The Life of George Washington, Vol. 5 (of 5)

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The causes of discontent which were furnished by Spain, though less
the theme of public declamation, continued to be considerable.

The American ministers at Madrid could make no progress in their
negotiation. The question of limits remained unsettled, and the
Mississippi was still closed against the Americans. In addition to
these subjects of disquiet, the southern states were threatened with
war from the Creeks and Cherokees, who were, with good reason,
believed to be excited to hostility by the Spanish government. Of
these irritating differences, that which related to the Mississippi
was far the most operative, and embarrassing. The imagination,
especially when warmed by discontent, bestows on a good which is
withheld, advantages much greater than the reality will justify; and
the people of the western country were easily persuaded to believe
that the navigation of the Mississippi was a mine of wealth which
would at once enrich them. That jealousy which men so readily
entertain of the views of those with whom they do not associate, had
favoured the efforts made by the enemies of the administration, to
circulate the opinion that an opposition of interests existed between
the eastern and the western people, and that the endeavours of the
executive to open their great river were feeble and insincere. At a
meeting of the Democratic Society in Lexington, in Kentucky, this
sentiment was unanimously avowed in terms of peculiar disrespect to
the government; and a committee was appointed to open a correspondence
with the inhabitants of the whole western country, for the purpose of
uniting them on this all important subject, and of preparing on it a
remonstrance to the President and congress of the United States, to be
expressed "in the bold, decent and determined language, proper to be
used by injured freemen when they address the servants of the people."
They claimed much merit for their moderation in having thus long, out
of regard to their government, and affection for their fellow citizens
on the Atlantic, abstained from the use of those means which they
possessed for the assertion of what they termed a natural and
unalienable right; and seemed to indicate the opinion that this
forbearance could not be long continued. Without regarding the
determination of Spain in the case or the poverty of the means placed
in the hands of the executive for inducing a change in this
determination, they demanded from the government the free use of the
Mississippi, as if only an act of the will was necessary to insure it
to them. Not even the probability that the public and intemperate
expression of these dangerous dispositions would perpetuate the evil,
could moderate them. This restless uneasy temper gave additional
importance to the project of an expedition against Louisiana, which
had been formed by Mr. Genet.

These public causes for apprehending hostilities[12] with Spain, were
strengthened by private communications. The government had received
intelligence from their ministers in Europe that propositions had been
made by the cabinet of Madrid to that of London, the object of which
was the United States. The precise nature of these propositions was
not ascertained, but it was understood generally, that their tendency
was hostile.

[Footnote 12: The state of affairs was so inauspicious to
the continuance of peace that in a letter written in the
month of June, to the secretary of war, the President thus
expressed himself: "It is of great importance that this
government should be fully informed of the Spanish force in
the Floridas, the troops which have lately arrived, the
number of their posts, and the strength and situation of
each; together with such other circumstances as would enable
it to adopt correspondent measures, in case we should, in
spite of our endeavours to avoid it, get embroiled with that
nation. It would be too improvident, might be too late, and
certainly would be disgraceful, to have this information to
obtain when our plans ought to be formed." After suggesting
the propriety of making the proper inquiries in a particular
channel, he added, "I point you to the above as one source
only of information. My desire to obtain knowledge of these
facts leads me to request with equal earnestness, that you
would improve every other to ascertain them with certainty.
No reasonable expense should be spared to accomplish objects
of such magnitude in times so critical."]

Thus unfavourable to the pacific views of the executive were the
circumstances under which congress was to assemble.

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.

{1793}

[Sidenote: Meeting of Congress.]

A malignant fever, believed to be infectious, had, through part of the
summer and autumn, severely afflicted the city of Philadelphia, and
dispersed the officers of the executive government. Although the fear
of contagion was not entirely dispelled when the time for the meeting
of congress arrived, yet, such was the active zeal of parties, and
such the universal expectation that important executive communications
would be made, and that legislative measures not less important would
be founded on them, that both houses were full on the first day, and a
joint committee waited on the President with the usual information
that they were ready to receive his communications.

On the fourth of December, at twelve, the President met both houses in
the senate chamber. His speech was moderate, firm, dignified, and
interesting. It commenced with his own re-election, his feelings at
which were thus expressed--

[Sidenote: President's speech.]

