USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 3 > Part 38
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53
When he resigned in 1791, he was succeeded in the post office by the austere and uncompromising Timothy Pickering, of Salem, who, as one of Washington's favorite subordi- nates, had risen to be Quartermaster General of the army. Pickering, a blunt, proud, and fanatical man who sought preferment and secured it, became the leader of the more narrow-minded wing of the Federalist party. In 1795 he took Knox's place as Secretary of War, and a few months later became Secretary of State after Randolph's resigna- tion. He continued as head of the Department of State under President John Adams until he was dismissed in May, 1800. Everything considered, Massachusetts men had no reason to grumble regarding the favors accorded their state by the national government.
MASSACHUSETTS FEDERALISTS (1789 -1801)
Meanwhile the first Congress, sitting through the hot summer of 1789 in New York City, was setting up ad- ministrative machinery and discussing matters of significance to Massachusetts. The issues of the next quarter century cannot be comprehended without some understanding of the position and tenets of the Federalist party, particularly in New England, where it was strongest. From the time when the adoption of the Constitution was under discussion, this party comprised the more conservative elements in the com- munity, who wanted an adequate central authority because it was"good for business." The basis of the party division was economic; and the Federalist policy and strategy were determined mainly by economic motives. Bankers, shipown-
412
MASSACHUSETTS IN THE UNION
ers, and merchants, supported by the Congregational clergy, the lawyers, and the judiciary, joined in unqualified ap- proval of Hamilton's financial measures. Senator Dalton, setting out for New York, wrote to a constituent, "Every- thing that can affect shipbuilding I shall watch with a jeal- ous eye."
Federalists liked to boast that they were the friends of society, religion, and good order,-they had the favor of the property owners, the college graduates, the old families. They also held that the Antifederalists, and later the Repub- licans, were, with some notable exceptions, the natural ene- mies of merchants, banks, lawyers, churches, and courts. Whatever legislation promoted commerce, fostered industry, and stabilized the currency was welcomed by maritime Massachusetts, where Federalism was entrenched. It was shrewd self-interest as well as sentiment that prompted the Federalists to adopt a pro-British policy, to shrink with hor- ror from the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, to support Jay's Treaty, to uphold the Alien and Sedition Laws, to denounce the acquisition of Louisiana, to condemn the Embargo Act, and to oppose the War of 1812.
THE ESSEX JUNTO (1789 - 1811)
Although the soul of the Federalist party was doubtless Alexander Hamilton, of New York, he found his ablest backing in a group of Massachusetts conservatives, who came to be known as the "Essex Junto" because so many of them were born or lived in Essex County, that picturesque strip of land along the coast including Salem, Marblehead, Ipswich, Gloucester, and Newburyport. The Junto was a small and exclusive circle of intelligent, well-to-do, and aristocratic gentlemen, who met frequently in the "best society" of Boston, whose families often intermarried, and who were identified with the same financial interests as investors or directors of companies. George Cabot, the Boston merchant who was perhaps their stateliest figure, voiced the opinions of them all when he said frankly, "I hold democracy in its natural operation to be the government of the worst."
They also included several wealthy business men: Stephen
From a print in New York Public Library
FISHER AMES
413
MASSACHUSETTS REPUBLICANS
Higginson, a shipmaster of Salem; Nathaniel Tracy, Jona- than Jackson, and Stephen Hooper, all of Newburyport; and Christopher Gore, who, after acquiring a fortune through speculation, became a United States Senator. Among the judiciary, the Junto could rely on John Lowell, judge of the federal district court, Francis Dana, chief justice of the Commonwealth from 1791 to 1806, and his successor, The- ophilus Parsons, who was considered by his contemporaries to be an impressive combination of frigidity and reason. The active political leaders were the brilliant and cynical Fisher Ames, one of the most persuasive orators of that period, and Timothy Pickering, the satellite of Alexander Hamilton. Still another charming character, the courtly Harrison Gray Otis, remained a Federalist long after his early party companions were in their graves, and came even- tually to be regarded as the last survivor of a bygone gen- eration.
