The Life of John Marshall
Chapter 103 : Both Republican and Federalist leaders had seen to it that nothing was left undone whi

Both Republican and Federalist leaders had seen to it that nothing was left undone which might bring victory to their respective candidates.

The two political parties had been carefully "drilled to move together in a body." Each party had a business committee which attended to every practical detail of the election. Not a voter was overlooked. "Sick men were taken in their beds to the polls; the halt, the lame, and the blind were hunted up and every mode of conveyance was mustered into service."

Time and again the vote was a tie. No sooner did one freeholder announce his preference for Marshall than another gave his suffrage to Clopton.

"A barrel of whisky with the head knocked in," free for everybody, stood beneath a tree; and "the majority took it straight," runs a narrative of a witness of the scene. So hot became the contest that fist-fights were frequent. During the afternoon, knock-down and drag-out affrays became so general that the county justices had hard work to quell the raging partisans. Throughout the day the shouting and huzzaing rose in volume as the whiskey sank in the barrel. At times the uproar was "perfectly deafening; men were shaking fists at each other, rolling up their sleeves, cursing and swearing.... Some became wild with agitation." When a tie was broken by a new voter shouting that he was for Marshall or for Clopton, insults were hurled at his devoted head.

"You, sir, ought to have your mouth smashed," cried an enraged Republican when Thomas Rutherford voted for Marshall; and smas.h.i.+ng of mouths, blacking of eyes, and breaking of heads there were in plenty.

"The crowd rolled to and fro like a surging wave."[931] Never before and seldom, if ever, since, in the history of Virginia, was any election so fiercely contested. When this "democratic" struggle was over, it was found that Marshall had been elected by the slender majority of 108.[932]

Was.h.i.+ngton was overjoyed at the Federalist success. He had ridden ten miles to vote for General Lee, who was elected;[933] but he took a special delight in Marshall's victory. He hastened to write his political protege: "With infinite pleasure I received the news of your Election. For the honor of the District I wish the majority had been greater; but let us be content, and hope, as the tide is turning, the current will soon run strong in your favor."[934]

Toward the end of the campaign, for the purpose of throwing into the contest Was.h.i.+ngton's personal influence, Marshall's enthusiastic friends had published the fact of Marshall's refusal to accept the various offices which had been tendered him by Was.h.i.+ngton. They had drawn a long bow, though very slightly, and stated positively that Marshall could have been Secretary of State.[935] Marshall hastened to apologize:--

"Few of the unpleasant occurrences" of the campaign "have given me more real chagrin than this. To make a parade of proffered offices is a vanity which I trust I do not possess; but to boast of one never in my power would argue a littleness of mind at which I ought to blush."

Marshall tells Was.h.i.+ngton that the person who published the report "never received it directly or indirectly from me." If he had known "that such a publication was designed" he "would certainly have suppressed it." It was inspired "unquestionably ... by a wish to serve me," says Marshall, "and by resentment at the various malignant calumnies which have been so profusely bestowed on me."[936]

Was.h.i.+ngton quickly rea.s.sured Marshall: "I am sorry to find that the publication you allude to should have given you a moment's disquietude.

I can a.s.sure you it made no impression on my mind, of the tendency apprehended by you."[937]

As soon as all the election returns were in, Marshall reported to Was.h.i.+ngton that the defeat of two of the Federalist candidates for Congress was unexpected and "has reduced us to eight in the legislature of the Union"; that the Republicans maintained their "majority in the house of Delegates," which "means an antifederal senator and governor,"

and that "the baneful influence of a legislature hostile perhaps to the Union--or if not so--to all its measures will be kept up."[938]

Marshall's campaign attracted the attention of the whole country, and the news of his success deeply interested both Federalists and Republicans. Pickering, after writing King of the Federalist success in New York City, declared that "the other domestic intelligence, still more important, is, that Genl. Marshall is elected a member of Congress for his district."[939]

Speaker Sedgwick also informed King of Marshall's election. "General Marshall you know is a member of the House of Representatives. His talents, his character and the situation he has been in, will combine to give him an influence, which will be further aided by the scene which he immediately represents. He may and probably will give a tone to the federal politics South of the Susquehannah. I well know the respect he entertains for you and for your opinions."[940]

But the Federalist leaders were none too sure of their Virginia congressional recruit. He was entirely too independent to suit the party organization. His campaign statement on the Alien and Sedition Laws angered and troubled them when it was made; and, now that Marshall was elected, his opinion on this, to the Federalists, vital subject, his admitted power of mind and character, and his weighty influence over the Southern wing of the Federalists caused serious apprehension among the party's Northern leaders. Sedgwick advises King to write Marshall on the subject of party regularity.

