Progress of the United States of America in the century

Preface

This volume lias been devoted primarily to a sketch of the political development of the United States of America in this century. This has been done for two reasons. First, the contributions made / the United States to tJie art, the letters, the sci- '.ce, the industries of the century, have been fully alt with in other volumes of this series. Second- /, although the history of the growth of the Republic is marvellous, and altliough the culture-history of its people is interesting, prime importance attaches to the history of the great experiment in self-government made by the American democracy. Without American inventiveness and energy the century would not have made such marked advance, yet it would still have been the age of steam and electricity. But without the American experiment in self-government the world would have been left without some of the most important of all the political lessons it has ever been taught. The value, for example, of the lesson taught by the democracy when it grappled with and overcame slavery cannot be overestimated. Such lessons can be understood, however, only after the outlines of the nation's political history hav^e been mastered ; and hence it is that the attempt has been made to give such outlines rather than to present a

V

?5^

Vi PREFACE.

full account of the physical, the mental, and moral growth of the nation — topics which nevertheless have not been overlooked.

It is almost needless to say that many books have been consulted during the preparation of the volume. An endeavour has been made to mention either in the text or in a note the chief authorities that have been relied upon, but naturally it has been impossible to include them all. Here it seems fair to say that for recent years the well-known work of Dr. E. B. Andrews has been very helpful, while for the antebellum period Mr. James Schouler's five volumes have been invaluable.

W. P. TRENT.

Chapter II. The Nevv^ Regime

Disputed Election of 1801. — Jeflferson's Inaugural, — John Adams's Fears for the Future. — Sketch of Jefferson. — His General Policy. — His Attitude tovs'ard the Civil Service. — The Barbary War. — Results of the First Year of the Revolution of 1801 10

Chapter III. Domestic And Foreign Policy

The Louisiana Purchase. — Jeflferson's Constitutional Scruples. — Federalist Opposition. — Election of 1804. — The Yazoo Question. — John Randolph's Fall from Power. — The Impeachment and Trial of Justice Chase. — End of the War with Tripoli.— The Rule of 1756.— Impressment Abuses. — Abortive Diplomacy. — Burr's Conspiracy and Trial.— Prohibition of the Foreign Slave Trade. 30

vii viii CONTENTS.

Chapter IV. Pa»b

Rejection of the Monroe-Pinckney Treaty. — Leopard and Chesapeake. — Orders in Council. — Berlin and Milan Decrees. — The Embargo. — Election of 1808.— Madison's Policy. — Opposition in New England. — Retirement of Jefferson. — Sketch of Madison. — Erskine Disavowed. — Napoleon's Sharp Practice. — Growth of the War Spirit. — Madison Yields. — War Declared. — Its Untimeliness. — Abortive Invasion of Canada. — Naval Victories. — Election of 1812.— Detroit Retaken. — Andrew Jackson and the Creeks. — Political Mismanagement of the War. — Prospects of Peace. — Capture and Burning of Washington. — Bad Financiering. — Battle of New Orleans. — Treaty of Ghent 61

Chapter V

The Hartford Convention. — Gallatin's Loans. — Cost of the War. — Growth of National Spirit. — Impetus to Manufacturing. — Protection and Sectional Differences.— The New National Bank.— The Tariff of 1816.— Election of 1816. — Madison Opposes Internal Improvements Undertaken by Congress. — Monroe's Inaugural. — The Virginian Presidents. — Monroe's Cabinet 76

Chapter VI. The Era Of Good Feeling

Relations with Spain.— Jackson in Florida. — Monroe Smoothes Matters Out —Sketch of Jackson. — The . Treaty of 1819.— The Slavery Question.— The Missouri Compromises. — Discussion of the Controversy.— Affairs of the National Bank.— Election of 1820. — Political Factions. — Internal Improvements Vetoed. — Recognition of Spanish-American Republics.— The " Monroe Doctrine." — Scope of the " Doctrine." — Congress and the Greeks. — Growing Demand for Protection. — Tariff of 1824.— Election of 1824 91

