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present Constitution. I confess, then, I think it important, in the present case, to set an example against broad construction, by appealing for new power to the people. If, however, our friends shall think differently, certainly I shall acquiesce with satisfaction; confiding, that the good sense of our country will correct the evil of construction when it shall produce ill effects.

Congress had been called by an executive proclamation to meet on the 17th of October, for the purpose of acting in time on the treaty, and a quorum was present at the appointed day.

Various new members appeared in the Senate. From Vermont, Israel Smith, in the place of Chipman; from Massachusetts (elected by an arrangement between the two Federal wings), Timothy Pickering in the place of D. Foster, and John Quincy Adams in the place of J. Mason; from Rhode Island, Samuel I. Potter in the place of T. Foster; from New York,' Theodorus Baily in the place of Governeur Morris; from Pennsylvania, Samuel Maclay in the place of Ross; from New Jersey, John Condit in the place of Ogden; from Virginia, John Taylor in the place of S. T. Mason, deceased; from Maryland, Samuel Smith in the place of Howard; from South Carolina, Pierce Butler in the place of Calhoun, deceased; and from the new State of Ohio, John Smith and Thomas Worthington. The gains were all Republican; and of the thirty-four members but nine were Federalists.

In the House of Representatives the Republicans consisted of over one hundred members, while the Federalists had less than forty. Several of the prominent leaders of the latter had been beaten in the canvass. Bayard had been defeated in his district by Cæsar A. Rodney, son of that Rodney who signed the Declaration of Independence. Both Adams and Pickering, the new Massachusetts senators, had, before their election to the Senate, run for Congress and been defeated, the first by Dr. Eustis, and the second by Crowninshield.

The Republicans had lost two conspicuous members in the House-Giles by illness, and General Samuel Smith by his election to the Senate. Among the prominent old Republican members were Macon and Alston of North Carolina, John Randolph and Clopton from Virginia, Eustis and Varnum from Massachusetts, Mitchell and Van Cortlandt from New York,

1 De Witt Clinton resigned, and General John Armstrong (who had preceded Clin ton) was appointed by the Governor to fill the vacancy, November 10, 1803.

Leib, Gregg, Smilie and Findley from Pennsylvania, and Nicholson from Maryland. Among the prominent new Republican members were Rodney of Delaware, Crowninshield of Massachusetts, Root of New York, Clay of Pennsylvania, Jones, T. M. Randolph and Eppes' of Virginia, and Campbell of Tennessee.

Connecticut had returned its former Federal delegation, Griswold, Goddard, Dana, Smith and Davenport; and these, with Huger of South Carolina, and Thatcher of Massachusetts, old members, and Gaylord Griswold of New York, a new member, were the leading representatives on that side.

Mr. Macon was reëlected speaker.

The President's Message, after stating the acquisition of Louisiana, recommended, after the treaty should receive the constitutional sanction of the Senate, that measures be taken for the immediate occupation and temporary government of the territory, for "rendering the change of government a blessing to our newly adopted brethren "-" and for confirming to the Indian inhabitants their occupancy and self-government, establishing friendly and commercial relations with them." The constitutional difficulty was not mentioned.

"Another important acquisition of territory" was communicated. This was the purchase from the Kaskaskia Indians, of a broad belt of territory, extending from the mouth of the Illinois river, “to and up the Ohio "-comprising that part of the present State of Illinois lying south of the mouth of the Illinois river, and perhaps some part of Indiana. The Kaskaskia tribe had no difficulties with the United States, but the wars and casualties of savage life had reduced them to a few persons, wholly unable to defend themselves from the adjacent tribes. The United States left them lands sufficient for their maintenance, and, in exchange for the remainder, stipulated to protect them, and to pay them an annuity in money, agricultural implements, and such other articles as they might desire. Though the President did not regard this territory "so necessary as a barrier since the acquisition of the other bank," still he thought it should be laid open to immediate settlement, that "its inhabitants might descend with rapidity in support of the lower country, should future circumstances expose that to foreign enterprise."

1 The two last, sons-in-law of the President.

He stated that the smaller vessels, authorized by Congress, had been dispatched to the Mediterranean.

An account of the receipts and expenditures of the year ending 30th of September preceding, he said showed that between eleven and twelve millions had been paid into the treasury. The amount of debt paid for the same year, was about three million one hundred thousand dollars, exclusive of interest, making, with the payment of the preceding year, a discharge of more than eight millions and a half of dollars of the principal of that debt, besides the interest which had accrued. And there was left in the treasury a balance of nearly six millions of dollars.

He contemplated the extinguishment of all preceding debts, before the stocks issued for the purchase of Louisiana would become redeemable; and he "could not but hope" that Congress would find means to meet the accruing interest on those stocks in the "progression of our revenue," without recurring to new

taxes.

He stated that the sums appropriated for gun-boats on the Mississippi, and for other belligerent objects, had not been made

use of.

