The Life of George Washington, Vol. 5 (of 5)
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THE
LIFE
OF
GEORGE WASHINGTON,
COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE
AMERICAN FORCES,
DURING THE WAR WHICH ESTABLISHED THE INDEPENDENCE OF HIS COUNTRY, AND
FIRST PRESIDENT
OF THE
UNITED STATES.
COMPILED UNDER THE INSPECTION OF
THE HONOURABLE BUSHROD WASHINGTON,
FROM
_ORIGINAL PAPERS_
BEQUEATHED TO HIM BY HIS DECEASED RELATIVE, AND NOW IN POSSESSION OF
THE AUTHOR.
TO WHICH IS PREFIXED,
AN INTRODUCTION,
CONTAINING A COMPENDIOUS VIEW OF THE COLONIES PLANTED BY THE ENGLISH
ON THE
CONTINENT OF NORTH AMERICA,
FROM THEIR SETTLEMENT TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THAT WAR WHICH TERMINATED
IN THEIR
INDEPENDENCE.
BY JOHN MARSHALL.
VOL. V.
THE CITIZENS' GUILD
OF WASHINGTON'S BOYHOOD HOME
FREDERICKSBURG, VA.
1926
Printed in the U.S.A.
[Illustration: President Washington
_From the portrait by John Vanderlyn, in the Capitol at Washington_
_This full-length portrait of our First President is the work of an
artist to whom Napoleon I awarded a gold medal for his "Marius Among
the Ruins of Carthage," and another of whose masterpieces, "Ariadne in
Naxos," is pronounced one of the finest nudes in the history of
American art. For Vanderlyn sat many other notable public men,
including Monroe, Madison, Calhoun, Clinton, Zachary Taylor and Aaron
Burr, who was his patron and whose portrait by Vanderlyn hangs in the
New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Nevertheless, Vanderlyn failed in
achieving the success his genius merited, and he once declared
bitterly that "no one but a professional quack can live in America."
Poverty paralyzed his energies, and in 1852, old and discouraged he
retired to his native town of Kingston, New York, so poor that he had
to borrow twenty-five cents to pay the expressage of his trunk.
Obtaining a bed at the local hotel, he was found dead in it the next
morning, in his seventy-seventh year._]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
G. Washington again unanimously elected President.... War between
Great Britain and France.... Queries of the President respecting the
conduct to be adopted by the American government.... Proclamation of
neutrality.... Arrival of Mr. Genet as minister from France.... His
conduct.... Illegal proceedings of the French cruisers.... Opinions of
the cabinet.... State of parties.... Democratic societies.... Genet
calculates upon the partialities of the American people for France,
and openly insults their government.... Rules laid down by the
executive to be observed in the ports of the United States in relation
to the powers at war.... The President requests the recall of
Genet.... British order of 8th of June, 1793.... Decree of the
national convention relative to neutral commerce.
CHAPTER II.
Meeting of congress.... President's speech.... His message on the
foreign relations of the United States.... Report of the Secretary of
State on the commerce of the United States.... He resigns.... Is
succeeded by Mr. Randolph.... Mr. Madison's resolutions founded on the
above report.... Debate thereon.... Debates on the subject of a
navy.... An embargo law.... Mission of Mr. Jay to Great Britain....
Inquiry into the conduct of the Secretary of the Treasury, terminates
honourably to him.... Internal taxes.... Congress adjourns.
CHAPTER III.
Genet recalled.... Is succeeded by Mr. Fauchet.... Gouverneur Morris
recalled, and is succeeded by Mr. Monroe.... Kentucky remonstrance....
Intemperate resolutions of the people of that state.... General Wayne
defeats the Indians on the Miamis.... Insurrection in the western
parts of Pennsylvania.... Quelled by the prompt and vigorous measures
of the government.... Meeting of Congress.... President's speech....
