with greater difficulties or embarrassments. Our relations with France, Spain, and England were exceedingly complicated and critical. The President had the satisfaction to observe in both branches of the National Legislature an overwhelming Republican majority. In the Senate the Federalists were reduced to seven,-Plumer, of New Hampshire, Pickering and John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, Tracy and Hillhouse, of Connecticut, Bayard and White, of Delaware. The other members were all firm and reliable Republicans and staunch friends of the Administration. Among the most distinguished, as leaders of the party, may be reckoned Giles, of Virginia, and Smith, of Maryland, (Giles, it appears, was away most of this session,) Baldwin and Jackson, of Georgia, and Dr. Mitchell, of New York,-men of the highest order of talent, and soon occupied an enviable position among the leaders of the Administration.

The Federal party was as weak in the House of Representatives as in the Senate, numbering not more than twentyfive, and they mostly from New England; humble as members and ordinary in intellect, they but feebly upheld the fading glory of their party. Griswold, of Connecticut, for several sessions the leader of the party, had retired; Dana, Cotton, Davenport, and Smith, were there, but impotent. Josiah Quincy, the representative of Boston and successor of Eustace, took his seat as a new member, and proved a great acquisition to the Federal side by the talent he displayed and the virtue and honor which marked and distinguished the man; but the party was feeble and the days of its great men had passed away. Macon was again elected Speaker after an arduous struggle; the Northern Democrats, thinking it just that the chair should be filled from the North, endeavored to elect Varnum.

Macon reappointed John Randolph chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, the probability of which had been a great cause of the violence of the Northern Republicans to the re-election of Macon; and Randolph was at once in opposition to a large number of his party who refused to acknowledge him any longer as a leader. Randolph was evidently in a dissatisfied and restless position; his influence with his party had ended; his association and intimacy with the President had passed away, and he stood a solitary monument of his own stubborn and refractory spirit.

On the 6th of December the President communicated to

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Congress, a confidential Message on the subject of our relations with Spain. This Message was referred to a select committee: John Randolph, by the influence of the Southern portion of the Republican party, was made chairman. The appointment was rather unfortunate; Randolph at once began to show he could no longer be relied upon as the friend of the Administration; and about this time occurred that separation between him and the Administration, between him and Jefferson personally and politically, which proved to be continuous as well as bitter. He was a loss to the Administration; his endowments as a public speaker, his oratory, his fearless denunciation, made him one of the most remarkable men of his day. He was not, however, without his faults, and the unbounded influence he once exerted melted away before the haughty, sour, and uncompromising temper which he of late always exhibited. Domineering with his associates, headstrong and intractable with the Executive, he was destined to enjoy but a brief popu larity. Opposition was alone suited to his mind, he could not originate a measure; he never did identify himself as the patron of any great bill. His wit, sarcasm, boldness, and temper, were first brought into exercise when he entered Congress in 1779, and found himself in the minority, as he indulged his peculiar fitness to oppose and pull to pieces everything appertaining to the majority. When not in the minority "he felt the disadvantage of his new situation and sighed for the occasions he had once enjoyed, which better suited the character of his mind and disposition and were more propitious to his form."

It is said, displeased at Jefferson's backwardness in supporting his radical though violent course, and the leaning which the President exhibited towards Granger and the other Northern Republicans at the time of the excitement about the Yazoo purchase, first irriated and rendered him dissatisfied with the Administration,-doubtlessly he exhibited many signs of disquietude at that time.*

A distinguished biographer of Jefferson states that Christopher Clark, one of Randolph's colleagues and warm admirers, being of the opinion that the mission to England would be acceptable to him, applied to the Executive to give him the appointment; but it received no favor either from Jefferson

* Hild. Hist. United States, second series, vol. ii. p. 566.

or Madison. They knew enough of Randolph to be satisfied that his temper unfitted him for the place. Clark urged his nomination, as did several other colleagues of Randolph; the Executive refused positively.

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Although," says Tucker, "Randolph had no agency in this application, and perhaps had not even been privy to it, yet the application and its rejection were soon made known to him, and to his proud and resentful spirit the offence was the same as if the refusal had been to himself. He was soon afterwards found in the ranks of the opposition,-to which he was most cordially welcomed, and a large portion of the public had no hesitation in referring his change to his resentment, although the office which had been refused to him had not been solicited with his privity, as his friends strenuously insisted."*

As has been stated, Randolph was chairman of the select committee appointed in reference to our affairs with Spain. On the third of January the chairman presented his report; it noticed, in detail, the many injuries and aggressions Spain had imposed upon this country, which, in the opinion of the committee, afforded full cause of war.

1806.

