The Life of John Marshall (Volume 2 of 4)

741

Jefferson to Madison, Jan. 25, 1798; Works: Ford, viii, 259.

742

Jefferson to Madison, Feb. 15, 1798; Works: Ford, viii, 368.

743

Skipwith to Jefferson, Paris, March 17, 1798; Gibbs, ii, 160.

744

Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 152, 157, 159, 161, 166.

745

Ib. The President at this time communicated only the first dispatch, which was not in cipher. It merely stated that there was no hope that the envoys would be received and that a new decree directed the capture of all neutral ships carrying any British goods whatever. (Ib., 157.)

746

Ib., 152; Richardson, i, 264; and Works: Adams, ix, 156.

747

Jefferson to Madison, March 21, 1798; Works: Ford, viii, 386.

748

Jefferson to Monroe, March 21, 1798; ib., 388-89.

749

Jefferson to Madison, March 29, 1798; ib., 392.

750

Jefferson to Pendleton, April 2, 1798; ib., 394-97.

751

Aurora, April 3, 1798.

752

Otis to Mason, March 22, 1798; Morison, i, 90.

753

Jonathan Mason to Otis, March 30, 1798; ib., 93. And see the valuable New England Federalist correspondence of the time in ib.

754

Aurora, April 7, 1798. A week later, under the caption, "The Catastrophe," the Aurora began the publication of a series of ably written articles excusing the conduct of the French officials and condemning that of Marshall and Pinckney.

755

Troup to King, June 3, 1798; King, ii, 329. Ten thousand copies of the dispatches were ordered printed and distributed at public expense. Eighteen hundred were sent to Virginia alone. (Pickering to Marshall, July 24, 1798; Pickering MSS., Mass. Hist. Soc.) This was the beginning of the printing and distributing of public documents by the National Government. (Hildreth, ii, 217.)

756

Pickering's statement, April 3, 1798; Am. St. Prs., ii, 157.

757

Jefferson to Madison, April 5, 1798; Works: Ford, viii, 398.

758

Ib.

759

Pickering to Jay, April 9, 1798; Jay: Johnston, iv, 236.

760

Jefferson to Madison, April 26, 1798; Works: Ford, viii, 411. Among the Republicans who deserted their posts Jefferson names Giles, Nicholas, and Clopton.

761

Jefferson to Madison, April 6, 1798; ib., 403.

762

Ib., April 12, 1798; ib., 404.

763

Jefferson to Carr, April 12, 1798; Works: Ford, viii, 405-06.

764

Madison to Jefferson, April 15, 1798; Writings: Hunt, vi, 315.

765

Washington to Pickering, April 16, 1798; Writings: Ford, xiii, 495.

766

Washington to Hamilton, May 27, 1798; ib., xiv, 6-7.

767

Sedgwick to King, May 1, 1798; King, ii, 319.

768

Ames to Gore, Dec. 18, 1798; Works: Ames, i, 245-46.

769

Troup to King, June 3, 1798; King, ii, 329.

770

Jefferson to Madison, May 3, 1797, Works: Ford, viii, 413.

771

Jefferson to Monroe, March 7, 1801; ib., ix, 203.

772

Higginson to Pickering, June 26, 1798; Pickering MSS., Mass. Hist. Soc.

773

Jonathan Mason to Otis, May 28, 1798; Morison, i, 95-96.

774

Troup to King, June 3, 1798; King, ii, 329.

775

Ib., 330; and see letters of Bingham, Lawrence, and Cabot to King, ib., 331-34. From the newspapers of the time, McMaster has drawn a brilliant picture of the thrilling and dramatic scenes which all over the United States marked the change in the temper of the people. (McMaster, ii, 376 et seq.)

776

"Hail Columbia exacts not less reverence in America than the Marseillaise Hymn in France and Rule Britannia in England." (Davis, 128.)

777

Norfolk (Va.) Herald, June 25, 1798.

778

Troup to King, June 23, 1798; King, ii, 349.

779

Even Franklin's welcome on his first return from diplomatic service in England did not equal the Marshall demonstration.

780

A strenuously Republican environ of Philadelphia.

781

Gazette of the United States, June 20, 1798; see also Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser, Wednesday, June 20, 1798.

782

Gazette of the United States, June 21, 1798.

783

Aurora, June 21, 1798; and see ib., June 20.

