XVI. CHAPTER of Europe submitted, so he added, to render him like ser vices. "I hope," wrote Bainbridge, in his account of this 1800. matter to the Navy Department, "I shall never agair be sent to Algiers with tribute, unless I am authorized to deliver it from the mouth of our cannon." Under the advice of O'Brien, and understanding that English, French, and Spanish ships of war had submitted to the same thing, Bainbridge at last yielded to the Dey's demands, and his ship was the first to display the American flag-though not under the most agreeable circumNov. 9. stances before the ancient city of Constantinople. The Turkish officers had never heard of the United States, but when, at length, they were made to understand that Bainbridge came from the New Western World which Columbus had discovered, he was received with great courtesy. Indeed, the sultan drew omens especially favorable to the future friendship of the two nations from the fact that the American flag was emblazoned with the stars and his with the crescent, indicative, as he imagined, of a certain similarity in their institutions. With 1801. the Capudan Pasha, the Turkish admiral, Bainbridge beJan. 21. came a great favorite, and received from him a firman, which, on his return to Algiers, protected him from any further insolences on the part of the Dey, and enabled him to render essential services to the French residents, exposed to great danger by a declaration of war by Algiers against France. The pasha was anxious that an American embassador should be sent to Constantinople, and a treaty made; but the recall of Smith, the minister to Portugal, who held also a commission to treat with the Porte, prevented any thing being done. July. Dale, on arriving at Gibraltar, found two Tripolitan cruisers lying there, on the watch for American vessels, the Bey having already declared war. These were block. XVI. aded by the Philadelphia frigate, while Bainbridge, who CHAPTER now commanded the Essex frigate, was employed in giving convoy to the American Mediterranean trade. Dale 1801. himself sailed in the President, followed by the schooner Experiment, to cruise off Tripoli. The Experiment, on her passage thither, fell in with, and, after three hours' hard fighting, captured a Tripolitan cruiser of fourteen guns. The prize had twenty killed and thirty wounded, Aug. 6. while the Experiment lost not a man. As there was yet no formal declaration of war against Tripoli, the captured vessel was dismissed with the survivors of the crew, being first completely dismantled, her masts cut away, and her guns thrown overboard. The appearance of Dale's squadron in the Mediterranean was very seasonable; for already Algiers and Tunis, as well as Tripoli, were demanding additional presents. The seventh Congress, on coming together, showed a Dec. 7. decided administration majority in both branches. The Senate stood eighteen administration members to fourteen Federalists; the House, thirty-six Federalists to sixty-nine for the administration. On the administration side in the Senate there were, of former members of note, Wilson Cary Nicholas and Baldwin; of new members, John Armstrong, of New York, the author of the Newburg letters, and brother-in-law of Chancellor Livingston, but who resigned his seat before the end of the session, and was succeeded by De Witt Clinton; Dr. Logan, of Pennsylvania; Sumter, of South Carolina ; Jackson of Georgia, an active member of the first and the third Congress, lately governor of that state, where he had been succeeded by Josiah Tatnall; and John Breckenridge, of Kentucky. On the Federal side were Chipman, of Vermont; Dwight Foster and Jonathan Mason, of Massachusetts, who had taken their seats dur CHAPTER ing the last Congress as successors to Dexter and GoodXVI. hue; Tracy and Hillhouse, of Connecticut; Foster, of 1801. Rhode Island; Gouverneur Morris, of New York; Day. ton, of New Jersey; Ross, of Pennsylvania; and Willes, of Delaware. Of the new members only three were Fed. eralists, Samuel White, of Delaware, and James Sheafe and Simeon Olcott, of New Hampshire, in place of Livermore, who had resigned, and of Langdon whose term had expired. Langdon had long been the only Republican senator for New England, but his single vote was now replaced by those of Bradley, of Vermont, and Ellery, of Rhode Island. In the House, on the administration side, there were, of former members, Varnum, of Massachusetts; Gregg, Smilie, and Leib, of Pennsylvania; Smith and Nicholson, of Maryland; Macon, of North Carolina; Giles, again re-elected after an interval of one Congress, and John Randolph, of Virginia. Among the new members on the same side were Dr. William Eustis, representing the Boston District, and Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, a better chemist than politician, from the city of New York. The Federalists had, of old members who had made themselves known, Griswold, Dana, Davenport, and John Cotton Smith, of Connecticut; Bayard, of Delaware; John Stanley, of North Carolina; and Rutledge and Thomas Lowndes, of South Carolina. Of the new members, there were few on that side, and none of them distinguished. Thacher, of Massachusetts, a member during the whole of the two preceding adminstrations, and remarkable for his zeal against slavery, had accepted a seat on the Massachusetts Supreme bench, where he found his late colleague Sewall, and was soon joined by Sedgwick. Of the leading members of former Con gresses, Hartley, of Pennsylvania, was lately dead; Peter XVI. Muhlenburg had received office as supervisor for Penn- CHAPTER sylvania; John Nicholas had removed from Virginia to Western New York, and henceforth disappears from the 1801. political arena; Harper, the late Federal leader in the House, had married a daughter of John Carroll, of Carrollton, and had removed from South Carolina to Maryland. Macon was chosen speaker by fifty-three votes to twenty-six for Bayard. Bexley, the old Republican clerk, whom the Federalists had ousted, was reinstated by a similar vote. The House met in a room, temporarily fitted up, in the basement of the south wing of the Capitol then in progress of erection. By an addition to the rules, reporters were henceforth to be entitled to seats within the bar, to be assigned to them by the speaker. The Senate now, also, for the first time, and against the vote of all the Federal members, admitted a stenographer on their floor; but years were yet to elapse before any connected reports of their debates were published. John Randolph, appointed chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, and whose fluency, promptitude of retort, and acrimonious wit, though without method or logical order, made him a formidable debater, became leader for the administration. Griswold and Bayard were leaders on the part of the Federalists. The president's message, after congratulations on the peace in Europe and the quiet on the frontiers, and a statement as to the existing hostilities with Tripoli, adverted to the reduction of expenditure already made by disbanding a part of the marine corps, by curtailing the diplomatic establishment, and by a reduction in the number of officers employed in collecting the internal reveThe the fortifications in progress, army, the navy, and the Federal offices generally, were pointed out as nue. XVI. CHAPTER fit subjects for further retrenchments, necessary in order to justify a repeal of the internal taxes. The new ju1802. diciary system was also mentioned as a subject which, of course, would attract attention. A modification was recommended in the Naturalization Law, favorable to foreigners seeking to become citizens. One of the first subjects which engaged the attention of the House was a reapportionment of representation, Jan. 14. in accordance with the new census recently completed. The old ratio of one representative to each thirty-three thousand in federal numbers was still retained. The result of the new census, and of the new apportionment founded upon it, will appear in the following table: In conformity to the suggestions of the president, the emoluments of collectors of the customs, surveyors, and naval officers, were limited, by an act still in force, to $5000, $3500, and $3000 respectively. Some other salaries were also reduced, but the late increase of pay to the cabinet officers was retained. The army reduced to the peace establishment of 1796, was to consist of three |