Chapter I: Part 1

VOICES FROM AMERICA’S PAST

THE JEFFERSONIANS
1801-1829

Edited by
Richard B. Morris
Gouverneur Morris Professor of History
Columbia University
New York, New York

James Woodress
Chairman, Department of English
San Fernando Valley State College
Northridge, California

WEBSTER PUBLISHING COMPANY
ST. LOUIS ATLANTA DALLAS

VOICES FROM AMERICA’S PAST
_The Beginnings of America 1607-1763_
_The Times That Tried Men’s Souls 1770-1783_
_The Age of Washington 1783-1801_
_The Jeffersonians 1801-1829_
_Jacksonian Democracy 1829-1848_
_The Westward Movement 1832-1889_
_A House Divided: The Civil War 1850-1865_
(_Other titles in preparation_)

Copyright ©, 1961, by Webster Publishing Company
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface v
I Jefferson’s Administration, 1801-1809

The Election and Inauguration 1
Margaret Bayard Smith Describes the Election and Inauguration 2
Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address 4

Burr Kills Hamilton 7
David Hosack Describes Hamilton’s Last Hours 7

Marbury vs. Madison 10
Excerpts from John Marshall’s Decision 10

The Louisiana Purchase 12
Jefferson Writes to Robert Livingston 13
The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Lewis’ Journal 14

The Embargo Act 18
Washington Irving Satirizes the Embargo Act 19
II Madison’s Administration, 1809-1817

Madison’s Inauguration 22
Mrs. Smith’s Report 22

The War of 1812 24
The _Constitution_ Defeats the _Guerrière_: Isaac Hull 25
Commodore Perry Wins a Victory on Lake Erie: Oliver Perry 27
The British Burn Washington: Dolly Madison 28
The British Burn Washington: George Gleig 30
The Battle of New Orleans: George Gleig 32
The Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson 35
III James Monroe’s Administration, 1817-1825

Early Days in the Mississippi Valley 37
A Husking Bee in Ohio: William Cooper Howells 38
Religion in Tennessee: Lorenzo Dow 40
Davy Crockett Runs for Office 44
Early Days in Illinois: Morris Birkbeck 47

Ominous Loomings: The Missouri Compromise, 1820 50
Representative Arthur Livermore Argues Against Extending Slavery 50
Senator James Barbour Defends Slavery 52
Representative James Stevens Argues for the Compromise 53

The Monroe Doctrine 54
Excerpts from the Monroe Doctrine 54
IV John Quincy Adams

Lighthouses in the Sky 56
Excerpts from Adams’ First Message to Congress 56

The selections by Margaret Bayard Smith, from _Forty Years of Washington Society_, edited by Gaillard Hunt, which begin on pages 2 and 22, were reprinted through the courtesy of Charles Scribner’s Sons.

The picture on the cover and the picture on page 1, of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, were reprinted through the courtesy of the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company of Boston, Massachusetts. The picture on page 22, of the _Constitution_ and the _Guerrière_, was reprinted through the courtesy of the New York Public Library. The picture of a political speaker on the Fourth of July on page 37 and the picture of John Quincy Adams on page 56 were reprinted through the courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Preface

The early part of the last century was an exciting time to live in America. The signers of the Declaration of Independence and the framers of the Constitution, mostly old men by now, saw that their experiment in republican government had turned out to be a success. The nation was flourishing in these years like a healthy adolescent. There were growing pains, to be sure, but no one doubted now that the youngster would reach manhood. The question was: What is he going to be like?

The party battles of John Adams’ administration left the Federalist Party in ruins, and Thomas Jefferson succeeded to the presidency with an overwhelming popular mandate. During his first term, Jefferson increased his popularity through buying from France the enormous Louisiana Territory which doubled the size of the United States. By the time the Lewis and Clark Expedition returned from exploring the new land, people began to realize the immense possibilities that the Louisiana Purchase held for the future of the United States.

Jefferson’s second term was beset by foreign problems that culminated eventually in the War of 1812, during James Madison’s administration. Despite George Washington’s advice in his Farewell Address to stay out of entangling foreign alliances, America could not avoid being affected by events abroad. She was caught between the hammer and the anvil during Napoleon’s wars with the rest of Europe. The War of 1812 settled no issues but, soon afterward, the main Anglo-American problems left over from the Revolution were adjusted. Napoleon’s downfall at Waterloo removed France as an obstacle to American development.

The period known as the “Era of Good Feeling” followed the War of 1812. During the two terms of James Monroe, internal matters were the main concern of the country: tariffs, banking, domestic improvements, the admission of new states into the Union. With the Monroe Doctrine, which warned Europe to respect the independence of Latin America, the United States began to emerge as a power in the world. Even more important was the appearance of storm warnings heralding the eventual coming of the Civil War. The Missouri Compromise, which drew a line between slave and free territory, established an uneasy truce between the North and the South.

By the time John Quincy Adams became the sixth President, sectionalism was rapidly developing, and the balance of power between the East and the West, the industrial North and the agricultural South, was beginning to shift. The two-party system, which had largely disappeared with the collapse of the Federalists in 1800, was revived. In 1828 the long monopoly that Virginia and Massachusetts had enjoyed in supplying American Presidents came to an end with the election of Andrew Jackson of Tennessee and a new era began.

