CHAPTER for his absence. This speech was not very agreeable to

X. the rest of the opposition, over whose heads Lyon seemed 1797. disposed to exalt himself as a special Democrat. By the Federalists it was heard with contemptuous smiles. Dana, of Connecticut, after premising that for his part he was by no means specially desirous of the gentleman's company, and his belief that the president would as readily forego it, expressed a hope that the leave asked for would be unanimously granted, which it accordingly was. Such was the first introduction to the House of one who subsequently became a political martyr, and who, during a membership of several years, often displayed a practical good sense hardly to have been expected from such a beginning.

Notwithstanding the tone of the address, the House was but slow in taking any steps of a very decided character. The news which continued to arrive from Europe was of a kind to inspire fresh alarm. The stoppage of specie payments by the Bank of England threatened destruction to the commercial and financial power of Great Britain. The mutiny at the Nore seemed to shake the very basis of British naval ascendency. Bonaparte had appeared under the walls of Vienna, and Austria had been compelled to make peace. The opposition were delighted with the opening prospect of the downfall of Great Britain; and they urged with greater zeal than ever the necessity of cautiously avoiding a rupture with France. The Federalists, on the other hand, watched the progress of events, not without alarm for their own country should England really succumb. The letters of King, American embassador at London, to his Federal friends, strongly urged the impolicy of any involvement in the European Even England herself, alarmed at the terrible military power called into existence by the ill-considered at

war.

X.

tempt from abroad to suppress the outbreak of Demo- CHAPTER cratic enthusiasm in France, was now seeking, with increased anxiety, to negotiate a peace.

The House, however, still adhered, though by a very small majority, to the policy set forth by the Federal leaders in the debate on the address. In a session of eight weeks, acts were passed apportioning to the states a detachment of eighty thousand militia, to be ready to march at a moment's warning; appropriating $115,000 for the further fortification of harbors; prohibiting the exportation of arms and ammunition, and encouraging their importation; authorizing the equipment of the three frigates and their employment, together with an increased number of revenue cutters, in defending the coast. Another act subjected to a fine of $10,000 and ten years' imprisonment any citizen of the United States who might be concerned in fitting out, or any way con nected with any private armed vessel intended to cruise against nations with whom the United States were at peace, or against the vessels and property of their fellow. citizens. To meet the expenses that might be incurred, a loan of $800,000 was authorized, and the revenue was re-enforced by an addition of eight cents per bushel to the duty on salt, and by stamp-duties of ten dollars on licenses to practice law in the courts of the United States, five dollars on certificates of naturalization, four dollars on letters patent of the United States, two dollars on copies of the same, and one dollar on charter parties and bottomry bonds. A motion to raise the duty on certificates of naturalization, which stood in the bill as reported at twenty cents, to twenty dollars, brought on a lively debate as to the policy of encouraging immigration. The high duty was advocated by several Federalists as a check on the facility of acquiring the right of citizen.

1797.

X.

CHAPTER ship. Gallatin, Swanwick, and Lyon opposed it as excessive, and it was finally fixed at the amount above 1797. mentioned. A stamp-tax, varying in amount with the value of the subject matter, was also imposed on receipts for legacies, policies of insurance, bonds, promissory notes, bank-notes, bills of exchange, protests, letters of attor ney, inventories, bills of lading, and certificates of debenture. The Committee of Ways and Means, hitherto composed of one member from each state, was reduced at this session to seven members taken from the House at large, a number at which it has ever since remained.

To most of the above measures a very decided opposition was made. The equipment of the frigates was specially opposed, under the apprehension that the president might employ them as convoys to the American trade in the West Indies. The numerous French cruisers in those seas made prize of every American vessel which they met, except when those vessels had licenses granted by the French consuls, or were known to belong to zealous advocates of the French interest. Some partial protection had been obtained from convoy granted by British ships of war, but the idea of employing armed vessels of our own for that purpose was earnestly deprecated by the opposition, and even by some of the Federalists, as little less than a declaration of war against France. Gal latin admitted that depredations without number were committed in the West India seas by vessels under the French flag, but he suggested that they were chiefly by pirates, without any commissions or authority; to which it was well answered that it was hard indeed if the frigates could not be employed to protect our vessels against pirates, for fear of giving offense to France! Giles, Macon, Gallatin, and Smith of Maryland, labored very hard, and prevailed upon the House to insert into

X.

the bill, among other restrictions, a provision that the CHAPTER president should not send the frigates out of the jurisdiction of the United States; but as the Senate refused to 1797. concur, this and the other restrictions were afterward struck out. The more zealous Federalists urged the immediate purchase of nine additional vessels, to be armed and equipped for purposes of convoy. Doubtful what the consequences might be of armed collision, at the discretion of individuals, the president had issued a circular to the custom houses, renewing and confirming the rule hitherto acted upon, to grant no clearances to armed vessels except such as were bound to the East Indies or the Mediterranean. The legality of this circular was called in question, and it was proposed to authorize by an express act the arming of merchant vessels in their own defense. But both these measures, the arming of merchant vessels and the additional ships of war, were defeated by the opposition, with the aid of Dayton and the waverers, on the ground that it would be better to await the results of the new mission. Varnum, in the course of this debate, declared that he could see nothing in the conduct of France like a wish to injure the citizens of the United States. He wondered that such an outcry should be raised because three or four American ships had been captured and carried into France. Smith, of Maryland, believed the merchants would submit to any loss sooner than go to war; while Swanwick boldly asserted that more captures were made in the West Indies by the British than by the French.

A bill, originating in the House, for raising an additional corps of artillerists and engineers, failed to pass. A Senate bill for a provisional army of fifteen thousand men was defeated even in that body. The opposition raised a great outcry against every thing that involved

CHAPTER expense, on the ground that the treasury was empty; X. but they also opposed, with no less zeal, every attempt 1797. to fill it, seeming to regard, as the only security for the peace of the country, the depriving the government of all means to defend it. Another bill was also brought in (designed to meet the case of such patriots as Barney), to prevent citizens of the United States from entering into the service of foreign powers, but with a clause defining a method whereby citizens, either native or adopted, might relinquish their connection with the United States, and transfer their allegiance to a foreign power, thereby avoiding the penalties of the bill. This clause led to a curious debate on the subject of perpetual allegiance and voluntary expatriation-a question which was found to be surrounded by so many difficulties that the entire bill was finally dropped. It seemed to be going too far formally to allow citizens of the United States to abandon their own country and to make war upon it. Yet how could that be avoided, should any act on the subject of foreign service be passed, so long as the United States, in the impressment controversy with Great Britain, claimed for naturalized foreigners all the rights and immunities of native-born citizens?

July 3.

The president, in the course of the session, transmitted papers, from which it appeared that the Spanish authorities in Louisiana were opposing serious obstacles to the survey of the southern boundary line of the United States, as provided for by the recent treaty, and that they hesitated also to deliver up the posts north of the thirtyfirst degree of north latitude. Various pretenses of delay were urged, such as apprehension of a British invasion from Canada, to resist which these posts might be necessary, and uncertainty whether the fortifications were to be destroyed or left standing. The real reason,