Noincident of this session so well illustrates the partisan bitterness and the venomous nature of the hates engendered by the struggles of the preceding years as the attempt on the life of Jackson at the Capitol on January 30, 1835.[788]Under normal conditions and in ordinary times the incident would have been dismissed, and, properly, ascribed to the insanity of the assailant. But it was the first time an attempt had been made upon the life of a President—and it was a President who had been intemperately denounced as a tyrant, despot, and wrecker of American institutions and liberties. Just as John Tyler had instantly thought of “political effect,”[789]the ardent friends of Jackson caughtthe same idea from the opposite angle. And two days later, Frank Blair in the “Globe” threw out the suggestion of a conspiracy. “Whether Lawrence [the assailant] has caught, in his visits to the Capitol, the mania which has prevailed the last two sessions of the Senate,” he wrote, “whether he has become infatuated with the chimeras which have troubled the brains of the disappointed and ambitious orators who have depicted the President as a Cæsar who ought to have a Brutus; as a Cromwell, a Nero, a Tiberius, we know not. If no secret conspiracy has prompted the perpetration of the horrid deed, we think it not improbable that some delusion of intellect has grown out of his visits to the Capitol, and that hearing despotism and every horrible mischief threatened to the Republic, and revolution and all its train of calamities imputed as the necessary consequence of the President’s measures, it may be that the infatuated man fancied that he had reason to become his country’s avenger. If he had heard and believed Mr. Calhoun’s speech of day before yesterday, he would have found in it ample justification for his attempt on one who was represented as the cause of the most dreadful calamities of the Nation; as one who made perfect rottenness and corruption to pervade the vitals of the Government, insomuch that it was scarcely worth preserving, if it were possible.”[790]
The intimation here thrown out was bitterly resented by the Opposition leaders, and particularly by Calhoun, who was mentioned. The very fact that the intemperate and insincere denunciations of high officials as responsible for the distress of the people, acting upon the diseased brain, can very easily persuade the madman to constitute himself the executioner, served to infuriate the orators who had given themselves full play. Stung to the quick, Calhoun denounced the “Globe” as “base and prostitute,” and described it as “the authentic and established organ” of Jackson, “sustained by his power and pampered by his hands.” “To what are we coming?” he exclaimed. “We are told that to denounce the abuse of the Administration even in general terms, without personal reference, is to instigate the assassination of the Chief Executive.... I have made up my mind as to my duty. I am no candidate for any office—I neither seek nor desire place—nothing shall intimidate—nothing shall prevent me from doing what I believe is due to my conscience and my country.”[791]Mr. Calhoun sat down—and Mr. Leigh immediately rose to present a report from the Committee on Revolutionary Claims.
But Mr. Calhoun’s attack on the “Globe” was not unnoticed by Blair, who replied by quoting from the most venomous portions of Calhoun’s and Preston’s tirades on the Post-Office report. A week later the Administration organ was still harping on conspiracy. “Every hour,” wrote Blair, “brings new proof to show that Lawrence has been operated on to seek the President’s life, precisely as we had supposed from the moment we learned that he had been an attendant on the debates in Congress.”[792]
Very soon the capital was startled with the connection of Senator Poindexter’s name with that of the assailant. The obsession took possession of Jackson that his Mississippi enemy had instigated the attempt at assassination. The examination of Lawrence had clearly established his insanity; just as clearly shown that he had taken to heart the charges of Jackson’s enemies that he was responsible for the distress of the people. Finding himself hard pressed by fate, and ascribing his unhappiness to the tyranny of Jackson, he had determined to kill him. That explanation was convincing and sufficient. But the suggestion that Poindexter had planned the deed fell on receptive soil. Affidavits had been placed in Jackson’s hands to the effect that “a gentleman who boarded in the same house informed him that Mr. Poindexter had interviews with Lawrence but a few days before the attempt on the President’s life.” Some time before the attack, “a captain in high standing in the navy” had said that Poindexter, on a voyage to New Orleans, had threatened to demand personal satisfaction of Jackson, and if he refused “he would shoot him wherever he saw him.” This had caused such anxiety to Jackson’s friends that the Reverend Mr. Hatch, chaplain of the Senate, had personally informed Jackson of the threat. All this, followed, after the assault, with an affidavit that Lawrence had been seen to “go repeatedly to Poindexter’s residence,” thoroughly convinced Jackson, who appears to have been in a morbid condition like his enemies.[793]He excitedly charged it in conversation with callers at the White House. Miss Martineau, who was friendly with the Poindexters, and apparently fond of the Senator, was literally forced to leave the White House by the abusive denunciation of the Mississippian. She became his ardent partisan, and took pains to record in her book that, on visiting the Poindexters on the night of the assault, she had “greatly admired the moderation with which Mr. Poindexter spoke of his foe.”[794]
Hearing from many quarters of Jackson’s charges, Poindexter wrote him that he would discredit the reports unless confirmed by the President, but that a failure to reply would be accepted as a confirmation. Jackson displayed Poindexter’s letter to visitors, but made no response. Thus a perfectly foolish notion of Jackson’s was forced to an issue. To understand the feeling behind it all, and to appreciate the bitter hostility of Poindexter, to which frequent reference has been made, it is necessary to know more of the character and career of this really remarkable but tragic figure.
George Poindexter was something of a genius, and, until his break with Jackson, an idol of Mississippi. From thebeginning he had been accorded the leadership of the Democratic or Jeffersonian Party in that Territory. His early congressional career was a justification of his leadership. One who knew him in those days tells us that “his mind was logical and strong; his conception was quick and acute; his powers of combination and application were astonishing; his wit was pointed and caustic, and his sarcasm overwhelming.”[795]These qualities made him a tremendous power upon the stump with the then primitive people of his State. In the gubernatorial office he rendered invaluable service which strengthened his hold upon the masses. On the bench, he was noted for his ability and justice, and, among the lawyers, he was conceded to have few equals before a jury. During the War of 1812 he had further endeared himself to the Mississippians by his patriotic appeal for preparation, and, after he had aroused the Territory to fever heat, and Jackson had appeared upon the scene, he became a volunteer aid upon the staff of the future President. It was to Poindexter that the negro or soldier carried the infamous British countersign, “Booty and Beauty,” and it was Poindexter who conveyed it to Jackson. Later his enemies charged that he had forged it to win the favor of the General. That such a man should have made enemies was inevitable. So bitter were his denunciations of his political enemies, so unscrupulous his use of terms, that at one time a conspiracy was formed to force him into a duel and kill him. The opportunity came after a peculiarly vitriolic attack upon a wealthy merchant who affiliated with the Federalists. The merchant challenged and was killed. Then Poindexter’s enemies charged that he had fired before the word was given.
