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and for hearing. The sickness and consequent absence CHAPTER of Macon afforded the Northern Democrats a favorable opportunity for placing one of their number in the 1807. speaker's chair. Varnum was elected, but only by a bare majority of one vote, several of the Southern Democrats declining to support him.

The president gave, in his message, a narrative of the late negotiations with Great Britain, and a statement of his reasons for rejecting the treaty. "Some of the articles might have been admitted on a principle of compromise, but others were too highly disadvantageous; and no sufficient provision was made against the principal source of the irritations and collisions which were constantly endangering the peace of the two nations." An account followed of the attack on the Chesapeake, of the steps taken in consequence, and of the instructions sent to Monroe and Pinkney to demand reparation, to which a reply was daily expected. The presi dent wound up with complaints not only that one of the men taken from the Chesapeake had been executed as a deserter, but that the proclamation, ordering all British ships of war to leave the waters of the United States, had not been obeyed. As things stood, the choice seemed to lie between the entire exclusion of foreign ships of war from our harbors, or the maintenance at each of them of an armed force sufficient to compel obedience to our laws. The "expense of such a standing force, and its inconsistency with our principles," were, in the presi dent's opinion, reasons enough for dispensing with courtesy, and for excluding foreign ships equally with foreign troops; but how it would be possible to maintain this exclusion without the help of a standing force he did not explain.

Nothing had yet been accomplished with Spain toward

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CHAPTER the settlement of the boundaries of Louisiana, and of the claims against her for commercial spoliations. To these 1807. long-standing complaints a new and serious grievance had been added by the issue of a Spanish decree, similar in its tenor to the French decree of November 21st, 1806; whether, in its application to the United States, it Dec. 22. would receive a similar construction, had not yet been ascertained. Such was the only allusion in the message to Bonaparte's Berlin decree, under which, in spite of the assurances to Armstrong, large seizures had already been made of British goods belonging to Americans, and numerous captures of American vessels having such goods on board; though no final condemnations of American property were yet known to have taken place under it. But while thus reserved with respect to France, the president did not fail to set forth as a new violation of maritime rights the British order in council of January 7th, putting an end to the neutral coasting trade between ports occupied by the enemies of Great Britain.

The message expressed great dissatisfaction at the acquittal of Burr. Whether defect in the law, maladministration of it, or insufficiency of evidence had occasioned that acquittal, the president did not undertake to decide. The implication, however, was sufficiently strong that the failure had been in the interpretation of the law, the amendment of which, so as to guard the government against "destruction by treason," was pressed upon the attention of Congress.

The state of the treasury furnished a more agreeable subject. With Jefferson's two predecessors, means to meet the annual expenditures had been a constant subject of anxiety. Between retrenchment of current expenses and increasing productiveness of the import du

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ties, the result of a vastly extended commerce, which CHAPTER had raised the annual revenue to sixteen millions of dollars, he had never been subjected to any such embarrass- 1807. ment. In the six years and a half since his accession, twenty-five and a half millions of the public debt had been paid off, all that could be by the terms of the loans; while the treasury now contained not less than eight and a half millions in money, besides as much more in outstanding duty bonds.

The custody of this increasing surplus by the United States Bank, and the profits thence accruing to that institution, were by no means agreeable to the president. What should be done with it, had already been a subject of discussion in previous messages. A reduction of the revenue to the level of the expenditure would have seemed most consonant to Jefferson's system; but, so far from entertaining that idea, he had resorted to some finesse to secure the continuance, for general purposes, of the additional two and a half per cent. originally imposed under the name of the Mediterranean fund for the prosecution of the Tripolitan war. In a former message, he had suggested the application to internal improvements of the surplus revenue, though he seemed to think that to authorize that, an amendment of the Constitution might be necessary. He now recommended to employ a part of it in completing the defense of the exposed parts of the coast, "on a scale adapted to our principles and circumstances."

Among other outlays of which, in consequence of the attack on the Chesapeake, the president had taken the responsibility, was the purchase of timber for additional gun-boats. The Committee on Aggressions soon brought in a bill appropriating upward of $600,000 to cover these expenses, and another appropriating $852,500 toward

CHAPTER building or buying a hundred and eighty-eight new gunXX. boats. A third bill appropriated $750,000, raised final1807. ly to a million, for fortifications. The Federalists wished

to double the amount, but were told in reply that the appropriation was not intended for permanent works, but for the purpose of movable artillery to co-operate with the gun-boats, according to Jefferson's plan of defense. Some suggestions were thrown out, in which some of the Democrats from the commercial districts seemed to concur, as to the expediency of completing the six seventy-fours, the materials for which had been collected in Adams's time; but the administration leaders spoke with detestation of a navy, the attempt at maintaining which was even denounced as having brought on the country the disgrace of the late affair of the Chesapeake.

The seventy gun-boats already completed had cost $10,000 each. The whole fleet, at the same rate, would require some two millions and a half, a sufficient sum, so the Federalists stated, to complete the six seventyfours, and to build, in addition, four or five frigates of the first class. Each boat, in active service, would need forty men, at a yearly expense of $11,000; more men and more money, in the aggregate, than would suffice to keep the seventy-fours and frigates afloat. But to this it was replied that, ordinarily, eight or ten men would answer for each boat; it would be time enough to supply the full complement just as the boats were going into action. The greater part of the advocates of this system freely admitted their total ignorance of nautical affairs; but this lack of knowledge was supplied by implicit faith in the wisdom of the executive, subscription to the gun-boat system being made, in fact, a sort of test of political orthodoxy.

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1807.

July 7.

While this feeble scheme of coast protection was un- CHAPTER der discussion, events occurred in Europe not without a most important bearing on the position of the United States as a neutral nation. Already, before the meeting of Congress, news had arrived of the peace of Tilsit, by which Bonaparte had been made, as it were, the dictator of continental Europe. By that treaty, the kingdom of Prussia, curtailed of more than half its territory, became completely subservient to Bonaparte, who erected out of its western provinces the new kingdom of Westphalia, which he bestowed upon his brother Jerome. The Emperor of Russia agreed to adopt, and to assist in enforc ing, Bonaparte's favorite Continental system; and it was also resolved between the two emperors to compel Sweden, Denmark, and Portugal, the only remaining powers at peace with England, to come into that system, and to contribute their fleets toward a new naval struggle. The Swedish territory on the south shore of the Baltic was speedily occupied by French troops. Finland, not Aug. 17. long after, fell into the hands of the Russians; but Sweden Proper, surrounded by water, except at the extreme north, and covered by the British fleets, defied the assaults of the new allies. The British ministry were early informed, through their well-paid spies, of the secret provisions of the treaty of Tilsit; and in anticipation of the designs of France against Denmark, a formidable British armament suddenly appeared before Copenhagen, and demanded the surrender of the Danish fleet, which Sept. 2-8 being refused, the ships were seized by force, and carried to England. This attack, without previous notice, upon a neutral power, news of which reached the United States subsequently to the meeting of Congress, and of which the only justification was an alleged secret intention of the French to do the same thing, could not but