare, have, notwithstanding, mingled with their doctrines a fatal error, that the state assemblies are to be resorted to as the engines of correction to the federal administration. The honors belonging to the chief magistracy, are objects of no common solicitude to a few who compose a fourth denomination.” After speaking of the tendency of these divisions, he says: “In this threatening posture of affairs, we must gain time, for the purpose of attracting confidence to the government, by an experience of its benefits, and that name alone, whose patronage secured the adoption of the constitution, can check the assaults which it will sustain at the two next sessions of congress."

About this time, a personal newspaper controversy occurred, in which the resentments of the parties were freely uttered. The frequent attacks in Freneau's paper upon the financial measures of the administration, at length drew from Mr. Hamilton a severe newspaper article, signed “ An American,” in which he represented that paper as having been

lished under the auspices and for the special use of the secretary of state, and charged him with the impropriety of holding office in the administration, while conducting a warfare against measures which had received the approval of both branches of the legislature and of the executive. Freneau, in reply, denied Mr. Jefferson's having been concerned in the establishment or conduct of the paper, or his having even written for it. Several articles followed on both sides before this newspaper war terminated.

Washington, pained at this quarrel between his secretaries, endeavored, though in vain, to effect a reconciliation. In a letter of the 23d of Angust, addressed to the secretary of state, he wrote thus : “How unfortunate and how much is it to be regretted, then, that while we are encompassed on all sides with avowed enemies and insidious friends,"

(alluding to alleged British and Spanish intrigues with the Indians,) “ internal dissensions should be harrowing and tearing out our vitals. The laste to me, is the most serious, the most alarming, and the most afflicting of' tlie-two; and without more charity for the opinions of one .apother: in governmental matters, or some more infallible criterion than fias get fållen to the lot of humanity, by which the truth of speculative opinions, before they have undergone the test of experience, is to be forejudged, I believe it will be difficult, if not impracticable, to keep the parts of it together; for if, instead of laying our shoulders to the machine after measures are decided on, one pulls this way and another that, before the utility of the thing is fairly tried, it must inevitably be torn asunder; and, in my opinion, the fairest prospect of happiness and prosperity that ever was presented to man, will be lost perhaps for ever.

“My earnest wish, and my fondest hope, therefore, is, that instead of wounding suspicions and irritating charges, there may be liberal allowances, mutual forbearances, and temporizing yielding on all sides. Under the exercise of these, matters will go on smoothly, and, if possible, more prosperously. Without them, every thing must rub; the wheels of government must clog; our enemies will triumph, and, by throwing their weight into the disaffected scale, may accomplish the ruin of the goodly fabric we have been erecting.

“I do not mean to apply this advice or these observations to any particular person or character. I have given them in the same general terms to other officers of the government, because the disagreements which have arisen from difference of opinions, and the attacks which have been made upon almost all the measures of government, and most of its executive officers, have for a long time past filled me with painful sensations, and can not fail, I think, of producing unhappy consequences at home and abroad.”

A similar letter to Hamilton, and another to Jefferson were subsequently written. In the last he says: “I will solemnly and frankly declare, that I believe the views of both to be pure and well meant, and that experience only will decide with respect to the salubrity of the measures which are the subjects of this dispute. I have a great, a sincere esteem and regard for you both; and ardently wish that some line could be marked out by which both of you could walk.”

To these letters of the president, answers in justification of their conduct were returned by both of the secretaries. The character of these answers will be seen from the following extracts.

“ It is my most anxious wish,” said Hamilton, “as far as may depend upon me, to sinooth the path of your administration, and to render it prosperous and happy. And if any prospect shall open of healing or terminating the differences which exist, I shall most cheerfully embrace it, though I consider myself as the deeply injured party. The recommendation of such a spirit is worthy of the moderation and wisdom which dictated it; and if your endeavors should prove unsuccessful, I do not hesitate to say that, in my opinion, the period is not remote when the public good will require substitutes for the differing members of your administration. The continuance of a division there must destroy the energy of government, which will be little enough with the strictest union. On my part, there will be a most cheerful acquiescence in such a result.

* I can not conceal from you, that I have had some instrumentality of late in the retaliations which have fallen upon certain public characters, and that I find myself placed in a situation not to be able to recede for the present.

“I considered myself compelled to this conduct by reasons public as well as personal, of the most cogent nature. I know that I have been an object of uniform opposition from Mr. Jefferson from the moment of his coming to New York to enter on his present office. I know from the most authentic sources, that I have been the frequent subject of the most unkind whispers and insinuations from the same quarter. I have long seen a formed party in the legislature, under his auspices, bent upon my subversion. I can not doubt, from the evidence I possess, that the National Gazette was instituted by him for political purposes, and that one leading object of it has been to render me and all the leading measures connected with my department, as odious as possible.

" As long as I saw no danger to the government from the machinations that were going on, I resolved to be a silent sufferer of the injuries that were done me. * But when I no longer doubted that there was a formed party deliberately bent upon a subversion of the measures which, in its consequence, would subvert the government; when I saw that the undoing of the funding system in particular was an avowed object of the party, which, whatever may be the original merits of that system, would prostrate the credit and honor of the nation, and bring the government into contempt with that description of men who are in every society the only firm supporters of government, and that all possible pains were taking to produce that effect, by rendering the funding system odious to the body of the people; I considered it as a duty to endeavor to resist the torrent, and as an effectual means to that end, to draw aside the veil from the principal actors. To this strong impulse, to this decided conviction, I have yielded; and I think events will prove that I have judged rightly. Nevertheless, I pledge my honor to you, sir, that if you shall hereafter form a plan to reunite the members of your administration upon some steady principle of coöperation, I will