in the Congressional districts. It was the policy of the Republicans to avoid all party contests. Drawing their inspiration from Jefferson, they kept quiet, conscious that the ferment of opposition already active in the body politic would work favorably to them, and by no means displeased witnesses of the estrangement, gradually growing wider, between the President, and such prominent Federal leaders as Hamilton and others. The Federals in Congressional caucus nominated as their candidates for the Presidency John Adams, of Mass., and C. C. Pinckney, of S. C. The Republicans, in a Congressional Convention at Philadelphia, nominated Thomas Jefferson, Va., and Aaron Burr, N. Y. Congress adjourned May 14, 1800.† ELECTION OF 1800.-Though the Legislatures of the States did not meet to choose Presidential electors till November, the fact that those bodies chose them made the Presidential result turn on their political complexion. The Presidential election was therefore in reality scattered over a great part of the year previous to November. Adams was unfortunate in not having the undivided support of his party. The State election *This term "Congressional Convention" implies what we would now understand to be a Congressional Caucus. It was full, formal and called, and therein differed from those informal caucuses of members which had bespoke former nominations. The first political platform, and the only one till the Clintonian address or platform of 1812, was that of this Republican Congressional Convention of 1800 which nominated Jefferson. It announced (1) “ Preservation of the Constitution in the sense in which it was adopted by the States; " (2) “Opposition to monarchizing its features;" (3) "Preservation to the States of the powers not yielded to the Union, and to the Legislature of the Union its constitutional share in division of powers;" (4) "A rigorously frugal administration of the government;" (5) "Reliance for internal defence solely on the militia, until actual invasion, and for such naval force only as may be sufficient to protect our coasts and harbors;" (6) "Free commerce with all nations, political connection with none, and little or no diplomatic establishment;" (7) "No linking ourselves with the quarrels of Europe;" (8) "Freedom of religion;" (9) "Freedom of speech and the press; " (10) “Liberal naturalization laws;" (11) “ Encouragement of science and art.” On May 13, 1800, the sixth amended Tariff act was passed, raising the duty on sugar one-half cent per pound, and on silk 21⁄2 per cent. The rates on the leading articles now ranged as follows: Sugar, 2 cents per pound; coffee, 5 cents per pound; tea, 18 cents per pound; salt, 20 cents per bushel; pig iron, 15 per cent.; bar iron, 15 per cent.; glass, 20 per cent.; cotton goods, 15 per cent.; woollens, 121⁄2 to 15 per cent.; silk, 21⁄2 per cent. in New York, April 28, resulted in a Republican Legislature. This result, due more to Hamilton's estrangement than to either Jefferson's or Burr's popularity, was a bad omen for the Federals. Adams was so piqued that he dismissed Hamilton's friends from the cabinet, and they went forth branded as British factionists. The Republicans had been making their ground solid in the States by such means as the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions for two years. But despite their seeming advantage of harmony and popular hue and cry, the returns in November were doubtful till South Carolina was heard from. Her vote settled the election in favor of the Republicans. SIXTH CONGRESS-Second Session.-Met at Washington, Nov. 17, 1800.* This short session had a problem on hand which loomed up in the Fourth Congress, and which in certain shapes has returned periodically to plague Congress and the people. The electors had voted under the then existing constitutional provision, each for two candidates not of the same State. In February, 1801, when Congress came to count the returns, it was found that Jefferson and Burr each had 73 votes, Adams 65 and Pinckney 64. There was therefore no choice, for no one candidate had the highest vote. CONTESTED ELECTION.-The election passed to the House, where a protracted struggle resulted, and one full of bitterness and danger. The Federal element had to choose between two Republicans, one of whom, Jefferson, the Republicans were bent on making the President, the other, Burr, the Vice-President. Some of the Federals preferred to reverse this, not only to balk the Republican plan, but because they regarded Jefferson as a more formidable opponent than Burr. Burr himself fell, of course, to this idea, and fostered it by all the arts of which he was the well-known master. Balloting began Feb. 11, and, after running for several days, the Federals proposed to confess their inability to elect by vote of the States. Against this the Republicans threatened armed resistance. After other days were con *The Capitol building was ready in June, 1800, and the ten years during which the seat of government was to remain at Philadelphia having expired, it was formally removed to Washington at this session of Congress. sumed in idle balloting, the Federals were charged with a wish to put off the election till after the 4th of