"I have brought this subject to your mind, that you may decide on the propriety of a communication of your sentiments to him, which you may do in season to be useful. Should he, which, indeed, I do not expect, conform his political conduct generally, to what seems indicated by his public declaration relative to the alien & sedition acts, it would have been better that his insignificant predecessor should have been reelected. There never has been an instance where the commencement of a political career was so important as is that of General Marshall."[941]

Apprehension and uncertainty as to Marshall's course in the House was in the minds of even the Federalist leaders who were out of the country.

The American Minister at The Hague was as much troubled about Marshall as were the Federalist politicians at home: "If M[arshall]'s silly declaration on the _inexpediency_ of the Sedition law does not entangle him he may be very useful."[942] But Murray was uneasy: "Marshall, I fear, comes in on middle ground, and when a man plays the amiable in a body like that [House of Representatives] he cannot be counted [on], but he will vote generally right. I was amiable the first session! It cannot last."[943]

Jefferson, of course, was much depressed by the Federalist congressional victories, which he felt "are extremely to be regretted." He was especially irritated by Marshall's election: It "marks a taint in that part of the State which I had not expected." He was venomous toward Henry for having helped Marshall: "His [Henry's] apostacy, must be unaccountable to those who do not know all the recesses of his heart."[944]

A week later, however, Jefferson decided that the Federalist success did not mean a permanent Republican reverse. Spoils and corruption, he concluded, were the real cause of the Federalist gain. "The Virginia congressional elections have astonished every one," he informs Tench c.o.xe. "This result has proceeded from accidental combinations of circ.u.mstances, & not from an unfavorable change of sentiment.... We are not incorruptible; on the contrary, corruption is making sensible tho'

silent progress. Offices are as acceptable here as elsewhere, & whenever a man has cast a longing on them, a rottenness begins in his conduct."[945]

Jefferson, with settled and burning hatred, now puts his branding-iron on Henry: "As to the effect of his name among the people, I have found it crumble like a dried leaf the moment they become satisfied of his apostacy."[946]

During the weeks which immediately followed his election, Marshall was busy reporting to Was.h.i.+ngton on the best men to be appointed as officers in the provisional army; and his letters to the Commander-in-Chief show a wide and careful acquaintance with Virginians of military training, and a delicate judgment of their qualities.[947]

By now the hated Sedition Law was justifying the political hydrophobia which it had excited among the Republicans.[948] All over the country men were being indicted and convicted for wholly justifiable political criticisms,--some of them trivial and even amusing,--as well as for false and slanderous attacks on public officers. President Adams himself had begun to urge these prosecutions. He was particularly bitter against the "Aurora," the Republican organ, which, according to Adams, contained an "uninterrupted stream of slander on the American government."[949] He thought that the editor ought to be expelled from the country.[950]

All this was more fuel to the Republican furnace. Wicked and outrageous as were some of these prosecutions, they were not so extravagant as the horrors which Republican politicians declared that the Sedition Laws would bring to every fireside.

During the summer after his election Marshall visited his father in Kentucky. Thomas Marshall was ill, and his son's toilsome journey was solely for the purpose of comforting him; but Jefferson could see in it nothing but a political mission. He writes to Wilson Cary Nicholas to prepare an answer to the States that had opposed the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions; but, says Jefferson, "As to the preparing anything [myself] I must decline it, to avoid suspicions (which were pretty strong in some quarters on the last occasion) [the Kentucky Resolutions].... The visit of the apostle Marshall[951] to Kentucky, excite[s] anxiety. However, we doubt not that his poisons will be effectually counter-worked."[952]

Jefferson's suspicions were groundless. Marshall did not even sound public opinion on the subject. On his return to Richmond he writes the Secretary of State, who was the most active politician of Adams's Cabinet, and to whom Marshall freely opened his mind on politics, that "a visit to an aged & rever'd Father" prevented an earlier answer to a letter from Pickering; and, although Marshall has much to say, not one word is written of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. He is obsessed with the French question and of the advantage the French "party in America" may secure by the impression that France was not really hostile. "This will enable her [France's] party in America to attack from very advantageous ground the government of the United States."[953]

Now came the public circ.u.mstance that made the schism in the Federalist Party an open and remorseless feud. The President's militant declaration, that he would "never send another minister to France without a.s.surances that he will [would] be received, respected, and honored as the representative of a great, free, powerful, and independent people,"[954] was perfectly attuned to the warlike spirit of the hour. The country rang with approval. The Federalist politicians were exultant.

