USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 3 > Part 39
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Hamilton, however, distrusted him, and devised a clever plan which would, he thought, accomplish two ends; the defeat of Jefferson and the elimination of Adams. Having selected Thomas Pinckney, of South Carolina, as his tool, he busied himself during the summer and autumn of 1796 in persuading Federal electors to vote for Pinckney; but to scatter their second ballots for other candidates than Adams.
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As the Constitution provided that the man with the highest number of votes in the Electoral College was to be President and the one with the second highest number Vice President, it looked as if Pinckney might be chosen. Adams, however, was suspicious, and his friends determined to offset Hamil- ton's trickery by giving their second votes to some one besides Pinckney. In the end, Adams received 71 votes; while Jef- ferson, with 68, ran ahead of Pinckney: thus because of the Federalist intrigue Jefferson became Vice President. Massa- chusetts, still the second state in population, had the distinc- tion of providing the second President of the United States.
Adams made the initial mistake of retaining most of his predecessor's Cabinet-Pickering in the State Department, McHenry in the War Department, and Wolcott in the Treas- ury-though all three, being devoted to Hamilton, followed his lead rather than Adams's. It was Hamilton who said of Adams that "he had great and intrinsic defects in his character which unfitted him for the office of chief magistrate." Thus opposed and plotted against by members of his own party and denounced by his more legitimate enemies, the Jefferson- ians, Adams had reason for being a disgruntled man.
The really perplexing problems of Adams's stormy adminis- tration arose from our relations with France. Friendly to commerce, Adams wished to maintain the policy of neutrality so advantageously pursued by Washington, but the attitude of the French Directory made it exceedingly difficult to ad- here to this position. No sooner had the United States avoided war with England than open conflict with France seemed inevitable. Irritated by the adoption of Jay's Treaty, France, in the summer of 1796, suspended the functions of her minister in the United States and began to seize our ships; thus the merchants of Salem and Newburyport were again the victims of international intrigues. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, whom Washington had appointed as Monroe's suc- cessor at Paris, felt himself insulted by the Directory, set up on the ruins of the Republic; he left Paris in February, 1797. Adams fell heir to this complicated and disagreeable situation.
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PRESIDENT JOHN ADAMS (1797 - 1801)
Shortly after his inauguration, Adams appointed three com- missioners: Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry,-the last-named being a Massachusetts man and a Jeffersonian. After vainly waiting several months to be received, these men left Paris in March, 1798, and Mar- shall returned to the United States to recount the story of the outrageous treatment of our representatives. His anger roused, Adams urged Congress to take measures for prepared- ness. The publication of the "X.Y.Z." correspondence in April, 1798, silenced even the Republicans; and bills were passed for calling out an army and completing three frigates. In Massachusetts, the citizens expected war, and the militia started to drill on many a village green. All loyal Americans thrilled at the sentiment, erroneously ascribed to Pinckney, "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute." If Adams had declared war, as Pickering wished him to do, he would have had the country back of him, and the quarreling factions at home would doubtless have united against a foreign foe; but he held back from the decisive step, hoping that condi- tions might change for the better. Meanwhile the Massa- chusetts Legislature passed resolutions of confidence in the President, with only thirty votes cast in opposition, and Federalism seemed to be triumphant in nation and in com- monwealth. Indeed, in 1798 Massachusetts elected only two Republicans to Congress,-Varnum, in Middlesex, and Bishop, in Bristol. In Boston, Harrison Gray Otis opened his career in national politics by defeating that radical Jef- fersonian, General William Heath, in a contest for a seat in the House of Representatives.
ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS (1798 - 1799)
At the very moment when Federalism seemed to be com- pletely in the ascendant, the seeds of disaster were being sown. During the height of the war excitement, in the summer of 1798, the Federalists in Congress, in an hysterical mood, suc-
From original by Chester Harding
Courtesy of Samuel Eliot Morison, Esq. HARRISON GRAY OTIS
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ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS
ceeded in passing the so-called Alien Acts, the Sedition Act, and a new Naturalization Act, prolonging to fourteen years the period required for full admission to the rights of citizen- ship. These measures, which were favored by Cabot, Good- hue, and the Massachusetts Federalists, were passed under the guise of patriotism; but their restriction of individual free- dom gave the Jeffersonians new life.
