He was Republican in favoring the purchase; Federalist in arguing that the treaty was outside of the Constitution; Jeffersonian, finally, in trying to save the old theory of the Constitution and in urging an amendment to that instrument. The debate in the Senate was, on the Federalist side, more vigorous and able than it had been in the House, and the Republican Senators were driven to an embarrassment they could not hide. The bill passed again by a strict party vote.

Thus the treaty was ratified; but the constitutional difficulty was still unsettled. The dominant party had simply allowed the magnitude of the interest at stake to over-shadow all other considerations. They had not had the candor to acknowledge that the Constitution had provided for no such case nor the courage and consistency to go before the States for instructions. The acquisition doubled the area of the country and secured control of all the great river systems of North America. It was not surprising, therefore, that the overwhelming majority of the people of the United States, dazzled by a material gain so stupendous, were in no mind to engage in hair-splitting refinements over constitutional difficulties, or in gloomy forebodings as to the viciousness of the precedent thus set.

In March, 1804, a bill conferring upon the President autocratic power for the government of the purchased territory was forced through Congress. The pledge to France that the people of Louisiana should be admitted as citizens of the United States was kept only in so far as it granted an ultimate possibility of attaining statehood; but in the intermediate stage the pledge was certainly violated, for the territorial government established was one in which the people of Louisiana had absolutely no share.

Congress, in 1804, for the first time, was brought face to face with the matter of impeachment. The President had submitted letters and affidavits against Pickering, a Federal judge, charging him with drunkenness and illegal and disorderly conduct. Judge Pickering, though summoned, did not appear, but a petition was presented from his son begging a postponement of the proceedings in order that proof of his insanity might

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be collected. The petition was refused, but convincing testimony of his insanity was admitted. As the Judge had not resigned, the Senate felt justified in proceeding with the trial. Pickering was declared "guilty as charged," and was removed from office. The House also ordered articles of impeachment to be drawn up against Samuel Chase, one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme court, and his trial was set for the next session. Though not originating with the President, as had the trial of Pickering, the measure was known to be acceptable to him, for he had been among the first to call attention to a charge delivered by Judge Chase to the grand jury at Baltimore in April, 1803. Chase had taken occasion to denounce from the bench the democratic tendencies of the Government, an act which Jefferson deemed a "seditious and official attack on the principles of our Constitution and on the proceedings of a State."

Before Congress adjourned in the spring of 1804, the Republican caucus unanimously re-nominated Jefferson for President. Burr was completely ignored as a candidate for the second place, and George Clinton, of New York, was named. The Federalist caucus put forward C. C. Pinckney, of South Carolina, for President and Rufus King, of New York, for Vice-President.

Immediately after the adjournment of Congress, Jefferson was summoned to Monticello by the illness of his younger daughter, Mrs. Eppes. She died on April 17th, leaving two young children. Jefferson in the loss of this child experienced a sorrow such as he had not felt since the death of his wife. Letters of condolence poured in from his early friends, among them one from Mrs. John Adams, in whose care Mrs. Eppes had been placed when, as a child of ten years, she had sailed to join her father, then Minister to France. Adams himself had felt great bitterness against Jefferson since the inauguration of the latter, and Mrs. Adams shared in her husband's bitterness, but sincere grief and sympathy enabled her to overcome her hesitation. Jefferson replied in a most affectionate strain, and a correspondence ensued in which were reviewed the causes of the alienation between two men once so close to each other. But Mrs. Adams

was still unsatisfied, and the correspondence ceased. It seemed devoid of results at the time, but in years to come it formed the basis of a lasting reconciliation.

Before the Presidential election, the constitutional amendment changing the method of voting for President and VicePresident, had been adopted by every State. Under its workings Jefferson and Clinton received 162 electoral votes and Pinckney and King only 14.

