Journal of William Maclay, United States senator from Pennsylvania, 1789-1791

Preface

Tuer is a tendency, when dealing with public men of the ; past, to throw a glamour around their memory, and, by a systematic perversion or ignoring of facts, to lead present gener- ’ ations to regard them as little less than deities. The signers ‘ of the Declaration of Independence, the framers of our Constitution, and all who in any way were involved in the inception of this nation, are venerated with a childlike awe, rendering us oblivious to the motives which led to those occurences or to the pressure of circumstances which induced inary to take the course they did. The journal of William aciay, beginning with the 24th of April, 1789, and ending on the 3d of March, 1791, gives a graphic description of the debates, ceremonies, and social life of that important period of our national existence. Some hesitancy has been felt in giving an unreserved publication of this journal to the world, owing to the severity of the criticisms made on prominent personages, which in a large degree serve to dispel the roseate illusions in reference to men of that day. It should be kept in mind, however, that the journal was strictly private in its nature, intended merely for personal reference, and that the thought of its publication seems never to have entered the mind of its author, else he undoubtedly would have smoothed over many phrases and erased entire pee as being too forcible for public expression.

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But in just this circumstance lies the great value of thed work. William Maclay wrote every evening of events which| took place during the day. He wrote while his mind was yet heated with the fierce debates in the Senate, and while # the scenes were yet fresh in his memory, thus transmitting * on paper pictures of historical events which are wonderfully ; i vivid. Great care, therefore, has been taken to give the pres- °.

ent publication word for word from the original manuscript, even to the spelling of proper names: Ellsworth being spelled | with one “1,” Read as Reed, Beckley, Clerk of the House of |

Representatives, as Buckley, and Carroll as Carrol.

William Maclay, like many of those who were actively engaged in the Revolution, was of Scotch descent, his father,

Charles Maclay, having sailed for America in 1734. The ;

brothers of William Maclay were also active in the movements which led to the overthrow of British supremacy in America ; his brother, the Hon. John Maclay, being a member of that conference held in “ Carpenters’ Hall” which declared that “they, in behalf of the people of Pennsylvania, were willing to concur in a vote of Congress declaring the United Colonies free and independent States.” John Maclay also served three terms : in the Pennsylvania Legislature, 1790, 1792, and 1794. Another brother of William Maclay, the Hon. Samuel Maclay, was chosen Speaker of the Pennsylvania State Senate, of which body he was a member from 1797 to 1802, and resigned in 1802 in order to serve in the United States Senate, where he represented Pennsylvania frem 1802 to 1809.

William Maclay was born on the 20th of July, 1737, in New Garden Township, Pennsylvania, and was educated in the classical school of the Rev. John Blair. He studied law, and was admitted to practice at the York County bar, April 28, 1760. At the close of the French and Indian War he visited England and had an interview with Thomas Penn, one of the eee

PREFACE. = proprietaries, relative to the surveys in the middle and northern parts of the province. In 1772 he laid out the town of Sunbury, and erected for himself a stone house, which was standing a few years since. He acted as the representative of the Penn family, and took a prominent part in the so-called Pennamite war. At the outset of the Revolution, although an officer of the proprietary Government, he took an active part in favor of independence, during which struggle he held the position of assistant commissary. In 1781 he was elected to the Assembly of Pennsylvania, and from that time filled the offices of member of the Supreme Executive Council, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, deputy surveyor, and was one of the commissioners fur carrying into effect the laws respecting the navigation of the Susquehanna. In January, 1789, he was elected to the United States Senate. The question as to who should hold the long term of office was decided by lot—William Maclay drawing the short term, while Robert Morris, Lis colleague, drew the long*term.

William Maclay began to differ with the Federalists very early in the session. He did not approve of the state ceremony attendant upon the intercourse of the President with Congress ; he flatly objected to the presence of the President in the Senate while business was being transacted; and boldly spoke against his policy in the immediate presence of President Washington. He was one of the ‘foremost in opposing the chartering of the United States Bank, even at the sacrifice of personal popularity, for the strong Democratic position he took and the stubbornness with which he maintained it in the face of overwhelming pressure cost him his re-election, he being succeeded by an ardent Federalist.

