Chapter VIII: In Diplomacy (2)

While Mr. Gallatin was still actively engaged in an endeavor to put our commercial relations with France on a satisfactory basis, and negotiating with M. Pasquier, the new French minister for foreign affairs, both with regard to indemnities for captures and the new Spanish relations involved in the cession of Florida to the United States, a serious trouble arose in which Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Adams were at direct difference. In the spring of 1821 a French vessel, the Apollon, was seized on the St. Mary's River, on the Spanish side, and condemned for violation of the United States navigation laws. Mr. Adams sustained the seizure and Mr. Gallatin did his best to defend it, on the ground that the place where the vessel was seized was embraced in the occupation of the United States. To Adams he wrote that the doctrine assumed by the State Department with respect to the non-ratified treaty with Spain was not generally admitted in Europe, and that "he thought it equally dangerous and inconsistent with our general principles to assert that we had a right to seize a vessel for any cause short of piracy in a place where we did not previously claim jurisdiction." Mr. Gallatin succeeded in satisfying M. Pasquier that the seizure was not in violation of the law of nations or an insult to the French flag, and the captain having instituted a suit for redress against the seizing officers, the French minister allowed the matter to rest. Adams, however, was indignant at having his arguments set aside. He complained of it to Calhoun, and asked what Mr. Gallatin meant. Calhoun answered that perhaps it was "the pride of opinion." But when Adams got to his diary, which was the safety-valve of his ill-temper, he set a black mark against Mr. Gallatin's name in these words: "Gallatin is a man of first-rate talents, conscious and vain of them, and mortified in his ambition, checked as it has been, after attaining the last step to the summit; timid in great perils, tortuous in his paths; born in Europe, disguising and yet betraying a superstitious prejudice of European superiority of intellect, and holding principles pliable to circumstances, occasionally mistaking the left for the right handed wisdom." Against this judgment, Gallatin's estimate of Adams may be here set down. It was expressed to his intimate friend Badollet in 1824: "John Q. Adams is a virtuous man, whose temper, which is not the best, might be overlooked; he has very great and miscellaneous knowledge, and he is with his pen a powerful debater; but he wants, to a deplorable degree, that most essential quality, a sound and correct judgment. Of this I have had in my official connection and intercourse with him complete and repeated proofs; and although he may be useful when controlled and checked by others, he ought never to be trusted with a place where, unrestrained, his errors might be fatal to the country." Crawford complained of the difficulty he encountered in the cabinet of softening the asperities which invariably predominated in the official notes of the State Department while under Adams's direction, and said that, had they been allowed to remain as originally drafted, the government would have been "unembarrassed by diplomatic relations with more than one power." But it must be remembered that there was no love lost between Adams and Crawford--political rivals and not personal friends.

The commercial negotiations, and the discussion of French pretensions under the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty, opened with M. Pasquier, were continued with the Vicomte de Montmorenci, who succeeded him as minister of foreign affairs. In September, 1821, Mr. Gallatin had communicated to Mr. Adams his intention of returning home in the spring; but there appearing a chance of success in the negotiation of a treaty, he wrote in February, 1822, to President Monroe that if no successor had been appointed, he was desirous to remain some time longer. He was loath to return without having succeeded in any one subject intrusted to his care. Meanwhile Mr. Adams and M. de Neuville, the French minister, had been busy in the United States. A commercial convention was signed at Washington on June 24, 1822. Concerning this agreement Mr. Gallatin wrote to Adams that the terms were much more favorable to France than he had been led to presume would be acceded to, and more so than had been hoped for by the French government. He nevertheless expressed the wish that, as it had been signed, it should be ratified, in anticipation that the superior activity of our ship-owners and seamen would enable America to stand the competition.

In January, 1823, Montmorenci resigned and was succeeded by M. de Chateaubriand. The change of ministers made no change in the French persistence in connecting the discussion of the American claims with that of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty, an arrangement to which Mr. Gallatin would not consent. As a last resort he so informed M. de Chateaubriand, but receiving an unsatisfactory answer he concluded that there was at that time no disposition in France to do us justice; and as his protracted stay could be of no service to the United States, he determined to return home in the course of the spring. In April he received leave of absence from the President. On May 13 he had a final conference with Chateaubriand, in which he could get no promise of any redress, but did obtain the explicit declaration that France would in no manner interfere in American questions.

