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immediately after the accession of Adams to the Presidency, commenced a system of diplomatic annoyance. Although eighteen months had elapsed since the conclusion of the treaty with the United States, and profound silence had been observed, he now addressed an offensive despatch, complaining, that the pact with Great Britain was a violation of that treaty; and that England had surprised the good faith of the Federal government;" that the article "that free ships made free goods" had been annulled-that while with England they had agreed that Naval Stores should be contraband they had stipulated with Spain that these articles should be free, and had ceded and confirmed to Great Britain the right of navigating the Mississippi; a right which he alleged the United States acquired only in virtue of their treaty with Spain.

The manifest fallacy of the reasoning on which these complaints were founded was clearly shown by a simple statement of the intentions of the treaty as to the two first objections, and by reference to its express language as to the last. So complete was the reply, that the silence of De Yrugo seemed to admit all its conclusions. But, after an interval of two months, the correspondence was resumed by him.

A report to Congress, by the Secretary of State, of the obstacles interposed to the demarcation of the Western limits became the occasion of another remonstrance. The Government was reproached with having disregarded his intimations of the designs of England to occupy the Spanish territories; with having neglected to move the army so as to protect the American territory from violation by the advance of the British troops; and by a gross intimation that it had colluded with England. That Spain retained the posts on unfounded pretences was de

nied. The extraordinary position was assumed, that notwithstanding his stipulation in the treaty to withdraw his garrisons, "it was not to be presumed that it could ever have been the intention of his Catholic Majesty to deliver up fortifications, which, besides that they have cost him considerable sums of money, may, by the effect of political vicissitudes, be one day prejudicial to his subjects.”

The answer of Pickering exposed at large the untruth of the assertions, the disingenuousness of the statements, and the absurdity of the pretences which marked the character of a document, that in less perilous times would have demanded the dismissal of its author.*

Following the example of Genet and Adet, De Yrugo made a direct appeal to the American people, by causing his accusatory letter to be printed. This preceded a public commentary on the correspondence from the pen of the Spanish minister, though under an assumed name. It sought to defend the pretensions of Spain by a misapplication of opinions of Jefferson; inculpated the Cabinet for submission to the wrongs of England; imputed to it a departure from honesty and gratitude; and urged, that it was necessary "to attack the Administration in order to support the Government." He had, indeed, the effrontery to propose that the difference with Spain should be adjusted at Paris.

The correspondence was suspended until the opening of Congress. De Yrugo, on the twenty-first of November, addressed another letter to the Government. In this document, after regretting the refusal of the United States to authorize the American Commissioners to open a negotiation with Spain at Paris, he recapitulated his former complaints the interference of the treaty with England

Foreign Relations, ii. 28. American State Papers.

with that subsequently formed with Spain as to free ships making free goods, and the provision securing to English subjects the navigation of the Mississippi. It closed with an explicit demand, whether the United States contemplated the performance of the treaty in that particular.

The most important feature, beside that which proposed the transfer of the negotiation to Paris, was the declaration it contained, "that his Majesty had not observed in the answer (of Pickering to his previous letter) any reason to induce him to change his opinion concerning the injuries resulting to his subjects from the stipulations of the English treaty compared with those of the treaty with Spain. Thus, all the acts of the Spanish agents in obstructing the passage of the Mississippi, and with holding the posts, were sanctioned by the Court of Spain. The date of this letter shows the additional fact, that the order under which this demand was preferred, was given after the Revolution of France, on the fourth of September seventeen hundred ninety-seven.

While such efforts were made to impair the confidence of the people in the Administration, Jefferson was ever busy, stimulating his faithful, and cajoling his dubious adherents.

Congratulations on his elevation to the Vice Presidency offered the occasion for renewed correspondences. He had written to the South-he next addressed himself to the East. In all his letters are seen his hostility to Washington, and it is a marked fact, that the persons addressed by him were, several of them, those who had been conspicuous in that hostility during the war of the Revolution, with others Washington's known personal enemies.

"The public dispositions," he wrote, "do not evince

* Rush, Samuel Adams, Gen'l Gates, Aaron Burr, Edmund Randolph. VOL. VII.-5

that the great mass of the people are not republican; all of them, when traced to their true source, have only been evidences of the preponderant popularity of a particular great character. That influence once withdrawn, and our countrymen left to the operation of their own unbiassed good sense, I have no doubt we shall see a pretty rapid return of general harmony, and our citizens moving in phalanx in the paths of regular liberty, order and a sacrosanct adherence to the Constitution. This I think it will be, if war with France can be avoided."

A recent election in the city of New York opened hopes in that quarter. He wrote to Gates, the long forgotten hero of the Cabal, depicting the Federalists as "a faction composed of English subjects residing among us, or, such as are English in all their relations and sentiments."

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Burr, defeated as a candidate for re-election to the Senate, had been recently delegated to the Assembly of New York. Masking his jealousy of him, Jefferson opened a correspondence with him. Perhaps," he wrote, "some general view of our situation and prospects since you left us, may not be unacceptable. At any rate, it will give me an opportunity of recalling myself to your memory and of evidencing my esteem for you." He then descanted on the dispositions of Congress, appealed to his intense hate of Washington, assured him of his own "great and sincere esteem." "War," he asserted, "was intended." "I had always hoped that the popularity of the late President being once withdrawn from active effect, the natural feelings of the people towards liberty would restore the equilibrium between the Executive and Legislative departments, which had been destroyed by the superior weight and effect of that popularity, and that their natural feelings of moral obligation would discoun

tenance the ungrateful predilection of THE EXECUTIVE in favor of Great Britain. But, unfortunately, the preceding measures had already alienated the nation who were the object of them, had excited reaction from them, and this reaction has, on the minds of our citizens, an effect which supplies that of the Washington popularity."-"I have been much pleased to see a dawn of change in the spirit of your State."* 1

What must have been the perversion of mind that could regard the indignation of his countrymen at their accumulated wrongs as a breach of "moral obligation?" What the effrontery of so zealous a partisan of France, which could impute to Washington "an ungrateful predilection in favor of Great Britain?"

Abounding in glory, with no ambition to gratify, above all influence but his love of country; how deep-toned and impressive is the voice of the late President at this moment of peril.

"It remains," he said, "to be seen, whether our country will stand upon independent ground, or be directed in its political concerns by any other nation. A little time will show who are its true friends, or what is synonymous, who are true Americans.-Those who are stimulating a foreign nation to unfriendly acts, repugnant to our rights and dignity, and advocating all its measures, or those whose only aim has been to maintain a strict neutrality, to keep the United States out of the vortex of European politics and to preserve them in peace.

"Our affairs might continue in the most happy, flourishing, and prosperous train, if the harmony of the Union were not endangered by the internal disturbers of its peace."

"The people should be thoroughly acquainted with the political situation of this country, and the causes which have produced it, that they may either give active and effectual support to those to whom they have intrusted the administration of the government, if they ap

* Jefferson's Works, June, 17, 1797.