Democratic societies.... Resignation of Colonel Hamilton.... Is
succeeded by Mr. Wolcott.... Resignation of General Knox.... Is
succeeded by Colonel Pickering.... Treaty between the United States
and Great Britain.... Conditionally ratified by the President.... The
treaty unpopular.... Mr. Randolph resigns.... Is succeeded by Colonel
Pickering.... Colonel M'Henry appointed secretary at war.... Charge
against the President rejected..... Treaty with the Indians north-west
of the Ohio.... With Algiers.... With Spain.... Meeting of
congress.... President's speech.... Mr. Adet succeeds Mr. Fauchet.....
The house of representatives call upon the President for papers
relating to the treaty with Great Britain.... He declines sending
them.... Debates upon the treaty making power.... Upon the bill for
making appropriations to carry into execution the treaty with Great
Britain.... Congress adjourns.... The President endeavours to procure
the liberation of Lafayette.
CHAPTER IV.
Letters from General Washington to Mr. Jefferson.... Hostile measures
of France against the United States.... Mr. Monroe recalled and
General Pinckney appointed to succeed him.... General Washington's
valedictory address to the people of the United States.... The
Minister of France endeavours to influence the approaching
election.... The President's speech to congress.... He denies the
authenticity of certain spurious letters published in 1776.... John
Adams elected President, and Thomas Jefferson Vice President....
General Washington retires to Mount Vernon.... Political situation of
the United States at this period.... The French government refuses to
receive General Pinckney as Minister.... Congress is convened....
President's speech.... Three envoys extraordinary deputed to
France.... Their treatment.... Measures of hostility adopted by the
American government against France.... General Washington appointed
Commander-in-chief of the American army.... His death.... And
character.
THE LIFE
OF
GEORGE WASHINGTON
CHAPTER I.
G. Washington again unanimously elected President.... War
between Great Britain and France.... Queries of the
President respecting the conduct to be adopted by the
American government.... Proclamation of neutrality....
Arrival of Mr. Genet as minister from France.... His
conduct.... Illegal proceedings of the French cruisers....
Opinions of the cabinet.... State of parties.... Democratic
societies.... Genet calculates upon the partialities of the
American people for France, and openly insults their
government.... Rules laid down by the executive to be
observed in the ports of the United States in relation to
the powers at war.... The President requests the recall of
Genet.... British order of 8th of June, 1793.... Decree of
the national convention relative to neutral commerce.
{1793}
The term for which the President and Vice President had been elected
being about to expire on the third of March, the attention of the
public had been directed to the choice of persons who should fill
those high offices for the ensuing four years. Respecting the
President, but one opinion prevailed. From various motives, all
parties concurred in desiring that the present chief magistrate should
continue to afford his services to his country. Yielding to the weight
of the representations made to him from various quarters, General
Washington had been prevailed upon to withhold a declaration, he had
at one time purposed to make, of his determination to retire from
political life.
Respecting the person who should fill the office of Vice President,
the public was divided. The profound statesman who had been called to
the duties of that station, had drawn upon himself a great degree of
obloquy, by some political tracts, in which he had laboured to
maintain the proposition that a balance in government was essential to
the preservation of liberty. In these disquisitions, he was supposed
by his opponents to have discovered sentiments in favour of distinct
orders in society; and, although he had spoken highly of the
constitution of the United States, it was imagined that his balance
could be maintained only by hereditary classes. He was also understood
to be friendly to the system of finance which had been adopted; and
was believed to be among the few who questioned the durability of the
French republic. His great services, and acknowledged virtues, were
therefore disregarded; and a competitor was sought for among those who
had distinguished themselves in the opposition. The choice was
directed from Mr. Jefferson by a constitutional restriction on the
power of the electors, which would necessarily deprive him of the vote
to be given by Virginia. It being necessary to designate some other
opponent to Mr. Adams, George Clinton, the governor of New York, was
selected for this purpose.
Throughout the war of the revolution, this gentleman had filled the
office of chief magistrate of his native state; and, under
circumstances of real difficulty, had discharged its duties with a
courage, and an energy, which secured the esteem of the
Commander-in-chief, and gave him a fair claim to the favour of his
country. Embracing afterwards with ardour the system of state
supremacy, he had contributed greatly to the rejection of the
resolutions for investing congress with the power of collecting an
impost on imported goods, and had been conspicuous for his determined
hostility to the constitution of the United States. His sentiments
respecting the measures of the government were known to concur with
those of the minority in congress.
