The Life of John Marshall (Volume 2 of 4)

And altho' I am too old [Thomas Marshall was nearly sixty-five years of age when he wrote this letter] and infirm for active services, (for which I pray our country may not feel a call) yet my voice shall ever be excited in opposition to foreign influence, (from whence the greatest danger seems to threaten, as well as against internal foes) and in support of a manly, firm, and independent, exercise of those constitutional rights, which belong to the President, and Government of the United States. And, even opinions, have their effect.

John Adams, Esq.

President of the

United States.

I am Sir with the mostentire respect and esteemYour very humble Servt,T. Marshall.

(Thomas Marshall to Adams, April 28, 1797; MS., Dept. of State.)

546

See infra, chaps. xi and xii.

547

Marshall to his wife, July 2, 1797; MS.

548

Sedgwick to King, June 24, 1797; King, ii, 192.

549

Marshall to his wife, July 5, 1797; MS.

550

Marshall to Washington, July 7, 1797; MS., Lib. Cong.

551

Marshall to his wife, July 11, 1797; MS.

552

This, of course, was untrue, at that time. Marshall probably listened with polite interest to Adams, who was a master of the subject, and agreed with him. Thus Adams was impressed, as is the way of human nature.

553

Adams to Gerry, July 17, 1797; Works: Adams, viii, 549.

554

Aurora, July 17, 1797.

555

Aurora, July 19, 1797. For documents given envoys by the Government, see Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., Class I, ii, 153.

556

Marshall to Secretary of State, July 10, 1797; Memorandum by Pickering; Pickering MSS., in Proc., Mass. Hist. Soc., xxi, 177.

557

Marshall to his wife, "The Bay of Delaware," July 20, 1797; MS.

558

Washington's remarks on Monroe's "View"; Writings: Ford, xiii, 452.

559

See McMaster, ii, 257-59, 319, 370. But Monroe, although shallow, was well meaning; and he had good excuse for over-enthusiasm; for his instructions were: "Let it be seen that in case of a war with any nation on earth, we shall consider France as our first and natural ally." (Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., Class I, ii, 669.)

560

"View of the Conduct of the Executive of the United States, etc.," by James Monroe (Philadelphia, Bache, Publisher, 1797). This pamphlet is printed in full in Monroe's Writings: Hamilton, iii, as an Appendix.

Washington did not deign to notice Monroe's attack publicly; but on the margin of Monroe's book answered every point. Extracts from Monroe's "View" and Washington's comments thereon are given in Washington's Writings: Ford, xiii, 452-90.

Jefferson not only approved but commended Monroe's attack on Washington. (See Jefferson to Monroe, Oct. 25, 1797; Works: Ford, viii, 344-46.) It is more than probable that he helped circulate it. (Jefferson to Eppes, Dec. 21, 1797; ib., 347; and to Madison, Feb. 8, 1798; ib., 362; see also Jefferson to Monroe, Dec. 27; ib., 350. "Your book was later coming than was to have been wished: however it works irresistibly. It would have been very gratifying to you to hear the unqualified eulogies … by all who are not hostile to it from principle.")

561

Ticknor, ii, 113.

562

For a condensed but accurate and impartial statement of Monroe's conduct while Minister, see Gilman: James Monroe (American Statesmen Series), 36-73.

563

Paine to editors of the Bien-Informé, Sept. 27, 1797; Writings: Conway, iii, 368-69.

564

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 55-63.

565

See condensed summary of the American case in instructions to Pinckney, Marshall, and Gerry; ib., 153-57.

566

Ib., 64; and for numerous other examples see ib., 28-64.

567

Ticknor, ii, 113.

568

Pinckney to Secretary of State, Amsterdam, Feb. 18, 1797; Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., vii, 10.

569

See Barras's speech in Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 12.

570

See Allen: Naval War with France, 31-33.

571

Adams, Message to Congress, May 16, 1797; Richardson, i, 235-36; also, Works: Adams, ix, 111-18.

572

Gibbs, ii, 171-72.

573

Hamilton proposed Jefferson or Madison. (Hamilton to Pickering, March 22, 1797; Lodge: Cabot, 101.)

574

Works: Adams, ix, 111-18.

575

Ib.

576

Gibbs, i, 467, 469, and footnote to 530-31.

577

Austin: Gerry, ii, 134-35.

578

Jefferson to Gerry, June 21, 1797; Works: Ford, viii, 314. This letter flattered Gerry's vanity and nullified Adams's prudent advice to him given a few days later. (See infra.)

579

Sedgwick to King, June 24, 1797; King, ii, 193.

580

McHenry to Adams, in Cabinet meeting, 1797; Steiner, 224.