So pronounced were the Democratic views of Will jam Maclay, and so boldly and ably did he maintain his position in the face of the opposition, that the question

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/can well be raised if he, rather than Thomas Jefferson, was

‘not the true founder of the Democratic party. It is well known that on the organization of the “new Government,” as it was then called, April, 1789, Thomas Jefferson was in France, ‘where he had resided since 17 84, and that he did not arrive in New York, then the seat of government, until March, 1790, some eleven months after the Federal machine had been in operation, And it was some time after he took his place as Secretary of State that his influence and ability as a leader of men were felt among the elements composing the Democratic party. It was during these first months of the new Government’s life that questions seriously affecting its character, whether to be monarchical or republican in its forms, were fiercely debated and decided. It was then that the foundations of the great Democracy were laid; the superstructure erected by Thomas Jefferson being in conformity with the precedents then and there irrevocably established.

Who, then, was the leader of the opposition to this strong monarchical tendency? The, records of the First Congress, unfortunately, are fragmentary and meager, so that little has been known of the stirring debates that took place at that time. The journal of William Maclay, however, throws a flood of light on this period, and establishes beyond cavil the claims of Pennsylvania to having produced the father of the Democratic party in the person of William Maclay.

For a hundred years this valuable journal has been jealously guarded from public scrutiny by the descendants of the statesman. Portions of it were privately printed in 1880, and a limited edition distributed among the members and friends of the family. Many passages, however, were suppressed, as being too caustic in their strictures on eminent personages whom we are accustomed to regard with the highest veneration. This, however, in a great measure, destroyed the com-

PREFACE. xa plexion of the context and the value of the work. But, now that an unreserved publication is called for in the interest of history, it will be seen that William Maclay was foremost in the opposition to these extreme monarchical views of the Federalists, and that in combating and subverting their aspirations he laid the foundation of the Democratic party.

On his retirement from the Senate, William Maclay resided on his farm, adjoining Harrisburg, where he erected a stone mansion. In the year 1795 he was elected a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and was again elected in 1803. He was a presidential elector in 1796, and from 1801 to 1803 officiated as one of the Associate Judges of Dauphin County. He died on the 16th of April, 1804, in Harrisburg, and is buried in Paxtang churchyard.

Tle was a man of the strictest integrity, positive opinions, keen insight into the underlying motives of men, and with indomitable perseverance and tenacity of purpose in carrying’

out views once formed. In personal appearance he was six feet and threc inches in height, light complexion, while his hair, in middle age, appears to have been brown, and was tied behind or “clubbed.” Mr. Harris, of Harrisburg, narrates that he “well remembered, when a young collegian, during the summer vacation he used to watch Mr. Maclay wearing a suit of white flannel, with lace rufiles, walking up and down the river-bank in Maclayville—as it was then called—and he thought he had never seen such a dignified, majestic old gentleman: while,” he added, “I was always half afraid of him —he seemed to awe me into insignificance.”

Enear 8. Mactay.

New Yorn. August, 1890.

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Contents

CHAPTER PAGE List or PERSONS REFERRED TO IN THE JOURNAL . ‘ . xi

Tue Ruves or PROCEEDINGS: FoR THE First Unrrep States

SENATE. A ; 5 é : : ‘ i ; . xiii

Chapter I. On Titles And Ceremonies

New York, 24th April, 1789.—I understood that it was agreed among the Senators yesterday that they would meet at the Hall this morning and go in a body to pay their respects to General Washington. I went about ten o’clock to the Hall, accordingly ; there was, however, no person there. After staying some time, Elsworth came in. I suspected how it was. I repeated the conversation of last night, and asked him whether he had been to wait on the General. Yes, he had been, and a number more with him; some went last night and some this morning. What a perfidious custom it is! I, however, whipped down-stairs and joined the Speaker and a number more of the Pennsylvanians who were collecting for that purpose. Went, paid my respects, etc. Mind this, not to resent it, but to keep myself more out of his power. Mr. Izard had yesterday been very anxious to get a report adopted respecting the communications between the Houses. It was so, but now we hear the House laughed at it. Mr. Izard moved to have the adoption taken from the minutes. No, this could not be done.