Nowhere in the campaign of 1828 did Jackson receive more ardent support than in Mississippi where his old friend Poindexter directed his forces, and one year after his inauguration, the lieutenant entered the Senate, and almostimmediately the feud between the erstwhile friends began. The sordid feature of the story is the fact that it grew out of a patronage controversy. Jackson had determined on the appointment of a Tennesseean, a neighbor of the Hermitage, to the land office of Mississippi. Poindexter protested that this patronage belonged to his State and to him. Jackson refused to yield. Poindexter prevented the confirmation of the Tennesseean. Jackson made a recess appointment, and thenceforward the two comrades of 1812 were at swords’ points. Thus far Jackson was manifestly in the wrong. His loyalty to friendship cannot explain his disloyalty to Poindexter—who was also a friend, and a friend in need. But such was the Mississippian’s prejudice and hate that he abandoned, not only the President and purely Administration measures, but the principles he had espoused and advocated for a generation. He crossed the Rubicon, burned the bridges, and became a special favorite of Clay’s. In every great fight of the Jackson period, Poindexter was found arrayed with the Opposition. He stood with the Bank, favored the censure, and offered the resolutions denunciatory of the Protest. In the Nullification contest, he had essayed to lead the Nullifiers, and became more offensive than Calhoun.
Unfortunately for Poindexter, in the fighting that followed he was far from invulnerable on the personal side. Having been unfortunate in his domestic relations, he had divorced his wife, denied the paternity of his children, and plunged into the most reckless dissipation.[796]His indecent reflections upon the purity of his wife drove her family, extensive and influential, to his enemies; his intemperate tirades against Jackson alienated the dominant Democratic sentiment of the State; and while he fought boldly and bitterly to sustain himself, he failed, and, at the time of the attack on Jackson by the madman at the Capitol, was so discredited in Mississippi that he was planning to leave theState, with his second wife, on the expiration of his term. A man of genius whose morals failed to sustain his mentality—such the epitaph of George Poindexter.[797]
Three weeks after Lawrence had fired and failed, Poindexter called the Senate’s attention to an anonymous letter stating that affidavits were in the hands of the President charging that interviews had taken place between the assailant and himself a few days before the attempt on Jackson’s life, and asking the appointment of a special committee of investigation. Henry Clay, avowing that the rumors “inspired him with nothing but the deepest mortification and regret,” and that it was “impossible to credit the statement that affidavits should have been procured at the instance of the Chief Executive for the purpose of implicating a Senator of the United States in so foul a transaction,” reluctantly consented to an investigation. Without further discussion, a committee, consisting of John Tyler, chairman, Smith, Mangum, King, and Silas Wright, was appointed, with permission to sit during the sessions of the Senate; and three days later it unanimously exonerated Poindexter from suspicion. Webster asked for the yeas and nays on its acceptance; every Senator voted yea, and thus ended the most unfortunate incident in the career of Andrew Jackson. The “Washington Globe,” which had published the affidavits, wholly discredited them about the same time.[798]
TheCalhoun inquiry “into the extent of federal patronage, the circumstances which have contributed to its great increase of late, the expediency and practicability of reducing the same, and the means of such reduction,” served further to fan the flames of partisan madness during this session.Persisting in the fallacy that he was not moved by partisan or political considerations, he suggested that the committee be composed of two members of each party. The Senate, however, was not deceived as to his purpose, and selected four enemies of the Administration, Calhoun, Webster, Southard, and Bibb, and two Democrats, Benton, and King of Georgia. In due time an elaborate report was submitted. It set forth that 60,294 persons were in the employ of the Government; that together with the pensioners this meant more than 100,000 dependent on the Treasury. Implying that these constituted a federal machine, Calhoun added all engaged in business who wished to furnish supplies as part of the organization, influenced by patronage. Worse—there were thousands who wished to get upon the pay-roll who would willingly play the part of pliant tools to curry favor with Executive power. And how was this to be remedied? Since one of the causes contributing to the enlargement of the President’s patronage was the increase in governmental expenditure, the statesmanlike thing to do would be to reduce the revenue. A great amount of public land had been thrown upon the market, calling for an army of receivers, registers, and surveyors—all of whom were tools of Jackson. The Jacksonian policy of removing men from office to make way for henchmen had reduced the efficiency of the public service by making reappointments dependent on something other than faithful service. This, by making the officials dependent upon the President, tended to make them all subservient to his will, and little better than his slaves. More: the power assumed by the President to select the banks for the public deposits made them a part of the presidential machine. If the public revenue could be reduced, and the Government thus starved, many would be forced from the public crib, but unhappily this could not be done. He proposed, therefore, a constitutional amendment permitting the annual distribution of the surplus till 1843 by a division of it into asmany shares as there were Senators and Representatives, with ten shares for each Territory and the District of Columbia. And in addition to all this, he would enact a law to regulate the deposits of public money, and another to repeal that part of the Act of 1820 which limited the terms of customs officers.
When the report was submitted to the Senate, Poindexter made it the occasion for mournful and indignant reflections upon the growing tyranny of Jackson. He was profoundly moved by the revelations. Surely as many as thirty thousand extra copies of the report should be published for distribution. “The question now submitted to the Nation,” he said, “is whether power is to be perpetuated in the hands of him who now wields it, and the one he may select as his successor.” It was most unfortunate that the people would not awaken to the sinister attacks upon their liberties and institutions. The thoughtful, however, could not but see the trend.
But why print thirty thousand copies, asked King of Georgia, if not to serve a party purpose at the expense of the taxpayers? “What a spectacle we do present from day to day!” he exclaimed. “The Senate has been a week making war on the extras of the Post-Office Department. We are now warring against the extravagance of the Executive; and whilst brandishing the sword in one hand in defense of the public Treasury against the ravages of the Executive, we are, with the other, slipping it into our own pockets, or scattering it in profuse and wasteful extravagance.”