The selections in this booklet reflect most of the significant events of these years from 1801 to 1829. The Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the War of 1812, the Missouri Compromise, all are represented. In addition we have included accounts of some small events and background descriptions which give the flavor of the age. A proper notion of this period requires not only a knowledge of the major issues, such as understanding the Embargo Act or the significance of the _Marbury_ vs. _Madison_ decision, but also an appreciation of the quality of the experience of being an American in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Hence we have used such documents as Lorenzo Dow’s diary describing the life of a frontier preacher and Morris Birkbeck’s account of settling in Illinois.

In editing the manuscripts in this booklet, we have followed the practice of modernizing punctuation, capitalization, and spelling only when necessary to make the selections clear. We have silently corrected misspelled words and typographical errors. Wherever possible we have used complete selections, but occasionally space limitations have made necessary cuts in the original documents. Such cuts are indicated by spaced periods. In general, the selections appear as the authors wrote them.

Richard B. Morris
James Woodress

Jefferson’s Administration, 1801-1809

The Election and Inauguration

On election day in 1800, Thomas Jefferson won a clear victory over John Adams but almost did not became President. The Constitution required that presidential electors cast two ballots; the winner became President and the runner-up became Vice-President. Jefferson’s running mate, Aaron Burr, who had been nominated for Vice-President, received 73 electoral votes, the same number as Jefferson. This strange situation occurred because the Constitutional Convention had not anticipated the rise of party politics. When John Adams had defeated Jefferson in 1796, Jefferson, as the runner-up, was elected Vice-President. If parties had not developed by 1800, Adams, as Jefferson’s opponent, would surely have become Vice-President. But because parties had arisen, all of Jefferson’s electors gave Burr their second vote. (A repetition of this kind of deadlock was avoided for future elections by the Twelfth Amendment.)

The Constitution stated that if the two leading candidates were tied, the election should be decided by the House of Representatives. The trouble was that in 1800 the House was controlled by the Federalists and not by Jefferson’s party. The Federalists nearly elected Burr President because they disliked him less than they disliked Jefferson.

Margaret Bayard Smith Describes the Election and Inauguration

Fortunately for the country, Federalist Alexander Hamilton, who knew Burr was unfit to be President, opposed his party’s plan to defeat Jefferson. But while this crucial decision was being made, the nation waited breathlessly. The excitement in Washington is recorded in the following selection from the notebook of Margaret Bayard Smith, wife of the editor of the _National Intelligencer_.

It was an awful crisis. The people, who with such an overwhelming
majority had declared their will, would never peaceably have allowed
the man of their choice to be set aside and the individual they had
chosen as Vice-President to be put in his place. A civil war must have
taken place, to be terminated in all human probability by a rupture of
the Union. Such consequences were at least calculated on and excited a
deep and inflammatory interest. Crowds of anxious spirits from the
adjacent county and cities thronged to the seat of government and hung
like a thunder cloud over the Capitol, their indignation ready to
burst on any individual who might be designated as President in
opposition to the people’s known choice. The citizens of Baltimore,
who from their proximity were the first apprised of this daring
design, were with difficulty restrained from rushing on with an armed
force, to prevent—or if they could not prevent, to avenge this
violation of the people’s will and in their own vehement language to
hurl the usurper from his seat.

Mr. Jefferson, then President of the Senate, sitting in the midst of
these _conspirators_, as they were then called, unavoidably hearing
their loudly whispered designs, witnessing their gloomy and restless
machinations, aware of the dreadful consequences which must follow
their meditated designs, preserved through this trying period the most
unclouded serenity, the most perfect equanimity. A spectator who
watched his countenance would never have surmised that he had any
personal interest in the impending event. Calm and self-possessed, he
retained his seat in the midst of the angry and stormy, though
half-smothered passions that were struggling around him, and by this
dignified tranquility repressed any open violence. Though insufficient
to prevent whispered menaces and insults, to these, however, he turned
a deaf ear and resolutely maintained a placidity which baffled the
designs of his enemies.

The crisis was at hand. The two bodies of Congress met, the Senators
as witnesses, the Representatives as electors. The question on which
hung peace or war, nay, the union of the states was to be decided.
What an awful responsibility was attached to every vote given on that
occasion. The sitting was held with closed doors. It lasted the whole
day, the whole night. Not an individual left that solemn assembly; the
necessary refreshment they required was taken in rooms adjoining the
Hall. They were not like the Roman conclave legally and forcibly
confined; the restriction was self-imposed from the deep-felt
necessity of avoiding any extrinsic or external influence. Beds, as
well as food, were sent for the accommodation of those whom age or
debility disabled from enduring such a long-protracted sitting. The
balloting took place every hour—in the interval men ate, drank, slept
or pondered over the result of the last ballot, compared ideas and
persuasions to change votes, or gloomily anticipated the consequences,
let the result be what it would.

With what an intense interest did every individual watch each
successive examination of the ballot-box; how breathlessly did they
listen to the counting of the votes! Every hour a messenger brought to
the editor of the _National Intelligencer_ the result of the ballot.
That night I never lay down or closed my eyes. As the hour drew near
its close, my heart would almost audibly beat, and I was seized with a
tremour that almost disabled me from opening the door for the expected
messenger....

