altogether (§100). The reasons for this downfall are many. However popular the French war had been, the taxes made necessary by it had provoked great dissatisfaction; and in 1799 a little insurrection, the so-called Fries Rebellion, had broken out in Pennsylvania. The Sedition prosecutions were exceedingly unpopular. The last acts of the party left a violent resentment. In 1801, after it was known that there would be a Republican President with a large majority in both houses of Congress, the Federalists resolved to bolster up their power in the third department of government. A Judiciary Act was thereJudiciary fore passed, creating new courts, new judges, and new salaried officials. All the resulting appointments were made by Adams, and duly confirmed by the Senate, thus anticipating by many years any real needs of the country. A vacancy occurring in the chiefjusticeship, Adams appointed John Marshall, one of the few Virginia Federalists; he had made his reputation as a politician and statesman: even Adams himself scarcely foresaw that he was to be the greatest of American jurists.

Act.

sensions.

Still more fatal were the internal dissensions in the party. In 1799 Washington died, and no man in the Internal dis- country possessed his moderating influence. The cabinet, by adhering to Hamilton and corresponding with him upon important public matters, had weakened the dignity of the President and of the party. In the election of 1800 Hamilton, besides his open attack on Adams, had again tried to reduce his vote sufficiently to bring Pinckney in over his head. Adams himself, although a man of strong national spirit, was in some respects too moderate for his party. Yet his own vanity and vehemence made him unfit to be a party leader.

While these reasons may account for the defeat of

1799-1801.]

theories.

Fall of the Federalists.

175 the Federalists, they do not explain their failure to rise Republican again. They had governed well: they had built up the credit of the country; they had taken a dignified and effective stand against the aggressions both of England and of France. Yet their theory was of a government by leaders. Jefferson, on the other hand, represented the rising spirit of democracy. It was not his protest against the over-government of the Federalists that made him popular, it was his assertion that the people at large were the best depositaries of power. Jefferson had taken hold of the "great wheel going uphill." He had behind him the mighty force of the popular will.

CHAPTER IX.

REPUBLICAN SUPREMACY (1801-1809).

93. References.

Bibliographies. W. E. Foster's References to Presidential Administrations, pp. 8-12; Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, vii. 310, 315-320, 336-341, 418-420, 519-522, 527-547; H. B. Tompkins's Bibliotheca Jeffersoniana.

Historical Maps.

- Nos. 1 and 4, this volume (Epoch Maps, Nos. 7 and 9); Labberton's Atlas, Nos. lxvi., lxvii.; MacCoun's Historical Geography; Scribner's Statistical Atlas, Plates 13, 14.

General Accounts. McMaster's History of the People of the United States, ii. 538-635; iii. 1-338; Schouler's History of the United States, ii. 1-194; Bryant and Gay's Popular History of the United States, i. 144-184; Von Holst's Constitutional History, i, 168-226; Hildreth's History of the United States, v. 419-686; v1. 25-148; Tucker's History of the United States, ii. 146-348; Bradford's Constitutional History, i. 202-329.

Special Histories. Henry Adams's History of the United States, vols. i.-iv.; J. T. Morse's Jefferson, pp. 209-300; George Tucker's Life of Jefferson; Randall's Life of Jefferson; Henry Adams's John Randolph, pp. 48-267; Henry Adams's Life of Gallatin; Stevens's Gallatin, pp. 176-311; S. H. Gay's Madison, pp. 252-282. Contemporary Accounts. - Works of Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin; J. Q. Adams's Memoirs, i. 248-551; William Sullivan's Familiar Letters on Public Characters, pp. 187-289; Timothy Dwight's Character of Thomas Jefferson; S. G. Goodrich's Recollections, i. 106137, 265-298; Henry Adams's Documents relating to New England Federalism; Basil Hall's Fragments of Voyages and Travels; Timothy Dwight's Travels in New England and New York [1796-1813] ; Thomas Ashe's Travels in America [1806]; John Melish's Travels in the United States [1806-1811]; John Davis's Travels of Five Years and a Half [1798-1802].

94. The Political Revolution of 1801.

To the mind of the Federalists the success of the Republicans, and particularly the elevation of Jefferson,

1801.]

Fefferson's Character.

177

meant a complete change in the government which they had been laboring to establish. Jefferson was to them Character of the type of dangerous liberality in thought, in Jefferson. religion, and in government. In his tastes and his habits, his reading and investigation, Jefferson was half a century in advance of his contemporaries. Books and letters from learned men constantly came to him from Europe; he experimented in agriculture and science. Accused during his lifetime of being an atheist, he felt the attraction of religion, and, in fact, was not far removed from the beliefs held by the Unitarian branch of the Congregational Church in New England. Brought up in an atmosphere of aristocracy, in the midst of slaves and inferior white men, his political platform was confidence in human nature, and objection to privilege in every form. Although a poor speaker, and rather shunning than seeking society, he had such influence over those about him that no President has ever so dominated the two Houses of Congress.

faults.

Jefferson's great defect was a mistaken view of human nature; this showed itself in an unfortunate judgment Jefferson's of men, which led him to include among his friends worthless adventurers like Callender. As a student and a philosopher, he believed that mankind is moved by simple motives, in which self-interest is predominant: hence his disinclination to use force against insurrections; the people, if left to themselves, would, he believed, return to reason. Hence, also, his confidence in a policy of commercial restriction against foreign countries which ignored our neutral rights; this was set forth in his commercial report of 1793 (§ 85), and later was the foundation of his disastrous embargo policy (§ 103). He had entire confidence in his own judgment and statesmanship; his policy was his own, and was little affected by his advisers; and he ventured to measure

himself in diplomacy against the two greatest men of William Pitt the younger and Napoleon

his time, Bonaparte.

Fortunately his administration began at a period when general peace seemed approaching. The treaty of Amiens in 1802 made a sort of armistice between Moderate policy. France and Great Britain, and neutral com. merce was relieved from capture. The national income was steadily rising (§ 52), the Indians were quiet, the land dispute with Georgia — the last of the long series — was on the point of being settled, the States showed no sign of insubordination. In his inaugural address the new President took pains to reassure his fellow-citizens. "We have called by different names brethren of the same principle," said he; "we are all Republicans, we are all Federalists." Among the essential principles of government which he enumerated, appeared “absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, — the vital principle of republics, — from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism."

Purpose to win the Federalists.

The studied moderation of this address shows clearly the policy which Jefferson had in his mind. In a letter written about this time he says: "To restore that harmony which our predecessors so wickedly made it their object to break, to render us again one people, acting as one nation, should be the object of every man really a patriot." Jefferson was determined to show the Federalists that there would

be no violent change in his administration; he hoped thus to detach a part of their number so as to build up the Republican party in the Northern States. Even in forming his cabinet he avoided violent shocks; for some months he retained two members of Adams's cabinet; his Secretary of State was Madison, who in 1789 was as much inclined to Federalism as to Republicanism; and