EXPIRATION OF THE ELEVENTH CONGRESS. 237 XXIII. the president's veto-the third in the history of the govern- CHAPTER ment on two bills, one incorporating an Episcopal church in the District of Columbia, the other granting a piece of 1811 public land to a Baptist church in Mississippi. The president took the ground that these acts conflicted with that clause of the Constitution forbidding Congress to make any law respecting a religious establishment. On reconsideration, the bills were lost, 33 to 55, a strict party vote. With these proceedings the eleventh Congress expired, amid universal obloquy, and with hardly a word of defense or apology from any quarter. The Federal· ists regarded the recent proceedings as another step to ward war with England, into which the country was to be plunged to promote the views of Bonaparte-a direct taking sides with the emperor, whose pretended repeal of the Berlin and Milan decrees was looked upon as a mere delusive trick. The violent portion of the Democratic party, which was daily growing stronger, and which, in the recent elections for the twelfth Congress, had defeated several of the old incumbents on the ground of their being "submission men," cried out against these same measures as altogether too weak. The non-importation, deficient as it was in means of enforcement, was sure to be extensively evaded, while the proviso for admitting goods shipped from England prior to the second of February was stigmatized as a direct breach of faith toward France. It was suggested, however, and with good reason, by the National Intelligencer, that it was not so much any fault of the late Congress which had made it impossible to agree upon any definite course, as the division of opinions and feelings among the Democrats themselves. This paper, still the organ of the administration, had lately passed into the hands of Joseph Gales, Jun., a young Englishman, whose fa CHAPTER ther, once a bookseller in Sheffield, was now editor of a Democratic paper in North Carolina. XXIII. 1811. Among those members of the late Congress who had lost their election to the next, under the charge of being "submission men," was Matthew Lyon, who had, indeed, other cause to complain of party ingratitude. At the first session of the Congress just expired, a motion had been made by Stanford, of North Carolina, for a committee to inquire into the prosecutions under the Sedition Law, and as to the expediency of indemnifying the sufferers. In a speech upon this motion, Lyon placed in a strong point of view his side of the story, the slenderness of the grounds of proceeding against him, and the harshness with which he had been treated. He complained still more bitterly of the conduct of some of his Southern friends, subscribers toward a fund of a thousand dollars to pay his expenses on that occasion. They had lately taunted him with his opposition to the embargo, as though he had been bound by that contribution to stand by the party and the South, right or wrong. Some of these generous subscribers he had indemnified out of his own pocket; others were unknown to him, or refused to be reimbursed. These obligations he wished now to get rid of by having the repayment come to the contributors in a shape not to be declined. Such a public reimbursement was, in his opinion, due to him from a now triumphant and ruling majority, in whose cause he had suffered under what they had all denounced at the time as an unconstitutional law. Unfortunately for Lyon, Ross, a Pennsylvania member from the Northampton district, proposed to inquire, at the same time, into the case of those who had suffered in Fries's insurrection for their opposition to a direct tax. "No portion of the people of the United States," he said, "had made greater sacrifices to support the true Demo LYON AND COOPER. 239 XXIII. cratic cause; and if their fellow-patriots, who suffered un- CHAPTER der the Sedition Law, were to be remunerated, he thought they had an equal claim. Both measures had 1811. been equally reprobated by the genuine Democratic party, and both had equally contributed to place them in power." Gardinier, who presently became an editor himself, spoke warmly in behalf of the freedom of the press, expressing a strong sense of the hardship of Lyon's case, according to his statement of it, and readiness to vote an indemnification. But Dana skillfully took advantage of Ross's extravagance to defeat Lyon's purpose. "He thought, if those who opposed the law were entitled to compensation, those who had submitted to it were still more entitled. He therefore proposed, by way of amendment, to inquire into the expediency of compensating those who had submitted to the various laws laying an embargo." This raised a laugh; and, after some further debate, Stanford's proposition, with all the amendments to it, was indefinitely postponed. Such was the result of the first attempt to refund the fines imposed under the Sedition Law-an object afterwards accomplished, but not till Lyon was cold in his grave. At this moment the Democratic party were not in a humor to be reminded of having ever been the champions, whether of unlicensed freedom of attacking the government, or of a strict construction of the Constitution, especially in what related to penal laws. While Lyon thus vanishes from the political stage, it is curious to observe the similar fate which just about the same time overtook Dr. Cooper, his fellow-sufferer under the Sedition Law. As compensation for his services and sufferings, Cooper had been appointed, by Governor M'Kean, president judge of one of the Pennsylvania Common Pleas districts. But that same irritability of temperament which had exposed him to pros XXIII. 1811. CHAPTER ecution under the Sedition Law, disqualified him, notwithstanding his acknowledged learning and talent, for his new office. Charges had been lately made against him of passionate and oppressive judicial bearing; of imprisoning Quakers for not taking off their hats; of committing parties for whispering in court; of sending notes to juries in criminal cases, with a view to produce convictions; of brow-beating counsel, witnesses, and parties; of issuing warrants without a complaint under oath, and then imprisoning constables for not serving them; and of speaking in open court of Quaker and Presbyterian religious professions as "all dd hypocrisy and nonsense." A committee of the Lower House of Assembly considered these charges so far substantiated, that they recommended an address for his removal, which was carried, and complied with by Governor Snyder. This address, however, did not pass without a protest from a considerable minority, who maintained that, whatever might be the peculiarities of Cooper's manner, there was no sufficient evidence of judicial misconduct. According to Cooper himself, in an address issued on the occasion, the real ground of his removal was political. "I have not been anxious to conceal," so he wrote, "that, during a long course of observation on the conduct of parties in this country, I have not found that the Democrats or Republicans have much reason to boast of more disinterested views or more tolerant principles than their opponents. I have long found it impossible to go all lengths with the party to which I belonged, and of course I have shared the fate of all moderate men; I have influence with no party. I have willingly and deliberately incurred the deadly hatred of the most violent and thorough-going of my own." CHANGE IN THE CABINET. 241 CHAPTER XXIV. CHANGE IN THE CABINET. RETURN OF PINKNEY. MIS- XXIV. THE recent death of Cushing having made a vacancy CHAPTER on the bench of the Supreme Court, it had first been attempted to fill it with that old Massachusetts Demo- 1811. cratic leader, Levi Lincoln. On his declining, Alexander Wolcott, an active Democratic politician of Connecticut, but not remarkable for ability, and of rather dubious private character, had been nominated. But the Smith faction in the Senate, glad of an opportunity to thwart the president, had united with the Federalists in refusing to confirm Wolcott's nomination, and John Quincy Adams had then been appointed. The president, resolved at last to put an end to the turmoil which had so long reigned in his cabinet, afforded Smith an opportunity to retire quietly by tendering him the mission to St. Petersburg in Adams's place. But Smith refused to be disposed of in this way, and at the same time indignantly resigned the Department of State. Monroe, lately Madison's competitor for the presi dency, had occupied since a somewhat equivocal posi |