Mr. Gallatin took passage at Havre, and arrived in New York on June 24, 1823. His political friends, especially Crawford, were eager for his return. Crawford wished him to stand for vice-president in the coming presidential campaign. After a short visit to Washington he went to his home at New Geneva. The real value of perfect public service, or indeed of any service, is only appreciated when it ceases, and friction takes the place of smooth and noiseless order. Hardly was Mr. Gallatin settled at Friendship Hill when a letter from President Monroe (October 15) arrived, urging him to return to Paris, if only for the winter, or until the crisis brought on by the rupture between France and Spain should be over. Mr. Gallatin replied, that the deranged state of his private affairs rendered his return to Europe extremely improbable.

Goethe says in his "Elective Affinities" that we cannot escape the atmosphere we breathe. The natural atmosphere of Mr. Gallatin was public life. In November, 1825, Mr. Clay, Adams's secretary of state, offered, and, meeting a refusal, pressed upon Mr. Gallatin the post of representative of the United States at the proposed Congress of American Republics at Panama. Mr. Clay was right in considering it the most important mission ever sent from the United States, and had Mr. Gallatin accepted it, relations with these interesting countries might have been improved to an immeasurable degree of happiness to them, and of benefit to both continents. But his family would not hear of his exposure in the fatal climate of the American Isthmus. Moreover, he pleaded his ignorance of the Spanish language as a sufficient excuse for declining the mission,--an example which has not been followed in later days.

_Minister to England_

In the spring of 1826 Mr. Rufus King, who had taken the place of Mr. Rush at London, that gentleman having been called to the Treasury by President Adams, fell ill, and requested the assistance of an extraordinary envoy. Mr. Gallatin accepted the mission. Before his nomination reached the Senate Mr. King's resignation was received and accepted. President Adams wishing to intrust Mr. Gallatin alone with the pending negotiations, and unwilling to make the two nominations of minister and envoy, proposed to Mr. Gallatin to take the post of minister, with powers to negotiate, and liberty to return when the negotiations should be finished. Personal expenses at London were so great that the post of resident minister was ruinous. Mr. Adams promised Mr. Gallatin _carte blanche_ as to his instructions. But instead of latitude and discretionary power he received at New York voluminous directions which he engaged faithfully to execute, while regretting that they had not been made known to him sooner. Nevertheless, in the three days which intervened before his sailing, he wrote to Mr. Clay a lucid statement of the points in issue, and mentioned the modifications he desired. The points were: 1. The northeastern boundary. Upon this he was only authorized to obtain a reference of the subject to a direct negotiation at Washington. He asked consent, in case it should be desirable, to open a negotiation on this point at London. Should Great Britain refuse to open a negotiation at either place, or to agree to a joint statement, then he was not to be bound to propose an immediate reference to a third power. 2. The boundary west of the Stony Mountains. The instructions limited British continuance on settlements south of the 49th parallel to five years. Mr. Gallatin thought this insufficient, and proposed fifteen years. 3. The St. Lawrence navigation, and the intercourse with Canada, as to which he suggested alternate plans. 4. Colonial trade, on which he asked precise instructions as to what was desired. To the President he complained of his instructions as 'of the most peremptory nature, leaving no discretion on unimportant points, and making of him a mere machine,' and he requested that it be officially announced to him 'that the instructions were intended to guide but not absolutely to bind him.' He was not afraid of incurring responsibility where discretion was allowed, but he would not do it in the face of strict and positive injunctions. Mr. Gallatin sailed from New York with his wife and daughter July 1, 1826. Mr. William Beach Lawrence, then a youth, accompanied him as his secretary. They reached London on August 7.