581

Adams to Gerry, July 8, 1797; Works: Adams, viii, 547-48. Nine days later the President again admonishes Gerry. While expressing confidence in him, the President tells Gerry that "Some have expressed … fears of an unaccommodating disposition [in Gerry] and others of an obstinacy that will risk great things to secure small ones.

"Some have observed that there is, at present, a happy and perfect harmony among all our ministers abroad, and have expressed apprehension that your appointment might occasion an interruption of it." (Adams to Gerry, July 17, 1797; ib., 549.)

582

Marshall took the commission and instructions of John Quincy Adams as the American Minister to Prussia (Writings, J.Q.A.: Ford, ii, footnote to 216), to which post the younger Adams had been appointed by Washington because of his brilliant "Publicola" essays.

583

Marshall, to Washington, The Hague, Sept. 15, 1797; Washington MSS., Lib. Cong. See citations ib., infra. (Sparks MSS., Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., lxvi; also Amer. Hist. Rev., ii, no. 2, Jan., 1897.)

584

Pinckney and his family had been living in Holland for almost seven months. (Pinckney to Pickering, Feb. 8, 1797; Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 10.)

585

Marshall to his wife, The Hague, Sept. 9, 1797, MS. Marshall's brother had been in The Hague July 30, but had gone to Berlin. Vans Murray to J. Q. Adams, July 30, 1797; Letters: Ford, 358. Apparently the brothers did not meet, notwithstanding the critical state of the Fairfax contract.

586

Marshall to Washington, The Hague, Sept. 15, 1797; Amer. Hist. Rev., ii, no. 2, Jan., 1897; and MS., Lib. Cong.

587

See infra, next chapter.

588

Washington to Marshall, Dec. 4, 1797; Writings: Ford, xiii, 432-34.

589

To justify the violence of the 18th Fructidor, the Directory asserted that the French elections, in which a majority of conservatives and anti-revolutionists were returned and General Pichegru chosen President of the French Legislature, were parts of a royal conspiracy to destroy liberty and again place a king upon the throne of France. In these elections the French liberals, who were not in the army, did not vote; while all conservatives, who wished above all things for a stable and orderly government of law and for peace with other countries, flocked to the polls.

Among the latter, of course, were the few Royalists who still remained in France. Such, at least, was the view Marshall took of this episode. To understand Marshall's subsequent career, too much weight cannot be given this fact and, indeed, all the startling events in France during the six historic months of Marshall's stay in Paris.

But Marshall did not take into account the vital fact that the French soldiers had no chance to vote at this election. They were scattered far and wide – in Italy, Germany, and elsewhere. Yet these very men were the soul of the Revolutionary cause. And the private soldiers were more enraged by the result of the French elections than their generals – even than General Augereau, who was tigerish in his wrath.

They felt that, while they were fighting on the battlefield, they had been betrayed at the ballot box. To the soldiers of France the revolution of the 18th Fructidor was the overthrow of their enemies in their own country. The army felt that it had answered with loyal bayonets a conspiracy of treasonable ballots. It now seems probable that the soldiers and officers of the French armies were right in this view.

Pinckney was absurdly accused of interfering in the elections in behalf of the "Royalist Conspiracy." (Vans Murray to J. Q. Adams, April 3, 1798; Letters: Ford, 391.) Such a thing, of course, was perfectly impossible.

590

Marshall to Lee, Antwerp, Sept. 22, 1797; MS., New York Pub. Lib.

591

Gouverneur Morris to Washington, Feb., 1793; Morris, ii, 37. While Morris was an aristocrat, thoroughly hostile to democracy and without sympathy with or understanding of the French Revolution, his statements of facts have proved to be generally accurate. (See Lyman: Diplomacy of the United States, i, 352, on corruption of the Directory.)

592

Morris to Pinckney, Aug. 13, 1797; Morris, ii, 51.

593

Loliée: Talleyrand and His Times, 170-71.

594

King to Secretary of State, Dispatch no. 54, Nov. 18, 1797; King, ii, 243.

595

Marshall's Journal, official copy, Pickering Papers, Mass. Hist. Soc., 1.

596

Loliée: Talleyrand and His Times, 147; and Blennerhassett: Talleyrand, ii, 256-57.

597

Talleyrand to Mme. de Staël, quoted in McCabe: Talleyrand, 137.

598

Memoirs of Talleyrand: Broglie's ed., i, 179-82; also see McCabe's summary in his Talleyrand, 136-38. Talleyrand was greatly impressed by the statement of a New Jersey farmer, who wished to see Bingham rather than President Washington because he had heard that Bingham was "so wealthy… Throughout America I met with a similar love of money," says Talleyrand. (Memoirs of Talleyrand: Broglie's ed., i, 180.) In this estimate of American character during that period, Talleyrand did not differ from other travelers, nor, indeed, from the opinion of most Americans who expressed themselves upon this subject. (See vol. i, chaps. vii, and viii, of this work.)

