Harrison Smith of Philadelphia, for some time publisher of a republican paper in that city. The Intelligencer is the paper now published by Gales and Seaton, into whose hands it came a few years after its commencement. An opposition paper, the Washington Federalist, was established at or near the same time as the Intelligencer.

The tenor of the inaugural address, and the assurances given to Mr. Bayard, had allayed the apprehensions of the opposition in relation to a general removal of public officers subject to executive appointment. A larger number of removals, however, were made than the federalists deemed consistent with the professions and pledges of Mr. Jefferson. A case which obtained a notoriety beyond any other, was that of the displacement of Elizur Goodrich, collector of the port of New Haven, and the appointment of Samuel Bishop, nearly seventy-eight years of age, whose eye-sight was much impaired, and whose qualifications for the office were considered far inferior to those of his predecessor. The merchants of New Haven sent a remonstrance to the president, in which they declared the superiority of Mr. Goodrich's qualifications, and reminded the president of the sentiments expressed in his inaugural address. In his reply Mr. Jefferson thus vindicated his course :

“ Declarations by myself, in favor of political tolerance, exhortations to harmony and affection in social intercourse, and respect for the equal right of the minority, have, on certain occasions, been quoted and misconstrued into assurances that the tenure of offices was not to be disturbed. But could candor apply such a construction ? When it is considered that, during the late administration, those who were not of a particular sect of politics were excluded from all office; when, by a steady pursuit of this measure, nearly the whole offices of the United States were monopolized by that sect; when the public sentiment at length declared itself, and burst open the doors of honor and confidence to those whose opinions they approved; was it to be imagined that this monopoly of office was to be continued in the hands of the minority ? Does it violate their equal rights to assert some rights in the majority also ? Is it political intolerance to claim a proportionate share in the direction of the public affairs ? If a due participation of office is a matter of right; how are vacancies to be obtained ? Those by death are few, by resignation none. Can any other mode than that of removal be proposed? This is a painful office; but it is made my duty, and I meet it as such. I proceed in the operation with deliberation and inquiry, that it may injure the best men least, and effect the purposes of justice and public utility with the least private distress ; that it may be thrown as much as possible on delinquency, on oppression, on intolerance, on anti-revolutionary adherence to our enemies.

“I lament sincerely that unessential differences of opinion should ever have been deemed sufficient to interdict half the society from the rights and the blessings of self-government, to proscribe them as unworthy of every trust.

It would have been to me a circumstance of great relief, had I found a moderate participation of office in the hands of the majority. I would gladly have left to time and accident to raise them to their just share. But their total exclusion calls for prompter corrections. I shall correct the procedure; but that done, return with joy to that state of things when the only questions concerning a candidate shall be, Is he honest ? Is he capable ? Is he faithful to the constitution ?"

To the general sentiments contained in this vindication, there would seem to be little ground of objection, even on the part of the federalists. The most that was or might be said with any force, by way of rejoinder, was, that Mr. Adams had made no removals of consequence, and none from party considerations, most of the incumbents having been appointed by Gen. Washington, against whose administration no organized opposition was formed, and before the republican party could be fairly said to have had existence. Great, however, as was the clamor of the opposition, the number of removals from important offices during his whole administration, has been given as less than forty, which, although nearly equal to all others made to the close of John Quincy Adams's administration, bears no comparison to the extent to which proscription for opinion's sake has since been carried.

Great objection was made to appointments which Mr. Adams made during, and after the ballotings in the house for president. Filling offices so near the close of his term of office, Mr. Jefferson considered as an infringement of his prerogative, and as being void. The commissions of several of them had been executed, but not having been delivered, Mr. Jefferson suppressed them, and made new appointments. The judges appointed in conformity with the provisions of the new judiciary act holding their offices during good behavior, and not being removable, the act, as has already been stated, was repealed at the next session of congress, rather from the motive, as the federalists suspected, of nullifying Mr. Adams's “midnight appointments," as they were termed, than for the alleged reason that an additional number of judges was unnecessary.

In a letter to Mr. Giles, of Virginia, Mr. Jefferson wrote, March 23 : “Some principles have been the subject of conversation, but not of determination; e. g., all appointments to civil offices during pleasure, made after the event of the election was certainly known to Mr. Adams, are considered as nullities. I do not view the persons appointed as even candidates for the office, but make others without noticing or notifying them. 2. Officers who have been guilty of official misconduct are sub

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jects of removal. 3. Good men to whom there is no objection but difference of political principle, practiced on only as far as the right of a private citizen will justify, are not proper subjects of removal, except in the cases of attorneys and marshals. The courts being so decidedly federal and irremovable, it is believed that republican attorneys and marshals, being the doors of entry into the courts, are indispensably necessary as a shield to the republican part of our fellow-citizens, which, I believe, is the main body of the people. These principles are yet to be considered of, and I sketch them to you in confidence.”

To Mr. Gerry he wrote, March 28: "Mr. Adams's last appointments, when he knew he was naming aids and counsellors for me, and not for himself

, I set aside, as far as depends on me. Officers who have been guilty of gross abuses of office, such as marshals packing juries, &c, I shall now remove, as my predecessors ought in justice to have done. The instances will be few, and governed by strict rule, not party passion, The right of opinion shall suffer no invasion from me. Those who have acted well have nothing to fear, however they may have differed from me in opinion."