For more than thirty hours the struggle was maintained, but finding
the Republican phalanx impenetrable, not to be shaken in their
purpose, every effort proving unavailing, the Senator from Delaware
[_James A. Bayard—actually a Representative_], the withdrawal of whose
vote would determine the issue, took his part, gave up his party, for
his country, and threw into the box a blank ballot, thus leaving to
the Republicans a majority. Mr. Jefferson was declared duly elected.
The assembled crowds, without the Capitol, rent the air with their
acclamations and gratulations, and the conspirators, as they were
called, hurried to their lodgings under strong apprehensions of
suffering from the just indignation of their fellow citizens.

The dark and threatening cloud which had hung over the political
horizon rolled harmlessly away, and the sunshine of prosperity and
gladness broke forth and ever since, with the exception of a few
passing clouds, has continued to shine on our happy country.

Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address

As the author of the Declaration of Independence and many memorable state papers, Thomas Jefferson was, with Abraham Lincoln, one of our two greatest presidential writers. The following speech, which he delivered on March 4, 1801, is an eloquent statement of democratic principles. Jefferson approached the office of President with humility and a conciliatory attitude towards his opponents. The simplicity and directness of his prose contrast greatly with the flowery and lengthy eloquence of most speakers in his day.

Friends and Fellow Citizens:

Called upon to undertake the duties of the first executive office of
our country, I avail myself of the presence of that portion of my
fellow citizens which is here assembled to express my grateful thanks
for the favor with which they have been pleased to look towards me, to
declare a sincere consciousness that the task is above my talents and
that I approach it with those anxious and awful presentiments which
the greatness of the charge and the weakness of my powers so justly
inspire.

A rising nation spread over a wide and fruitful land, traversing all
the seas with the rich productions of their industry, engaged in
commerce with nations who feel power and forget right, advancing
rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye; when I
contemplate these transcendent objects and see the honor, the
happiness, and the hopes of this beloved country committed to the
issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation
and humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking.

Utterly indeed should I despair, did not the presence of many whom I
here see remind me that in the other high authorities provided by our
Constitution, I shall find resources of wisdom, of virtue, and of
zeal, on which to rely under all difficulties.

To you then, gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign functions
of legislation and to those associated with you, I look with
encouragement for that guidance and support which may enable us to
steer with safety the vessel in which we are all embarked amidst the
conflicting elements of a troubled sea.

During the contest of opinion through which we have passed, the
animation of discussions and of exertions, has sometimes worn an
aspect which might impose on strangers unused to think freely and to
speak and to write what they think.

But this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced
according to the rules of the Constitution, all will of course arrange
themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for
the common good. All too will bear in mind this sacred principle, that
though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will,
to be rightful, must be reasonable: that the minority possess their
equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be
oppression.

Let us then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind; let
us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection, without
which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things.

And let us reflect that having banished from our land that religious
intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered we have yet
gained little, if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic,
as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecution.

During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the
agonized spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter
his long lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the
billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this
should be more felt and feared by some, and less by others, and should
divide opinions as to measures of safety.

But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We
have called, by different names, brethren of the same principle. We
are all republicans: we are all federalists.

If there be any among us who wish to dissolve this union, or to change
its republican form, let them stand undisturbed, as monuments of the
safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is
left free to combat it.

I know indeed that some honest men have feared that a republican
government cannot be strong; that this government is not strong
enough. But would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful
experiment abandon a government which has so far kept us free and
firm, on the theoretic and visionary fear that this government, the
world’s best hope may, by possibility, want energy to preserve itself?

I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest government
on earth.

I believe it the only one where every man, at the call of the law,
would fly to the standard of the law; would meet invasions of public
order, as his own personal concern.

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of
himself. Can he then be trusted with the government of others? Or have
we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer
this question.

Let us then pursue with courage and confidence our own federal and
republican principles, our attachment to union and representative
government.

Kindly separated by nature, and a wide ocean, from the exterminating
havoc of one quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the
degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country, with room
enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth
generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right, to the use of
our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor
and confidence from our fellow citizens resulting not from birth, but
from our actions and their sense of them, enlightened by a benign
religion, professed indeed and practiced in various forms, yet all of
them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love
of man, acknowledging and adoring an overruling providence, which by
all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man
here and his greater happiness hereafter.

With all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy
and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow citizens, a wise
and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one
another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own
pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the
mouth of labor the bread it has earned.

This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the
circle of our felicities.

Burr Kills Hamilton

The feud between Hamilton and Burr preceded the election of 1800, in which Hamilton opposed Burr’s election to the presidency. The rivalry between these two New Yorkers actually had begun during the Revolution and had continued throughout their political careers, but it reached a special intensity in 1800. As Vice-President under Jefferson, Burr had reached the peak of his career, but Jefferson, realizing that Burr almost had schemed his way into the presidency, undermined his influence in the Republican Party. In 1804, Hamilton again thwarted Burr’s ambitions by helping to defeat him for governor of New York. The duel soon followed.