One of the most widely advertised prosecutions under the Sedition Act,-which was intended to punish citizens or aliens who criticised the government,-was that of Thomas Adams, editor of the Independent Chronicle, a vigorous Jeffersonian paper published in Boston, which had offended the Essex Junto. When Adams himself fell ill and could not appear in court, his brother and book-keeper, Abijah, was arrested, tried under the intolerant Justice Dana, and sentenced to thirty days in jail. He served his term, and Thomas Adams died a few weeks later, his end hastened by the persecution which he had endured.
The Jeffersonians were not slow to see and accept the opportunity thus offered them. In November, 1798, were issued the famous Kentucky Resolutions, written by Jefferson and declaring the Alien and Sedition Laws to be "unauthori- tative, void, and of no force." The Virginia Resolutions, prepared by Madison and passed in December, were milder in tone but equally clear in doctrine. Both Jefferson and Madison enunciated the theory that the Federal Government exists by compact between the states, a conception which the New England Federalists themselves were to approve ten years later.
In reply, the Massachusetts General Court passed resolu- tions in February, 1799, declaring that the Alien and Sedition Acts were legal; and that the Federal courts were the only authorized interpreters of the Constitution. Two Jefferson- ians-John Bacon, of Berkshire, in the Senate, and Dr. Aaron Hill, of Cambridge, in the House-assailed the constitution- ality of the obnoxious laws, but their voices were raised in vain. Only a few months later they were to have their re- venge.
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FRENCH WAR AND PEACE (1798- 1800)
Meanwhile, during the summer of 1798, Congress was busy planning for the national defense. A new cabinet office, that of the Secretary of the Navy, was established and offered to George Cabot, of Massachusetts; when he declined, the place was accepted by Benjamin Stoddert, of Maryland. By De- cember, the United States had fourteen men-of-war on the high seas, besides eight converted merchantmen and three fine frigates. Throughout 1799 and 1800 American vessels were retaliating on the enemy, until French privateers were glad to seek refuge in West Indian harbors. Massachusetts mar- iners did their part in driving French ships from our coast and bringing in prizes.
The army was less easily organized, for jealousies among the major generals led to an unfortunate quarrel over preced- ence : Knox, a Massachusetts man, protested against serving under Hamilton, who was technically his subordinate in rank. For a time Adams supported Knox, but was ultimately com- pelled to yield to pressure from the Massachusetts Federalists and to Washington's refusal to serve at all unless Hamilton were assigned second place to Washington. Such petty bick- erings and intrigues among great men are not pleasant but are a part of national and state history.
PARTIES IN CONGRESS (1799 - 1801)
Fortunately, the emergency was slowly passing. Adams designated three new commissioners, who reached Paris soon after Napoleon had been made First Consul. Negotiations progressed rapidly, resulting in the Convention of 1800. The Hamiltonians had opposed this commission and did all that they could do to block it. Nothing but Adams's pertinacity carried our nation through what might easily have become a disastrous war.
Federalism in Massachusetts reached its height during the crisis of 1798. Adams received strong support from his own state, his policy having been approved in appropriate resolu- tions and notable expressions of public sentiment by the
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NATIONAL ELECTIONS
students of Harvard College, the citizens of Boston, and the General Court. When, in 1799, Increase Sumner was attacked during his gubernatorial campaign because of his sympathy for Adams, he was reelected by a large majority; and in 1800, Caleb Strong, another friend of Adams, de- feated the indefatigable Elbridge Gerry in a spirited contest.
Nevertheless Republicanism was gaining in Massachusetts. If the electors in the presidential battle of 1800 had been chosen in the Commonwealth by a popular vote in the districts, at least two would have been Jeffersonian. As it was, the Federalists, controlling the Legislature, in a special session were able to alter the law so that the General Court was in- structed to name the electors. It was a flagrant exhibition of political trickery, indicating that the Federalists were cap- able of any device to save their prestige. For Congress, Bishop and Varnum (both Jeffersonians) were reelected, and were joined by two new Republicans, John Bacon, from Berk- shire, and Levi Lincoln, from Worcester. Federalism, although still strongly entrenched, was fighting a losing battle against what Fisher Ames called "the rabies canina" of Jacobinism.
