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committed," was made treason, punishable with death. After some amendments, this passed the Senate by a vote of eighteen to ten. Randolph reported a milder bill in the other house, but it provided that any "persons combining, confederating, or conspiring," to do traitorous acts, should "be deemed guilty of a conspiracy to commit treason," punished by fine and imprisonment, and required to give sureties for good behavior at the discretion of the court. No final action appears to have been had on the bill. Congress were so much occupied with the menacing state of our relations with England, that all other topics were comparatively neglected.'

Violations of the Embargo Act, by enrolled coasting vessels carrying cargoes to the West Indies, called for a supplementary enactment during the session. Even this did not meet the fraudulent ingenuity brought into exercise to elude its provisions, and still another law became necessary. The debates on the supplementary acts were conducted with unparalleled asperity. Barent Gardenier, one of the Federal members from New York, in discussing the subject (February 10th), declared that the original embargo law had a different object from what it professed that "it was a sly, cunning measure," and he asked:

"Are the nation prepared for this? If you wish to try whether they are, tell them at once what is your object-tell them what you mean-tell them you mean to take part with the Grand Pacificator; or else stop your present course. Do not go on forging chains to fasten us to the car of the Imperial Conqueror."

The common accusation of the Federalists at this period, was that the Embargo was designed to favor France in her war with England that this was the main object of the Government in proposing that measure. On Gardenier's uttering the above

1 Much stronger public manifestations of feeling in regard to Burr's trial, took place out of Congress, and in a few instances they assumed official forms. The Legislature of Pennsylvania, for example, passed resolutions requesting the members of Congress from that State to use their endeavors to have an amendment of the Constitution submitted to the State legislatures, making Judges of the Supreme Court removable by the President on a joint address of both houses of Congress. These resolutions were presented by Maclay in the Senate, and by Whitehill in the House of Representatives.

Towards the close of December, Randolph moved that the President be requested to institute an inquiry into General Wilkinson's conduct, on the charge that he had received. money, in 1796, from the Baron Carondelet, for acting as an agent of the Spanish Govern ment. The resolution finally passed. The President had already, at Wilkinson's request, ordered a Court of Inquiry. Randolph's invective, as usual, had not been restrained within any limits of moderation. Wilkinson sent him a challenge. In his answer, Randolph took the good ground that he was not to be called to an account for words spoken in debate, and the very poor one that he could not descend to the level of a disgraced Wilkinson posted him as a coward, and there, we believe, the matter dropped.

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remarks, he was called to order by Smilie, Campbell, Montgomery, and several others. The speaker "hoped the gentlemen would keep within the rules of propriety." Mr. Gardenier "hoped the speaker would keep order in the House." As soon as the confusion ceased, he continued:

"If the gentlemen have composed themselves, and are in a condition to hear, I will proceed. I wish first, however, to put them at ease on one point. They are not of sufficient importance to have been the objects at whom I would level anything. I assure the gentlemen I did not mean them."

In the course of his remarks, he said:

"Yes, sir, I do fear that there is an unseen hand which is guiding us to the most dreadful destinies-unseen, because it cannot endure the light. Darkness and mystery overshadow this House and the whole nation. We know nothing-we are permitted to know nothing. We sit here as mere automata; we legislate without knowing, nay, sir, without wishing to know, why or wherefore. We are told what we are to do, and the Council of Five Hundred do it. We move, but why or wherefore no man knows; we are put in motion, but how, I for one cannot tell."

Proceeding in this strain, and remarking, "this course will do in this country no longer," the speaker called him to order, Mr. Alston "wished the gentleman might be permitted to proceed." Mr. Gardenier said, "I do not desire permission of that gentleman; I shall permit myself to proceed," etc.

The next day, Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, very severely criticised Gardenier's remarks, and he declared if they were applied to him, that he should consider them "a base, unprincipled calumny." He said if he was called "a tool to others, he pronounced it a slander," and he intimated that he held himself responsible out of the House for his language. G. W. Campbell, of Tennessee, was one of the individuals so discourteously alluded to by Gardenier as beneath his notice. He was one of the most prominent members, a man of grave and pacific demeanor, and, says one of his colleagues, of a "rather Quaker look." Replying to Gardenier on the 22d, he said that when charges of the most serious nature were made on that floor against a majority of the House-charges that they were acting under and governed by French influence (for this was in substance the allegation)-charges which he believed to be unfounded with respect to every member of the House, of the

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1 Three gentlemen were still standing.

majority, and which, so far as regarded himself, he knew to be, and now so declared them, infamous, groundless falsehoods-it might be proper," etc. Gardenier challenged Campbell. The parties met at Bladensburg, and the challenger fell apparently mortally wounded, the ball entering just back of the armpit, and coming out near the back-bone.' He recovered, however, in about six weeks, and, as if to prove the futility of this kind of arbitrament, returned to his duties neither a sadder, wiser, nor, after a short interval, a more courteous man.

This is not a greatly exaggerated sample of the debates on the Embargo, and of the habitual charges of a considerable number of Federal members of Congress, and of the Federal newspapers, in regard to the objects of that measure.

A bill to raise seven regiments of regulars passed by a vote of ninety-eight to sixteen. Some of the other military measures adopted during the session were as follows: The sum of $852,500 was appropriated to enable the President to construct or purchase one hundred and eighty-eight gunboats. The sum of $1,000,000 was placed at his disposal for fortifications for the defence of our ports and harbors. The sum of $300,000 was appropriated to purchase arms, and $150,000 to purchase saltpetre. The President was authorized to call upon the State Executives to organize, equip, and "hold in readiness to march at a moment's warning," one hundred thousand militia, and to call them into actual service at his discretion. The annual sum of $200,000 was appropriated for providing arms and military equipments for the whole body of the militia of the United States, to be distributed by the States, and the President was authorized to construct arsenals and manufactories of arms at his discretion. The sum of $986,363 was appropriated to defray the first year's expense of the seven regiments of regulars which the President was authorized to enroll.