Hamilton had no intention of firing at Burr and seems to have expected to die, for he made his will and arranged his affairs before crossing the Hudson River to New Jersey for the fatal duel on July 11, 1804. Burr had great charm and undenied ability, but it might have been better for him if he had died that day instead of Hamilton. He was an unscrupulous intriguer, and his subsequent career tarnished his reputation. In 1805, he tried to establish a political empire in the Mississippi Valley but he was captured and tried for treason. Though he was acquitted, he had to spend the next four years in exile. He later returned to an obscure law practice in New York.

David Hosack Describes Hamilton’s Last Hours

In the selection that follows, David Hosack, the physician who attended Hamilton at the duel, describes the scene immediately after Burr fired the fatal shot. He writes to William Coleman, editor of the New York _Post_, the paper Hamilton had founded.

To comply with your request is a painful task; but I will repress my
feelings while I endeavor to furnish you with an enumeration of such
particulars relative to the melancholy end of our beloved friend
Hamilton, as dwell most forcibly on my recollection.

When called to him, upon his receiving the fatal wound, I found him
half sitting on the ground, supported in the arms of Mr. Pendleton.
His countenance of death I shall never forget. He had at that instant
just strength to say, “This is a mortal wound, Doctor”; when he sunk
away, and became to all appearance lifeless. I immediately stripped up
his clothes, and soon, alas! ascertained that the direction of the
ball must have been through some vital part. His pulses were not to be
felt; his respiration was entirely suspended; and upon laying my hand
on his heart, and perceiving no motion there, I considered him as
irrecoverably gone. I however observed to Mr. Pendleton that the only
chance for his reviving was immediately to get him upon the water.

We therefore lifted him up, and carried him out of the wood, to the
margin of the bank, where the bargemen aided us in conveying him into
the boat, which immediately put off. During all this time I could not
discover the least symptom of returning life. I now rubbed his face,
lips, and temples, with spirits of hartshorn, applied it to his neck
and breast, and to the wrists and palms of his hands, and endeavored
to pour some into his mouth. When we had got, as I should judge, about
fifty yards from the shore, some imperfect efforts to breathe were for
the first time manifest. In a few minutes he sighed, and became
sensible to the impression of the hartshorn, or the fresh air of the
water. He breathed; his eyes, hardly opened, wandered, without fixing
upon any objects. To our great joy he at length spoke: “My vision is
indistinct,” were his first words. His pulse became more perceptible;
his respiration more regular; his sight returned.

... Soon after recovering his sight, he happened to cast his eye upon
the case of pistols, and observing the one that he had had in his hand
lying on the outside, he said, “Take care of that pistol; it is
undischarged, and still cocked; it may go off and do harm.—_Pendleton
knows_ (attempting to turn his head towards him) _that I did not
intend to fire at him_.” “Yes,” said Mr. Pendleton, understanding his
wish, “I have already made Dr. Hosack acquainted with your
determination as to that.”... Perceiving that we approached the shore,
he said, “Let Mrs. Hamilton be immediately sent for. Let the event be
gradually broken to her; but give her hopes.”

Looking up, we saw his friend Mr. Bayard standing on the wharf in
great agitation. He had been told by his servant that General
Hamilton, Mr. Pendleton, and myself, had crossed the river in a boat
together, and too well he conjectured the fatal errand, and foreboded
the dreadful result. Perceiving, as we came nearer, that Mr. Pendleton
and myself only sat up in the stern sheets, he clasped his hands
together in the most violent apprehension; but when I called to him to
have a cot prepared, and he at the same moment saw his poor friend
lying in the bottom of the boat, he threw up his eyes and burst into a
flood of tears and lamentation. Hamilton alone appeared tranquil and
composed. We then conveyed him as tenderly as possible up to the
house. The distresses of this amiable family were such that till the
first shock was abated, they were scarcely able to summon fortitude
enough to yield sufficient assistance to their dying friend.

... During the night he had some imperfect sleep; but the succeeding
morning his symptoms were aggravated, attended, however, with a
diminution of pain. His mind retained all its usual strength and
composure. The great source of his anxiety seemed to be in his
sympathy with his half-distracted wife and children. He spoke to her
frequently of them. “My beloved wife and children,” were always his
expressions. But his fortitude triumphed over his situation, dreadful
as it was. Once, indeed, at the sight of his children brought to the
bedside together, seven in number, his utterance forsook him. He
opened his eyes, gave them one look, and closed them again till they
were taken away. As a proof of his extraordinary composure of mind,
let me add that he alone could calm the frantic grief of their mother.
“_Remember, my Eliza, you are a Christian_,” were the expressions with
which he frequently, with a firm voice, but in a pathetic and
impressive manner, addressed her. His words, and the tone in which
they were uttered, will never be effaced from my memory. At about two
o’clock, as the public well knows, he expired.

Marbury vs. Madison

The duel between the former Secretary of the Treasury and the Vice-President provided high drama, but far more important was an event that had occurred the year before in Washington. This event was a Supreme Court decision written by Chief Justice Marshall, the decision known as _Marbury_ vs. _Madison_. It established the principle that the Supreme Court may declare unconstitutional any law passed by Congress that conflicts with the Constitution. This principle has become so well accepted today that we can hardly realize it ever had to be stated. Its effect, however, was to strengthen the system of checks and balances between the three main branches of our government.