MASSACHUSETTS IN NATIONAL ELECTIONS (1800- 1804)
With a complacency both amusing and pathetic, the Massa- chusetts Federalists in 1800 refused to admit defeat. The Columbian Centinel stated on December 13 that there could be no doubt of the reelection of Adams, with Pinckney as Vice President. When it was announced that there was a tie between Jefferson and Burr, the Federalists, maddened by disappointment, began a series of intrigues calculated to bring disgrace upon their party. Indifferent to the evident in- tention of a majority of the voters, they took advantage of the technicality and did their utmost to elect Burr over Jeffer- son.
Hamilton, to his lasting credit, refused to sanction the scheme; but Massachusetts leaders like Sedgwick and Otis espoused the cause of Burr. When the election was thrown into the House for thirty-five consecutive ballots, the Massa- chusetts delegation voted for Burr,-11 to 3. Even on the final ballot on February 17, four New England states-New
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Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts- still cast their Federalist majorities for Burr. Certain Fed- eralists from other sections, however, wisely declined to vote, thus giving majorities in their states for Jefferson. Theodore Sedgwick, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, was obliged to smother his rage and announce the election of Jefferson; but, like President Adams, he would not attend the inauguration of a Republican.
Thus the Federalist party of Massachusetts, after doing well its constructive work of laying the foundation of a new government, was forced to yield to a more liberal spirit. The Essex Junto objected to the new President on many counts. As shipowners, they were convinced that Jefferson, an agricul- turalist, could not understand their problems and their needs. As aristocrats in principle, they believed that he was an ad- vocate of mob rule, who had set aside the rule of primogeni- ture in Virginia and who was unduly suspicious of the rich, the intelligent, and the well-born. The Congregational clergy denounced him as an atheist and a free-thinker, who had estab- lished religious freedom in his own state. Friends of England were sure that he was a violent Anglophobe.
Despite all this cumulative antagonism, even Massachusetts was slipping from the hands of the Federalists. The Repub- licans gained steadily in the General Court; and in 1804, when the Commonwealth resumed the former system of popular balloting for their representatives in the Electoral College, all nineteen electors were for Jefferson and Clinton. Massa- chusetts, with all the other New England states except Con- necticut, was for the first time recorded in the Republican column in a presidential election. With Jefferson receiving 126 votes against 50 for John Adams, it looked as if Federal- ism were dead for all time.
DISUNION SPIRIT IN MASSACHUSETTS (1801 - 1806)
The change of administration in 1801 did not produce all the evils which had been so dolorously predicted. Even the removals from office were, fewer than had been feared. Massa- chusetts did not lose representation in the Cabinet, for
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DISUNION SPIRIT
Jefferson made General Henry Dearborn his Secretary of War. When Dearborn resigned in 1809, he was succeeded by Dr. William Eustis, another Massachusetts man, who re- mained in office until 1813. The Attorney General during Jefferson's first term was Levi Lincoln, an able lawyer from Worcester. Another cabinet appointee from Massachusetts was Jacob Crowninshield, of Salem, who was chosen Secretary of the Navy but never entered upon his duties, being attacked by tuberculosis.
Extreme Federalists found cause for anger in Jefferson's attacks on the judiciary, but the comparative calm of the new administration was not seriously disturbed until the news of the purchase of Louisiana reached Boston in late June, 1803. There it was received with joy by the Republican press, and the Federalist papers were temporarily at a loss as to what position to take. Jefferson, by pacific methods, had acquired what the Federalist leaders under Adams had previously planned to gain by war. The Essex Junto, however, soon discovered strong objections to the annexation: they ques- tioned the title which had been conveyed; they complained that the new territory would ensure the perpetual subjection of the North to the South and West; and they inconsistently declared that Jefferson's act was unconstitutional.
A group of conspirators, headed by Senator Pickering of Massachusetts, together with Plumer of New Hampshire and Griswold of Connecticut, discussed the advisability of with- drawing from the Union. Pickering expressed the hope that there might be "a new confederacy, exempt from the corrupt and corrupting influence and oppression of the aristocratic democrats of the South." His plan was presented to several Massachusetts Federalists; but men like Ames, Parsons, Hig- ginson, and Cabot declined to listen to it.