Canning was then at the head of the foreign office, and the temper of the ministry was not that of Castlereagh and Wellington. Mr. Gallatin did not like French diplomacy, nor did he admire that of England. He wrote to his son: 'Some of the French statesmen occasionally say what is not true; here (in London) they conceal the truth.' But while in diplomacy he found strength and the opinion of that strength to be the only weapons, he felt satisfaction that the country could support its rights and pretensions by assuming a different attitude. In the course of the negotiations Mr. Gallatin learned that one of the king's ministers had complained of the tone of United States diplomacy towards England, and had added, that it was time to show that it was felt and resented. No such fault could attach to the correspondence of Mr. Rush and Mr. King, or to that of Mr. Clay, which Mr. Addington had found quite acceptable; but it was ascribed to Mr. Adams's instructions to Mr. Rush, printed by order of the Senate. Mr. Gallatin later discovered that the offensive remarks were in Baylies's report on the territory west of the Stony Mountains. Mr. Gallatin explained the independence of the House committees in the United States, but as a diplomatist he felt the need of a concert between the executive and the committees of Congress in all that concerns foreign relations. Government, after all, is a complex science.

The simple directness with which Mr. Gallatin dealt with Lord Liverpool could not serve with a man of Canning's disposition. Mr. Gallatin did not fail to bring to bear the pressure of a possible change in the relations of the United States and Great Britain, which might arise from the war which seemed imminent between that power and Spain. The new questions of Cuba, and the old habit of impressment, might at once bring the United States into collision with England. But the war did not take place, and the close of the year found the negotiations not far advanced. Only the convention of 1815 would no doubt be renewed. He asked for further instructions on that subject, the joint occupancy of western territory, and impressments, all of which he hoped to arrange in the spring and summer, and return home. Mr. Lawrence he found to be a secretary more capable in the current business of the legation than any of his predecessors. Mr. Gallatin could safely leave him there as _chargé d'affaires_.

In December, Chateaubriand used in the House of Peers the words which Mr. Gallatin had said to him, 'that England could not take Cuba without making war on the United States, and that she knew it.' Mr. Gallatin so informed Adams, and added, that France would no doubt agree, as Chateaubriand would have agreed, to a tripartite instrument if England were of the same opinion.

In March, 1827, Adams warned Gallatin that the sudden and unexpected determination of Great Britain to break off all negotiation concerning the colonial trade, and the contemporaneous interdiction of the vessels of the United States from all British ports in the West Indies, had put a new face on matters. A renewal of the convention of 1818 would probably be agreed to by the Senate, but no concession in the form of a treaty would be acceptable. His words were emphatic. "One inch of ground yielded on the northwest coast,--one step backward from the claim to the navigation of the St. Lawrence,--one hair's breadth of compromise upon the article of impressment would be certain to meet the reprobation of the Senate." In this temper of parties, Adams added, "All we can hope to accomplish will be to adjourn controversies which we cannot adjust, and say to Britain as the Abbé Bernis said to Cardinal Fleuri: 'Monseigneur, j'attendrai.'"

But changes now occurred in the British ministry: Lord Liverpool died in February, 1827--Mr. Canning in the following August. Lord Goderich became prime minister. The new administration returned from Canning's eccentric course to the old and quiet path. The commercial convention of 1815 was renewed indefinitely, each party being at liberty to abrogate it at twelve months' notice. The joint occupancy of the Oregon Territory, agreed to in 1818, was continued in a similar manner. On September 29 a convention was signed, referring the northeast boundary to the arbitration of a friendly sovereign. Mr. Gallatin believed that, had Canning lived, he would have opened a negotiation on the subject of impressment. Huskisson considered that 'the right, even if well founded, was one the exercise of which was intolerable, but that this was not the time to take up the subject.' The new British administration did not dare to encounter the clamor of the navy, the opposition of the Tories, and the pride of the nation on this question.

