that even Talleyrand, being fairly caught, had to take his punishment. He began to exert all his arts to draw the United States back into the attitude of seeking a treaty; and from hints he went to overtures, and from overtures advanced to explicit promises.

An eccentric citizen of Philadelphia, Dr. Logan by name-a Quaker by descent-was moved at the time to go to France and untangle the threads which diplomacy had confused; and he straightway journeyed to Paris. This, of course, was most irregular and reprehensible. The client must let his lawyer do all the talking; the physician relies upon his patient's docility; and diplomacy could never do business if plain citizens interfered.

Unmindful of these precepts and examples, Dr. Logan took it upon himself to keep France and America from shedding each other's blood. A word of explanation might clear up what was evidently a misunderstanding—and so win a glorious victory for peace.

When Dr. Logan appeared upon the scene in Paris, he had better credentials than President Adams could give him. He was able to show a letter of Thomas Jefferson's vouching for him as a worthy, respectable citizen.

The name of Jefferson was something to conjure with in France; and Dr. Logan was given a distinguished reception. That he was wined and dined,

hugged and kissed, need not be stated; inference covers that; but, what is more important, he was taken into official confidence, and assured that France wished for nothing better than honorable peace with the United States.

Very sweet things must the conscience and selfesteem of Dr. Logan have whispered to him as he hastened back to America to tell John Adams the result of his mission.

Adams's satisfaction was greater than that of Washington-much more so. The commander-inchief of the new army which was to fight France disapproved Dr. Logan's unwarranted conduct totally. He received the good doctor standing, and with that icy stare which froze the marrow of common men. His words to the Quaker were few, and not genial. As to Hamilton and the British faction generally, their wrath was unbounded. They not only denounced the volunteer peacemaker, but had Congress to enact a law making it a crime for any American thereafter to do what Dr. Logan had done. Rather than have peace made in any other way than the regular way, let war come and discord rule forever!

The truth is, that Hamilton did not want peace at all. He had fallen in with the schemes of the South American adventurer Miranda, and was deep into an intrigue with England whose purpose was a joint enterprise by Great Britain and the

United States against French and Spanish possessions in America. Hamilton concealed this design from Washington, and the great man died in ignorance of the duplicity of his friend. But Adams realized after a while that the French quarrel was mere capital to Hamilton, and he veered round.

Having said that he would never send another mission to France, he sent one. Circumstances had altered the case; and he acted like a brave, true man in changing his mind. France invited to renewal of overtures, three envoys were sent, and the war clouds rolled by-in spite of Hamilton.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

JEFFERSON VICE-PRESIDENT

DURING this period of madness, the Federalists took advantage of the opportunity to imitate Great Britain in another direction. William Pitt had inaugurated a reign of terror in England itself, crushing out all freedom of speech and of the press. Over life and liberty the Government exercised almost despotic sway. The Federalists determined to enact and enforce similar laws here. There was too much liberty of the press, too much license of the tongue; republican ideas were a menace, and democratic demagogues must be put down. The outcome of this demand was the alien and sedition laws. Their essence was that foreigners could live here only at the President's pleasure, and that American citizens could not speak or write their political sentiments without incurring the dangers of fine and imprisonment.

Had these famous enactments been able to maintain their ground, popular government would indeed have been at an end. That the purpose of the authors of this legislation was the complete overthrow of democracy was shown afterward by

the program which Hamilton mapped out. He advised that a large standing army be maintained, that the jurisdiction of the Federal courts be extended, that aliens objectionable to the Government be sent away; that the President be given power to appoint peace officers in each county; that the States be divided into small judicial districts with a Federal judge in each, appointed by the President; and that large States be cut up into several divisions so that they might be more effectually controlled by the General Government!

Against the mighty efforts Federalism was making toward centralization, Jefferson and Madison hurled the celebrated Kentucky and Virginia resolutions. Stripped of all verbal drapery, the doctrine set forth in these papers was that if Congress made laws which violated the compact between the States such laws were not binding.

They set forth the Jeffersonian creed, to wit, that the Union was the result of voluntary compact between free, independent States; that these States expressed in writing the powers they were granting to the General Government; and that this General Government was therefore one of limited powers the limits being prescribed in the Constitution itself. For Congress to go beyond these limits was usurpation.

It was during this period of excitement, when further encroachments upon the power of the