Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

arbitrary, oppressive, and unjust." 2. That with a view to effect the conviction of John Thompson Callender, charged with a libel, he had overruled the objection of one of the jurors, who alleged that he had made up his mind on the case, and ought to be excused from serving. 3. That he had improperly excluded the evidence of John Taylor. 4. That his whole conduct on that trial, was marked by "manifest injustice, partiality, and intemperance." 5. That he had illegally issued a capias against the body of Callender, instead of a summons. 6. That he illegally ruled Callender into trial at the first term after he was presented by the grand jury. 7. That in the state of Delaware, in June 1800, he had descended from the dignity of a judge, and stooped to the level of an informer, by refusing to discharge the grand jury, and bringing to their notice the printer of a newspaper in Wilmington. 8. That at a circuit court, in Baltimore, in May 1803, he addressed the grand jury for the purpose of delivering to them "an intemperate and inflammatory political harangue, with intent to excite the fears and resentment of the said grand jury and of the good people of Maryland, against their state government and constitution."

On the 2nd of January, 1804, the accused appeared at the bar of the senate, and asked to be allowed to the first day of the next term to put in his answer. The request being considered on the following day, and refused, the 4th of February was fixed for him to answer the charges, by a vote of 22 to 8. A replication in form was made to his answer, and on the 7th the senate proceeded to the trial. From that time until the 20th the court was engaged in the examination of witnesses, and on that day the argument was opened by Messrs. Early, Campbell, and Clark, on the part of the managers. They were replied to by Messrs. Hopkinson, Key, Lee, and Martin, the counsel for the accused, and Messrs. Rodney, Nicholson, and Randolph, the other managers, closed the argument on the 27th.

The trial excited great interest throughout the country, and public attention was suspended as to every other object, to con*This gentleman had been substituted for Mr. Nelson, who had asked to be excused.

VOL. II.-23

centrate on this. The vice-president, who had for some time given indications that the alienation between him and his old friends was mutual, obtained the loud commendations of the federal party for the dignity, ability, and impartiality with which he conducted the trial.* It was the award of public opinion that there was far greater ability shown in the defence than in the accusation; and of those engaged in the former, the palm was by all conferred on Mr. Luther Martin of Maryland, who sifted each specification of the several charges to the bottom, and exhausted every argument of refutation. On the first of March the court decided on the articles seriatim, and each member answered to each charge separately.

He was pronounced not guilty by 18 of the 34 members on the first charge; by 24 on the second; by 16 on the third; by 16 on the fourth; by all on the fifth; by 28 on the sixth; by 24 on the seventh; and by 15 on the eighth; so that there being not two-thirds of the votes on any one charge, he stood acquitted of all.

The disappointment felt at the result of this impeachment by those who had been most zealous in prosecuting it, was manifested on more than one occasion. On the afternoon of the same day that the sentence of acquittal was pronounced, Mr. Randolph, by resolution, proposed an amendment to the constitution, by which any federal judge should be removed on the joint ad

* This individual, who had talents enough to elevate him, in spite of his moral obliquities, but not enough to sustain him, finding he had lost the confidence of the republicans, and would not again receive their votes either as president or vice-president, had, in the spring of the preceding year, been a candidate for the office of Governor of New York; and his present feelings atoning, in the eyes of the federalists, for his former errors, he in general received their votes. He was not elected, and his failure was in part attributable to General Hamilton, who, refusing to concur with his party, exerted all his influence against their candidate. Some of his strictures on Burr's character, afforded the latter an occasion for sending him a challenge: a duel ensued on the 11th of July, when Hamilton received a wound of which he died the next day. For this act, which inflicted the severest blow ever sustained by the federalists in the loss of a partisan, he also found forgiveness in their predominant hatred of the ruling party.

dress of both Houses of Congress; and the resolution was carried by 68 votes to 33.

A second amendment was then proposed by Mr. Nicholson, by which the seat of any senator of the United States might be at any time vacated by a vote of the legislature of his state. This proposition was referred to a committee of the whole, by 53 votes to 46; and both resolutions were made the order of the day for the first day of the next session. Neither of them, however, was definitely acted on.

The bill too which was introduced into the House of Representatives for the payment of the witnesses on the trial, limited the appropriation to those who were summoned on the part of the United States; but the senate, having by amendment, extended it to the witnesses summoned by the accused, and each House adhering to its first vote, the bill was lost. On the last day of the session it was moved that the witnesses in support of the impeachment should be paid by the clerk of the House out of its contingent fund, but no decision on it could be obtained for want of a quorum. At the next session, in an amendment to a bill from the senate, the House manifested the same disposition by a smaller majority, but receded from it, on a conference, and thus the bill was finally passed for paying all the witnesses indiscriminately.

In consequence of a motion in the senate calling for information, the president on the 31st of January communicated a letter from the British minister at Washington and the French chargé des affaires, complaining that American merchant ships had armed and sailed from the ports of Baltimore and Philadelphia, for the purpose, as it was supposed, of forcing a contraband trade, especially with St. Domingo. These complaints suggested an act by which all commercial intercourse with that island was for a time suspended.

The other subjects which principally engaged the attention of the legislature at this session were, the acts providing severally for the government of the territory of New Orleans and the District of Columbia, in consequence of memorials from the inhabitants of Louisiana. An amendatory act concerning the

Yazoo claims, and a resolution for appointing three commissioners to receive propositions of compromise from the claimants, within the limits prescribed by the convention with Georgia, after a warm debate of several days, passed by 63 votes to 58.

With this session closed Mr. Jefferson's first presidential term, in which time he had, by a steady course of economy, reduced the public debt more than twelve millions, though he had at the same time lessened the taxes, and a host of revenue officers: Had doubled the area of the United States, averted the danger of war both with France and Spain, chastised the Tripolitans, and made war with Algiers and Tunis: Extinguished the title to a large and valuable tract of Indian lands, and promoted civilization among them. For thus promoting the national prosperity he was rewarded by the national favour, notwithstanding the unceasing virulence with which he had been assailed, as was evinced by the fact that he received a greater number of votes at the present election than in that of 1801.

181

CHAPTER VIII.

The President's Inaugural Address. Discontent of Spain. Eaton's success against Tripoli. Mr. Jefferson's account of the Climate of America. Complaints of the Trade with St. Domingo. Schisms in the Republican Party. Message to Congress. John Randolph. Relations with Spain. Views of Parties. Appropriation for the purchase of Florida. The course pursued by the Administration assailed and defended. Interruptions to American Commerce by Great Britain. Impressment. Non-intercourse, and other plans of retaliation. Non-importation Act. Trade with St. Domingo prohibited. Cumberland Road. Importation of Slaves. Removal of Judges. Expedition under Lewis and Clark. State of Parties.

1805-1806.

On the 4th of March, 1805, Mr. Jefferson, then in his 62nd year, delivered an address to both Houses of Congress on the commencement of his second presidential term. He reminds them of the declarations, when he entered on the office of president four years before, of the principles on which he should administer the government, and that his conscience told him he had acted up to them, according to their fair import. He adverts to the liberal principles pursued in our foreign relations and their success. "We are firmly convinced," he said, "and we act on that conviction, that with nations, as well as individuals, our interests soundly calculated, will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties." He speaks with some exultation of the reduction of taxes and suppression of unneces

« PředchozíPokračovat »