But now a curious scene opened. Mr. Lee, being of the Title Committee of yesterday, produced a copy of the resolution for appointing that committee, and moved that the House should pass a vote for transmitting it down to the Lower House. This was truly ridiculous ; but, mind, this base business had been gone into solely yesterday on the motion of our

Vice-President. 1

SHALL THE SPEAKER BE STYLED “HONORABLE?” [1789

This was barefaced indeed. But now Lee wanted to bring it on again when the President would not appear in it. I likewise suspect Lee’s integrity in this business. He knows the giving of titles would hurt us. J showed the absurdity of his motion plain enough, but it seems to me that, by getting a division of the resolution, I could perhaps throw out the part about titles altogether. Mr. Carrol, of Maryland, showed he was against titles. I wrought it so far that I got a question whether we should throw out the part about titles altogether. We lost the question on the throwing out that part. However, I could plainly see that we had gained ground with the House.

Now a most curious question arose. The Vice-President knew not how to direct the letter to the Speaker. He called on the House to know how it should be directed. The House showed a manifest disinclination to interfere. The Vice-President urged, and ceased not until a question was pointedly put whether the Speaker should be styled honorable. It passed in the negative, and from this omen I think our Vice-President may go and dream about titles, for none will he get.

April 25th, Saturday.—Attended the House. Ceremonies, endless ceremonies, the whole business of the day. I did not embark warmly this day. Otis, our Secretary, makes a most miserable hand at it. The grossest mistakes made on our minutes, and it cost us an hour or two to rectify them. I was up as often [ believe. as was necessary, and certainly threw so much light on two subjects that the debate ended on each.

The Vice-President, as usual, made us two or three speeches from the Chair. I will endeavor to recollect one of them. It was on the reading of a report which mentioned that the President should be received in the Senate chamber and proceed thence to the House of Representatives to be sworn : “ Gentlemen, I do not know whether the framers of the Constitution had in view the two kings of Sparta or the two consuls of Rome* when they formed it; one to have all the power while

* “ Are we,” Adams observed in the Senate, “the two kings of Sparta, the two consuls of Rome, or the two suffetes of Carthage ?”—J, C. Hamilton’s History of the United States, vol. iii, p. 560.

Apri. 25] “ARE WE THE TWO CONSULS OF ROME?” 3 he held it, and the other to be nothing. Nor do I know whether the architect that formed our room and the wide chair in it (to hold two, I suppose) had the Constitution before him. Gentlemen, I feel great difficulty how to act. I am possessed of two separate powers ; the one in esse and the other in posse, I am Vice-President. In this I am nothing, but I may be everything. But I am president also of the Senate. When the President comes into the Senate, what shall I be? I can not be [president] then. No, gentlemen, I can not, I can not. I wish gentlemen to think what I shall be.”

Here, as if oppressed with a sense of his distressed situation, he threw himself back in his chair. A solemn silence ensued. God forgive me, for it was involuntary, but the profane inuscles of my face were in tune for langhter in spite of my indisposition. Elsworth thumbed over the shect Constitution and turned it for some time. At length he rose and addressed the Chair with the utmost gravity: “Mr. President, I have looked over the Constitution (pause), and I find, sir, it is evident and clear, sir, that wherever the Senate are to be, there, sir, you must be at the head of them. But further, sir (here he looked aghast, as if some tremendous gulf had yawned before him), [ shall not pretend to say.”

Thursday next is appointed for swearing in the President. I am worse of my rheumatism, but perhaps it is owing to the change of the weather, for the wind is at the northeast and cold. Gave Mr. Vandalsen an half Johannes ;* he is to sell it and give me credit for the amount of his bill, 41s. 3d.

