by a formal vote, and the Senate was admitted. When the votes had all been opened and the returns tabulated, the President of the Senate was about to read the result, when one of the tellers remarked that one return was defective, not having a governor's certificate attached, referring, of course, to Massachusetts. Nothing further was said, and the President of the Senate, Mr. Milledge, senator from Georgia, proceeded to declare the result, as shown by the table on page 95. Mr. Madison's inauguration was almost as informal as Mr. Jefferson's had been eight years before. He was conveyed in a carriage to the Capitol, escorted by two companies of militia, and went to the Representatives' Hall attended by two or three members of the cabinet. The Vice-President had already taken the oath of office, but Mr. Milledge still presided over the Senate. Mr. Madison delivered his inaugural address in the presence of a distinguished company, having Mr. Jefferson as his chief auditor; and the oath was then administered by Chief Justice Marshall. VIII AN ELECTION IN TIME OF WAR It has been remarked by more than one historian that the government of the United States was never weaker in all its departments than during the first part of Madison's administration. The times required that it should be strong. The policy in the closing months of Jefferson's term had been feeble and vacillating. The embargo not only had failed to accomplish the object for which it was laid, but it had made a large contingent of the Democratic party semi-allies of the Federalists in opposing the administration measures. The last session of the tenth Congress - December, 1808, to March 4, 1809-witnessed the passage of an act to enforce the embargo, and, just before the Congress expired, a complete change of policy in the substitution of non-intercourse for the embargo. A few only of the members knew the secret reason of this volte-face. It was designed to facilitate the negotiations about to begin with Mr. Erskine, the newly appointed British envoy. Mr. Madison made Robert Smith, of Maryland, his Secretary of State, the weakest incumbent of that office in the history of the country. The agreement made with Mr. Erskine was one which the instructions the envoy had received did not authorize him to make; and it was impatiently thrown out by Mr. Canning. From that time on, until war was declared in 1812, there was a diplomatic wrangle between the two governments. The relations of the United States with both England and France were hopelessly and equally bad. It would have puzzled much abler men than those who had the fortunes of America in charge to decide what was the wisest course, - to declare war against both the powers, to continue negotiations with a purpose to accept the best that could be obtained, or to submit to conditions against which we were too weak to struggle. Madison chose none of these courses. He was sincerely de sirous of peace, but he would not be satisfied to take what England would offer. Demanding more, he got nothing. Congress contained few strong men, almost none who supported the administration. Yet the party majority was large enough to give a subservient acquiescence in the measures proposed to Congress, even though it lacked leaders. The interminable controversy went on. Mr. Madison became weary of the war in his cabinet between Mr. Smith and Mr. Gallatin, and required the resignation of the Secretary of State. He had previously become reconciled with Mr. Monroe, and now appointed that gentleman to the State Department. Monroe entered office with the laudable purpose of bringing the long quarrel with England to a close, and with great confidence in his own power to hold the administration back from the war into which it was drifting. But a force greater than his own entered into public affairs just three weeks before his return to office, and soon swept him away. His appointment was dated. November 25, 1811. On the 4th of the same month the twelfth Congress met. It contained in the House of Representatives a group of young Republicans, or Democrats, who assumed control of affairs in a masterful fashion: John C. Calhoun, William Lowndes, and Langdon Cheves, of South Carolina, and Henry Clay, of Kentucky. Cheves, the oldest of the four, was but thirty-five. Clay, who was thirty-four, was elected Speaker by a great majority. Felix Grundy, of Tennessee, a new member and also a young man, acted with this quartet of young men. William H. Crawford, a Senator from Georgia, - afterward the victim of "King Caucus," who had been acting on somewhat independent lines, now became a stanch party man. All the efforts of this coterie of youthful leaders, of whom those just named were the most conspicuous, tended directly to war with England. They overbore the opposition of Mr. Madison, and carried Monroe along with the current. It was reported at the time on the authority of Mr. James Fisk, then a Republican member of the House from Vermont, that a committee waited upon Mr. Madison, and informed him that war was resolved upon; that, unless such a step was taken, the Federalists might possibly