CHAPTER XXXI.

PERIOD OF RETROSPECTION AT MONTPELLIER-ÉLITE AT RICHMOND-NULLIFICATION AND THE RESOLUTIONS OF 1798 AND 1799.

NON

ONE of the early Presidents were admirers of General Jackson, however much they may have esteemed his patriotism and soldierly qualities. For any of these men to have been particularly fond of Jackson would have been utterly out of the question. They were all men of a different and finer grade of civilization, and had no traits and not many principles in common with him. None of them exhibited an unfavorable disposition towards him, but Mr. Jefferson, perhaps, who was not curbed always by the proprieties, and who very freely made known his sentiments as to the utter unfitness of Jackson for the Presidency.

The question of the comparative authority of State and General Governments in the complex republican system of this country had for years lain in a considerable degree of quietness, the Nation gathering strength on its side in the mean time, even in the hands of the Republicans (Democrats), who, notwithstanding their pretensions, were never averse, except on very general principles, to the exercise of all the authority possible in the Administration.

The Missouri Compromise excitement and an occasional collision in the judiciary, now generally and, to

a great extent, extravagantly, led to discussions of matters of "State Rights," national supremacy, and questions pointing to these great sources of partisan strife.

66

Ten or twelve years later the question of supremacy was revived with great intensity in the nullification spasm which was crushed by General Jackson's proclamation, to some extent, perhaps, but more by another compromise; and so, went on this erroneous phantasy of State Rights," in one degree of intensity after another, until the final overthrow of the institution which made the existence of this dogma a matter of party contention. In the discussions on the main historic bearing of this whole question Mr. Madison became deeply involved. Indeed this became the work of his declining years, when he should have had quiet, and been at peace with the world. His own opinions and deeds were at stake, and the poor old man was forced to use his stiffened, trembling, and gouty hands in writing, writing, writing, to sustain his reputation, still more dear to him as the end approached.

The nullifiers based their theory and conduct on the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 and 1799, and all the extreme and evil political tendencies of the time, with which he never could have had any sympathy, it was held, derived their strength, to no inconsiderable degree, at the risk of his present peace of mind and posthumous fame. His defense was one of the most difficult performances of his life. And however well he may have succeeded in this task, it can not be forgotten that in this retrospective period Mr. Madison's reflections on what he believed and what he did in the two active public stages of his

career, were such as he now believed they should have been. His recollections of the past took the color which he now desired the past to have in its bearing upon his own character, as well as in his patriotic desires for the perpetual peace and happiness of his country.

To explain away words and deeds Mr. Madison now found to be a troublesome feat. Some things which he helped to do may always carry in them seeds of evil, however far from him may have been every trace of a purpose to that end, and however clear, comprehensive, and satisfactory his explanations. Mr. Madison was one of those who gladly accepted the term "federal" in application to the Constitution, to the party to which he then belonged, and which was composed originally of the only friends of the Constitution, and then to the Government which it authorized. The government to be established was a national government, giving rise to a nation, a people, a republic. This both its friends and its enemies knew; and this was well known to be the great ground of the strong, bitter, determined resistance of its opponents. It was to take the place of the confederation held together by a rope of sand," as all other confederacies had been before it. This national system was to take the place of a powerless and worthless "federal" system, and the supporters of that old worthless system, or of some amended modification of it, or of some equally useless and fruitless system, were the real "federalists." That, too, was well known at the beginning of the contest for the new government, and through the Administrations of those who gave it birth. While the term "federal" was shrewdly taken to soothe

the inflamed imagination, and screen the weak sight of its adversaries, and while it served what seemed to be a valuable and virtuous purpose for the time, it had in it an element of evil for all time. The enemies of the Constitution desired it to be "federal," and the name it bore in all after disputes gave them a constant pretext for giving it a "federal" construction. In this they were aided at every step by the politic arguments used in its early defense by its advocates. In the "Federalist," which would have been rightly named the "Nationalist," Mr. Madison made great efforts himself to prove to the frightened Anti-Federalists (real "federalists") that the Constitution had as many "federal" as national features about it, and hence that the new government to be formed would be so equally mixed of the things they liked and the things they did not like, that their objections would, to a great extent, be neutralized, and the States, which they wanted to be sovereign, would lose as little as the Nation, which they did not want at all, would gain. So it was held that one party would have no more to boast of than the other, and all alike would receive the benefits. Still all these "federal" features were but qualities or accidents of the beautiful national system, which it was well known by all its advocates, was to establish a Union (a one) which was to be perpetual, a Government whose supremacy should be undisputed and eternal; and that the privileges, rights, freedom, and functions conferred upon and recognized as inherent with and beneficial to the people as individuals, to the towns, counties, and States, should not in the least bear upon or militate with the National Government, the sovereign over all. The assumption of the name "fed

eralist" by the friends of the Constitution and the National Government at the outset was a politic trick, and not a truth well-founded. The application of the word "federal" to the Constitution and the Government was a well-meant and well-known falsity which has ever been perpetuated, but not without great difficulties, at times, to its originators and their political descendants. Still the great contests were long ago fought over the question of State powers, never embraced in the grand complex national system; and long ago it ceased to be a matter of importance in itself, whether the term Federal Government or National Government were used. They both meant the same, as they did in the mouths of their original supporters, and as they were well understood to mean by their primitive haters and opponents. At this day there can be no dispute about these things. The man who speaks of State Sovereignty to-day in comparison with the Government, the National Government, or of nullification as applied in the same way, lays himself liable to the charge of insanity, or to be treated as unworthy of notice, a harping, schismatic, insincere demagogue.

Mr. Madison was never statesman enough to be certain of all the bearings of the questions of sovereignty, of rights, of exertion of powers, and of some common features of public polity. Some of his own, and more especially of Mr. Jefferson's vagaries, which he was able to quiet or put down in his active life, troubled him in the last third, the retrospective period.

In 1821, Mr. Madison wrote to Judge Roane as follows:

"The Gordian knot of the Constitution seems to lie in the problem of collision between the Federal and State powers, espe