X. tion were to have any representative at all, it must be CHAPTER the third and Northern member, two from the South having been already selected. The president proposed Ger- 1797. ry, of whose abilities as a compatriot in the Revolutionary struggle he entertained a high opinion, and who had recently given what must have seemed, to the president at least, pretty good proof of the soundness of his judg ment, by omitting to throw either of his votes as a Massachusetts elector of president and vice-president for his friend Jefferson, lest it might endanger, as it would have done, the election of Adams. As Pickering and Wol cott in the cabinet, and a number of the most zealous Federalists out of it, were decidedly opposed to a mixed embassy, and very strenuous for three Federalists, Adams so far yielded to them as to nominate, instead of Gerry, his old associate in the diplomatic service, Francis Dana, at that time chief justice of Massachusetts. But Dana having declined the appointment on the plea of ill health, the president returned again to Gerry. Besides the general reasons against a piebald commission, some personal objections were made to Gerry as a man at once whimsical and obstinate, with whom his colleagues might on that account find it difficult to co-operate. The president, however, insisted upon him; and the nomination was accordingly made, and confirmed a day or two after Jefferson's letter to Burr. Even in the captious and suspicious judgment of Jefferson himself, the commission as thus constituted was one with which little fault could be found. In a letter to Gerry congratulating him on his June 21. appointment, and urging his acceptance of it, he declared that Gerry's nomination gave him "certain assurance that there would be a preponderance in the mission sincerely disposed to be at peace with the French government and nation." CHAPTER X. The existing treaty with Prussia being about to expire, John Quincy Adams, to whom Washington had 1797. given the mission to Lisbon, but who had not yet entered on that service, was appointed minister to Berlin. This appointment, the second in order of time made by the new president, could not, however, be ascribed to pa-. ternal partiality; for Washington, while expressing the decided opinion that John Quincy Adams was the most valuable, and would prove himself to be the ablest of the American diplomatic corps, had strongly urged that merited promotion should not be withheld merely because he was the president's son. The post at Lisbon was given to Smith, of South Carolina, hitherto so conspicuous as a Federal leader in the House of Representatives. Gallatin, Nicholas, and others of the opposition had made very earnest efforts to defeat the appropriation necessary for the support of these two ministers. Opposed as they were to armies and navies, they seemed also to think a diplomatic establishment entirely unnecessary. The consulships at Algiers and Tripoli, which possessed a certain diplomatic character, were given to O'Brien and Cathcart, two of the lately-released Algerine prisoners, thus superseding Barlow, who had obtained, on Monroe's recommendation, a commission to treat with those two regencies. The consulship at Tunis was given to William Eaton, of Massachusetts, lately a captain in the United States army, and who afterward made himself very conspicuous in the affairs of that regency. CHAPTER XI. MONROE'S RETURN. SLANDEROUS ATTACK ON HAMILTON. WHILE the newly-appointed envoys to France were CHAPTER XI. preparing for their departure, and shortly before the adjournment of Congress, Monroe, the recalled minister, ar- 1797. rived at Philadelphia. The opposition received him with open arms, and he was entertained at a public dinner, at which Chief-justice M'Kean presided. Vice-president Jefferson, and a large number of the members of both houses among others, Dayton, the speaker-were present. In warmth of applause and approval, M'Kean's speech of welcome fell only short of the eulogies to which Monroe had listened from Merlin and Barras, models whom M'Kean seemed desirous to imitate. By the same ship that brought Monroe came the answer of Merlin, now minister of Justice, to the complaint of the consul general of the United States of the condemnation of two American vessels on the newly-invented ground that they had no roles d'equipage. This answer openly avowed the policy stated by Barlow in his letter, already quoted, as that of the Directory-the plunder of private merchants, under false and frivolous pretenses, as a means of compelling the government of the United States to conform to the wishes of France. "Let your government," writes this minister of justice, who was also, at the same time, a speculator in privateers, "return to a sense of what is due to itself and its true friends, become just and grateful, and let it break the incompre CHAPTER hensible treaty which it has concluded with our most im XI. placable enemies, and then the French republic will cease 1797. to take advantage of this treaty which favors England at its expense, and no appeals will then, I can assure you, be made to any tribunal against injustice." Immediately after his arrival at Philadelphia, Monroe July 6. addressed a letter to the Department of State in curious contrast with the subdued and very urbane style of his correspondence with the French minister of Foreign Affairs. He requested, or rather demanded, in this letter, and that, too, in pretty decided terms, to be informed of the grounds of his recall, not as a matter of favor, but of July 7. right. Pickering suggested, by way of reply, that the president might well be possessed of facts and information such as might justify the recall of a minister, or the dismissal of a public officer, though not such as to furnish grounds for impeachment or other legal proceedings; and that, in trusting the matter of recall or dismissal to his discretion, the Constitution never contemplated that the propriety of the exercise of that discretion in particular cases should be tested either by a formal trial or a public discussion. Taking upon himself the character of July 19. an abused and injured individual, Monroe, in his answer, expressed his astonishment that, after being denounced to the public, by deprivation of his office, as a person guilty of some great act of misconduct, the government, when called upon for a statement of the charge and the facts to support it, should be disposed to evade the demand, and to shrink from the inquiry. In reply to this indigJuly 24. nant note, Pickering calmly insisted upon the right of the president to remove from office without giving any reasons for it. Communications might be received entitled to credit, but under restrictions not permitting a disclosure. To admit the principle insisted upon by Mon- XI. roe would be to shut the door to intelligence of the in- CHAPTER fidelity of public officers, especially of diplomatic agents in foreign countries, far removed from the immediate ob- 1797. servation of their own government. Mere want of confidence, from whatever cause arising, furnished reason enough for recalling a minister. If he were found, on trial, to be deficient in judgment, skill, or diligence, or if circumstances inspired a reasonable doubt of his sincerity, he ought to be removed. While his official communications had a fair appearance, a diplomatic agent might hold intimate and improper correspondence on political subjects with men known to be hostile to the gov ernment he represented, and whose actions tended to its subversion. He might, from mistaken views, even go so far as to countenance and invite a conduct on the part of the nation to which he was accredited, derogatory to the dignity of his own country and injurious to its interests. But a removal from office did not necessarily imply actual misconduct. It might imply merely want of ability, or a change in the state of political affairs such as to render the substitution of another person proper. It might also happen, and such was Monroe's case, that a president just retiring from office might remove. In such a case, no member of the succeeding administration could undertake to assign the motives of the removal. "There is no disposition," the letter concluded, " to treat you or any other man with injustice; but the government can not, for the sake of indulging your sensibility, sacrifice a great national principle. I agree with you that the president, in using that pleasure with which the Constitution has invested him, is bound to exercise it with discretion; but I deny that he is bound on every occasion to explain and justify his conduct to the individual removed from office, which, besides other objections, would expose the |