ty sail. XV. There were also numerous recaptures of mer- CHAPTER chant vessels previously taken by the French. Lieutenant Charles Stewart, in the schooner Experiment, of 1800. twelve guns, being chased by a French brig and a schoon- Nov. er, the one of eighteen, and the other of fourteen guns, had the address to separate the hostile vessels, after which he engaged and carried the schooner, on board of which was the mulatto general Rigaud, who had been deprived of his command in St. Domingo, and ordered to France. Later in the season, Stewart engaged and captured a British letter of marque, which, on being chased and brought to action, had refused to show her colors or to answer repeated hails. Of course, on discovering her national character, she was immediately set at liberty. Fortunately, no lives had been lost, except one on board the Experiment. About the same time, the French national corvette Berceau, of twenty-four guns, after a sharp action of two hours, struck to the Boston sloop of war, Captain Little, and, though very much cut up, was brought safely into port. Adams would decidedly have preferred the convention as it originally stood, so he informed the Senate; but he ratified it, nevertheless, as it had been altered, and 1801. appointed Bayard, as minister, to carry out the ratifica- Feb. 16. tion to France. Bayard, however, declined the appointment, and, without any further nomination, Adams left the matter to the incoming administration. By the terms of the act, the non-intercourse with France expired at the termination of the session. When the amended convention was afterward presented to Bonaparte, he added a proviso that the expunging of the article respecting future negotiations should be understood as an abandonment of the claims set up on both sides, thus bringing the treaty to correspond to one CHAPTER than the pyramid, and and simple as the slab. XV. not quite so exceedingly plain The bill for a mausoleum finally 1800. passed the House, with an appropriation of $200,000. The Senate reduced the appropriation to $150,000, and proposed a board of commissioners to agree upon a proper monument. The House proposed other amendments; and, finally, in the hurry at the close of the session, the whole subject was postponed. The next Congress, in which the opponents of Washington's policy had an overwhelming majority, found other subjects more interesting than his memory and honor; and, after a lapse of some fifty years, the erection of a monument has at length been undertaken by private subscription. Dec. 11. Shortly after the opening of the session, Davie arrived at Norfolk, bringing with him the convention with Dec. 15. France. When it was laid before the Senate, those Federal members who had opposed the mission raised a loud complaint that no indemnity had been secured for the spoliations committed on American commerce, and that the old treaties with France had not been definitively dissolved. Out of distrust, probably, of what the incoming administration might do, they refused to ratify the article referring those two subjects to future negotiation; proposing, as a substitute for it, a limitation of the convention to eight years. A strong effort was also made to expunge the provision for the mutual restoration of public vessels-a provision solely for the benefit of the French. But this failed, out of fear lest the French might insist, in their turn, upon retaining all captured vessels and property-a provision principally beneficial to America. During the summer, quite a number of French privateers had fallen into the hands of the American cruisers, amounting, with those previously taken, to about fif ty sail. XV. There were also numerous recaptures of mer- CHAPTER chant vessels previously taken by the French. Lieutenant Charles Stewart, in the schooner Experiment, of 1800. twelve guns, being chased by a French brig and a schoon- Nov. er, the one of eighteen, and the other of fourteen guns, had the address to separate the hostile vessels, after which he engaged and carried the schooner, on board of which was the mulatto general Rigaud, who had been deprived of his command in St. Domingo, and ordered to France. Later in the season, Stewart engaged and captured a British letter of marque, which, on being chased and brought to action, had refused to show her colors or to answer repeated hails. Of course, on discovering her national character, she was immediately set at liberty. Fortunately, no lives had been lost, except one on board the Experiment. About the same time, the French national corvette Berceau, of twenty-four guns, after a sharp action of two hours, struck to the Boston sloop of war, Captain Little, and, though very much cut up, was brought safely into port. Adams would decidedly have preferred the convention as it originally stood, so he informed the Senate; but he ratified it, nevertheless, as it had been altered, and 1801. appointed Bayard, as minister, to carry out the ratifica- Feb. 16. tion to France. Bayard, however, declined the appointment, and, without any further nomination, Adams left the matter to the incoming administration. By the terms of the act, the non-intercourse with France expired at the termination of the session. When the amended convention was afterward presented to Bonaparte, he added a proviso that the expunging of the article respecting future negotiations should be understood as an abandonment of the claims set up on both sides, thus bringing the treaty to correspond to one XV. CHAPTER of the rejected proposals of the French commissioners— a new treaty without indemnities. It was in this shape 1801. that the convention was finally ratified, the result of the Senate's amendment being a relinquishment of all claims for spoliations, in consideration of an absolute release from the French guarantee. Had the treaty been ratified in its original shape, the sufferers by the spoliations of the French might, perhaps, before now, have obtained that indemnity from the French government which they have ever since been asking of their own, but which has hitherto been unjustly withheld. Feb. 13. The great act of the session was the reorganization of the judiciary, so long in contemplation, and so warmly recommended by the president. The requiring the cir cuit courts to be held by the judges of the Supreme Court had not only tended to the delay of justice by the insufficiency in the number of judges-making due allowance for unavoidable absences occasioned by sickness. or otherwise; but the keeping the judges constantly on the road, at a time when there were few facilities for traveling, rendered their office laborious and undesirable, and consumed time which might have been better bestowed in the study of the various new and difficult questions which they were called upon to decide. In fact, the constitutional power of Congress to require the judges of the Supreme Court to act as circuit judges had been called in question by Chief-justice Jay. By the new act, the judges of the Supreme bench, to be reduced to five whenever a vacancy occurred, were released from all circuit duty. The number of district courts was increased to twenty-three by the subdivision of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Tennessee, each into two districts, and the erection of a new district northwest of the Ohio. These twenty-three dis XV. tricts were arranged into six circuits, the first composed CHAPTER of Massachusetts, including Maine, with New Hamp-. shire and Rhode Island; the second, of Connecticut and 1801. New York; the third, of New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania; the fourth, of Maryland and Virginia; the fifth, of the two Carolinas and Georgia; and the sixth, of Kentucky, Tennessee, and the territories north of the Ohio; to have each a bench of its own, composed of a chief judge and two puisne judges, to hold two courts annually in each district of the circuit. The effect of this act was to create twenty-three new judicial officers, besides attorneys, marshals, and clerks for the additional districts, at an annual expense of about $30,000. The necessity of some change was so obvious, taking into account, especially, the increase of business likely to grow out of the new Bankruptcy Act, that no very vehement resistance was made in Congress; and, though the opposition voted in a body against it, not improbably, had the appointment of the judges been left to the incoming administration, the act might never have been disturbed. But, as Adams proceeded at once to fill up the offices, and that, too, by the appointment of distinguished Federalists, a tremendous clamor was immediately raised, the effects of which will presently appear. The president showed a magnanimity which took Wolcott quite by surprise, and which, indeed, he had little reason to expect, in appointing him one of the judges of the second district. He had also taken an early opportunity, after M'Henry's retirement, to express to Wolcott his respect and his esteem for that gentleman, and his satisfaction that M'Henry's ample private fortune made the holding of office a matter, in his case, of no pecuniary importance. Ellsworth, who was still detained in Europe by ill health, had sent in his resignation of the office |