XIII.

other Federal critics. Yet he was not, on that account, CHAPTER any the less busy, according to his established method, in stimulating others to the risk which he himself so sens- 1799. itively shunned.

In a letter of seeming sympathy and condolence, the Jan. 17. same one already quoted for another purpose, Gerry was most earnestly pressed-and that, indeed, seems to have been the sole object of the letter- to imitate Monroe's example, and to attack the administration and his late colleagues "by full communication and unrestrained details, postponing motives of delicacy to those of duty." "It rests with you," so the letter went on, "to come forward independently, to make your stand on the high ground of your own character, to disregard calumny, and to be borne above it on the shoulders of your grateful fellow-citizens, or to sink into the humble oblivion to which the Federalists, self-called, have secretly condemned you, and even to be happy if they will indulge you with oblivion, while they have beamed on your colleagues meridian splendor." But while thus urging, by this and many other like appeals to his pride, ambition, and revenge, the aged Gerry to a course which could hardly fail to expose him to the most bitter personal attacks, we find in this same letter striking marks not only of Jefferson's constitutional timidity and exceeding care for his own comfort and safety, but also of that transparent simplicity with which he so often betrays himself in a manner almost incredible in one so artful and shrewd. "My trust in you," so the letter concludes, "leaves me without a fear that this letter, meant as a confidential communication of my impressions, may ever go out of your own hand, or be suffered in any wise to commit my name. Indeed, besides the accidents which might happen to it, even under your care, considering

CHAPTER the accident of death to which you are liable, I think it XIII. safest to pray you, after reading it as often as you please,

1799. to destroy at least the second and third leaves. The

Jan. 26.

first contains principles only, which I fear not to avow; but the second and third contain facts stated for your information, and which, though sacredly conformable to my firm belief, yet would be galling to some, and expose me to illiberal attacks. I therefore repeat my prayer to burn the second and third leaves. And did we ever expect to see the day when, breathing nothing but sentiments of love to our country, and its freedom and happiness, our correspondence must be as secret as if we were hatching its destruction? Adieu, my friend! and accept my sincere and affectionate salutations. I need not add my signature."

Three days after the date of this letter to Gerry, Jefferson wrote to urge the superannuated Pendleton-now upward of eighty, and who, since the days of the Virginia Convention, in which the ratification of the Federal Constitution had been discussed, seems completely to have changed opinions with Patrick Henry-to take up his pen to expose, in a manner "short, simple, and level to every capacity," the wicked use made of the French negotiation, particularly the X, Y, Z dish cooked up by Marshall, where "the swindlers are made to appear as the French government." Of this exposition, having for its object to show the sincerity and good will of the French Directory, and the "dupery" practiced on the late envoys, it was proposed to print ten or twelve thousand in hand-bills, to be dispersed over the Union under the franks of members of Congress a work to which Pendleton was urged by many compliments on the weight of his character and his happy talent at that sort of comFeb. 14. position. In a second letter, a fortnight afterward, Pen

dleton was again pressed to the same undertaking, and CHAPTER furnished with additional suggestions toward it.

XIII.

Meanwhile, this indefatigable prompter addressed a 1799. letter to Madison, urging him also into the field. "The Feb. 5. public sentiment being now on the careen, and many heavy circumstances about to fall into the Republican scale, we are sensible that this summer is the season for systematic exertions and sacrifices. The engine is the press. Every man must lay his purse and his pen under contribution. As to the former, it is possible I may be obliged to assume something for you. As to the latter, let me pray and beseech you to set apart a certain portion of every post-day to write what may be proper for the public. Send it to me while here, and when I go away I will let you know to whom you may send, so that your name shall be sacredly secret. You can render such incalculable services in this way as to lessen the effect of our loss of your services here." The discord in the ranks of the Federalists, occasioned by the nomination of a new embassy to France, became at once perceptible to Jefferson's watchful eye, and nothing could exceed the delight with which he communicated to his political friends this new omen of victory.

In the midst of the excitement which this nomination occasioned, Lyon, having served out the term of his imprisonment and paid his fine, appeared in the House and Feb. 20. took his seat.

Harper immediately offered a resolution for his expulsion, alleging for cause "that he had been convicted of being a malicious and seditious person, of a depraved mind and wicked and diabolical disposition, guilty of publishing libels against the president, with design to bring the government of the United States into contempt." Nicholas warmly objected to the introduction into the

CHAPTER resolution of what he insisted to be the mere formal and

XIII. technical language of the indictment; to which Bayard 1799. replied that the resolution stated nothing but what a jury had found to be true. The resolution was carried Feb. 22. forty-nine to forty-five; but as it required two thirds to expel, Lyon still kept his seat. But when the session closed, he did not venture to return to Vermont, where not only more indictments, but pecuniary difficulties also, hung over his head. Since he had ventured into politics, his affairs had fallen into confusion, and he was now insolvent. Instead of returning home, he took refuge with his friend Senator Mason, of Virginia, Callender's late host, and, in a letter to the governor of Kentucky, proclaimed his intention to emigrate to that state at the head of a thousand families from Vermont.

It does not appear that either the senators or the representatives of Kentucky had ventured to lay before their respective houses the nullifying resolutions of that state, notwithstanding the injunction contained in them to that effect; nor had the resolutions either of Kentucky or Virginia found any favor with the state Legislatures. Those of Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont already had, or did soon after, expressly disavow the pretense set up of a right in the state Legislatures to decide on the validity of acts of Congress. The elaborate and argumentative reply of Massachusetts maintained also, in addition, the constitutionality of the Alien and Sedition Laws; the Alien Law being justified under the express power given to Congress to provide for the common defense against external enemies, the Sedition Law under the power necessarily implied to sustain the officers of the government in the discharge of their duty against combinations

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ALIEN AND SEDITION LAW S.

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and misrepresentations tending to interrupt the execu- CHAPTER tion of the laws, if not, indeed, to the overthrow of the government.

But, though the resolutions of Kentucky and Virginia met with no countenance from the sister states, and seem not even to have been laid before Congress, many petitions from private individuals had been presented in the course of the session, praying for a repeal of the Alien and Sedition Laws, and, indeed, of all the late acts for augmenting the army, navy, and revenue. These peti

tions had been referred to a special committee, Goodrich being chairman, by whom a very elaborate report had been made, maintaining both the constitutionality and the expediency of the laws in question.

1799.

When this report came up for discussion, the Feder- Feb. 25. alists, satisfied with the argument of their committee, were for taking the question at once, especially as the session was so near its close, and so many important matters remained to be disposed of. "They held a caucus," so Jefferson wrote, "and determined that not a word should be spoken on their side in answer to any thing which should be said on the other. Gallatin took up the Alien, and Nicholas the Sedition Law, but after a little while of common silence they began to enter into loud conversations, laugh, cough, &c., so that for the last hour of these gentlemen's speaking, they must have had the lungs of a vendue-master to have been heard. Livingston, however, attempted to speak, but after a few sentences the speaker called him to order, and told him that what he was saying was not to the question. It was impossible to proceed. The question was taken, and carried in favor of the report, fifty-two to forty-eight. The real strength of the two parties is fifty-six to fifty, but two of the latter have not attended during this session."