Thereupon the resourceful Talleyrand wrote the Secretary of the French Legation at The Hague to intimate to Murray, the American Minister, that the French Directory would now receive a minister from the United States.[955] Murray hastened the news to Adams.[956] It was a frail a.s.surance, indirect, irregular, unacknowledged to the world; and from men who had insulted us and who would not hesitate to repudiate Murray's statement if their purposes so required. Yet the President grasped by the forelock this possibility for peace, and, against the emphatic protest of his Cabinet, suddenly sent a second commission to try again for that adjustment which Marshall and his a.s.sociates had failed to secure. It was the wisest and most unpopular act of Adams's troubled Administration.

The leading Federalist politicians were enraged. Indeed, "the whole [Federalist] party were prodigiously alarmed."[957] They thought it a national humiliation. What! said they, kiss the hand that had slapped our face! "The new emba.s.sy ... disgusts most men here," reported Ames from New England.[958] Cabot confirmed Ames's doleful message--"Surprise, indignation, grief, & disgust followed each other in swift succession in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of the true friends of our country," he advised King.[959]

The Federalist leaders really wanted war with France, most of them as a matter of patriotism; some, undoubtedly, because war would insure party success in the approaching presidential election. Upon his return Marshall had prophesied formal declaration of hostilities from the Republic of France, when news of the dispatches reached Europe; and the war Federalists were sorely disappointed at the failure of his prediction. "Genl. Marshall unfortunately held the decided opinion that France would DECLARE war when the Dispatches should appear; and T.

Sewell with other good men were so strongly impressed with the advantage of such a declaration by them that they could not be persuaded to relinquish the belief in it--I was astonished that they should have attributed to the French such miserable policy." So wrote the able and balanced Cabot.[960] That France refused to adopt "such miserable policy" as Marshall had expected was sufficiently exasperating to the war Federalists; but to meet that country three fourths of the way on the road to peace was intolerable.

"The end [peace] being a bad one all means are unwise and indefensible"

was the ultra-Federalist belief.[961] Adams's second mission was, they said, party surrender to the Republicans; it was "a policy that threatens ... to revive the Jacobin faction in our bosom."[962]

Federalist members of Congress threatened to resign. "I have sacrificed as much as most men ... to support this Govt. and root out Democracy, & French principles, but ... I feel it to be lost and worse ... I can & will resign if all must be given up to France," cried the enraged Tracy.[963]

These "enemies of government" had said all along that things could be arranged with France; that the X. Y. Z. disclosures were merely a Federalist plot; and that the army was a wicked and needless expense.

What answer could the Federalists make to these Republican charges now?

Adams's new French mission, the Federalist chieftains declared, was "a measure to _make_ dangers, and to nullify resources; to make the navy without object; the army an object of popular terror."[964]

And the presidential election was coming on! To hold the situation just as it was might mean Federalist victory. Suppose events did develop a formal declaration of war with France? That would make Federalist success more certain. The country would not turn out a party in charge of the Government when cannon were roaring. Even more important, an open and avowed conflict with the "b.l.o.o.d.y Republic" would, reasoned the Federalist leaders, check the miasmic growth of French revolutionary ideas among the people.

In short, a declaration of war with France would do everything which the Federalists wished and hoped for. "Peace [with France] ... is not desired as it should not be"[965] was their opinion of the statesmans.h.i.+p demanded by the times. And now Adams, without one word to the men who reluctantly had made him President,[966] had not only prevented a rupture which would have accomplished every Federalist purpose, but had delivered his party into the hands of the "Jacobins." He had robbed the Federalists of their supreme campaign "issue." "Peace with France, they think an evil and holding out the hope of it another, as it tends to chill the public fervor";[967] and the "public fervor" surely needed no further reduction of temperature, for Federalist health.

If Adams did not wish for a formal declaration of war, at least he might have let things alone. But now! "Government will be weakened by the friends it loses and betrayed by those it will gain. It will lose ...

the friends.h.i.+p of the sense, and worth, and property of the United States, and get in exchange the prejudice, vice, and bankruptcy of the nation,"[968] wrote Ames to Pickering. "In Resistance alone there is safety,"[969] was Cabot's opinion. "The Jacobin influence is rising, and has been ever since the mission to France was determined on; ... if a Treaty be made with France their [Republican] ascendancy will be sure";[970] and, after that, the deluge.

