gress, and refer the decision to them. Why? | thusiastic partiality for France, whom they conBecause it was known that a popular body, sidered as contending for liberty, and on this like Congress, was infinitely more susceptible partiality the party founded strong hopes of of enthusiasm, more easily wrought on by success. But the good sense of the people enmanagement and intrigue, more obnoxious to abled them to discern, that whatever might be the influence of popular clamor, mobs, and their wishes for the success of France, the invenal presses, than the cool deliberative coun- terests of their own country lay in preserving cils of the President. It was also known, that peace; and they gave throughout the Union, in case of a reference to Congress, the neutral the most unequivocal proofs of approbation, to system would lose the aid of its author's talents, the proclamation of neutrality. When Conwho was precluded by his official station for a gress met this sentiment had become so strong seat in that body. To this point then the au- and universal, that the war-party did not dare thor of the war system directed his force. He to oppose it. The proclamation was approved labored to convince the President, that it did of by Congress, and the party and their chief not belong to him to decide the question of once more had a hook put into their nose. neutrality; but to Congress, to whom the constitution required to be referred; and in this effort it is well known that he was aided to the atmost, by that description of people, who have since that time omitted no opportunity in their power, of hurrying us into a war against Eng-plain this neutrality in such a manner, as would fand. Fortunately, however, the President saw and avoided the snare. His sound judgment and penetrating discernment enabled him to per- | ceive all the hazards of such a reference: his good sense prevented him from entertaining a doubt, about his constitutional power to decide this question, and his firmness enabled him to make and support the decision. The proclamation of neutrality accordingly appeared. It no sooner made its appearance, than the war-party and their chief raised an outery against it, from one end of the continent to the other. The French minister, Genet, who arrived soon after, remonstrated; the popular societies formed under his auspices published resolutions, and the venal presses, the principal of which was under the immediate direction of the author of the war system, poured forth abuse against the proclamation of neutrality, the minister who advised it, and the President by whom it was issued. In short, Mr. Chairman, no expedient which disappointed intrigue and an artful, enraged spirit of party could devise, was omitted, for raising an universal popular indignation against this proclamation of neutrality, and for preparing Congress to condemn and reverse it. The changes were rung from town to town, from State to State, and from one end of the Union to the other, on pusillanimity, on national degradation, on ingratitude to France, on servile submission to England; and this proclamation was furiously assailed, with the very same weapons which we have since seen employed against the British treaty, justly considered as a part of the same system of neutrality. The efforts of the friends of war and their chief were, however, unavailing. The people of America, indeed, felt a warm and almost en The National Gazette, whose editor, Philip Freneau, was a confidential clerk of Mr. Jefferson. This paper was the vehicle of all the most violent attacks against the proclamation of neutrality.—Author of the Speech. A Though a second time disappointed they did not, however, lose courage, nor abandon their schemes. But as a system of neutrality had now been adopted, it was too late to talk of war; and the next step, therefore, was to exrender it in effect an alliance with France, and a state of hostility against England. This was attempted accordingly; but as the author of the war-system held an official station in the executive department he could not openly appear in the attempt. The French minister came forward and advanced the pretensions, which it was the part of the other personage to second and support, in the President's council. right was claimed on the part of France, to arm, fit and commission ships of war in our ports; to exclude British ships of war, under pretences which would have applied to every possible case; to enlist crews among our citizens; to raise armies in our country; and to preclude our courts of justice from all cognizance of prizes, taken and brought in by vessels acting under French commissions. It was contended on the part of France, that we ought to resist by force the right claimed by England, and clearly acknowledged by the law of nations, to take the goods of her enemies, when found on board of our neutral vessels. It requires no discernment, Mr. Chairman, to see that these pretensions, had they been agreed to, would have placed the direction of our affairs in the hands of France, and must instantly have induced a state of war between us and England. This was well understood by the war-party; and therefore, as every body recollects, they aided and supported the French minister, to the utmost of their power. These pretensions, indeed, were repelled by the President, who adopted a system wholly different, a system of national independence and fair neutrality; but it is well known to have been adopted contrary to the opinion, and in spite of the efforts, of the chief of this party. When it was adopted he did indeed defend it, in his official character; but he has taken care to declare* his abhorrence of it, and the French minister