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us, by her aggressions, in a situation where the choice CHAPTER would seem to lie between a war with England and a war with her, our hatred to England, joined to the 1797. other causes above mentioned, would force us to adopt the former alternative; entertaining these views, she had taken the course she was now pursuing, the object of which was to make us renounce the treaty with England, and to enter into a quarrel with that nation; in fine, to effect by aggression and force what for four years she had attempted in vain by a course of intrigues and insidious policy.

"Such being her objects, could she be induced to renounce them by trifling concessions of this, that, or the ́ other article of a treaty, this, that, or the other advantage in trade? To suppose that she was to be thus satisfied seemed a delusion equally unaccountable and fatal. It seemed an unaccountable and fatal delusion, that could render gentlemen blind to the projects of Franceto the Herculean strides of her overwhelming ambition, which so evidently aimed at nothing less than universal empire or universal influence; blind to her having fixed on our own country as one instrument for the accomplishment of her plans. It was against this dangerous delusion that he wished to warn the House and the country. Let them not deceive themselves by the vain and fallacious expectation that the concessions suggested in the proposed amendment would satisfy the wishes or arrest the measures of France. Still, he did not dissuade from those concessions; far from it; he wished them to be offered, and in the way most likely to give weight to the offer. It was a bridge which he was most willing to build for the pride of France to retreat over. But what he wished to warn the House against was the resting satisfied with building the brilge, to the neglect of

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CHAPTER those measures by which France might be induced tc march over it. He wished to negotiate, and he relied 1797. much on success in that way. But success in negotiation could only be secured by adopting on this floor firm language and energetic measures, such as might convince France that the opinions respecting this country on which her system was founded were wholly erroneous; that we were neither a weak, a pusillanimous, nor a divided people; that we were not disposed to barter honor for quiet, nor to save our money at the expense of our rights-measures which would convince her that we understood her projects, and were determined to oppose them with all our resources, and at the hazard of all our possessions. Unless success were secured by such support, negotiation was vain, weak, and delusive. Seeing us prepared, instead of attacking us, France would listen to our peaceable proposals, and would accept the concessions we meant to offer. He should vote against the amendment, not because he was for war, but because he was for peace; and because he saw in this amendment, and more especially in the course to which it pointed, a means of impeding instead of promoting our pacific endeavors."

The idea thus inculcated with so much warmth and ability, that the French republic, so far from being the champion of liberty and the rights of man, was but a revival, under a new form, of the dreams of Louis XIV. about a universal empire, could not but make a profound impression on the House, contrary as that idea was to prevailing notions; nor could Gallatin, who exerted all his sophistical art in reply, entirely neutralize the effect of Harper's speech. Yet the proposed amendment was lost only by a vote of forty-eight to fifty-two. Even some of the Federalists were afraid of making the ad

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dress too pointed. Coit, of Connecticut, proposed to CHAPTER modify a paragraph referring to Barras's offensive speech,

so as to strike out all personal reference to the director, 1797. and his motion to that effect, after some sharp debate, May 30. was carried by the casting vote of the chairman.

Dayton, the speaker, then proposed an amendment, giving additional emphasis to the satisfaction expressed by the House at the proposed renewal of negotiations, and declaring a hope that a mutual spirit of conciliation, and a disposition on the part of the United States to place France on grounds as favorable as other countries, would produce an accommodation compatible with our rights, honor, and engagements." This amendment was opposed, as being in substance the same as that of Nicholas, already rejected. These opposers were denounced by the opposition orators as enemies of peace and enemies of France. Dayton, alluding to Harper's speech, deprecated the idea of arraigning the French republio like a criminal at the bar of the House, charged not only with acts against the interests and rights of the United States, but with crimes said to have been committed against the different nations of Europe. He was willing to express a becoming spirit of resentment, but objected to employing the rage of a madman. It was not necessary to crouch to any nation, but he wished the House to act as if they wished for peace, not to stand in the position of gladiators and to sound the trumpet of defiance. In the course of this debate some very sharp words passed between Gallatin and Smith of South Carolina. Gallatin declared himself unable to believe that Smith was really desirous of peace, and Smith, in his turn, could not be lieve that Gallatin, even if the terms it was now proposed to offer should be rejected, would be ready to go to

war.

CHAPTER

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By the help of some waverers, Dayton's amendment, after some modifications, was carried in committee, fifty1797. two to forty-seven. But the House, before agreeing to June 2. it, modified it still further by adding the expression of

June 3.

an expectation that France would be ready to make compensation for any violation she might have committed of American neutral rights.

What might be considered as the test question of the strength of parties was an effort made by the opposition to strike out that clause of the address approving the policy of the government as "just and impartial to foreign nations," and pledging the House to support it. This motion was lost, forty-five to fifty-three; after which the address, having been debated for two weeks, was finally agreed to, sixty-two to thirty-six.

Upon the usual motion that the House wait upon the president with the address, Matthew Lyon, a new member from the western district of Vermont, took occasion to make a display of his special democracy. An Irishman by birth, Lyon, then very young, had been brought to New York, some years previous to the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, as a redemptioner, and being sold to pay his passage, had been carried by his master to the new settlements in Vermont, of which, after serving out his time, he became himself a citizen. During the British invasion under Sir Guy Carleton in 1776, he had acted as lieutenant of a company of militia stationed to guard an advanced post on Lake Champlain, and, with the other officers of the detachment, had been cashiered on a charge of cowardice and desertion, or, rather, of persuading the men to desert as an excuse for abandoning the post. Lyon, who had been sent to headquarters to report the abandonment, was treated with great indignity by Gates, pronounced a coward, and

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placed under a guard; but he always insisted that he CHAPTER had opposed the course taken by the other officers; and it is certain that, notwithstanding this previous disgrace, 1797. he served afterward, for a short time, during Burgoyne's invasion, as a commissary in the army. Being a man of energy and ingenuity, subsequently to the peace he had established iron works and other manufactures near the foot of Lake Champlain, had acquired property, had become a colonel of militia, and had married a daughter of Governor Chittenden, who, notwithstanding his official dignity, continued, according to the simple state of manners prevalent in Vermont, to follow his old vocation of a farmer and tavern-keeper. Self-conceited and impetuous, with the characteristic faults as well as virtues of his countrymen, Lyon entered with great zeal into politics, to advocate the ultra Democratic side of which he established a newspaper at Castleton, entitled "Scourge of Aristocracy and Depository of Important Political Truth," which he edited himself, and printed on paper manufactured, also by himself, from the bark of the bass wood, and with types of his own casting. By the help of this organ, after a very warm contest, he had been elected to Congress over several competitors.

Taking the present opportunity to make his debut, after a long speech denouncing and ridiculing the prac tice of waiting upon the president as anti-Republican and slavish, and setting forth his own merits and services in the cause of democracy, he offered a motion that he, personally, should be excused from compliance with the standing order of the House in that respect. He had indeed been told-so he stated in his speech-that he might absent himself and no notice would be taken of it; but he professed great reverence for the standing rules and orders, and preferred to have express authority