The Senate compromised on ten thousand copies, and a rather dull debate, in which the Bank question was revived, resulted. The bills proposed by the Whig committee passed the Whig Senate to be promptly rejected in the Democratic House. These measures merely served as pegs on which to hang further denunciations of Jackson and his policies.
And the Democrats countered with an enthusiastic banquet in celebration of the wiping-out of the national debt forthe first time in history. This had been one of Jackson’s ambitions—a consummation Clay had determined should not come before the presidential election of 1832. But it could not be prevented; and while the Whigs were expanding on extravagance and the crowded public crib, the Jacksonians were pointing to the extinguishment of the public debt as an answer to the attacks. Benton, who presided as toastmaster at the banquet, was in flamboyant mood.
“The national debt is paid,” he said. “This month of January, 1835, in the fifty-eighth year of the Republic, Andrew Jackson being President, the national debt is paid, and the apparition, so long unseen on earth—a great nation without a national debt—stands revealed to the astonished vision of a wondering world. Gentlemen, my heart is in this double celebration, and I offer you a sentiment, which, coming directly from my own bosom, will find its response in yours: President Jackson: may the evening of his days be as tranquil and as happy for himself as their meridian has been resplendent, glorious, and beneficent for his country.”
Such was the partisan madness of this short session that a resolution, offered and urged by Preston, the Whig, for the purchase of some pictures for “the President’s house,” was promptly voted down, and Preston’s efforts to have the vote reconsidered were unavailing. It was into this madhouse of partisan rancor that the French crisis, threatening war, involving the world prestige of the Republic, had been thrown by Jackson; and we shall now note how nearly partisanship came to compromising and weakening the Nation in the face of a foreign antagonist.
Themost important battle of the short session of 1834-35 was waged over Jackson’s determination to compel France to observe her obligations under the treaty signed in Paris and Washington in July, 1831. After futile efforts by the four preceding Administrations to bring France to the payment of an indemnity for losses to American vessels during the Napoleonic wars, Jackson succeeded in negotiating a treaty in which France stipulated to pay the United States five millions in six annual installments, and we agreed to the reduction of duties on French wines. We immediately conformed to our agreement, but the French manifested no such respect for their obligations. Several sessions of the French Chamber failed to make appropriations for the payments, notwithstanding the earnest remonstrances of Washington. Thoroughly vexed at the contemptuous indifference of Paris, Jackson withdrew Livingston from the State Department, and sent him to the French Court to insist upon the discharge of the treaty obligations. Before the crisis came, he had summoned to his side as Secretary of State the courtly and able John Forsyth, concerning whom the American people know all too little. In view of the tendency to picture the Jackson of the French crisis as a bull in a china shop, it is worth while to consider the characters of the men who were, at this time, his advisers in foreign affairs. The character of Livingston has been described.
In the Washington of the Thirties no public man was more generally respected and admired for ability and elegance of manner than the new Secretary of State. This courtliness
JOHN FORSYTH
of demeanor was an inheritance from his French ancestors.[799]In person he was notably handsome, well built, with classical features; and his manners were those of the drawing-room and the Court. One who knew him has written that “in the times of Louis XIV he would have rivaled the most celebrated courtier; and under the dynasty of Napoleon he would have won the baton of France.”[800]Another has described him as “Lord Chesterfield, minus his powdered wig and knee buckles,” and as “all duke and all democrat.”[801]Even-tempered, seldom giving way to passion, rich in a sense of humor, he was one of the few statesmen of his time who could find an equal welcome in the drawing-rooms of Whigs or Democrats. He was intensely social, and prone to fritter away valuable time in polite conversation with the pretty women of the capital, albeit a perfect husband, ardently devoted to the accomplished daughter of Dr. Josiah Meigs, whom he had married.[802]Cultivated, polished, graceful, he was the perfect gentleman and conversationalist.
As an orator, he was one of the most consummate of his time, singularly free from the then prevailing vice of tearing a passion to tatters. With a glance of the eye, a movement of the finger, a mild gesture of the hand, he could convey subtle meaning, and in his expressions of contempt he required nothing more than a twitch of the Roman nose or a scornful curl of the lip.[803]His voice, rich and musical, was as carefully trained as that of a prima donna. One writer compared it to a trumpet, “clear and piercing in its tones, and yet as soft as an organ.”[804]Another, referring to “the constant stream of pure vocalization,” described it as “clear and resonant, always pleasant to the ear, and perfectly modulated.”[805]A contemporary writer for the “Boston Post” recorded that “the rhythmic accents of his voice suggested the musical notes of the Æolian harp.”[806]
By the common verdict of all contemporaries he was the most powerful debater of his day, and as the floor leader in the Senate, he was a tower of strength to the Administration before entering the Cabinet. A competent critic wrote that “as an impromptu debater to bring on an action or to cover a retreat, he never had a superior”; was “acute, full of resources, and ever prompt—impetuous as Murat in charge, adroit as Soult when flanked and outnumbered,” “haughty in the presence of enemies, and affable and winning among friends.”[807]Another thought him as adroit a debater as ever lived—“the Ajax Telamon of his party.”[808]When the fight was made against the confirmation of Van Buren, the Administration rested its case against the attacks of Clay and Webster on his presentation. In the campaign of 1832, it summoned him to make the one speech upon the tariff, and then dismissed the topic definitely. When, at a critical moment in the Nullification movement, Georgia was about to be swept into the fallacy under the leadership of Berrien, in a convention called specifically for that purpose, it was Forsyth who was dispatched to take charge of the Administration forces, and, under his brilliant management, the Nullifiers were defeated in the presence of Chancellor Harper, who had been summoned from South Carolina to witness the triumph of the sinister doctrine.[809]During the panic session, it was upon his sarcasm that the Jacksonians largely relied to minimize the effect of the exaggerated speeches and the lugubrious petitions and memorials.
And yet, ardent though he was in his partisanship, he commanded the affectionate esteem of his opponents by his manliness and fairness. When the “bargain” charge was made against Clay, it was Forsyth who demanded an investigation in the interest of justice, thereby incurring the displeasure of many of his associates. Even Adams found him fair.
