XV. 1800. CHAPTER most virulent and indecent abuse, not only stigmatizing him as the leader of a British faction, but assailing even his private character, and holding him up as a man destitute of every moral principle; charges afterward repeated in that famous Cunningham correspondence of Adams's, from which we have already made several ⚫ quotations and which continue to be cited as testimony by writers who would have us believe that in his relations with women Hamilton was as profligate as Mifflin, Burr, or Edwards; a slander mainly founded on the case of Mrs. Reynolds, and upon which, in the absence of other matter of attack, Adams's austere Puritanism. seized with an eagerness quite rabid. It was the great object of Hamilton's pamphlet to show, without denying Adams's patriotism and integrity, and even talents of a certain kind, that he was not adapted to the administration of government, there being in his character great and intrinsic defects which unfitted him for the office of chief magistrate. The chief of these defects were stated to be "an imagination sublimated and eccentric, propitious neither to the regular display of sound judgment, nor to steady perseverance in a systematic plan of conduct;" "a vanity without bounds;" "a jealousy capable of discoloring every object;""disgusting egotism and ungovernable indiscretion." This was, to be sure, a somewhat strong presentation of the dark side of Adams's character, yet, in the main, it was correct for his was a character not to be faithfully portrayed, whether as to its lights or its shadows, except in pretty strong colors. In proof of its correctness, Hamilton added a sketch of Adams's political career, especially of his late official acts, interspersed with a number of authentic anecdotes, which showed, indeed, how little control Adams often had over XV. his tongue and his pen, and how, in moments of excite- CHAPTER ment, he gave vehement and unguarded expression to his feelings. But all this was very far from proving- 1800. what was charged, not in this letter only, but in the private correspondence as well of Jefferson as of Wolcottthat Adams acted without any settled plan, without any fixed system or theory, and much more under the guidance of caprice and passion than of judgment. Passiontossed, and sometimes transformed, undoubtedly he was, as all persons of his hot temperament and vivacious imagination always must be. His, indeed, was a character hardly comprehensible by the serene and magnanimous Hamilton, the steady, sagacious Wolcott, or the crafty, secretive, dissembling Jefferson. Yet Adams's excitable temperament was qualified, and as to all his most important public actions, overmastered and controlled, by a vigorous judgment, penetrating and prompt, of which, in the great events of his life, "his sublimated and eccentric imagination" was, as results proved, not so much the master, as the useful and ready servant. As to himself a subject on which he dwelt but briefly-Hamilton might well declare, as he formerly had done in answer to Jefferson's assaults, that "in the cardinal points of public and private rectitude-above all, in pure and disinterested zeal for the interest and service of the country," he "shrank not from a comparison with any arrogant pretender to superior and exclusive merit." In reply to the charge of being the leader of a British faction, he denied having ever advised any connection with Great Britain other than a commercial one, or the giving to her any commercial privilege not granted to other nations; nor had he ever been able to make up his mind as to the expediency of even a temporary alli. ance in case of a rupture with France. CHAPTER Although, as between themselves personally, Hamilton had ground enough for his pamphlet; though the tone 1800. of it, all things considered, was exceedingly candid; and though his placing his name to it was in honorable contrast to Adams's silent evasion of charges which, however he might reiterate them, he did not venture to avouch under his own hand; yet the expediency of the publi cation at this particular crisis was somewhat more than doubtful. Such, indeed, was the position of affairs, that Hamilton was obliged to stultify himself, as it were, by declaring, in conclusion, that he did not recommend the withholding from Adams of a single vote! He expressed his intention so to regulate the circulation of the pamphlet that it might not operate in that way to Adams's disadvantage, and his wish, also, to confine it within narrow limits. But, whatever might have been his intentions or wishes-and the expectation of making a secret of such a printed pamphlet was chimerical at the best-they were defeated at the outset by the watchful and artful Burr, who obtained one of the earliest copies, and sent off extracts, as already mentioned, to the Aurora and Holt's New London Bee. This made the appearance of an authentic edition necessary; and it issued from the press cotemporaneously with the publication of Adams's letter to Pinckney. It is now time to take a look at the embassy to France, the immediate cause of these bitter and ominous dissensions among the Federal leaders. As, at the moment of Ellsworth's and Davie's embarkation, the French government was evidently on the eve of one of its periodi cal revolutions, it had been thought best that the frigate in which they sailed should touch at Lisbon for informa tion On arriving at that port they heard of the Revo XV. lution of Brumaire (November 8, 1799), which some CHAPTER three weeks before had placed Bonaparte at the head of the state. The frigate then made sail for L'Orient, but, 1800. after being tossed for a fortnight in the stormy Bay of Biscay, was obliged to put into Corunna. Thence the commissioners wrote to Talleyrand, who still remained, Jan. 11. under the new administration, at the head of foreign affairs, asking passports for themselves, and that one might also be sent to Murray at the Hague; and inquiring if the circumstance that their letters of credence were addressed to the Directory, now passed away, would make any difference in the matter of their reception. Talleyrand replied that the ministers were waited for with impatience, and would be received with warmth. Thus encouraged, they proceeded to Paris, where they found their colleague Murray, who had arrived three March 2 days before them. A few days after, they were formally received by the first consul; and three plenipotentiaries, Joseph Bonaparte at the head, were appointed to treat with them. But a serious obstacle soon appeared which threatened to defeat the negotiation. The American commissioners were peremptorily instructed to insist on the renunciation of the old treaties, which had been declared void by Congress, and also upon indemnity for spoliations on American commerce. The French commissioners were unwilling to relinquish the old treaties, especially the provisions relating to the admission of French privateers and prizes into American ports, the more so as this priv ilege, lost to the French, would, under Jay's treaty, be exclusively vested in the English so long as the present war continued. They were still more unwilling to pay any indemnities, for which they insisted there could be no claim except upon the assumption that the treaties XV. CHAPTER Continued in force. After a good deal of delay for ad ditional instructions, caused by Bonaparte's absence from 1800. Paris, they finally offered this alternative: the old treaAug. 11. ties, with stipulations for mutual indemnities, or a new treaty on equal terms, but without indemnities. After a good deal of correspondence, the American envoys suggested a renewal of the old treaties, but with a reservation to the United States of a right to buy off their ob ligations by the payment of certain fixed sums; but the French commissioners were not inclined to adopt this suggestion, which would still have thrown the balance of payments against France. They frankly acknowledged that, as France had no money, it was a great object with her to avoid the payment of indemnities at all; and they were, no doubt, the more encouraged to insist upon this, as the instructions of the former envoys, laid before Congress and published, had allowed of such a settlement. As the instructions of the present envoys, more stringent than those of the former mission, did not allow them to accept either of the French offers, the alternative was either to abandon the negotiation, or to make a temporary arrangement, subject to rejection or approval by the American government, such as might relieve the United States from that position of semi-hostility in which they stood toward France-a position rendered every day more dangerous by the successes of Bonaparte and the growing prospect of a general European peace -an arrangement which, should the war continue, might secure American commerce, as far as possible, against those abuses of belligerent rights, on the part of the French, under which it had suffered so much; saving also the great amount of captured American property on which the French Council of Prizes had not yet passed definitive sentence. |