CONTENTS. ii

Chapter VII. The Parting Of The Ways

PAGE

A Hampered Administration. — Internal Improvements. — The Panama Congress. — Georgia and the Indians. — Deaths of .Jefferson and John Adams. — Abortive Foreign Policy. — Intrigues for the Presidency. — "The Tariff of Abominations." — The South Protests. — Election of 1828. — Formation of New Parties 119

CHAPTER VIII. A generation's advance

Distribution of Population in 1810. — Standing of States and Cities. — Area and Population in 1820. — In 1830. — Character of Population in the Various Sections. — Homogeneity of Stock. — Growth of the National Spirit. — Economic Impetus. — Early Railroads. — Inventions. — Spiritual and Mental Awakening. — Schools and Colleges.-^Democracy in the South and West. — Esthetic and Literary Development. — Provincial and Prosaic Traits.— The Next Generation's Task 188

Chapter IX. "the Reign Of Andrew Jackson."

Jackson's Inauguration. — Introduction of the "Spoils System." — The Eaton Scandal. — Reorganisation of the Cabinet. — The " Kitchen Cabinet." — Jackson's Policy. — Georgia and the Indians Once More. — Career of Chief Justice Marshall. — States' Rights. — The Webster- Hayne Debate. — Jackson's Toast. — Tlie Tariff of 1832. — The Ordinance of Nullification. — Jackson Stands Firm. — The Final Compromise. — Character of the NuUifiers. 146

X CONTENTS.

Chapter X. From Triumph To Defeat

PAGS

Jackson's Successful Foreign Policy. — Attack on the National Bank. — Clay's Mistake. — Jackson's Veto. — Election of 1833. — Renewed Attack on the Bank. — Withdrawal of the Deposits. — Resolutions of Censure Pass the Senate. — Financial Disturbances. — The " Specie Circular." — Growth of Abolitionism. — Incendiary Literatui-e. — Southern Indignation. — "Gag-laws" in Congress. — Adams's New Role. — Election of 1836. — Sketch of Van Buren.— Panic of 1837.— The Sub-Treasury System. — Popular Indignation against the Democrats. — The Seminole War. — Squabbles in Congress. — Election of 1840 162

Chapter XI. The Annexation Of Texas

Death of President Harrison. — Haphazard Methods of Choosing Vico-Pi'esidents. — Sketch of Tyler. — The Whig Programme. — Tyler's Bank Vetoes. — Tariff of 1842. — Largess to the States. — The Ashburton Treaty. — Political Confusion. — Early Stages of the Texas Question. — The North Opposes Annexation. — Tyler's Overtures to Texas. — The Accident on the Princeton. — Calhoun Becomes Secretary of State.— The Treaty of Annexation Rejected. — Van Buren and Clay in a Dilemma. — Election of 1844.— Dorr's Rebellion in Rhode Island. — Texas Admitted by Joint Resolution.— An Unjustifiable Procedure 188

Chapter XII. The Mexican War

Character of Polk's Administration.— The Oregon Question Settled. — Negotiations Broken with Mexico. — Taylor on the Rio Grande.— War Declared.— Taylor's Victories.— California Taken.— PoUc's Troubles with Congress.— The Wilmot Proviso.— Democratic Efforts to Secure Military Heroes.— Scott's Campaign.— Capture

CONTENTS. xi

PAAE

of the City of Mexico.— Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo. — Death of John Quincy Adams.— Discussions as to Free or Slave Status of the New Possessions. — Election of 1848 205

CHAPTER Xni.

