XIV. CHAPTER was the choice of the party for president. Both these caucuses were held with profound secrecy, and their pro1800. ceedings, instead of being formally reported and published in the newspapers, were only diffused among the local leaders by personal communication and private correspondence. News having been received, toward the end of the session, of the arrival of the new envoys in Europe, and of May 10. the prospect of a favorable result, an act was passed for the discharge, with three months' extra pay, of all the officers of the additional regiments, and of the men so far as they had been enlisted. But, though warlike preparations by land were thus abandoned, the commercial non-intercourse, and the arming of merchant vessels, continued by acts of the present session, were still adhered to. The navy afloat, increased to nine frigates and twenty-five smaller vessels, still kept the seas in two principal squadrons, one on the St. Domingo station, the other, under Truxton, off Guadaloupe; but, from the necessities of the service, the vessels were generally scattered. Truxton, in the Constellation, while cruising alone Feb. 1. off Guadaloupe, discovered a large vessel, to which he gave chase. It was the French frigate La Vengeance, of fifty guns, with from four to five hundred men, bound for France, with a large quantity of specie and of other valuable goods on board, which made her lay very deep in the water. The Frenchman attempted to escape, but after a two days' chase, Truxton succeeded, about eight o'clock in the evening, in bringing on an action. The two ships, running side by side, kept up the contest till near one o'clock the next morning, by which time the Frenchman's fire being completely silenced, he hauled off and drew out of the combat. While attempting again. to get alongside, Truxton discovered that the braces of XIV. his mainmast were all shot away, and before they could CHAPTER be supplied the mast went by the board, thus giving the Frenchman a chance of escape, which he hastened to im- 1800. prove. The Constellation, having lost thirty-nine men killed and wounded, bore up for Jamaica for repairs. The French frigate, almost a wreck, and with upward of a hundred and fifty men killed or disabled, succeeded in getting into Curaçoa, where she was condemned as unfit for further service. Truxton's gallantry in this action, the news of which arrived before the adjournment of Congress, was acknowledged by the vote of a gold medal. March 29. 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 |