The Life of John Marshall Volume II Part 39

So gratified were the President, Cabinet, and Federalist leaders in Congress with Marshall's conduct in the X. Y. Z. mission, and so high their opinion of his ability, that Adams tendered him the appointment to the place on the Supreme Bench,[790] made vacant by the death of Justice Wilson. Marshall promptly declined. After applying to the Fairfax indebtedness all the money which he might receive as compensation for his services in the French mission, there would still remain a heavy balance of obligation; and Marshall must devote all his time and strength to business.

On the night before his departure, the members of Congress gave the hero of the hour the historic dinner at the city's princ.i.p.al tavern, "as an evidence of their affection for his person and their gratified approbation of the patriotic firmness with which he sustained the dignity of his country during his important mission." One hundred and twenty enthusiastic men sat at the banquet table.

The Speaker of the National House, the members of the Cabinet, the Justices of the Supreme Court, the Speaker of the Pennsylvania State Senate, the field officers of the army, the Right Reverend Bishops Carroll and White, "and other distinguished public characters attended."

Toasts "were drank with unbounded plaudits" and "many of them were encored with enthusiasm." High rose the spirit of Federalism at O'Eller's Tavern in Philadelphia that night; loud rang Federalist cheers; copiously flowed Federalist wine.

"Millions for Defense but not a cent for Tribute!" was the crowning toast of that jubilant evening. It expressed the spirit of the gathering; out over the streets of Philadelphia rolled the huzzas that greeted it. But its unknown author[791] "builded better than he knew."

He did more than flatter Marshall and bring the enthusiastic banqueters, wildly shouting, to their feet: he uttered the sentiment of the Nation.

"Millions for Defense but not a cent for Tribute" is one of the few historic expressions in which Federalism spoke in the voice of America.

Thus the Marshall banquet in Philadelphia, June 18, 1798, produced that slogan of defiant patriotism which is one of the slowly acc.u.mulating American maxims that have lived.

After Marshall retired from the banquet hall, the a.s.semblage drank a final toast to "The man whom his country delights to Honor."[792]

Marshall was smothered with addresses, congratulations, and every variety of attention from public bodies and civic and military organizations. A committee from the Grand Jury of Gloucester County, New Jersey, presented the returned envoy a laudatory address. His answer, while dignified, was somewhat stilted, perhaps a trifle pompous. The Grand Jury compliment was, said Marshall, "a sweet reward" for his "exertions." The envoys wished, above all things, for peace, but felt "that not even peace was to be purchased at the price of national independence."[793]

The officers of a militia brigade delivered to Marshall a eulogy in which the war note was clear and dominant. Marshall answered that, desirable as peace is, it "ought not to have been bought by dishonor and national degradation"; and that the resort to the sword, for which the militia officers declared themselves ready, made Marshall "feel with an elevated pride the dignity and grandeur of the American character."[794]

The day before Marshall's departure from Philadelphia the President, addressing Congress, said: "I congratulate you on the arrival of General Marshall ... at a place of safety where he is justly held in honor....

The negotiation may be considered at an end. _I will never send another Minister to France without a.s.surances that he will be received, respected, and honored as the representative of a great, free, powerful, and independent nation._"[795] Bold and defiant words expressive of the popular sentiment of the hour; but words which were to be recalled later by the enemies of Adams, to his embarra.s.sment and to the injury of his party.[796]

"Having heard that Mrs. Marshall is in Winchester I shall immediately set out for that place,"[797] Marshall writes Was.h.i.+ngton. His departure from the Capital was as spectacular as his arrival. He "was escorted by detachments of cavalry," says the "Aurora." "Certainly nothing less was due considering the distinguished services which he has rendered by his mission--he has acquired some knowledge of the French language,"[798]

sneers that partisan newspaper in good Republican fas.h.i.+on. When Marshall approached Lancaster he was met by companies of "cavalry and uniformed militia" which escorted him into the town, where he was "welcomed by the discharges of artillery and the ringing of bells."[799]

His journey throughout Pennsylvania and Virginia, repeating scenes of his welcome at Philadelphia and Lancaster, ended at Richmond. There, among his old neighbors and friends, the demonstrations reached their climax. A long procession of citizens went out to meet him. Again rang the cheers, again the bells pealed, again the cannon thundered. And here, to his townsmen and friends, Marshall, for the first time, publicly opened his heart and told, with emotion, what had befallen in France. In this brief speech the Nationalist and fighting spirit, which appears in all his utterances throughout his entire life, flashes like a sword in battle.