MASSACHUSETTS REPUBLICANS (1793 - 1811)
Against such an aggressive and unyielding combination of money and brains, those in opposition could at first muster only a few scattered adherents, first in the rural districts, among the farmers of Berkshire and Worcester, and then among tradesmen and mechanics in Boston. In rousing their followers, the Antifederalist and Republican agita- tors appealed to the widespread distrust of lawyers and of the courts, stirred up latent social prejudices; and they gave publicity to the special privileges enjoyed by the ship- owners and the clergy.
Some capable men, it is true, espoused the Republican cause very early: Dr. Charles Jarvis, a Boston physician, "made the rights of man his pole star"; General James Sullivan, from the Maine District, who defended the French Revolution in two startling pamphlets, served two terms later as governor of the Commonwealth. Such Anti- federalist leaders as Elbridge Gerry and Levi Lincoln were not inferior to Pickering and Ames in either respectability or intelligence.
114
MASSACHUSETTS IN THE UNION
Broadly considered, however, the individual Jeffersonians were not for some years equal in reputation to the members of the Essex Junto; when Republicanism triumphed in Massachusetts, it was because of its spread among those "plain people" in whose collective judgment Thomas Jeffer- son had such confidence. But there was to come a period when such eminent Federalists as William Plumer, William Gray, and John Quincy Adams would transfer their alle- giance to the Republicans. Then not even the most arrogant or snobbish member of the Essex Junto dared to impugn the decency of the leaders of the rival party. When that moment arrived, the glory of New England Federalism was decidedly on the wane, and the disintegration of the Junto was already apparent.
MASSACHUSETTS ON THE TARIFF (1789 - 1793)
In the early days of Washington's administration the work of the Massachusetts Federalists was highly constructive. First on the legislative program was the necessity of raising a revenue by adopting a temporary system of import duties. In the debate which ensued, Massachusetts men, who were among those likely to be affected by tariff measures and who were familiar with conditions, were active on the floor of the House. Goodhue, himself an importer, joined with Fisher Ames in objecting to a heavy duty on molasses, which was then used mainly for the distilling of rum. On the other hand, Goodhue defended a duty on spikes, nails, tacks, and brads, maintaining that the manufacture of these commodities was progressing in New England and deserved encouragement; and Ames argued forcefully that such in- fant industries require and merit protection. It was a doc- trine with which Massachusetts was to become more familiar during the nineteenth century.
In the matter of tonnage duties, again, the Massachusetts delegation fought for a discrimination in favor of Amer- ican vessels. When the Revenue Act was passed, after hav- ing been amended and revised by both branches, it was, thanks to Gerry, Goodhue, and Ames, highly favorable to New England. In consequence, Massachusetts tonnage tri- pled in the years from 1789 to 1792.
415
INTERESTS OF MASSACHUSETTS
HAMILTON'S FINANCIAL POLICY (1790 - 1793)
When the second session of the First Congress convened in early January, 1790, and proceeded to consider Hamilton's Report on the Public Credit, just prepared by him as Secretary of the Treasury, Massachusetts men supported him unre- servedly on each of his important proposals. Hamilton's plan of paying the full foreign and domestic debt, with all the arrears of interest, excited much criticism ; but the Federal- ists, under his guidance, stood firm. Fisher Ames wrote: "I hope we shall not finish the session without funding the whole debt .... Without a firm basis for public credit, I can scarcely expect the government to last long." When the subject of the assumption of state debts was broached, Sedgwick and Ames led their Massachusetts colleagues in approving Hamilton's bold plan to consolidate and strengthen the central govern- ment by having it take over the financial obligations of the separate states. When Hamilton's strategy enabled him to gain his point by allowing the South to have the national capital, the Essex Junto applauded. The mint and the excise were adopted as Hamilton had recommended, and even the United States Bank went through with a good majority. Ames, speaking on this project, said, "It seems to be conceded within doors and without that a public bank would be useful to trade, that it is almost essential to revenue, and that it is little short of indispensably necessary in times of public emer- gency."
Professor Beard's careful analysis of votes in his Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy shows that the eight repre- sentatives and two senators from Massachusetts voted solidly for the Funding Bill and for the assumption of state debts; and points out that not only Senator Strong and Representa- tives Ames, Leonard, Partridge, and Sedgwick, but also the Antifederalists, Gerry and Grout, were listed as holders of state or national certificates of indebtedness and therefore stood to profit personally by Hamilton's policy.
