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30 chapters
CHAPTER I. PRESIDENT JEFFERSON'S COURT
CHAPTER I. PRESIDENT JEFFERSON'S COURT
The rumble of President John Adams's coach had hardly died away in the distance on the morning of March 4,1801, when Mr. Thomas Jefferson entered the breakfast room of Conrad's boarding house on Capitol Hill, where he had been living in bachelor's quarters during his Vice-Presidency. He took his usual seat at the lower end of the table among the other boarders, declining with a smile to accept the chair of the impulsive Mrs. Brown, who felt, in spite of her democratic principles, that on this da
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CHAPTER II. PUTTING THE SHIP ON HER REPUBLICAN TACK
CHAPTER II. PUTTING THE SHIP ON HER REPUBLICAN TACK
President Jefferson took office in a spirit of exultation which he made no effort to disguise in his private letters. "The tough sides of our Argosie," he wrote to John Dickinson, "have been thoroughly tried. Her strength has stood the waves into which she was steered with a view to sink her. We shall put her on her Republican tack, and she will now show by the beauty of her motion the skill of her builders." In him as in his two intimates, Gallatin and Madison, there was a touch of that philoso
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CHAPTER III. THE CORSAIRS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN
CHAPTER III. THE CORSAIRS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN
Shortly after Jefferson's inauguration a visitor presented himself at the Executive Mansion with disquieting news from the Mediterranean. Captain William Bainbridge of the frigate George Washington had just returned from a disagreeable mission. He had been commissioned to carry to the Dey of Algiers the annual tribute which the United States had contracted to pay. It appeared that while the frigate lay at anchor under the shore batteries off Algiers, the Dey attempted to requisition her to carry
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CHAPTER IV. THE SHADOW OF THE FIRST CONSUL
CHAPTER IV. THE SHADOW OF THE FIRST CONSUL
Bainbridge in forlorn captivity at Tripoli, Preble and Barron keeping anxious watch off the stormy coast of Africa, Eaton marching through the windswept desert, are picturesque figures that arrest the attention of the historian; but they seemed like shadowy actors in a remote drama to the American at home, absorbed in the humdrum activities of trade and commerce. Through all these dreary years of intermittent war, other matters engrossed the President and Congress and caught the attention of the
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CHAPTER V. IN PURSUIT OF THE FLORIDAS
CHAPTER V. IN PURSUIT OF THE FLORIDAS
The purchase of Louisiana was a diplomatic triumph of the first magnitude. No American negotiators have ever acquired so much for so little; yet, oddly enough, neither Livingston nor Monroe had the slightest notion of the vast extent of the domain which they had purchased. They had bought Louisiana "with the same extent that it is now in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it, and such as it should be after the treaties subsequently entered into between Spain and other Stat
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CHAPTER VI. AN AMERICAN CATILINE
CHAPTER VI. AN AMERICAN CATILINE
With the transfer of Louisiana, the United States entered upon its first experience in governing an alien civilized people. At first view there is something incongruous in the attempt of the young Republic, founded upon the consent of the governed, to rule over a people whose land had been annexed without their consent and whose preferences in the matter of government had never been consulted. The incongruity appears the more striking when it is recalled that the author of the Declaration of Ind
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CHAPTER VII. AN ABUSE OF HOSPITALITY
CHAPTER VII. AN ABUSE OF HOSPITALITY
While Captain Bainbridge was eating his heart out in the Pasha's prison at Tripoli, his thoughts reverting constantly to his lost frigate, he reminded Commodore Preble, with whom he was allowed to correspond, that "the greater part of our crew consists of English subjects not naturalized in America." This incidental remark comes with all the force of a revelation to those who have fondly imagined that the sturdy jack-tars who manned the first frigates were genuine American sea-dogs. Still more d
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CHAPTER VIII. THE PACIFISTS OF 1807
CHAPTER VIII. THE PACIFISTS OF 1807
It is one of the strange paradoxes of our time that the author of the Declaration of Independence, to whose principle of self-determination the world seems again to be turning, should now be regarded as a self-confessed pacifist, with all the derogatory implications that lurk in that epithet. The circumstances which made him a revolutionist in 1776 and a passionate advocate of peace in 1807 deserve some consideration. The charge made by contemporaries of Jefferson that his aversion to war sprang
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CHAPTER IX. THE LAST PHASE OF PEACEABLE COERCION
CHAPTER IX. THE LAST PHASE OF PEACEABLE COERCION
Three days after Jefferson gave his consent to the repeal of the embargo, the Presidency passed in succession to the second of the Virginia Dynasty. It was not an impressive figure that stood beside Jefferson and faced the great crowd gathered in the new Hall of Representatives at the Capitol. James Madison was a pale, extremely nervous, and obviously unhappy person on this occasion. For a masterful character this would have been the day of days; for Madison it was a fearful ordeal which sapped
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CHAPTER X. THE WAR-HAWKS
CHAPTER X. THE WAR-HAWKS
Among the many unsolved problems which Jefferson bequeathed to his successor in office was that of the southern frontier. Running like a shuttle through the warp of his foreign policy had been his persistent desire to acquire possession of the Spanish Floridas. This dominant desire, amounting almost to a passion, had mastered even his better judgment and had created dilemmas from which he did not escape without the imputation of duplicity. On his retirement he announced that he was leaving all t