"Since the commencement of the term for which I have been again called
into office, no fit occasion has arisen for expressing to my
fellow-citizens at large, the deep and respectful sense which I feel
of the renewed testimony of public approbation. While on the one hand,
it awakened my gratitude for all those instances of affectionate
partiality with which I have been honoured by my country; on the
other, it could not prevent an earnest wish for that retirement, from
which no private consideration could ever have torn me. But,
influenced by the belief that my conduct would be estimated according
to its real motives, and that the people, and the authorities derived
from them, would support exertions having nothing personal for their
object, I have obeyed the suffrage which commanded me to resume the
executive power; and I humbly implore that Being on whose will the
fate of nations depends, to crown with success our mutual endeavours
for the general happiness."

Passing to those measures which had been adopted by the executive for
the regulation of its conduct towards the belligerent nations, he
observed, "as soon as the war in Europe had embraced those powers with
whom the United States have the most extensive relations, there was
reason to apprehend that our intercourse with them might be
interrupted, and our disposition for peace drawn into question by
suspicions too often entertained by belligerent nations. It seemed
therefore to be my duty to admonish our citizens of the consequence of
a contraband trade, and of hostile acts to any of the parties; and to
obtain, by a declaration of the existing state of things, an easier
admission of our rights to the immunities belonging to our situation.
Under these impressions the proclamation which will be laid before you
was issued.

"In this posture of affairs, both new and delicate, I resolved to
adopt general rules which should conform to the treaties, and assert
the privileges of the United States. These were reduced into a system,
which shall be communicated to you."

After suggesting those legislative provisions on this subject, the
necessity of which had been pointed out by experience, he proceeded to
say,

"I can not recommend to your notice measures for the fulfilment of
_our_ duties to the rest of the world, without again pressing upon you
the necessity of placing ourselves in a condition of complete defence,
and of exacting from _them_ the fulfilment of their duties towards us.
The United States ought not to indulge a persuasion that, contrary to
the order of human events, they will forever keep at a distance those
painful appeals to arms with which the history of every nation
abounds. There is a rank due to the United States among nations which
will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of
weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it;
if we desire to secure peace--one of the most powerful instruments of
our prosperity--it must be known that we are, at all times, ready for
war."

These observations were followed by a recommendation to augment the
supply of arms and ammunition in the magazines, and to improve the
militia establishment.

After referring to a communication to be subsequently made for
occurrences relative to the connexion of the United States with
Europe, which had, he said, become extremely interesting; and after
reviewing Indian affairs, he particularly addressed the house of
representatives. Having presented to them in detail some subjects of
which it was proper they should be informed, he added;--"no pecuniary
consideration is more urgent than the regular redemption and discharge
of the public debt; on none can delay be more injurious, or an economy
of time more valuable.

"The productiveness of the public revenues hitherto has continued to
be equal to the anticipations which were formed of it; but it is not
expected to prove commensurate with all the objects which have been
suggested. Some auxiliary provisions will therefore, it is presumed,
be requisite; and it is hoped that these may be made consistently with
a due regard to the convenience of our citizens, who can not but be
sensible of the true wisdom of encountering a small present addition
to their contributions, to obviate a future accumulation of burdens."

The speech was concluded with the following impressive exhortation:

"The several subjects to which I have now referred, open a wide range
to your deliberations, and involve some of the choicest interests of
our common country. Permit me to bring to your remembrance the
magnitude of your task. Without an unprejudiced coolness, the welfare
of the government may be hazarded; without harmony, as far as consists
with freedom of sentiment, its dignity may be lost. But, as the
legislative proceedings of the United States will never, I trust, be
reproached for the want of temper, or of candour, so shall not the
public happiness languish from the want of my strenuous and warmest
co-operation."

[Sidenote: His message on the subject of the foreign relations of the
United States.]

The day succeeding that on which this speech was delivered, a special
message was sent to both houses, containing some of the promised
communications relative to the connexion of the United States with
foreign powers.

After suggesting as a motive for this communication that it not only
disclosed "matter of interesting inquiry to the legislature," but,
"might indeed give rise to deliberations to which they alone were
competent;" the President added--"the representative and executive
bodies of France have manifested generally a friendly attachment to
this country; have given advantages to our commerce and navigation;
and have made overtures for placing these advantages on permanent
ground. A decree, however, of the national assembly, subjecting
vessels laden with provisions to be carried into their ports, and
making enemy goods lawful prize in the vessel of a friend, contrary to
our treaty, though revoked at one time as to the United States, has
been since extended to their vessels also, as has been recently stated
to us. Representations on the subject will be immediately given in
charge to our minister there, and the result shall be communicated to
the legislature.