Marbury was an obscure justice of the peace, appointed by President Adams just before his term expired. The lame-duck Federalist administration went out of office before Marbury received his commission, and Marbury appealed to the Supreme Court to force James Madison, the new Secretary of State, to give it to him. The Supreme Court declared that Marbury deserved his commission but that it could not grant it. The reason was that the law saying the Court could do this was contrary to the Constitution and therefore invalid. In the portion of the decision that follows, Chief Justice Marshall argues the principle that Congress may not give powers not specifically authorized by the Constitution to the courts or to anyone else.

Excerpts from John Marshall’s Decision

The question whether an act, repugnant [_opposed_] to the
Constitution, can become the law of the land is a question deeply
interesting to the United States but, happily, not of an intricacy
proportioned to its interest. It seems only necessary to recognize
certain principles, supposed to have been long and well established,
to decide it.

That the people have an original right to establish, for their future
government, such principles as, in their opinion, shall most conduce
to their own happiness is the basis on which the whole American fabric
has been erected. The exercise of this original right is a very great
exertion; nor can it, nor ought it, to be frequently repeated. The
principles, therefore, so established are deemed fundamental. And as
the authority from which they proceed is supreme, and can seldom act,
they are designed to be permanent.

This original and supreme will organizes the government and assigns to
different departments their respective powers. It may either stop here
or establish certain limits not to be transcended by those
departments.

The government of the United States is of the latter description. The
powers of the legislature are defined and limited; and that those
limits may not be mistaken or forgotten, the Constitution is written.
To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that
limitation committed to writing, if these limits may, at any time, be
passed by those intended to be restrained? The distinction between a
government with limited and unlimited powers is abolished if those
limits do not confine the persons on whom they are imposed, and if
acts prohibited and acts allowed are of equal obligation. It is a
proposition too plain to be contested that the Constitution controls
any legislative act repugnant to it or that the legislature may alter
the Constitution by an ordinary act.

Between these alternatives there is no middle ground. The Constitution
is either a superior paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means, or
it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts and, like other acts,
is alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it.

If the former part of the alternative be true, then a legislative act
contrary to the Constitution is not law; if the latter part be true,
then written constitutions are absurd attempts, on the part of the
people, to limit a power in its own nature illimitable.

Certainly, all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate
them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and,
consequently, the theory of every such government must be, that an act
of the legislature repugnant to the Constitution is void.

Marshall goes on to refute the argument that the Supreme Court should concern itself only with interpreting the law, regardless of the Constitution. Then he quotes specific passages from the Constitution:

It is declared that “no tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported
from any state.” Suppose a duty on the export of cotton, of tobacco,
or of flour; and a suit instituted to recover it. Ought judgment to be
rendered in such a case? Ought the judges to close their eyes on the
Constitution and only see the law?...

“No person,” says the Constitution, “shall be convicted of treason,
unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same _overt_ act, or
on confession in open court.” Here the language of the Constitution is
addressed especially to the courts. It prescribes directly for them, a
rule of evidence not to be departed from. If the legislature should
change that rule and declare one witness, or a confession out of
court, sufficient for conviction, must the constitutional principle
yield to the legislative act?

From these, and many other selections which might be made, it is
apparent that the framers of the Constitution contemplated that
instrument as a rule for the government of _courts_ as well as of the
legislature.

Why otherwise does it direct the judges to take an oath to support it?
This oath certainly applies in an especial manner to their conduct in
their official character. How immoral to impose it on them if they
were to be used as the instruments, and the knowing instruments, for
violating what they swear to support!

At the end of the decision the Chief Justice concluded that the language of the Constitution confirmed and strengthened the principle essential to all written constitutions “that a law repugnant to the Constitution is void.”

The Louisiana Purchase

The great event of Jefferson’s first term was the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory, that vast tract of land extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico. The purchase of this land from Napoleon was not a premeditated act but rather the result of seizing an opportunity that presented itself. President Jefferson started out merely to buy New Orleans from France but ended up with more than 800,000 square miles. The agreed-on price was about $15,000,000, or something like two cents per acre.

Napoleon had forced Spain to give Louisiana back to France after Spain had held the territory nearly forty years. Just before the letter in the following account was written, the Spanish Intendant (director) of New Orleans, who had not yet turned over the city to France, closed the port to American commerce. Because most of the produce of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys reached eastern and foreign markets via New Orleans, closing the port seemed almost an act of war against the United States. At this point Jefferson sent James Monroe to Europe as special minister to buy New Orleans. It turned out just then that Napoleon needed money to renew his war against England, and the entire territory was purchased within a few weeks. The events which led to the purchase are described in the following letter that Jefferson wrote on February 3, 1803, to Robert Livingston, the American minister to France.

Jefferson Writes to Robert Livingston

A late suspension by the Intendant of New Orleans of our right of
deposit there, without which the right of navigation is impracticable,
has thrown this country into such a flame of hostile disposition as
can scarcely be described. The western country was peculiarly sensible
to it as you may suppose. Our business was to take the most effectual
pacific measures in our power to remove the suspension, and at the
same time to persuade our countrymen that pacific measures would be
the most effectual and the most speedily so. The opposition caught it
as a plank in a shipwreck, hoping it would enable them to tack the
western people to them. They raised the cry of war, were intriguing in
all the quarters to exasperate the western inhabitants to arm and go
down on their own authority and possess themselves of New Orleans, and
in the meantime were daily reiterating, in new shapes, inflammatory
resolutions for the adoption of the House.