In many respects he fails to fit in with the Jacksonian picture. He was temperamentally an aristocrat, like Livingston, rather cynical toward the masses, and not at all enamoured of the Kitchen Cabinet. The letter from his son-in-law during the first Cabinet dissensions, expressing the hope that Jackson would “send off Lewis and Kendall,” was doubtless written in the confidence that the sentiment would meet with the approval of the recipient.[810]But Forsyth was too much the man of the world to quarrel over details or personalities, and in the company of Van Buren and Livingston, he was able to forget the Kendalls and the Blairs.
When he entered the Cabinet, he assumed tasks that were to his taste. He prided himself particularly upon his diplomacy, and his experience as Minister to Madrid to negotiate the purchase of Florida justified his confidence. This position called for great address, finesse, a knowledge of human nature, and infinite patience, persuasiveness, and tact. The cunning Ferdinand, who needed the money, but was loath to part with his possession, was inclined to haggle, and, while history has given credit for the success of the negotiations to the instructions of Adams, it was the ingratiating qualities of Forsyth that finally overcame the scruples of the King.
That a President so impetuous as Jackson should have been served in foreign affairs by men of the conservatism and caution of Van Buren, Livingston, and Forsyth seems providential. One day, after dinner, Jackson sat before the fire in the White House smoking his pipe and outlining plans forradical action on the Oregon boundary dispute that would have made war inevitable. Forsyth, to whom he was speaking, observing his dangerous mood, simulated sympathy with his indignation. Then he began with quiet suggestions. Perhaps Jackson’s plan would seem to be a plan to force a fight. It might put the country in the wrong light. Then, too, he recalled that the offensive action proposed in Parliament had been dropped on the request of the British Minister for Foreign Affairs. Possibly the London Government did not sympathize with the faction seeking trouble. Again, a year’s notice would have to be given, preliminary to any action by the United States, and Jackson’s Administration would then be drawing to a close. Possibly it might be best to do nothing. The President sat a few moments looking into the fire, and then, slowly refilling and lighting his pipe, he concluded—“I reckon you’re right, Forsyth; at least you’re right now.”
Such was the man who, with the assistance of Edward Livingston, was to grapple with the French crisis.
Onpresenting his credentials, Livingston was warmly received by Louis Philippe, and assured that the necessary laws for the immediate execution of the treaty would be passed at the next meeting of the Chamber.[811]The French Government then understood the certain effect on American public opinion of a contemptuous treatment of its obligations. The peculiar action of the Chamber had been the subject of a conversation between the Duc de Broglie and James Buchanan, then in Paris,en routefrom his mission to St. Petersburg and this had been stressed.[812]Thanks to the clever Count Pozzo di Borgo, Russian Minister to France, Buchanan had been able to convey to Jackson an accurate idea of thedifficulties—the weakness of the King’s Government and the hostility and cupidity of Dupin, the President of the Chamber.[813]Nor did it take Livingston long to discover the secret of the apathy of the King and his Ministers. Louis’s throne was a keg of dynamite, and he ruled in constant fear of the Deputies. He hoped to postpone an unpleasant duty until an auspicious moment. The treaty was described by the enemies of the dynasty as a bad bargain; the supporters of the old régime hated America because of the Revolution, and the Republicans hated the King because he was King. With Jackson manifesting more and more irritation, Livingston importuned the King, remonstrated with the Ministers, and labored with the members of the Chamber, and in all this he had the active coöperation of Lafayette. But after six months of conferences, the Chamber took adverse action.
The Government was seriously concerned. The King expressed his deep regret, and a French war vessel was sent to America with instructions to Serurier the French Minister, to assure Jackson that, as soon after the elections as the charter would permit, the Chamber would be summoned, the appropriation would be pressed, and the President informed of the result in time for him to communicate the facts to the Congress at the beginning of the session of December, 1834. This held Jackson’s impatience in check. But the elections passed, the Chamber convened, nothing was done, and the next session would not convene until three weeks after the Congress would meet.
As the congressional session approached, Livingston informed Forsyth that only a manifestation of strong national feeling in America would force action in Paris. “This is not a mere conjecture,” he wrote. “I know the fact.” And he reiterated that the moderate tone of the President’s Messages had convinced the French politicians that he would not besupported in vigorous measures, and closed with the significant comment that “from all this you may imagine the anxiety I shall feel for the arrival of the President’s Message.”[814]
The indignation of Jackson over this trifling, intensified by the conviction that France would not have dared thus in the case of a European Power, can be imagined. Many of his friends who lived in constant terror of his temper were beside themselves at the prospect.[815]But he had put his hand to the plough, and it was unlike him to turn back. In the preparation of his Message a futile effort had been made to persuade him to the employment of less emphatic language, but the Cabinet members thought to change slightly the phrasing without his knowledge. Forsyth, who was a master in diplomatic wording, made slight changes in a paragraph, and the Message was sent to the “Globe” to be put in type. When the proof reached the White House, John C. Rives[816]was with Jackson, and Donelson, a party to the plan to moderate, began to read as Jackson, with his pipe in his mouth, paced the floor. All went well until the altered paragraph was reached, and Donelson tried so to slur his reading that the change would not be noticed. Vain hope! Jackson stopped short.
“Read that again, sir.”
This time the secretary read distinctly, and Jackson, the lion in him thoroughly aroused, thundered:
“That, sir, is not my language; it has been changed, and I will have no other expression of my own meaning than my own words.”
And then and there he rewrote the paragraph, making it stronger than originally. Then, placing it in the hands of Rives, he forbade him to print anything else “at his peril.”[817]
Reading the Message to-day it seems moderate enough in tone, without a trace of bluster, and, compared with Cleveland’s Venezuela Message, positively mild. The greater part is a calm, accurate, dispassionate recital of the facts, but it closed with the request for authority for making reprisals on French property should the next session of the Chamber fail to make the required appropriation. “Such a measure,” he said, “ought not to be considered by France as a menace. Her pride and power are too well known to expect anything from her fears, and preclude the necessity of a declaration that nothing partaking of the character of intimidation is intended by us.”
