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Pennsylvania, Burr privately embarked for Georgia, CHAPTER "merely," so he wrote to his daughter, who was married to a South Carolina planter, "to give a little time for 1804. passions to subside, not from any apprehensions of the final effects of proceedings in courts of law." But the impression made upon the public mind by this fatal duel did not subside so easily; the absurdity of the sacrifice of a life like Hamilton's to the "honor" of a profligate like Burr was too gross; and a strong impulse was thus given to that growing sentiment of civilized common sense which has nearly extirpated the practice of duelling throughout the free states of America.

The blockade of Tripoli was kept up during the earlier part of the summer by the smaller vessels of the squadron, and one or two captures were made. Later in the season, having borrowed two bomb-ketches and several gun-boats of the Neapolitan government, Preble attacked the harbor of Tripoli, which was well defended Aug. 3 by heavy batteries, and by gun-boats and small armed vessels. After some very desperate fighting, hand to hand, in which Decatur figured conspicuously, two of the Tripolitan gun-boats were sunk, and three others taken. The attack was renewed a few days after, but Aug. 9 on the arrival of the John Adams, fitted out as a storeship, with news that a squadron from America might be immediately expected, it was suspended to wait for these fresh ships. Meanwhile a negotiation was entered into with the Bashaw; but as he still demanded $500 per head for his captives, no arrangement could be made. As the expected squadron failed to appear, two more at- Aug. 28 tacks were made by Preble, the Constitution ranging Sept. 5 alongside the batteries, and bombarding them and the town with good effect. The Intrepid was also fitted as

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CHAPTER a fire-ship and sent into the harbor, in the hopes of blow. ing up some of the enemy's ships; but this proved a fail. 1804. ure, the explosion taking place prematurely, and result.

ing in the loss of Lieutenant Somers and the crew who had volunteered on this desperate service. Shortly after, Sept. 10. the new squadron arrived, under the command of Commodore Barron, by whom Preble was superseded. Barron was now in command of five frigates and five small. er vessels, besides several armed prizes, two thirds the effective force of the American navy; but new alarms of hostilities on the part of Morocco made it necessary for a part of the fleet to cruise near Gibraltar; and at Tripoli nothing was done during the autumn and winter beyond keeping up the blockade.

In the choice of electors of president and vice-presi dent, the Democrats-for by that name the Republican party, at least throughout the Northern States, began now very generally to be called-succeeded even beyond April 16. their hopes. A letter of Jefferson's to Granger intimates that early in that year, some scheme was contemplated for a coalition between the Federalists and Republicans of the seven Eastern States (such as took place twenty years later), to shake off the Virginia ascendancy, of which bitter complaints began to be uttered by some of the Democrats; a feeling extending also to Kentucky, as appeared from Matthew Lyon's publication in the Kentucky Palladium. This ascendancy was the burden of many able articles in the Boston Repertory, the chief organ of the Essex Junto; and the Massachusetts Legislature had recently shown their sense of the matter by proposing for the consideration of the sister states an amendment of the Federal Constitution-the same sugrested in the House by a Massachusetts member in the

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debate on the amendment respecting electors of presi- CHAPTER dent-to deprive slave property of any representation on the floor of Congress.

This projected coalition, of which Burr's attempt to be chosen governor of New York was no doubt a part, had no result. The idea of it was probably based, in part, on the expected failure of the proposed amendment in relation to the election of president and vice-president; and it was therefore rendered doubly hopeless, as well by the defeat and total prostration of Burr, as by the adoption of that amendment by precisely the constitutional number of states-Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Delaware in the negative. Among other objections urged in these states was this: that the amendment ought to have been recommended by two thirds of all the members of both houses, whereas the recommendation came in fact from a bare two-thirds of those present and voting.

The hold of the Federalists even on New England secmed about to part. The Republican party in Massachusetts had strenuously insisted on a choice of presidential electors by the people and by districts. The Federalists, who had a small majority in the Legislature, consented to give the choice to the people, but they insisted on a general ticket, hoping thus to secure the whole. To their infinite mortification, and greatly to the surprise even of the Republicans themselves, the Jeffersonian electorial ticket triumphed by a small majority. The same thing happened in New Hampshire, where the Republicans at the spring election had carried both branches of the Legislature, though Gilman, the Federal governor, had been re-elected by a majority of forty-four votes out of twenty-four thousand.

Connecticut still stood firm; but the Republican mi

1804.

CHAPTER nority, upheld by the patronage of the general government, XVII. had greatly increased in numbers, and was exceedingly 1804. busy; so much so as to excite no little alarm among the

friends of "steady habits." At the head of the Repub licans in that state was Pierrepont Edwards, lately ap pointed district judge, a son of the celebrated theologian, and maternal uncle of Burr, whom he resembled as well in accomplishments and address as in profligacy of private character, at least in whatever related to women. The favorite project of the Connecticut Republicans was a Convention to frame a Constitution. The old charter of Charles II., in accordance with which the government continued to be carried on, was, according to them, no Constitution at all. Candor, at the same time, would have demanded the admission, that in no other state except Vermont, which had copied largely from Connecticut, and Rhode Island, of which the government rested on a similar royal charter, was the appeal to the popular vote so often and so generally made. A convention of Republican delegates at New Haven, called together by May. 29. Edwards, had put forth an address to the people, which

intimated that the existing government was a mere usurpation, and in which the necessity of framing a Constitu tion was warmly urged. The General Court of Con necticut took fire at this attack on their authority, and removed from office five of the signers, who, as justices of the peace, held their places at the pleasure of the As sembly-an act denounced by the Democratic papers throughout the country as a great piece of intolerance characteristic of Federalism and Connecticut. Yet why more intolerant than the removal of Federalists from office, so thoroughly carried out in all the Democratic states, does not very distinctly appear.

The Federalists had also regained their ascendency

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in Delaware, where Nathaniel Mitchell had been chosen CHAPTER governor. Besides the Federal electors in this state and Connecticut, two more were chosen in Maryland, where 1804. the district system was still maintained. Such was the whole of the lean minority, fourteen in all, which the Federalists were able to muster.

Conformity to Jefferson's own principles, and to his opinions repeatedly expressed, would have required him to retire at the close of his first term; and, as things turned out, far better would it have been for his reputation to have done so. But he found a ready excuse for a second term in the "unbounded calumnies of the Federal party," which obliged him "to throw himself on the verdict of his country for trial." That verdict, as declared by the result of the election, was enough to flatter any man's vanity.

The peaceful acquisition of Louisiana; the curtailments in the public expenses; the prosperous state of the finances leaving every year an increasing surplus; the vast extension, since the renewal of hostilities between France and England, of American trade, as yet but little disturbed by the belligerents, seemed palpably to give the lie to the gloomy predictions of the Federalists that the new administration and the Democratic party were not competent to carry on the government with credit and success. The country had reached a pitch of pecuniary prosperity never known before. The number of banks, which in 1802 was thirty-three, or thirtynine, including the six branches of the United States Bank, with capitals amounting to twenty-four millions, had since considerably increased. The Bank of Philadelphia, the third state bank in that city, had lately been chartered, with a capital of two millions, paying the state $135,000 in cash as a bonus for the charter, besides