As a remedy to all this we determined to name a minister extraordinary
to go immediately to Paris and Madrid to settle this matter. This
measure being a visible one, and the person named peculiarly proper
with the western country, crushed at once and put an end to all
further attempts on the Legislature. From that moment all has become
quiet; and the more readily in the western country, as the sudden
alliance of these new federal friends had of itself already began to
make them suspect the wisdom of their own course. The measure was
moreover proposed from another cause. We must know at once whether we
can acquire New Orleans or not. We are satisfied nothing else will
secure us against a war at no distant period; and we cannot press this
reason without beginning those arrangements which will be necessary if
war is hereafter to result.

For this purpose it was necessary that the negotiators should be fully
possessed of every idea we have on the subject, so as to meet the
propositions of the opposite party, in whatever form they may be
offered; and give them a shape admissible by us without being obliged
to await new instructions hence. With this view, we have joined Mr.
Monroe to yourself at Paris, and to Mr. Pinckney at Madrid, although
we believe it will be hardly necessary for him to go to this last
place.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition

Exploring the Missouri River Valley and the Rocky Mountain area long had been a cherished project of President Jefferson. He had talked about it periodically since the Revolution, and when he became President he set about to make his dream come true. Even before the United States owned the Louisiana Territory, Capt. Meriwether Lewis, Jefferson’s secretary, and William Clark, younger brother of George Rogers Clark, had been picked to head an expedition to explore the West.

The journey did not begin, however, until May, 1804, when the expedition left St. Louis. Capt. Lewis led his explorers up the Missouri River to what is now North Dakota, and before cold weather set in they built huts and a stockade for winter quarters. The next spring they moved on up the river in dugout canoes (pirogues) towards the mountains. The following selection from Capt. Lewis’ journal of the expedition was set down on April 13, 1805, when the party was at the junction of the Missouri and the Little Missouri rivers, still in North Dakota.

Being disappointed in my observations of yesterday for longitude, I
was unwilling to remain at the entrance of the river another day for
that purpose, and therefore determined to set out early this morning;
which we did accordingly; the wind was in our favour after 9 A.M. and
continued favourable until 3 P.M. We therefore hoisted both the sails
in the White Pirogue, consisting of a small square sail and spritsail,
which carried her at a pretty good gait, until about 2 in the
afternoon when a sudden squall of wind struck us and turned the
pirogue so much on the side as to alarm Charbonneau [_the
interpreter_], who was steering at the time. In this state of alarm he
threw the pirogue with her side to the wind, when the spritsail gibing
was as near oversetting the pirogue as it was possible to have missed.
The wind, however, abating for an instant, I ordered Drouillard [_also
an interpreter_] to the helm and the sails to be taken in, which was
instantly executed, and the pirogue being steered before the wind was
again placed in a state of security. This accident was very near
costing us dearly. Believing this vessel to be the most steady and
safe, we had embarked on board of it our instruments, papers,
medicine, and the most valuable part of the merchandise which we had
still in reserve as presents for the Indians. We had also embarked on
board ourselves, with three men who could not swim, and the squaw
[_Sacajawea, the Shoshone wife of Charbonneau, who showed the party
the way across the Continental Divide and obtained horses and
protection for them from the Shoshones_] with the young child, all of
whom, had the pirogue overset, would most probably have perished, as
the waves were high, and the pirogue upwards of 200 yards from the
nearest shore; however, we fortunately escaped and pursued our journey
under the square sail, which shortly after the accident I directed to
be again hoisted.

By the end of May the expedition had moved halfway across Montana, still following the Missouri River:

Today we passed on the starboard [_right_] side the remains of a vast
many mangled carcasses of buffalo which had been driven over a
precipice of 120 feet by the Indians and perished; the water appeared
to have washed away a part of this immense pile of slaughter and still
there remained the fragments of at least a hundred carcasses. They
created a most horrid stench. In this manner the Indians of the
Missouri destroy vast herds of buffalo at a stroke; for this purpose
one of the most active and fleet young men is selected and disguised
in a robe of buffalo skin, having also the skin of the buffalo’s head
with the ears and horns fastened on his head in form of a cap. Thus
caparisoned he places himself at a convenient distance between a herd
of buffalo and a precipice proper for the purpose, which happens in
many places on this river for miles together; the other Indians now
surround the herd on the back and flanks, and at a signal agreed on
all show themselves at the same time moving forward towards the
buffalo.

The disguised Indian or decoy has taken care to place himself
sufficiently nigh the buffalo to be noticed by them when they take to
flight, and running before them they follow him in full speed to the
precipice, the cattle behind driving those in front over and seeing
them go do not look or hesitate about following until the whole are
precipitated down the precipice forming one common mass of dead and
mangled carcasses. The decoy in the meantime has taken care to secure
himself in some cranny or crevice of the cliff which he had previously
prepared for that purpose.

By August 13 the expedition was crossing the Continental Divide at Lemhi Pass on the border between Montana and Idaho. In the selection that follows, Capt. Lewis describes the party’s meeting with the Shoshone Indians.

