CHAPTER of the act, the non-intercourse of France expired at the termination of the session. XV. 1801. 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 it to correspond to one of the rejected proposals of the French commissioners—a new treaty without indemnities. It was in this shape 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. 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 circuit 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 trav elling, 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. NEW JUDICIARY' ACT. 401 XV. By the new act, the judges of the Supreme bench, to CHAPTER be reduced to five whenever a vacancy occurred, were released from all circuit duty. The number of district 1801. courts was increased to twenty-three by the subdivision Feb. 13. of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Tennessee, each into two districts, and the erection of a new dis trict northwest of the Ohio. These twenty-three districts were arranged into six circuits, the first composed of Massachusetts, including Maine, with New Hamp shire and Rhode Island; the second, of Connecticut and 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 loud 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 CHAPTER the second district. He had also taken an early oppor XV. tunity, after M'Henry's retirement, to express to Wolcott 1901. 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 of chief justice, and, previous to the passage of the new Judiciary Act, the president had conferred that capital post on Marshall, his secretary of state. Jay had been first nominated, but he declined, having made up his mind to retire from public life. Marshall still continued, notwithstanding his new office, to discharge the duties of Secretary of State. Pending these proceedings, the returns of the electoral votes gradually came in, from which, at length, it became certain not only that the Republican ticket had triumphed, as had been generally expected, but, what was far from being so agreeable to most members of the Republican party, that Jefferson and Burr had both re ceived the same number of votes. The understanding among the Federalists to vote equally for Adams and Pinckney had been faithfully carried out, except in Rhode Island, where one vote had been withheld from Pinckney and given to Jay, leaving Pinckney sixty-four in the whole to Adams's sixty-five. Jefferson and Burr had each seventy-three votes, and the decision between them devolved, under the Constitution, upon the House, of Representatives voting by states. Though the Federalists had a decided majority of members, they could not command, for the purposes of this election, a majority of states; but neither could the other party. The single Federal representative on whom, by the death of his colleague, the vote of Georgia had PROJECT FOR MAKING BURR PRESIDENT. 403 XV. devolved, also Dent, one of the Federal representatives CHAPTER from Maryland, had decided to conform to the wishes of their constituents by voting for Jefferson. This gave 1801. Georgia to the Republicans, and equally divided the vote of Maryland. North Carolina was also equally divided; but one of the Federal members took the same view with the above-mentioned members from Maryland and Georgia. The friends of Jefferson were thus sure of eight votes. But there still remained two other states equally divided, Maryland and Vermont; which, added to South Carolina, Delaware, and the four maritime New England states, prevented a majority. In this state of things, the idea was conceived by the Federalists of disappointing Jefferson and the body of the opposition by giving the first office to Burr. Before the equality of votes was precisely ascertained, Burr had written a letter disclaiming any competition for the first of fice, and constituting Smith, of Maryland, to whom the letter was addressed, his proxy so to state, if occasion should happen. But it was not supposed that this commitment would at all deter Burr, should a promising occasion present itself, from exerting all his skill and art to secure his own promotion over Jefferson's head; and it was thought that the two divided states, with New York and New Jersey, and perhaps Tennessee, of which the vote was held by a single representative, C. C. Claiborne, might furnish the requisite voices. Bayard, of Delaware, Morris, of Vermont, or Craik, Baer, Dennis, or Thomas, of Maryland, all Federalists, might at any time, by their single votes, give to Jefferson an additional state, and so decide the election in his favor. On the other hand, Bailey and Livingston, of New York, neither of whom were thought specially favorable to Jefferson, with Lynn, of New Jersey, and XV. CHAPTER Dent, of Maryland, the former a half Federalist, the lat ter entirely one, might, by their united votes, give Burr 1800 three additional states, sufficient to elect him; or the vote of Lyon or Claiborne, by giving him Vermont or Tennes see, might supply the lack of one of the others. Burr, being a Northern man, was on that account preferred by the Federalists, whose strength lay in that quarter of the Union. It was also hoped that his elevation to the first office might produce such a split in the opposition ranks as would still leave the control of affairs substantially in the hands of the Federalists, to whom Burr himself would owe a debt of gratitude. This idea had been suggested early in the session, and before the result of the election was certainly known. As soon as it came to Hamilton's knowledge, he entered a vigorous Dec. 16. protest against it. "I trust New England, at least," so he wrote to Wolcott, "will not so far lose its head as to fall into the snare. There is no doubt that, upon every prudent and virtuous calculation, Jefferson is to be preferred. He is by far not so dangerous a man, and he has pretensions to character. As to Burr, there is nothing in his favor. His private character is not defended by his most partial friends. He is bankrupt beyond redemption, except by the plunder of his country. His public principles have no other spring or aim than his own aggrandizement. If he can, he will certainly disturb our institutions to secure himself permanent Doc. 17 power, and with it wealth." "Let it not be imagined that Burr can be won to Federal views. It is a vain hope. Stronger ties and stronger inducements will impel him in a contrary direction. His ambition will not be content with those objects which virtuous men of either party will allot to it, and his situation and his habits will oblige him to have recourse to corrupt expe |