INTERESTS OF MASSACHUSETTS (1789 - 1795)
It is not remarkable that Massachusetts men of all political creeds supported funding and assumption when it is recalled that the Massachusetts state debt thus shifted to the Federal
416
MASSACHUSETTS IN THE UNION
government was relatively very large; and that the Common- wealth was second only to New York in the amount of public securities held by her citizens. Even on the Bank Bill, the only opposition from Massachusetts in Congress came from Grout, who had been a follower of Shays.
The votes of Massachusetts confirm the theory that capital- ists, manufacturers, and men of property in general realized the expediency of upholding Hamilton in his program and of joining against the agrarian interests, which drew their power chiefly from Virginia and the South. Fisher Ames, in a letter written in November, 1791, pointed out that the subjects of controversy between the two sections were "equally lasting and unpleasant"; and showed that "most of the meas- ures of Congress have been opposed by the Southern mem- bers." Hamilton's plan has been well said to have constituted "a distinct bid to the financial, commercial, and manufactur- ing classes to give their confidence and support to the govern- ment in return for a policy well calculated to advance their interests." Massachusetts certainly did her share, and more, in helping the Secretary of the Treasury to put his policy into operation.
WASHINGTON'S TOUR OF NEW ENGLAND (1789)
The loyalty of New England to the administration was enhanced by the tour through the Northern states taken in the autumn of 1789 by President Washington. Three weeks after the adjournment of Congress he set out, accompanied by Major William Jackson and Tobias Lear. They proceeded by way of New Haven, Hartford, Springfield, and Worcester, carefully avoiding Rhode Island, which was not yet in the Union. When he reached Cambridge, on October 24, he was greeted by Lieutenant Governor Samuel Adams and the Ex- ecutive Council, who escorted him to the State House, ex- tended him a formal welcome from the Commonwealth, and then took him to his lodgings at "the Widow Ingersoll's," on the north corner of Tremont and Court Streets,-"a very decent and good house." A delay at the outskirts of the city had exposed him to a chilling northeast wind, and he took a severe cold, to which, however, he did not yield.
Upon hearing of Hancock's determination not to make the
417
WASHINGTON'S TOUR
first call Washington made arrangements to dine at his own lodgings and several of those who had originally been invited to the Governor's stayed with him. Among these was Vice President Adams, in spite of the fact that he was in some respects a state rights man himself and a friend of Hancock's.
The position of Washington is best set forth in his own words. In the evening two members of the Council were sent to explain and apologize, claiming the governor was ill. Replying, Washington said: "Gentlemen, I am a frank man and will be frank on this occasion. For myself, you will believe me, I do not regard ceremony ; but there is an etiquette due my office which I am not at liberty to waive. My claim to the attention that has been omitted rests upon the question whether the whole is greater than a part."
The next day, Sunday, the pressure brought by his friends was too much for Hancock and an exchange of notes prepared the way for an exchange of calls, the Governor taking the ini- tiative in each case. He pleaded gout; and certain it is that he was carried into Washington's presence with his leg pictu- resquely wrapped in red flannel. How real the attack was will probably never be known, for the memories of those present disagree. Some say that upon his return to his own house Hancock had little difficulty in walking up his steps. The episode was not without significance, in that the ultimate victory remained with the representative of the national government.
On Monday, Washington rode through the streets on horse- back, looking rather stiff and unbending; on Tuesday he attended a "large and elegant dinner," held at three o'clock in Faneuil Hall; on Wednesday he visited factories, dined at Dr. Bowdoin's, and appeared at the Assembly, where there were "upwards of 100 ladies." On the 29th he continued north on a trip to Salem, Newburyport, and Portsmouth,-all strong- holds of Federalism,-and then, turning inland, rode to Ex- eter and south through Haverhill, Andover, Watertown, and Uxbridge into Connecticut, being received everywhere with manifestations of cordiality,-poems, bonfires, banquets, tri- umphal arches, and cheers. He reached his house in New
1
418
MASSACHUSETTS IN THE UNION
York on Friday, November 13, after having been away almost a month, on a trip which could easily be accomplished to-day in a week or less by automobile, with time out for entertain- ment and rest.
