The Life of John Marshall - Volume II Part 61
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Volume II Part 61

Rel._, ii, 383. Hildreth says that the total amount of claims filed was twenty-four million dollars. (Hildreth, v, 331; and see Marshall to King, _infra_.)

[1147] Secretary of State to King, Sept. 4, 1799; _Am. St. Prs., For.

Rel._, ii, 383.

[1148] Troup to King, Sept. 2, 1799; King, iii, 91.

[1149] Secretary of State to King, Dec. 31, 1799; _Am. St. Prs._, _For.

Rel._, ii, 384-85.

[1150] King to Secretary of State, April 7, 1800; King, iii, 215.

[1151] Marshall to Adams, June 24, 1800; Adams MSS.

[1152] King to Secretary of State, April 22, 1800; King, iii, 222.

[1153] Marshall to Adams, July 21, 1800; Adams MSS.

[1154] Adams to Marshall, Aug. 1, 1800; _Works_: Adams, ix, 68-69.

[1155] Marshall to Adams, Aug. 12, 1800; Adams MSS.

[1156] _Infra_, 507 _et seq._

[1157] _Am. St. Prs._, _For. Rel._, ii, 386.

[1158] _Am. St. Prs., For. Rel._, ii, 387.

[1159] _Am. St. Prs., For. Rel._, ii, 387.

[1160] Marshall to Adams, Sept. 9, 1800; Adams MSS.

[1161] Adams to Marshall, Sept. 18, 1800; _Works_: Adams, ix, 84. After Jefferson became President and Madison Secretary of State, King settled the controversy according to these instructions of Marshall. But the Republicans, being then in power, claimed the credit.

[1162] Secretary of State to King, Oct. 26, 1796; King, ii, 102.

[1163] For a comprehensive though prejudiced review of British policy during this period see Tench c.o.xe: _Examination of the Conduct of Great Britain Respecting Neutrals_. c.o.xe declares that the purpose and policy of Great Britain were to "monopolize the commerce of the world.... She denies the lawfulness of supplying and buying from her enemies, and, in the face of the world, enacts statutes to enable her own subjects to do these things. (_Ib._, 62.) ... She now aims at the Monarchy of the ocean.... Her trade is war.... The spoils of neutrals fill her warehouses, while she incarcerates their bodies in her floating castles.

She seizes their persons and property as the rich fruit of bloodless victories over her unarmed friends." (_Ib._, 72.)

This was the accepted American view at the time Marshall wrote his protest; and it continued to be such until the War of 1812. c.o.xe's book is packed closely with citations and statistics sustaining his position.

[1164] Secretary of State to King, June 14, 1799; King, iii, 47; and see King to Secretary of State, July 15, 1799; _ib._, 58-59; and King to Grenville, Oct. 7, 1799; _ib._, 115-21.

[1165] This complete paper is in _Am. St. Prs., For. Rel._, ii, 486-90.

[1166] At one place the word "distinctly" is used and at another the word "directly," in the _American State Papers_ (ii, 487 and 488). The word "directly" is correct, the word "distinctly" being a misprint. This is an example of the inaccuracies of these official volumes, which must be used with careful scrutiny.

[1167] _Am. St. Prs., For. Rel._, ii, 488.

[1168] _Am. St. Prs., For. Rel._, ii, 490.

[1169] _Infra_, 524.

[1170] While political parties, as such, did not appear until the close of Washington's first Administration, the Federalist Party of 1800 was made up, for the most part, of substantially the same men and interests that forced the adoption of the Const.i.tution and originated all the policies and measures, foreign and domestic, of the first three Administrations.

[1171] Wolcott to Ames, Aug. 10, 1800; Gibbs, ii, 404.

[1172] During this period, the word "Democrat" was used by the Federalists as a term of extreme condemnation, even more opprobrious than the word "Jacobin." For many years most Republicans hotly resented the appellation of "Democrat."

[1173] Marshall to Otis, Aug. 5, 1800; Otis MSS.

[1174] For a vivid review of factional causes of the Federalists'

decline see Sedgwick to King, Sept. 26, 1800; King, iii, 307-10; and Ames to King, Sept. 24, 1800; _ib._, 304.

