Volume II Part 39 (1/2)
So gratified were the President, Cabinet, and Federalist leaders in Congress with Marshall's conduct in the X. Y. Z. mission, and so high their opinion of his ability, that Adams tendered him the appointment to the place on the Supreme Bench,[790] made vacant by the death of Justice Wilson. Marshall promptly declined. After applying to the Fairfax indebtedness all the money which he might receive as compensation for his services in the French mission, there would still remain a heavy balance of obligation; and Marshall must devote all his time and strength to business.
On the night before his departure, the members of Congress gave the hero of the hour the historic dinner at the city's princ.i.p.al tavern, ”as an evidence of their affection for his person and their gratified approbation of the patriotic firmness with which he sustained the dignity of his country during his important mission.” One hundred and twenty enthusiastic men sat at the banquet table.
The Speaker of the National House, the members of the Cabinet, the Justices of the Supreme Court, the Speaker of the Pennsylvania State Senate, the field officers of the army, the Right Reverend Bishops Carroll and White, ”and other distinguished public characters attended.”
Toasts ”were drank with unbounded plaudits” and ”many of them were encored with enthusiasm.” High rose the spirit of Federalism at O'Eller's Tavern in Philadelphia that night; loud rang Federalist cheers; copiously flowed Federalist wine.
”Millions for Defense but not a cent for Tribute!” was the crowning toast of that jubilant evening. It expressed the spirit of the gathering; out over the streets of Philadelphia rolled the huzzas that greeted it. But its unknown author[791] ”builded better than he knew.”
He did more than flatter Marshall and bring the enthusiastic banqueters, wildly shouting, to their feet: he uttered the sentiment of the Nation.
”Millions for Defense but not a cent for Tribute” is one of the few historic expressions in which Federalism spoke in the voice of America.
Thus the Marshall banquet in Philadelphia, June 18, 1798, produced that slogan of defiant patriotism which is one of the slowly acc.u.mulating American maxims that have lived.
After Marshall retired from the banquet hall, the a.s.semblage drank a final toast to ”The man whom his country delights to Honor.”[792]
Marshall was smothered with addresses, congratulations, and every variety of attention from public bodies and civic and military organizations. A committee from the Grand Jury of Gloucester County, New Jersey, presented the returned envoy a laudatory address. His answer, while dignified, was somewhat stilted, perhaps a trifle pompous. The Grand Jury compliment was, said Marshall, ”a sweet reward” for his ”exertions.” The envoys wished, above all things, for peace, but felt ”that not even peace was to be purchased at the price of national independence.”[793]
The officers of a militia brigade delivered to Marshall a eulogy in which the war note was clear and dominant. Marshall answered that, desirable as peace is, it ”ought not to have been bought by dishonor and national degradation”; and that the resort to the sword, for which the militia officers declared themselves ready, made Marshall ”feel with an elevated pride the dignity and grandeur of the American character.”[794]
The day before Marshall's departure from Philadelphia the President, addressing Congress, said: ”I congratulate you on the arrival of General Marshall ... at a place of safety where he is justly held in honor....
The negotiation may be considered at an end. _I will never send another Minister to France without a.s.surances that he will be received, respected, and honored as the representative of a great, free, powerful, and independent nation._”[795] Bold and defiant words expressive of the popular sentiment of the hour; but words which were to be recalled later by the enemies of Adams, to his embarra.s.sment and to the injury of his party.[796]
”Having heard that Mrs. Marshall is in Winchester I shall immediately set out for that place,”[797] Marshall writes Was.h.i.+ngton. His departure from the Capital was as spectacular as his arrival. He ”was escorted by detachments of cavalry,” says the ”Aurora.” ”Certainly nothing less was due considering the distinguished services which he has rendered by his mission--he has acquired some knowledge of the French language,”[798]
sneers that partisan newspaper in good Republican fas.h.i.+on. When Marshall approached Lancaster he was met by companies of ”cavalry and uniformed militia” which escorted him into the town, where he was ”welcomed by the discharges of artillery and the ringing of bells.”[799]
His journey throughout Pennsylvania and Virginia, repeating scenes of his welcome at Philadelphia and Lancaster, ended at Richmond. There, among his old neighbors and friends, the demonstrations reached their climax. A long procession of citizens went out to meet him. Again rang the cheers, again the bells pealed, again the cannon thundered. And here, to his townsmen and friends, Marshall, for the first time, publicly opened his heart and told, with emotion, what had befallen in France. In this brief speech the Nationalist and fighting spirit, which appears in all his utterances throughout his entire life, flashes like a sword in battle.
Marshall cannot express his ”emotions of joy” which his return to Richmond has aroused; nor ”paint the sentiments of affection and grat.i.tude towards” his old neighbors. n.o.body, he a.s.sures his hearers, could appreciate his feelings who had not undergone similar experiences.