Having accomplished all that was practicable, completed all the current business, and leaving the British government in a better temper than he found it, Mr. Gallatin returned to the United States, reaching New York on November 29, 1827. Nothing remained in foreign relations in respect to which Mr. Gallatin felt that he could be of much use except the northeast boundary. In a letter of congratulation to Mr. Gallatin on his arrival, President Adams made ample amends for all his harsh judgments, expressed or withheld. The three conventions were entirely satisfactory to him. Of the negotiation he said, in words as graceful as warm, "I shall feel most sensibly the loss of your presence at London, and can form no more earnest wish than that your successor may acquire the same influence of reason and good temper which you did exercise, and that it may be applied with as salutary effect to the future discussions between the two governments." During his visit to London Mr. Gallatin was overwhelmed with civilities. Canning was courteous to a degree, and rarely a day passed that the American ambassador had not to choose between half a dozen invitations to dinner. At the house of the Russian minister, the Count de Lieven, he was always welcome, and the Countess de Lieven, the autocrat of foreign society in London, without whose pass no stranger could cross the sacred threshold of Almack's, was his fast friend. To each circle he carried that which each most prized. Whether the conversation turned upon government or science, the dry figures of finance, or the more genial topic of diplomatic intrigue, Mr. Gallatin was its easy master, and his words never fell on inattentive ears.

With this mission to London Mr. Gallatin's diplomatic service closed. He would have accepted the French mission in 1834, and so informed Van Buren, but General Jackson, who was President, had his own plans, and 'ran his machine' without consulting other than his own prejudices or whims. But although Mr. Gallatin was no longer in the field of diplomacy, his counsels were eagerly sought. The northeastern boundary was a troublesome question, indeed in the new phases of American politics an imminent danger. The extension of the commercial relations of Great Britain and the United States rendered it imperative that no point of dispute should remain which could be determined. For two years after his return from England, Mr. Gallatin was employed in the preparation of an argument to be laid before the king of the Netherlands, who had been selected as the arbiter between the United States and Great Britain on the boundary. The king undertook to press a conventional line, which the United States, not being bound to accept, refused. In 1839 Mr. Gallatin prepared, and put before the world, a statement of the facts in the case. This, revised, together with the speech of Mr. Webster, a copy of the Jay treaty, and eight maps, he published at his own expense in 1840.

At this time conflicts on the Maine frontier brought the subject up in a manner not to be ignored. Popular feeling was at high pitch. In this condition of affairs Alexander Baring, who had been raised to the peerage as Lord Ashburton, was sent to America on a mission of friendship and peace. As a young man he had listened to the debate on Jay's treaty in 1795. He was now to be received by Webster in Washington in the same spirit in which Grenville received Jay in London, when it was mutually understood that they should discuss the matter as friends and not as diplomatists, and leave their articles as records of agreement, not as compromises of discord. Gallatin eagerly awaited the arrival of his old friend, and was grievously disappointed when contrary winds blew the frigate which carried him to Annapolis. Letters were immediately exchanged; Lord Ashburton engaging before he left the country to find Gallatin out, and, as he said, to "_draw a little wisdom from the best well_." After the treaty was signed, Lord Ashburton went from Washington to New York, and the old friends met once more: Mr. Gallatin was in his 82d year, but in the full possession of his faculties; Lord Ashburton in his 68th year: a memorable meeting of two great men, whose lives had much in common; the one the foremost banker of England, the other the matchless financier of America; and to this sufficient honor was added for each the singular merit of having negotiated for his country the most important treaty in its relation to the other since the separation of 1783,--Mr. Gallatin, the Treaty of Ghent, which gave peace to America; Lord Ashburton, that treaty which is known by his name and which secured peace to Great Britain.

In 1846 Mr. Gallatin rendered his last diplomatic service by the publication of a pamphlet on the Oregon question, which was then as threatening as that of the northeastern boundary had been. This admirable exposition, which put before the people as well as the negotiators the precise merits of the controversy, powerfully contributed to the ultimate peaceful settlement.

