Sustained honor: The Age of Liberty Established Page 6

  CHAPTER III.

  JEFFERSONIANISM.

  There is not a man of intelligence in America or Europe, who has notheard of the Democratic party in America, that great politicalorganization which has been in existence almost, if not quite, onehundred years. Many who claim allegiance to this great party know littleof its tenets, and still fewer know its history. There are orators onthe stump, in the halls of Congress, writers for the press, alladvocating "the glorious principles of Democracy," who have neverthoroughly acquainted themselves with its history. The Democratic partyof to-day was originally known as the Republican party. The warmdiscussions on the national constitution engendered party spirit in thenew republic, which speedily assumed definite forms and titles, first asFederalist and anti-Federalist, which names were changed to Federalistand Republican, or Democrat.

  The Federalist party, headed by Alexander Hamilton, favored muchconcentration of power in a national government, but perhaps not morethan we have to-day, and, in fact, not more than is really essential tothe upbuilding of a stable republic like ours. There can be no questionbut that Washington held to the same views; but Washington was the onlygreat man America ever produced who rose so far above political partiesas to absorb them all. He has never been classed as belonging to eitherparty. The Republican or Democratic party favored State sovereignty andthe diffusion of power among the people.

  The American people had had such bitter experiences with monarchs thatthey dreaded anything which savored of monarchy, and it was argued thata centralized government was but a step in that direction. On the otherhand, Federalists pointed out the danger of State sovereignty, whichwould surely in the end disrupt the general government. Subsequenthistory has proven that the Federalists were right. We have said thatWashington was a Federalist at heart. His enemies, meanly jealous of hispopularity, often declared that he was a monarchist.

  Meanwhile, a revolution, violent in its nature and far-reaching in itsconsequences, had broken out in France.

  It was the immediate consequences of the teachings of the Americanrevolution. The people of France had long endured almost irresponsibledespotism, and were yearning for freedom when the French officers andsoldiers, who had served in America during the latter years of ourstruggles for independence, returned to their country full of republicanideas and aspirations. They questioned the right of the few to oppressthe many, and the public heart was soon stirred by new ideas, and in amovement that followed, Lafayette was conspicuous for a while. The king,like many tyrants, was weak and vacillating, and soon a body called thestates-general assumed the reins of government, while the king was infact a prisoner. The terrible Bastile, whose history represented royaldespotism, was assailed by the citizens of Paris and pulled down. Theprivileges of the nobility and clergy were abolished, and the churchproperty was seized. The king's brothers and many of the nobles fled inaffright across the frontier, and tried to induce other sovereigns totake up the cause of royalty in France and restore the former order ofthings. The emperor of Austria (brother of the French queen) and theking of Prussia entered into a treaty to that effect, at Pilnitz,in 1791.

  When this treaty became known, war at once followed. Robespierre andother self-constituted leaders in Paris held sway for a while, and themost frightful massacres of nobles and priests ensued. The weak andunfortunate king, who had accepted constitution after constitution, wasnow deposed and a republic was established. Affairs had assumed thenature of anarchy and blood, and Lafayette and other moderate mendisappeared from the arena. The king was tried on charge of invitingforeigners to invade France, was found guilty and was beheaded inJanuary, 1793. His queen soon shared a like fate. The English troopssent to Flanders were called to fight the French, for the rulers ofFrance had declared war against Great Britain, Spain and Hollandin February.

  Thomas Jefferson who entered Washington's cabinet in 1789, had justreturned from France, where he had witnessed the uprising of the peopleagainst their oppressors. Regarding the movement as kindred to the lateuprising of his own countrymen against Great Britain, it enlisted hiswarmest sympathies, and he expected to find the bosoms of the people ofthe United States glowing with feelings like his own. He was sadlydisappointed. Washington was wisely conservative. His wisdom saw thatthe cruelty of the anarchists of Paris was not patriotism, but the worstsort of despotism. The society of New York, in which some of the leavenof Toryism yet lingered, chilled Jefferson. He became suspicious of allaround him, for he regarded the indifference of the people to thestruggles of the French, their old allies, as an evil omen. Though theTories of New York were cool toward the French republic from fardifferent motives than Washington, yet the same cause was attributedto both.

  Jefferson had scarcely taken his seat as Secretary of State inWashington's first cabinet before he declared that some of hiscolleagues held decidedly monarchical views; and the belief became fixedin his mind that there was a party in the United States continually atwork, secretly and sometimes openly, for the overthrow of Americanrepublicanism. The idea became a monomania with Jefferson from which henever recovered till his death, more than thirty years afterward.Jefferson soon rallied under his standard a large party of sympathizerswith the French revolutionists. Regarding Hamilton as the head and frontof the monarchical party, he professed to believe that the financialplans of that statesman were designed to enslave the people, and thatthe rights and liberties of the States and of individuals were indanger. On the other hand, Hamilton regarded the national constitutionas inadequate in strength to perform its required functions and believedits weakness to be its greatest defect. With this idea Jefferson tookissue. He charged his political opponents, and especially Hamilton, withcorrupt and anti-republican designs, selfish motives and treacherousintentions, and so was inaugurated that system of personal abuse andvituperation, which has ever been a disgrace to the press and politicalleaders of this country. Bitter partisan quarrels now prevailed, inwhich Jefferson and Hamilton were the chief actors. The populace wasgreatly excited. The Republicans who hated the British intensely, calledthe Federalists the "British party," and the Federalists called theiropponents the "French party." The Jeffersonians hailed with joy the newsof the death of the French king, and applauded the declaration of waragainst England and Holland, forgetting the friendship which the latterhad shown for Americans during the struggle for independence.