The envoys, far from their country with no news from their Government, were in constant anxiety, says Marshall. He tells of their trials, of how they had discharged their duty, of his exultation over the spirit America was now displaying. ”I rejoice that I was not mistaken in the opinion I had formed of my countrymen. I rejoice to find, though they know how to estimate, and therefore seek to avoid the horrors and dangers of war, yet they know also how to value the blessings of liberty and national independence. Peace would be purchased at too high a price by bending beneath a foreign yoke” and such a peace would be but brief; for ”the nation thus submitting would be soon involved in the quarrels of its master.... We shall remain free if we do not deserve to be slaves.”
Marshall compares the governments of France and America. To one who, like himself, is so accustomed to real liberty that he ”almost considers it as the indispensable companion of man, a view of [French] despotism,”
though ”borrowing the garb usurping the name of freedom,” teaches ”the solid safety and real security” existing in America. The loss of these ”would poison ... every other joy.” Without them ”freemen would turn with loathing and disgust from every other comfort of life.” To preserve them, ”all ... difficulties ought to be encountered.”
Stand by ”the government of your choice,” urges Marshall; its officials are from the people, ”subject in common with others to the laws they make,” and must soon return to the popular body ”whose destiny involves their own and in whose ruin they must partic.i.p.ate.” This is always a good rule, but ”it is peculiarly so in a moment of peril like the present” when ”want of confidence in our government ... furnishes ... a foreign real enemy [France] those weapons which have so often been so successfully used.”[800]
The Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen, and Common Council of Richmond presented Marshall with an address of extravagant praise. ”If reason and argument ... if integrity, candor, and the pure spirit of conciliation”
had met like qualities in France, ”smiling peace would have returned along with you.” But if Marshall had not brought peace, he had warned America against a government ”whose touch is death.” Perhaps he had even preserved ”our excellent const.i.tution and ... our well earned liberties.” In answer Marshall said that he reciprocated the ”joy” of his ”fellow citizens, neighbors, and ancient friends” upon his return; that they were right in thinking honorable peace with France was impossible; and warned them against ”the countless dangers which lurk beneath foreign attachments.”[801]
Marshall had become a national hero. Known before this time, outside of his own State, chiefly to the eminent lawyers of America, his name now became a household word in the remotest log cabins of Kentucky and Tennessee, as well as in the residences of Boston and New York. ”Saving General Was.h.i.+ngton, I believe the President, Pinckney, and Marshall are the most popular characters now in our country,” Troup reported to King in London.[802]
For the moment, only one small cloud appeared upon the horizon of Marshall's popularity; but a vicious flash blazed from it. Marshall went to Fredericksburg on business and attended the little theater at that place. The band of the local artillery company furnished the music. A Philadelphia Federalist, who happened to be present, ordered them to play ”The President's March” (”Hail, Columbia!”). Instantly the audience was in an uproar. So violent did they become that ”a considerable riot took place.” Marshall was openly insulted. Nor did their hostility subside with Marshall's departure. ”The inhabitants of Fredericksburg waited,” in anxious expectation, for an especially hated Federalist Congressman, Harper of South Carolina, to pa.s.s through the town on his way home, with the intention of treating him even more roughly.[803]
With this ominous exception, the public demonstrations for Marshall were warmly favorable. His strength with the people was greater than ever. By the members of the Federal Party he was fairly idolized. This, the first formal party organization in our history, was, as we have seen, in sorry case even under Was.h.i.+ngton. The a.s.saults of the Republicans, directed by Jefferson's genius for party management, had all but wrecked the Federalists. That great party general had out-maneuvered his adversaries at every point and the President's party was already nearing the breakers.
The conduct of the French mission and the publication of Marshall's dispatches and letters to Talleyrand saved the situation for the moment.
Those whom Jefferson's consummate skill had won over to the Republican Party returned by thousands to their former party allegiance.[804]
Congress acted with belated decision. Our treaty with France was abrogated; non-intercourse laws pa.s.sed; a provisional army created; the Navy Department established; a.r.s.enals provided; the building of wars.h.i.+ps directed. For a season our National machinery was permitted to work with vigor and effectiveness.
The voices that were wont to declaim the glories of French democracy were temporarily silent. The people, who but yesterday frantically cheered the ”liberte, egalite, fraternite” of Robespierre and Danton, now howled with wrath at mention of republican France. The pulpit became a tribune of military appeal and ministers of the gospel preached sermons against American ”Jacobins.”[805] Federalist orators had their turn at a.s.sailing ”despotism” with rhetoric and defending ”liberty” with eloquence; but the French Government was now the international villain whom they attacked.
”The struggle between Liberty and Despotism, Government and Anarchy, Religion and Atheism, has been gloriously decided.... France has been foiled, and America is free. The elastick veil of Gallick perfidy has been rent, ... the severing blow has been struck.” Our abrogation of the treaty with France was ”the completion of our Liberties, the acme of our Independence ... and ... emanc.i.p.ated us from the oppressive friends.h.i.+p of an ambitious, malignant, treacherous ally.” That act evidenced ”our nation's manhood”; our Government was now ”an Hercules, who, no longer amused with the coral and bells of 'liberty and equality' ... no longer willing to trifle at the _distaff_ of a 'Lady Negociator,' boldly invested himself in the _toga virilis_.”[806] Such was the language of the public platform; and private expressions of most men were even less restrained.