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CHAPTER XI. PRESIDENT MADISON UNDER FIRE
CHAPTER XI. PRESIDENT MADISON UNDER FIRE
The dire calamity which Jefferson and his colleagues had for ten years bent all their energies to avert had now befallen the young Republic. War, with all its train of attendant evils, stalked upon the stage, and was about to test the hearts of pacifist and war-hawk alike. But nothing marked off the younger Republicans more sharply from the generation to which Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin belonged than the positive relief with which they hailed this break with Jeffersonian tradition. This at
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CHAPTER XII. THE PEACEMAKERS
CHAPTER XII. THE PEACEMAKERS
On a May afternoon in the year 1813, a little three-hundred-ton ship, the Neptune, put out from New Castle down Delaware Bay. Before she could clear the Capes she fell in with a British frigate, one of the blockading squadron which was already drawing its fatal cordon around the seaboard States. The captain of the Neptune boarded the frigate and presented his passport, from which it appeared that he carried two distinguished passengers, Albert Gallatin and James A. Bayard, Envoys Extraordinary t
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CHAPTER XIII. SPANISH DERELICTS IN THE NEW WORLD
CHAPTER XIII. SPANISH DERELICTS IN THE NEW WORLD
It fell to the last, and perhaps least talented, President of the Virginia Dynasty to consummate the work of Jefferson and Madison by a final settlement with Spain which left the United States in possession of the Floridas. In the diplomatic service James Monroe had exhibited none of those qualities which warranted the expectation that he would succeed where his predecessors had failed. On his missions to England and Spain, indeed, he had been singularly inept, but he had learned much in the rud
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CHAPTER XIV. FRAMING AN AMERICAN POLICY
CHAPTER XIV. FRAMING AN AMERICAN POLICY
The decline and fall of the Spanish Empire does not challenge the imagination like the decline and fall of that other Empire with which alone it can be compared, possibly because no Gibbon has chronicled its greatness. Yet its dissolution affected profoundly the history of three continents. While the Floridas were slipping from the grasp of Spain, the provinces to the south were wrenching themselves loose, with protestations which penetrated to European chancelleries as well as to American legis
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CHAPTER XV. THE END OF AN ERA
CHAPTER XV. THE END OF AN ERA
It was in the midst of the diplomatic contest for the Floridas that James Monroe was for the second time elected to the Presidency, with singularly little display of partisanship. This time all the electoral votes but one were cast for him. Of all the Presidents only George Washington has received a unanimous vote; and to Monroe, therefore, belongs the distinction of standing second to the Father of his Country in the vote of electors. The single vote which Monroe failed to get fell to his Secre
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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
GENERAL WORKS Five well-known historians have written comprehensive works on the period covered by the administrations of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe: John B. McMaster has stressed the social and economic aspects in "A History of the People of the United States;" James Schouler has dwelt upon the political and constitutional problems in his "History of the United States of America under the Constitution;" Woodrow Wilson has written a "History of the American People" which indeed is less a his
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CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
No historian can approach this epoch without doing homage to Henry Adams, whose "History of the United States," 9 vols. (1889-1891), is at once a literary performance of extraordinary merit and a treasure-house of information. Skillfully woven into the text is documentary material from foreign archives which Adams, at great expense, had transcribed and translated. Intimate accounts of Washington and its society may be found in the following books: G. Gibbs, "Memoirs of the Administrations of Was
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CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
The problems of patronage that beset President Jefferson are set forth by Gaillard Hunt in "Office-seeking during Jefferson's Administration," in the "American Historical Review," vol. III, p. 271, and by Carl R. Fish in "The Civil Service and the Patronage" (1905). There is no better way to enter sympathetically into Jefferson's mental world than to read his correspondence. The best edition of his writings is that by Paul Leicester Ford. Henry Adams has collected the "Writings of Albert Gallati
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CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
The larger histories of the American navy by Maclay, Spears, and Clark describe the war with Tripoli, but by far the best account is G. W. Allen's "Our Navy and the Barbary Corsairs" (1905), which may be supplemented by C. O. Paullin's "Commodore John Rodgers" (1910). T. Harris's "Life and Services of Commodore William Bainbridge" (1837) contains much interesting information about service in the Mediterranean and the career of this gallant commander. C. H. Lincoln has edited "The Hull-Eaton Corr
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CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
Even after the lapse of many years, Henry Adams's account of the purchase of Louisiana remains the best: Volumes I and II of his "History of the United States." J. A. Robertson in his "Louisiana under the Rule of Spain, France, and the United States," 1785-1807, 2 vols. (1911), has brought together a mass of documents relating to the province and territory. Barbe-Marbois, "Histoire de la Louisiana et de la Cession" (1829), which is now accessible in translation, is the main source of information