Pro-slavery Aggressiveness.— Growth of Anti-slavery Views at the North. — Taylor's Policy with Regard to the New Possessions. — Discovery of Gold in California. — The Mormons in Utah. — Clay and Webster Oppose Taylor. — Debates in the Senate. — Clay's Proposals. — Death of Taylor. — Estimate of his Character. — Webster's Seventh of March Speech. — Calhoun's Last Speech and Death. — Fillmore Becomes President, — Clay's Programme Carried Through.— The Fugitive Slave Law. . . 219

Chapter XIV. Calm And Storm

Period of Political Repose. — Filibustering Expeditions.— Mississippi Campaign of 1851. — Election of 1852. — Deaths of Clay and Webster. — The Martin Koszta Affair. — Senator Douglas. — The Kansas-Nebraska Bill. — " Squatter Sovereignty." — Pierce's Support Gained. — The Case of Anthony Burns. — The Gadsden Purchase. — Bombai'dment of Greytown. — The Ostend Manifesto. — Collapse of the Whig Partj'. — Republicans and Know- Nothings. — "Bleeding Kansas." — Brooks's Attack on Sumner. — Election of 1856. — Improvement in Kansas. — Walker's Filibustering Exploits. — Forecast of Events.. 233

Chapter XV. The Beginning Of The End

The Dred Scott Decision. — Buchanan's Cabinet. — The Le Compton Constitution. — Trouble with the Mormons. — Sketch of Lincoln. — The Lincoln-Douglas Debates. — Buchanan's Wild Message. — John Brown's Raid. — The xii CONTENTS.

PAOK

Covada Investigation. — Split Among the Democrats.— The Republicans Nominate Lincoln, — Election of 1860. — Southern Reasons for Secession. — South Carolina Acts. — Buchanan's Irresolution. — His Cabinet Reorganised. — Formation of the Southern Confederacy. — ElTorta to Preserve Peace. — The Situation in March, 1860 256

Chapter XVI. The Country And The Sections On The Eve Of The Civil War

Population in 1840. — Filling in the Waste Places. — Status of the Sections. — Area and Population in 1850. — Status of the Sections. — Urban Growth. — Area and Population in 1860. — Status of the Sections. — Foreign Element of the Population. — ^The Negroes. — Proportionate Military Efficiency of North and South. — Intensification of Types. — The Macrocosm of 1860. — Manufacturing. — Farming. — Railroads. — Telegraph Lines. — Inventions. — Science and Literature. — Backwardness of the South. 278

Chapter XVII. The Civil War

Lincoln's Inaugural. — His Cabinet. — Sumter Fired on. — Call for Troops. — The Border States.— Campaigns in Virginia. — Partition of Virginia. — First Battle of Manassas.— England's Attitude. — Federal Success in the South-West.— Vicksburg Surrenders.— The Virginia and the Monitor. — Southern Ports Blockaded.— Seven Days' Fighting Around Richmond.— Second Manassas. — Antietam.— The Proclamation of Emancipation.— Fredericksburg.- Chancellorville.- Gettysburg.— Conscription North and South.— Federal Victories Around Chattanooga.— Sherman Takes Atlanta. — His March to the Sea. — Grant and Lee in Virginia in 1864.- Siege of Petersburg. — Surrender at Appomattox. — Political Events in the South.— At Washington. — The Case of Vallandingham.— Election of 1864.— -Assassination of Lincoln.— Results of the War 294

CONTENTS. xiii

Chapter XVIII. Reconstruction

PAas

Lincoln's Plans for Reconstiniction. — Character of Andrew Johnson. — His Attitude toward the South. — Repressive Legislation Against the Blacks. — Partisanship and Ignorance. — Radical Measures in Congress. — Johnson's Lack of Facts. — The Fourteenth Amendment. — The People Side with Congress. — Tenure of Office Act. — Reconstruction Acts. — Results of Military- Rule. — " Carpet-baggers and Scalawags." — The Ku- Klux Klan. — Impeachment and Trial of Johnson. — The French in Mexico. — Purchase of Alaska. — The Alabama Claims.— Election of 1868 816

Chapter XIX. The Restoration Of Unity

Character of Grant. — Financial Corruption. — Grant Unable to Cope with the Evils of the Time. — The Tweed Ring. — Outrages in the South. — Fraudulent Elections, — Use of Troops at the Polls. — Election of 1872. — Civil Service Reform.— Good Financial Legislation. — Scheme for Annexing San Domingo. — Election of 1876. — Electoral Commission Seats Hayes. — Troops Withdrawn from the South. — Centennial Exposition. — Massacre of Custer's Command. — Progress of the Period 335

Chapter XX. The Floundering Of Parties

Alternation of Party Success. — Defects of the Two-Farty System. — Tariff and Free Silver Issues.— Hayes a Good Administrator. — Resumption of Specie Payments. — ^The Bland-Allison Bill. — Halifax Award. — The Struggleover " Riders."— Strikers and "Molly McGuires."— Election xiv CONTENTS.