[Sidenote: George Washington again unanimously elected president.]
Both parties seemed confident in their strength; and both made the
utmost exertions to insure success. On opening the ballots in the
senate chamber, it appeared that the unanimous suffrage of his country
had been once more conferred on General Washington, and that Mr. Adams
had received a plurality of the votes.
The unceasing endeavours of the executive to terminate the Indian war
by a treaty, had at length succeeded with the savages of the Wabash;
and, through the intervention of the Six Nations, those of the Miamis
had also been induced to consent to a conference to be held in the
course of the ensuing spring. Though probability was against the
success of this attempt to restore peace, all offensive operations, on
the part of the United States, were still farther suspended. The
Indians did not entirely abstain from hostilities; and the discontents
of the western people were in no small degree increased by this
temporary prohibition of all incursions into the country of their
enemy. In Georgia, where a desire to commence hostilities against the
southern Indians had been unequivocally manifested, this restraint
increased the irritation against the administration.
The Indian war was becoming an object of secondary magnitude. The
critical and irritable state of things in France began so materially
to affect the United States, as to require an exertion of all the
prudence, and all the firmness, of the government. The 10th[1] of
August, 1792, was succeeded in that nation by such a state of anarchy,
and by scenes of so much blood and horror; the nation was understood
to be so divided with respect to its future course; and the republican
party was threatened by such a formidable external force; that there
was much reason to doubt whether the fallen monarch would be finally
deposed, or reinstated with a greater degree of splendour and power
than the constitution just laid in ruins, had assigned to him. That,
in the latter event, any partialities which might be manifested
towards the intermediate possessors of authority, would be recollected
with indignation, could not be questioned by an attentive observer of
the vindictive spirit of parties;--a spirit which the deeply tragic
scenes lately exhibited, could not fail to work up to its highest
possible pitch. The American minister at Paris, finding himself in a
situation not expected by his government, sought to pursue a
circumspect line of conduct, which should in no respect compromise the
United States. The executive council of France, disappointed at the
coldness which that system required, communicated their
dissatisfaction to their minister at Philadelphia. At the same time,
Mr. Morris made full representations of every transaction to his
government, and requested explicit instructions for the regulation of
his future conduct.
[Footnote 1: The day on which the palace of the Tuilleries
was stormed and the royal government subverted.]
The administration entertained no doubt of the propriety of
recognizing the existing authority of France, whatever form it might
assume. That every nation possessed a right to govern itself according
to its own will, to change its institutions at discretion, and to
transact its business through whatever agents it might think proper,
were stated to Mr. Morris to be principles on which the American
government itself was founded, and the application of which could be
denied to no other people. The payment of the debt, so far as it was
to be made in Europe, might be suspended only until the national
convention should authorize some power to sign acquittances for the
monies received; and the sums required for St. Domingo would be
immediately furnished. These payments would exceed the instalments
which had fallen due; and the utmost punctuality would be observed in
future. These instructions were accompanied with assurances that the
government would omit no opportunity of convincing the French people
of its cordial wish to serve them; and with a declaration that all
circumstances seemed to destine the two nations for the most intimate
connexion with each other. It was also pressed upon Mr. Morris to
seize every occasion of conciliating the affections of France to the
United States, and of placing the commerce between the two countries
on the best possible footing.[2]
[Footnote 2: With this letter were addressed two others to
the ministers at London and Paris respectively, stating the
interest taken by the President and people of the United
States in the fate of the Marquis de Lafayette. This
gentleman was declared a traitor by France, and was
imprisoned by Prussia. The ministers of the United States
were to avail themselves of every opportunity of sounding
the way towards his liberation, which they were to endeavour
to obtain by informal solicitations; but, if formal ones
should be necessary, they were to watch the moment when they
might be urged with the best prospect of success. This
letter was written at the sole instance of the President.]
