noticeable for one incident only. The Vice-President said, addressing the two Houses assembled in joint meeting: "You will now proceed, gentlemen, to count the votes, as the Constitution and laws direct." This was different from the pracce of Mr. Adams, who himself counted the votes. There were some irregularities in the certificates of the electors, and attention was called to them; but no objection was made to any votes, and the result was declared in accordance with the above list. VII JAMES MADISON THE years of Jefferson's second administration were years of increasing trouble. At the end of it the Republican party escaped as by a miracle the fate which had overtaken the Federalists eight years before. During the whole term the President was nominally supported by an immense majority in Congress. The Senate in the ninth Congress numbered twentyseven Republicans and seven Federalists; the House of Representatives, one hundred and nineteen Republicans and twentyfive Federalists. The division was nearly the same in the tenth Congress. Nevertheless, both in Congress and in the community at large the opposition to administration measures was large and powerful. In each of the three largest States of the Union the Republican party was rent by feuds. In New York, the Livingstons and Clintons having unitedly put down the Burr faction fell into a quarrel that lasted many years, and affected profoundly the politics of that State. In Pennsylvania the followers of Governor McKean, assisted by the Federalists, defeated the "regular" nomination of Snyder, who represented the more radical element, that styled itself "Friends of the People." This dissension was brought to an end by a shrewd piece of politics just in time to save the State to the party in 1808. Virginia, under the lead of John Randolph, was for a short time an opponent of the administration, and to the end of the canvass was divided between Madison and Monroe. It is not untrue to say that the impossibility of uniting the opposition rather than the strength of Mr. Madison saved that gentleman from defeat. The chief events of the administration were occurrences in our foreign relations. Even before Mr. Jefferson had taken the oath of office a second time Mr. Monroe, with Mr. Charles Pinckney, began the negotiation with Spain for a recognition of American claims for spoliation and for a cession of Florida. Monroe was thwarted in his mission by France, and retired from Madrid in humiliation. At Paris he had no better fortune, and when he returned to his post at London he was confronted with judicial decisions, confirming the seizure of American vessels, which almost destroyed the rights of trade enjoyed by the shipping of neutral nations. Our ministers in France and Spain received hints which were duly transmitted to the President, that although both governments denied that West Florida was properly included in the Louisiana purchase, a few million dollars paid to Spain would effectuate a cession of the territory to the United States. Jefferson sent to Congress in December, 1805, a message which breathed a spirit of defiance toward Spain; but in a private conference with Randolph, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, he suggested that Congress offer to put two million dollars at his disposal for the purposes of the negotiation. Randolph from that moment turned against the administration. He saw in the President's two attitudes - one public and the other private · to gain credit with the people by a show of firmness and national self-assertion, meanwhile shifting upon Congress the responsibility of what popularly might be deemed a more craven policy, which he really desired to see adopted. Randolph also recognized in Mr. Jefferson's course a movement in behalf of Mr. Madison as the presidential candidate at the ensuing election. In spite of Randolph's vehement opposition the "two million act" an appropriation of that sum for the foreign relations was carried through both branches of Congress, sitting with closed doors. But although the nominal strength of the Republican party was nearly five to one in the House and nearly four to one in the Senate, the bill received a majority of fourteen only in the lower, and of six in the upper House. a purpose The relations with England grew steadily worse. The doctrine that a neutral flag should protect the goods and the crew sailing under it, strenuously argued by American diplomatists, was contemptuously rejected and constantly disregarded by Great Britain. Vessels and their cargoes were seized and condemned; the crews of American ships were mustered on their decks by British naval officers, and all men who seemed worth taking were impressed into the service of the king and carried away. Congress thereupon passed a joint resolution forbidding the importation into the country, from Great Britain or elsewhere, of any of an enumerated list of articles of British manufacture. Shortly afterward Mr. Jefferson, hoping to come to terms with England, appointed William Pinkney, of Maryland, a joint commissioner with Mr. Monroe, to make a treaty with Great Britain. A stipulation that the visitation of American vessels by "press gangs" and the impressment of American sailors should cease was a sine qua non insisted upon in the instructions of the commissioners. This condition was rejected without qualification by Lords Auckland and Howick, the British commissioners, who nevertheless undertook that special instructions should be given and enforced, enjoining great caution in the exercise of the right of visitation; and promised prompt redress in case the rights of native-born Americans should be violated. The case before the American commissioners was similar to that which had confronted Jay when he was deputed by Washington to negotiate a treaty. If the instructions were strictly complied with, no treaty could be made. Monroe and Pinkney determined to accept what was offered, and conclude the treaty. The situation of American vessels at sea was steadily growing worse. Already a British Order in Council had been issued, blockading the coast from Brest to the Elbe, and prohibiting trade by neutrals from port to port along that coast. While the Monroe and Pinkney negotiation was in progress Bonaparte issued his Berlin decree, declaring the British islands in a state of blockade. Under this decree Americans, and all other neutrals, were forbidden to trade with the British islands; and all vessels having British merchandise on board were liable to seizure. Other orders and other decrees followed, under which every American vessel found at sea became the lawful prize of any English or French naval vessel. When the treaty negotiated by Monroe and Pinkney reached Jefferson, he refused to submit it to the Senate. He had decided to withhold it as soon as he learned from the letters of the envoys what its purport was to be. This action of the President greatly embittered the friends of Mr. Monroe, and left a rankling wound in the breast of the envoy himself. Next came the outrage upon the Chesapeake by the British war vessel Leopard, an act of insolence almost unsurpassed in the relations of two nations nominally at peace with each other; 1 Great Britain never admitted, until many years after the War of 1812, that a native-born Briton could divest himself of his obligation to his sovereign. The right of expatriation and of naturalization in a foreign country was denied. some weak and niggardly attempts at measures of defence; and the Embargo. This last act, which was in its earliest form limited in its operation, though not by its terms limited in duration, was at first popular. As it was evaded, more stringent provisions were added; and an act to enforce it was passed. It caused widespread distress and ruinous loss in all the commercial States. The first embargo act was passed in December, 1807; two supplementary acts were passed, one in January, and one in March, 1808. The evils caused by it began to be felt just as the presidential canvass was opening; they were intolerable before the election took place. He was Jefferson announced, after his second inauguration, that he should not again be a candidate. At no time thereafter did he make a secret of his wish that Madison should be his successor. There can be no doubt that many of his official acts were influenced by his desire to accomplish this object; as little can it be questioned that a part of the opposition which he encountered in his own party was dictated by a wish of many Republicans to thwart this purpose. A large number of the Northern Democrats were becoming exceedingly weary of the Virginia dynasty. In the ninth Congress they broke away from Southern control and nearly defeated Macon for Speaker. elected on the third trial only, and then by a bare majority. In the tenth Congress they succeeded in defeating him and electing Varnum, of Massachusetts. George Clinton, who had been voted for at every election, and was now Vice-President, was evidently not averse to profiting by the growing dislike of Southern dictation. Moreover, by all the precedents he was the natural successor, as Adams had been to Washington, and Jefferson to Adams. Yet he could not count even on the support of New York, in pressing his claims, so fierce was the contention with the Livingstons. There was still another candidate, Monroe, who, as has been already stated, had a grievance against the administration, and who was warmly supported by John Randolph and all other Southern Democrats who would not follow Jefferson and Madison implicitly. The situation did not promise harmony in the canvass of the ruling party. The Federalists adopted a waiting attitude. They had, until the Embargo began to be severely felt, no hope whatever of carrying through a candidate of their own; but they did all that lay in their power to foster Democratic division, and evinced a purpose to use their |