PADS

of 1880.— Garfield Offends Conkling.— Defeat of the Latter. — Garfield Assassinated. — Cliaracter of President Arthur. — Civil Service Commission. — Foreign Affairs. — Chinese Exclusion Bills. — Kearneyism in California. —Election of 1884.— The " Mugwumps " Defeat Blaine. 353

Chapter XXI. The Tariff To The Front

Opposition to Cleveland. — He Yields to the Spoilsmen. — Interstate Commerce Act and Other Measures. — The 'Jii^r&go Anarchists. — Cleveland's Tariff Message. — E^ecti'^- of 1888.— Election Frauds.— The Sackville-West Incident. — Pan-Anierican Congress. — The Chilian Imbroglio.— Lynching oi lidl^'ans in New Orleans, — eaker Read as " Czar," — Defeat of the Lodge Bill. — The McKinley T«-iff. — TheSherman Act.— Labour Agitations.— Election of 1893 376

Chapter XXII

FlJ\ un. SI&CLE.

Cleveland's Break with his Party. — The Hawaiian Question.— The World's Fair.— Panic of 1893.— Repeal of Purchasing Clause of Sherman Act. — xhe Wilson Tariff. — Cleveland Puts Down the Chicago Strikers. — His Policy toward Cuba. — The Venezue. ^ Message. — Corruption in New York City. — Election or 1896. — Free Silver. — The Dingley Tariff. — Destruction of the Maitte. — The Spanish- American War. — Rapprochement with Great Britain. — Loyalty of the South. — Prowess of the Navy. — Bad Management of the War on Land. — The Treaty of Paris. — Expansion. — Fighting in the Philippines.— The Outlook 394

Chapter XXIII

Population in 1870,— Standing of States and Cities.- Population in 1880.— In 1890.— Rank of Sections and

CONTENTS. XV

PAOS

States. — Great Urban Developinent. — Influx of Foreigners. — The Negro Problem. — Interstate Migration. — Government Employees. — Wage Earners in General. — Educational Statistics. — Standing of the United States among the Nations. — Relative Standing of tlie Sections. — Intensity of Modern Life. — Growth of Corporate Power. — Mental Development 415

Conclusion

Comparative Success of the Democratic Experiment. — Devotion of the American to his Government. — Changes in the Democratic Ideal. — American Over-confidence. — Waste of Resources. — Defects of the Governmental System. — No Cause for Pessimism. — American Destiny in the Hands of the People Working under the Guidance of Providence 4:^3

APPENDIX A.

The Constitution op the United States 441

APPENDIX B,

The Presidents and Vice-Presidents, with their Terms of Office 457

APPENDIX C.

The States and Territories, with Dates of Admission, Areas, and Populations in lyOO 459

ILLUSTRATIONS

Facing Page

George Washington frontispiece

Theodore Koosevelt 1

John C. Calhoun 51

Henry Chiy 1(52

Daniel Webster 219

James G. Blaine 376

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

Photogravure from a photograph.

PROGEESS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN THE CENTURY.

Chapter I

At the opening of the nineteenth century the territory comprised in the United States of America was exactly the same as had been determined by the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain in 1783. On the north the British possessions formed a boundary to be disputed for many years. On the west, beyond the Mississippi River, stretched vast tracts claimed by Spain, but really possessed by the bison and the Indian. On the south an artificial line set off a narrow strip alone; the Gulf of jMexico together with the peninsula of Florida as additional and more securely held possessions of the Spanish throne. To the east alone a free outlet was offered to the energy of the new nation by the broad Atlantic, on which many a