784

Jefferson to Madison, June 21, 1798; Works: Ford, viii, 439-40.

785

General Marshall at O'Eller's Hotel, June 23, 1798; Jefferson MSS., Lib. Cong.

786

Green Bag, viii, 482-83.

787

Marshall to Jefferson; Jefferson MSS., Lib. Cong.

788

Pickering to Marshall, Sept. 20, 1798; Pickering MSS., Mass. Hist. Soc.

789

This sentiment has been ascribed to General C. C. Pinckney, Marshall's colleague on the X. Y. Z. mission. But it was first used at the Philadelphia banquet to Marshall. Pinckney's nearest approach to it was his loud, and wrathful, "No! not a sixpence!" when Hottenguer made one of his incessant demands for money. (See supra, 273.)

790

Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser, Wednesday, June 20, 1798; Pa. Hist. Soc. The toasts drank at this dinner to Marshall illustrate the popular spirit at that particular moment. They also furnish good examples of the vocabulary of Federalism at the period of its revival and only two years before its annihilation by Jefferson's new party: —

"1. The United States – 'free, sovereign & independent.'

"2. The people and the Government – 'one and indivisible.'

"3. The President – 'some other hand must be found to sign the ignominious deed' that would surrender the sovereignty of his Country.

"4. General Washington – 'His name a rampart & the Knowledge that he lives a bulwark against mean and secret enemies of his Country's Peace.'

"5. General Pinckney. ''Tis not in mortals to command success: He has done more – deserved it.'

"6. The Officers & Soldiers of the American Army. 'May glory be their Theme, Victory their Companion, & Gratitude & Love their Rewards.'

"7. The Navy of the United States. 'May its infant efforts, like those of Hercules, be the Presage of its future Greatness.'

"8. The Militia. 'May they never cease to combine the Valor of the Soldier with the Virtues of the Citizen.'

"9. The Gallant Youth of America. 'May they disdain to hold as Tenants at Will, the Independence inherited from their ancestors.'

"10. The Heroes who fell in the Revolutionary War. 'May their memory never be dishonored by a surrender of the Freedom purchased with their Blood.'

"11. The American Eagle. 'May it regard with disdain the crowing of the Gallic cock.'

"12. Union & Valour – infallible Antidotes against diplomatic skill.

"13. Millions for Defense but not a cent for Tribute.

"14. The first duties of a good citizen – Reverence for the Laws and Respect for the Magistracy.

"15. Agriculture & Commerce – A Dissolution of whose partnership will be the Bankruptcy of both.

"16. The Constitution – 'Esto Perpetua.'

"After General Marshall Retired: —

"General Marshall – The man whom his country delights to Honor." (Ib., June 25, 1798.)

791

Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser, Monday, June 25, 1798; and Gazette of the United States, Saturday, June 23, 1798.

792

Ib., June 25, 1798; and June 23, 1798.

793

Adams to Congress, June 21, 1798; Works: Adams, ix, 158; and Richardson, i, 266. Italics are mine.

794

Infra, chap. xii.

795

Marshall to Washington, June 22, 1798; MS., Lib. Cong.

796

Aurora, June 30, 1798.

797

Gazette of the United States, June 28, 1797.

798

Columbian Centinel, Boston, Sept. 22, 1798.

799

Norfolk (Va.) Herald, Aug. 30, 1798.

800

Troup to King, Nov. 16, 1798; King, ii, 465; and see same to same, July 10, 1798; ib., 363.

801

Carey's United States Recorder, Aug. 16, 1798.

802

McMaster, ii, 380-85; Hildreth, v, 203 et seq.

803

McMaster, ii, 380-85.

804

"Oration of Robert Treat Paine to Young Men of Boston," July 17, 1799; in Works of Robert Treat Paine, ed. 1812, 301 et seq.

805

Washington to Murray, Aug. 10, 1798; Writings: Ford, xiv, 72.

806

Norfolk (Va.) Herald, July 10, 1798.

807

Washington to Jas. Marshall, July 18, 1798; MS., N.Y. Pub. Lib. And see Washington to Murray, Aug. 10, 1798; Writings: Ford, xiv, 71. "I … hope that … when the Despots of France find how much they … have been deceived by their partisans among us, … that an appeal to arms … will be … unnecessary." (Ib.)