Aaron Burr, in New York, was apparently more receptive. Had he been elected Governor of New York in 1804, he might have accepted the leadership of a northern confederacy. He was, however, defeated in a three-cornered contest; and, when he killed Hamilton in a duel in July, the disunion plot was abandoned. From time to time during this period similar plans were brought up, but they never had the support of
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public opinion in New England. Nevertheless, Pickering and his coterie were incapable of comprehending the new national- ism of Jefferson and the spirit which it was inspiring.
NEUTRAL TRADE AND IMPRESSMENT (1803 - 1807)
By 1807 the Jeffersonians were in control of all branches of the Massachusetts government, and it looked as if Federal- ism were moribund. Fisher Ames wrote, "I fear Federalism will not only die, but all remembrances of it will be lost." Then arose a commercial issue which gave new life to the devitalized party and enabled its leaders to unite the anti- Jefferson forces. With the renewal of war between England and France in 1803, came strenuous effort on the part of each belligerent to drive neutral shipping from the other's ports; consequently the relations between the United States and Great Britain were once more very much strained. Massa- chusetts merchants, it is true, continued, in spite of heavy losses, to ply their accustomed trade, evading the British re- strictions by what was known as the "broken voyage."
In 1805, however, when the ship Essex, from Salem, carry- ing goods from Barcelona, stopped at an American port and proceeded from there to her real destination at Havana, a British Admiralty judge ruled that this was a "continuous voyage," and that this vessel, with its valuable cargo, must be confiscated. Many other ships engaged in this sort of commerce were seized by British cruisers, and the merchants of Boston, in desperation, forwarded memorials to Congress protesting against these outrages. One vessel, the Indus, was actually boarded while entering Boston Harbor and condemned on the ground that she was en route for a blockaded port. American shipowners, adventurous and willing to take hazards for profit, of course did not abandon their trading specula- tions. They made money if only one vessel in three landed her cargo; and there were mariners who enjoyed the risk involved. Nevertheless the captures mounted up; and the policy weakened friendship between the Anglo-Saxon peoples.
Another source of irritation was the impressment by the British of seamen from the decks of American vessels. A report presented by Secretary Pickering in 1798 gave a long list of sailors who had been seized, and there were many in-
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THE EMBARGO
stances of the same kind of brutality during Jefferson's ad- ministration, culminating in the shameful attack by the British ship-of-war Leopard on the United States frigate Chesapeake in June, 1807, in which twenty-one of the American crew were killed or wounded.
Jefferson promptly ordered all British men-of-war out of our waters and summoned a special session of Congress. A few of the pro-British Essex Junto condoned the insult, but the more patriotic Federalists, headed by Otis, called a town meeting in Boston and demanded speedy action. For the moment a defiance of England was regarded as essential for the preservation of our national honor. The country, how- ever, was not prepared for hostilities, and Jefferson delayed taking vigorous action, in which most of the commercial peo- ple would have backed him.
When Bonaparte's Berlin Decree (Nov. 21, 1806) was matched by the British Orders in Council (Nov. 11, 1807), and these, in turn, were followed by the Milan Decree (Dec. 17, 1807), it seemed as if the United States were "between the fell incensed points of mighty opposites." British men- of-war disregarded all the rules of international law, lay outside our harbors and harassed our commerce. As a de- fiance of neutral rights the British government instructed its naval officers to exercise to the fullest extent the right of im- pressment of British subjects from neutral vessels.
THE EMBARGO (1807 - 1809)
Jefferson, however, was a man of peace. Before resorting to war, he wished to try the effect of retaliatory commercial measures. Hence, December 18, 1807, he sent a message to Congress urging an Embargo Act. The desired bill was quickly passed and signed, followed by two supplementary enforcement acts; and the Embargo was soon in operation. Naturally its effect was immediately felt in Massachusetts, which in 1807 owned more than one-third of the registered tonnage of the United States engaged in the carrying trade. The bill forbade any American vessel to leave one of our harbors for a foreign port, and placed fishing and coasting boats under bonds not to land a cargo outside of this country.
