CHAPTER X. 1805-1809. JEFFERSON'S SECOND PRESIDENCY-DIVISION AND CORRUPTION JEFFERSON'S W HILE the insolence of the belligerents was pre paring great vexations for Jefferson, the moral aspect of his party was giving him many causes of disgust. Confusion took possession of the Democratic phalanx. Violent quarrels had publicly broken out in it; it was turning against itself its whole arsenal of denunciations and insults. The republicans, by their attack upon each other, were at length dragging into broad day all the laxity of principle and all the corruption existing in a party which had presumed to constitute itself the champion of the plain good sense of the American people against the monarchical dreams of the Federalists, and the guardian of public morality against the corrupt squadron' of Hamilton. At New York, Clinton's faction, 270 SQUABBLES AMONG THE DEMOCRATS, after having come to an understanding with Livingstone's faction for the purpose of suborning the legislature, and purchasing from it in hard cash the privilege of establishing a democratic bank intended to compete with the Federal banks, most virtuously, in 1805, rebuked its former ally for having, under similar circumstances, speculated on the venality of certain senators a little too exclusively to its own advantage. In Philadelphia, M'Kean, the governor, one of the most violent leaders of the Democratic party, found himself quite outdone by a little knot of ultra-radicals who aimed at suppressing barristers, at destroying the irremovability of the judges, and reducing the period of service in the Senate to one year. In order to defend both the constitution of Pennsylvania and common sense from the attacks of the friends of the people,' the governor was reduced to the necessity of laying bare in the public newspapers the turpitudes of his former friends. One had been an English spy, another guilty of swindling, a third of robbing the public. Replies not a whit less acrimonious nor less personal were showered down in abundance, and the rage of these brethren, now turned into enemies, became so blind that there was reason to fear a civil war. In the midst of these disgraceful dissensions, Jefferson's principal care was to keep aloof from them; his principal consolation to think, that, with a little prudence, he might reach the threshold of his retreat without embroiling himself with any of his old adherents, and so cast on those who were to follow him the disagreeable task of having to choose between the different fractions of the party.* This hope was de * Jefferson's Works, vol. iv. p. 555; Letter to Dr. Logan, May 11, AND THEIR DISSENSIONS IN CONGRESS. 271 stined to be soon disappointed. It was easy enough for the President to ignore local quarrels, but not so easy to ignore the discussions in Congress. In the session of 1805, Mr. John Randolph, who was the government leader in the House of Representatives, had, in a very unseemly debate, given the members of the Cabinet some most disagreeable proofs of his ill-will. Georgia having ceded to the United States the territory which now forms the states of Mississippi and Alabama, the Federal government had to examine into the validity of the grants made in this vast region by the different powers which had successively had jurisdiction over it. Among the grantees were four companies which, by associating with them in their operations the majority of the two branches of the Georgian legislature, had contrived to obtain more than twenty millions of acres for the sum of five hundred thousand dollars. The bargain was so evidently a fraudulent one, the vote which sanctioned it was so notoriously stained with corruption, that the Georgian legislature itself, recently re-elected under the influence of the feeling aroused by this nefarious job, had thought it its duty to repeal the grant. The companies, however, had time enough to transfer by sales, bona fide or otherwise, a great portion of their lands into the hands of third parties, who declared they had been induced to purchase on the faith of a legislative act, and maintained that they could not be evicted. Jefferson's cabinet, after deliberating on their claims, recommended Congress to indemnify them for the loss they would incur by their eviction, which they rated at five millions of dollars. This was, in fact, giving them about ten times more than the original purchasers had paid. Such an act of prodigality appeared monstrous to John Randolph, and he 272 RANDOLPH AND JEFFERSON. opposed it in a manner that was highly offensive to the cabinet. In the estimation of this despotic man of the people, no one could be honest the moment he ceased to be on his side. He therefore did not hesitate to declare on the floor of the house, that all those who supported the proposed compromise were either persons to be benefited by it, or else persons bought by those who were so. Though the Democratic majority was beginning to grow weary of the dictatorial manners and insolent extravagance of its leader, Randolph, nevertheless, made such an impression on the house as to cause the rejection of the bill. The administration did not forgive him this freak. One of Mr. Randolph's friends, having suggested to Jefferson that it would be easy to tame this intractable demagogue by appointing him minister to London, only got from the President a peremptory refusal. Enraged at finding himself of so little account among men whom he had been accustomed to treat as dependents, Randolph merely waited for the beginning of the session of 1806 to proclaim open war against the government. He carried off with him hardly as many as half a dozen followers, and the house recovered much more easily than he had anticipated from the emotion caused by his defection. But, for all this, it did not the less leave a vacancy in the Democratic staff difficult to fill up. The majority which remained faithful to Jefferson was less enlightened than numerous; it had great need of being led, and it included no one who could replace Randolph. Every step of the democratic spirit in advance was marked by a subsidence of the intellectual level of the national representatives. Really superior men were beginning to feel a disgust for public life. The mass of the people very willingly dispensed with their aid, JEFFERSON DISSATISFIED WITH CONGRESS. 273 and was exceedingly satisfied at being represented by none but its own peers. Thus mediocrity was more and more engrossing its favour, and Jefferson, who was constantly paying compliments to the good sense and good feeling of Congress, was every moment made to feel how much the two houses were beneath their official position. In the month of April 1806, it was in the Senate he desired to see one of his friends, Mr. Nicholas, a clever man, who seemed but little anxious to quit his retirement: "A majority of the Senate,' he writes to him, ' means well. But Tracy and Bayard (Federalists) are too dexterous for them, and have very much influenced their proceedings. Seven Federalists voting always in phalanx, and joined by some discontented Republicans, some oblique ones, some capricious, have so often made a majority as to produce very serious embarrassment to the public operations; and very much do I dread the submitting to them, at the next session, any treaty which can be made with either England or Spain, when I consider that five joining the Federalists can defeat a friendly settlement of our affairs.' * In the month of February 1807, it was in the House of Representatives that he missed and regretted the absence of his friend : Never did the calls of patriotism more loudly assail you than at this moment. After excepting the Federalists, who will be twenty-seven, and the little band of schismatics, who will be three or four (all tongue), the residue of the House of Representatives is as well-disposed a body of men as I ever saw collected; but there is no one whose talents and standing, taken together, have weight enough to give him the lead. The consequence is, that there is no one who will undertake to do the public business, and it remains undone. † * Jefferson's Works, vol. v. p. 4. † Ibid. vol. v. p. 48; Letter to Nicholas, February 25, 1807. T |