599

Talleyrand as quoted in Pickering to King, Nov. 7, 1798; Pickering: Pickering, ii, 429.

600

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 158.

601

Memoirs of Talleyrand: Stewarton, ii, 10.

602

Pinckney was the only one of the envoys who could speak French. He had received a finished education in England at Westminster and Oxford and afterward had studied in France at the Royal Military College at Caen.

603

Marshall and Talleyrand were forty-two years of age, Pinckney fifty-one, and Gerry fifty-three.

604

King to Talleyrand, London, Aug. 3, 1797; King, ii, 206-08.

605

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 158; Marshall's Journal, Official Copy; MS., Mass. Hist. Soc., 2. The envoys' dispatches to the Secretary of State were prepared by Marshall, largely, from his Journal. Citations will be from the dispatches except when not including matter set out exclusively in Marshall's Journal.

606

Marshall's Journal, Oct. 11, 2-4.

607

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 8-11, and 158. Fulwar Skipwith was consul; but Mountflorence was connected with the office.

608

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 157. Italics are mine.

609

Marshall's Journal, Oct. 15, 4-5.

610

Paris made an impression on the envoys as different as their temperaments. Vans Murray records the effect on Gerry, who had written to his friends in Boston of "how handsomely they [the envoys] were received in Paris and how hopeful he is of settlement!!!"

"Good God – he has mistaken the lamps of Paris for an illumination on his arrival," writes our alarmed Minister at The Hague, "and the salutations of fisherwomen for a procession of chaste matrons hailing the great Pacificator!.. His foible is to mistake things of common worldly politeness for deference to his rank of which he rarely loses the idea… Gerry is no more fit to enter the labyrinth of Paris as a town – alone – than an innocent is, much less formed to play a game with the political genius of that city … without some very steady friend at his elbow… Of all men in America he is … the least qualify'd to play a part in Paris, either among the men or the women – he is too virtuous for the last – too little acquainted with the world and himself for the first." (Vans Murray to J. Q. Adams, April 13, 1798; Letters: Ford, 394.)

611

Marshall's Journal, 5.

612

Ib., Oct. 17, 6.

613

Probably the same Hottenguer who had helped Marshall's brother negotiate the Fairfax loan in Amsterdam. (Supra, chap. iv.)

614

Marshall's Journal, Oct. 17, 6.

615

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 158; Marshall's Journal, 6-7.

616

Marshall's Journal, 7-8.

617

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 158.

618

Marshall's Journal, Oct. 20, 8-9.

619

Marshall's Journal, Oct. 20, 8-9.

620

Supra, 226.

621

Directing the capture of enemy goods on American ships, thus nullifying the declaration in the Franco-American Treaty that "free bottoms make free goods."

622

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 159.

623

Marshall's Journal, Oct. 20, 10. Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 159.

624

Marshall's Journal, Oct. 21, 10-11.

625

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 159-60.

626

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 159-60.

627

By "national" lands, Marshall refers to the confiscated estates.

628

Marshall to Washington, Paris, Oct. 24 (postscript, 27th), 1797: Amer. Hist. Rev., Jan., 1897, ii, 301-03; also, Washington MSS., Lib. Cong.; or Sparks MSS., Mass. Hist. Soc.

629

Marshall's Journal, Oct. 26, 12.

630

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 161-62.

631

Marshall's Journal, Oct. 27, 16-17. This statement of the American case by Marshall is given in the dispatches, which Marshall prepared as coming from the envoys generally. (See Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 161-62.)

632

Marshall's Journal, Oct. 23, 11-12.

633

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 163; Marshall's Journal, Oct. 29, 21-22.

634

Marshall's Journal, Oct. 23, 12.

635

Marshall's Journal, Oct. 28, 18-19.

636

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 163.

637

"Infinite pains have been taken there [in France] to spread universally the idea that there are, in America, only two parties, the one entirely devoted to France and the other to England." (J. Q. Adams to his father, The Hague, July 2, 1797; Writings, J. Q. A.: Ford, ii, 181.)

638

Marshall's Journal, Oct. 30, 25-26; Am St. Prs., For. Rel., 164.

639

"The French were extremely desirous of seeing Mr. Jefferson President; … they exerted themselves to the utmost in favor of his election [in 1796]; … they made a great point of his success." (Harper to his Constituents, Jan. 5, 1797; Bayard Papers: Donnan, 25; and see supra, chaps. i, ii, iii, and iv, of this volume.)

640

See supra, chap. iii, 86 et seq.

641

Washington to King, June 25, 1797; King, ii, 194.

642

King to Murray, March 31, 1798; ib., 294.