carry the presidential election; and that if he was not ready to adopt that policy he would be abandoned, and another candidate chosen for the pending election. It is not possible either to verify or to disprove this assertion. Mr. Quincy, of Massachusetts, repeated the statement, in a form as distinct as the rules of the House would allow, during the following year; and its truth was not questioned. On the other hand, Mr. Clay is reported to have denied the story; but the form of his denial is not given. Carl Schurz, in his Life of Clay, says that there is "no evidence" that coercion was applied to Madison; which is true, but not conclusive. It is certain that the President abandoned his settled policy at a time when nothing had been changed except the attitude of the Democratic leaders in Congress; that he recommended an embargo, which was voted; and that he followed the recommendation with a war message, to which Congress responded promptly, though not by so large a majority as he could have wished, with a declaration of war, in June, 1812. The Republican caucus for the nomination of candidates for President and Vice-President was held on the 12th of May. No opposition to the caucus manifested itself. The members who did not intend to be bound by the action which they could foresee, absented themselves. There were at least one hundred and thirty-three Republican senators and members, only eighty-three of whom attended the caucus. New York was represented by a single member, for New York had a plan of its own. New England and New York combined did not furnish as many members of the caucus as did Virginia alone. Thus composed, the caucus was harmonious and unanimous. Mr. Madison received eighty-two votes for President. VicePresident George Clinton had died in office less than a month before. In any event he would not have been nominated again. On a ballot for Vice-President the venerable John Langdon, of New Hampshire, the first President pro tempore of the Senate, received 64 votes; Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, 16 votes; and two were scattering. The caucus adopted a resolution recommending its candidates, and repeated the declaration made four years before that the members acted as private citizens. Mr. Langdon declined the nomination on the ground of his age. A second caucus was held on the 8th of June, when Mr. Gerry was nominated by 74 votes to 3 scattering. After the nomination was made, those who were present who had not attended the first caucus were allowed an opportunity to vote for a candidate for President. bers voted for Mr. Madison. He thus had the support of ninety-two members, at least, out of one hundred and thirty Ten mem three. It is an interesting fact, showing the ascendency of the Southern States in the Democratic party, that the original nomination of Mr. Langdon was attributed, by the "New Hampshire Patriot," which may have derived the information from Mr. Langdon himself, to the wish and influence of the Southern members. The Northern men preferred Mr. Gerry from the first; but the South, helped by subservient Pennsylvania, not only dictated the nomination for the first place, but overruled the New England Democrats in their choice of a candidate for the second place. The history of the canvass in opposition to Mr. Madison forms one of the most unpleasant chapters in American political history. The Democratic party in New York, for purely personal and local reasons, resolved not to train with the rest of the party. There was no question of principle involved. De Witt Clinton had become, in the strictly modern sense, the "boss" of his party in New York; and he willed to become its candidate for President. He was avowedly in favor of war when Madison was still for peace, and was quite willing to be nominated by the congressional caucus on a war platform. When Madison joined the war party Clinton shifted his ground, and based his candidacy on the impropriety of congressional caucuses and of Southern dictation. A caucus of Democratic members of the New York legislature was held at Albany on the 29th of May. Of ninety-five members of the party eightyseven were present, and the absence of four others was accounted for satisfactorily. Mr. Clinton was nominated unanimously. A committee waited upon him after the caucus and informed him of the action taken. His reply was diplomatic in the extreme. He "sensibly felt and duly appreciated so distinguished a proof of their confidence." The canvass in behalf of Clinton was taken in charge by Martin Van Buren, then a young man of thirty, who thus made his entrance into national politics as the manager of a conspiracy to defeat the candidate of the party which afterward elevated him to the highest place in the nation. It is not easy to reconcile Clinton's action with the most ordinary political prudence. His public life, even his course during that canvass, forbids us to attribute his conduct to any higher motive than personal ambition. Yet he refused overtures which were undoubtedly made to him to withdraw, with a promise of the succession on the retirement of Madison. |