26th April, Sunday.—Went out half after nine o’clock. Visited Governor St. Clair, General Butler, Delany, McPherson, at Elsworth’s. Called on Mr. Clymer and Mr. Fitzsimons. Mr. Clymer in the exceptionables, or peevish and fretting at everything. I know not how it is, but I can not get into these men. There isa kind of guarded distance on their parts that seems to preclude sociability. I believe I had best be guarded too. -The very end of this visit was to try to concert some measures with them for the removal of Congress. But they kept me off. I mentioned a favorable

* A Portuguese gold coin, equal to about eight dollars.

4 4

4 SHALL CONGRESS ATTEND WASHINGTON TO CHURCH? [1789 disposition in some of the Maryland gentlemen to be in unison with the Pennsylvanian delegation. They seemed not to credit me. Mr. O’Brien and Mr. Hartly came in, and I took my leave. Came home, and, as the day was blustering and cold, stayed all day in my room. Wrote some letters. Mr. Wynkoop dined ont, so I saw nobody.

27th April, 1789, Monday.—Tried my knee and walked a good deal. Attended the Hall. We had prayers this day by the chaplain, Dr. Provost. A new arrangement was reported from the Joint Committee of Ceremonies. This is an endless business. Lee offered a motion to the Chair that after the President was sworn (which now is to be in the gallery opposite the Senate chamber), the Congress should accompany him to Saint Paul’s Church and attend divine service. This had been agitated in Joint Committee. But Lee said expressly that they would not agree to it. I opposed it as an improper business after it had been in the hands of the Joint Committee and rejected, as I thought this a certain method of creating a dissension between the Houses. Izard got up in great wrath and stuttered that the fact was not so. He, however, would say nothing more. I made an effort to rise. The Vice-President hurried the question, and it was put and carried by the churchman. Mr. Carrol, though he had been the first to speak against it, yet was silent on this vote. This proves him not the man of firmness which I once thought him.

I went after this to hear the debate in the House of Representatives. The duty of six cents had been reported by the Committee on Molasses. The partiality of the New England members to this article was now manifest. All from their quarter was a universal cry against it. Three o’clock came, and an adjournment was called before the matter was settled.

I took a long walk after dinner with the Speaker and General Muhlenberg, and my knees stood it very well. Hope I shall be perfectly well in a few days. God grant it!

28th April.—This day I ought to note with some extraordinary mark. I had dressed and was about to set out, when General Washington, the greatest man in the world, paid me a visit. I met him at the foot of the stairs. Mr. Wynkoop just

. came in. We asked him to take a seat. He excused himself

ArniL 28] A CRITICISM ON NEW ENGLAND CHARACTER, 5 on account of the number of his visits. We accompanied him to the door. Tle made us complaisant bows—one before he mounted and the other as he went away on horseback. ;

Attended at the Hall. Just nothing at all done. I, however, paid my formal visit to the Vice-President this morning, being nearly recovered of my lameness. Quitted the Hall abuut twelve. Called on Mr. Langdon, who has been sick some time. It began to rain, and I came home.

TI may as well minute a remark here as anywhere else, and, indeed, I wish it were otherwise, not for what we have, but.

for what others want; but we have really more republican plainness and sincere openness of behavior in Pennsylvania than in any other place J have ever been. I was impressed with a different opinion until I have had full opportunity of observing the gentlemen of New England, and sorry indeed am I to say it, but no people in the Union dwell more on trivial distinetions and matters of mere form./ They really seem to show a readiness to stand on punctilio and ceremony. A - little learning is a dangerous thing (tis said). May not the same be said of breeding? It is certainly true that people little used with company are more apt to take offense, and are less easy, than men much versant in public life. They are an unmixed people in New England, and used only to see neighbors like themselves ; and when once an error of behavior has crept in among thera: there is small chance of its being cured ; for, should they go abroad, being early used to a ceremonious and reserved behavior, and believing ‘that good manners consists entirely in punctilios, they only add a few more stiffened airs to their deportment, excluding good humor, affability of conversation, and accommodstion of temper and sentiment as qualities too vulgar for a gentleman. »