643

Smith to King, Philadelphia, April 3, 1797; King, ii, 165.

644

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 163-64.

645

Marshall's Journal, Nov. 4, 31.

646

Ib., 31.

647

Marshall's Journal, Nov. 8, 33.

648

Marshall to Lee, Nov. 3, 1797; MS., Lib. Cong. Lee was Attorney-General. Marshall's letter was in cipher.

649

Marshall to Lee, Nov. 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11; MS., Lib. Cong.

650

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 166.

651

Marshall to his wife, Paris, Nov. 27, 1797; MS.

652

King to Pinckney, Marshall, and Gerry, Nov. 15, 1797; enclosing Dispatch no. 52 to Pinckney; King, ii, 240-41. See ib., 245; and Dec. 9, 1797; ib., 247.

653

Pinckney to King, Paris, Dec. 14, 1797; King, ii, 259-60.

654

Talleyrand, who gave the fête, wrote: "I spared no trouble to make it brilliant and attractive; although in this I experienced some difficulty on account of the vulgarity of the directors' wives who, of course, enjoyed precedence over all other ladies." (Memoirs of Talleyrand: Broglie's ed., i, 197; also see Sloane: Life of Napoleon, ii, 20; and Lanfrey: Life of Napoleon, i, 254-57.)

655

"At first sight he [Bonaparte] seemed … to have a charming face, so much do the halo of victory, fine eyes, a pale and almost consumptive look, become a young hero." (Memoirs of Talleyrand: Broglie's ed., i, 196.)

656

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 167. This lady was "understood to be Madame de Villette, the celebrated Belle and Bonne of Voltaire." (Lyman: Diplomacy of the United States, ii, footnote to 336.) Lyman says that "as to the lady an intimation is given that that part of the affair was not much to the credit of the Americans." (And see Austin: Gerry, ii, footnote to 202.) Madame de Villette was the widow of a Royalist colonel. Her brother, an officer in the King's service, was killed while defending Marie Antoinette. Robespierre proscribed Madame de Villette and she was one of a group confined in prison awaiting the guillotine, of whom only a few escaped. (Ib.)

657

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 167.

658

Beaumarchais was one of the most picturesque figures of that theatrical period. He is generally known to-day only as the author of the operas, The Barber of Seville and the Marriage of Figaro. His suit was to recover a debt for supplies furnished the Americans during the Revolution. Silas Deane, for our Government, made the original contract with Beaumarchais. In addition to the contest before the courts, in which Marshall was Beaumarchais's attorney, the matter was before Congress three times during the claimant's life and, through his heirs, twice after his death. In 1835 the case was settled for 800,000 francs, which was nearly 2,500,000 francs less than Alexander Hamilton, in an investigation, ordered by Congress, found to be due the Frenchman; and 3,500,000 livres less than Silas Deane reported that America owed Beaumarchais.

Arthur Lee, Beaumarchais's enemy, to whom Congress in 1787 left the adjustment, had declared that the Frenchman owed the United States two million francs. This prejudiced report was the cause of almost a half-century of dispute, and of gross injustice. (See Loménie: Beaumarchais et son temps; also, Channing, iii, 283, and references in the footnote; and Perkins: France in the American Revolution. Also see Henry to Beaumarchais, Jan. 8, 1785; Henry, iii, 264, in which Henry says: "I therefore feel myself gratified in seeing, as I think, ground for hope that yourself, and those worthy and suffering of ours in your nation, who in so friendly a manner advanced their money and goods when we were in want, will be satisfied that nothing has been omitted which lay in our power towards paying them.")

659

Marshall's Journal, ii, Dec. 17, 36.

660

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 167; Marshall's Journal, Dec. 17, 36-37.

661

Marshall's Journal, Dec. 17, 38. The "Rôle d'équipage" was a form of ship's papers required by the French Government which it was practically impossible for American masters to furnish; yet, without it, their vessels were liable to capture by French ships under one of the many offensive decrees of the French Government.

662

Marshall's Journal, Dec. 17, 38.

663

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 168.

664

This account in the dispatches is puzzling, for Talleyrand spoke English perfectly.

665

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 230.

666

King to Secretary of State (in cipher) London, Dec. 23, 1797; King, ii, 261. King to Pinckney, Marshall, and Gerry, Dec. 23, 1797; ib., 263.

667

King to Pinckney (in cipher) London, Dec. 24, 1797; King, ii, 263-64.

668

Pinckney to King, Dec. 27, 1797; King, ii, 266-67.

669

Marshall's Journal, Dec. 18, 1797, 38.

670

Ib., Jan. 2, 1798, 39.

671

Marshall's Journal, Jan. 2 and 10, 39.

672

Ib., Jan. 22, 40.

673

Ib., 40.