808

Troup to King, July 10, 1798; King, ii, 362.

809

Skipwith to Jefferson, March 17, 1798; Gibbs, ii, 158.

810

Supra, chap. viii.

811

Skipwith to Jefferson, March 17, 1798; Gibbs, ii, 158.

812

Washington to Adams, July 4, 1798; Writings: Ford, xiv, 15-19.

813

See infra, chap. xii.

814

See Marshall (1st ed.), v, footnote to 743; Hildreth, v, 218; also McMaster, ii, 390.

815

Jefferson to Carr, April 12, 1798; Works: Ford, viii, 405.

816

Jefferson to Stuart, June 8, 1798; ib., 436.

817

Washington to McHenry, May, 1798; Writings: Ford, xiii, footnote to 495.

818

Jefferson to Gerry, Jan. 26, 1799; Works: Ford, ix, 21-22.

819

Troup to King, July 10, 1798; King, ii, 363.

820

King to Hamilton, London, July 14, 1798; ib., 365.

821

Smith to Wolcott, Lisbon, Aug. 14, postscript Aug. 17, 1798; Gibbs, ii, 120.

822

King to Troup, July 31, 1798; King, ii, 377.

823

King to Pickering, July 19, 1798; ib., 370.

824

Murray to J. Q. Adams, June 8, 1787; Letters: Ford, 416.

825

Troup to King, July 10, 1798; King, ii, 363.

826

Sedgwick to King, July 1, 1798; ib., 353.

827

Cabot to King, July 2, 1798; ib., 353.

828

Higginson to Wolcott, Sept. 11, 1798; Gibbs, ii, 107.

829

King to Hamilton, London, July 14, 1798; King, ii, 365.

830

Thomas Pinckney to King, July 18, 1798; King, ii, 369.

831

Pickering to King, Sept. 15, 1798, quoting Pinckney; ib., 414. Italics are Pinckney's.

832

Troup to King, Oct. 2, 1798; ib., 432-33.

833

Washington to Pickering, Oct. 26, 1798; Writings: Ford, xiv, 121.

834

Marshall to Pickering, Aug. 11, 1798; Pickering MSS., Mass. Hist. Soc.

835

Beaumarchais.

836

Pickering to Marshall, Sept. 4, 1798; Pickering MSS., Mass. Hist. Soc.

837

Marshall to Secretary of State, Sept. 15, 1798; ib.

838

Pickering to Marshall, Oct. 19, 1798; ib.

839

Cabot to King, April 26, 1798; King, iii, 9.

840

Pickering to Marshall, Nov. 5, 1798; Pickering MSS.

841

Marshall to Pickering, Nov. 12, 1798; ib.

842

See next chapter.

843

Marshall to Pickering, Oct. 15, 1798; Pickering MSS., Mass. Hist. Soc.

844

Marshall to Pickering, Oct. 22, 1798; ib., Mass. Hist. Soc., xxiii, 251.

845

Jefferson to Pendleton, Jan. 29, 1799; Works: Ford, ix, 27-28.

846

Marshall to Pickering, November 12, 1798; Pickering MSS., Mass. Hist. Soc.

847

Marshall to Secretary of State, Feb. 19, 1799; ib.

848

Marshall's fourth child, born January 15, 1798, during Marshall's absence in France.

849

Marshall to his wife, Richmond, Aug. 18, 1798; MS. Mrs. Marshall remained in Winchester, where her husband had hurried to see her after leaving Philadelphia. Her nervous malady had grown much worse during Marshall's absence. Mrs. Carrington had been "more than usual occupied with my poor sister Marshall … who fell into a deep melancholy. Her husband, who might by his usual tenderness (had he been here) have dissipated this frightful gloom, was long detained in France… The malady increased." (Mrs. Carrington to Miss C[airns], 1800; Carrington MSS.)

850

Marshall to Pickering, August 11, 1798; Pickering MSS., Mass. Hist. Soc., xxiii, 33.

851

Pickering to Marshall, Sept. 4, 1798; ib.

852

Archives, State Department. Thirty-five hundred dollars was placed at Marshall's disposal when he sailed for France, five hundred dollars in specie and the remainder by letter of credit on governments and European bankers. (Marshall to Secretary of State, July 10, 1797; Pickering MSS. Also Archives, State Department.) He drew two thousand dollars more when he arrived at Philadelphia on his return (June 23; ib.), and $14,463.97 on Oct. 13 (ib.).