1801 ? This question can be best answered after some concrete facts about them have been given. Excluding the settlers bevond the Alleghanies, we find about 2,700,000 people living in New England and the Middle States; 2,200,000 living in the South. About 1,000,000 of these inhabitants were slaves, the proportion held in the Southern States being as nine to one. Virginia was the most populous of the States, a position which she held until 1820, when the primacy passed to Xew York, Massachusetts came next, but was really more prosperous than Virginia, since she had few negroes and not a single slave within her borders. Vermont alone equalled her in this latter particular, but all the other Northern States save New Jersey had passed laws looking to emancipation. The last-named State fell in with the general tendency in a very few years, and it was quite apparent that slavery was doomed in the colder regions of the country. That it would, however, hold its ovni tenaciously in the Far South was proved by the fact that in South Carolina there were over twice as many negroes as whites.

From the nature of tlieir labour supply it could bo at once inferred that the inhabitants of the Southern States were a people devoted to agriculture; but such an inference would have been equally true of the inhabitants of the Middle States. Here and there in the latter region and in New England a few mills had been set up — particularly for spinning eotton yarn — but as a rule agriculture was the staple pursuit of the entire country, save in New England, Avhere commerce and the fisheries made amends for that ruggedness of the soil that was already encouraging a westward emigration. It is little exaggeration, then, to say that the Americans in 1801 were a nation of farmers; but already a single circumstance — Whitney's invention of the cotton-gin — had prepared the way for the subsequent broad division of tlie Atlantic region into the manufacturing ISTortk and the planting South. Later on the farming West was to emerge into great prominence ; but it was to be many years before Mother Earth would be made to yield the most valuable of her treasures in the shape of ores, coal, and oil.

That it was a nation of farmers that had won their independence and established a prosperous republic was further proved by the fact that only 3.97 per cent, of the population lived an urban life.* In 1890 the percentage was 29.20. There were only five towns with 20,000 inhabitants and upwards : Philadelphia with 70,000 ; :N'ew York with 60,000 ; Baltimore with 26,000 ; Boston with 24,000 ; Charleston Avith 20,000. About seventeen other places, perhaps, A\-ere worthy of being called small towns. Xew York was most like a city in its liveliness ; but Philadelphia, warned doubtless by the yellow fever epidemics of 1793 and 1797, had done most in the way of sanitation, and with its lighted and paved streets and its public institutions strove to keep up its prestige as the adopted city of Franklin and, to the close of the century, the tem- ]iorary capital of the Union. Like Boston, however, it was a slow, prim place, and in some particulars Avas less of an urban centre than Charleston, which Avas the London of South Carolina, being the resort at certain seasons of the stately planters. f

* About 5 per cent, perhaps if the term " urban " be given a Hberal application.

\ Jefferson, in a letter of Sept. 23. 1800, Avrote : " The yellow fever will discourage the growth of great cities in our na-

Life, then, was simple iu the towns and doubly so in the country. Theatres were struggling for existence ; newspapers were small, rather uninfluential sheets; travellers consumed many days in journeying by stage over bad roads between important points ; inns were bad, indeed hardly attainable in the South ; the postal service was in its infancy ; fire companies were just as primitive — but after all we must remember that the age of steam had not quite dawned and that the Atlantic coast was almost as much a frontier of Europe as the Alleghanies were of the Atlantic coast. Besides there was not a little solid comfort in the life led by the citizen or the farmer. The rush of modern competition did not disturb him ; there was plenty of work to do in a new land full of natural wealth; the pressure of caste was not upon him, even if there was an aristocracy of birth and education in jSTew England and of birth and land in the South. lie was sturdy and self-reliant; he had a modest Avife willing to work and bear him many children; he was honest and so did not care whether the penal code Avere barbarous or not ; he was not a theorist and so did not care particularly for the full religious liberty barely just attained by the Virginian, or for pure and simple manhood suffrage which existed in but few States. He was happy in his ignorance of Old World luxury and vice, he was on the whole sluggish-minded, though capable at times of being swept away by Jacobin enthusiasms, he was above all conscious that his chances were good for acquiring a competence and making provision for his family.