[1175] "The Public mind is puzzled and fretted. People don't know what to think of measures or men; they are mad because they are in the dark."

(Goodrich to Wolcott, July 28, 1800; Gibbs, ii, 394.)

[1176] Ames to Hamilton, Aug. 26, 1800; _Works_: Ames, i, 280.

[1177] Hamilton to Sedgwick, May 4, 1800; _Works_: Lodge, x, 371.

[1178] Same to same, May 10, 1800; _ib._, 375.

[1179] "In our untoward situation we should do as well with Jefferson for President and Mr. Pinckney Vice President as with anything we can now expect. Such an issue of the election, if fairly produced, is the only one that will keep the Federal Party together." (Cabot to Wolcott, Oct. 5, 1800; Lodge: _Cabot_, 295.)

"If Mr. Adams should be reelected, I fear our const.i.tution would be more injured by his unruly pa.s.sions, antipathies, & jealousy, than by the whimsies of Jefferson." (Carroll to McHenry, Nov. 4, 1800; Steiner, 473.)

"He [Adams] has palsied the sinews of the party, and" another four years of his administration "would give it its death wound." (Bayard to Hamilton, Aug. 18, 1800; _Works_: Hamilton, vi, 457.)

[1180] McHenry to John McHenry, May 20, 1800; Gibbs, ii, 347. According to the caucus custom, two candidates were named for President, one of whom was understood really to stand for Vice-President, the Const.i.tution at that time not providing for a separate vote for the latter officer.

[1181] "You may rely upon my co-operation in every reasonable measure for effecting the election of General Pinckney." (Wolcott to Hamilton, July 7, 1800; _Works_: Hamilton, vi, 447-48.)

"The affairs of this government will not only be ruined but ... the disgrace will attach to the federal party if they permit the re-election of Mr. Adams." (_Ib._) "In Ma.s.sachusetts almost all the leaders of the first cla.s.s are dissatisfied with Mr. Adams and enter heartily into the policy of supporting General Pinckney." (Hamilton to Bayard, Aug. 6, _ib._, 452 (also in _Works_: Lodge, x, 384); and see Jefferson to Butler, Aug. 11, 1800; _Works_: Ford, ix, 138.)

[1182] Hamilton to Carroll, July 1, 1800; _Works_: Lodge, x, 378; and see Hamilton to Bayard, Aug. 6, 1800; _ib._, 384.

[1183] Sedgwick to Hamilton, May 7, 1800, quoting "our friend D.[ayton]

who is not perfectly right" (_Works_: Hamilton, vi, 437; and see Cabot to Hamilton, Aug. 10, 1800; _ib._, 454; also Cabot to Wolcott, July 20, 1800; Lodge: _Cabot_, 282.)

[1184] Knox to Adams, March 5, 1799; _Works_: Adams, viii, 626-27. Knox had held higher rank than Hamilton in the Revolutionary War and Adams had tried to place him above Hamilton in the provisional army in 1798.

But upon the demand of Washington Knox was given an inferior rank and indignantly declined to serve. (Hildreth, v, 242-44. And see Washington to Knox, July 16, 1798; _Writings_: Ford, xiv, 43-46.) Thereafter he became the enemy of Hamilton and the ardent supporter of Adams.

[1185] Wolcott to Ames, Dec. 29, 1799; Gibbs, ii, 315.

[1186] Hamilton to Adams, Aug. 1, 1800; _Works_: Lodge, x, 382, and see 390; Ames to Wolcott, Aug. 3, 1800; Gibbs, ii, 396; Wolcott to Ames, Dec. 29, 1799; _ib._, 315.

The public discussion of Adams's charge of a "British faction" against his party enemies began with the publication of a foolish letter he had written to c.o.xe, in May of 1792, insinuating that Pinckney's appointment to the British Court had been secured by "much British influence."

(Adams to c.o.xe, May, 1792; Gibbs, ii, 424.) The President gave vitality to the gossip by talking of the Hamiltonian Federalists as a "British faction." He should have charged it publicly and formally or else kept perfectly silent. He did neither, and thus only enraged his foe within the party without getting the advantage of an open and aggressive attack. (See Steiner, footnote 3, to 468.)