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CHAPTER ship being given to Breckenridge, of Kentucky, the busy XVIII. politicians of which growing state were already very un1805. easy at not having what they esteemed their fair share in the distribution of office. Smith wanted the seventyfours; but the prejudices of the Southern Democrats against the navy were inveterate; and neither he nor Jefferson dared openly to ask for them.

This little haste to get ready, notwithstanding the apparent prospect of immediate hostilities with Spain, may be easily explained. The president and his cabinet flattered themselves that a new sum of money, nominally paid to Spain, but which would redound also to the benefit of France, since France and Spain were now allies, might induce France to compel Spain to sell the Floridas, or, at least, that portion of them bordering on the Mississippi. But as the trusting great sums of money in executive hands for uncertain uses had always been very pointedly condemned both by Jefferson and Gallatin, the administration did not wish openly to broach this project by asking for the money. In order to obtain it, apparently, by a voluntary offer of Congress, a message, covering papers relating to the difficulties with Spain, Dec. 6. was sent to the House, ostensibly for the purpose of re

ferring to that body the question whether, and to what extent, force should be used in repelling Spanish aggressions on the side of Louisiana. This message and the papers were read with closed doors, and referred to a select committee, of which Randolph was chairman. He was informed, first by the president himself, then by Madison, and finally by Gallatin, who furnished a plan for raising the money, that what the administration wanted was not troops, but two millions of dollars with which to commence a new negotiation for purchase. Madison assured him that, as things now stood, France would not

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allow Spain to adjust her differences with us; that she CHAPTER wanted money, and we must give it to her, or have a Spanish and French war. But in the soured state of 1805. Randolph's mind, he declined to allow himself to be thus used, and he gave Madison and Gallatin, as he afterward stated, a severe private lecture on this indirect method of asking for money.

The president then sent for Bidwell and Varnum. Bidwell, himself a member of the committee, was timid indeed, but cunning, supple, and sly. Varnum was honest, downright, and steady, but never suspected of having much head. To these two members the executive wishes were communicated, and Bidwell made some unsuccessful attempts to ingraft them into the report of the committee. He could not prevail, however, against the influence of Randolph, and the report was by no means 1806. what the president wanted. It denounced, as ample Jan. 3. cause of war, the conduct of Spain in refusing to ratify. the convention of 1802, and to adjust the boundaries of Louisiana; her obstructions to the trade of the American settlements on the Tombigbee by her claim to levy a duty on American produce passing down the Mobile River; and her late violations of the American territory. But as it was the policy of the United States to improve the present season of extended commerce and great revenue from it to pay off the public debt, war, if possible, was to be avoided. By concessions on the side of Mexico, in which direction the United States claimed as far as the Rio del Norte, Spain might be induced to consent to a favorable arrangement of the eastern limits of Louisiana. Yet troops were essential to guard the territory of the United States from invasion; and the committee recommended the raising of as many as the president might deem necessary for that purpose; and they reported resolutions to that effect.

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Upon this report a very warm debate arose, still with closed doors. Bidwell offered a substitute for the reso1806. lutions of the committee, placing in the hands of the executive, for extraordinary expenses of foreign intercourse, two millions of dollars; and, as a means of reimbursing this money, which the president was to be authorized to borrow, continuing the two and a half per cent. additional duty imposed under the name of the Mediterranean Fund, but which, on account of the peace with Tripoli, was about to expire. To Randolph's objection that the president's message did not ask for money, Varnum rather indiscreetly rejoined that he knew such to be the "secret wishes" of the president. Those secret wishes, thus announced to the House, at once prevailed, and the resolution of the committee was voted down seventy-two to fifty-eight, mainly by the Northern Democrats, the Federalists voting with Randolph and his adherents.

But the matter did not end here. The debate in secret session was kept up for near a fortnight. Randolph desired to prefix a preamble and to make certain amendments to Bidwell's resolution, restricting the "extraordinary expenses" therein spoken of to the purchase of the Spanish territory east of the Mississippi; and this was at first agreed to.. Attempts were also made to limit the sum to be thus expended; but these failed. Finally, indeed, the House retraced its steps, struck out Randolph's amendment, and passed a bill in the vague terms of Bidwell's original proposal, appropriating the two millions generally for "extraordinary expenses of foreign interJan. 16. course;" which bill was presently sent to the Senate with a message communicating as the object for which it was passed the enabling the president to commence with more effect a negotiation for the purchase of the Spanish territories east of the Mississippi."

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Randolph succeeded in defeating Bidwell's proposal CHAPTER for the continuance of the Mediterranean duties, on the ground that it was an unwarrantable proceeding to vote 1806. supplies in secret session. Means, however, as we shall see, were found, before the end of the session, to carry that measure also.

From this moment it was open war between Randolph and the administration, against whose leading members that eccentric orator henceforth poured out all his virulence. Varnum, Bidwell, and some five or six others, through whom the executive wishes were now conveyed to a supple and obedient majority, were stigmatized by him now as the president's "back-stairs favorites," and now as "pages of the presidential water-closet." first Randolph's adherents were quite numerous, but they diminished from day to day, and before the end of the session had dwindled to a very few.

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During the pendency of these discussions, all of which were carried on with closed doors, the government received a very pointed insult from Yrujo, the Spanish minister. Having made his appearance at Washington, Madison wrote to remind him that the Spanish govern- Jan. 15. ment, in reply to the solicitation for his recall, had desired, as leave to return had already been asked for by him, that his departure should take place on that footing. This arrangement had been acceded to, and under these circumstances, Yrujo's presence at Washington was "dissatisfactory to the president," who, though he did not insist on his leaving the United States at this inclement season, yet expected his departure as soon as that obstacle was removed.

To this letter Yrujo made two replies. In the one he insisted on his perfect right, both as an individual and a public minister, not engaged in any plots against the

CHAPTER United States, to continue his residence at the City of XVIII. Washington, which he intended to do so long as suited 1806. his personal convenience and the interests of the king his master. In the other letter he informed Madison" that the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of his Catholic majesty near the United States receives no orders except from his sovereign;" and to this announcement he added a solemn protest against Madison's invasion of his diplomatic rights; intimating, also, his intention to communicate to all the other ministers accredited to the United States a copy of the correspondence. To all these insults Jefferson and his cabinet very quietly submitted; and, indeed, they were destined to still greater humiliations from this same quarter. It was in relation to this affair that John Q. Adams presently introduced into the Senate a bill to prevent the abuse of the privileges enjoyed by foreign ministers, giving to the president authority to order their departure in certain cases. Nothing, however, came of this bill; and, in fact, its passage would have been an implied declaration that in the case of Yrujo the president had attempted to exercise an authority which did not belong to him.

These difficulties with Spain, however embarrassing, were of far less importance than the relations with Great Britain, which had begun to assume a very dubious character. During the previous summer, in an earnest correspondence with Merry, successor to Liston as minister from the British court, Madison had undertaken to maintain the doctrine, better sustained by a competent naval force than by any paper arguments, that a neutral flag ought to protect from seizure or impressment all those sailing under it, of whatever nation they might be; and Monroe had been instructed to urge the same thing at London. To these old difficulties about impressment

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