CHANGES IN CONGRESS (1791 - 1801)
Slowly the make-up of the Massachusetts delegation changed through successive Congresses. In the Senate, the Common- wealth was consistently represented by Federalists. When the disgruntled Dalton's short term of two years had expired, he was succeeded by George Cabot, who took his seat in the Senate at the new capital in Philadelphia, to which the govern- ment moved in 1791; and when Cabot resigned in 1796, his place was taken by Benjamin Goodhue, who shortly became chairman of the important Senate Committee on Commerce. In March, 1796, Theodore Sedgwick, who had served several terms in the national lower house, was elected to follow Strong in the Senate, where he promptly became an influential figure, being made president pro tempore of that body in 1797. After his withdrawal to return to the House of Repre- sentatives in 1797, he was succeeded by Samuel Dexter, then a Federalist, although he later supported Jefferson's policy to- wards England.
In the House of Representatives, Massachusetts was also largely Federalist, although here and there a Republican man- aged to gain a victory. The increase in the number of con- gressional districts from eight to fourteen added new names to the delegation in the Fourth Congress. In the campaign of 1794, Dr. Charles Jarvis, a vociferous Antifederalist, ran against the redoubtable Fisher Ames and almost defeated him in a contest which brought out "the greatest collection of peo- ple yet seen at a Boston election." In the same year, the staunch old Federalist lawyer, Samuel Dexter, was decisively beaten in Middlesex by Joseph Bradley Varnum, "a dirt farm- er" of Dracut, who was destined to be Speaker of the House of Representatives for two terms (1807-11), United States Senator (1811-17), and president of the Senate. Another important new face in the House was that of Henry Dearborn,
From print in New York Public Library
THEODORE SEDGWICK
419
SUABILITY OF THE STATES
who was sent from the Maine counties as a Republican and later became Jefferson's Secretary of War,-a portly and com- manding personage, who had been a Revolutionary soldier and retained something of his military bearing even in civilian life.
In general, throughout Washington's two administrations, public sentiment in Massachusetts remained Federalist, al- though a slight gain for the Republicans can be detected over a period of years. As the French Revolution advanced from one radical step to another, conservative citizens, lovers of law and order, deplored its excesses. The Federalist leaders in 1793 regretted Washington's Neutrality Proclamation, criticized the indiscretions of "Citizen" Genet, and openly ad- vised taking sides with England. The business affiliations of maritime Massachusetts would have been sufficient to lead the Federalists in the Commonwealth to sympathize with Great Britain in her struggle with revolutionary France. Unfor- tunately, England could not, or did not, refrain from acts which made it difficult for the average unprejudiced American to look upon her with favor.
SUABILITY OF THE STATES (1793)
Hancock was more successful four years later in what was to be the last public act of his life. Until the passage of the Eleventh Amendment in 1798, one of the most vexing ques- tions concerning the Federal relationship had to do with the suability of the states. On September 18, 1793 the General Court met in special session at the summons of the governor. Hancock was so feeble that he had to be carried in and have his message read by the clerk. It recited that an alien had brought suit against the State of Massachusetts in the Federal Supreme Court. This temerity was the act of Vassall, resident of Cambridge before the war, and owner of the beautiful house now known as the Longfellow House. He was one of the detested Massachusetts loyalists, included in the official list of Tories who were expatriated; it disposed of such of their property as could be reached. A house, still standing in Cambridge in 1929, had been confiscated by the State but not sold. For this property Vassall brought suit against the
420
MASSACHUSETTS IN THE UNION
State of Massachusetts in the Federal Supreme Court. That court formally summoned the Governor and Attorney General of the state to attend in person as defendants. This Hancock in his message denied, as being incompatible with sovereignty that a state should be compelled to answer in a civil suit.
After discussing the matter for several days, the legislature, September 27, passed resolutions declaring that "a power claimed of compelling a State to become a defendant in the court of the United States, at the suit of an individual or individuals, is dangerous to the peace, safety, and indepen- dence of the several states, and repugnant to the first prin- ciples of a federal government."
