XVII. port, engaged and captured the Meshouda, one of the CHAPTER Tripolitan cruisers lately blockaded at Gibraltar, but which, under pretense of having been sold to the Emper- 1803. or of Morocco, was endeavoring to get home. Not long May. after, another Tripolitan ship of war, the largest yet be- June. longing to the Bey, was attacked and blown up while attempting to get into the harbor. The four new vessels authorized at the late session, the Argus and Siren, brigs of eighteen guns, the Nautilus and Vixen, schooners of fourteen guns, rapidly completed, were dispatched as fast as they were ready. The frigates Constitution and Philadelphia were also sent out to relieve the other vessels, all of which presently returned home except the Enterprise. The command of the new squadron was given to Edward Preble, who hoisted his flag on board the Constitution. Both Algiers and Morocco had lately shown signs of hostility, in consequence of which the blockade of Tripoli had been abandoned, in order that the ships might be employed in giving convoy. The Philadelphia, Captain Bainbridge, on her passage out, encountered, just within the Straits of Gibraltar, a cruiser of Morocco, the Mir- Aug. 26. boha, of twenty-two guns, having an American brig in company, of which she had made prize. When Preble arrived some weeks after at Gibraltar, whither Bainbridge had sent his prizes, finding how the case was, he stood across to Tangier, accompanied by the Nautilus and the frigates New York and John Adams, which he met with at Gibraltar on their way home. Upon the appearance of this fleet, the Emperor of Morocco disavowed Oct. 6. any orders to commit hostilities, and matters were arranged upon Preble's agreeing to restore the Mirboha, and also the Meshouda, taken off Tripoli, but claimed by the emperor. CHAPTER Preble then sailed for Tripoli; but, before his arrival, XVII. a serious accident had occurred. The Philadelphia, pro1803. ceeding thither, had recommenced the blockade of that port, but while standing close in shore, under a heavy press of sail, in pursuit of a vessel attempting to enter Oct. 31. the harbor, had run with great force upon a sunken rock, upon which, in spite of efforts to set her free, she remained immovably fixed. While her crew were engaged in attempts to get her off, she was attacked by a flotilla of Tripolitan gun-boats, and as she lay much upon one side, they easily took a position in which not a gun of the frigate could be brought to bear upon them. Most of the guns were thrown overboard, and her anchors and foremast were cut away, but she still remained fast. Holes were then bored in her bottom and her pumps choked, after which, having stood the fire of the gunboats all day, Bainbridge submitted to the disagreeable necessity of striking his flag. The Tripolitans, after great exertions, no American cruiser being there to molest them, succeeded in getting off the Philadelphia and towing her into the harbor. In Bainbridge and his crew of three hundred men, they held valuable prisoners for whom to demand ransom. The officers were treated with comparative indulgence, but the men were all reduced to slavery. Oct. 17. In the new Congress, called together by proclamation, the administration, strong enough before, had large accessions. In the Senate the Federalists had but nine members against twenty-five. Tracy and Hillhouse still represented Connecticut. Sheafe, of New Hampshire, had been succeeded by William Plummer. In place of the late senators from Massachusetts came Timothy Pickering and John Quincy Adams, representing the two sections of the Federal party in that state. Since his re XVII. turn from abroad, John Quincy Adams had opened a CHAPTER law-office in Boston. Both he and Pickering had been brought forward at the late election as candidates for the 1803. House of Representatives, but had been beaten, though by very small majorities, Pickering by Crowninshield, and Adams by Eustis. Besides the six Federal senators from these states, there were two from Delaware, and one (Dayton) from New Jersey. The administration had all the rest, including those from Rhode Island and Vermont, and those also from the new State of Ohio. The leading members on that side were De Witt Clinton, of New York, who resigned early in the session in order to accept the office of mayor of New York, being succeeded by Armstrong, lately his predecessor; Logan, of Pennsylvania; Samuel Smith, of Maryland, so long an active member of the other house; Wilson C. Nicholas, of Virginia; Sumter, of South Carolina; Baldwin and Jackson, of Georgia; and