relations between the United States and France reached a high degree of excitement and interest, threatening even the peace of the two countries. Jay's treaty and the proclamation of neutrality were alike regarded with much disfavor by the French Government. Several decrees were issued, by virtue of which American vessels were confiscated in direct violation of the treaty of commerce. The course pursued by the American Minister at Paris, James Monroe, met the disapprobation of Washington, who thought him not sufficiently energetic in urging the protection of American rights. Monroe was recalled and Charles Coatsworth Pinckney appointed as his successor. Monroe was one of the first diplomatists of his age, and justly popular in France when he left, as he ultimately became in the United States. Washington left the French difficulties unsettled; and, in order to present this question connectedly, I shall defer its consideration until the administration of John Adams, at which time it was permanently adjusted. pro On the 7th of December, 1796, Washington addressed to both Houses of Congress his last Annual Message. In this, an able and dignified State paper, he presented a comprehensive view of the interest and condition of the country. From extensive experience and the most mature deliberation, he fully comprehended, in many respects, the true interest and future policy of the growing Republic. With an eye to commerce, he says, "To an active external commerce, the tection of a naval force is indispensable. This is manifest with regard to wars in which a State itself is a party. But besides this, it is in our own experience that the most sincere neutrality is not a sufficient guard against the depredations of nations at war. To secure respect to a neutral flag, requires a naval force." In reference to the permanent establishment of a navy, he says,-"Will it not then be advisable to begin without delay to provide and lay up the materials for the building and equipping of ships of war, and to proceed in the work by degrees, in proportion as our resources shall render it practicable without inconvenience, so that a future war of Europe may not find our commerce in the same unprotected state in which it was found by the present?" He urges upon Congress the necessity of protecting our domestic manufactures. He also recommends the establishment of a national university and a military academy. Each House expressed a high admiration of the policy of the Administration, with an equal regard and admiration for the man. Yet, notwithstanding the unparalleled popularity of Washington and his administration, the answer which Congress proposed making to the address of the President did not pass the House without opposition and a warm debate. The answer of Congress embraced the following sentence,"For our country's sake, for the sake of republicanism, it is our earnest wish that your example may be the guide of your successors, and thus, after being the ornament and safeguard of the present age, become the patrimony of our descendants." A motion was made to strike out this paragraph, which received the support of twenty-four members, which was almost a third of the whole number voting. Among them were Giles, Gallatin, Andrew Jackson, Livingston, Mason, Swanwick, and Varnum. Upon the final passage of the address, Blount, of North Carolina, called the yeas and nays; twelve members only voted against the address upon its passage, conspicuous among whom were Giles, Andrew Jackson, Livingston, and Mason.* In reference to that clause in the answer quoted above, Giles said, "If he stood alone in the opinion, he would declare that he was not convinced that the administration of the Government for these six years had been wise and firm. He did not regret the President's retiring from office. He hoped he would retire and enjoy the happiness that awaited his retirement. He believed it would more conduce to that happiness that he should retire than if he should remain in office.t" Jan. 19, 1797. Washington communicated to Congress the condition of our relations with France. This paper throws much light upon the policy of the Administration, and fully justifies the position of neutrality which we were compelled, by every consideration of interest, to maintain. The administration of George Washington was now rapidly drawing to a close; it terminated on the 4th of March. The retiring President witnessed the inauguration of his successor, and soon left the seat of Government, for the quiet re * Hild. Hist. of U. S., second series, vol. i. p. 697. Pitkin. treat of his country home upon the picturesque banks of the Potomac. Covered with military renown, and equally distinguished with civil honors, he sought that repose amidst the shades of retirement he had so long desired. His retiring star, resplendent in fame, was enriched in the evening of his days by a nation's love and gratitude. His character, pure and spotless as perhaps has ever fallen to man, was at times the subject of violent vituperation; yet it may almost be said that this great man left the Presidential chair with a conscience void of offence toward God and toward man." 66 The policy of this Administration was national, comprehensive, constitutional, and just; looking to the interest of the entire country, sectional feeling and sectional tendency found no favor in the eyes of Washington, whilst he carefully nurtured every interest of the Government. His was, perhaps, the most arduous task that has yet devolved upon the incumbent of the Presidential chair, from the great difficulties to be encountered in the adaptation of such measures as would place this great republican ship upon the true and safe track of success and national advancement, from which it could not be shaken either by storms from within or without. His domestic policy was the