was safe with his slaves in these States, and the same in the other States. There was no trouble about fugitive slaves in those times. This act of 1793 did not grow out of any such troubles, but out of the case of a fugitive from justice. It was that case which brought the subject before Congress, and in the act that was passed, the case of fugitives from justice was first provided for, the first and second sections of the act being given to that branch of the subject, and the third and fourth to the other-all brief and plain, and executable without expense or fuss. In the case of a slave, the owner was allowed to seize him wherever he saw him, by day or by night, and Sundays or week days, just as if he were in his own State, and a penalty of $500 attached to any person who obstructed him in this seizure. The only authority he wanted was after the seizure, and to justify the carrying back, and for that purpose the affidavit of the owner or his agent was sufficient. This act was perfect except in relying upon State officers not being subject to the Federal law, and being forbid to act after slavery became a subject of political agitation.-Benton's Debates, vol. i., p. 412.

The law was judiciously drawn, and entirely satisfactory to both sections of the country; but the Northern States, in the progress of years, refused to carry it out, and placed obstacles in the way.

MR. JEFFERSON'S LETTER TO GENERAL WASHINGTON.

* * *

"PHILADELPHIA, May 23, 1792. "True wisdom would direct, that they (means) should be temperate and peaceable; but the division of sentiment and interest happens, unfortunately, to be so geographical, that no mortal can say that what is most wise and temperate would prevail against what is most easy and obvious. I can scarcely contemplate a more incalculable evil than the breaking up of the Union into two or more parts. Yet, when we consider the mass which opposed the original coalescence; when we consider that it lay chiefly in the Southern quarter; that the Legislature have availed themselves of no occasion of allaying it, but, on the contrary, when Northern and Southern prejudices have come into conflict, the latter have been sacrificed and the

former soothed, that the owers of the debt are in the Southern, and the holders in the Northern division; that the anti-federal champions are now strengthened in their arguments by the fulfilment of their predictions; that this has been brought about by the monarchical federalists themselves, who have been for the new Government merely as a stepping-stone to monarchy, and who have adopted the very construction of the Constitution of which, when advocating its acceptance before the tribunal of the people, they had declared it unsusceptible; that the republican federalists who espoused the same Government for its intrinsic merits, are disarmed of their weapons; that which they deemed as prophecy having become true as history; who can be sure that these things may not proselyte the small number which was wanting to place the majority on the other side? And this is the event at which I tremble, and to prevent which I consider your continuing at the head of affairs as of the last importance. The confidence of the whole Union is centred in you. Your being at the helm will be more than an answer to every argument which can be used to alarm and lead the people in any quarter into violence and secession. North and South will hang together, if they have you to hang upon."

We have here the fact that sectional differences of opinion and sectional feelings existed of a dangerous character, and that Washington was urged to accept of the Presidency a second time, in order to prevent "violence and secession." Allusion is also made to the large construction given to the text of the Constitution by those who controlled some of the departments of the Government. A dominant party are always under a temptation to enlarge the powers of the General Government at the expense of the powers reserved to the people of the several States. They are apt to think that their favorite measure had better be passed in Congress, or sanctioned by the Executive, even at the expense of the Constitution. Party leaders, even during the administration of Washington, form no exception to this love of power.

REMARKS.

1. The administration of General Washington was distinguished for the wisdom of its measures, for the energy with

which they were carried out, and for the great success which attended them. The several departments, the legislative, the judicial, and executive taking form, now for the first time, and filled with men of experience, of undoubted patriotism, and of high talent, were in harmony with one another.

2. And yet, there was a difference of opinion in Congress, and in the cabinet, as to the construction to be given to the Constitution, in its application to the purposes for which it was framed. Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, the leading spirit in the Executive Department, was, in the Convention, in favor of forming a strong government, and what he failed to accomplish in that body in the framework of the Constitution, he endeavored to work out in practice by a broad construction of that instrument, by magnifying its "implied powers," and the "necessary powers." "Necessary powers were understood to mean those powers that were deemed necessary to put the government in operation under the Constitution.

The terms "necessary powers" and "implied powers" were vague, and would vary according to the character of the mind that should exercise a judgment concerning them. What would seem to be "necessary" and "implied" to one mind, would not seem 66 necessary or "implied" to another mind. With Hamilton, his old companion in arms, Knox, the Secretary of War, acted in promoting his views.

Jefferson, Secretary of State, and Edmund Randolph, Attorney-General, differed from Hamilton in their views of the power granted to the General Government in the Constitution, and looked at the powers reserved to the States as well as at those delegated to the General Government.

Hamilton, with his penetrating and logical mind, with his extraordinary energy, with his constructive and productive genius, had the ear of Washington as well as of Knox, all of them military men, and all of them disgusted with the weakness of the old Confederation.

Jefferson, with his gift of language, with his insight and foresight, with his constructive mind, accustomed to deal with principles, was aided, in his view, by Randolph, whose plan of a Constitution had been adopted in the Convention, and who un

derstood accurately what was its meaning, and who was not disposed to magnify its implied powers.

In both Houses of Congress were leading men, who were also divided in their views as to the "implied powers" of the Constitution, a portion of them being in favor of a "broad construction" of its powers, and another portion being in favor of a "strict construction." The practical men of the Northern States, who valued the Constitution chiefly for "commercial purposes," and who felt the value of public credit, generally adopted the views of Mr. Hamilton. The statesmen of the South, who looked at political principles and relations, generally adopted the views of Mr. Jefferson.

3. Mr. Hamilton was an admirer of the British government, in which parliament has almost unlimited powers; and it was supposed that he endeavored to assimilate the General Government to that, notwithstanding the rights reserved to the States. In his celebrated report of 1791 he claimed power for the Federal Government to encourage learning, agriculture, and manufactures, all under the authority to levy imports for the " general welfare." Mr. Jefferson was an admirer of the early principles of the French Revolution, and was a hater of Great Britain, and in these respects he had the sympathy of the people of the United States, who remembered the wrongs they had received from the one nation, and the favors they had received from the other. The policy of the Administration in respect to the two nations was, to some extent, the ground of sectional difference of opinion, the leaders of the opposition being principally in the Southern States.

CHAPTER IV.

MR. JOHN ADAMS' ADMINISTRATION.

MARCH 4, 1797-MARCH 4, 1801.

To the election of Mr. ADAMS there was an opposition in the Southern States, but not violent. It was generally conceded that his patriotism, his talents, his experience, and services, entitled him to the Presidency.

But in the course of his administration, this sectional opposition gained strength, chiefly on account of his war measures, by which eighty thousand men were subjected to his order, which was supposed to be contrary to the theory of our Government; the acts for increasing the navy; and especially on account of the passage of the alien and sedition laws, and prosecutions under them. This opposition was largely sectional, and was based chiefly on the exorbitant powers supposed to be claimed by the General Government. The leading men in the opposition, for their defence, fell back on the residuary power of the States secured by the Constitution, as the means of preventing the establishment of a consolidated government instead of a Federal one.

THE ASSERTION OF STATE RIGHTS.

Virginia, at a meeting of her Legislature, early in the session of 1798, passed a series of resolutions declaratory of State rights, and condemnatory of the alien and sedition laws, and other measures of the Government, as having a tendency to change