Mr. Strong gave us this morning a story which, with many others of a similar nature (which I have heard), places this in a clear point of light. By the Constitution of Massachusetts the Senate have the right of communicating bills to their Lower House. Some singular business made them [the Lower House] shut their doors. At this time called Samuel Adams of the Senate to communicate a bill. The door-keeper told him his orders. Back returned the enraged Senator; the

6 A JEHU-LIKE SPIRIT IN THE SENATE. [1789 whole Senate took flame and blazed forth in furious memorial against the Lower House for breach of privilege. A violent contest ensued, and the whole State was convulsed with litigation.

29th April.—Attended the Hall this day. A bill was read the second time respecting the administering the oath for the support of the new Government. A diversity of opinion arose whether the law should be extended so as to oblige the officers of the State governments to take the oaths. The power of ‘Congress to do this was asserted by some and derided by others in pointed terms. I did not enter into the merits of either side, but before the question was put gave my opinion that the _ first step toward doing good was to be sure of doing no harm. Gentlemen had been very pointed for and against this power ; if we divided here, what must we expect the people out of doors to be? That in the exercise of the powers given us by Congress we should deal in no uncertainties; that while we had the Constitution plainly before us all was safe and certain, but if we took on us to deal in doubtful matters we trod on hollow ground, and might be charged with an assumption of powers not delegated. I therefore on this ground was against the commitment, and with it closed the business of the day. The bill, however, was committed.

I have observed ever since we began to do business that a Jehu-like spirit has prevailed with a number of gentlemen, and with none more than with the member from the Ancient Dominion, who is said to be a notorious anti-Federalist (a most expensive and enormous machine of a Federal Judiciary, pompous titles, strong efforts after religious distinctions, coercive laws for taking the oaths, etc.). I have uniformly opposed, as far as I was able, everything of this kind, and I believe have sacrificed every chance of being popular and every grain of influence in the Senate by so doing. But be it so.” I have the testimony of my own conscience that I am right. High-handed measures are at no time justifiable, but now they are highly impolitic. Never will I consent to straining the Constitution, nor never will I consent to the exercise of a doubtful power. We come here the servants, not the lords, of our constituents. The new Government, instead of being a powerful machine

ApRiL 30] THE HOUSE OF LORDS BROUGHT BEFORE US. ve whose authority would support any measure, needs helps and props on all sides, and must be supported by the ablest names and the most shining characters which we can select. The President’s amiable deportment, however, smooths and sweetens everything. Charles Thompson has, however, been ill used by the Committee of Arrangements of the ceremonial. This is wrong. His name has beep left out of the arrangements for to-morrow. *

30th April, Thursday.—This is a great, important day. Goddess of etiquette, assist me while I describe it. The Senate stood adjourned to half after eleven o’clock. About ten dressed in my best clothes; went for Mr. Morris’ lodgings, but met his son, who told me that his father would not be in town until Saturday. Turned into the Ifall. The crowd " already great. The Senate met. The Vice-President rose in the most solemn manner. This son of Adam seemed impressed with deeper gravity, yet what shall I think of him? He often, in the midst of his most important airs—I believe when he is at loss for expressions (and this he often is, w rapped up, I suppose, in the contemplation of his own importance)— suffers an unmeaning kind of vacant laugh to escape him. This was the case to-day, and really to me bore the air of ridiculing the farce he was acting. “Gentlemen, I wish for the direction of the Senate. The President will, I suppose, address the Congress. How shall I behave? How shall we receive it? Shall it be standing or sitting ?”