Marshall cannot express his "emotions of joy" which his return to Richmond has aroused; nor "paint the sentiments of affection and grat.i.tude towards" his old neighbors. n.o.body, he a.s.sures his hearers, could appreciate his feelings who had not undergone similar experiences.

The envoys, far from their country with no news from their Government, were in constant anxiety, says Marshall. He tells of their trials, of how they had discharged their duty, of his exultation over the spirit America was now displaying. "I rejoice that I was not mistaken in the opinion I had formed of my countrymen. I rejoice to find, though they know how to estimate, and therefore seek to avoid the horrors and dangers of war, yet they know also how to value the blessings of liberty and national independence. Peace would be purchased at too high a price by bending beneath a foreign yoke" and such a peace would be but brief; for "the nation thus submitting would be soon involved in the quarrels of its master.... We shall remain free if we do not deserve to be slaves."

Marshall compares the governments of France and America. To one who, like himself, is so accustomed to real liberty that he "almost considers it as the indispensable companion of man, a view of [French] despotism,"

though "borrowing the garb usurping the name of freedom," teaches "the solid safety and real security" existing in America. The loss of these "would poison ... every other joy." Without them "freemen would turn with loathing and disgust from every other comfort of life." To preserve them, "all ... difficulties ought to be encountered."

Stand by "the government of your choice," urges Marshall; its officials are from the people, "subject in common with others to the laws they make," and must soon return to the popular body "whose destiny involves their own and in whose ruin they must partic.i.p.ate." This is always a good rule, but "it is peculiarly so in a moment of peril like the present" when "want of confidence in our government ... furnishes ... a foreign real enemy [France] those weapons which have so often been so successfully used."[800]

The Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen, and Common Council of Richmond presented Marshall with an address of extravagant praise. "If reason and argument ... if integrity, candor, and the pure spirit of conciliation"

had met like qualities in France, "smiling peace would have returned along with you." But if Marshall had not brought peace, he had warned America against a government "whose touch is death." Perhaps he had even preserved "our excellent const.i.tution and ... our well earned liberties." In answer Marshall said that he reciprocated the "joy" of his "fellow citizens, neighbors, and ancient friends" upon his return; that they were right in thinking honorable peace with France was impossible; and warned them against "the countless dangers which lurk beneath foreign attachments."[801]

Marshall had become a national hero. Known before this time, outside of his own State, chiefly to the eminent lawyers of America, his name now became a household word in the remotest log cabins of Kentucky and Tennessee, as well as in the residences of Boston and New York. "Saving General Was.h.i.+ngton, I believe the President, Pinckney, and Marshall are the most popular characters now in our country," Troup reported to King in London.[802]

For the moment, only one small cloud appeared upon the horizon of Marshall's popularity; but a vicious flash blazed from it. Marshall went to Fredericksburg on business and attended the little theater at that place. The band of the local artillery company furnished the music. A Philadelphia Federalist, who happened to be present, ordered them to play "The President's March" ("Hail, Columbia!"). Instantly the audience was in an uproar. So violent did they become that "a considerable riot took place." Marshall was openly insulted. Nor did their hostility subside with Marshall's departure. "The inhabitants of Fredericksburg waited," in anxious expectation, for an especially hated Federalist Congressman, Harper of South Carolina, to pa.s.s through the town on his way home, with the intention of treating him even more roughly.[803]

With this ominous exception, the public demonstrations for Marshall were warmly favorable. His strength with the people was greater than ever. By the members of the Federal Party he was fairly idolized. This, the first formal party organization in our history, was, as we have seen, in sorry case even under Was.h.i.+ngton. The a.s.saults of the Republicans, directed by Jefferson's genius for party management, had all but wrecked the Federalists. That great party general had out-maneuvered his adversaries at every point and the President's party was already nearing the breakers.

