XVI. CHAPTER the Mississippi from the Florida line to the mouth of the Yazoo, the other between the waters of the Pasca1802. goula and the Tombigbee, its southern limit being fifty miles north of the Florida line, from which, as well as from the tract on the Mississippi, it was separated by an intervening wilderness. An immediate cession, obtained from the Creeks by a considerable expenditure of presJune 16. ents, at a treaty held with them in the course of the summer, of a part of the much-coveted tract between the Oconee and Ocmulgee, induced the State of Georgia to allow this compact to go into force. The Choctaws and Chickasaws, by previous treaties (October and December, 1801), had already conceded the right to open a road through their territory from Nashville to Natchez. Whatever may be thought of Jefferson's politics, he was undoubtedly a philanthropist; he entered with zeal into the benevolent policy of Washington toward the Indians; and at his recommendation, an act was passed for regulating intercourse with them on the system already existing, and for sustaining the public trading-houses for supplying them with goods. Having recognized the existence of war with Tripoli, Congress authorized the fitting out of such a naval force as the president might see fit. A squadron, manned and equipped for two years' service, consisting of three large and two smaller frigates, to which was added the schooner Experiment, was accordingly got ready to relieve Dale's ships. The command was offered to the gallant Truxton, who declined because, with the characteristic. parsimony of the administration, he was refused a captain for his flag-ship. To punish him for thus presuming to differ from the executive, his letter of declination was construed, contrary to his intention, as a resignation of his commission, and under that pretense he was struck from the navy list. The command of the squad- CHAPTER XVI. brought to terms by a vigorous blockade or a bombard- 1802. ment. But a close blockade required a number of small vessels, while for a bombardment the armaments of the frigates were not well adapted. Ever since the alliance between France and Spain, it had been strongly suspected that France intended to obtain the retrocession of Louisiana, perhaps with the addition of Florida also. These rumors increasing as the negotiations for the peace of Amiens proceeded, Livingston at Paris, Charles Pinckney at Madrid, and King at London, had been specially instructed to endeavor to defeat the cession; which, however, by a secret treaty, had been already made (October 1, 1800), to take effect with-in six months after the complete execution of another treaty, by which Tuscany, then a republic, had been assured as an hereditary dominion to the Duke of Parma, the King of Spain's son-in-law. Even for Spain to command the mouth of the Mississippi, thus holding at mercy the trade of the Western country, now in so rapid progress of settlement, was a very uncomfortable thing. Out of this circumstance had heretofore grown intrigues, already referred to, on the part of some of the leading politicians of Kentucky, to break the union with the states east of the mountains, and to enter into relations, more or less intimate, with Spain. Should an enterprising nation like the French-one, too, for which such partialities had been felt-obtain the key of the Western waters, who could tell what might happen? This state of things, wrote Jefferson to Living- April 18. ston, "completely reverses all the political relations of the United States, and will form a new epoch in our political course. We have ever looked to France as our XVI. CHAPTER natural friend-one with whom we could neve, have an occasion of difference; but there is one spot on the globe 1802. the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. That spot is New Orleans. France, placing herself in that door, assumes to us the attitude of defiance. The day that France takes possession seals the union of two nations, who, in conjunction, can maintain exclusive possession of the ocean. From that moment we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation. We must turn all our attention to a maritime force, and make the first cannon fired in Europe the signal for tearing up any settlement France may have made.” Much was added to the same effect as reasons why the French government should consent to the transfer of Louisiana, or, at least, of the island of Orleans, to the United Statessuggestions which Livingston was instructed to make in a way not to give offense. April 2. A letter, some few days before, to Kosciusko, who had written to inquire if some countrymen of his could find military employment in the United States, expressed, in a somewhat exulting tone, Jefferson's view of the state of public affairs: "The session of the first Congress convened since Republicanism has recovered its ascendency will pretty completely fulfill all the desires of the people. They have reduced the army and navy to what is barely necessary. They keep in service no more than men enough to garrison the small posts, dispersed at great distances on our frontiers, which garrisons will generally consist of a captain's company only, in no case of more than two or three, and in not one of a sufficient number to require a field officer; and no circumstances whatever can bring these garrisons together, because it would be an abandonment of their posts. They are disarming executive patronage and preponderance by putting down one half the offices of the United States which are no CHAPTER These economies have enabled them. longer necessary. XVI. to suppress all the internal taxes, and still to make such 1802. provision for the payment of the public debt as to discharge it in eighteen years. They have lopped off a parasite limb planted by their predecessors on the judiciary body for party purposes; they are opening the door of hospitality to fugitives from the oppressions of other countries; and we have suppressed all those public forms and ceremonies which tended to familiarize the public eye to the harbingers of another form of government. The people are nearly all united. Their quondam leaders, infuriated with the sense of their impotence, will soon be seen or heard only in the newspapers, which serve as chimneys to carry off noxious vapors and smoke, and all is now tranquil, firm, and well, as it should be." Yet many symptoms already, or soon after, appeared of an internal agitation and a party bitterness not very consistent with Jefferson's boasts of political tranquillity and a united people. Early in the session a committee had been appointed, of which Nicholson and Giles were principal members, to investigate the past éxpenditures of the government, and to inquire whether moneys drawn from the treasury had been properly accounted for. This committee grew out of charges freely indulged in by the Democratic newspapers, by reason of certain defaults which had happened among some of the disbursing agents in the latter part of Adams's administration, seized upon as proofs of a general and widespread corruption. Perhaps, also, it was intended as a sort of counter-blast to the outcry of the Federal newspapers respecting a very profuse expenditure, as they alleged, without any appropriation having been made for it, in refitting the Berceau, one of the captured vessels restored under the French CHAPTER treaty-a subject to which attention had also been called on the floor of the House. XVL 1802. No report was made by this committee till three days May 1. before the close of the session, when a very one-sided statement, drawn up by the administration majority of the committee, with the aid of Gallatin, and without the knowledge of the Federal members, was laid before the House a miserable electioneering document, under the disguise of a Congressional report; the first instance of the sort in our history, but of which too many, the usual consequence of bad precedents, have since occurred. The studied intention of this report was, by a partial statement of facts, which the committee well knew to be capable of complete explanation, to convey the impression to the public that the pecuniary transactions of the late administration had been conducted in the loosest manner; that many large sums of public money remained unaccounted for; and that many large expenditures had been habitually made without any lawful authority. Though any direct assertion of that sort was carefully avoided, the report pointed distinctly to the conclusion that, when the accounts came to be finally settled, very large defaults might appear. To this attack upon the late secretaries, made in an official shape, under circumstances which had allowed, neither to them nor to their friends in Congress, any opportunity of explanation, and which too plainly evinced a base malignity of intention, Wolcott presently made a reply in the form of a pamphlet, not less remarkable, in those days of excitement, for its perfect decorum, than for its conclusive exposures of the party fraud attempted by the committee. The repeal of the Judiciary Act, denounced by the Federalists as the first step toward the overthrow of the |