So far of the average citizen — especially in the

tion, and I view p:reat cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man,"

Middle States. A harder type of character presented itself in ISTew England, for the hold of Calvinism, though loosening, was still strong. There the outward aspect of things reminded the traveller of Old England ; there labour was more strenuous, the classes more thoroughly divided, the clergyman and the magistrate more potent, the schoolmaster more in evidence — although, to say the truth, this latter functionary was of no elevated character anywhere in America. In the South — apart from the relations of master and slave, which after all were not so bad as they have been represented — a more genial, pleasant type of character appeared, but in a far from encouraging environment. The planter was hospitable, courteous, often cultivated ; he was vigorous, fond of riding and out-door sports, a lover of good cheer; but he was too frequently improvident and prone to live on the proceeds of ungrown crops. His system of agriculture was wasteful, his lands, in the older States, were becoming exhausted, he was beginning to lose the energy that had given some of his class such prestige in the Revolution. But he bravely struggled to maintain his status, and he succeeded for many a long year in dominating his " poor whitei " neighbour who owned no slaves. He would hardly have admitted that his section needed a thrifty middle class, but we can all see it now.

Receding from the tide-water country, we find a different class of inhabitants — what we may call the semi-pioneers. These are in the main farmers who have taken up lands as veritable pioneers, have felled trees and left the stumps to rot, have laboured with their wives and children, and seen other settlers fill the neighbourhood, and have finally become the leading men in thriving back- or up-country comm-unities.* They are often of Scotch-Irish or German stock, are deeply religious, indulge in few worldly pleasures, but, when they do, choose coarse forms of dissipation, and make on the whole excellent founders of families. Around and beyond these men live more or less ne'er-do-well families of low extraction who subsist chiefly by hunting and wdio move on further West as civilisation creeps near them. Som5- times, however, this hunter class is graced by a Daniel Boone, or a " Leather Stocking," and its annals, if often sordid, are frequently illuminated by deeds of courage that should make the blood of every Anglo-Saxon tingle in his veins. The " Winners of the West," whether the families that slowly drove their waggons over the Alleghanies into Tennessee and Kentucky, or those that about the beginning of the century floated in such numbers down tho Ohio Itiver in flat-bottomed boats of all sizes and kinds, were empire builders of heroic proportions. The axe with which they felled forests, the rifle with which they quelled panther and Indian, are as deserving of honour as the sword and shield of the mediaeval knight. Their achievements form the theme of a A'eritable American epic, which Cooper has written for all time in his '" Leather Stocking Tales." t

It has been intimated above that the population of the United States was not entirely English. Foreign admixture w^as particularly seen in Pennsylvania and Xew York, and partly accounted for the political and ecclesiastical confusion that marked these States ;

* I.e., beyond the main area of settlement or beyond tide-water.

I And Governor Theodore Roosevelt in his excellent voUmies entitled The Winning of the West, but loosely speaking there had been for some time no foreign immigration worth mentioning, and the average American of 1801 was little more than a colonial Englishman. He aped English fashions in dress and literature; he had the coloniaFs self-deprecatory ways, combined with the latter's conceit and ignorance. He was only too likely to be thin-skinned and loud-mouthed and did not change greatly for the better until two generations had passed. But he was destined soon to be aroused from his Arcadian sluggishness. The democratic doctrines of Jefferson took hold upon him, the vast extent of the Louisiana Purchase fired his imagination, Fulton's successful experiment upon the Hudson River ushered in for him the age of steam and developed his inventive capacity, the struggle forced upon him by Great Britain and iSTapoleon awakened his sense of nationality. He opened his eyes and saw liimself to be possessed of natural resources of soil and climate such as had fallen to the citizen of no other country. His character underwent a great change. In a generation he had established a pure democracy and laid tho foundations of a material greatness " beyond the dreams of avarice." In another generation he had preserved, through the greatest civil war of modern times, both his institutions and his material development. In a generation more he had exploited a continent, had developed a civilisation tremendous in its possibilities, and was reaching out for trade and possessions beyond the seas. If the territorial development of America in the nineteenth century is marvellous, the change in the character of the American is scarcely less so, xA.nd yet the century has produced no man who as man measures up to Washington or epitomises his age as Eranklin did.

