To Shining Sea - Chapter 25
President Jefferson’s Message to Congress, December 8th 1801
The Unveiling of Canadian History, Volume 4.
To Shining Sea – Ireland, Haiti, and Louisiana, and the Idea of a Continental Republic, 1797 – 1804.
Part 3 – The Louisiana Frontier
Chapter 25 - President Jefferson’s Message to Congress, December 8th 1801
President Jefferson would begin to change former President Adams’s assistance to Saint-Domingue, in favor of appeasing France, in order to try to gain the territory of the Floridas, but would also begin to try to change the whole edifice of the federal government that had been constructed by President Washington.
The New York Evening Post (1st issue, November 16, 1801)
On September 28th 1801, James Madison wrote to Robert Livingston that he had learned that France’s ratification of the Convention had taken place on July 31st and that Mr. Appleton was on his way with it to the United States. Without waiting for its arrival, Madison informed Livingston that it was ‘the intention of the President that your departure for France should be hastened’. Livingston left Boston on October 15th and arrived at Paris on December 3rd. Appleton would arrive at the District of Columbia on November 4th, and on December 11th, President Jefferson sent the convention to the Senate, and received their advice and consent on December 19th.
In Madison’s letter of September 28th, Livingston read in his instructions that the President wished for friendly relations with France, but if it was true that France had been ceded the mouth of the Mississippi [i.e. New Orleans], then the American citizens may instead desire an alliance with Britain, and that Livingston should attempt the cession of the Floridas to the United States, as a way to restore their friendship with France.
Madison wrote that:
“… the President authorizes and charges you to give the fullest assurances of the friendship of the United States towards the French Republic, of their disposition as well as his own to cultivate a perfect harmony and good correspondence between the two nations, and of the sincere pleasure resulting from a termination of the late painful differences, in a manner that promises a return of mutual confidence, and beneficial intercourse …
From different sources, information has been received that by some transaction concluded or contemplated between France and Spain, the mouth of the Mississippi with certain portions of adjacent territory is to pass from the hands of the latter to the former nation. Such a change of our neighbours in that quarter, is of too momentous concern not to have engaged the most serious attention of the Executive …
You may perhaps find it eligible to remark on the frequent recurrence of war between France and Great Britain, the danger to which the Western settlements of the United States would be subject of being embroiled by military expeditions between Canada and Louisiana, the inquietude which would be excited in the Southern States, whose numerous slaves have been taught to regard the French as the patrons of their cause, and the tendency of a French neighbourhood, on this and other accounts, to inspire jealousies and apprehensions which may turn the thoughts of our citizens towards a closer connection with her rival, and possibly produce a crisis in which a very valuable part of her dominions would be exposed to the joint operation of a naval and territorial power …
Should it be found that the cession from Spain to France has irrevocably taken place, or certainly will take place, sound policy will require, in that state of things, that nothing be said or done which will unnecessarily irritate our future neighbours, or check the liberality which they may be disposed to exercise in relation to the trade and navigation through the mouth of the Mississippi …
In the next place it will deserve to be tried whether France cannot be induced to make over to the United States the Floridas, if included in the cession to her from Spain, or at least West Florida, through which several of our rivers, particularly the important river Mobile, empty themselves into the Sea. Such a proof on the part of France of good will towards the United States would contribute to reconcile the latter to an arrangement in itself much disrelished by them, and to strengthen the returning friendship between the two countries …
Should the Floridas neither have been ceded to France, nor be an acquisition contemplated by her, still it will be material, considering her intimate and influential relations to Spain, to dispose her to favor experiments on the part of the United States, for obtaining from Spain the cession in view. The interest which the latter has in cultivating her friendly dispositions, and the obligation she is under to satisfy our claims for spoliations, for doing which no other mode may be so convenient to her, are motives to which an appeal may be made with no inconsiderable force …”
Also, Livingston would learn of President jefferons’ change in policy regarding Saint-Domingue, and was instructed that:
“the peculiar and equivocal attitude taken by the island of Saint Domingo, makes it proper that you should fully understand the present relations of the United States to it. For this purpose you are herewith furnished with copies … of the Commission and instructions under which Mr. Lear went to that island as successor to Doctor Stevens. It may be proper to remark that no letter was addressed to the Chief of the island, either from the President or from this Department; it being thought right to avoid every form of intercourse that could excite suspicion or give offence to the French Republic. A strict and honorable neutrality has guided the President in this case, as it has done and will continue to do, in all his other decisions and transactions relating to foreign nations …”
This is similar to Madison’s letter to Lear on February 26th 1802, that:
“it is particularly the wish of the president that no just ground or specious pretext may be left for complaint or suspicion on the part of the French republic of a want of due respect for its authority in the government of the United States ... it will, as has been intimated to you, be better to leave the island altogether than to remain under circumstances which might hazard the confidence or good will of the French government … reports, as you well know, have long prevailed that a cession of Louisiana has been made to France by Spain. It is now conjectured by some that a part of the force allotted for St. Domingo is directly or eventually destined to take possession of that territory. Should any discoveries be made by you with respect to either of these points, you will be so good as to communicate them, and in cypher if the nature of the communication require that precaution.”
