THE BATTURE CASE. 147 XXI. the city, but lately claimed by a private citizen. "The CHAPTER title had been adjudged not to be in the city; and it being alleged that the United States had a claim to it, 1809. measures had been taken, according to law, to prevent any change in the state of things, and to keep the ground clear of intruders!" Such was Jefferson's smooth ac count of the forcibly stripping a citizen of the United States, under color of executive authority, of a possession adjudged to be his by a court of final jurisdiction! When Livingston reached Washington, Jefferson refused to see him, on the ground that he was about leaving for Monticello, referring him to the public offices for information. It was, however, only with the utmost difficulty that he succeeded in obtaining a copy of Rodney's opinion, or ahy statement of the grounds of the extraordinary proceedings against him. Finally, having lost all hopes of executive reparation, he appealed to the public in an indignant pamphlet, but without the confidence, as he remarked, "which the goodness of his cause, and the extraordinary character of the proceedings against him ought to inspire." Being obliged, though addressing no political party, to arraign the first magistrate of the Union, he could not but alarm that "blind spirit of attachment which, adopting the maxims of English prerogative, will not for a moment admit that a popular leader can be guilty of wrong, and accords impunity to a president of the United States for acts that would shake the throne of an hereditary monarch." Nor was this lack of confidence by any means unfounded. To Livingston's application at the late session of Congress for redress, the only answer had been the report of a committee that the president had acted by Rodney's advice. Like applications, repeated during the next four sessions, were equally unsuccessful. Mean CHAPTER While, however, confiding more in the courts than in CouXXI. gress, the indefatigable Livingston had commenced two 1809. suits, one against the marshal who had dispossessed him, to recover possession of the batture; the other against Jefferson himself, for damages. The suit against Jeffer son was finally (1811) decided in his favor on the merely technically ground that a suit for trespass on lands in Louisiana, being an action local in its nature, could not be maintained in the District of Virginia. The suit against the marshal was at first suspended, on the representation of the district attorney that the United States were the real party in interest. On this ground, under cover of a doctrine derived from the common law, and zealously maintained by the sovereign democracies of America, that the sovereign can not be sued by a subject, an attempt was made to deprive Livingston of all remedy for the violent dispossession he had suffered. But the Supreme Court at Washington, being applied to by Livingston, issued a mandamus to the District Court to proceed with the hearing, and as neither the marshal nor the United States had the slightest pretense of title to the batture, Livingston at last recovered possession. Though ultimately obliged, owing to defects in the title of the person from whom he purchased, to surrender three fourths of it to other claimants, yet such, meanwhile, had been its increase in value, that from the part remaining to him, he realized, in the end, a handsome fortune, besides discharging his indebtedness to the gov ernment. MADISON'S INAUGURATION. 149 CHAPTER XXII. MADISON'S INAUGURATION. NEW ENGLAND AND NEW XXII. 1809. March 4. FOLLOWING the precedents already established, CHAPTER Madison took the oath of office in the Hall of the Representatives, in presence of the Senate, the members of the late House, the heads of Departments, the foreign ministers, and an assemblage of citizens. According to a courtly account of the ceremonies in the National Intelligencer, he was dressed "in a full suit of cloth of American manufacture, of the wool of merinoes raised in this country, his coat from the manufactory of Colonel Humphreys, and his waistcoat and small-clothes from that of Chancellor Livingston;" presents, respectively, from those gentlemen, whose zcal in the production of domestic woolens had received fresh impulse and had found several imitators since, the late restrictions on the importation of British cloths. The inaugural address acknowledged the difficult crisis of affairs, the more striking by its contrast to the extraordinary commercial prosperity of preceding years, enhancing the responsibility, but, at the same time, the honor also, of the presidential office; a crisis as to which the new president did not hesitate to assert that it was XXII. CHAPTER not to be charged to any unwarrantable views, nor even to any involuntarily errors in the public councils, but 1809. wholly to the injustice and violence of the belligerents. Robert Smith, giving up his former office of Secretary of the Navy to Paul Hamilton, lately governor of South Carolina, was appointed Secretary of State; a selection which excited some surprise, but which was probably intended to conciliate his brother, the senator, one of the most decided and influential opposers of Madison's nomination. Dearborn, Jefferson's Secretary of War, had been appointed, just before the close of the late session, collector of the port of Boston, very much to the dissatisfaction of Pickering and Quincy. Pickering had charged upon him, while the nomination was under debate, undue and illegal allowances and advances to General Wilkinson. Quincy had alleged that General Lincoln, though unable, through sickness, to perform the duties of collector, and wishing to resign, had yet been retained in office for a year or more, on purpose that the place might be kept open till Dearborn was ready to take it. He had even wished to make this procedure a ground of impeachment against Jefferson; but, notwithstanding an elaborate speech, had obtained no vote for it but his own. Dearborn's place as Secretary of War was given to Eustis, also of Massachusetts, during the Revolutionary war a surgeon in the army, and since, for one term, a representative from Boston. The treasury department still remained under the control of Gallatin. Among the last official acts of Jefferson had been a message to the Senate, suggesting the disposition of the Emperor of Russia to establish diplomatic relations with the United States, and nominating, as minister to that court, Short, formerly in the diplomatic service as minister to Holland and Spain. Since his recall from Spain, MASSACHUSETTS ADDRESS. 151 XXII. Short had resided at Paris; and already, previous to the CHAPTER meeting of Congress, Jefferson had sent him a commission as minister to Russia. The Senate, however, acting 1809. upon Jefferson's own former policy, and under the idea that no such mission was needed, had unanimously rejected this nomination. That mission was now again urged by Madison, with the substitution as minister of John Q. Adams in the place of Short; but the Senate still refused a confirmation, 17 to 15. Just before the termination of the late Congress, the Massachusetts Legislature, on concluding their session, had put forth a strong address to the people. Repeating March 2. their objections to the policy of the administration, they declared themselves unable to find any satisfactory solu tion of it "but in an habitual and impolitic predilection for France." "Without pretending to compare and adjust the respective injuries received from the two nations, it can not be disguised," so the address continued, "that in some instances our nation has received from Great Britain compensation, in others offers of atonement, and in all the language of conciliation and respect; while from France our immense losses are without retribution, and our remonstrances are neglected with contemptuous silence, or answered with aggravating insult. While hostility with Great Britain would expose our country in every vulnerable point, and afford no hope of honor or indemnity, a war with France would not be very different from the only state of peace which she is disposed to maintain. Under these circumstances, can it be contended that the policy is either just or wise which would dictate either open hostility against Great Britain, or a series of irritating measures tending to that?" This report suggested, as an indispensable means toward a better and more equal administration of the gov |