protection of the great interests of manufactures, agriculture, and commerce; the support of the latter, he saw, required the establishment of a navy, which he warmly advocated. He was always urgent, in every constitutional way, to pay off the public debt, so justly called the "price of liberty;" and whilst the plan pursued was objected to by some, yet all objections soon passed away in its ample security and ultimate payment. Under this Administration, commerce, though subject to many hinderances and obstructions, reached an unexampled prosperity; our tonnage was nearly doubled, the products of agriculture found a ready market; exports increased from nineteen millions of dollars to more than fifty-six millions; the imports in nearly the same proportion; whilst the revenue from imports exceeded the most sanguine expectations. His foreign policy was almost universally approved, which was strict neutrality in reference to all the wars that devastated Europe, with an absolute freedom from entangling alliances with any nation. The greatest difficulty that he encountered was in reference to France, and none can deny that he was not right in the course he pursued during the violent and vindictive war that raged between her and England. To maintain the friendship of the one and avoid the enmity of the other, required the greatest caution and diplomacy; whilst at home he was equally successful in resisting the popular clamor in behalf of France, and suppressing the burning indignation often manifested against England. The most philosophic, the most eminent and valuable State paper ever issued by this American statesman, was his Farewell Address to the people of the United States, bearing date Sept. 17th, 1796. Here he reviews the grand and multifarious interest of this country with a comprehensive and practical philosophy, exhorting his countrymen, as a dying, pious father would his own children, to pursue the paths of virtue; with a feeling and an interest never to be forgotten, he made and published this, his last political will and testament, for a people he had long and faithfully served and dearly loved. With filial reverence ought the people of the United States to cherish this last great production of their national benefactor; especially ought all to heed the forcible and practical advice to hold together in brotherly love and kindness. The manner in which he deprecated the formation of parties upon geographical distinctions, spoken as it was with prophetic vision, is commended to future statesmen as a cardinal point in the political philosophy of this country. To guard and protect the Union appears to have been among the most cherished objects of his ambition and his pride. "The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds in the productions of the latter great additional resources of maritime and commercial enterprise and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The South, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the same agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels, the seamen of the North find its particular navigation invigorated; and while it contributes in different ways to nourish and increase the general mass of national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime strength to which itself is unequally adapted. The East, in like intercourse with the West, in the progressive improvement of interior communications by land and water, will more and more find a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad or manufactures at home. The West derives from the East supplies requisite to its growth and comforts, and, what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of the indispensable outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, and future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of interest as one nation."* In this picture is presented a beautiful and forcible view of the unity of interest which this country affords, each section contributing to the welfare of the others, and each mutually dependent and mutually interested in preserving a unity of interest that shall pervade the whole, and bind every section in indissoluble ties. It is this happy combination and intertwining of interest, the same now as when Washington wrote, the same through all time, that ought to render the United States indissoluble, and will, if each section will but remain (as in 1796) content to perform for itself that particular agency which, in securing its own interest, will, in the operation of the grand machinery of the Union, work in harmony with the whole, and for the good of all. If this general harmony of interest is left to its own free untrammeled operation, each to move in its appropriate sphere, each revolving around the Constitution as a source of common life and light, then, like the great planetary system, may this Union be as permanent; but if left to an unsupported and waning veneration for a written Constitution, then passion, and prejudice, and vice, may sunder it at any moment. Honesty and fairness of purpose, firmness and morality, should enliven the spirit of the Government, and actuate the conduct of the people to give force, vitality, and permanence, to a republican Government. No one was ever more deeply imbued with human virtue than Washington; no public character acted more in accordance with this standard, or required it more rigidly from all the officials with whom he was politically associated. In the exercise of the executive powers, Washington exhibited his strong tendency to the Federal doctrine-indeed, he was a Federalist; yet the most ultra Democrat can point to no measure of this Administration extending the powers of the Executive or of Congress beyond a fair and legal construction and the Constitution came from the hands of * Washington's Farewell Address. |