Here followed a considerable deal of talk from him which I could make nothing of. Mr. Lee began with the House of Commons (as is usual with him), then the House of Lords, then the King, and then back again. The result of his information was, that the Lords sat and the Commons stood on the delivery _of the King’s speech. Mr. Izard got up and told how often he had been in the Houses of Parliament. He said a great deal of what he had seen there. [He] made, however, this sagacious discovery, that the Commons stood because they had noseats to sit on, being arrived at the bar of the House of Lords. It was discovered after some time that the King sat, too, and - had his robes and crown on.

Mr. Adams got up again and said he had been very often

8 THE REPRESENTATIVES ENTER THE SENATE. [1789 indeed at the Parliament on those occasions, but there always was such a crowd, and ladies ulong, that for his part he could not say how it was. Mr. Carrol got up to declare that he thought it of no consequence how it was in Great Britain; they were no rule to us, etc. But all at once the Secretary, ’ who had been out, whispered to the Chair that the Clerk from the Representatives was at the door with a communication. Gentlemen of the Senate, how shall he be received? A silly kind of resolution of the committee on that business had been laid on the table some days ago. The amount of it was that each House should communicate to the other what and how they chose; it concluded, however, something in this way: That everything should be done with all the propriety that was proper. The question was, Shall this be adopted, that we may know how to receive the Clerk? It was objected [that] this will throw no light on the subject; it will leave you where you are. Mr. Lee brought the House of Commons before us again. He reprobated the rule; declared that the Clerk should not come within the bar of the House; that the proper mode was for the Sergeant-at-Arms, with the mace on his shoulder, to meet the Clerk at the door and receive his communication ; we are not, however, provided for this ceremonious way of doing business, having neither mace nor sergeant nor Masters in Chancery, who carry down bills from the English Lords. Mr. Izard got up and labored unintelligibly to show the great distinction between a communication and a delivery of a thing, but he was not minded. Mr. Elsworth showed plainly enough that if the Clerk was not permitted to deliver the communication, the Speaker might as well send it inclosed. Repeated accounts came [that] the Speaker and Representatives were at the door. Confusion ensued; the members left their seats. Mr. Read rose and called the attention of the Senate to the neglect that had been shown Mr. Thompson, late Secretary. Mr. Lee rose to answer him, but I could not hear one word he said. The Speaker was introduced, followed by the Representatives. Here we sat an hour and ten minutes before the President arrived—this delay was owing to Lee, Izard, and Dalton, who had stayed with us while the Speaker came in, instead of going to attend the President. The President ad-

Apri 30] WASHINGTON ADDRESSES CONGRESS. 9 vanced between the Senate and Representatives, bowing to each. He was placed in the chair by the Vice-President; the Senate with their president on the right, the Speaker and the Representatives on his left. The Vice-President rose and addressed a short sentence to him. The import of it was that he should now take the oath of office as President. He seemed to have forgot half what he was to say, for he made a dead pause and stood for some time, to appearance, in a vacant mood. He finished with a formal bow, and the President was conducted out of the middle window into the gallery, and the oath was administered by the Chancellor. Notice that the business done was communicated to the crowd by proclamation, etc., who gave three cheers, and repeated it on the President’s bowing to them.

As the company returned into the Senate chamber, the President took the chair and the Senators and Representatives, their seats. He rose, and all arose also, and addressed them (see the address). This great man was agitated and embarrassed more than ever he was by the leveled cannon or pointed musket. He trembled, and several times could scarce make out to read, though it must be supposed he had often read it before. He put part of the fingers of his left hand into the side of what I think the tailors call the fall of the breeches [corresponding to the modern side-pocket], changing the paper into hisleft [right] hand. After some time he then did the same with some of the fingers of his right hand. When he came to the words all the world, he made a flourish with his right hand, which left rather an ungainly impression. I sincerely, for my part, wished all set ceremony in the hands of the dancing-masters, and that this first of men had read off his address in the plainest manner, without ever taking his eyes from the paper, for I felt hurt that he was not first in everything. He was dressed in deep brown, with metal buttons, with an eagle on them, white stockings, a bag, and sword.