On December 8th, President Jefferson gave his first Message to Congress to his secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to deliver to Congress and to be read.
His message contained his vision of less government –
“I lay before you the result of the census lately taken of our inhabitants, to a conformity with which we are now to reduce the ensuing ratio of representation and taxation … Other circumstances, combined with the increase of numbers, have produced an augmentation of revenue arising from consumption, in a ratio far beyond that of population alone; and, though the changes in foreign relations now taking place, so desirably for the whole world, may for a season affect this branch of revenue, yet, weighing all probabilities of expense, as well as of income, there is reasonable ground of confidence that we may now safely dispense with all the internal taxes – comprehending excise, stamps, auctions, licenses, carriages, and refined sugars; to which the postage on newspapers may be added, to facilitate the progress of information; and that the remaining sources of revenue will be sufficient to provide for the support of Government, to pay the interest of the public debts, and to discharge the principals within shorter periods than the laws or the general expectation had contemplated …
These views, however, of reducing our burdens, are formed on the expectation that a sensible, and at the same time a salutary, reduction may take place in our habitual expenditures. For this purpose, those of the civil government, the army, and navy, will need revisal. When we consider that the Government is charged with the external and mutual relations only of these States; that the States themselves have principal care of our persons, our property, and our reputation, constituting the great field of human concerns, we may well doubt whether our organization is not too complicated, too expensive; whether offices and officers have not been multiplied unnecessarily, and sometimes injuriously to the service they were meant to promote ...
Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are then most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise ...”
General Hamilton would respond to the President’s Message to Congress by writing a series of 18 essays – ‘The Examination’, signed Lucius Crassus, and printed in the New-York Evening Post, starting December 17th 1801 and continuing until April 8th 1802. It would also be reprinted as a pamphlet, containing all 18 essays.
The New York Evening Post had been started by General Hamilton and his supporters during the summer of 1801, printing its first issue on November 16th –
“to diffuse among the people, correct information on all interesting subjects, to inculcate just principles in religion, morals, and politics; and to cultivate a taste for sound literature.”
The first editor, William Coleman, would also be entrusted by Hamilton to be the editor of the first edition of ‘The Federalist’ in 1802.
Unfortunately, within a week after its founding, the Evening Post announced the death of 20-year-old, Philip Hamilton, (Alexander’s eldest son) who was killed in a duel by George Eacker, at Weehawken, New Jersey on November 23rd 1801. Philip had confronted Eacker about a speech he had given to the Tammany Society, where he had said that Alexander Hamilton would not be opposed to overthrowing Jefferson’s presidency by force.
In ‘The Examination’ essays, General Hamilton criticized the President’s message –
“the bewitching tenets of that illuminated doctrine, which promises man, ere long, an emancipation from the burdens and restraints of government; giving a foretaste of that pure felicity which the apostles of this doctrine have predicted …
the Message of the President, by whatever motives it may have been dictated, is a performance which ought to alarm all who are anxious for the safety of our Government, for the respectability and welfare of our nation. It makes, or aims at making, a most prodigal sacrifice of constitutional energy, of sound principle, and of public interest, to the popularity of one man.’ [Examination #1].
Hamilton viewed the President’s Message as an attack on the American system of public credit – ‘the proposal to abandon at once the internal revenue of the country.’ [Examination #2]
Instead, he insisted, it should be spent for:
“military and naval preparations … the improvement of the communications between the different parts of our country ... to provide roads and bridges … [and] especially in the Western Territory … aqueducts and canals [and] institutions to promote agriculture and the arts ...”
