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CHAPTER XV

PARTY CONTENTIONS

PARTY contentions have never been more bitter in the United States than during the presidency of John Adams. The Federalists and Republicans looked upon each other with undisguised distrust and contempt, and the differences were not merely political, but were personal as well. "Men who had been intimate all their lives," said Jefferson, "cross the street to avoid meeting, and turn their heads another way lest they should be obliged to touch their hats." In addition to this the contentions within the Federalist party itself were bitter in the extreme. As Rome was not large enough for the ambitions of Cæsar and Pompey, so also the Federalist party was not large enough for John Adams and Alexander Hamilton. It will be seen that the contentions between these two men did much to wreck the Federalist party-the party of the Constitution.

Jefferson's view of the situation in 1796 is rather gloomily set forth in his famous letter, written on April 24th of that year, to his friend Mazzei, then in Italy. "The aspect of our politics," said Jefferson, "has wonderfully changed since you left us. In place of that noble love of liberty and republican government which carried us triumphantly through the war, an Anglican monarchical aristocratical party has sprung up, whose avowed object is to draw over the substance, as they have already done the forms, of the British government. The main body of our citizens, however, remain true to their republican principles; the whole

landed interest is republican, and so is a great mass of talents. Against us are the Executive, the Judiciary, two out of three branches of the Legislature, all the officers of the government, all who want to be officers, all timid men who prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty, British merchants and Americans trading on British capital, speculators and holders in the banks and public funds, a contrivance invented for the purposes of corruption, and for assimilating us in all things to the rotten as well as the sound parts of the British model. It would give you a fever were I to name to you the apostates who have gone over to these heresies, men who were Samsons in the field and Solomons in the council, but who have had their heads shorn by the harlot, England. In short, we are likely to preserve the liberty we have obtained only by unremitting labors and perils. But we shall preserve it; and our mass of weight and wealth on the good side is so great, as to leave no danger that force will ever be attempted against us. We have only to awake and snap the Lilliputian cords with which they have been entangling us during the first sleep which succeeded our labors." It may be that the pessimistic character of this letter was due, to some extent, to Jefferson's poor health at this particular time. In the concluding lines of the letter he remarked: "I begin to feel the effects of age. My health has suddenly broken down, with symptoms which give me to believe I shall not have much to encounter of the tedium vita." However, his distrust of the Federalists is just as forcibly expressed elsewhere in his correspondence of this period. Hamilton, on the other hand, looked upon the Republicans as an ignorant and irresponsible rabble, clamoring for power; and he did not hesitate to express himself to that effect. It need not be said that the publication of Jefferson's letter to Mazzei, in the summer of 1797, did not serve to allay the contentions between the two parties.

Mr. Adams made the first serious mistake of his administration in retaining the Cabinet of his predecessor. It

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seemed at the time to be the proper and courteous thing to do. There was a common understanding that the general policy of Washington's administration was to be continued in that of Adams. To this end the retention of the old Cabinet seemed advisable. It was, however, a very grave The secretaries, Pickering, McHenry, and Wolcott, were not loyal to Adams, but connived and intrigued against him in a most unpardonable way. He was, too, apparently ignorant of this fact during the greater part of his administration. Before his inauguration he wrote: "Pickering and all his colleagues are as much attached to me as I desire. I have no jealousies from that quarter." This might have been true at the time, but if so, the attitude of the secretaries speedily changed. In their minds, Adams could never take the place of Washington, and the secretaries looked upon themselves as the special custodians of Washington's governmental policy. They considered themselves to be not merely advisers, but a part of the executive department. They were small men, and did not appreciate their relative importance in the government. Then, too, they were under the influence of Hamilton, which was baneful at this time. They looked to him rather than to Adams as the true leader of the Federalist party. While serving Hamilton, the bitter enemy of the President, they could not be loyal to their chief. One is painfully surprised—and especially is this true in the case of Pickering-that the secretaries could have consented to remain in the Cabinet under the circumstances. There can be no justification for their conduct in this respect, and Hamilton, too, is indictable before the bar of public opinion for receiving stolen goods, for his tools supplied him with inside information from the government to be used against the President.

Gradually the truth began to dawn upon Adams, he saw, when much mischief had been done, that his secretaries were playing him false, and that a reorganization of the Cabinet was imperative, but he probably never knew the full extent of the intrigues against him on the part of his official family.

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On May 5, 1800, in a stormy interview, he called for the resignation of McHenry, who was incompetent, in addition to being disloyal. Pickering also was asked to resign, and upon his refusal to comply with the request, Adams addressed the following letter to him on May 12, 1800: "Sir,-Divers causes and considerations essential to the administration of the government, in my judgment, requiring a change in the Department of State, you are hereby discharged from any further service as Secretary of State." Adams bore enmity toward Pickering for many years after this curt dismissal. In 1808 he wrote of him: "He is a man in a mask, sometimes of silk, sometimes of iron, sometimes of brass, and he can change them very suddenly, and with some dexterity Under the simple appearance of a bald head and straight hair, and under profession of profound republicanism, he controls an ardent ambition, envious of every superior, and impatient of obscurity." The ill-will of Adams, however, does not seem to have blighted the political ambitions of Pickering, as he was twice elected to the United States Senate after his experience in the Cabinet. In the meantime, Wolcott remained in the Cabinet, Adams thinking him loyal, and he himself not professing to be otherwise. He continued also to retail the secrets of the Treasury Department to Hamilton to be used for political purposes against Adams. Finally, late in 1800, he tendered his resignation to take effect on the 1st of January of the following year. Adams was thus under the embarrassing necessity of securing a man to take the treasury portfolio for two months.

John Marshall, of Virginia, succeeded Pickering in the State Department, and Samuel Dexter of Massachusetts became secretary of war. Both were good men and rendered commendable service. After the resignation of Secretary Wolcott, Mr. Dexter was transferred to the Treasury Department, and Roger Griswold, of Connecticut, became secretary of war.

This reorganization of the Cabinet was not effected without increasing the breach in the Federalist party, which

was still further widened by some army appointments made in the summer of 1798, when war with France seemed probable. As noted in a previous chapter, Washington had been appointed Commander-in-chief. He accepted the appointment with the understanding that he should select the officers next below him. He selected Hamilton, C. C. Pinckney, and Knox, and these men were duly nominated and confirmed in the order indicated. All three were Major Generals, and a question immediately arose as to their respective ranks. Hamilton's friends claimed a priority for him on the ground that the rank of the men should conform to the order of their nomination and ratification. The friends of Knox, on the other hand, contended that the rank in this instance should be determined by the rank of the men in the Revolution. This would place Knox before the other two. The matter was of some importance, since Washington was not expected, in the event of war, to take the field in person, and the man second in command would thus have an excellent opportunity to win laurels. The matter of precedence was decided by Washington when he indicated a preference for Hamilton. Adams did not greatly relish the exaltation of his archenemy, yet he complied with the wishes of Washington. In one respect the episode was of no consequence, as war with France was averted; but in another it was a matter of importance as it hastened the downfall of the Federalist party.

The threatened war with France also led to the establishment of the Navy Department. Hitherto all military and naval affairs were under the control of the War Department, but at this time a differentiation seemed advisable. Benjamin Stoddert, of Maryland, was appointed secretary of the navy, and provisions were made, upon the advice of Adams, to strengthen that department. It should be noted. that Adams was a most strenuous advocate of the navy at this time, while Jefferson for obvious reasons, took the opposite stand. They opposed each other as Themistocles

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