CHAPTER 11.

THE ^'E\V REGIME.

The American people did not enter upon the nineteenth century with all the confidence that befits youth. They had, indeed, just administered a rebuke to the political party in power — those Federalists who had encourag-ed the warlike flurry against France, who had piled up taxes, who had passed the Alien and Sedition Laws to suppress freedom of speech ; but they were by no means certain that the favourite statesman of the masses, Thomas Jefferson, would be permitted to succeed John Adams in the executive chair. xVfter much excitement and intrigue a majority of the presidential electors, who were then in the main chosen by the State legislatures, had been secured for the Democratic-Republican candidates ; but unfortunately they had cast their votes evenly for Jefferson and his running-mate, Aaron Burr of Xew York, who had been picked out for the Vice-Presidency. As the Constitution stood, this meant that the Lower Llouse of Congress, voting by States, must decide which of the two should become President." But the Sixth Congress then in session at "Washington, which was still but a half-built village, was in the hands of a Federalist majority who were evidently anxious to defeat the will of the people and to perpetuate their own power. They

* See Appendix A., article 2, section 1,

THE NEW REGIME. H

had at least two ways, both nefarious, of doing this. They could fail to elect by March 4th, the day on which a new Administration was due, and could then run the government by some extra-constitutional, i.e.j revolutionary means; or they could tamper with Burr, a tricky politician, secure compromising pledges from him, and then in return elect him over their most radical and redoubtable opponent, Jefferson. There was more danger that the latter course Avould be pursued than that the former would bo risked ; for Burr early showed himself walling to receive advances, and Jefferson was such an object of suspicion to every Federalist community that any unfairness to him would be condoned by the constituents of each congressman so offending.

Such being the political situation, it is quite clear that the entire American people must have passed the month of January, 1801, in a state of turmoil and perturbation. In their previous difficulties they had looked to Washington for counsel and guidance; but alas ! his voice had been silent for a year. The Federalists, especially in Xew England, displayed all the chagrin natural to a defeated party and prophesied a reign of anarchy and the downfall of the Republic. The Democratic-Republicans felt thwarted and perplexed, and uncertain whether they might not have to secure their rights by armed force. The political leaders were meanwhile resorting to more peaceful means of persuasion ; but those were days of slow posts and the period of suspense must have seemed interminable. Finally, however, in the second week of February, the House began to ballot, and by the 17th of that month Federalist resistance to the will of the people had been broken. Jefferson was chosen President, the Vice-Presidency, which he was juat leaving, falling to Burr. To this result Jefferson's inveterate rival, Alexander Hamilton, had contributed effectually, though not perhaps with full magnanimity.'^ Knowing Burr to be corrupt and Jefferson to be honest, he was patriotic enough to lend his great influence to the latter, whose political principles he nevertheless reprobated. This action of Hamilton's, corresponding as it did with the wishes of the people and with the sense of rectitude of moderate Federalists like James A. Bayard of Delaware, relieved the country from its great strain and also furnished a ground of confidence for contemporary and future patriotism. Love of country had won a signal triumph over intense partisariship, and some at least of the gloomy forebodings of the aristocratic party had been set at naught by that party's most distinguished leader. Jefferson could henceforward preach with more confidence his comfortable doctrine of the ultimate supremacy of law and right in a government based upon popular support.

i^either of the two great leaders who, to use Jefferson's expressive phrases, had been pitted against one another in Washington's cabinet like gamecocks, could have understood at the time the full force of Hamilton's dramatic intervention in the electoral crisis. It meant nothing less than that the party which had carried the new Republic over the trying period of organisation under the Constitution of 1787, the party which had drawn to itself the bulk of the wealthy, the well-born, and the cultivated inhabitants of the older States, especially of ^ew England, the party which had promoted, under trained

* In his famous letter to Bayard he \vas unnecessarily hard on Jefferson.

THE NEW REGIME. I3