  Amid all this uproar which proceeded from his cabinet, only Washingtonremained calm. No other American at that day nor since could haveremained neutral and guided the ship of state through such breakers ofdiscontent. He was the safe middle water between the dangerous reefs ofconcentration and State sovereignty.

  Had not the Federal party been the victim of many unfortunatecircumstances, it would certainly in time have become popular in thenation. It was beyond question Washington's party, and, notwithstandingthe false charges of monarchism and British sovereignty, it waspatriotic. Had it existed forty or fifty years longer, until thatincubus which haunted Jefferson's brain had passed away, and therepublic become so firmly established that people would no longer fearBritish dependency, the Federal party would have been a firmly fixedinstitution. Had Federal ideas been fully inculcated instead ofJeffersonianism and Calhounism, the rebellion of 1861 would not haveoccurred; but Aaron Burr murdered Hamilton, the friend of Washington,the bright genius of American politics and the hope of the Federalparty, and the Federalists were left without any great leader. When thewar of 1812 came, the Federalists were so embittered against theDemocrats, then in power, that they became lukewarm and threw so manyobstacles in the way of the patriots who were making the second fightfor freedom, as to almost confirm the suspicion that they were thefriends of Great Britain rather than America. This forever blighted theFederal party.

  In the year 1800, Thomas Jefferson was elected the third president ofthe United States, and the first of Democratic proclivities.

  Although the city of Washington, the great American capital, had beenlaid out on a magnificent scale, in 1791, an
d George Washington, withmasonic ceremonies, laid the corner-stone of the capitol building in1793, the seat of government was not removed there until the year 1800.The site for the city was a dreary one. At the time when the seat ofgovernment was first moved there, only a path, leading through an alderswamp on the line of the present Pennsylvania Avenue, was the way ofcommunication between the president's house and the capitol. For awhile, the executive and legislative officers of the government werecompelled to suffer many privations. In the fall of 1800, OliverWolcott wrote:

  "There is one good tavern about forty rods from the capitol, and severalhouses are built or erecting; but I don't see how the members ofcongress can possibly secure lodgings, unless they will consent to livelike scholars in a college or monks in a monastery, crowded ten ortwenty in one house. The only resource for such as wish to livecomfortably will be found in Georgetown, three miles distant, over asbad a road in winter as the clay grounds near Hartford.

  "... There are, in fact, but few houses in any one place, and most ofthem are small, miserable huts, which present an awful contrast to thepublic buildings. The people are poor and, as far as I can judge, livelike fishes by eating each other. ... You may look in any direction overan extent of ground nearly as large as the city of New York, withoutseeing a fence or any object except brick kilns and temporary huts forlaborers. ... There is no industry, society or business."

  On March 4, 1801, Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated and commenced hisfirst term under favorable auspices. He was then fifty-eight years ofage--a tall, bony man, with grizzled sandy hair and rather slovenlydress--a man who practised his Democratic simplicity in all things, andsometimes carried it to extremes. A senator, writing of him in1802, said:

  "The next day after my arrival I visited the president, accompanied bysome democratic members. In a few moments after our arrival a tall,high-boned man came into the room. He was dressed, or rather undressed,in an old brown coat, red waistcoat, old corduroy smallclothes, muchsoiled, woollen hose, and slippers without heels. I thought him aservant, when General Varnum surprised me by announcing it was thepresident."

  In brief, Mr. Jefferson outlined his policy as follows, in a letter toNathaniel Macon:

  "1. Levees are done made away with. 2. The first communication to thenext congress will be, like all subsequent ones, by message to which noanswer will be expected. 3. The diplomatic establishment in Europe willbe reduced to three ministers. 4. The compensation of collectorsdepends on you (Congress) and not on me. 5. The army is undergoing achaste reformation. 6. The navy will be reduced to the legalestablishment by the last of the month (May, 1801). 7. Agencies in everydepartment will be revised. 8. We shall push you to the uttermost ineconomizing. 9. A very early recommendation has been given to thepostmaster-general to employ no printer, foreigner or Revolutionary Toryin any of his offices."

  James Madison was Mr. Jefferson's secretary of state; Henry Dearborn wassecretary of war, and Levi Lincoln, attorney-general. Jefferson retainedMr. Adams's secretaries of the treasury and navy, until the followingAutumn, when Albert Gallatin, a naturalized foreigner, was appointed tothe first named office and Robert Smith to the second. The presidentearly resolved to reward his political friends when he came to "revise"the agencies in every department. Three days after his inauguration, hewrote to Colonel Monroe, "I have firmly refused to follow the counselsof those who have desired the giving of offices to some of theFederalist leaders in order to reconcile. I have given, and will give,only to Republicans, under existing circumstances."