The tone of the Message, appealing to the pride and self-respect of the people, was embarrassing to the Whigs, who for a time hesitated as to their course. To support Jackson might only tend to enhance his popularity, already too great to suit; to attack his course would certainly be disadvantageous to the country in an international controversy.[818]Hone, the Whig diarist, however, was quite sure that the Message “will weaken our cause with the lookers on in other nations.”[819]A month later he was still depressed because of Jackson’s “unnecessary threats,” but, being a praying Whig, he had hopes that Congress would still save the country.[820]Justice Joseph Story was quite as mournful. “The President,” he wrote, “is exceedingly warm for war with France if he could get Congress to back him. The Senate, in these days our sole security, it is well known, would steadily resist him.”[821]
Meanwhile, with the Whigs of the Senate laying their plans to repudiate the President’s position in the face of a foreign adversary, events were moving in France. The Chamber met in the midst of excitement, the Ministry successfully putting their popularity to the test of a vote of confidence.Livingston was encouraged.[822]But a very little later his optimism vanished, and he awaited hopefully the arrival of the Presidential Message.[823]Thus concerned over the tone of the Message, he arranged for couriers to hurry it to him on its arrival at Havre. It reached Paris in an American newspaper at two o’clock in the morning. The excitement was intense. Even Livingston was momentarily stunned. “The feeling,” he wrote Forsyth, “is fostered by the language of our Opposition papers, particularly by the ‘Intelligencer’ and the ‘New York Courier,’ extracts from which have been sent on by Americans, declaring them to be the sentiments of the majority of the people. These, as you will see, are translated and republished here, with such comments as they might have been expected and undoubtedly were intended to produce, and if hostilities should take place between the two nations those persons may flatter themselves with having the credit of a large share in producing them.” He felt, however, that “the energetic language of the Message” would “have a good effect.” And contrary to the fear of Hone that it would degrade us in the eyes of the onlookers, he found that “it has certainly raised us in the estimation of other Powers if we may judge by the demeanor of their representatives here.” He was sure that “as soon as the excitement subsides it will operate favorably on the counsels of France.” Already “some of the papers have begun to change their tone.” As soon as the Message was known, “the funds experienced a considerable fall, and insurance rose.”[824]
In compliance with the request of Comte de Rigny, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Livingston personally delivered to him a copy of the Message, and stressed the point that, under our governmental form, the Message was a consultation between departments of our Government, and was not directed to France. Then shifting to the offensive he addedthat it was most unfortunate, in view of Serurier’s promise, that there had not been an earlier call of the Chamber. De Rigny seemed to attach the most serious importance to the intimation of bad faith, but the interview was friendly. That evening, at the Austrian Minister’s, Livingston found him all suavity; and the next night a curt note from him announced the withdrawal of Serurier from Washington, and a readiness to give the American diplomat his passports on application![825]He made much of Jackson’s comments on the failure to convene the Chamber when, as a matter of fact, the Chamber was then actually assembled in virtue of a royal ordinance. This, while true, could not have been known to Jackson in those days of slow communication. He only knew the original purpose. But it pleased de Rigny to assume an unexplainable offense, and to announce that “His Majesty has considered it due his own dignity no longer to leave his Minister exposed to hear language so offensive to France.”[826]Resisting an impulse to demand his passports, lest such action seem unnecessarily provocative, Livingston replied in a dignified note that unless de Rigny’s letter was intended as a dismissal, he would await instructions from his own Government.
Meanwhilethe Whigs were planning to make political capital out of the crisis. The “Intelligencer,” the organ of the Senate Whigs, had assumed an attitude which, as we have seen, had given much comfort to the French enemies of the treaty. “We trust,” it said, “that it will be universally understood, not only at home, but everywhere abroad, that the recommendation of the President is his own act only, and is not likely ... to receive the approbation of the Congress or the people of the United States.” And Blair, in the “Globe,” hotly replied that “if she [France] shall shed American bloodin this controversy, and push her injustice to actual war, the responsibility for all the destruction of human lives ... will justly rest upon the heads of the editors of the ‘National Intelligencer.’”[827]The “National Gazette,” another Opposition paper, compromised with the thought that Jackson “did well to present the subject to Congress ... though we would earnestly dissuade Congress from giving him a discretion so important as that of reprisals.” Which, interpreted by Blair, meant that the mercantile class and bankers were interested in French claims, and it would be well to enforce them, “but if the national rights and honor, implicated in a refusal to execute the treaty, should be vindicated by President Jackson, it would add renown to the man whom it was the editors’ business to traduce.”[828]
The first act of the Whigs was to pack the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate with the President’s enemies, three of the five, Clay, Mangum, and Sprague, being virulent foes. “There are certainly not three men in the French Chamber,” wrote Blair, “more anxiously bent on thwarting the measures of General Jackson’s Administration.”[829]Into the hands of these was delivered that portion of the Message dealing with the French affair, and a month later Clay offered his resolution that “it is inexpedient at this time” to grant authority to the President to make reprisals. In presenting his report, Clay made the startling statement that if France was prudent “she will wait to see whether the Message should be seconded by the Congress.” Thus, in the face of a prospective foreign foe, patently in the wrong, the leader of the Whigs attempted to create the impression that Jackson stood alone. This was the cue to the politicians. The Clay report was extravagantly praised. Poindexter, in ecstatic mood, moved that twenty thousand copies be printed for circulation—as propaganda to isolate the President. Calhoun favored “the largest number.” The report had delighted him. “Warwas at all times to be avoided.”[830]Only two Whigs objected to twenty thousand copies, and these on the ground that the printing of so many would require four months.[831]Hill demanded the yeas and nays, and by a party vote the “largest number” of Clay’s campaign document was ordered. Thus, from the beginning, the divisions in the Senate on an international crisis were along party lines.
On the day Livingston received the curt note from de Rigny, Clay, in opening the discussion of his resolution, threw out the suggestion twice that France might make the appropriation conditional on an “explanation” from the President of the United States. He felt sure that France would understand that Congress did not share the President’s views. The Democratic members of the committee, in a minority report, differed from the majority in explaining the reason for finding it “inexpedient” to grant authority—the fact that the Chamber had been called a month earlier than anticipated. The only vigorous attack on the majority report, and the sole unapologetic American speech, was that of Buchanan, who, better than any other member of the Senate, understood the conditions in Paris. He called for an unqualified assertion of our determination to demand the observance of the treaty. “I hope I may be mistaken,” he concluded, “but I believe it never will be paid before.”[832]The brief debate, heard by the fashion of the capital packed in the galleries, was conducted with decorum, but quite discernible beneath the surface one may read the party feeling which even an international crisis could not obliterate. The Clay resolution was adopted. The “National Intelligencer,” now finding its way regularly to Paris, expressed the hope that “with this unquestionable proof of the pacific temper of the Senate ... it will now be understood at home and abroad that there is no morbid appetite for war among the grave and considerate portion of the American people.”