The conduct of the French mission and the publication of Marshall's dispatches and letters to Talleyrand saved the situation for the moment.

Those whom Jefferson's consummate skill had won over to the Republican Party returned by thousands to their former party allegiance.[804]

Congress acted with belated decision. Our treaty with France was abrogated; non-intercourse laws pa.s.sed; a provisional army created; the Navy Department established; a.r.s.enals provided; the building of wars.h.i.+ps directed. For a season our National machinery was permitted to work with vigor and effectiveness.

The voices that were wont to declaim the glories of French democracy were temporarily silent. The people, who but yesterday frantically cheered the "liberte, egalite, fraternite" of Robespierre and Danton, now howled with wrath at mention of republican France. The pulpit became a tribune of military appeal and ministers of the gospel preached sermons against American "Jacobins."[805] Federalist orators had their turn at a.s.sailing "despotism" with rhetoric and defending "liberty" with eloquence; but the French Government was now the international villain whom they attacked.

"The struggle between Liberty and Despotism, Government and Anarchy, Religion and Atheism, has been gloriously decided.... France has been foiled, and America is free. The elastick veil of Gallick perfidy has been rent, ... the severing blow has been struck." Our abrogation of the treaty with France was "the completion of our Liberties, the acme of our Independence ... and ... emanc.i.p.ated us from the oppressive friends.h.i.+p of an ambitious, malignant, treacherous ally." That act evidenced "our nation's manhood"; our Government was now "an Hercules, who, no longer amused with the coral and bells of 'liberty and equality' ... no longer willing to trifle at the _distaff_ of a 'Lady Negociator,' boldly invested himself in the _toga virilis_."[806] Such was the language of the public platform; and private expressions of most men were even less restrained.

Denouncing "the Domineering Spirit and boundless ambition of a nation whose Turpitude has set _all objections_, divine & human, at naught,"[807] Was.h.i.+ngton accepted the appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the newly raised army. "Huzza! Huzza! Huzza! How transporting the fact! The great, the good, the aged WAs.h.i.+NGTON has said 'I am ready again to go with my fellow citizens to the field of battle in defense of the Liberty & Independence of my Country,'" ran a newspaper announcement, typically voicing the popular heart.[808]

To Marshall's brother James, who had offered his services as an aide-de-camp, Was.h.i.+ngton wrote that the French "(although _I_ conceive them capable of _anything_ that is unjust or dishonorable)" will not "attempt a serious invasion of this country" when they learn of "the preparation which [we] are making to receive them." They have "made calculations on false ground" in supposing that Americans would not "support Independence and the Government of their country _at every hazard_." Nevertheless, "the highest possible obligation rests upon the country to be prepared for the event as the most effective means to avert the evil."[809] Military preparations were active and conspicuous: On July 4, New York City "resembles a camp rather than a commercial port," testifies Troup.[810]

The people for the moment believed, with Marshall and Was.h.i.+ngton, that we were on the brink of war; had they known what Jefferson knew, their apprehension would have been still keener. Reporting from Paris, the French partisan Skipwith tells Jefferson that, from motives of "commercial advantage and aggrandis.e.m.e.nt" as well as of "vengeance,"

France will probably fall upon America. "Yes sir, the moment is come that I see the fortunes, nay, independence, of my country at hazard, and in the hands of the most gigantic nation on earth.... Already, the language of planting new colonies upon the ... Mississippi is the language of Frenchmen here."[811] Skipwith blames this predicament upon Adams's character, speech, and action and upon Marshall's and Pinckney's conduct in Paris;[812] and advises Jefferson that "war may be prevented, and our country saved" by "modifying or breaking" the Jay Treaty and lending money to France.[813]

Jefferson was frantic with disappointment and anger. Not only did he see the Republican Party, which he had built up with such patience and skill, going to pieces before his very eyes; but the prospect of his election to the Presidency as the successor of Adams, which until then appeared to be inviting, now jeopardized if not made hopeless. With his almost uncanny understanding of men, Jefferson laid all this to Marshall; and, from the moment of his fellow Virginian's arrival from France, this captain of the popular cause began that open and malignant warfare upon Marshall which ended only with Jefferson's last breath.