  The doctrine, ever since acted upon, that "to the victor belong thespoils," was then practically promulgated from the fountain-head ofgovernment patronage; and with a cabinet wholly Democratic, whencongress met in December, 1801, and with the minor offices filled withhis political friends, Mr. Jefferson began his presidential career ofeight years' duration. In his inaugural address he said, "Everydifference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have calledby different names brethren of the same principle. We are allFederalists--we are all Republicans."

  Vigor and enlightened views marked his course, so that even hispolitical enemies were compelled to confess his foresight and soundjudgment in regard to the national policy.

  The administration of Jefferson was not marked with perfect peaceabroad. Napoleon Bonaparte, the outgrowth of the French revolution, hadoverthrown monarchy in France and conquered almost all Europe. He wasnot a Washington, however, and the French people were only exchangingone tyrant for another.

  The Algerians, those barbarous North African pirates, had been forcingthe Americans to pay tribute. Captain Bainbridge, who commanded thefrigate _George Washington_, for refusing to convey an Algerianambassador to the court of the sultan at Constantinople, was threatenedby the haughty governor with imprisonment.

  "You pay me tribute, by which you become my slave, and therefore I havea right to order you as I think proper," said the dey.

  Bainbridge was forced to obey the orders of the Barbarian.

  Stephen Decatur.]

  The Americans resolved to humble the Algerians, and a fleet was sent toTripoli in 1803. The frigate _Philadelphia_, while reconnoitering theharbor, struck on a rock and was captured by the Tripolitans, who madeher officers prisoners of war and her crew slaves.

  Lieutenant Decatur, on February 3, 1804, by a stratagem, got alongsidethe _Philadelphia_ with seventy-four brave young sailors like himselfand carried the ship by the board after a terrible hand-to-handconflict. The Tripolitans were defeated, and the _Philadelphia_ wasburned. The American seamen continued to bombard Tripoli and blockadedtheir ports, until the terrified Bashaw made a treaty of peace.

  While the Americans were winning laurels on the Mediterranean, theinfant republic was growing in political and moral strength. During Mr.Jefferson's first term, one State (Ohio) and two Territories (Indianaand Illinois) had been formed out of the great Northwestern Territory.Ohio was organized as an independent territory in the year 1800, and inthe fall of 1802, it was admitted into the Union as a State. Long beforethe Northwestern Territory had been divided into different territories,the present limits of Ohio and Kentucky had already become quitepopulous. Emigrants like Albert Stevens were pushing out on the frontierand building up a great commonwealth.

  About 1802, there was great excitement in the country west of theAlleghany Mountains, in consequence of a violation of the treaty madewith Spain in 1795, by the governor of Louisiana in closing the port ofNew Orleans against American commerce. There was a proposition beforecongress for taking forcible possession of that region, when it wasascertained that, by a secret treaty, Spain had retroceded Louisiana toFrance. The United States immediately began negotiations for thepurchase of that domain from France. Robert R. Livingston, the Americanminister at the court of the First Consul, found very little difficultyin making a bargain with Bonaparte, for the latter wanted money anddesired to injure England. He sold that magnificent domain, stretchingfrom the Gulf of Mexico northward to the present State of Minnesota, andfrom the Mississippi westward to the Pacific Ocean, for fifteen milliondollars. The bargain was made in the spring of 1803, and in the fall thecountry, and the new domain, which added nine hundred thousand squaremiles to our territory, was taken possession of by the United States.When the bargain was closed, Bonaparte said:

  "This accession of territory strengthens forever the power of the UnitedStates, and I have just given to England a maritime rival that willsooner or later humble her pride."

  It was the prevailing opinion in the country, that the Spanishinhabitants, who were forming states in the great valley, would notsubmit to the rule of American government. Aaron Burr, a wily andunscrupulous politician, who, having murdered the noble Hamilton in aduel, was an outcast from society, began scheming for setting up aseparate government in the West. Burr was unscrupulous and dishonest andat the same time shrewd. The full extent of his plans were really neverknown, and the historian is in doubt whether he intended a severance ofthe Union, or an invasion of Mexico
. Herman Blennerhassett, an excellentIrish gentleman, became his ally and suffered ruin with Burr. Burr wasarrested and tried, but was found not guilty. His speech in his owndefence was so eloquent, that it is said to have melted his enemies totears, though all believed him guilty. Burr's life was a wreck afterthat. His fame was blasted, and he was placed beside Benedict Arnold asa traitor to his country.

  With the acquisition of Louisiana, there grew up a powerful oppositionto Jefferson in the North and East. The idea was disseminated that thepurchase was only a scheme to strengthen the south and the southerndemocracy. Mr. Jefferson came almost to having a wholesome dose of hisdoctrine of State sovereignty exemplified. A convention of Federalistswas called at Boston, in 1804, in which a proposition of secession wasmade. Fortunately, however, there was too much patriotism in the bodyfor the proposition to carry, and the government was saved.