CHAPTER Visions had been contained in one of the decrees of the

XIX. Directory issued during the year 1798. The Berlin

1807. decree, by one of its articles, was to be communicated to

the kings of Spain, Naples, Holland, and Etruria (Tuscany), and to the allies of France generally; and as the states named were but the humble vassals of Bonaparte, there was every reason to expect them speedily to adopt the same policy.

When the news of this decree reached the United States, it produced the greatest alarm among the merchants. The rates of insurance rose to a ruinous height, and almost a complete stop was put to commercial enterprises. But this alarm was soon appeased by the publication in the National Intelligencer of a private letter of Armstrong, the American minister at Paris, stating, in positive terms, that he had received written assurances from the French minister of Marine that the decree would in no respect, so far as the United States were concerned, disturb the existing regulations of commerce as settled by the convention of 1800. But Armstrong's Feb 19 official correspondence, which was presently laid before Congress by the president, by no means bore out this agreeable assurance. Champagny, the French minister of Marine, had indeed expressed his opinion that American vessels bound to or from British ports would not be liable to capture for that reason only. But as to the point of having British produce on board, embraced also in Armstrong's inquiries, the reply was much less definite. Indeed, the minister of Marine, though he expressed a general opinion that the decree was not intended to contravene the American treaty, referred Armstrong, as to the whole matter, to the minister of Foreign Affairs as the proper person to be consulted. The merchants, however, were disposed to give to these assur

XIX.

ances the broadest latitude of interpretation; and they re- CHAPTER ceived with great satisfaction the additional information communicated in the same message, that Monroe and 1807. Pinkney had agreed in England on the terms of a treaty, arranging the late disputed points of neutral rights, and which only now waited to be reduced to form.

Still, as well after these communications as before, the few Federalists in Congress-and several of the Democratic representatives from commercial parts of the Union concurred with them-were decidedly of opinion that, considering the very delicate and uncertain state of the foreign relations of the country, some preparations for defense at least were necessary. But to every proposal of this sort the special supporters of the administration were decidedly opposed. A bill from the Senate to increase the regular army was lost in the House. A proposition to put all the ships of the navy into commission, or, at least, so many of them as the president might deem expedient, failed in the same way. The House would go no further than to vote an increase of five hundred seamen, without which it would be impossible to relieve the frigate stationed in the Mediterranean. The president reiterated his decided opinion as to the impolicy of making preparations for war in time of peace-a policy, he said, which had ruined half the nations of Europe. All that he deemed necessary was an increase of gunboats; and he asked an appropriation of $300,000 to build sixty, in addition to the sixty-nine already completed. A bill was accordingly brought in, appropriating for that purpose $250,000; also $20,000 for fortifications, all that the Secretary of War asked for.

The Federalists attacked this bill with much spirit. The absurdity of the proposed appropriation for fortifications was sufficiently obvious, since it would require two

CHAPTER or three millions to fortify New York alone, liable, at XIX. present, to be insulted and plundered by any one or two 1807. ships of war, and, indeed, even by privateers. As for the gun-boats, they were good for nothing except on rivers and smooth water. They might, perhaps, answer

at the South, but would be wholly useless on the Northern coast. In the debate on this subject, Nelson, of Maryland, repeated a suggestion thrown out by Randolph during the preceding session, that, in case of war, it would probably be necessary to abandon the harbors and sea-coast, and to retire to the interior. Smilie declared that if there were no mode of defending the country except by a fleet, so far as his vote was concerned it should go undefended! It was only for the protection of trade that fleets became necessary, and sooner than build fleets for that purpose, he would give up all the trade of the country. In the same spirit, Logan introduced into the Senate a resolution for repealing the drawback of duties allowed on the exportation of imported produce. As the carrying trade in foreign goods threatened to involve us with foreign nations, he thought it best to abandon it altogether.

The commercial members contrasted, with no little bitterness, the parsimony of the administration in expenditures for the security of commerce with the sums lavished for the purchase of Louisiana, and in obtaining cessions of land from the Indians for the convenience of the frontier inhabitants, and the readiness evinced to pay a still further indefinite amount to Spain for the purchase of the Floridas. At this very session sums had been appropriated to carry into execution three Indian treaties negotiated in 1805 and 1806. The sum of $1100 in cash, and an annuity of $300, was voted to the Piankeshaws, in consideration of their relinquishment of a con

J

siderable tract along the west bank of the Wabash.

TO CHAPTER

XIX.

the Chickasaws $22,000 were voted, to be appropriated to the payment of their debts; and to the Cherokees 1807. $10,000, in five annual payments, besides the erection within their territory, and for their use, of a grist-mill, and a machine for the cleaning of cotton-compensation to these two nations for their relinquishment of their respective titles to the lands, some small tracts excepted, hitherto occupied by them, north and east of the Tennessee River.

Notwithstanding a report from the president, in which he entered into a very elaborate defense of the gun-boats, the House cut down the appropriation under that head to $150,000; and they insisted upon voting as much. more for fortifications, notwithstanding the fact, to which attention was called, that of a similar appropriation made at the preceding session, not a third part had been expended.

The Senate went further, and struck out altogether the appropriation for gun-boats, in which, much to Jefferson's mortification, the House acquiesced. A bill for continuing the additional two and a half per cent. duty, known as the Mediterranean Fund, but now diverted to the general purposes of the treasury, a favorite measure with the administration, came very near sharing the same fate.

Feeling very acutely the want of some competent person as leader in the House, Jefferson wrote again to Wil- Feb. 28. son C. Nicholas, pressing him to offer as a candidate. "Never," he wrote, "did the call of patriotism more loudly assail you than at this moment. .After except, ing the Federalists, who will be twenty-seven, and the little band of schismatics, who will be three or four, all tongue, the residue of the House of Representatives"—

XIX.

CHAPTER he seems here suddenly to pass back from the new to the expiring Congress" is as well disposed a body of men 1807. as I ever saw collected. But there is no one whose tal

1806.

ents and standing taken together have weight enough to give him the lead. The consequence is, that there is no one who will undertake to do the public business, and it remains undone. Were you here, the whole would rally round you in an instant, and willingly co-operate in whatever is for the public good."

Con

Since the complete preponderance of the Democratic party, there had been a great falling off in talent on both sides of the House. The Federalists being in a hopeless minority, a seat in Congress had lost, for their ablest men, a large part of its charms; while among the Democrats, the idea of Republican equality and rotation in office had brought forward many very inferior men. scious of their inferiority, these Democratic members were, in general, docile enough. Men who had regarded Adams as little better than a traitor sold to the British, and to whom even Washington had been an object of watchful suspicion, as under the influence of very bad advice, looked up to Jefferson with the most implicit trust and undoubting confidence. They were exceedingly well disposed," as Jefferson expressed it; but with such marplots about as John Randolph and the abler Federalists, a diligent and powerful watch-dog was much needed to keep the sheep from running astray.

The hopes raised in the minds of the mercantile community by the president's announcement of a treaty with Great Britain were destined, and by the president's own act, to be suddenly and most disastrously dashed.

Previous to Pinkney's arrival in England as joint commissioner, Fox had expressed to Monroe some sensibility at the passage of the non-importation act, as placing