صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

which it appeared that John Adams was elected President, and Thomas Jefferson Vice-President, for the ensuing four years. On the 4th of March, they were inducted to office, attended by General Washington. Soon after which, the late President retired to his seat at Mount Vernon.

General C. C. Pinckney, had been appointed minister to France, but the directory refused to receive him as such. The French cruisers began to seize and condemn American vessels, under pretexts the most unjustifiable. To prevent war, Mr. Adams appointed three envoys extraordinary to the French republic, General Pinckney, Mr. Marshall, and Mr. Gerry.

Before the envoys could be acknowledged by the directory, money was demanded of them as a tribute. This demand was repelled. The great strength of the republic was then stated: it was said that Austria was humbled, Great Britain would soon be conquered, and safety for America would soon depend altogether on France. It was also declared that they, the French, possessed in the United States, the means of rendering odious the envoys and the American government.

The conversations and proceedings of the envoys were soon after despatched to America. Their publication excited general indignation against the French directory. The envoys returned. Meanwhile the French cruisers captured every American vessel that could be found, bearing the flag of the United States.

1798. Measures were adopted in Congress for retaliation and defence. A régular provisional army was established, and the President authorised to appoint officers.

General Washington was appointed, by the unanimous consent of the Senate, Lieutenant-General and commander of all the armies raised, or to be raised, in the United States. The navy was increased, and reprisals made on the water.

1799. The President had declared his determination not again to make overtures or send a minister to France till he was assured of their proper reception; but over

fures being indirectly made by the French government for a renewal of negotiations, three envoys were sent to Paris; where they found the government in the hands of Bonaparte, who had not partaken of the transactions which had embroiled the two countries. A peace was the consequence.

In the night of the 13th of December, General Washington was seized with an inflammatory affection of the windpipe, occasioned by an exposure to a slight rain the day before. A cough, difficult deglutition, pain, fever, and laborious respiration, ensued.

Physicians were sent for in the morning; but medical skill was unavailing. He breathed his last at half past eleven, Saturday evening. His body was deposited in the family vault the next Wednesday, attended by military honours.

The information of his death reached Philadelphia on Monday. Congress immediately adjourned. The next day, resolutions were adopted expressive of the grief of the members; and a committee was appointed to devise a mode by which the national feelings should be expressed.

The committee recommended the erection of a marble monument at the city of Washington, under which to deposite his body; that an oration be delivered at the German Lutheran Church before both houses; that it be recommended to the people of the United States to wear crape on the left arm thirty days, and that the President write a letter of condolence to Mrs. Washington, and request her consent to the removal of the body of her departed husband,

The resolutions were passed unanimously. General Henry Lee delivered a solemn and eloquent oration. The whole nation appeared in sorrow. Eulogies and funeral processions were almost universal through the country." The monument, however, has never been erected. That the great events of the political as well as military life of General Washington should be commemorated, could not be pleasing to those who had condemned, and who continued to condemn the whole course of his administration."*

1800. Agreeable to the law passed for that purpose, the seat of government was transferred from Philadelphia to the city of Washington.

Parties being nearly equally divided, the electioneering campaign for President and Vice-President commenced, and was continued with much warmth, and much bitterness, on both sides. At the close, a small majority appeared in favour of Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. The constitution providing that the person having the greatest number of votes should be President, and Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Burr, having an equal number, it became the duty of the House of Representatives, voting by states, to decide who should be President.

The ballot was taken, for several days in succession, (Feb. 1801,) before a decision was had; the federal party generally voting for Mr. Burr; the democratic party for Mr. Jefferson. After much heat and animosity, both in the house and abroad, Mr. Jefferson was at length elected President.

During the session previous to the retirement of Mr. Adams, an act was passed amending the judiciary system, and appointing sixteen new judges. On the 4th: of March Mr. Jefferson was inaugurated; and delivered a speech expressive of his political opinions, and declaring the principles on which he intended to administer the government.

He commenced his administration by removing from office a great part of those whose political sentiments were opposite to his own; and the honours and emoluments of whose offices were the greatest; justifying the measure on the ground that offices had almost exclusively been bestowed on the adherents of one party.

* Marshall.

† The law authorising the President to send aliens out of the country, and the law to purish the abuse of speech and the press, commonly called the sedition law; together with the acts for raising a small army, and imposing a direct tax and internal duties-all served to increase the opposition to the administration of Mr. Adams.

Two important subjects occupied the attention of the first session of Congress under Mr. Jefferson's Presidency: the abolition of the internal taxes, and the repeal of the act altering the United States' courts, and creating sixteen new judges. Both these subjects were debated a great length of time in both houses, with much eloquence, argument and warmth. The repealing act was carried, and the internal taxes abolished.

1803. The intendant at New-Orleans, in violation of our treaty with Spain, denied to the United States the use of that port as a place of deposite. A proposition was brought forward in the Senate for seizing and holding that place by force. After an animated discussion, this measure was abandoned: and, by the direction of Mr. Jefferson, the whole country of Louisiana was purchased of the French government, to whom it had been transferred by Spain, for the sum of fifteen millions of dollars.

1804. On account of some political altercation, General Hamilton was challenged to a duel by Aaron Burr, Vice-President of the United States. General Hamilton fell. He was one of the ablest of men, and most disinterested of patriots. His death was the source of severe sorrow to his personal and political friends; and scarcely less to a large part of his political enemies.

Samuel Chase, one of the judges of the supreme court of the United States, was impeached by the house of Representatives, and tried by the Senate, sitting as a high court of impeachment, in February, 1805. His trial lasted nearly a month, when he was acquitted of all the charges brought against him. Mr. Jefferson was re-chosen President, and George Clinton VicePresident.

A war had been carried on between the United States and Tripoli, from the commencement of Mr. Jefferson's administration. The Philadelphia had been grounded near the port of Tripoli; taken possession of by the Tripolitans and the crew made prisoners. The vessel was afterwards burnt by the Americans. Some brilliant actions had been performed near the city of Tripoli, on the part of the Americans, but nothing decisive had taken place.

William Eaton, who had been for several years consul at Tunis, proceeded to Egypt, in the autumn of 1804, in search of the elder brother of the reigning bashaw of Tripoli, the rightful heir to the throne, who had been forced from his right by the usurper. Eaton having found the ex-bashaw, proceeded with him and a small detachment of Christians, Arabs, &c. through the desert of Barca; and, in the spring, after a sharp conflict, got possession of the city of Derne, the capital of a large province belonging to the king of Tripoli.

His forces were here so increased, and the cause of the ex-bashaw had become so popular, that he had every prospect of being able, with the co-operation of the navy, to reduce the city of Tripoli, and set free the captives without ransom. Mr. Lear, had, however, been authorised to treat with the reigning bashaw; who hearing of the success of his brother and Eaton, agreed to terms of adjustment. A peace was concluded, and hostilities ceased.

In the autumn of 1806, Aaron Burr was detected in an enterprise of great moment, the separation of the western states from the Union, and the subjugation of New-Orleans. The plan had long been in contemplation, and his utmost exertion and intrigue had not been wanting to its accomplishment.

He had, however, but few adherents, before his plans were discovered, and by the vigilance of government, were altogether thwarted. Burr was arrested on a charge of treason, committed within the district of Virginia, The next summer he underwent a very long trial at Richmond; but no overt act of treason being proved against him in that state, he was released.

June, 1807. The captain of the British ship Leopard, then lying in Lynnhaven bay, having ascertained that several deserters were on board the Chesapeake, at Norfolk, commanded by Commodore Barron, re

« السابقةمتابعة »