853

The "Anas"; Works: Ford, i, 355.

854

Marshall to Paulding, April 4, 1835; Lippincott's Magazine (1868), ii, 624-25.

855

Washington to Bushrod Washington, Aug. 27, 1798; Writings: Ford, xiv, 75.

856

Ib. In September, 1797, when Marshall was absent on the X. Y. Z. mission, Washington received a letter from one "John Langhorne" of Albemarle County. Worded with skillful cunning, it was designed to draw from the retired President imprudent expressions that could be used against him and the Federalists. It praised him, denounced his detractors, and begged him to disregard their assaults. (Langhorne to Washington, Sept. 25, 1797; Writings: Sparks, xi, 501.) Washington answered vaguely. (Washington to Langhorne, Oct. 15, 1797; Writings: Ford, xiii, 428-30.) John Nicholas discovered that the Langhorne letter had been posted at Charlottesville; that no person of that name lived in the vicinity; and that Washington's answer was called for at the Charlottesville post-office (where Jefferson posted and received letters) by a person closely connected with the master of Monticello. It was suspected, therefore, that Jefferson was the author of the fictitious letter. The mystery caused Washington much worry and has never been cleared up. (See Washington to Nicholas, Nov. 30, 1797; ib., footnote to 429-30; to Bushrod Washington, March 8, 1798; ib., 448; to Nicholas, March 8, 1798; ib., 449-50.) It is not known what advice Marshall gave Washington when the latter asked for his opinion; but from his lifelong conduct in such matters and his strong repugnance to personal disputes, it is probable that Marshall advised that the matter be dropped.

857

Paulding: Washington, ii, 191-92.

858

Marshall to Paulding, supra.

859

Marshall to Paulding, supra. This letter was in answer to one from Paulding asking Marshall for the facts as to Washington's part in inducing Marshall to run for Congress.

860

Pickering to Marshall, Sept. 20, 1798; Pickering MSS., Mass. Hist. Soc.

861

Ib.

862

Adams to Pickering, Sept. 14, 1798; Works: Adams, viii, 595.

863

Adams to Pickering, Sept. 26, 1798; Works: Adams, viii, 597.

864

Adams to Rush, June 25, 1807; Old Family Letters, 152.

865

Wood, 260. Wood's book was "suppressed" by Aaron Burr, who bought the plates and printer's rights. It consists of dull attacks on prominent Federalists. Jefferson's friends charged that Burr suppressed it because of his friendship for the Federalist leaders. (See Cheetham's letters to Jefferson, Dec. 29, 1801, Jan. 30, 1802, Proceedings, Mass. Hist. Soc. (April and May, 1907) 51-58.) Soon afterward Jefferson began his warfare on Burr.

866

Marshall to Pickering, Oct. 15, 1798; Pickering MSS., Mass. Hist. Soc. This campaign was unusually acrimonious everywhere. "This Electioneering is worse than the Devil." (Smith to Bayard, Aug. 2, 1798; Bayard Papers: Donnan, 69.)

867

See Statutes at Large, 566, 570, 577, for Alien Acts of June 18, June 25, and July 6, and ib., 196, for Sedition Law of July 14, 1798.

868

This section was not made a campaign issue by the Republicans.

869

Jefferson to Madison, May 10, 1798; Works: Ford, viii, 417; and to Monroe, May 21, 1798; ib., 423. Jefferson's first harsh word was to Madison, June 7, 1798; ib., 434.

870

Hamilton to Wolcott, June 29, 1798; Works: Lodge, x, 295.

871

Madison to Jefferson, May 20, 1798; Writings: Hunt, vi, 320.

872

For the Federalists' justification of the Alien and Sedition Laws see Gibbs, ii, 78 et seq.

873

As a matter of fact, the anger of Republican leaders was chiefly caused by their belief that the Alien and Sedition Laws were aimed at the Republican Party as such, and this, indeed, was true.

874

Jefferson to S. T. Mason, Oct. 11, 1798; Works: Ford, viii, 450.

875

Washington to Spotswood, Nov. 22, 1798; Writings: Ford, xiv, 121-22.

876

Washington to Murray, Dec. 26, 1798; Writings: Ford, xiv, 132.