Still once more Mr. Gallatin threw his authoritative words into the scale of justice. His last appearance in public had been when he presided on April 24, 1844, at a meeting in New York city to protest against the annexation of Texas. He then held that the resolution of the House declaring the treaty of annexation between the United States of America and the Republic of Texas to be the fundamental law of union between them, without and against the consent of the Senate, was a direct and undisguised usurpation of power and a violation of the Constitution. In the storm of opposition he lifted his feeble voice in condemnation of the violation of treaties, and the disregard of the sacred obligations of mankind. "I am highly gratified," were his final words, "I am highly gratified that the last public act of a long life should have been that of bearing testimony against this outrageous attempt. It is indeed a consolation that my almost extinguished voice has been on this occasion raised in defense of liberty, of justice, and of our country." Of the war with Mexico, he was wont to say, "that it was the only blot upon the escutcheon of the United States." Aged as he was, he would not rest until he had made his last appeal for peace with Mexico. He also prepared supplementary essays on war expenses: the first of these was published in 1847, the second in 1848. For months all his faculties, all his feelings were absorbed in this one subject. These pamphlets were widely circulated by the friends of peace. The venerable sage had the comfort of knowing that his words were not in vain. Peace with Mexico was signed on February 2, 1848.

* * * * *

Mr. Gallatin was no believer in the doctrine of 'manifest destiny,'--the policy of bringing all North America into the occupation of a race speaking the same language, and under a single government. On February 16, 1848, before news of the signature of the treaty at Guadalupe Hidalgo, by Mr. Trist, the American negotiator, was known in New York, Mr. Gallatin condemned this idea in a remarkable passage, in a letter to Garrett Davis:--

"What shall be said of the notion of an empire extending from the
Atlantic to the Pacific and from the North Pole to the Equator? Of
the destiny of the Anglo-Saxon race, of its universal monarchy over
the whole of North America? Now, I will ask, which is the portion
of the globe that has attained the highest degree of civilization
and even of power--Asia, with its vast empires of Turkey, India,
and China, or Europe divided into near twenty independent
sovereignties? Other powerful causes have undoubtedly largely
contributed to that result; but this, the great division into ten
or twelve distinct languages, must not be neglected. But all these
allegations of superiority of race and destiny neither require nor
deserve any answer. They are but pretences under which to disguise
ambition, cupidity, or silly vanity."

The justice of these reflections was assuredly borne out by the experience of history, but manifest destiny takes no account of past lessons.

Before these lines of Mr. Gallatin were penned, on January 19, 1848, gold was discovered in California. The announcement startled the world and opened a new era, not only to Europe, but to mankind. Extending the metallic basis, which no man better than Mr. Gallatin recognized and held to be the true solvent of money transactions, it postponed for a half century the inevitable conflict between capital and labor, the first outbreaks of which in Europe had been with difficulty suppressed, when the news of good tidings gave promise of unexpected relief. Credit revived, new enterprises of colossal magnitude were undertaken, and the demand for labor quickly exceeded the supply. Emigration to America rose to incredible proportions. Had Mr. Gallatin lived, he would have found new elements to be weighed in his nice balance of probabilities. He would no longer, as in 1839, have been compelled to say that "specie is a foreign product," but would have given to us inestimable advice as to the proper use to be made of the vast sums taken out from our own soil. He would have been also brought to face the ethnologic problem of a continent inhabited by a single race, not Anglo-Saxon, nor Teutonic, nor yet Latin, but a composite race in which all these will be merged and blended; a new American race which, springing from a broader surface, shall rise to higher summits of intellectual power and, with a greater variety of natural qualities, achieve excellence in more numerous ways. This vision was denied to Mr. Gallatin. He died at the threshold of the new era--of the golden age. A half century has not passed since his death, and the United States has taken from her soil a value of over three thousand millions of dollars, in gold and silver (gold two thousand millions, silver one thousand millions), more than two thirds of the total amount estimated by Mr. Gallatin as the store of Europe in 1839; and has also added to her population, by immigration alone, ten millions of people, of whom but a small proportion are of the Anglo-Saxon race.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 19: _Life of Albert Gallatin_, p. 546.]

[Footnote 20: The frigate Chesapeake was captured by the British man-of-war Leopard in June, 1807.]

[Footnote 21: A translation of this work, _Economie Politique_, was published under Jefferson's supervision in 1818.]