The feelings of the President were in perfect unison with the
sentiments expressed in this letter. His attachment to the French
nation was as strong, as consistent with a due regard to the interests
of his own; and his wishes for its happiness were as ardent, as was
compatible with the duties of a chief magistrate to the state over
which he presided. Devoted to the principles of real liberty, and
approving unequivocally the republican form of government, he hoped
for a favourable result from the efforts which were making to
establish that form, by the great ally of the United States; but was
not so transported by those efforts, as to involve his country in
their issue; or totally to forget that those aids which constituted
the basis of these partial feelings, were furnished by the family
whose fall was the source of triumph to a large portion of his fellow
citizens.
He therefore still preserved the fixed purpose of maintaining the
neutrality of the United States, however general the war might be in
Europe; and his zeal for the revolution did not assume so ferocious a
character as to silence the dictates of humanity, or of friendship.
Not much time elapsed before the firmness of this resolution was put
to the test.
[Sidenote: War between Great Britain and France.]
Early in April, the declaration of war made by France against Great
Britain and Holland reached the United States. This event restored
full vivacity to a flame, which a peace of ten years had not been able
to extinguish. A great majority of the American people deemed it
criminal to remain unconcerned spectators of a conflict between their
ancient enemy and republican France. The feeling upon this occasion
was almost universal. Men of all parties partook of it. Disregarding
totally the circumstances which led to the rupture, except the order
which had been given to the French minister to leave London, and
disregarding equally the fact that actual hostilities were first
commenced by France, the war was confidently and generally pronounced
a war of aggression on the part of Great Britain, undertaken with the
sole purpose of imposing a monarchical government on the French
people. The few who did not embrace these opinions, and they were
certainly very few, were held up as objects of public detestation; and
were calumniated as the tools of Britain, and the satellites of
despotism.
Yet the disposition to engage in the war, was far from being general.
The inclination of the public led to a full indulgence of the most
extravagant partiality; but not many were willing to encounter the
consequences which that indulgence would infallibly produce. The
situation of America was precisely that, in which the wisdom and
foresight of a prudent and enlightened government, was indispensably
necessary to prevent the nation from inconsiderately precipitating
itself into calamities, which its reflecting judgment would avoid.
As soon as intelligence of the rupture between France and Britain was
received in the United States, indications were given in some of the
seaports, of a disposition to engage in the unlawful business of
privateering on the commerce of the belligerent powers. The President
was firmly determined to suppress these practices, and immediately
requested the attention of the heads of departments to this
interesting subject.
[Sidenote: Queries put by the president to his cabinet in relation to
the conduct proper to be adopted by the American government in
consequence of this event.]
As the new and difficult situation in which the United States were
placed suggested many delicate inquiries, he addressed a circular
letter to the cabinet ministers, inclosing for their consideration a
well digested series of questions, the answers to which would form a
complete system by which to regulate the conduct of the executive in
the arduous situations which were approaching.[3]
[Footnote 3: See note No. I. at the end of the volume.]
These queries, with some of the answers of them, though submitted only
to the cabinet, found their way to the leading members of the
opposition; and were among the unacknowledged but operating pieces of
testimony, on which the charge against the administration, of
cherishing dispositions unfriendly to the French republic, was
founded. In taking a view of the whole ground, points certainly
occurred, and were submitted to the consideration of the cabinet, on
which neither the chief magistrate nor his ministers felt any doubt.
But the introduction of questions relative to these points, among
others with which they were intimately connected, would present a more
full view of the subject, and was incapable of producing any
mischievous effect, while they were confined to those for whom alone
they were intended.
In the meeting of the heads of departments and the attorney general,
which was held in consequence of this letter, it was unanimously
agreed, that a proclamation ought to issue, forbidding the citizens of
the United States to take part in any hostilities on the seas, with,
or against, any of the belligerent powers; warning them against
carrying to any of those powers articles deemed contraband according
to the modern usages of nations; and enjoining them from all acts
inconsistent with the duties of a friendly nation towards those at
war.
With the same unanimity, the President was advised to receive a
minister from the republic of France; but, on the question respecting
a qualification to his reception, a division was perceived. The
secretary of state and the attorney general were of opinion, that no
cause existed for departing in the present instance from the usual
mode of acting on such occasions. The revolution in France, they
conceived, had produced no change in the relations between the two
nations; nor was there any thing in the alteration of government, or
in the character of the war, which would impair the right of France to
demand, or weaken the duty of the United States faithfully to comply
with the engagements which had been solemnly formed.