did not fail to accuse him of duplicity, for having written In the letter to Mazzie, where he stigmatizes this very system, as a system of ingratitude and injustice to France. Thus the war party were again discomfited; and in spite of all their efforts, aided by the efforts of the French minister, a system of fair and impartial neutrality, calculated to preserve justice to all, and keep peace with all, was completely established. Though beaten however, Mr. Chairman, they were not subdued; nor could they be induced to relinquish their favorite object, of war and alliance. They waited for a favorable opportu nity of renewing the attack, and that opportu nity the unjust aggressions of England on our trade too soon supplied. These aggressions, joined to the remembrance of our former contest with that power, and the resentments remaining from her former injuries, raised a flame of indignation throughout the country, which pervaded all classes and distinctions of people, and prepared the public mind for measures of hostility. The occasion was seized by the war gave them the fairest prospects of success. The attempts were not direct; because in that case the people might have been brought to reflect. officially in its defence. While officially defended by their chief, the party themselves assailed it with the most persevering violence. The haranguers exclaimed, the self-created societies passed resolutions, the presses devoted to the party teemed with abuse, and that in particular which was under the immediate direction of the chief, poured forth one continued torrent of virulent invective. Afraid to attack the head of the executive department himself, whose tried virtue, whose splendid services, whose great and well earned popularity, could not fail to rouse the public indignation, against any who might impeach the purity of his conduct, all the shafts were levelled at the counsellor by whose advice the system was supposed to have been adopted, and by whose talents it was ably supported. It was every where declared, and every where most industriously propagated, that this person had enslaved the mind of the President, and misled his judg-party, and used with an activity and zeal which ment. Every where, by every press and every club, was this person branded as a speculator, a thief, a plunderer of the public treasury which was under his superintendence, a wretch in the pay of England, in fine the most profligate of traitors, and the most dangerous of public enemies. These calumnies, asserted within these walls, circulated by members of this House, were industriously wafted from State to State, for the purpose of overwhelming with obloquy and public hatred the author and prop of the neutral system, as an essential step towards the destruction of the system itself. When the public mind was thought to be sufficiently prepared, a direct attack was made on him in this House, for the purpose of driving him from office, so that the President, deprived of his counsels, might the more easily be brought to concur in the designs of the war party and of France. The charges before circulated in a vague and indirect form, were reduced to a specific accusation, and brought before this House, as the grounds of a vote of impeachment. But although the party had met with some success, while they confined themselves to their strong hold, to the "Ambiguas in vulgam spargere voces "which I mentioned in the beginning of my observations, yet when they ventured to fight on the open plain of fact and proof, they were totally routed; when their vague calumnies assumed the shape of resolutions, they were easily refuted. Every charge was repelled by a vast majority of this House; and the wise and virtuous statesman to whom his country is so much indebted, rising triumphant from the contest, established his fame and his system on a basis more solid than ever: Like some mighty oak, whose roots are more strongly fixed, and new vigor added to its growth, by those storms which seem to threaten its overthrow. Bee Genet's letter to Mr. Jefferson, of September 18, 1798, pages 70 and 73, of the printed correspondence.-AuDhor of the Speech. The great object then, as before, was war against England, and alliance with France; but not one word was said about war or alliancewords which might have created alarm, and given rise to hesitation. But measures were proposed, the direct and inevitable tendency of which was to widen the breach with England, and inflame the two countries more and more against each other. These measures assumed various shapes, to suit the feelings and catch the passions of particular individuals or classes of men, and were urged with unremitting zeal, and indefatigable industry. Sometimes commercial restrictions on the trade of England were attempted; sometimes the intercourse between the two countries was to be cut off; and sometimes confiscation and sequestration were resorted to. Many of our best citizens, and the firmest friends to peace and neutrality, were impelled by the warmth of the moment, and the insinuations of this party, to favor and even propose or advocate these measures; and nothing was omitted to raise a storm of popular resentment and public odium, against all those who had the firmness to withstand them. To speak of negotiation was branded as pusillanimity; to speak of attempts at amicable adjustment, was pronounced to be little short of treason. Gentlemen for their opposition to these hostile measures, were stigmatized on this floor as the agents of England: mobs were hired to burn them in effigy in various towns in the Union; the presses devoted to the war party assailed them with continued volleys of calumny; their names were coupled