877

Washington to Bushrod Washington, Dec. 31, 1798; ib., 135-36. Judge Addison's charge was an able if intemperate interpretation of the Sedition Law. The Republican newspapers assailed and ridiculed this very effectively in the presidential campaign of 1800. "Alexander Addison has published in a volume a number of his charges to juries – and precious charges they are – brimstone and saltpetre, assifœtida and train oil." (Aurora, Dec. 6, 1800. See Chief Justice Ellsworth's comments upon Judge Addison's charge in Flanders, ii, 193.)

878

Marshall to Pickering, Aug. 11, 1798; Pickering MSS., Mass. Hist. Soc.

879

Oct. 11, 1798. The questions of "Freeholder" were, undoubtedly, written with Marshall's knowledge. Indeed a careful study of them leads one to suspect that he wrote or suggested them himself.

880

The Times and Virginia Advertiser, Alexandria, Virginia, October 11, 1798. This paper, however, does not give "Freeholder's" questions. The Columbian Centinel, Boston, October 20, 1798, prints both questions and answers, but makes several errors in the latter. The correct version is given in Appendix III, infra, where "Freeholder's" questions and Marshall's answers appear in full.

881

Ames to Gore, Dec. 18, 1798; Works: Ames, i, 245-47.

882

Sedgwick to Pickering, Oct. 23, 1798; Pickering MSS., Mass. Hist. Soc.

883

Columbian Centinel (Boston), Oct. 24, 1798.

884

Cabot to King, April 26, 1799; King, iii, 9.

885

This was not true. The Fairfax embarrassment, alone, caused Marshall to go to France in 1797.

886

Pickering to Sedgwick, Nov. 6, 1798; Pickering MSS., Mass. Hist. Soc.

887

Murray to J. Q. Adams, March 22, 1799; Letters: Ford, 530. Murray had been a member of Congress and a minor Federalist politician. By "us" he means the extreme Federalist politicians.

888

Marshall to Pickering, Oct. 22, 1798; Pickering MSS., Mass. Hist. Soc.

889

Adams: Gallatin, 212.

890

"Freeholder" had not asked Marshall what he thought of the constitutionality of these laws.

891

Thompson: The Letters of Curtius. John Thompson of Petersburg was one of the most brilliant young men that even Virginia ever produced. See Adams: Gallatin, 212, 227. There is an interesting resemblance between the uncommon talents and fate of young John Thompson and those of Francis Walker Gilmer. Both were remarkably intellectual and learned; the characters of both were clean, fine, and high. Both were uncommonly handsome men. Neither of them had a strong physical constitution; and both died at a very early age. Had John Thompson and Francis Walker Gilmer lived, their names would have been added to that wonderful list of men that the Virginia of that period gave to the country.

The intellectual brilliancy and power, and the lofty character of Thompson and Gilmer, their feeble physical basis and their early passing seem like the last effort of that epochal human impulse which produced Henry, Madison, Mason, Jefferson, Marshall, and Washington.

892

Taylor to Jefferson, June 25, 1798; as quoted in Branch Historical Papers, ii, 225. See entire letter, ib., 271-76.

893

For an excellent treatment of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions see Von Holst: Constitutional History of the United States, i, chap. iv.

894

Nicholas to Jefferson, Oct. 5, 1798; quoted by Channing in "Kentucky Resolutions of 1798"; Amer. Hist. Rev., xx, no. 2, Jan., 1915, 333-36.

895

Writing nearly a quarter of a century later, Jefferson states that Nicholas, Breckenridge, and he conferred on the matter; that his draft of the "Kentucky Resolutions" was the result of this conference; and that he "strictly required" their "solemn assurance" that no one else should know that he was their author. (Jefferson to Breckenridge, Dec. 11, 1821; Works: Ford, viii, 459-60.)

Although this letter of Jefferson is positive and, in its particulars, detailed and specific, Professor Channing has demonstrated that Jefferson's memory was at fault; that no such conference took place; and that Jefferson sent the resolutions to Nicholas, who placed them in the hands of Breckenridge for introduction in the Kentucky Legislature; and that Breckenridge and Nicholas both thought that the former should not even see Jefferson, lest the real authorship of the resolutions be detected. (See "The Kentucky Resolutions": Channing, in Amer. Hist. Rev., xx, no. 2, Jan., 1915, 333-36.)