The secretaries of the treasury, and of war, held a different opinion.
Admitting in its fullest latitude the right of a nation to change its
political institutions according to its own will, they denied its
right to involve other nations, _absolutely and unconditionally_, in
the consequences of the changes which it may think proper to make.
They maintained the right of a nation to absolve itself from the
obligations even of real treaties, when such a change of circumstances
takes place in the internal situation of the other contracting party,
as so essentially to alter the existing state of things, that it may
with good faith be pronounced to render a continuance of the connexion
which results from them, disadvantageous or dangerous.
They reviewed the most prominent of those transactions which had
recently taken place in France, and noticed the turbulence, the fury,
and the injustice with which they were marked. The Jacobin club at
Paris, whose influence was well understood, had even gone so far,
previous to the meeting of the convention, as to enter into measures
with the avowed object of purging that body of those persons,
favourers of royalty, who might have escaped the attention of the
primary assemblies. This review was taken, to show that the course of
the revolution had been attended with circumstances which militate
against a full conviction of its having been brought to its present
stage, by such a free, regular, and deliberate act of the nation, as
ought to silence all scruples about the validity of what had been
done. They appeared to doubt whether the present possessors of power
ought to be considered as having acquired it with the real consent of
France, or as having seized it by violence;--whether the existing
system could be considered as permanent, or merely temporary.
They were therefore of opinion, not that the treaties should be
annulled or absolutely suspended, but that the United States should
reserve, for future consideration and discussion, the question whether
the operation of those treaties ought not to be deemed temporarily and
provisionally suspended. Should this be the decision of the
government, they thought it due to a spirit of friendly and candid
procedure, in the most conciliating terms, to apprize the expected
minister of this determination.
On the questions relative to the application of the clause of
guarantee to the existing war, some diversity of sentiment also
prevailed. The secretary of state and the attorney general conceived,
that no necessity for deciding thereon existed, while the secretaries
of the treasury, and of war, were of opinion that the treaty of
alliance was plainly defensive, and that the clause of guarantee did
not apply to a war which, having been commenced by France, must be
considered as offensive on the part of that power.
Against convening congress, the opinion appears to have been
unanimous.
The cabinet being thus divided on an important part of the system
which, in the present critical posture of affairs, ought to be adopted
by the executive, the President signified his desire that the
ministers would respectively state to him in writing the opinions they
had formed, together with the reasoning and authorities by which those
opinions were supported.
The written arguments which were presented on this occasion, while
they attest the labour, and reflect honour on the talents of those by
whom they were formed, and evince the equal sincerity and zeal with
which the opinions on each side were advanced, demonstrate an
opposition of sentiment respecting the French revolution, which
threatened to shed its influence on all measures connected with that
event, and to increase the discord which already existed in the
cabinet.
So far as respected the reception of a minister from the French
republic without qualifying that act by any explanations, and the
continuing obligation of the treaties, the President appears to have
decided in favour of the opinions given by the secretary of state and
the attorney general.
[Sidenote: Proclamation of neutrality.]
The proclamation of neutrality which was prepared by the attorney
general, in conformity with the principles which had been adopted, was
laid before the cabinet; and, being approved, was signed by the
President, and ordered to be published.
This measure derives importance from the consideration, that it was
the commencement of that system to which the American government
afterwards inflexibly adhered, and to which much of the national
prosperity is to be ascribed. It is not less important in another
view. Being at variance with the prejudices, the feelings, and the
passions of a large portion of the society, and being founded on no
previous proceedings of the legislature, it presented the first
occasion, which was thought a fit one, for openly assaulting a
character, around which the affections of the people had thrown an
armour theretofore deemed sacred, and for directly criminating the
conduct of the President himself. It was only by opposing passions to
passions, by bringing the feeling in favour of France, into conflict
with those in favour of the chief magistrate, that the enemies of the
administration could hope to obtain the victory.