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CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
The vexed question of the boundaries of Louisiana is elucidated by Henry Adams in volumes II and III of his "History of the United States." Among the more recent studies should be mentioned the articles contributed by Isaac J. Cox to volumes VI and X of the "Quarterly" of the Texas State Historical Association, and an article entitled "Was Texas Included in the Louisiana Purchase?" by John R. Ficklen in the "Publications" of the Southern History Association, vol. V. In the first two chapters of
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CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
The most painstaking account of Burr's expedition is W. F. McCaleb's "The Aaron Burr Conspiracy" (1903) which differs from Henry Adams's version in making James Wilkinson rather than Burr the heavy villain in the plot. Wilkinson's own account of the affair, which is thoroughly untrustworthy, is contained in his "Memoirs of My Own Times," 3 vols. (1816). The treasonable intrigues of Wilkinson are proved beyond doubt by the investigations of W. R. Shepherd, "Wilkinson and the Beginnings of the Spa
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CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VII
The history of impressment has yet to be written, but J. R. Hutchinson's "The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore" (1913) has shown clearly that the baleful effects of the British practice were not felt solely by American shipmasters. Admiral A. T. Mahan devoted a large part of his first volume on "Sea Power in its relations to the War of 1812," 2 vols. (1905), to the antecedents of the war. W. E. Lingelbach has made a notable contribution to our understanding of the Essex case in his article on "Engla
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CHAPTERS VIII AND IX
CHAPTERS VIII AND IX
Besides the histories of Mahan and Adams, the reader will do well to consult several biographies for information about peaceable coercion in theory and practice. Among these may be mentioned Randall's "Life of Thomas Jefferson," Adams's "Life of Albert Gallatin" and "John Randolph" in the "American Statesmen Series," W. E. Dodd's "Life of Nathaniel Macon" (1903), D. R. Anderson's "William Branch Giles" (1914), and J. B. McMaster's "Life and Times of Stephen Girard," 2 vols. (1917). For want of a
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CHAPTER X
CHAPTER X
The relations of the United States and Spanish Florida are set forth in many works, of which three only need be mentioned: H. B. Fuller, "The Purchase of Florida" (1906), has devoted several chapters to the early history of the Floridas, but so far as West Florida is concerned his work is superseded by I. J. Cox's "The West Florida Controversy, 1789-1813" (1918). The first volume, "Diplomacy," of F. E. Chadwick's "Relations of the United States and Spain," 3 vols. (1909-11), gives an account of
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CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XI
The civil history of President Madison's second term of office may be followed in Adams's "History of the United States," vols. VII, VIII, and IX; in Hunt's "Life of James Madison;" in Adams's "Life of Albert Gallatin;" and in such fragmentary records of men and events as are found in the "Memoirs and Letters of Dolly Madison" (1886) and Mrs. M. B. Smith's "The First Forty Years of Washington Society" (1906). The history of New England Federalism may be traced in H. C. Lodge's "Life and Letters
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CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XII
The history of the negotiations at Ghent has been recounted by Mahan and Henry Adams, and more recently by F. A. Updyke, "The Diplomacy of the War of 1812" (1915). Aside from the "State Papers," the chief sources of information are Adams's "Life of Gallatin" and "Writings of Gallatin" the "Memoirs of John Quincy Adams," 12 vols. (1874-1877), and "Writings of John Quincy Adams" 7 vols. (1913-), edited by W. C. Ford, the "Papers of James A. Bayard, 1796-1815" (1915), edited by Elizabeth Donnan, th
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CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIII
The want of a good biography of James Monroe is felt increasingly as one enters upon the history of his administrations. Some personal items may be gleaned from "A Narrative of a Tour of Observation Made during the Summer of 1817" (1818); and many more may be found in the "Memoirs and Writings" of John Quincy Adams. The works by Fuller and Chadwick already cited deal with the negotiations leading to the acquisition of Florida. The "Memoirs et Souvenirs" of Hyde de Neuville, 3 vols. (1893-4), sup
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CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XIV
The problem of the recognition of the South American republics has been put in its historical setting by F. L. Paxson in "The Independence of the South American Republics" (1903). The relations of the United States and Spain are described by F. E. Chadwick in the work already cited and by J. H. Latane in "The United States and Latin America" (1920). To these titles may be added J. M. Callahan's "Cuba and International Relations" (1899). The studies of Worthington C. Ford have given John Quincy A
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CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XV
The subjects touched upon in this closing chapter are treated with great skill by Frederick J. Turner in his "Rise of the New West" (1906). On the slavery controversy, an article by J. A. Woodburn, "The Historical Significance of the Missouri Compromise," in the "Report" of the American Historical Association for 1893, and an article by F. H. Hodder, "Side Lights on the Missouri Compromise," in the "Report" for 1909, may be read with profit. D. R. Dewey's "Financial History of the United States"
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