Several weeks were to intervene before the House took action. Meanwhile in Paris, Livingston, in seclusion, prepared his masterful and spirited formal reply to the impudent note of the French Minister. He loftily rebuked him for referring to the President as “General Jackson” in official language, firmly reiterated and proved the charge of broken faith in the matter of the Serurier pledge, and pitilessly exposed the hypocrisy of the complaint that Jackson had misrepresented, purposely, regarding the time of the calling of the Chamber. Had not de Rigny himself informed him that it was constitutionally impossible to call the session earlier when protest had been made as to the date? And yet it had been called. When a copy of this note reached Forsyth, he summoned Van Buren and the two repaired to the White House, where it was read and warmly approved.[833]By this time Jackson was in no mood to compromise or conciliate. Forsyth instructed Livingston that, if the French Chamber again rejected the appropriation bill, a frigate was to be immediately sent to convey him home. Ten days after these instructions were written, Serurier was recalled, and Forsyth, in refusing an audience, coolly informed him that he was “ready to receive in writing any communication the Minister of France desires to have made to the Government of the United States.”[834]
Meanwhile the French papers reaching the United States were noisily militant. War-clouds lowered. James A. Hamilton tendered his services to Jackson for duty “civil or military, at home or abroad.”[835]Major Lewis, gravely concerned because of his daughter’s marriage to M. Pageot of the French Legation, hastened to reassure Hamilton with extracts from personal letters from governmental officials in Paris—and thus threw an interesting side-light on theromance and tragedy of international marriages, for these letters had been translated, for the benefit of Jackson, in the French Legation by Madame Pageot, the wife of the First Secretary![836]
Underthese ominous conditions, with offers of military service pouring into the White House, with the French Minister on the oceanen routeto Paris, and with additional letters in the diplomatic duel before it, the House of Representatives began its discussion of the crisis. With the majority report and resolutions declaring against further negotiations and in favor of contingent preparations, the House was immediately engaged in an animated and acrimonious discussion indicative of the excitement of the times. Edward Everett, the pacifist of the session, offered a substitute coupling a declaration of adherence to the treaty with a request for the renewal of negotiations. Adams, in ugly temper, threw out the hint that it appeared that “the supporters of the Administration were the only ones to be heard upon the subject.” With some feeling, Cambreleng, in charge for the Administration, assured the former President that he was ready to enter upon a free accommodation of differences that a united front might be presented to the Nation’s adversary. This little storm cleared the atmosphere, and on the next day when the debate began in earnest it was wholesomely free from purely partisan rancor. Then it was that Adams explained his dissent from the phrasing. He objected to the assertion that negotiations should be discontinued. “The only alternative compatible with the honor of nations is war,” he said. If a continuance of the negotiations failed, he was ready for the “hazard of war.” He realized that “the interest and honor of the Nation” were at stake. The pledge of France had been given, and the sole question was“whether we shall suffer the nation that made this treaty to violate it.” We could not afford to compromise to the extent of a penny.
“What will be the consequences,” demanded the fiery old man eloquent, “if you give it up? Why, every nation will consider itself at liberty to sport with all treaties that are made with us.”
And then Adams startled the Democrats, and broke with the Whigs, in his reference to Jackson. “Whatever may be said of the imprudence of that recommendation,” he exclaimed, “the opinion of mankind will ever be that it was high-spirited and lofty, and such as became the individual from whom it emanated. I say it now, and I repeat, that it is the attitude which the Chief Magistrate will bear before the world, and before mankind, and before posterity.”[837]
Quite different the feeling of William S. Archer, a Virginia Whig, who looked with fear and trembling to a contest with France. Think, he cried, of the commercial loss! Why sacrifice this with so little involved? “It would be quixotic, and even romance scarcely presented a precedent, unless that of Sir Lucius O’Trigger.” And even if right, why take the chance? He had been surprised that Adams had said nothing about fear.
“No,” shouted Adams, “the gentleman’s whole argument is fear!”
The Virginian closed by offering a resolution “that in the just expectation that the Government of France will have made provision ... this House will forbear at the present time to adopt any measure in relation to that subject.”[838]
With flaming indignation, James W. Bouldin, a Virginia Democrat, replied to Archer’s timorous speech. “The gentleman asks if we would really go to war for five million dollars,” he said. “Will a man fight if you spit in his face?” Already the French Chamber was boasting that we had takenthe like from others, and declaring that we were “a money-making, money-loving people, and would never spend a hundred million to obtain five.” And, continued Bouldin, “I have heard as much praise of foreign nations as I want to hear.... All I want to hear at this time is whether we intend to hold upon the treaty or give it up entirely.”[839]
Cambreleng, aroused by the sordid character of the Archer appeal, sharply warned that “the honor and welfare of the Nation is involved, and the measure will no longer be sacrificed to gratify the spirit of party.”[840]To which Tristam Burges, a Rhode Island Whig, responded with the amazing assertion that “France would be cowardly indeed if she should pay the money under such circumstances.”[841]
Edward Everett followed with a typical pacifist appeal for peace, but it was reserved for the eloquent Horace Binney to present the most novel reasons for America’s consent to her humiliation. In the President’s Message he had found “the President’s design ... impossible to fathom.”[842]The action of the French Chamber was none of our business. In the meantime we should not close the door on negotiations. The French Republicans were using the treaty as a club upon the monarchy, and should this country “strengthen the hands of a constitutional monarchy?”[843]
Then Adams, in no conciliatory temper, rose again. “Whence come these compliments to France?” he asked. “Are they elicited by her virtues? Is it because she has refused the payment ... due us? Is it because she has violated her plighted faith? Is it from the style of the dignified debates ... where we are characterized as a nation of mercenaries—where the basest and meanest of motives are attributed to the American people—those of sordid avarice, speculation, and gain?... Is it on this that the gentleman from Virginia bases his ‘just expectations’?” And, turningto Everett: “We have heard much of war and its horrors. No man can entertain a greater abhorrence of war than I. I would do anything but sacrifice honor and independence to avoid it. But when I hear it advanced that there is no such thing as national honor, that it is merely ideal, I must take leave to say that I do not subscribe to such a doctrine.”[844]
But the next speaker, Benjamin Hardin, though hailing from the fighting State of Kentucky, was not impressed. Randolph had compared his wit to “a coarse kitchen butcher knife whetted upon a brickbat,”[845]but he now purred gently to the harsh strokes of the French Chamber. “What would we go to war for?” he demanded. “The paltry sum of five million dollars!” In one year war would “sweep from the ocean at least fifty millions of our commerce.” And where would the expense fall? “Upon the hard-working and industrious farmer.”[846]
The outcome was the adoption of a resolution which was a compromise between that of the committee and the ideas of Adams, insisting on the maintenance of the treaty and in favor of preparations. This was adopted at a night session on the 2d of March, and the session was then thought to expire at midnight on March 3d.