with every disgraceful epithet, with every vile accusation; in the toasts of clubs, and the resolutions of so cieties; and finally by all these means, aided by the continued aggressions of England, an universal flame was excited in the country, and the party saw itself approach to the moment of its triumph over the system of peace and neutrality. gentlemen who now proclaim their unbounded and even enthusiastic approbation of the conWhen the country was thus on the point of duct of the late minister to France, who in his rushing down the precipice, the President of first address to the Government of that Repubthe United States, destined so often to become lic, assured it solemnly and publicly, that this its saviour, again stretched out his paternal country was ready to submit cheerfully, to any hand, and prevented the fall. Interposing the infractions of its treaties or violation of its powers of his office, and his unbounded personal rights, which France might think it for her own popularity, between the legislature and the gulf advantage to commit! * Whence this strange at the very brink of which it had almost ar- inconsistency, but from an eager desire of war rived, he arrested its career, and afforded the against England, and a blind, servile devotedcountry time to recover from its delirium. He ness to France? And will gentlemen after all sent an envoy extraordinary, to make one fur- this deny, that the whole scope of the measther attempt at an amicable adjustment of our ures, the whole drift of the system of their differences with England, before we should re-party, has been war against England and allisolve to terminate them by the sword; and by ance with France? this step he again broke the measures of the war-party. Their rage was proportioned to their disappointment, and it hurried them into the most furious invectives against the President, against the envoy, and against all who were understood to favor the measure. Every body remembers, Mr. Chairman, how they accused this envoy of being a tool of the British ministry, an enemy to liberty, and even an opposer of the independence of this country. Every body remembers what clamors were raised about the unconstitutionality of his appointment; how the clubs toasted, the orators harangued, and the societies resolved. Every body remembers how all the presses under the influence of this party loudly alleged, that the friends of the negotiation were a faction devoted to England, and that the President of the United States, by sending the envoy, had placed himself at the head of this faction. Every one remembers how the leaders of this party did not refrain from repeating these accusations within the walls of this House, and even on this floor. It was in vain that the friends of the measure, and of peace, spoke to them in language like this: "Let this attempt at negotiation be made, and if it fails, we will join you in war. Should England refuse to do us justice, when thus peaceably applied to, we will join you in every measure of compulsion. We consider this as the last effort at negotiation; and so the President has announced it in his message for nominating the envoy." No! These gentlemen now so peaceable, when France repels with contempt two successive efforts at negotiation, and meets all our advances by new measures of hostility, could then be satisfied with nothing less, than immediate measures of coercion and irritation against England. A single attempt to negotiate they reprobated as pusillanimity, and the very idea of a compromise they treated as a surrender of the rights and honor of the country. When the envoy arrived, and presented a memorial stating all our claims, and urging satisfaction, but urging in the usual forms of diplomatic civility, these forms were converted into a cause of accusation, a most violent outcry was raised against this civility, by the very The envoy, however, continued to negotiate, and at length concluded a treaty, by which ancient differences were adjusted, and the foundation laid for amity in future. No sooner did the treaty arrive in the country, than every artifice was used to inflame the public mind, and excite against it the popular prejudices. Nothing was omitted to defeat it in the Senate, and when ratified by that body, it was attacked by every coffee-house politician of the party, before it was published, by all their presses, and by the resolutions of all the clubs. When made public, the most unheard of means were used to overwhelm it with general odium, to raise an universal cry against it, and deter the President from giving it his sanction. In every town mobs were assembled, under the more respectable name of town-meetings; those of a different opinion were silenced by clamor, intimidated by threats, or actually driven away by violence; and all opposition or discussion being thus prevented, these assemblages of ignorant and illiterate men were prevailed upon to vote by acclamation, for resolutions which they were incapable of understanding, and could not even hear. Thus the appearance of a formidable popular rising in various parts of the continent was exhibited, and the frenzy caught. It spread wider and wider, and aided by various auxiliary passions, drew into its vortex great masses of the best citizens. The country again seemed on the point of rushing down the precipice; but fortunately its guardian genius yet presided over its affairs. The President of the United States again placed himself in the breach, and received on his buckler all the strokes aimed at the happiness of his country. He spoke to the people; they heard the voice of their father; they listened and became calm. He ratified the treaty; and the people said, "It is done, and must it not be supported? He has done it, and is it not right? They listened and were appeased, they read and were convinced, they discovered their first errors, acknowledged and renounced them. * See Mr. Monroe's book, pages 10 and 84, 85, where this declaration is acknowledged and justified.