We had not continued our route more than a mile when we were so
fortunate as to meet with three female savages. The short and steep
ravines which we passed concealed us from each other until we arrived
within 30 paces. A young woman immediately took to flight; an elderly
woman and a girl of about 12 years old remained. I instantly laid by
my gun and advanced towards them. They appeared much alarmed but saw
that we were too near for them to escape by flight; they therefore
seated themselves on the ground, holding down their heads as if
reconciled to die, which they expected no doubt would be their fate. I
took the elderly woman by the hand and raised her up, repeated the
word _tab-ba-bone_ and stripped up my shirt sleeve to show her my
skin; to prove to her the truth of the assertion that I was a white
man, for my face and hands, which have been constantly exposed to the
sun, were quite as dark as their own. They appeared instantly
reconciled, and the men coming up, I gave these women some beads, a
few moccasin awls, some pewter looking-glasses, and a little paint.

I directed Drouillard to request the old woman to recall the young
woman who had run off to some distance by this time, fearing she might
alarm the camp before we approached and might so exasperate the
natives that they would perhaps attack us without enquiring who we
were. The old woman did as she was requested and the fugitive soon
returned almost out of breath. I bestowed an equivalent portion of
trinket on her with the others. I now painted their tawny cheeks with
some vermillion, which with this nation is emblematic of peace. After
they had become composed I informed them by signs that I wished them
to conduct us to their camp, that we were anxious to become acquainted
with the chiefs and warriors of their nation. They readily obeyed and
we set out, still pursuing the road down the river.

We had marched about 2 miles when we met a party of about 60 warriors
mounted on excellent horses, who came in nearly full speed. When they
arrived, I advanced towards them with the flag, leaving my gun with
the party about 50 paces behind me. The chief and two others who were
a little in advance of the main body spoke to the women, and they
informed them who we were and exultingly showed the presents which had
been given them. These men then advanced and embraced me very
affectionately in their way, which is by putting their left arm over
your right shoulder, clasping your back, while they apply their left
cheek to yours and frequently vociferate the word _ah-hi-e, ah-hi-e_,
that is, I am much pleased, I am much rejoiced. Both parties now
advanced and we were all caressed and besmeared with their grease and
paint till I was heartily tired of the national hug.

I now had the pipe lit and gave them smoke; they seated themselves in
a circle around us and pulled off their moccasins before they would
receive or smoke the pipe. This is a custom among them, as I
afterwards learned, indicative of a sacred obligation of sincerity in
their profession of friendship, given by the act of receiving and
smoking the pipe of a stranger. Or which is as much as to say that
they wish they may always go barefoot if they are not sincere; a
pretty heavy penalty if they are to march through the plains of their
country.

After crossing the Continental Divide, the expedition descended the Columbia River to the Pacific Coast, where they built a fort and spent the winter of 1805-1806. The next year they retraced their steps across the wilderness and returned to St. Louis in September, 1806, having been gone twenty-eight months. The expedition not only was a great adventure, but it also captured the imagination of the country. Not long afterwards fur traders began tapping the rich resources of the area, and by the middle of the century settlers were crossing the plains and mountains via the Oregon Trail.

The Embargo Act

Although Jefferson was re-elected in 1804 by a landslide victory, his popularity diminished greatly during his second term. The source of his troubles lay in Europe, where England and France were involved in the long, bitter Napoleonic Wars. England could not defeat Napoleon on land, but her navy was superior. Hence she blockaded the continent. France retaliated by counter-blockades. The United States, with a large merchant fleet but scarcely any navy, was caught in the middle. Hundreds of American ships were seized and their cargoes confiscated. Both England and France violated American neutral rights, but England, with the world’s strongest navy, was the chief offender. When a British warship, the _Leopard_, fired on and impressed American seamen from an American frigate, the _Chesapeake_, off the coast of Virginia, the United States was ready to fight.

President Jefferson, however, was determined to avoid war and answered the _Chesapeake_ incident with a proclamation excluding British warships from American waters, but the British would not agree to stop impressing American seamen. In addition, to deal with the seizure of American ships, Jefferson persuaded Congress to pass the Embargo Act. This act forbade American ships to leave for foreign ports. The result was that American ships rotted in the harbors and depression hit American business. Yet England and France were not hurt enough to come to terms. The Embargo Act had to be repealed.

Washington Irving Satirizes the Embargo Act

About the time the Embargo Act was repealed, Washington Irving, America’s first important man of letters, wrote his _History of New York_. This book is a burlesque account of the old Dutch period in New York history, a very funny book, full of comic pictures of the Dutch governors and the early settlers. The book also contains some contemporary political satire in the chapters devoted to William the Testy. In the selections which follow you will see obvious references to the _Chesapeake_ incident, the Embargo Act, and President Jefferson’s actions.

As my readers are well aware of the advantage a potentate has in
handling his enemies as he pleases in his speeches and bulletins,
where he has the talk all on his own side, they may rest assured that
William the Testy did not let such an opportunity escape of giving the
Yankees what is called “a taste of his quality.” In speaking of their
inroads into the territories of their High Mightinesses, he compared
them to the Gauls who desolated Rome, the Goths and Vandals who
overran the fairest plains of Europe; but when he came to speak of the
unparalleled audacity with which they of Weathersfield had advanced
their [_onion_] patches up to the very walls of Fort Goed Hoop, and
threatened to smother the garrison in onions, tears of rage started
into his eyes, as though he nosed the very offense in question.