At once he set out to repair the havoc which Marshall's work had wrought in his party. This task was made the harder because of the very tactics which Jefferson had employed to increase the Republican strength. For, until now, he had utilized so thoroughly the deep and widespread French sentiment in America as his immediate party weapon, and made so emphatic the French issue as a policy of party tactics, that, in comparison, all other issues, except the central one of States' Rights, were secondary in the public mind at this particular time.

The French propaganda had gone farther than Jefferson, perhaps, intended it to go. "They [the French] have been led to believe by their agents and Partisans amongst _us_," testifies Was.h.i.+ngton, "that we are a divided people, that the latter are opposed to their own Government."[814] At any rate, it is certain that a direct connection, between members of what the French politicians felt themselves justified in calling "the French party" in America and the manipulators of French public opinion, existed and was made use of. This is shown by the effect in France of Jefferson's famous letter to Mazzei of April 24, 1796.[815]

It is proved by the amazing fact that Talleyrand's answer to the memorial of the envoys was published in the Jeffersonian organ, the "Aurora," before Adams had transmitted that doc.u.ment to Congress, if not indeed before the President himself had received from our envoys Talleyrand's reply to Marshall's statement of the American case.[816]

Jefferson took the only step possible to a party leader. He sought to minimize the effect of the disclosures revealed in Marshall's dispatches. Writing to Peter Carr, April 12, 1798, Jefferson said: "You will perceive that they [the envoys] have been a.s.sailed by swindlers, whether with or without the partic.i.p.ation of Talleyrand is not very apparent.... That the Directory knew anything of it is neither proved nor probable."[817] On June 8, 1798, Jefferson wrote to Archibald Stuart: "It seems fairly presumable that the douceur of 50,000 Guineas mentioned in the former dispatches was merely from X. and Y. as not a word is ever said by Talleyrand to our envoys nor by them to him on the subject."[818] Thus Jefferson's political desperation caused him to deny facts which were of record, for the dispatches show, not only that Talleyrand had full knowledge of the disgraceful transaction, but also that he originated and directed it.

The efforts of the Republicans to sneer away the envoys' disclosures awakened Was.h.i.+ngton's bitter sarcasm. The Republicans were "thunder-stricken ... on the publication of the dispatches from our envoys," writes he, "but the contents of these dispatches are now resolved by them into harmless chitchat--mere trifles--less than was or ought to have been expected from the misconduct of the Administration of this country, and that it is better to submit to such chastis.e.m.e.nt than to hazard greater evils by shewing futile resentment."[819]

Jefferson made no headway, however, in his attempts to discredit the X.

Y. Z. revelations. Had the Federalists stopped with establis.h.i.+ng the Navy Department and providing for an army, with Was.h.i.+ngton at its head; had they been content to build s.h.i.+ps and to take other proper measures for the National defense, Adams's Administration would have been saved, the Federalist Party kept alive for at least four years more, the Republican Party delayed in its recovery and Jefferson's election to the Presidency made impossible. Here again Fate worked, through the blindness of those whose day had pa.s.sed, the doom of Federalism. The Federalists enacted the Alien and Sedition Laws and thus hastened their own downfall.

Even after this legislation had given him a new, real, and irresistible "issue," Jefferson still a.s.sailed the conduct of Marshall and Pinckney; he was resolved that not a single Republican vote should be lost. Months later he reviews the effect of the X. Y. Z. disclosures. When the envoys were appointed, he a.s.serts, many "suspected ... from what was understood of their [Marshall's and Pinckney's] dispositions," that the mission would not only fail, but "widen the breach and provoke our citizens to consent to a war with" France "& union with England." While the envoys were in Paris the Administration's hostile att.i.tude toward France alarmed the people; "meetings were held ... in opposition to war"; and the "example was spreading like a wildfire."

Then "most critically for the government [Administration]," says Jefferson, "the dispatches ... prepared by ... Marshall, with a view to their being made public, dropped into their laps. It was truly a G.o.d-send to them & they made the most of it. Many thousands of copies were printed & dispersed gratis, at the public expense; & the zealots for war co-operated so heartily, that there were instances of single individuals who printed & dispersed 10. or 12,000 copies at their own expense. The odiousness of the corruption supposed in those papers excited a general & high indignation among the people."

