their bill through cast the shadow of a scandal upon the whole administration, and one can not escape the suspicion that the Yazoo grant, conceived in fraud, remained a source of corruption to the last.

But the actual breach between Randolph and Jefferson occurred on the proposition to acquire Florida. The President was proceeding about the business with that diplomacy which in the Louisi ana case had been successful. He was making public threats to fight Spain, while by secret message he was asking Congress for money to be used in negotiation. To the public there was a revelation, to the initiated a secret. This principle, or want of principle (as the case may be), had worked well enough for Louisiana, and Randolph had been the presidential agent. But now the floor leader revolted. In his own mind he drew a distinction between the two cases, and, to the amazement of Congress, he began an opposition. Soon the terrors of his tongue were loosed upon the President. At first there was a flurry in administration circles—almost a panic-but it soon passed. Jefferson's confidence did not forsake him, his following in Congress stood the strain; and when Randolph set up his independent standard the merest handful went with him.

For many and many a year Randolph remained in the public service, most of the time in the House, one term in the Senate, one mission to Rus

sia, always conspicuous, always courageous, often right, generally in the minority, but nothing more than a brilliant free-lance, without decisive influence.

When one reads his letters to friends whom he really honored and his descriptions of his travels in Europe, one regrets that the literature of his country lost a mind so rich and so brilliant.

As a conversationalist, when familiarly spending an evening within a small congenial circle he was at his best; and none excelled him then.

New Englanders were not, as a rule, feverishly fond of John Randolph, but notice the impression he made upon a Senator from Massachusetts, Elijah Mills: "He is really a most singular and interesting man. He dined with us yesterday. He was dressed in a rough, coarse, short hunting-coat, with smallclothes and boots, and over his boots a pair of coarse cotton leggings, tied with strings around his legs. He engrossed almost the whole conversation, and was exceedingly amusing as well as eloquent and instructive."

With the sole exception of Randolph, Jefferson had no serious troubles with his lieutenants. His Cabinet was singularly harmonious. James Madison, Secretary of State; Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury; Henry Dearborn, Secretary of

War; Gideon Granger, Postmaster-General; Levi Lincoln, Attorney-General; Robert Smith, Secretary of the Navy, were all excellent officers and loyal to the chief.

Congress was probably never handled so adroitly and successfully as it was by Mr. Jefferson.

CHAPTER XLIV

BURR, ADAMS, HAMILTON

AARON BURR quietly took his place as VicePresident, and made a model officer. Senators who had sat under John Adams must have felt refreshed by the change.

When General Washington became President, and Mr. Adams Vice-President, all was confusion, and modes of doing things had to be adopted before things themselves could be done. Here was infinite field for discussion and for display of knowledge of the ways of other peoples.

Whether the President and Vice-President were like Roman consuls, or Spartan kings, or Carthaginian suffetes, Mr. Adams did not know for cer tain; but he was anxious to find out, and more than willing to talk about it from the chair. "I am possessed of two separate powers; the one in esse, the other in posse. I am Vice-President. In this I am nothing, but may be everything. But I am also President of the Senate; what shall I do when President Washington comes? I can not be Presi dent then. No, gentlemen, I can not. I wish you gentlemen to think what I shall be."

With a confusion remotely resembling Ham

In

let's, Mr. Adams made earnest efforts to understand himself, locate himself, and adjust himself. nearly every debate he took an active part. Senators who in the progress of their remarks went astray on matters of fact or argument he set right from the chair. Frequently he would address the Senate for nearly an hour at a time; and that day which passed without several speeches of varying lengths from Vice-President Adams was exceptional. A great stickler for forms, he was constantly telling the Senate how certain things were done in the House of Lords in England; and on the first address of Washington to Congress his clerk indorsed, with Adams's approval, the royal phrase "his gracious speech."

When it gradually dawned upon Mr. Adams that he and Washington were not to be treated as Roman consuls, Spartan kings, or Carthaginian suffetes his disgust grew apace-so much so that when Senator Maclay and others stoutly contended for the simple manners of democracy, Adams declared that had he known the American people would come to such a pass he would never have taken up arms against Great Britain.

Fussy, consequential, pompous, garrulous, without dignity of person or of manner, his face often expanded in a vacant laugh, John Adams was not the man to be imposing or impressive as a presiding officer over the Senate of the United States.