16. A Lively Preparedness Meeting (1798) By PETER AUgustus Jay I HAVE just returned from the Society for free debate, and tho' it is very late, I cannot forbear to mention the occurrences that have just happened there. This Society was lately instituted, in all probability with the intention that it should be converted into a Jacobin Club. A Committee of Managers was appointed consisting, with only one or two Exceptions, of Violent Democrats; these preside in rotation. Every Person who will pay a Shilling becomes for that evening a Member. The Chairman for this Meeting happened to be John Swartout, one of the Antifederal candidates as Assemblyman. Upon going into the room almost by accident, I found it entirely filled by a great crowd of people who were listening to a discussion of this question: "Is it most expedient under existing Circumstances to lay an Embargo, or to arm our Vessels in defence of our carrying trade?" A Mr. Davis, One Butler, an Irish Shoemaker, and Dr. Smith, brother to the late Chief Justice of Canada, supported the propriety of an Embargo in long and inflammatory speeches, and were an swered by Mr. Brown, a sensible Quaker, McDougal, a Painter, and a young but really eloquent man of the name of Howe, a student at Princeton College. It was easy to perceive from the applauses and hisses bestowed upon the Speakers that tho' the Question had been chosen with a View to influence the Election and a great number of Democrats were present, that a vast Majority were Federalists and would decide in favor of arming. The Chairman was in many instances evidently partial, and in all of them overruled (tho' not without much Noise and riot) by the Society. Finding how Matters were going, he proposed that on account of the lateness of the hour, the final decision should be deferred until the next Meeting; this being negatived he took the question on a Motion for Adjournment which being also lost, he by Virtue of a power which he said was vested in him by the Constitution adjourned us. The Society nevertheless remained and directed the Constitution to be read which was found to confer no such Authority. The Chairman was then obliged to resume the Chair and put the final question which was carried in favor of arming by at least five to one. Having pronounced the decision with an Appearance of ex treme mortification and anger, he refused to hear any other Motion and again left the Chair. Mr. Howe then moved that a Committee should be appointed to form an Address from the Meeting to the President and Congress of the U. S. approving of the Measures which have been pursued with respect to France and expressing a determination to support them. Col. Morton being placed in the Chair, the Motion was carried. . . . John Jay, Correspondence and Pub. Papers (N. Y., 1893), IV. 238-240. 17. Refusing to Bribe a Foreign By C. C. PINCKNEY, JOHN MARSHALL, AND Pinckney of South Carolina, Marshall of Virginia and Gerry of Massachusetts were a joint commission to secure a redress of grievances from France. In the evening . . . Mr. X. called on General Pinckney, and after having sat some time, whispered him that he had a message from M. Talleyrand to communicate when he was at leisure. . . . General Pinckney said he should be glad to hear it. M. X. replied that the Directory, and particularly two of the members of it, were Pinckney, Marshall and Gerry exceedingly irritated at some passages of the President's speech, and desired that they should be softened; and that this step would be necessary previous to our reception. That, besides this, a sum of money was required for the pocket of the Directory and ministers, which would be at the disposal of M. Talleyrand; and that a loan would also be insisted on. M. X. said if we acceded to these measures, M. Talleyrand had no doubt that all our differences with France might be accommodated. October the 21st, M. X. came before nine o'clock; M. Y. did not come until ten: he had passed the morning with M. Talleyrand. After breakfast the subject was immediately resumed. He [M. Y.] said . . . that if we desired him to point out the sum which he believed would be satisfactory [to the Directory], he would do so. We requested him to proceed; and he said that there were thirty-two millions of florins, of Dutch inscriptions, worth ten shillings in the pound, which might be assigned to us at twenty shillings in the pound; and he proceeded to state to us the certainty that, after a peace, the Dutch Government would repay us the money; so that we should ultimately lose nothing, and the only operation of the measure would be, an advance from us to France of thirty-two millions, on the credit of the Government of Holland. We asked him whether the fifty thousand pounds C A.P.S. Vol. 3 sterling, as a douceur to the Directory, must be in addition to this sum. He answered in the affimative. We committed immediately to writing the answer we proposed, in the following words: "Our powers respecting a treaty are ample; but the proposition of a loan, in the form of Dutch inscriptions, or in any other form, is not within the limits of our instructions; upon this point, therefore, the Government must be consulted; . . . his disappointment was apparent; he said we treated the money part of the proposition as if it had proceeded from the Directory; whereas, in fact, it did not proceed even from the minister, but was only a suggestion from himself, as a substitute to be proposed by us, in order to avoid the painful acknowledgment that the Directory had determined to demand of us. It was told him that we understood that matter perfectly; that we knew the proposition was in form to be ours; but that it came substantially from the minister. . . M. X. urged, that the Directory had, since this peace, taken a higher and more decided tone with respect to us, and all other neutral nations, than had been before taken; that it had been determined, that all nations should aid them, or be considered and treated as their enemies. That we had no powers to negotiate for a loan |