Breckenridge, of Kentucky. In the other house the majority was not less overwhelming. The new apportionment, by increasing the number of backwoods members both positively and relatively, had increased, at the same time, the administration majority. The five representatives from New Hampshire and the seven from Connecticut were all Federalists, also two of the four from Vermont, and ten out of the seventeen from Massachusetts. From New York, out of seventeen members there were five Federalists, including Joshua Sands, the ex-collector of New York, chosen as one of the two members to which, under the new apportionment, that city became entitled; from Maryland, three out of nine; from Virginia, four out of twenty-two; from North Carolina, one out of twelve; from South Carolina, two out of eight-in all, thirty-nine Federalists, while the administration had ninety-six, CHAPTER raised presently to one hundred and two by the members XVIL from New Jersey, whose election, on account of the ex1803. piration of the state law to regulate it, did not take place till near the end of the year. Bayard, the late leader of the Federalists, had lost his election, being defeated by Cæsar A. Rodney, son of the Cæsar Rodney of the Revolution. Griswold, Dana, Davenport, and John Cotton Smith, of Connecticut, still retained their seats, and were the leading members on the Federal side. Of old Democratic members there were Varnum and Eustis, of Massachusetts; Dr. Mitchill, of New York; Leib, Gregg, Smilie, and Findley, of Pennsylvania; Nicholson, of Maryland; John Randolph, of Virginia; Macon, of North Carolina. Matthew Lyon, late of Vermont, now also reappeared as a representative from Kentucky. Among the new members on that side were James Elliot, of Vermont; Jacob Crowninshield, of Massachusetts, from the Salem District-both the Boston and the Salem districts being now represented by Republicans; Oliver Phelps, the noted land speculator, and Erastus Root, of New York; James Sloan, of New Jersey; Joseph Clay, representing, with Leib, the city and county of Philadelphia ; and from Virginia, Thomas W. Eppes and Thomas M. Randolph, sons-in-law of the president. Of the whole House considerably more than half were new members. Macon was chosen speaker, most of the Federalists, and some of the Northern Republicans, voting for Varnum. The chief subject of the president's message was the cession of Louisiana. In announcing the recommencement of war between France and England, a determination was avowed to preserve the strictest neutrality. The treaty and conventions with France were immediately laid before the Senate, and after two days' disOct. 20. cussion, their ratification was advised by that body. Of XVIL the Federal senators, only Dayton voted for it. John Q. CHAPTER Adams had not yet taken his seat. Bonaparte's ratifi cation was already in the hands of Pichon, the French 1803. chargé des affaires, and, the ratifications being exchanged, the bargain became complete. The ratified conventions were immediately communicated to the House for consideration in their legislative capacity, with an intimation from the president that the co-operation of the House was needed to carry them into effect, and that time pressed for instant action. Griswold moved a call upon the president for a copy of the treaty between Spain and France upon which the title of France depended, and any evidence he might have that Spain, in whose hands the ceded district still remained, was ready to deliver it over. Griswold urged that the treaty before the House recited only a provisional agreement on the part of Spain to cede Louisiana to France. There was no evidence that the cession had really taken place. Griswold's, motion having failed by a majority of two votes, Randolph offered a resolution that provision ought to be made for carrying the treaty and conventions into effect. Upon this resolution a spirited debate arose. The Federalists denied any authority under the Constitution for receiv ing into the Union, whether by treaty or otherwise, a foreign people. They also criticised the special provis ions as to the trade of France and Spain with Louisiana, as introducing an unconstitutional discrimination between different parts of the Union. The constitutionality of the treaty was zealously sustained by Randolph and others; but the question as to the power of Congress to vote money for the purchase was not mooted. It did not lay in the mouths of the Federalists to deny that power, and the Democratic leaders thought it best to keep their doubts to themselves. The resolution was |