XV. Dec. CHAPTER XV. PENNSYLVANIA, MASSACHUSETTS, NEW YORK. STATE TRI- CHAPTER KNOWING how conservative M'Kean was in most of his opinions, the Federalists had hoped, notwithstanding 1799. the constitutional ardor with which he had espoused the politics of the opposition, that, having secured his election as governor of Pennsylvania, he would abate somewhat of that party vehemence by which he had been distinguished as a candidate. But the current which had set so fiercely in the new governor's mind against all who had opposed his election, could not be suddenly turned backward, or even stopped. In reply to the addresses of congratulation which his partisans poured in upon him, he stigmatized those who had voted against him as either enemies to the principles of the American Revolution, emissaries of foreign governments, or office-holders or expectants of office under the Federal government. No Dec. 17. sooner was he inducted into office, than, to punish his enemies and reward his friends, he made a vigorous use of the extensive powers of removal and appointment vested in him, being the first, in fact, to introduce that system into American politics, at least upon an extensive and sweeping scale. Governor Mifflin, who died shortly after XV. the accession of M'Kean, in filling up the civil offices un- CHAPTER der the new state Constitution, at a time when party lines were not yet distinctly drawn, and while he himself 1799. was a Federalist, had naturally enough made his selections, to a very great extent, from among his fellow-soldiers in the Revolutionary army; and of these a very large proportion had taken the Federal side, and had voted and electioneered in favor of Ross. In the eyes of McKean, this was a crime more than sufficient to counterbalance any merits or services, however great; and almost all those so guilty were speedily removed from office, and their places filled by M'Kean's own partisans. Some of his appointments occasioned great surprise, especially that of Breckenridge, who had been so much implicated in the Whisky Insurrection, to a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court. But, while thus sacrificing to party with the one hand, he paid a tribute to legal learning on the other, in raising to the place of chief justice his late associate Shippen. During the Revolution Shippen had remained quiescent, being personally inclined to the British side. Upon the reorganization of the courts under the new Constitution, he had been appointed a judge by Mifflin. Even Breckenridge, whatever his eccentricities and faults as a man or a politician, proved, in his judicial character, no disgrace to the bench. The Assembly having met at Lancaster, whither, by an act of the preceding session, the seat of government had been removed, the Senate, in which the Federal- 1800. ists had a majority, after taking a month to consider Jan. 18. M'Kean's inaugural address, very briefly expressed in their answer their satisfaction at the sentiments announced in it; after which they proceeded to read the governor a lecture on the denunciatory style of his answers to addresses, and his proscriptive system of re CHAPTER movals from office. To this address the governor made XV. a long and caustic replication, in which, with his usual 1800. force of argument, he totally denied the right of the SenJan. 28. ate to intermeddle, under the form of an address, with matters over which the Constitution had given them no control, except in case of an impeachment of the governor for misbehavior in office. These papers seemed, indeed, by their tone, to carry one back to the times of the struggles between the proprietary governors and the provincial assemblies. In the House, where the governor's friends had a small majority, party spirit ran also very high, giving rise to some singular scenes. Pending a debate on a new election act, by one section of which the Republican members proposed to deprive of the right of voting all citizens of Pennsylvania enlisting into the military service of the Feb. 20. United States, the pacific Logan, who had volunteered a voyage across the Atlantic to preserve peace between France and America, while leaving the House just after an adjournment, got into a bout of fisticuffs with a Federal member, whose speech against this disfranchizing provision the doctor had chosen to pronounce "d―n nonsense" a criticism which that member had answered with a blow, which Logan's Quakerism did not prevent his returning. In Massachusetts the opposition had brought forward Gerry as a candidate for governor. Sumner had died in office, and Strong was selected by the Federalists as their candidate. The election was very warmly contestApril 7. ed. Strong was chosen by 19,600 to 17,000 votes; but the support given to Gerry was quite enough to prove that, even in Massachusetts, the predominancy of the Federalists was not entirely secure. Already, before the adjournment of Congress, had taken XV. April 30 pray 1. place the important election in New York, on which so CHAPTER much depended. Hamilton on the one side, and Burr on the other, made every possible exertion. The oppo- 1800. sition Assembly ticket for the city of New York was very skillfully drawn up. At the head of it was placed the name of ex-Governor Clinton, and it bore also the names of Brockholst Livingston as the representative of the Livingston interest, and of General Gates, who, having sold his plantation and emancipated his slaves in Virginia, had resided for the last ten years in New York and the vicinity, being known as the warm political friend of Burr. It was only, however, by great efforts on Burr's part that either Clinton or Livingston had consented to this use of their names. Clinton considered his own pretensions to the presidency to have been unreasonably overlooked in favor of Jefferson, whom he regarded as a trickster and trimmer; nor was Livingston particularly anxious to promote the success of the presidential ticket agreed on. Burr went beyond every body in all the arts of electioneering intrigue. The year before, upon the question of sustaining the Federal government against the insolence of the French Directory, the Federalists had carried the city by five hundred majority. Now, upon the question of the next presidency, the opposition had a majority nearly as great. There was, however, one resource left. The political year of New York commenced with July. There was time, therefore, to call the present Federal Assembly together, and to pass an act similar to one proposed at the late session, but rejected by the combined votes of the more ardent of both parties, for an election by districts. Should such a bill pass, the Federalists might secure at least five out of the twelve votes to which New York was entitled. A letter was accordingly written to Jay May 7. CHAPTER "by one of the most distinguished and influential FedXV. eralists in the United States"-such was Jay's endorse1800. ment on the back of the letter, which probably came from Hamilton-suggesting an extra session of the Legislature, to consider the expediency of such an act. Such a procedure, the letter admitted, might be esteemed to transcend the ordinary forms of delicacy and decorum; but the community's substantial interests ought not to be sacrificed to mere scruples of delicacy, while all means not contrary to good morals or to law ought to be employed to save the government from falling into the hands of a dangerous party, which itself never scrupled to take every advantage of its opponents that the most strained construction of the law could be made to justify. This reasoning might seem conclusive, as, indeed, it often has done, to warm party politicians, who identify beyond the power of separation, so far, at least, as they are concerned, the success of their own party and the salvation of the state. But to Jay, who, after a long experience, had finally made up his mind to retire from public life, it did not seem so certain that the welfare of the state would be permanently promoted by a precarious party triumph secured by means open to cavil, and which might serve as provocation to procedures of a character still more questionable. He therefore endorsed the letter as "proposing a measure for party purposes which he did not think it became him to adopt ;" and, with a magnanimity very contrary to what he himself had experienced at the hands of those who called themselves Republicans, while they stigmatized him as a monarchist, declined to take any step toward defeating the popular will, as so recently expressed. The spring circuit of the Federal courts, which com |