Spain had refused to ratify the convention of 1802, nor would she settle the boundaries of Louisiana; she obstructed the trade of the American Settlements on the Tombigbee, by a pretended claim to exact a duty from American produce descending the Mobile River; and she had furthermore been guilty of an accumulation of wrong by recent violations of the territory of the United States. War is at all times to be dreaded: it would have been peculiarly oppressive to the people and Government of the United States at this period, the commerce of the country, so much to be valued and guarded, was just expanding into manhood, which would have been crippled and crushed by war. We were anxious to pay off the war debt, which we could not for ages accomplish without the revenue our commerce was then yielding, which was comparatively large and increasing.

These, among other considerations, induced the committee (even with the opinion that just cause of war existed) to recommend forbearance and a continuance of peace as long as the honor of the nation was untouched. The committee, however, recommended that such number of troops as the Pre

* Tucker's Life of Jefferson, vol. ii. p. 190.

sident should think requisite to protect our Southern frontier, should be immediately raised. The reason and necessity of raising and dispatching troops to our Southern frontier, were for immediate protection to our citizens; the Spanish soldiery had invaded our territory, and our people had been subjected to injury and outrage. An animated debate ensued upon the report of the committee. On the same day, Bidwell, of Massachusetts, offered a resolution by way of substitute for the resolution of the committee,-that an appropriation of two millions of dollars be made for the purpose of defraying any extraordinary expenses that might be incurred in the intercourse between the United States and foreign nations, to be applied under the direction of the President, who was authorized to borrow it; which was ultimately to be paid by a continuance of the two-and-a-half per cent. additional duty imposed under the name of the Mediterranean Fund, but which would soon expire on account of the peace with Tripoli.

The first resolution,-that which emanated from the committee, was considered objectionable by the friends of the Administration. It might eventually produce war with Spain and ultimately with France. Bidwell's resolution, it was contended, would in all likelihood prevent war, by enabling the President to purchase Florida, which idea was for the first time publicly spoken of. Randolph, chairman of the select committee, objected to Bidwell's resolution, upon the ground that the Message did not ask for money. Varnum, a warm and enthusiastic Republican and devoted friend of Jefferson, responded to Randolph, and stated that he knew the President was anxious for an appropriation; he knew such to be the "secret wishes" of the President.* Varnum, who spoke with the intimate confidence of the Executive, at once induced the House to reject the resolution of the committee. Both resolutions were warmly debated in secret session, until the 11th of January, at which time Randolph and the new friends he had found for his association, suffered the mortification of seeing the voice of the committee disregarded, its resolution voted down by seventy-two to fifty-eight,-the Republicans voting against it because they wished to sustain the resolution of Bidwell.

The debate in secret session was continued on Bidwell's resolution for two weeks. It was opposed by the Federal

* Hild. Hist., second series, vol. ii. p. 570.

ists,-Randolph, whether belonging to their party or acting with them, it matters not, was the chief and foremost spokesman, and their leader in debates. He exerted himself to restrict the extraordinary expenses spoken of in the resolution for the purchase of the Spanish territory east of the Mississippi, which embraced Florida. The House rejected that portion of Bidwell's resolution which proposed a continuance of the Mediterranean duties for the purpose of meeting the appropriation. The bill was ultimately passed as offered, with the above exception. Two millions of dollars were appropriated for "any extraordinary expenses which may be incurred in the intercourse between the United States and foreign nations." The Federalists had endeavored to make it read, the "expense which may be incurred in the purchase of the Spanish territories lying on the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, and eastward of the Mississippi;" but the effort failed. An excited and interesting debate was protracted on the questions connected with the Spanish difficulties, up to the 6th of February: before it closed, the minority succeeded in passing a resolution to the effect that the best mode of settling the difficulties between Spain and the United States, which originated in a great measure about their respective boundaries, would be an exchange of territory. The resolution was indefinite, and was said to be objectionable to the President, though it was passed by a vote of 80 to 52.* After this discussion had ended, it was clearly seen that Randolph and the Administration were at open war: the bitterest terms he could invent were too mild to be applied to the distinguished leaders of the Administration. Varnum, Bidwell, and a few others enjoying the special confidence of the President, were often the designated marks of his venom. The influence of this erratic orator was of little damage to the Administration; its principles were too deeply planted in the hearts of the American people to be shaken even by a greater power than the wit, the sarcasm, or the oratory of Randolph. A few weak-headed members of Congress, who in derison were called "Quids," were carried along with him for a while, being induced to leave their party and forsake their principle, either from personal fear or personal love of Randolph. This little disaffection soon passed away; the Administration remained firm, united, and unshaken; whilst

* Tucker's Life of Jefferson, vol. ii. p. 192; Stat. Man., vol. i. p. 247.