It must be admitted that the Embargo Act, especially before
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MASSACHUSETTS IN THE UNION
the rigid Enforcement Act of January, 1809, was evaded by many devices; and that exportation to other countries was carried on in spite of penalties. It is undeniable also that there was a stimulus to manufacturing which brought about the expansion of established industries and the development of new ones. Nor can it be denied that, despite the illegal capture of vessels and seizure of American citizens on the pretext that they were British sailors, large fortunes were made by some shipowners. Nevertheless, the effects of the Embargo were very prejudicial to New England. Commerce, when it was continued, was conducted with difficulty, and seizures and fines by the customs authorities were frequent. Every person in New England felt the effect of the Embargo, and it produced stagnation and bankruptcy in the coast towns. Ports like Newburyport, Plymouth, and Salem suffered ma- terially, never fully recovering from the interruption to their prosperity.
The Federalists saw in the Embargo Act a blow at the prestige of New England aimed by the arch-enemy, Jefferson. Nearly one hundred Massachusetts towns passed resolutions denouncing the policy of the administration. Once again, under the leadership of Senator Pickering, New England con- servatives talked of secession. Harrison Gray Otis, who was no hot-head, approved the plan, and it was favored by Christo- pher Gore. Albert Gallatin, then Secretary of the Treasury, and formerly a resident of Massachusetts, wrote in December, 1808: "I will only state that it is intended by the Essex Junto to prevail on the Massachusetts legislature, who meet in two or three weeks, to call a convention of the five New England states, to which they will try to add New York; and that something must be done to anticipate and defeat that nefa- rious plan."
Indeed the situation was growing serious. A Boston town meeting, January 23, 1809, declared that the citizens would . not "voluntarily aid or assist in the execution" of the new Enforcement Act. When the General Court convened two days later, it entered at once on a discussion of the Embargo, and the Federalist Party, once the champion of a strong cen- tral government, appeared in defense of the rights of the indi- vidual states. In a series of resolutions, the Legislature
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ELECTION OF 1808
announced that the Enforcement Act was "unjust, oppressive, and unconstitutional, and not legally binding on the citizens of this state," and declared its willingness to cooperate with other states in procuring amendments to the Constitution which would bring the desired relief. Meanwhile Jefferson, who was being assailed with memorials from Massachusetts towns threatening secession unless the odious bill were repealed, was reluctantly compelled to retreat before the storm which he had raised. As his unfortunate second term closed in 1809, he signed the repeal of the Embargo, conscious that his ex- periment had failed. It had revived the almost defunct Fed- eralist Party, transforming it into a political organization which was to be, until 1815, antifederal and antinational. It held onto life only by sheer dogged opposition to the younger and more aggressive Republicans.
ELECTION OF 1808
So far had the pendulum swung back that members of the Essex Junto actually dared to hope that Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the Federalist nominee, might be elected President over Madison in 1808. In the Congressional elections of that autumn the eleven Republican members for Massachusetts were reduced to seven. The opposition to the Embargo un- questionably weakened Republican unity, and Gallatin, Jef- ferson's Secretary of the Treasury, predicted that his party would be turned out. In Massachusetts, conditions were complicated by the fact that Governor James Sullivan was a Jeffersonian, while the General Court was Federalist. No permanent Massachusetts statute established the method of choosing electors ; but the General Court, ignoring the Gover- nor, met in November for an adjourned session, disregarded Sullivan's advice that electors be balloted for by the people, and then proceeded to name nineteen Federal electors. Sul- livan protested to Congress, but the votes were counted in the Federalist column. Nevertheless, Madison, with 122 votes, had an easy victory over Pinckney, with 47, and George Clinton, with 6. It is interesting to note that in 1808, Massa- chusetts showed a gain in population less than that of other large states, and was reduced to 19 electoral votes, as com-
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pared with 24 for Virginia, 20 for Pennsylvania, and 19 for New York.
POLITICAL FORTUNES OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS (1803 - 1809)
The Embargo Act was directly responsible for John Quincy Adams's formal transfer of allegiance from the Federalist to the Republican Party. In 1803, Adams, who had returned in 1801 from important diplomatic missions in Europe, was elected United States Senator to succeed Jonathan Mason, a Boston lawyer who was filling out the unexpired term of Benjamin Goodhue. Adams's colleague from Massachusetts was Timothy Pickering, with whom the former could not get along. Chosen as a Federalist, Adams was an independent thinker, who had the courage of his convictions. He was no blind follower of the Essex Junto, the members of which soon ascertained, to their regret, that he could not be counted upon as a "regular."
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