Hamilton then corrects President Jefferson’s fallacy of ‘individual enterprise’:
“To suggestions of the last kind the adepts of the new-school [i.e. Jefferson’s school] have a ready answer: Industry will succeed and prosper in proportion as it is left to the exertions of individual enterprise.
This favorite dogma, when taken as a general rule, is true; but as an exclusive one, it is false, and leads to error in the administration of public affairs. In matters of industry, human enterprize ought, doubtless, to be left free in the main, not fettered by too much regulation; but practical politicians know that it may be beneficially stimulated by prudent aids and encouragements on the part of the Government. This is proved by numerous examples too tedious to be cited; examples which will be neglected only by indolent and temporising rulers, who love to loll in the lap of epicurean ease, and seem to imagine that to govern well, is to amuse the wondering multitude with sagacious aphorisms and oracular sayings.” [Examination #3]
[Note: Hamilton was equating Jefferson with the philosophy of Epicureanism.]
“What then are we to think of the ostentatious assurance in the Inaugural Speech as to the preservation of Public Faith? Was it given merely to amuse with agreeable, but deceptive sounds? Is it possible that it could have been intended to conceal the insidious design of aiming a deadly blow at a System which was opposed in its origin, and has been calumniated in every stage of its progress?
Alas! How deplorable will it be, should it ever become proverbial, that a President of the United States, like the Weird Sisters in Macbeth, ‘Keeps his promise to the ear, but breaks it to the sense’!” [Examination #4]
Essays 2, 3 and 4 should be read as a continuation of General Hamilton’s fight for a system of public credit, as he had earlier written, in his ‘Report Relative to a Provision for the Support of Public Credit’, presented to Congress in January 1790; and, again in his ‘Report on a plan for the Further Support of Public Credit’, presented to Congress in January 1795.
General Hamilton also undertook a defence of the American justice system –
“In the rage for change, or under the stimulus of a deep-rooted animosity against the former administrations, or for the sake of gaining popular favor by a profuse display of extraordinary zeal for economy, even our judiciary system has not passed unassailed.” [Examination #5]
“Perhaps it may be contended, that the Circuit Courts ought to be abolished altogether, and the business for which they are designed, left to the State Courts, with a right of appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. Indeed, it is probable that this was the true design of the intimation in the Message. A disposition to magnify the importance of the particular States, in derogation from that of the United States, is a feature in that communication, not to be mistaken.” [Examination #6]
He criticized President Jefferson’s ‘proposal to abolish all restriction on naturalization’ – a policy that contradicted his earlier thoughts from Jefferson’s own ‘Notes on Virginia’.
In 1781, in ‘Notes on Virginia’, Jefferson had written against unlimited immigration, that:
“we are to expect the greatest number of emigrants. They will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth; or if able to throw them off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded licentiousness, passing as is usual, from one extreme to another. It would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at the point of temperate liberty. Their principles with their language, they will transmit to their children. In proportion to their numbers, they will share with us in the legislation. They will infuse into it their spirit, warp and bias its direction, and render it a heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted mass.” [Examination #7]
General Hamilton instead proposed that:
“some reasonable term ought to be allowed to enable aliens to get rid of foreign and acquire American attachments; to learn the principles and imbibe the spirit of our government; and to admit of at least a probability of their feeling a real interest in our affairs. A residence of at least five years ought to be required.’ [Examination #8]
And he next wrote of the biggest problem –
“a disposition in our Chief Magistrate, far more partial to the state governments, than to our national government; to pull down rather than to build up our Federal edifice – to vilify the past administration of the latter – to court for himself popular favor by artifices not to be approved of, either for their dignity, their candor or their patriotism.” [Examination #9]
In the final essay [Examination #18], General Hamilton warned the citizens of America –
“mark the sequel and learn from it instruction! You have been since agitated to the center, to raise to the first station in your Government, the very man who, at a conjuncture when your safety and your welfare demanded his stay, early relinquished a subordinate, but exalted and very influential post, on a pretence as frivolous as it has proved to be insincere!”
[i.e. ‘the hollow pretence of a dislike to public office and a love of philosophic retirement’]
“Was he, like the virtuous Washington, forced from a beloved retreat, by the unanimous and urgent call of his country? No: he stalked forth the Champion of Faction, having never ceased in the shade of his retreat, by all the arts of intrigue, to prepare the way to that elevation, for which a restless ambition impatiently panted.”
[next week - chapter 26 - The Surrender of General Toussaint, May 1st 1802]
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