XVIL CHAPTER eral Wilkinson, the commander-in-chief of the American army, was appointed governor of the Louisiana 1805. Territory. The condition of the District of Columbia gave rise to considerable debate. More than half the time of Congress, at a great expense to the nation, was taken up with the affairs of that district, and yet its system of laws was left in the most heterogeneous state, two different codes being in force on the opposite sides of the Potomac. It being thought contrary to republican principles that the people should be governed by Congress, without any Legislature of their own, it was proposed to retrocede the whole district except the City of Washington; but Jan. 18. this did not succeed. A proposition, brought forward by Sloan, of New Jersey, that all children born of slaves within the District after the ensuing fourth of July should become free at an age to be fixed upon, was refused reference to a committee of the whole sixty-five to forty-seven, and was then rejected seventy-seven to thirty-one. The thirty-one were mainly Democrats from Pennsylvania, New York, and New England. Only five. Federalists voted with them, two from New Hampshire, two from Massachusetts, and one from New York. The practice of going armed for their own defense, so generally adopted by American vessels during the difficulties with France, was still kept up in certain branches of trade, especially that with the revolted island of St. Domingo, where Dessalines, in imitation of Bonaparte, had assumed the title of emperor. Very strict prohibitions against this trade had been issued by the French; and General Turreau, who had lately arrived from France as envoy extraordinary to the United States, had very warmly protested against its allowance. The complaisant Jefferson, dreading the interference of France in the XVII. dispute with Spain, had pointedly called the attention of CHAPTER Congress to this trade, "as an attempt to force a commerce into certain ports and countries in defiance of the 1805. laws of those countries, tending to produce aggression on the laws and rights of other nations, and to endanger the peace of our own." Upon this hint, Logan brought a bill into the Senate to prohibit altogether the trade with the new empire of Hayti. But as the blacks, beyond all question, were de facto an independent nation, this was thought to be carrying complaisance toward France a little too far. The most that could be obtained, and that not without a great deal of opposition, was an act requiring armed vessels to give bonds not to use their armaments for any unlawful purpose, but only for resistance and defense in case of involuntary hostilities; and to bring them back to the United States. Another topic of the president's message had been infringements against our laws and rights within our own waters by the armed ships of the belligerents. To meet this difficulty, an act was passed authorizing the use of the regular troops of the United States, as well as of the militia, to aid in the service of criminal process, whether state or Federal, against persons taking refuge on board foreign armed ships within the waters of the United States. But in all such cases a demand was first to be made for the surrender of those against whom the process ran. The president was also authorized, as a further means of preserving the authority of the laws, to permit or interdict at pleasure the entrance of foreign armed vessels into the waters of the United States; and, in case of disobedience, to prohibit all intercourse with them, and to use force to compel them to depart. He might also forbid, by proclamation, the coming within the jurisdiction of the United States of any officer of a XVIL CHAPTER eral Wilkinson, the commander-in-chief of the American army, was appointed governor of the Louisiana 1805. Territory. The condition of the District of Columbia gave rise to considerable debate. More than half the time of Congress, at a great expense to the nation, was taken up with the affairs of that district, and yet its system of laws was left in the most heterogeneous state, two different codes being in force on the opposite sides of the Potomac. It being thought contrary to republican principles that the people should be governed by Congress, without any Legislature of their own, it was proposed to retrocede the whole district except the City of Washington; but Jan. 18. this did not succeed. A proposition, brought forward by Sloan, of New Jersey, that all children born of slaves within the District after the ensuing fourth of July should become free at an age to be fixed upon, was refused reference to a committee of the whole sixty-five to forty-seven, and was then rejected seventy-seven to thirty-one. The thirty-one were mainly Democrats from Pennsylvania, New York, and New England. Only five. Federalists voted with them, two from New Hampshire, two from Massachusetts, and one from New York. The practice of going armed for their own defense, so generally adopted by American vessels during the difficulties with France, was still kept up in certain branches of trade, especially that with the revolted island of St. Domingo, where Dessalines, in imitation of Bonaparte, had assumed the title of emperor. Very strict prohibitions against this trade had been issued by the French; and General Turreau, who had lately arrived from France as envoy extraordinary to the United States, had very warmly protested against its allowance. The complaisant Jefferson, dreading the interference of France in the XVII. dispute with Spain, had pointedly called the attention of CHAPTER Congress to this trade, "as an attempt to force a commerce into certain ports and countries in defiance of the 1805. laws of those countries, tending to produce aggression on the laws and rights of other nations, and to endanger the peace of our own." Upon this hint, Logan brought a bill into the Senate to prohibit altogether the trade with the new empire of Hayti. But as the blacks, beyond all question, were de facto an independent nation, this was thought to be carrying complaisance toward France a little too far. The most that could be obtained, and that not without a great deal of opposition, was an act requiring armed vessels to give bonds not to use their armaments for any unlawful purpose, but only for resistance and defense in case of involuntary hostilities; and to bring them back to the United States. Another topic of the president's message had been infringements against our laws and rights within our own waters by the armed ships of the belligerents. To meet this difficulty, an act was passed authorizing the use of the regular troops of the United States, as well as of the militia, to aid in the service of criminal process, whether state or Federal, against persons taking refuge on board foreign armed ships within the waters of the United States. But in all such cases a demand was first to be made for the surrender of those against whom the process ran. The president was also authorized, as a further means of preserving the authority of the laws, to permit or interdict at pleasure the entrance of foreign armed vessels into the waters of the United States; and, in case of disobedience, to prohibit all intercourse with them, and to use force to compel them to depart. He might also forbid, by proclamation, the coming within the jurisdiction of the United States of any officer of a CHAPTER foreign armed vessel who might, upon the high seas, have XVII. committed any trespass upon, or spoliation of, any Amer1805. ican ship, the disregard of such proclamation to be punishable by fine and imprisonment. When the votes for president and vice-president came Feb. 13. to be opened and counted, there appeared for Jefferson, as president, one hundred and sixty-two, and the same number for Clinton as vice-president. The fourteen Federal electors voted for C. C. Pinckney and Rufus King. Rechosen by this flattering majority, Jefferson entered March 4. on his second term of office with an inaugural address filled with congratulations to his supporters on the success of their policy thus far; on the extent to which that policy had found favor with an intelligent people; and on the prospect that all the remaining doubters would at length succumb to truth, reason, and a just view of their own interest, and especially to the magnanimous generosity with which he proposed to treat them; and being thus gathered "into the fold of their country," would "complete that entire union of opinion which gives to a nation the blessing of harmony and the benefit of all its strength." In these somewhat premature congratulations on union and harmony, the president seems to have quite overlooked the deep schisms and bitter feuds by which the Republican party was itself divided in the two great states of New York and Pennsylvania. The Burr faction in New York might now be considered as out of the field; but that field was hardly left in the quiet possession of the Livingstons and the Clintons before a very bitter quarrel broke out between them. The Merchants' Bank of New York, disappointed of a charter in 1803, had continued to go on under its articles of association. A fresh application for a charter had been |