Anoccurrence on the last day of the session, due to partisan madness, left the Republic all but naked to its prospective foe. Early in the evening, during the consideration of the Fortifications Bill, an amendment was offered in the House, appropriating three millions to be used at the discretion of the President for emergency work in the event France should strike during the congressional recess. It met with no opposition in the House, but the moment it reached the Senate itwas pounced upon by the Whig leaders as another proof of Jackson’s itch for power. Webster, assuming the leadership in the sorry business, proposed instantly to dispose of the amendment with a motion to “adhere” to the Senate measure. This harsh, unusual course was intended as a notice that the Senate would not even meet the House in conference upon the subject.
Then followed a most amazing spectacle, with the Whigs assailing Jackson and his alleged contempt for the Constitution and determination to declare war without an Act of Congress. Senator Buchanan, protesting against the Webster motion, pointed out the necessity for the appropriation—the possibility of a blow from France during the recess, the frankly expressed apprehension of Livingston. “In that event,” he continued, “what will be our condition? Our seacoast from Georgia to Maine will be exposed to the incursions of the enemy; our cities may be plundered and burnt; the national character may be disgraced; and all this whilst we have an overflowing Treasury.”[847]
King of Alabama earnestly pleaded with Webster to withdraw the harsh motion. “In what way,” he asked, “does it violate the Constitution? Does it give the President the power to declare war? This power belongs to Congress alone, nor does the bill in the slightest degree impair it. Does it authorize the raising of armies? No, not one man may be enlisted beyond the number required to fill up the ranks of your little army.”
But Webster was deaf to the appeal. The “autocrat” and “tyrant” was again making an onslaught on the Constitution, and he would have none of it. And by a strict party vote, for White of Tennessee had by now definitely joined the Opposition, the motion to adhere was adopted.
When this surprising action reached the House, it swallowed its pride and asked for a conference. The confereesmet and remained in deadlock until midnight. Forsyth and Van Buren were at the Capitol trying without avail to get action. Meanwhile in the Senate something very like a filibuster was begun. Benton was impressed by the number of the speakers, their vehemence, perseverance, provocative attacks on Jackson, and indirectly on the House.[848]
All this time, Jackson was patiently waiting in his room at the Capitol to sign the bill when passed. At midnight he put on his hat and returned to the White House. The conference and debate continued, with many, who considered the session dead at midnight,[849]leaving the Capitol, until repeated calls of the House failed to secure a quorum. At a late hour some of the Whig members of the House were insisting that the amendment be abandoned, with the Democrats refusing to yield and placing the responsibility upon the Senate. Partisan bitterness became more pronounced as the end approached. “There are men who would willingly see the banner of France waving over your Capitol, rather than lose an opportunity to make a thrust at the Administration,” bitterly exclaimed Jesse Bynum of North Carolina. “This is not a miserable Administration or anti-Administration question,” protested Henry A. Wise, the Whig who favored the amendment. The danger of war was real and if it came “every fortification on your coast is liable to fall into the hands of a strong maritime power,” he warned.[850]At intervals, motions to recede were offered and overwhelmingly defeated.
It was two o’clock in the morning when Cambreleng returned to the House with a compromise—$300,000 for arming the fortifications, $500,000 for repairs and the equipping of war vessels, “an amount wholly inadequate if it should be required, and more than necessary if it should not.” As he entered the House, he found no quorum, and no possibilityof getting one. On a motion to adjourn, only 111 members were present and voting; a few moments later but 75; and at three o’clock, Speaker Bell rose, delivered a brief valedictory, and the House stood adjourned without day. The Nation was naked to the foe, and in the midst of negotiations.
Far from weakening Jackson’s determination to maintain the dignity and rights of the Nation, the failure of the Fortifications Bill but strengthened his will, and two days after Congress adjourned, Forsyth instructed Livingston to demand an explanation or qualification of an insinuation in Serurier’s note of withdrawal that the President had knowingly misrepresented in his Message to Congress.[851]
Meanwhile, in France, the Whigs’ campaign to picture Jackson as isolated in his position from both Congress and the people was having its effect, and there were Whigs in America who rejoiced in the fact. Scanning the French newspapers, Philip Hone was delighted to find that Clay’s report and the Senate resolution had had the effect he anticipated. He rejoiced to find that they convinced the French that the proposal of reprisals “are only the acts of the President” and “would not be sanctioned by the legislature of the Nation.”[852]
And Hone was not mistaken as to the effect of Jackson’s firmness and the Senate’s action. The money was appropriated by the Chamber with the payment contingent on an apology or explanation from Jackson. In the discussion of the appropriation measure, Jackson was roundly denounced, and ridiculed as one repudiated by his own people. Boasts were made of the ease with which France could crush the United States. “The insult from President Jackson comes from himself alone,” said M. Henri de Chabaulon. “This is more evident from the refusal of the American Congress to concur with him in it.... Suppose the United States hadtaken part with General Jackson, we should have had to demand satisfaction, not from him, but from the United States; ... and we should have had to ... entrust to our heroes of Navarino and Algiers the task of teaching the Americans that France knows the way to Washington as well as England.” And this insulting speech was received with applause. “When the Americans see this long sword,” exclaimed M. Ranee, “believe me, gentlemen, they would sooner touch your money than dare to touch your sword.”[853]Left to his own resources by the absence of instructions on the proviso of the measure of the Chamber, Livingston informed the Due de Broglie that an attempt to enforce the proviso would be repelled “by the undivided energy of the Nation.”[854]And four days later he left Paris, with Barton, his son-in-law, at the American Legation as Chargé d’Affaires.