In a letter to Gideon Granger, May 3, he wrote: “ The clergy who have missed their union with the state, the Anglemen, who have missed their union with England, and the political adventurers, who have lost the chance of swindling and plunder in the waste of public money, will never cease to bawl, on the breaking up of their sanctuary. But among the people the schism is healed, and with tender treatment the wound will not reöpen. The quondam leaders have been astounded with the suddenness of the desertion; and their silence and appearance of acquiescence have proceeded, not from a thought of joining us, but the uncertainty what ground to take. The very first acts of the administration, the nominations, have accordingly furnished something to yelp on; and all our subsequent acts will furnish them fresh matter, because there is nothing against which human ingenuity will not be able to find somic

thing to say."

that being

To Levi Lincoln, July 11, 1801 : “ The consolidation of our fellowcitizens in general, is the great object we ought to keep in view; and

once obtained, while we associate with us in affairs, to a certain degree, the federal sect of republicans, we must strip of all the means of influence the Essex junto, and their associate monocrats in every part of the Union. The former differ from us only in the shades of power to be given to the executive, being, with us, attached to republican government

. The latter wish to sap the republic by fraud, if they cannot destroy it by force

, and to erect an English monarchy in its place. We are proceeding gradually in the regeneration of offices, and

introducing republicans to some share in them. I do not know that it will be pushed further than was settled before you went away, except as to Essex men. I must ask you to make out a list of those in office in yours and the neighboring states, and to furnish me with it.” [Appendix, Note C.]

The 7th congress assembled at Washington, December 7, 1801. Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina, a republican, was elected speaker of the house of representatives. In the senate, Abraham Baldwin, of Georgia, for many years a member of the house, was elected president pro tem ; the majorities in both houses being republican.

Instead of making his first communication to congress by personal address, as had been the practice, he adopted that by message, as used on subsequent occasions through the session. The reasons for this course, assigned in a letter to both houses, were, “the convenience of the legislature, the economy of their time, and their relief from the embarrassment of immediate answers on subjects not yet fully before them."

The president announced to congress" on the grounds of reasonable certainty, that the wars and troubles which had for so many years afflicted our sister nations, had at length come to an end, and that the communications of peace and commerce were once more opening among them.” Peace and friendship generally prevailed among the Indian tribes. He stated briefly the difficulty with the bey of Tripoli. Dissatisfied with the sum paid him in purchase of the late treaty, he had demanded more without

any shadow of right, and threatened war in case of a refusal. The president had sent out a small squadron of frigates to the Mediterranean to protect our commerce; and the danger had been dispelled. One of the Tripolitan cruisers had been captured by an American schooner.

A prominent object of recommendation was a reduction of the public expenditures. Offices and officers he thought had been unnecessarily multiplied; and he had already begun to reduce those dependent on executive discretion. The expenses of diplomatic agency had also been diminished. But the great mass of offices were created by law, and the law-making power alone could abolish them. The military establishment was too large for a state of peace. Other topics were noticed, among which was an alteration of the naturalization law.

An act was passed, at this session for the apportionment of representatives according to the second census. The ratio of 33,000 was readopted. Also an act for the protection of our commerce and seamen against the Tripolitan cruisers; an act fixing the military peace establishment, by which the army was much reduced, and a military academy established at West Point; an act regulating intercourse with the Indian tribes,

and to preserve peace on the frontiers ; an act for the repeal of internal duties on stills and domestic distilled spirits, refined sugars, licenses to retailers, sales at auction, carriages, stamped paper, &c.; an act appropriating annually $7,300,000 to the sinking fund for the payment of the public debt. The state of the treasury, however, did not admit of the appropriation ; consequently the act was inoperative.

An act was also passed concerning naturalization. By the first act passed on this subject, in 1790, an alien might be admitted as a citizen, at any time after a two years' residence, on application to the proper court of any state in which he had resided for one year. By the act of 1795, a residence of five years was required, and the application was to be made three years before admission. In 1798, the year of the passage of the alien and sedition laws, a naturalization act was passed, requiring 3 residence of fourteen years, the application to be made five years before admission. The act passed this year, (1802) restored the term of residence to five years, and that of the previous application to three years.

An act to enable the people of the eastern division of the north-western territory to form a constitution and state government, and for the admission of such state (Ohio) into the union, was passed.

Near the close of Mr. Adams' administration, an adjustment was made with Great Britain of the claims of her citizens upon citizens of the United States, for debts contracted prior to the revolution, and which had been assumed by our government in Jay's treaty. The amount agreed upon, was $2,644,000; to be paid in three annual instalments. An act was passed at this session making the necessary appropriations for the payment of these British debts.

The great measure of Mr. Jefferson's administration was the purchase of Louisiana. The reäcquisition of this territory from Spain was an object much desired by Napoleon. It being rumored in England and France

, that, hy a secret treaty, Spain had ceded Louisiana and the Floridas to France, Mr. King, our minister at London, in a letter dated March 29, 1801, informed our government of the rumor, and expressed the opinion that such treaty had been actually executed, and his apprehension that this cession was intended to have, and might actually produce, effects injurious to the union and consequent happiness of the people of the United States.” This apprehension was founded upon the known opinion of certain influential persons in France, “ that nature had marked a line of separation between the people of the United States living upon the two sides of the range of mountains which divides their territory.” This acquisition of Louisiana would give to France the command of the mouth of the Mississippi, and consequently the control of the trade of the western states; and it was suspected as being possibly a part of her design to effect a union ultimately with these states.

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