CHAPTER filled with abuse of Washington as well as of Adams. XV. It was afterward proved by autograph letters, produced 1800. by Callender himself, that Jefferson, in spite of his dis

claimers to Madison and others, not only contributed
money toward the publication of this miserable election-
eering pamphlet, but actually saw and approved a part
of the proof-sheets. Callender was defended by three
young lawyers, one of them the afterward distinguished
William Wirt. Not having any defense on the facts,
they wished to argue to the jury the constitutionality of
the Sedition Law; but this Chase would not allow. He
checked the counsel with no very great ceremony; and
they, seeing no other resource, followed the recent exam-
ple of Fries's counsel, by throwing down their briefs and
walking out of court. Callender was found guilty, and
sentenced to nine months' imprisonment, a fine of $200,
and to give securities for his good behavior for the term
of two years.
The details of these trials are given with
the more particularity, as Chase's conduct in those of
Fries and Callender was made the principal ground, sev-
eral years after, of an impeachment against him. Cal-
lender's was one of the last trials under the Sedition Act,
of which the whole number did not exceed five or six.
Perhaps there were as many cases more in which prose-
cutions were commenced, but not brought to trial.

While the opposition smarted under these applications of the law, and used them, too, with great effect for electioneering purposes, they found great comfort in the judg ment which had overtaken Cobbett in the already-mentioned libel suit brought against him by Dr. Rush. That suit had been brought to trial on the very day of Washington's death; singular coincidence, as Cobbett remarked, that while the father of his country was perishing under the lancet, he, Cobbett, should be mulcted in a

XV.

verdict of $5000 for having exposed and ridiculed the CHAPTER dangerous practice of excessive bleeding. Shippen, who presided at the trial, certainly pushed the law, in his 1800. charge to the jury, to the utmost extreme; and Cobbett insisted that it was for this charge that Shippen was rewarded with the post of chief justice. In anticipation, it would seem, of what was to happen, Cobbett had stopped his paper, which, notwithstanding its circulation, having but few advertisements, had never proved profitable, and had removed to New York. His property at Philadelphia was seized and sold on execution, and subsequently an attempt was made to imprison him at New York. But he easily found bail, and the judgment was afterward paid by a subscription among the British residents in America. Upon the recognizances for his good behavior already mentioned, which M'Kean, by an exceedingly doubtful stretch of his legal authority, had required him to give, a suit had been commenced two years before. Upon this suit, also, judgment of forfeiture was presently obtained, and the sureties were obliged to pay, but were subsequently indemnified by Cobbett. Meanwhile, this indefatigable pamphleteer was not idle. He issued at New York a series of pamphlets called the "Rush Light," in which he took ample vengeance upon all parties concerned in his prosecution. Before the end

of the year he returned to England, whence he hurled another quiver full of arrows at his American enemies, in ten octavo volumes, which had a large circulation on both sides of the Atlantic, containing a collection of his American pamphlets, with the spiciest of his Porcupine editorials. With that untiring energy for which he was remarkable, availing himself of his American experience, he soon commenced the first complete report of British Parliamentary debates ever published, at the same time

But

CHAPTER Conducting a political journal of wide circulation. XV. under that experience which a change of position afford1800. ed, he passed somewhat rapidly from a most vehement Tory to a most vehement Radical; for to be moderate in any thing was not in his nature. His departure from the country was hardly less a relief to the Federalists than to the opposition. He had attacked Adams and the peace policy with great vehemence; and even the most ultra of the war party, much as they enjoyed his sharp hits, could not but feel that his pen did them more hurt than good. The opposition charged that Cobbett was hired by the British government. It is true that Liston, the English embassador, a sagacious Scotchman, far better adapted to the position than his predecessor, took care to flatter Cobbett's vanity by showing him some attentions. But he was of a spirit far too proud to be bought with money, or to enlist as a mercenary into the service of any government or any party.

The result of the New York election removed a great part of the reasons which had thus far induced the president to temporize with his political enemies in the cabinet. That result, indeed, left him, as the only chance of his re-election, the securing of Southern votes an object not likely to be accomplished by retaining as his political advisers a majority of ultra Federalists. Even apart from any views of that sort, now that the restraints of policy were removed, he had abundant reasons for desiring a change. It had been his custom, in which he had followed and somewhat exaggerated the example of Washington, to retire, shortly after the adjournment of Congress, to his own private residence at Braintree, leaving the routine of business to be conducted by the cabinet ministers, who, however, in more important cases, consulted him by letter. He could hardly wish to con

1

XV.

fide so confidential a trust to a cabinet of which the CHAPTER
majority were his political, if not his personal enemies.
Under the vexation which the recent news of the loss of 1800.
New York might naturally inspire, he sent for M'Hen- May 5.
ry, who, in the letter of Wolcott's already quoted, giv-
ing an account of the opening of the session, had been
described as a man of honor and entirely trustworthy,
also a man of sense, who delivered correct opinions when
required; but at the head of a difficult and unpopular
department, without being skilled in the details of exec-
utive business, which he exposed to delays by his diffi-
dence in himself, and in which he sometimes committed
mistakes, which his enemies employed to impair his in-
fluence. Adams began, according to a letter of M'Hen-
ry's, written very shortly afterward, with some matter
of business. That disposed of, he entered into a general
criticism of M'Henry's conduct; charged him with per-
sonal hostility; "became indecorous, and, at times, out-
rageous;" and finally told him that he must resign, which
he did the next morning. M'Henry succumbed like a
willow before the blast a blast, indeed, which he recol-
lected for the rest of his life. Pickering was made of
sterner stuff. When called upon to resign, he refused
to do so, and Adams then dismissed him. Some eight May 12.
years after (1808), the ex-president's anger being revived
anew by Pickering's collisions at that time with John-
Quincy Adams, he drew, în a private letter, a sketch of
that gentleman's character, not, perhaps, without like-
ness, but which certainly would have suited quite as
well, if not better, either Adams, father or son. "He
is, for any thing I know, a good son, husband, father,
grandfather, brother, uncle, and cousin. But he is a
man in a mask, sometimes of silk, sometimes of iron, and
sometimes of brass, and he can change them very sud-

CHAPTER denly, and with some dexterity." "He is extremely susXV. ceptible of violent and inveterate prejudices, and yet,

1800. such are the contradictions to be found in human characters, he is capable of very sudden and violent transitions from one extreme to an opposite. Under the simple appearance of a bald head and straight hair, and under professions of profound Republicanism, he conceals an ardent ambition, envious of every superior, and impatient of obscurity. He makes me think of a coal-pit covered over with red earth, glowing within, but unable to conceal the internal heat for the interstices which let out the smoke, and now and then a flash of flame."

This, indeed, was not so much the character of an individual as of that whole class of athletic, energetic, passionate men, born for action, and hardly comfortable except in the midst of a tumult, to which John Adams and his son, M'Kean, Chase, and Pickering alike belonged. But surely Pickering's use of the mask, whether of silk, iron, or brass, and his facility of sudden and violent transitions, was far less than that of either of the others. Indeed, it was the want of sufficient flexibility, which was the greatest defect in Pickering's political character. John Adams and his son, as well as Chase and M'Kean, had also the advantage of him in a profound and varied learning, while Pickering had little to rely upon beyond his naturally vigorous intellect, and the multiplied experiences of a very active life. Yet the pieces which came from his pen during the controversy with France rank high in that collection of state papers which, with the series of political essays already referred to, constitute the only valuable and distinctive American literature during the half century from 1765 to 1815.

Wolcott was not less decisive in his political opinions than either of the other secretaries. But he had pre