From this time on to the crisis, the American Legation in Paris and the French in Washington were under Chargés d’Affaires, and strangely enough the wives of both were prime favorites of Jackson and intimates of the White House circle. The beautiful and exquisite Cora Livingston, daughter of the Minister, was long the reigning belle of the American capital. Josiah Quincy had been infatuated with her, and the story has come down of Van Buren trying to get her under the mistletoe. In the White House she had come and gone with the informality of a member of the household, and many an evening she had spent with Mrs. Donelson in one of the private rooms of the President’s house, with Jackson sitting at one side smoking his pipe. She had married Barton a short time before Livingston’s departure for Paris, and it had pleased the man of iron, with so much of tender sentiment where women were concerned, to appoint the bridegroom Secretary of the Legation that Cora might be in Paris with her mother. Enclosing his commission in a letter to“My Dear Cora,” he had asked her to “present it to him with your own hand.”
Quite as closely connected with the White House circle was Madame Pageot, known to Jackson as little Delia Lewis, daughter of one of the members of the Kitchen Cabinet. He had known her as a child in Tennessee where her father dwelt close to the Hermitage, and she had known and loved the sainted Rachel. When her engagement to Pageot was announced, Jackson had insisted that the marriage should take place in the White House, and when her first child was born and called “Andrew Jackson,” the christening had been in the President’s house. It was on this occasion when the Minister, following the form, asked the infant, “Andrew Jackson, do you renounce the Devil and all his works?” that the President with great fervor responded, “I do most indubitably,” to the delight of all.
Thus there was a touch to the closing days of the crisis that probably has no parallel in the history of diplomacy.
Hadthe French politicians been able to witness the popular ovation accorded Livingston on his arrival in New York, they might have changed their opinion concerning Jackson’s isolation from the people. An immense crowd greeted him at the wharf, followed him to his lodgings, clamored for a speech, and thronged the City Hall at the public reception. Philip Hone, one of the Whigs who rejoiced in the demand of a foreign nation for an apology from the American President, was gravely concerned because he had returned in “a bad humor,” and might “infuse some of it into the mind of the obstinate and weak old man at the head of the Government, and so prevent an amicable arrangement.”[855]But the Whig diarist’s greatest disgust came with Livingston’s ovation at the dinner of the Corporation on July 4th, when at the conclusion of his brief speech the room rang with cries of “No explanations!” “No apology!”—dividing, as Hone records, “the echoes of the spacious dome with equally inspiring shouts of ‘Hurrah for Jackson!’”[856]At Philadelphia,en routeto Washington, Livingston was the guest of honor at an equally enthusiastic dinner, and, thus acclaimed by his countrymen, he reached Washington and went into conference with Jackson, Forsyth, and Van Buren.
Calm and determined, Jackson waited patiently until in September when he proposed to press the issue to a decision. Forsyth sent instructions to Barton. If nothing indicative of a purpose to pay the indemnity had been done, the Chargé was to call upon the Due de Broglie and ask for a definite answer with the view to the regulation of his conduct. If the Minister should fix a day for the payment, Barton was to remain in Paris; otherwise he was to demand his passports because of the non-execution of the treaty. And this step was to be taken in time to permit the result to be communicated to Jackson before he prepared his Message for the opening of Congress. In the latter part of October, Barton had his audience with de Broglie, and handled himself with consummate tact and caution. With studied impudence the French Minister announced that the money would be forthcoming when an explanation or apology had been received, and a few days later, Barton sailed for the United States.
Meanwhile the Congress convened, and Jackson in his Message reported progress, soberly reviewing the course of the negotiations up to the passage of the indemnity bill by the French Chamber with its offensive proviso, and bluntly concluding that the French Government has “received all the explanation which honor and principle permitted.” He informed Congress of his final instructions to Barton and of his purpose to communicate the result when ascertained.
It was while awaiting the report of the American Chargéd’Affaires that M. Pageot received notice of his recall, and by the time he was able to sail the two nations were on the verge of war. Hone, noting the departure of the Poland bearing M. Pageot and “the odds and ends of the French Legation,” could not restrain his mirth over the prospective discomfiture of the French Chargé in bearing back to the French Court a young heir, bearing “the august name of Andrew Jackson.”[857]
When Barton reached New York, he hastened with all speed to Washington, where Livingston awaited him. It was with no little anxiety that Van Buren, Forsyth, and Livingston accompanied him to the White House. The three older men, all devoted to Jackson, and all at some time at the head of his Department of Foreign Affairs, were greatly concerned over the possible effect of the report on the thoroughly aroused President.
Observing their solemnity, Barton turned upon them:
“Well, gentlemen, shall it be oil or water?”
“Oh, water, by all means,” they answered in a chorus.
To none of these, not even to Livingston, had Barton indicated the nature of the report he had to make. Pressing the former Minister’s hand as a token of appreciation of his confidence, Barton led the way into the iron man’s presence.
The moment the conference was over, Jackson began the preparation of his Message to Congress, and, on its completion, submitted it to Livingston. In view of Hone’s fear, it is interesting to note that it was the former Minister of State who persuaded Jackson to a moderation of its tone. Drawing a substitute, he sent it to the White House with an ingratiating letter.
“The characteristics of the present communication,” he wrote, “ought, in my opinion, to be moderation and firmness. Our cause is so good that we need not be violent. Moderation in language, firmness in purpose, will unite all heartsat home, all opinion abroad, in our favor. Warmth and recrimination will give arguments to false friends and real enemies, which they may use with effect against us. On these principles I have framed a hasty draft which I enclose. You will, with your usual discernment, determine whether it suits the present emergency. At any rate, I know you will do justice to the motive that has induced me to offer it.”[858]