T

aught he cared, of Heaven, he sought in the James River the dishonorable grave of the suicide.

But matters gradually settled down into great quiet under the new order of things. Wisely enough, Mr. Jefferson found that no serious changes in the system were called for. With him and his manners at the

helm all would be safe, and this change was about all that had been formulated as needful in his own mind. Mr. Madison became quite enthusiastic about the prospects, and on the 1st of May, 1803, wrote as follows to James Monroe, then become Minister to France:

"The elections in New York, as far as known, have issued as heretofore. In Virginia, there will certainly be two, and possibly three, members of the anti-party. In New England, the tide has

run

artificial.

strongly in that channel, but under impulses temporary and In general our prospects are bright. Excepting the case of Louisiana, there is scarcely a cloud in them. Remove that and the possibility of our being embarrassed by the war of others, and our country will be what has been so often applied to another, the admiration and envy of the world."

One of Mr. Jefferson's most distressing sources of

embarrassment was found in the matter of Presidential

and

court etiquette. The establishment of his predecessors was distasteful to him. Matters of etiquette were simply unsuited to him, and his feelings and habits were averse to public ceremonials. In fact he was

utterly

unfit to perform the demands in this direction

which the position conferred upon him. There was

one

way

to get rid of them, like that of delivering a speech to Congress at the opening of every session, and that was to do away with them. This task he upon himself, himself, and soon, with some difficulty, had things gliding on with "scarcely a cloud" in the way he believed they ought to do in a democratic Republic.

took

So decided were his needs and convictions about getting rid of the former circumstance of the Presidential office, as to give great offense to some of the resident ministers of foreign courts, and Mr. Merry, the British minister, in 1803, actually came to an open rupture with the President on this alarming subject.

Mr. Jefferson considered this conformity to European usages as one of the errors of his predecessors, which he could correct with a handsome return, perhaps, to the side of his general popularity. And this was really so. But when Mr. Madison became President he did not deem it wise and expedient to continue this one of Mr. Jefferson's characteristic reforms, and gradually a reasonable degree of the former ceremony of the office was restored, and this with little modification has continued to the present time.

Mr. Madison entered on his duties of Secretary of State, and continued in the position to the close of Mr. Jefferson's Presidency, in 1809. Most of his letters and writings during this period were confined to the affairs of his office, but were very considerable.

Robert R. Livingston, perhaps the ablest of a distinguished family, after serving as minister to France for several years, became unsatisfactory to Mr. Jefferson, and was, in 1804, superseded by General John Armstrong, but not until he had substantially compassed the purchase of Louisiana. The correspondence of the State office with Livingston and Monroe on this important negotiation does not put Mr. Madison in the best possible light. Although he assumed the forms of official respect and courtesy due to Mr. Livingston, he accused him of taking too much credit to himself in this grand event. In fact, all the honor there was in

the matter which did not properly belong to the President, Mr. Madison wanted Monroe to have, and he could not avoid showing this partiality toward the third member of the "dynasty."

The relations of this country with England, France, and Spain were precarious enough at this period, and Mr. Madison exhibited traits peculiarly adapted to their management. His instructions to the very respectable men who then represented this country abroad were of the most careful and elaborate character; and although Mr. Madison's especial place was in the legislature, perhaps, he conducted the affairs of the State Department with ability and a degree of dignity toned to the peculiar demands of the President. His calm, systematic deportment well suited him to act as a curb upon Mr. Jefferson's irregular and whimsical

temper;

and his apparent acquiescence in Mr. Jeffer

son's so-called philosophical speculations, his agricultural tastes, and even his irreligious whims, as well as his entire political agreement, rendered him better adapted to fill the important position at the President's side than any other of his contemporaries. How far

the

generally successful and prosperous Administration of his friend depended upon his own temper and conduct it would be difficult to say, perhaps. Mr. Jefferson was master. With all his stringless shoes, one-gallows pantaloons, and slipshod democratic deportment, he believed in a democracy which gave him

his

Own way, to the exclusion of all other men's ways

and however inconsistent and undemocratic this posi

tion

was, he would be master or nothing. However great a leveler Mr. Jefferson was in theory or practice all traces of this thing left him when his own wishes

and preferences were crossed. This trait in Mr. Jefferson threw the members of his Cabinet into his shadow. However able they were they could only appear to be doing what they really were doing, that is, Mr. Jefferson's work, what his versatile and industrious brain suggested. His popular Administration was eminently his own. So strict and exclusive is this fact in its application that it really leaves little room for special display of the qualities of his Cabinet.

However strong were the feelings of Mr. Madison against England, he was as averse to the idea of another war with that country as was Mr. Jefferson. He had not Mr. Jefferson's cowardice, but he was naturally qualified for peaceful times, and America was not fortunate in his subsequent management of English relations.

Mr. Madison's most considerable achievement as Secretary of State has been considered his elaborate essay on "The British Doctrine which Subjects to Capture a Neutral Trade not open in Time of Peace."

This work occupied about two hundred pages octavo, and although it was believed to present the British practice of seizing and condemning American vessels, in an unanswerable light against England, the government of that country did not care to heed Mr. Madison's arguments, and the insulting attitude and conduct towards her former "humble subjects" remained unchanged, until goaded by one means or another which his diplomacy was unable to arrest Mr. Madison considered himself forced to declare war against Great Britain.

CHAPTER XIII.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION-MR. MADISON AS PRESIDENT

INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

ALTHOUGH a considerable number of leading Republicans (Democrats) were dissatisfied with Mr. Jefferson's administration of public affairs, and there I was no little diversity of opinion as to his successor, it is, perhaps, true that the party had become so all

powerful, and his influence was so great that he could himself choose his own successor.

Long before time for the choice to be made Mr.

Jefferson

had decided, it is quite probable, between

Madison and Monroe, under the conviction that the latter could better afford to wait a little longer.

These were the only men who were at all considered by him. They completed the "Virginia Dynasty." In his own way, accordingly, he named Mr. Madison. But the party was not harmonious, by any means, and

the

case was not free from difficulties.

From

"Niles' Register," the most reliable source

of information touching these early party contests, the following account of "caucuses," and especially that of 1808, the second of these peculiar devices for deciding who should be President, is taken :

The notice in the last Register, of the several 'congressional caucuses' that had been held from that of 1808 to 1816, has caused several gentlemen, in and out of congress, to express a wish