—Author of the Speech. much zeal supported all the pretensions of France, now come forward and make a direct attack on the Executive, the tendency of which necessarily is to divide it from this House, when there is the utmost need of union, and withdraw from it the confidence of the people, when that confidence is more than ever essential. What is this but a continuation of the same system? And are we to be blamed for seeing in this attempt a new effort, to throw this country into the arms of France, by rendering the government unable to resist her; by forcing it from weakness to submit to her mandates; to break in obedience to them, its treaty with England, and substitute in its place an alliance offensive and defensive with her? But not so the party whose object was war against England, at all events. They saw in this treaty the death of their hopes, the final frustration of all their projects; for this treaty took away all cause of quarrel between the two countries; and they resolved to make one grand effort for its destruction, which, being accomplished, all the ancient disputes would be reinstated, with new aggravation; and a rupture would be rendered by so much the more certain as there could be no faith in any new accommodation. To this object, they bent their whole force, and this House was the place chosen for the attack. When the treaty came before this House to be carried into effect, doctrines new to the constitution, and incomparable with its existence were introduced, in order to destroy it. The treaty-making power was attempted to be rendered subject to the control of this House; as the power of appointing foreign ministers was now attempted to be rendered subject. The treaty was attacked through the sides of the constitution; a war was sought by the overthrow of our government, and the violation of our plighted faith. But a firm resistance was given to these attempts. Enlight-resistance now? If this be not their system, ened discussions spread the truth before the eyes of the people. Warned by the errors into which they had before been drawn, and roused by the magnitude of the danger, they rose in their might, and the party was dismayed; they spoke and it trembled; they put forth their hand and touched it, and it sunk to the earth. Thus again, Mr. Chairman, were the projects of these gentlemen confounded. Thus again were they prevented from effecting their purpose, so much desired, of driving this country into war with England and the fraternal embraces of France. The remaining history is known. The French under pretexts so frivolous that not one gentleman on this floor has been found hardy enough to defend them, have quarrelled with us on account of this treaty; because by terminating our differences with England, it cuts off all hopes of our being drawn into war against her. In this quarrel France proceeded, avowedly, on the ground of our being a divided people, opposed to our own government, and attached to her, repels all our amicable advances, meets them with new injuries, and declares that before she will listen to us we must tread back all our steps, reverse our whole system of policy, break our treaty with England, and admit her own construction of her treaty with us. In this critical and alarming situation of affairs, the same description of persons, the same individuals even, who so perseveringly attempted to bring us into the war against England, according to the views of France, who have so uniformly and with so If this be not the object of gentlemen; if it be not their intention thus to serve their country by reducing it to the situation of Holland, how are we to reconcile their present with their former conduct; their eagerness for hostile measures formerly, with their tame submissive spirit now; their zealous opposition to every thing like negotiation formerly, with their equally zealous opposition to every thing like then all that I can say about their present measures, contrasted with those pursued by them on a former occasion, about their former eagerness for alliance, with one foreign nation, and war with another, contrasted with their present declamations against all sorts of foreign connexions or intercourse, is to exclaim, in the eloquent language of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, that those measures form the last leaf of that book, wherein are written the inconsistencies of party. Whether this system of war and alliance, this system of fraternity with France such as the Dutch now enjoy, and hostility under her orders against all her enemies; this system so steadily pursued, but so often defeated, shall now at length begin to triumph, I consider as the question now to be decided. It is now to be decided whether an important step shall be taken, towards compelling our government through debility to submit implicitly to France, towards laying this country bound hand and foot at the feet of that haughty domineering nation. To take this step, to commence the triumph of the fraternal system, I take to be the object as I know it to be the tendency, of the inroad on the executive power attempted by this amendment. Hence it is that I oppose it with the warmest zeal, and with all my might; and if my opposition shall contribute in the smallest degree to its defeat, I shall neither regret the time I have occupied, nor apologize for the trouble I have given to the committee. |