"It is with extreme concern I have to inform you that the person whom
they have unfortunately appointed their minister plenipotentiary here,
has breathed nothing of the friendly spirit of the nation which sent
him. Their tendency on the contrary has been to involve us in a war
abroad and discord and anarchy at home. So far as his acts, or those
of his agents, have threatened an immediate commitment in the war, or
flagrant insult to the authority of the laws, their effect has been
counteracted by the ordinary cognizance of the laws, and by an
exertion of the powers confided to me. Where their danger was not
imminent, they have been borne with, from sentiments of regard to his
nation, from a sense of their friendship towards us, from a conviction
that they would not suffer us to remain long exposed to the actions of
a person who has so little respected our mutual dispositions, and, I
will add, from a reliance on the firmness of my fellow-citizens in
their principles of peace and order. In the mean time I have respected
and pursued the stipulations of our treaties, according to what I
judged their true sense; and have withheld no act of friendship which
their affairs have called for from us, and which justice to others
left us free to perform. I have gone further. Rather than employ force
for the restitution of certain vessels which I deemed the United
States bound to restore, I thought it more adviseable to satisfy the
parties by avowing it to be my opinion, that, if restitution were not
made, it would be incumbent on the United States to make
compensation."

The message next proceeded to state that inquiries had been instituted
respecting the vexations and spoliations committed on the commerce of
the United States, the result of which when received would be
communicated.

The order issued by the British government on the 8th of June, and the
measures taken by the executive of the United States in consequence
thereof, were briefly noticed; and the discussions which had taken
place in relation to the non-execution of the treaty of peace were
also mentioned. The message was then concluded with a reference to the
negotiations with Spain. "The public good," it was said, "requiring
that the present state of these should be made known to the
legislature in confidence only, they would be the subject of a
separate and subsequent communication."

This message was accompanied with copies of the correspondence between
the secretary of state and the French minister, on the points of
difference which subsisted between the two governments, together with
several documents necessary for the establishment of particular facts;
and with the letter written by Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Morris, which
justified the conduct of the United States by arguments too clear to
be misunderstood, and too strong ever to be encountered.

The extensive discussions which had taken place relative to the
non-execution of the treaty of peace, and the correspondence produced
by the objectionable measures which had been adopted by the British
government during the existing war, were also laid before the
legislature.

In a popular government, the representatives of the people may
generally be considered as a mirror, reflecting truly the passions and
feelings which govern their constituents. In the late elections, the
strength of parties had been tried; and the opposition had derived so
much aid from associating the cause of France with its own principles,
as to furnish much reason to suspect that, in one branch of the
legislature at least, it had become the majority. The first act of the
house of representatives served to strengthen this suspicion. By each
party a candidate for the chair was brought forward; and Mr.
Muhlenberg, who was supported by the opposition, was elected by a
majority of ten votes, against Mr. Sedgewick, whom the federalists
supported.

The answer, however, to the speech of the President, wore no tinge of
that malignant and furious spirit which had infused itself into the
publications of the day. Breathing the same affectionate attachment to
his person and character which had been professed in other times, and
being approved by every part of the house, it indicated that the
leaders, at least, still venerated their chief magistrate, and that no
general intention as yet existed, to involve him in the obloquy
directed against his measures.

Noticing that unanimous suffrage by which he had been again called to
his present station, "it was," they said, "with equal sincerity and
promptitude they embraced the occasion for expressing to him their
congratulations on so distinguished a testimony of public approbation,
and their entire confidence in the purity and patriotism of the
motives which had produced this obedience to the voice of his country.
It is," proceeded the address, "to virtues which have commanded long
and universal reverence, and services from which have flowed great and
lasting benefits that the tribute of praise may be paid without the
reproach of flattery; and it is from the same sources that the fairest
anticipations may be derived in favour of the public happiness."

The proclamation of neutrality was approved in guarded terms, and the
topics of the speech were noticed in a manner which indicated
dispositions cordially to co-operate with the executive.

On the part of the senate also, the answer to the speech was
unfeignedly affectionate. In warm terms they expressed the pleasure
which the re-election of the President gave them. "In the unanimity,"
they added, "which a second time marks this important national act, we
trace with particular satisfaction, besides the distinguished tribute
paid to the virtues and abilities which it recognizes, another proof
of that discernment, and constancy of sentiments and views, which have
hitherto characterized the citizens of the United States." Speaking of
the proclamation, they declared it to be "a measure well timed and
wise, manifesting a watchful solicitude for the welfare of the nation,
and calculated to promote it."

In a few days, a confidential message was delivered, communicating the
critical situation of affairs with Spain. The negotiations attempted
with that power in regard to the interesting objects of boundary,
navigation, and commerce, had been exposed to much delay and
embarrassment, in consequence of the changes which the French
revolution had effected in the political state of Europe. Meanwhile,
the neighborhood of the Spanish colonies to the United States had
given rise to various other subjects of discussion, one of which had
assumed a very serious aspect.