The following are passages from the Message:

"We have seen with sincere concern the flames of war lighted up again in Europe, and nations with whom we have the most friendly and useful relations engaged in mutual destruction. While we regret the miseries in which we see others involved, let us bow with gratitude to that kind Providence which, inspiring with wisdom and moderation our late legislative councils while placed under the urgency of the greatest wrongs, guarded us from hastily entering into the sanguinary contest, and left us only to look on and to pity its ravages. These will be heaviest on those immediately engaged. Yet the nations pursuing peace will not be exempt from all evil. In the course of this conflict, let it be our endeavor, as it is our interest and desire, to cultivate the friendship of the belligerent nations by every act of justice and of incessant kindness; to receive their armed vessels with hospitality from the distresses of the sea, but to administer the means of annoyance to none; to establish in our harbors such a police as may maintain law and order; to restrain our citizens from embarking individually in a war in which their country takes no part; to punish severely those persons, citizen or alien, who shall usurp the cover of our flag for vessels not entitled to it, infecting thereby with suspicion those of real Americans, and committing us into controversies for the redress of wrongs not our own; to exact from every nation the observance toward our vessels and citizens, of those principles and practices which all civilized people acknowledge; to merit the character of a just nation, and maintain that of an in dependent one, preferring every consequence to insult and habitual wrong.

"Some contraventions of right have already taken place, both within our jurisdictional limits and on the high seas. The friendly disposition of the governments from whose agents they have proceeded, as well as their wisdom and regard for justice, leaves us in reasonable expectation that they will be rectified and prevented in future; and that no act will be countenanced by them which threatens to disturb our friendly intercourse. Separated by a wide ocean from the nations of Europe, and from the political interests which entangle them together, with productions and wants which render our commerce and friendship useful to them and theirs to us, it cannot be the interest of any to assail us, nor ours to disturb them. We should be most unwise, indeed, were we to cast away the singular blessings of the position in which nature has placed us, the opportunity she has endowed us with of pursuing, at a distance from foreign contentions, the paths of industry, peace, and happiness; of cultivating general friendship, and of bringing collisions of interest to the umpirage of reason rather than of force. How desirable then must it be, in a Government like ours, to see its citizens adopt individually the views, the interests, and the conduct which their country should pursue, divesting themselves of those passions and partialities which tend to lessen useful friendships, and to embarrass and embroil us in the calamitous scenes of Europe."

The Senate ratified the treaty and conventions with France October 20th, after two days' discussion, every Federal member present, except Dayton, voting in the negative. The noes were Olcott and Plumer of New Hampshire, Pickering of Massachusetts, Hillhouse and Tracy of Connecticut, Wells and White of Delaware. John Q. Adams of Massachusetts had not yet

taken his seat.

On the 22d day of October, John Randolph moved, in the House of Representatives, "that provision ought to be made for carrying into effect the treaty and conventions concluded at Paris on the 30th of April, 1803, between the United States of America and the French Republic."

On the 24th (Monday), Roger Griswold, of Connecticut, moved a call on the President for copies of the treaty between the French Republic and Spain of the 1st of October, 1800 (the treaty of Ildefonso, by which Spain ceded Louisiana to France) of the deed of the cession of Louisiana from Spain to France, if any such existed-of such correspondence between our Government and the Spanish minister "as would show the assent or dissent of Spain to the purchase of Louisiana by the United States"-and of all papers in possession of Government going to show whether it had acquired a title to the province.

Under cover of urging the passage of the last resolution, the great body of Federalists took a determined stand against the

1

76

EXECUTION OF TREATY OPPOSED.

execution of the treaty.

[CHAP. II.

Their grounds of opposition were
They very

various, and often inconsistent with each other.
generally avowed a distrust of the validity of the French title
to the province; and some directly questioned the good faith
of France in the ostensible sale. All appeared to think that,
at best, we were giving a large sum of money to purchase a
mere quit-claim title; and several insisted that we were only
buying a future war with Spain, and that Spain might at some
later day be in a condition to effectually reclaim her lost pro-
vince.

Griswold, of Connecticut, urged that by the showing of the treaty of Ildefonso, as recited in the French treaty of cession to us, Spain had really made no cession to France, but only promised to cede on certain conditions; and that Congress was in possession of no proof that those conditions had been complied with.

Some Federal gentlemen complained bitterly that the Government had not "manifested that firm, dignified, manly tone of virtue and spirit," it had done in Washington's day; that the President had not "appeared like the veteran chief ready to gird his loins in defence of his country's rights;" that instead of "maintaining our national independence" by "men," he had done it by "money;" that he had humiliatingly purchased the friendship of France; that "if we purchased this friendship once, we should be compelled to make annual contributions to their avarice;" and much more in this "days of chivalry are past" tone!

The Federal party again, by demanding diplomatic papers in the House of Representatives pending legislation to execute a treaty, and by assuming a right in the House to exercise an option in regard to such legislation, exhibited their inconsistency with views, which they claimed it was a gross and Jacobinical

1 And a fervid orator continued;

"Repeated concessions would only produce a repetition of injury, and, at last, when we had completely compromitted our national dignity, and offered up our last cent as an oblation to Gallic rapacity, we would be further from conciliation than ever. The spirit of universal domination, instead of being allayed by those measures which have been intended for its abatement, would rage with redoubled fury. Elated by those sacrifices which had been intended to appease it, it would still grow more fierce; it would soon stride across the Mississippi, and every encroachment which conquest or cunning could effect might be expected. The tomahawk of the savage and the knife of the negro would confederate in the league, and there would be no interval of peace, until we should either be able to drive them from their location altogether, or else offer up our sovereignty as a homage of our respect, and permit our country to be blotted out of the list of nations forever."

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