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CHAPTER gested a renewal of the old treaties, but with a reservation to the United States of a right to buy off their ob1800. ligations by the payment of certain fixed sums; but the French commissioners were not inclined to adopt this suggestion, which would still have thrown the balance of payments against France. They frankly acknowledged that, as France had no money, it was a great object with her to avoid the payment of indemnities at all; and they were, no doubt, the more encouraged to insist upon this, as the instructions of the former envoys, laid before Congress and published, had allowed of such a settlement.

Oct. 1.

As the instructions of the present envoys, more stringent than those of the former mission, did not allow them to accept either of the French offers, the alternative was either to abandon the negotiation, or to make a temporary arrangement, subject to rejection or approval by the American government, such as might relieve the United States from that position of semi-hostility in which they stood toward France-a position rendered every day more dangerous by the successes of Bonaparte and the growing prospect of a general European peace-or, should the war continue, might secure American commerce, as far as possible, against those abuses of belligerent rights, on the part of the French, under which it had suffered so much; saving also the great amount of captured American property on which the French Council of Prizes had not yet passed definitive sentence.

On this basis a convention was presently concluded; referring to future negotiation the indemnities mutually claimed, and the binding force of the old treaties, which, meanwhile, were to remain inoperative; providing for the mutual restoration of public ships taken by either party, as well as the restoration of all captured property, French

XV.

or American, not already condemned; also for the mu- CHAPTER tual payment of all debts due, whether by the government or by individuals; the commerce, and the public 1800. and private ships of either party, to enjoy in the ports of the other the privileges of the most favored nation. The remaining articles were principally devoted to the security of American commerce against those multiplied vexatious pretenses hitherto set up by the French cruisers, and countenanced by the government and the tribunals. The provision of the old treaty that free ships should make free goods was still retained in the new

convention.

Meanwhile, in America, the grand struggle destined to decide, for years to come, the policy and conduct of the Federal government, was fast approaching its crisis. Three, or, rather, four different modes of choosing electors of president and vice-president had been hitherto in use: a choice by the Legislature, either by joint ballot or concurrent vote; an election by the people, by general ticket, the whole number of electors being voted for on one ballot throughout the state; or a choice by districts. The latter method was evidently that which gave the fairest expression to public opinion, by approaching nearest to a direct vote. But those states which adopted it were placed at the disadvantage of being exposed to a division of their strength and neutralization of their vote; while the electors chosen by either of the other methods voted in a body on one side or the other, thus making the voice of the state decisively felt. This consideration had induced the two leading states of Massachusetts and Virginia to abandon the district system: in Virginia, where the party in opposition to the Federal government was overwhelmingly predominant, the choice had been given to the people by general ticket;

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CHAPTER in Massachusetts, where parties were more equally divided, it had been retained by the Legislature. In Ma 1800. ryland the Federalists controlled the state Senate, and, had they succeeded in carrying the House, they would also have adopted a choice by the Legislature; but in the Oct. 6. election for members of the House, which had just taken place, the opposition obtained a majority, and the choice by districts remained as before. Similar causes produced a similar result in North Carolina. In Pennsylvania, also, the opposition succeeded to their wishes in electing Oct. 14. a majority of the Lower House of Assembly; but the

Federalists still retained their majority in the Senate, Nov. 5. and when McKean called the Assembly together for the choice of electors, it was not so easy to arrange how it should be made. The Republicans were very eager for a choice by joint ballot, which would have given them the whole; but to this the Senate would not consent, except on terms such as would secure to the Federalists a share of the electors. They proposed that eight out of the fifteen might be the nominees of the House, the other seven to be nominated by the Senate. This offer, made in various shapes, was several times peremptorily rejected; but as, in the very close division of parties, one vote might determine the election, it was agreed Dec. 1. to at the last moment, and a bill was passed, by the provisions of which each house was to nominate eight candidates, from whom, by joint ballot, the fifteen electors were to be chosen. Pennsylvania, of course, stood eight opposition to seven Federal electors. A similar neutralization of political forces had taken place in the other states where the district system was maintained. ryland was equally divided; North Carolina elected eight opposition electors to four Federalists. The Federal ticket prevailed entire in the four New England states;

Ma

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also in New Jersey and Delaware. Opposition electors CHAPTER were chosen in New York, and in all the states south of the Potomac, the four Federalists in North Carolina 1800. excepted. In South Carolina, where the choice was by the Legislature, in which were many members of doubtful politics, the result had been regarded as very uncertain. The opposition offered to compromise on Jefferson and Pinckney; but, after consideration, the Federalists resolved to stand by their own ticket; which was lost, however, by from fifteen to eighteen votes in a house of one hundred and fifty-one members. This gave a majority of eight opposition electors in the colleges; but, even after this was known, the result still hung in suspense. It was not certain that the electors on either side would strictly conform to the party nominations, for the original intention of the Constitution was still so far respected that public opinion, as yet, conceded to the electors a certain private liberty of choice. Pinckney and Burr might be so far dropped, and the names of Jefferson and Adams substituted, as to bring in again the present incumbents, though, perhaps, with a change of position. Jefferson seems, with his usual dissimulation, still to have flattered Adams-easily imposed upon by such an appeal to his vanity-with the idea of having no higher ambition than to continue to serve under him. But the game did not lie entirely between Jefferson and Adams. Pinckney might get some Southern votes withheld from them both, and so, possibly, might be president; or, if all the electors conformed strictly to party nominations, what was to decide between Jefferson and Burr ?

The removal, under the provisions of the act of the first Congress, of the seat of government to the new Federal city on the Potomac, which took place in the course of the summer, might seem a sort of forerunner of the

CHAPTER transfer of Federal control from the North to the South; XV. and a fanciful mind might also discover, in the contrast 1800. between Philadelphia and the new City of Washington,

July 4.

a symbolization of the difference between Federal politics and those of the opposition. Looking merely to the accommodations already prepared, the removal might seem somewhat premature. Only the north wing of the Capitol was finished. That, however, had been fitted up so as to accommodate both houses of Congress. The president's house was completed externally, but the internal finishing was quite behindhand.

"There is one good tavern," so Wolcott wrote shortly after his arrival there, "about forty rods from the Capitol, and several other houses are built or erecting; but I do not see how the members of Congress can possibly secure lodgings, unless they will consent to live like scholars in a college or monks in a monastery, crowded ten or twenty in one house, and utterly secluded from society. The only resource for such as wish to live comfortably will be found in Georgetown, three miles distant, over as bad a road in winter as the clay grounds near Hartford. I have made every exertion to secure good lodgings near the office, but shall be compelled to take them at the distance of more than half a mile. There are, in fact, but few houses in any one place, and most of them small, miserable huts, which present au awful contrast to the public buildings. The people are poor, and, as far as I can judge, they live like fishes, by eating each other. All the ground for several miles around the city, being, in the opinion of the people, too valuable to be cultivated, remains unfenced. There are but few inclosures, even for gardens, and those are in bad order. You may look in almost any direction, over an extent of ground nearly as large as the city of New York,

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