Thus, declares Jefferson, the people, "unexperienced in such maneuvers,"

did not see that the whole affair was the work of "private swindlers"

unauthorized by "the French government of whose partic.i.p.ation there was neither proof nor probability." So "the people ... gave a loose [tongue]

to" their anger and declared "their honest preference of war to dishonor. The fever was long & successfully kept up and ... war measures as ardently crowded."[820]

Jefferson's deep political sagacity did not underestimate the revolution in the thought and feelings of the ma.s.ses produced by the outcome of the French mission; and he understood, to a nicety, the gigantic task which must be performed to rea.s.semble and solidify the shattered Republican ranks. For public sentiment was, for the time being, decidedly warlike.

"We will pay tribute to no nation; ... We shall water our soil with our blood ... before we yield,"[821] was Troup's accurate if bombastic statement of the popular feeling.

When the first s.h.i.+p with American newspapers containing the X. Y. Z.

dispatches reached London, they were at once "circulated throughout Europe,"[822] and "produced everywhere much sensation favorable to the United States and hostile to France."[823] The intimates of Talleyrand and the Directory were "disappointed and chagrined.... Nothing can exceed the rage of the apostate Americans, who have so long misrepresented and disgraced their country at Paris."[824] From the first these self-expatriated Americans had flattered Gerry and sent swarms of letters to America about the good intentions of the Directory.[825]

American diplomatic representatives abroad were concerned over Gerry's whimsical character and conduct. "Gerry is yet in Paris!...

I ... fear ... that man's more than infantine weakness. Of it you cannot have an idea, unless you had seen him here [The Hague] and at Paris. Erase all the two lines above; it is true, but it is cruel. If they get hold of him they will convert him into an innocent baby-engine against the government."[826]

And now Gerry, with whom Talleyrand had been amusing himself and whose conceit had been fed by American partisans of France in Paris, found himself in sorry case. Talleyrand, with cynical audacity, in which one finds much grim humor, peremptorily demands that Gerry tell him the names of the mysterious "X., Y., and Z." With comic self-abas.e.m.e.nt, the New Englander actually writes Talleyrand the names of the latter's own agents whom Gerry had met in Talleyrand's presence and who the French Minister personally had informed Gerry were dependable men.

The Federalists made the most of Gerry's remaining in Paris. Marshall told them that Gerry had "suffered himself to be wheedled in Paris."[827] "I ... rejoice that I voted against his appointment,"[828]

declared Sedgwick. Cabot denounced Gerry's "course" as "the most dangerous that cou'd have been taken."[829] Higginson a.s.serted that "those of us who knew him [Gerry] regretted his appointment and expected mischief from it; but he has conducted himself worse than we had antic.i.p.ated."[830] The American Minister to Great Britain, bitterly humiliated, wrote to Hamilton that Gerry's "answer to Talleyrand's demands of the names of X, Y, and Z, place him in a more degraded light than I ever believed it possible that he or any other American citizen could be exhibited."[831] And Thomas Pinckney feared "that to want of [Gerry's] judgment ... may be added qualities of a more criminal nature."[832]

Such sentiments, testifies Pickering, were common to all "the public men whom I had heard speak of Mr. G."; Pinckney, Gerry's colleague, tells his brother that he "never met with a man _so dest.i.tute of candour and so full of deceit as Mr. Gerry_," and that this opinion was shared by Marshall.[833] Troup wrote: "We have seen and read with the greatest contempt the correspondence between Talleyrand and Mr. Gerry relative to Messrs. X. Y. and Z.... I can say nothing honorable to [of] him [Gerry].

De mortuis nil nisi bonum is a maxim as applicable to him as if he was in his grave."[834] Was.h.i.+ngton gave his opinion with unwonted mildness: "Nothing can excuse his [Gerry's] _secret_ negotiations.... I fear ...

that _vanity_ which may have led him into the mistake--& consciousness of being _duped_ by the _Diplomatic skill_ of our good and magnanimous Allies are too powerful for a weak mind to overcome."[835]