The Federalist leaders felt that, even without a declaration of hostilities by Congress, they might make s.h.i.+ft to win the approaching election. For on the sea we already were waging war on France, while formally at peace with her. Our newborn navy was taking French privateers, defeating French men-of-war, and retaliating with pike, cutla.s.s, and broadside for the piratical French outrages upon American commerce.[971] As things stood, it was certain that this would continue until after the election, and with each glorious victory of a Truxton or a Hull, National pride and popular enthusiasm would mount higher and grow stronger. So the Federalist politicians thought that "the only negotiation compatible with our honor or our safety is that begun by Truxton in the capture of the L'Insurgente."[972]

Priceless campaign ammunition was this for the Federalist political guns. Early in the year the bilious but keen-eyed watchman on the ramparts of New England Federalism had noted the appearance of "a little patriotism, and the capture of the _Insurgente_ cherishes it."[973] And now Adams's second mission might spoil everything. "The Jacobins will rise in consequence of this blunder,"[974] was the doleful prophecy.

Indeed, it was already in fulfillment even with the utterance: "Already the Jacobins raise their disgraced heads from the mire of contempt!"[975] The "country gentlemen" were the hands as the business interests were the brain and heart of the Federalist Party; "the President destroyed their influence, and ... left them prostrate before their vindictive adversaries."[976]

The Republicans were overjoyed. Adams had reversed himself, eaten his own words, confessed the hypocrisy of the "infamous X. Y. Z. plot."

"This renders their [Federalists'] efforts for war desperate, & silences all further denials of the sincerity of the French government,"

gleefully wrote Jefferson.[977]

Marshall alone of the commanding Federalists, approved Adams's action.

"I presume it will afford you satisfaction to know that a measure which excited so much agitation here, has met the approbation of so good a judge as Mr. Marshall," Lee reported to the President.[978] Marshall's support cheered the harried Chief Executive. "Esteeming very highly the opinion and character of your friend General Marshall, I thank you for inclosing his letter," responded Adams.[979]

The President had done still worse. Auctioneer John Fries, a militia captain, had headed an armed mob in resistance to the National officers who were levying the National direct tax on the houses and lands of the farmers of eastern Pennsylvania. He had been finally taken prisoner, tried, and convicted of sedition and treason, and sentenced to death.

Against the unanimous written advice of his Cabinet, formally tendered,[980] the President pardoned the "traitor" and "his fellow criminals."[981] And this clemency was granted at the plea of McKean, the arch-"Jacobin" of Pennsylvania,[982] without even consulting the judges of the courts in which they were twice tried and convicted.[983]

What was this, asked the Federalist leaders in dazed and angry amazement! Paralyze the arm of the law! Unloose the fingers of outraged authority from the guilty throat which Justice had clutched! What was to become of "law and order" when the Nation's head thus sanctioned resistance to both?[984] In his charge to the Federal Grand Jury, April 11, 1799, Justice Iredell declared that if "traitors" are not punished "anarchy will ride triumphant and all lovers of order, decency, truth & justice will be trampled under foot."[985]

How, now, could the Federalists repel Republican a.s.saults on this direct tax? How, now, could they reply to the Republican attacks upon the army to support which the tax was provided! In pardoning Fries, Adams had admitted everything which the hated Jefferson had said against both tax and army.[986] If Adams was right in pardoning Fries, then Was.h.i.+ngton was wrong in suppressing the Whiskey Rebellion. The whole Federalist system was abandoned.[987] The very roots of the Federalist philosophy of government and administration were torn from their none too firm hold upon the scanty soil which Federalist statesmen had laboriously gathered for their nourishment. And why had Adams done this? Because, said the Federalist politicians, it was popular in Pennsylvania;[988] that was the President's motive--the same that moved him to send the new mission to France.[989]

Bending under heavy burdens of state, hara.s.sed by the politicians, Adams was enduring a private pain sharper than his public cares. His wife, the incomparable Abigail, was in Ma.s.sachusetts and seriously ill. The President had left her to meet his Cabinet and dispatch the second mission to France. That done, he hastened back to the bedside of his sick wife. But the politicians made no allowances. Adams's absence "from the seat of government ... is a source of much disgust," chronicles the ardent Troup. "It ... has the air of an abdication."[990] A month later he records that the President "still continues at Braintree,[991] and the government, like Pope's wounded snake, drags its slow length along."[992]

Such was the condition of the country and the state of political parties when Marshall took his seat in Congress. For the Federalists, the House was a very "cave of the winds," with confusion, uncertainty, suspicion, anger, and all the disintegrating pa.s.sions blowing this way and that.

But the Republicans were a compact, disciplined, determined body full of spirit and purpose.