The legislature also passed resolutions looking to amend- ment of the Constitution so as to protect the states in this regard ; which resolutions it requested the governor to forward to the legislatures of the other states. This protest conjoined with the more violent action of Georgia in the famous case of Chisholm vs. Georgia led directly to the introduction of the Eleventh Amendment. The death of Hancock on October 8 left it for Governor Samuel Adams to carry out the behest of the legislature, which he was not at all loath to do, as he was already on record as favoring the proposed amendment.
THE NORTHERN BOUNDARY (1783 - 1798)
Article V of Jay's Treaty was of very definite significance to Massachusetts. In 1789, the present state of Maine was politically a district of Massachusetts, although not contiguous. By the Treaty of 1783, a line was established between Maine and Canada, "drawn along the middle of the river St. Croix, from its mouth in the Bay of Fundy to its source."
Soon after the treaty was adopted, disputes arose over the identity of the "river St. Croix," and the Jay treaty arranged for a board of commissioners to adjust the differences. The British commissioner, Colonel Thomas Barclay, and the American, Professor David Howell, chose a third member, Judge Egbert Benson, of the Supreme Court of New York. James Sullivan, then Attorney General of Massachusetts and later Governor, was made Agent to conduct the American
421
CHANGES IN THE CONSTITUTION
case, Ward Chipman representing the British. After fre- quent meetings and a careful topographical study, the Com- mission reported (October 25, 1798), that the Schoodic River was the true St. Croix, thus justifying the British contention. Further problems arising from the boundary dispute were not settled until the Ashburton treaty was proclaimed on November 10, 1842.
CHANGES IN THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION (1789 - 1798)
In the ratifying Convention of 1788, Massachusetts led the other states in proposing certain amendments containing the essential provisions of a Bill of Rights. These were formally prepared by John Hancock through what would now be called a "political deal," without which the Federalists would have been unable to secure ratification of the Constitution in Massa- chusetts. Other states followed this lead until seventy-eight amendments had been suggested, many of them virtually du- plicates ; all intended to conserve the rights of individual per- sons and of states. Congress reduced these by consolidation and elimination to twelve, of which ten were finally ratified by a sufficient number of states, and constitute the so-called "bill of rights" of the Constitution. .
An additional amendment sprang also from Massachusetts in conjunction with South Carolina, and soon became an accepted part of the national system. In the case of Chisholm vs. Georgia, the Federal Supreme Court held (February, 1794) that a state could be sued in the Federal courts by the private citizen of another state. The court also ordered judg- ment by default to be entered against the state of Georgia at the next term. A suit of a similar kind was at once introduced in Vassall v. Massachusetts, Vassall being an alien who had left the country at the opening of the Revolutionary War and retired to England. Without entering into technical legal details, it may be said that Vassall was suing for monies aris- ing from the sequestration of his property as a refugee, in- cluding a house which still stands on Brattle Street, Cambridge. The property was then vested in the Commonwealth. John
422
MASSACHUSETTS IN THE UNION
Hancock, having been likewise served as governor with a summons legally issued from the Supreme Court of the United States, denied its jurisdiction and immediately issued a call for a special session of the Legislature. September 27, 1793, the General Court, after several days of sharp debate, urged Congress to adopt a constitutional amendment which would "remove any clause or article .... which can be construed to imply or justify a decision that a State is compellable to answer in any suit by an individual or individuals in any Court of the United States." Virginia followed with similar action.
The movement begun by two states that had been sum- moned to the bar of the Supreme Court resulted in the intro- duction into Congress of the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution, which was submitted by the two Houses in the winter of 1794. It was eventually ratified by a sufficient number of states. In consequence, the Supreme Court in February, 1798, declared that it had no jurisdiction "in any case, past or future, in which a state was sued by citizens of another state, or by citizens, or subjects, of any foreign state."
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1800
Even the prestige and influence of Washington had not availed to keep party spirit within bounds. With his retire- ment, the wide divergence of opinion between Federalists and Republicans was apparent. Among the Federalists themselves existed rivalries which threatened disaster. John Adams, the Vice President, by enemies called "a tactless, conscientious man, who did not lend himself to party cooperation," was logically next in line for the Presidency; and most of the Federalist leaders, including those from his own state, felt bound to support him.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.