Adams himself presided, opened and read the certificates, and declared himself elected, when the rejection of four votes which had been called in question would have defeated him and elected his opponent. The legislature of Vermont had appointed electors, but had not previously passed a law directing how they should be appointed. It was contended, privately, by some persons, that the appointment was invalid. But the question was not raised in Congress, or at the joint meeting for the count of the Mr. Adams's opponents did not feel sure of their ground, and probably did not know how to proceed to make their objections effective. Mr. Madison wrote to Jefferson, Jan. 8, 1797, "If the Vermont votes be valid, as is now generally supposed, Mr. Adams will have

votes.

seventy-one and you sixty-eight, Pinckney being in the rear of both.”

Mr. Adams could certainly not raise the question himself, but he seems to have given an opportunity for objections if anyone should see fit to raise them. The record shows this. When the tellers had reported the result, Mr. Adams thus addressed the assembled senators and representatives:

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives,- By the report which has been made to me by the tellers appointed by the two Houses to examine the votes, there are 71 votes for John Adams, 68 for Thomas Jefferson [and so on to the end of the list]. The whole number of votes are 138; 70 therefore make a majority; so that the person who has 71 votes, which is the highest number, is elected President, and the person who has 68 votes, which is the next highest number, is elected Vice-President.

At this point Mr. Adams sat down for a moment. No person having interposed any remarks, he arose again and said:

In obedience to the Constitution and laws of the United States, and to the commands of both Houses of Congress, expressed in their resolution passed in the present session, I declare that John Adams is elected President of the United States for four years, to commence with the fourth day of March next; and that Thomas Jefferson is elected Vice-President of the United States for four years, to commence on the fourth day of March next.

And may the Sovereign of the Universe, the Ordainer of civil government on earth, for the preservation of liberty, justice, and peace among men, enable both to discharge the duties of these offices conformably to the Constitution of the United States, with conscientious diligence, punctuality, and perseverance.

V.

JEFFERSON AND BURR.

ALTHOUGH the administration of Mr. Adams began with a bare majority in his favor, alike among the people and in Congress, it became increasingly popular during the greater part of his term of office; and it was only as the clection of the year 1800 drew near that his choice for a second term became even improbable.

The one overshadowing question during the whole administration was the relations with France. Notwithstanding the long-standing friendship between the two countries, the treatment of the American embassy appointed in 1797, consisting of Messrs. Elbridge Gerry, John Marshall, and C. C. Pinckney, and the insolent depredations of France upon our commerce, turned public sentiment strongly against that country. Congress approved military and naval preparations for war with France by strong majorities, and the people were heartily in favor of the administration, though the minority which protested was fierce and vehement. During the long session of 1797-98, which lasted more than eight months, the Alien and Sedition laws were passed. These two laws concentrated the opposition, and made the rallying cry for the Republican party at the ensuing elections. They are referred to in numerous Democratic platforms to be found in other pages of this volume, where hostility to foreigners is deprecated, and a promise is made to defeat any attempt to abridge the rights of naturalized citizens "with the same spirit which swept the Alien and

Sedition Laws from our statute-book," which embodies a historical blunder; for as a matter of fact the Sedition Law was temporary and expired by its own limitation, as did also the greater part of the Alien Law: the rest of the latter act is still the law of the land. No act of repeal of either was ever passed. Opposition to these two acts, however, was very bitter in 1798 and the following years. But in spite of it the elections for new members of Congress, which took place in the autumn of 1798 and the following spring, were very favorable to the administration.

The measures of Congress having consolidated the opposition, Mr. Adams's own act alienated a large body of his friends. In spite of the insults to which the former embassy to France had been subjected, and in the face of his own assertion that he would make no more attempts at negotiation, he determined, in 1799, to send other agents to France and renew the efforts to make a treaty. He reached this determination without consulting his cabinet, and deeply offended Mr. Pickering, the Secretary of State, and Mr. McHenry, the Secretary of War, who were strongly opposed to the step. The Federalists were still disposed to support him in the election which was to take place the next year, but they had lost their enthusiasm for him.

As most of the electors were to be appointed by the legislatures, the contest for the Presidency virtually began with the election of the members of those bodies, and the contest was really decided when the legislature of New York, chosen in May, 1800, was found to have a Repub lican majority. New York had voted for Mr. Adams in 1796. Had it continued to support him in 1800 he would have had six more electoral votes than he received in 1796, and sixteen more than were given to Jefferson and Burr.

Mr. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, a brother of Thomas Pinckney, who had been the candidate most voted for with Mr. Adams in 1796, was associated with Adams on the Federal ticket. Aaron Burr was second on the Jefferson ticket. The manner in which these tickets were formed is involved in much obscurity. Mr. Hezekiah Niles, whose "Weekly Register" is a treasury of facts for students of our early political history, tried to clear it up, but acknowledged his failure. Very early in the year 1800 a meeting of a few Federalist members of Congress, for the purpose, as was said at the time, of influencing the Presidential election, was held in the Senate Chamber. No account of its proceedings, so far as is known, was ever printed, but it was probably called for the purpose of strengthening Mr. Adams's cause; for Mr. Niles says in another place ("Register," vol. 24, p. 277) that "it was well understood that many of the Federalists were opposed to the taking up of Mr. Adams for the Presidency, that they had nearly fixed on another person;" and it may be also for naming a candidate for Vice-President. But it is all a matter of conjecture and uncertainty. Whatever may have been its object, it excited the wrath of the Republicans, and was denounced in the Philadelphia "Aurora" as a "Jacobinical conclave," for which and other insulting remarks the editor of the paper was arraigned before the bar of the Senate.

The Republican members, however, held a caucus somewhat later, probably in February or March, 1800; also a secret meeting, and attended by a small number of members, not so much for the purpose of nominating Mr. Jefferson, who was designated by the unanimous voice of his party as the natural candidate, as with the idea of causing a union upon Burr, as well as upon Jefferson,