CHAPTER the editor of a newly-established Federal paper at PhilXVII. adelphia of attempting to buy him over to the support of 1804. the Spanish view of the pending controversies. Yrujo's

attention being called to this subject, he maintained, in a long letter, that he had no object except to make the rights of Spain apparent to the American people, and that he had a perfect right to offer pay to the proprietor of a newspaper for inserting articles of that sort. This was not deemed satisfactory, and his recall was asked of the Spanish government.

To obtain such command of our own harbors and waters as would afford security against the insolence of foreign ships of war and privateers, and to enable us, if necessary, to resist attack by sea, Washington had recommended, and Adams had zealously urged, the double means of harbor fortifications and a respectable navy. This same plan, for the last five-and-thirty years, has formed the basis of our maritime policy. But to the thrifty Jefferson it seemed altogether too expensive. He was frightened at the idea of spending fifty millions of dollars on a scheme of fortifications which would require, even in time of peace, two thousand men, and fifty thou sand in time of war; and which, in his opinion, would, after all, be of no use. He proposed, as a substitute, heavy cannon on traveling carriages, to be brought, when needed, to any point of the beach or coast, or the bank of any navigable river, most convenient for annoying an approaching enemy; a sufficient number of these cannon to be lent to each sea-port town, and their militia to be trained to use them.

Ships of war, no less terrible to Jefferson on the score of expense than fortifications, he proposed to replace by gun-boats, to be manned by the seamen and militia of the town, and kept hauled up under sheds, ready to be

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launched at a moment's notice-a situation, as he com- CHAPTER placently added, in which a boat "costs nothing but an inclosure, or a sentinel to see that no mischief is done 1804. her." A few, however, might be kept afloat against any very sudden emergencies, some with men enough to navigate them in harbor, and others fully manned. There were, in Jefferson's opinion, about fifteen harbors in the United States which ought to be in a state of substantial defense. For these would be needed, according to his estimate, two hundred and fifty gun-boats, to cost a million of dollars. As no immediate hurry seemed to him to be necessary, ten years might be taken in which to complete them, at the rate of twenty-five a year.

Such was the president's scheme of defense as suggested in his message at the opening of the second ses- Nov. 8. sion of the eighth Congress, and more particularly afterward in a letter to Nicholson, chairman of a committee to which that part of the message had been referred.

Under the appropriation already made, after a diligent study of Spanish and Neapolitan models, those being the only nations which placed much dependence on this species of force, ten gun-boats had been commenced, and two or three completed. From their total incapacity either to sail, or to use their guns with effect, these boats had become the laughing-stock of all nautical men, a few navy officers excepted, who found it convenient to flatter executive fancies. But the president was not to be laughed out of this economical system of defense; and he assured the committee that, if fifteen more were added to those already in progress, he should be able to put every harbor into a "respectable condition," so as to preserve the dignity of the country from insult.

This whole gun-boat scheme was severely criticised by several of the Federal members; but the House ap

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CHAPTER propriated $60,000 toward the twenty-five boats as requested.

1804.

The great subject of interest was the impeachment of Judge Chase, determined upon at the last session. Eight articles of impeachment, one founded on his conduct at the trial of Fries, five on the trial of Callender, and two on his late charge to the Maryland grand jury, were agreed to, most of them by a strict party vote. John Randolph, the administration leader in the House, took a very active part, as' at the former session, and was appointed, along with Nicholson, Rodney, and others of less note, a manager on the part of the House. Having ap1805. peared at the summons of the Senate, Chase asked for Jan. 2. delay till the next session. This was refused; but a

For

month was given him in which to prepare his defense. In consideration of his age and infirmities, he was allowed to be seated in the center of the area of the Senate chamber, in front of the presiding officer. It was, indeed, a remarkable scene. The aged judge had been among the most active and efficient of those by whom the Declaration of Independence had been brought about, the concurrence of hesitating Maryland in that declaration having been, in a great measure, owing to his exertions. sixteen years, as he stated to the Senate, he had sustained high judicial offices, state or national, during which whole period his official conduct had never been arraigned except in the cases of Cooper, Fries, and Callender; nor had his private or professional probity or honor ever otherwise been called in question. Of the tribunal before which Chase appeared, the presiding officer was Vice-president Burr. Having returned from his flight southward, he had taken his seat in the Senate just at the opening of the session, over which body, blasted though his prospects and reputation were, and

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with an indictment for murder hanging over his head, he CHAPTER nevertheless presided with all his accustomed self-possession, dignity, and grace.

During the judge's interval for preparation, a debate came on in the House which seemed to threaten very seriously the harmony of the administration party, shaken already by the impeachment of Chase. To a proposition for a settlement of the Mississippi claims, Randolph, as at the former session, moved as an amendment a series of resolutions excluding from any compensation whatever the claimants under the Georgia Yazoo grants of 1795.

Quite a number of the Democrats, of whom the leaders were Matthew Lyon, of Kentucky, Elliot, of Vermont, Findley, of Pennsylvania, and Bidwell, of Massachusetts, had, even at the last session, become totally disgusted at the caprices, eccentricities, and insolent, overbearing demeanor of Randolph, whom it had been customary to toast as "the man who speaks what he thinks," but whose excessive freedom in expressing his contempt for his Northern party associates was by no means so agreeable as had been his virulent abuse of the Federalists. The idea of throwing off the Virginia ascendency, though it had produced no effect upon the presidential election, was not abandoned. All were willing to put up with the fair-spoken Jefferson; but the petulant and waspish, the insolent and acrid Randolph, who had involved himself, during the late session, in several violent personal quarrels, was not to be endured.

Yet declamation against the frauds of land speculators was well suited to a certain class of minds. Almost all the Southern members the Yazoo claims being chiefly held at the North-went with Randolph, as did some of the Northern ones, especially Leib and Clay, of Philadelphia, and Philip Sloan, of New Jersey, a wealthy butch

1805.

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CHAPTER er employed in the supply of the Philadelphia market, whose oddity of appearance, incorrectness of language, 1805. ultra Jeffersonian democracy, and tediously pertinacious harangues exposed him to much ridicule, though he was by no means destitute of sense, and unquestionably was honest and sincere. Randolph, more outrageous than ever, did not hesitate to insinuate that all who opposed him were interested in the claims, or bribed by those who were. They retorted with the courteous epithets of calumniator, madman, despotic demagogue, popular tyrant. He poured out a torrent of abuse on Granger, agent of the claimants, whom he accused of bribing members. Nor did Madison, Gallatin, and Lincoln, who, as commissioners, had recommended a compromise of the claims, entirely escape. Granger thought it necessary Feb. 1. to send a letter to the House, asking an investigation into his conduct a request which was got rid of by a postponement. With the help of the Federalists, the opponents of Randolph voted down his resolutions by a majority of five; but Randolph, on his side, succeeded in defeating the passage of a bill. He complained bitterly -and it was a curious instance of political mutationthat Lyon and Griswold, who had once come into such fierce collision, should now be united against the leader of the Republicans in the House.

This violent struggle was not yet entirely over when Chase appeared at the bar of the Senate with his counsel, of whom the most eminent were Luther Martin, like Chase himself, originally opposed to the Constitution, but who had become long since a warm Federalist, Charles Lee, late Attorney General of the United States, and Robert Goodloe Harper, the former distinguished Federal leader in the House.

For these, the ablest advocates in the Union, to take