We will not close our account of the proceedings of this session without recording that the intelligence of the death of the celebrated John Dickinson was received by it with the same manifestations of official respect that had been paid to the memories of Samuel Adams and Edmund Pendleton. Jacob Crowninshield, the distinguished member of the House of Repre

1 Some particulars of this duel are given in an unpublished letter of Vice-President Clinton, lying before us.

sentatives from Massachusetts, died during this session. Congress adjourned on the 25th day of April.

Mr. Rose, the special minister sent by the British Government to the United States, in pursuance of its intimations to Monroe and Pinkney, had arrived in Washington, January 13th, 1808. He announced that his instructions limited the objects of his mission to a settlement of the affair of the Chesapeake, and that he could not enter even upon this until the President's proclamation, ordering British ships out of the American waters, was withdrawn. The Secretary of State replied (March 5th), that it accorded with reason and the uniform position of England under similar circumstances, that the aggressor should be required to put things into their former condition before entering upon counter demands. But he declared that if the British minister would disclose the terms of a satisfactory reparation, the repeal should be made of the same date with that measure. He stated the reasons why it was proper to couple the subject of impressment with that of reparation for the attack on the Chesapeake-inasmuch as the decision in both cases rested on analogous principles-from an inclination to seize this particular occasion to restore a full harmony-and because the United States intended to offer terms of accommodation which could not but be regarded as satisfactory. Mr. Rose replied (March 17th), declining the proposition, and declaring his mission closed. He soon returned to England.

The President's views of the objects and effects of the Embargo, and of the proper limit of its continuance, appear in a letter to the Attorney-General, March 23d, 1808 :

"The Embargo appears to be approved, even by the Federalists of every quarter except yours. The alternative was between that and war, and, in fact, it is the last card we have to play, short of war. But if peace does not take place in Europe, and if France and England will not consent to withdraw the operations of their decrees and orders from us, when Congress shall meet in December, they will have to consider at what point of time the Embargo, continued, becomes a greater evil than war. I am inclined to believe we shall have this summer and autumn to prepare for the defence of our sea-port towns, and hope that in that time the works of defence will be completed, which have been provided for by the legislature."

A letter to Charles Pinckney, a week later, discloses his impressions of the general aspect of national affairs a little before the adjournment of Congress:

"With France we are in no immediate danger of war. Her future views it is impossible to estimate. The immediate danger we are in of a rupture with England, is postponed for this year. This is effected by the Embargo, as the question was simply between that and war. That may go on a certain time, perhaps through the year, without the loss of their property to our citizens, but only its remaining unem. ployed on their hands. A time would come, however, when war would be preferable to a continuauce of the Embargo. Of this Congress may have to decide at their next meeting. In the meantime, we have good information that a negotiation for peace between France and England is commencing through the medium of Austria. The way for it has been smoothed by a determination expressed by France (through the Moniteur, which is their Government paper), that herself and her allies will demand from Great Britain no renunciation of her maritime principles, nor will they renounce theirs. Nothing shall be said about them in the treaty, and both sides will be left in the next war to act on their own. No doubt the meaning of this is, that all the Continental powers of Europe will form themselves into an armed neutrality, to enforce their own principles. Should peace be made, we shall have safely rode out the storm in peace and prosperity. If we have anything to fear, it will be after that. Nothing should be spared from this moment in putting our militia in the best condition possible, and procuring arms. I hope that this summer we shall get our whole seaports put in that state of defence which Congress has thought proportioned to our circumstances and situation; that is to say, put hors d'insulte from a maritime attack by a moderate squadron. If armies are combined with their fleets, then no resource can be provided but to meet them in the field. We propose to raise seven regiments only for the present year, depending always on our militia for the operations of the first year of war. On any other plan, we should be obliged always to keep a large standing army."

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The President's private correspondence during the exciting session of 1807-8, was as diversified in its topics as usual. We find him literally rioting among the fossil remains of mammoths, and other monsters of the extinct world, which the zeal of General William Clarke (the fellow explorer of Lewis, and the brother of the "Hannibal of the West") had exhumed for him at the Big-Bone Licks of the Ohio, and sent on to Washington; repeatedly urging Dr. Wistar, of Philadelphia, to come and put them in order; corresponding with Robert R. Livingston, John Taylor of Caroline, and some other friends, on agriculture and cognate topics; giving his warm approbation to the plan, afterwards successfully carried out, of that great and far-seeing merchant, John Jacob Astor, in relation to establishing a trade with the Northwestern Indians, and promising the latter the countenance and all the reasonable patronage of the Government; expressing his interest in mineralogical and geographical explorations to Mr. Bettay, who wrote him of silver mines seventeen hundred miles west of St. Louis; declaring it the duty of our Government to ascertain all the water communications across our continent, etc., etc. On the 1st of January he was reelected President of the American Philosophical Society.

The explanation of his views on one head, contained in a private letter, will be read with interest by many persons. On the 23d of January he thus replied to a request from the Rev. Mr. Miller, to proclaim a national fast day:

"I consider the Government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the States the powers not delegated to the United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the General Government. It must, then, rest with the States, as far as it can be in any human authority. But it is only proposed that I should recommend, not prescribe, a day of fasting and prayer. That is, that I should indirectly assume to the United States an authority over religious exercises, which the Constitution has directly precluded them from. It must be meant, too, that this recommendation is to carry some authority, and to be sanctioned by some penalty on those who disregard it; not, indeed, of fine and imprisonment, but of some degree of proscription, perhaps in public opinion. And does

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