Having thus wrought up his tale to a climax, he assumed a most
belligerent look, and assured the council that he had devised an
instrument, potent in its effects, and which he trusted would soon
drive the Yankees from the land. So saying, he thrust his hand into
one of the deep pockets of his broad-skirted coat and drew forth, not
an infernal machine, but an instrument in writing, which he laid with
great emphasis upon the table.

The burghers gazed at it for a time in silent awe, as a wary housewife
does at a gun, fearful it may go off half-cocked. The document in
question had a sinister look, it is true; it was crabbed in text, and
from a broad red ribbon dangled the great seal of the province, about
the size of a buckwheat pancake. Still, after all, it was but an
instrument in writing. Herein, however, existed the wonder of the
invention. The document in question was a PROCLAMATION, ordering the
Yankees to depart instantly from the territories of their High
Mightinesses, under pain of suffering all the forfeitures and
punishments in such case made and provided. It was on the moral effect
of this formidable instrument that Wilhelmus Kieft calculated,
pledging his valor as a governor that, once fulminated [_thundered_]
against the Yankees, it would in less than two months drive every
mother’s son of them across the borders.

The council broke up in perfect wonder, and nothing was talked of for
some time among the old men and women of New Amsterdam but the vast
genius of the governor and his new and cheap mode of fighting by
proclamation.

As to Wilhelmus Kieft, having dispatched his proclamation to the
frontiers, he put on his cocked hat and corduroy small clothes, and,
mounting a tall rawboned charger, trotted out to his rural retreat of
Dog’s Misery....

Never was a more comprehensive, a more expeditious—or, what is still
better, a more economical—measure devised than this of defeating the
Yankees by proclamation—an expedient, likewise, so gentle and humane
there were ten chances to one in favor of its succeeding, but then
there was one chance to ten that it would not succeed: as the
ill-natured Fates would have it, that single chance carried the day!
The proclamation was perfect in all its parts, well constructed, well
written, well sealed, and well published; all that was wanting to
insure its effect was, that the Yankees should stand in awe of it;
but, provoking to relate, they treated it with the most absolute
contempt, applied it to an unseemly purpose, and thus did the first
warlike proclamation come to a shameful end—a fate which I am credibly
informed has befallen but too many of its successors.

So far from abandoning the country, those varlets [_rascals_]
continued their encroachments, squatting along the green banks of the
Varsche River, and founding Hartford, Stamford, New Haven, and other
border towns. I have already shown how the onion patches of Pyquag
were an eyesore to Jacobus Van Curlet and his garrison; but now these
moss-troopers increased in their atrocities, kidnaping hogs,
impounding horses, and sometimes grievously rib-roasting their owners.
Our worthy forefathers could scarcely stir abroad without danger of
being outjockeyed in horseflesh or taken in in bargaining, while in
their absence some daring Yankee peddler would penetrate to their
household and nearly ruin the good housewives with tinware and wooden
bowls....

It was long before William the Testy could be persuaded that his
much-vaunted war measure was ineffectual; on the contrary, he flew in
a passion whenever it was doubted, swearing that though slow in
operating, yet when it once began to work it would soon purge the land
of these invaders. When convinced, at length, of the truth, like a
shrewd physician he attributed the failure to the quantity, not the
quality, of the medicine, and resolved to double the dose. He
fulminated, therefore, a second proclamation, more vehement than the
first, forbidding all intercourse with these Yankee intruders,
ordering the Dutch burghers on the frontiers to buy none of their
pacing horses, measly port, apple sweetmeats, Weathersfield onions, or
wooden bowls, and to furnish them with no supplies of gin,
gingerbread, or sauerkraut.

Another interval elapsed, during which the last proclamation was as
little regarded as the first, and the non-intercourse was especially
set at naught by the young folks of both sexes, if we may judge by the
active bundling which took place along the borders.

Irving concludes this satire of William the Testy’s proclamation by a comic account of how the Yankees captured Fort Goed Hoop. They sneaked into the fort while the Dutch soldiers were sleeping off their dinner, gave the defenders a kick in the pants, and sent them back to New Amsterdam.

Madison’s Administration, 1809-1817

Madison’s Inauguration

Despite the unpopularity of the Embargo Act, James Madison, Jefferson’s choice to succeed him in the presidency, was elected by a large margin. Madison had served a long career in public life, beginning with the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention and more recently serving as Secretary of State under Jefferson. In the following selection Margaret Bayard Smith again reports the Washington scene, this time the events of March 4, 1809, Inauguration Day. Note that she mixes up the sequence of events by starting with the reception after the inauguration before describing the inauguration.

Today after the inauguration we all went to Mrs. Madison’s. The street
was full of carriages and people, and we had to wait near half an hour
before we could get in—the house was completely filled, parlours,
entry, drawing room and bed room. Near the door of the drawing room
Mr. and Mrs. Madison stood to receive their company. She looked
extremely beautiful, was dressed in a plain cambric dress with a very
long train, plain round the neck without any handkerchief, and
beautiful bonnet of purple velvet, and white satin with white plumes.
She was all dignity, grace and affability.