CHAPTER all its Republican predecessors had been sadly deficient; XVL and so far the comparison was much in its favor. But 1801. in point of spirit and talent it fell far short of the old organ, the Aurora, by which its editor was presently spoken of with some contempt as "silky, milky Smith" -epithets, like that employed by the Federalists, descriptive enough of the ever-ready adulation with which all the acts of the administration and its supporters were somewhat nauseously glossed over. Toward the Federalists, however, very little either of milkiness or of silkiness was displayed. The long, formal, pedantic disquisitions in which the editor delighted to indulge, exhibited, indeed, a cold, clammy, political rancor, altogether more detestable and less easy to forgive than the passionate hate and vindictive malice of the Aurora.

To the offices of Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, and Attorney General, left vacant by the res March 5. ignation of the late incumbents, Jefferson nominated

James Madison, Henry Dearborn, and Levi Lincoln, the latter an early leader of the opposition in Massachusetts, who had taken a seat in Congress prior to the close of the late session, having been chosen, after a warmly-contested election, to fill a vacancy in the Worcester district. As the Senate stood at present, still containing, as it did, of the members present a majority of Federalists, Jefferson did not think proper to make any further nominations; but, soon after the adjournment, May 15. he appointed as Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin, all along the financial member of the opposition, and who had come out, pending the presidential canvass, with a new pamphlet, in which he had undertaken to show an alarming increase of debt and expenditure. The Navy Department, after being refused by Chancellor Liv. July 22. ingston, was given to Robert Smith, brother of the Bal

XVI.

timore member of Congress. Livingston, however, hav- CHAPTER ing reached the age of sixty, and being obliged, under a Constitutional provision, to vacate the chancellorship of 1801. New York, consented to accept the embassy to France, to which he was nominated and confirmed previous to the adjournment of the Senate; but he did not embark till after the ratifications of the late convention had been

exchanged. Meanwhile Dawson, one of the Virginia members of Congress, familiarly known as "Beau Dawson," was dispatched to France in the sloop of war Maryland with the amended convention. He also carried a very gracious letter from Jefferson to Thomas Paine, offering him a passage to America on the return of the Maryland a security against British capture which Paine had been for some time anxious to get. Shortly after Dawson's departure, M. Pichon, already well known to us as secretary of the French legation at the Hague, arrived at Washington as French chargé des affaires.

Habersham was continued as post-master-general for some six months, under an injunction to employ "no printer, foreigner, or Revolutionary Tory in any of his offices;" but he presently gave way to Gideon Granger, a leader of the Connecticut Republicans, who had begun of late to show, for the first time, some decided signs of activity, and whom it was thought specially necessary to encourage and reward.

How Jefferson would fill up the executive departments had been a matter of a good deal of curiosity to the Federalists. Fitzsimmons had insisted, in a letter to Wolcott, that there were not among the Republicans men of sufficient talents and activity to carry out their own plans, and he repeated, as corresponding with his own experience, a saying of Steuben's, that he had known but two persons in Virginia fit to execute public busi

CHAPTER ness. And, in fact, all the appointments requiring much industry or labor were given to Northern men.

XVI.

1801.

With the change in the administration of the Federal government, a change not less important and not less decided took place in the hitherto doubtful and contested states, thus greatly strengthening the hands of Jefferson and his cabinet.

The triumph of the Republicans in the New York state election of 1800 had given them a majority in the Council of Appointment; and Jay, unable otherwise to withstand the claim on their part to appoint to offices independently of his nomination, had been obliged to adjourn the council, thus leaving the offices unfilled. At April. the ensuing gubernatorial election, George Clinton, again

Oct.

the Republican candidate, was chosen over Van Rensselaer, and the Federalists of New York were reduced to nearly the same insignificance as those of Pennsylvania. A convention, called to settle the question as to the powers of the Council of Appointment, of which Burr was the president, decided, against the letter of the Constitution and the opinion of Governors Clinton and Jay, to reduce the governor to a mere fifth member of the coun-` cil, with no greater power than any other member, except the right to preside. By this same convention, the number of the senators, which by the provisions of the Constitution had increased from twenty-four to fortythree, was fixed at thirty-six. De Witt Clinton, the governor's nephew, was a member of the council in ofJuly. fice at Clinton's accession, the same whose proceedings Jay had stopped by adjournment; also Ambrose Spencer, down to the end of the year 1799 a warm Federalist, but now just as warm a Republican, both very able and ambitious young men, and afterward greatly distinguished in the politics of New York. Before the decis

XVI.

ion of the convention, and in spite of the governor's pro- CHAPTER tests, they had already commenced, with the help of a third Republican member, a system of removals and ap- 1801. pointments similar to that introduced by M'Kean into the politics of Pennsylvania. Nor was this proscription confined to Federalists merely. Already a furious struggle had commenced between the Clintons and the Livingstons on the one hand, and Burr and his partisans on the other, which soon began to be carried on with the utmost bitterness. The friends and partisans of Burr were excluded from office not less scrupulously than Federalists, the appointments being made exclusively from those belonging to the Clinton and Livingston factions. this distribution the Livingstons came in for the lion's share. Not to mention inferior posts, the bench of the Supreme Court was mainly in their hands. The chancellorship having been given to Lansing, Morgan Lewis, connected by marriage with the Livingstons, was made chief justice, having for colleagues Brockholst Livingston and Smith Thompson, the latter also connected by marriage with the Livingston family.

In

The New Jersey Federalists, having the control of the state Legislature, had adopted a general ticket system of choosing representatives to Congress, expecting to secure a delegation entirely Federal; but the election had resulted in the triumph of the Democratic ticket by from five January. hundred to a thousand majority out of 29,000 votes. The state election, some nine months after, gave to the same October. party a majority in both branches of the Legislature, and secured the election of Richard Bloomfield, the Republican candidate for governor. The Republicans had triumphed, also, in Maryland, obtaining a sufficient majority in the January. House to overcome the Federal majority in the Senate, and to elect John F. Mercer as governor; and they soon suc- April

XVI.

CHAPTER ceeded in obtaining a majority in the Senate also. The election of representatives to Congress resulted in the 1801. choice of five Republicans and three Federalists. From Sept. Virginia only a single Federalist was elected to Congress. That party lost also, though not so badly, in the two Carolinas. Georgia, of course, went back to the Republicans. October. The election of David Hall, the Republican candidate for governor in the State of Delaware, left the Federalists. neither governor nor Legislature out of New England, the Legislature of Delaware alone excepted. Even in New April. England, Rhode Island was lost, the election there having resulted in choosing Republican members of Congress, and also a Republican General Assembly. Vermont was exceedingly doubtful, while Massachusetts itself seemed to be shaken. Strong, indeed, was rechosen governor; but the Republican ticket triumphed in Boston; and out of the fourteen representatives to Congress were chosen five Republicans, including Eustis from the Boston District.

Feb. 20. nents.

While thus triumphant throughout the states, already a somewhat troublesome subject pressed upon the new administration-the conduct to be observed respecting removals from office. The more violent partisans wished Jefferson to make a clean sweep of all his oppoM'Kean very early gave him a pointed hint on that head. Jefferson, as well as his partisans, had been exceedingly annoyed by the pertinacity of Adams in proceeding to fill up all vacancies, down to the very close of his administration; and a great clamor had been raised against these "midnight appointments," as, by a somewhat free figure of speech, they were called. Yet to adopt the proscriptive system of Pennsylvania and New York would not only give the lie to opinions expressed previously to his election, under circumstances which gave to that expression a near approach to a positive