The event of the session of the Congress that met in November was the impeachment trial of Justice Chase. In February, 1805, the case was opened in the Senate Chamber by the managers from the House. From the beginning the Republican prosecution had recognized that they had attempted too much. They themselves were uncertain in their views of what an impeachment meant, and even the charges embraced no offense known to the statute books or to the common law. The array of counsel for the defendant far outweighed that of the prosecution in talents and legal learning. As in the trial of Pickering, so now, the form in which the Senate should put its final judgment was of vital importance. The Senate agreed that it should answer the question, "Is Samuel Chase guilty or not guilty of a high crime or misdemeanor as charged in the article just read?" When they came to a vote, the Senate acquitted the defendant on every charge, nearly one-fourth of the Republican Senators voting in the negative. John Randolph was deeply chagrined at the result. Jefferson had held himself aloof from the trial, and his correspondence does not show that he was in the least irritated or disappointed by the acquittal. His indifference cut Randolph, whose heart was set upon a conviction, to the quick, and from the trial of Chase may be dated the beginning of the fierce and dramatic opposition which Randolph led against the President.

THE SECOND ADMINISTRATION.

On March 4th, 1805, Jefferson for the second time took the oath of office as President of the United States. His inaugural was

merely a review of the administration just ended, and was far below his first inaugural in breadth and power. Touching the Louisiana purchase, he adopted the broad and indefinite ground on which Congress had confirmed it, and gave no intimation that he had ever held a different view. "I know," said he, "that the acquisition of Louisiana has been disapproved by some from a candid apprehension that the enlargement of our territory would endanger its union. But who can limit the extent to which the federative principle may operate effectively? The larger our association, the less will it be shaken by local passions; and in any view, is it not better that the opposite bank of the Mississippi should be settled by our own brethren and children, than by strangers of another family?"

The summer of 1805 saw concluded the Tripolitan war. In the conduct of this war the President had, for four years, systematically reversed his cherished policy of peace. The war had been marked by splendid deeds of courage on the part of the little navy. After a long series of hostilities, Dernah, the second city of importance in Tripoli, had been captured by a cooperation of the American forces with Hamet, the rightful Pasha, against his usurping brother Jussuff. The expedition was conducted by Gen. Eaton, United States Consul at Tunis. Despite the uniform success of the American arms, however, the United States Consul General at Algiers weakly concluded with Jussuff a treaty which deserted Hamet, compelled Eaton to quit Dernah, and, though it relieved the United States Government of further payment of tribute, it did so only on the condition of paying to the pirate nation $60,000 for the ransom of the officers and crew of the "Philadelphia." The four years' war had cost heavily in money and lives, but the navy had gained what it lacked before-discipline and experience in real fighting. These results, however, were not in Jefferson's mind when he began it, and the final treaty to which he gave his consent was no more than a compromise.

Hardly had Jefferson been inaugurated before relations, not only with England, but with France and Spain, assumed a serious aspect. In the early summer of 1805, there were indications

that France, now under the Emperor Napoleon, was inciting Spain to make trouble over the Louisiana Purchase, under the pretext of uncertainty as to the boundaries of the territory conveyed. Jefferson was for applying the old threat of a maritime alliance with England; but as Spain became more insolent on the southwestern frontier, he gave up the idea of coercing Napoleon, and determined to ask his mediation for purchasing the two Floridas from Spain. He did not dare to suggest the purchase to Congress formally, but sent to the House a batch of papers bearing on the matter, with an injunction of secrecy. John Randolph as chairman of the committee to which they were referred, learned the President's plan in an interview with him. He refused utterly to give it his sanction and, heading a few dissatisfied members, called the "Quids," broke from the government. He was supported by the Federalists for the rest of the session. In spite of this alliance, however, the President had a bill for the purchase forced through both Houses.

In the meantime the battle of Trafalgar had occurred October 21st, 1805, and Napoleon's sea power had been annihilated. Jefferson, nevertheless, continued to conciliate him, and had a bill passed prohibiting all trade with any port in the island of Santo Domingo over which the French flag did not fly. England now set herself to ruin the American carrying trade, which in the last few years had come to be almost the only means of communication between the nations of Europe and their colonial dependencies. She established blockades of all French colonies, and later of the Straits of Dover and the English channel. All rights of neutrals were at an end. All previous decisions of the Admiralty Courts of England touching American shipping were reversed, and seizure and confiscation in all waters were the order of the day. The distress among the seafaring and commercial citizens of the Atlantic seaboard was extreme, and Congress was besieged with memorials, petitions, and exhortations for relief. Jefferson left the problem with Congress. After months of debate and uncertainty, Congress passed a NonImportation Bill, forbidding the importation of certain articles from England and her dependencies, after November 15th, 1806.