Having the best reason to suppose that the hostility of the southern
Indians was excited by the agents of Spain, the President had directed
the American commissioners at Madrid to make the proper
representations on the subject, and to propose that each nation
should, with good faith, promote the peace of the other with their
savage neighbours.

About the same time, the Spanish government entertained, or affected
to entertain, corresponding suspicions of like hostile excitements by
the agents of the United States, to disturb their peace with the same
nations. The representations which were induced by these real or
affected suspicions, were accompanied with pretensions, and made in a
style, to which the American executive could not be inattentive. His
Catholic Majesty asserted these claims as a patron and protector of
those Indians. He assumed a right to mediate between them and the
United States, and to interfere in the establishment of their
boundaries. At length, in the very moment when those savages were
committing daily inroads on the American frontier, at the instigation
of Spain, as was believed, the representatives of that power,
complaining of the aggressions of American citizens on the Indians,
declared "that the continuation of the peace, good harmony, and
perfect friendship of the two nations, was very problematical for the
future, unless the United States should take more convenient measures,
and of greater energy than those adopted for a long time past."

Notwithstanding the zeal and enthusiasm with which the pretensions of
the French republic, as asserted by their minister, continued to be
supported out of doors, they found no open advocate in either branch
of the legislature. That this circumstance is, in a great measure, to
be ascribed to the temperate conduct of the executive, and to the
convincing arguments with which its decisions were supported, ought
not to be doubted. But when it is recollected that the odium which
these decisions excited, sustained no diminution; that the accusation
of hostility to France and to liberty, which originated in them, was
not retracted; that, when afterwards many of the controverted claims
were renewed by France, her former advocates still adhered to her; it
is not unreasonable to suppose that other considerations mingled
themselves with the conviction which the correspondence laid before
the legislature was calculated to produce.

An attack on the administration could be placed on no ground more
disadvantageous than on its controversy with Mr. Genet. The conduct
and language of that minister were offensive to reflecting men of all
parties. The President had himself taken so decisive a part in favour
of the measures which had been adopted, that they must be ascribed to
him, not to his cabinet; and, of consequence, the whole weight of his
personal character must be directly encountered, in an attempt to
censure those measures. From this censure it would have been difficult
to extricate the person who was contemplated by the party in
opposition as its chief; for the secretary of state had urged the
arguments of the administration with a degree of ability and
earnestness, which ought to have silenced the suspicion that he might
not feel their force.

The expression of a legislative opinion, in favour of the points
insisted on by the French minister, would probably have involved the
nation in a calamitous war, the whole responsibility for which would
rest on them.

To these considerations was added another which could not be
disregarded. The party in France, to which Mr. Genet owed his
appointment, had lost its power; and his fall was the inevitable
consequence of the fall of his patrons. That he would probably be
recalled was known in America; and that his conduct had been
disapproved by his government was generally believed. The future
system of the French republic, with regard to the United States, could
not be foreseen; and it would be committing something to hazard, not
to wait its development.

These objections did not exist to an indulgence of the partialities
and prejudices of the nation towards the belligerent powers, in
measures suggested by its resentment against Great Britain. But,
independent of these considerations, it is scarcely possible to doubt
that congress really approved the conduct of the executive with regard
to France, and was also convinced that a course of hostility had been
pursued by Great Britain, which the national interest and the national
honour required them to repel. In the irritable state of the public
temper, it was not difficult to produce this opinion.

In addition to the causes of dissatisfaction with Great Britain which
have already been suggested, others soon occurred. Under her auspices,
a truce for one year had been lately negotiated between Portugal and
the Regency of Algiers, which, by withdrawing a small squadron
stationed during the war, by the former power, in the Streights,
opened a passage into the Atlantic to the cruisers of the latter. The
capture of American merchantmen, which was the immediate consequence
of this measure, was believed, in the United States, to have been its
motive. Not admitting the possibility that a desire to extricate
Portugal from a war unproductive of any advantages, and to leave her
maritime force free to act elsewhere, could have induced this
interposition of England, the Americans ascribed it, exclusively, to
that enmity to their commerce, and to that jealousy of its prosperity,
which had, as they conceived, long marked the conduct of those who
administered the affairs of that nation.

This transaction was afterwards explained by England, and was ascribed
to her desire to serve an ally, and to enable that ally to act more
efficaciously in a common cause.

[Illustration: George Washington

_From the painting by Charles Willson Peale._

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