March and thus to make John Jay, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the temporary President. The result proved that this charge had no foundation. Burr finally lost caste in his attempts to dicker with the Federals, and Jefferson won on the 36th ballot, Feb. 17, by securing ten States, leaving four for Burr and two blank. This contention so clearly proved the defects and dangers of the plan of electoral voting that the Twelfth Amendment was proposed to the Constitution, Dec. 12, 1803, and declared in force Sept. 25, 1804. Congress adjourned sine die, March 3, 1801. Jefferson was sworn in as President and Burr as Vice-President, March 4. IV. JEFFERSON'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION. March 4, 1801-March 3, 1805. THOMAS JEFFERSON, VA., President. AARON BURR, N. Y., VicePresident. SEAT OF GOVERNMENT AT WASHINGTON. Congresses. Sessions. SEVENTH CONGRESS. {1, December 7, 1801-May 3, 1802. EIGHTH CONGRESS. POLITICAL REVOLUTION.-The Republican sweep was clean, up to the door of the Judiciary. Adams' defeat was keenly felt, though not unexpected. He had many admirers who remembered with pride his eloquence in behalf of Independence, and his bold stand in favor of Federalism. But the loss of a President was as nothing compared with the permanent break in the Federal lines. The breaches were too wide for healing. The prestige it had acquired in placing the government on a firm basis, in anxious controversy for such power as would make it respected at home and abroad, in spirited contention for a policy of neutrality, and in timely, though not very masterly, effort to restrain the French Republican influence, had been badly clouded by some of its later efforts to hold political place, or at least prevent certain of its opponents from holding the same. Its internal weaknesses were now in sad contrast with that former boldness which successfully dared the most intricate financial problems, provided an ample revenue, and established an enduring national credit. NEW POWER.-Jefferson's inaugural address laid down the policy of the Republican party. After attempting to remove asperities and smooth differences, he announced the intention to continue the payment of the public debt, reduce the army and navy, lower taxes, restrict the power of Federal government to the lowest limit permitted by the Constitution, and preserve the State governments in all their rights. While the message had the effect of abating party spirit somewhat, the old outcrops of enmity were still frequent. Federals were still "Black Cockade Federals." Republicans were still "Democrats and Jacobins." The wealth, intellect and culture of the country, largely of Federal type, naturally felt apprehensive of a situation now commanded by those it had learned to look upon with distrust and to associate with what was foreign and revolutionary in spirit. Perhaps they saw in Jefferson himself all they feared from his. party, when they spoke of him as "an atheist in religion and a fanatic in politics." REMOVALS FROM OFFICE.-The President proceeded immediately to undo some of the centralizing measures of the preceding administration by pardoning those imprisoned under the Alien and Sedition Laws. Then he turned his attention to his party friends anxious for office. His removal of Elizur Goodrich, Federal, from the Collectorship of New Haven, and the appointment of Samuel Bishop, Republican, in his stead, was looked upon as a proscriptive innovation, and brought a Federal storm about his ears. Washington had made his appointments without reference to political opinions. Adams had made few removals and none for political reasons. Why should the old rule be broken? And especially why should it be broken in this instance when Goodrich was competent and Bishop was 78 years old and incompetent? To all which Jefferson made the memorable reply whose spirit was, in Jackson's time, incorporated into the aphorism, "To the victor belongs the spoils." With rare sagacity, he, however, drew a fine line of distinction between removals for retaining opinions and removals for using influence. The former he would not make, the latter he would make. And again he would rebuke President Adams, by removing all his appointees after the result of the Presidential election became known.* All of this is interesting as the rather cautious beginning of that policy of removal from office, and appointment thereto, which grew by slow degrees until Jackson * Jefferson said that it was not " political intolerance to claim a proportionate share in the direction of public affairs. If a due participation of office is a matter of right, how are vacancies to be obtained? Those by death are few, by resignation none." He would base his causes for removal as "much as possible on delinquency, on oppression, on intolerance, ou ante-revolutionary adherence to our enemies." After thus getting a fair quota of the offices for his party, and thus correcting what he charged as erroneous procedure on the part of his predecessor, he said, "that done, I will return with joy to that state of things when the only questions concerning a candidate shall be: Is he honest? Is he capable? Is he faithful to the Constitution ?" |