Volume II Part 44 (1/2)

Was.h.i.+ngton was almost as extravagant on the other side. When an opponent of the Alien and Sedition Acts asked him for his opinion of them, he advised his questioner to read the opposing arguments ”and consider to what lengths a certain description of men in our country have already driven and seem resolved further to drive matters” and then decide whether these laws are not necessary, against those ”who acknowledge no allegiance to this country, and in many instances are sent among us ...

for the express purpose of poisoning the minds of our people,--and to sow dissensions among them, in order to alienate their affections from the government of their choice, thereby endeavoring to dissolve the Union.”[877]

Was.h.i.+ngton thought that the ferocious Republican attack on the Alien and Sedition Laws was but a cunning maneuver of politicians, and this, indeed, for the moment at least, seems to have been the case. ”The Alien and Sedition Laws are now the desiderata of the Opposition.... But any thing else would have done,--and something there will always be, for them to torture; and to disturb the public mind with their unfounded and ill favored forebodings” was his pessimistic judgment.[878]

He sent ”to General Marshall Judge Addison's charge to the grand juries of the county courts of the Fifth Circuit of the State of Pennsylvania.... This charge is on the liberty of speech and of the press and is a justification of the sedition and alien laws. But,” wrote Was.h.i.+ngton, ”I do not believe that ... it ... or ... any other writing will produce the least change in the conduct of the leaders of the opposition to the measures of the general government. They have points to carry from which no reasoning, no consistency of conduct, no absurdity can divert them. If, however, such writings should produce conviction in the mind of those who have hitherto placed faith in their a.s.sertions, it will be a fortunate event for this country.”[879]

Marshall had spoken in the same vein soon after his arrival at Richmond.

”The people ... are pretty right as it respects France,” he reports to the Secretary of State. The Republican criticisms of the X. Y. Z.

mission ”make so little impression that I believe France will be given up and the attack upon the government will be supported by the alien and sedition laws. I am extremely sorry to observe that here they are more successful and that these two laws, especially the sedition bill, are viewed by a great many well meaning men, as unwarranted by the const.i.tution.

”I am entirely persuaded that with many the hate of Government of our country is implacable and that if these bills did not exist the same clamor would be made by them on some other account, but,” truthfully and judicially writes Marshall, ”there are also many who are guided by very different motives, and who tho' less noisy in their complaints are seriously uneasy on this subject.”[880]

The Republicans pressed Marshall particularly hard on the Alien and Sedition Laws, but he found a way to answer. Within a few days after he had become the Federalist candidate, an anonymous writer, signing himself ”Freeholder,” published in the Richmond newspapers an open letter to Marshall asking him whether he was for the Const.i.tution; whether the welfare of America depended on a foreign alliance; whether a closer connection with Great Britain was desirable; whether the Administration's conduct toward France was wise; and, above all, whether Marshall was ”an advocate of the alien and sedition bills or in the event of your election will you use your influence to obtain a repeal of these laws?”

In printing Marshall's answers to ”Freeholder,” the ”Times and Virginia Advertiser” of Alexandria remarked: ”Mr. John Marshall has offered as a candidate for a representative in the next Congress. He has already begun his electioneering campaign. The following are answers to some queries proposed to him. Whether the queries were propounded with a view of discovering his real sentiments, or whether they were published by one of his friends to serve electioneering purposes, is immaterial:--The principles Mr. Marshall professes to possess are such as influence the conduct of every real American.”[881]

A week later Marshall published his answers. ”Every citizen,” says he, ”has a right to know the political sentiments of a candidate”; and besides, the candidate wishes everybody to know his ”real principles”

and not ”attribute” to him ”those with which active calumny has ...

aspersed” him. In this spirit Marshall answers that ”in heart and sentiment, as well as by birth and interest,” he is ”an American; attached to the ... Const.i.tution ... which will preserve us if we support it firmly.”

He is, he a.s.serts, against any alliance, ”offensive or defensive,” with Great Britain or ”any closer connection with that nation than already exists.... No man in existence is more decidedly opposed to such an alliance or more fully convinced of the evils that would result from it.” Marshall declares that he is for American neutrality in foreign wars; and cites his memorial to Talleyrand as stating his views on this subject.

”The whole of my politics respecting foreign nations, are reducible to this single position: ... Commercial intercourse with all, but political ties with none ... buy as cheap and sell as dear as possible ... never connect ourselves politically with any nation whatever.”

He disclaims the right to speak for the Administration, but believes it to have the same principles. If France, while at war with Great Britain, should also make war on America, ”it would be madness and folly” not to secure the ”aid of the British fleets to prevent our being invaded”; but, not even for that, would he ”make such a sacrifice as ... we should make by forming a permanent political connection with ... any nation on earth.”

Marshall says that he believes the Administration's policy as regards France to have been correct, and necessary to the maintenance ”of the neutrality and independence of our country.” Peace with France was not possible ”without sacrificing those great objects,” for ”the primary object of France is ... dominion over others.” The French accomplish this purpose by ”immense armies on their part and divisions among ...

those whom they wish to subdue.”

Marshall declares that he is ”not an advocate of the Alien and Sedition Bills,” and, had he been in Congress, ”certainly would have opposed them,” although he does not ”think them fraught with all those mischiefs ascribed to them.” But he thinks them ”useless ... calculated to create unnecessary discontents and jealousies”; and that, too, ”at a time when our very existence as a nation may depend on our union.”

He believes that those detested laws ”would never have been enacted” if they had been opposed on these principles by a man not suspected of intending to destroy the government or being hostile to it.” The effort to repeal them ”will be made before he can become a member of Congress”; if it fails and is renewed after he takes his seat, he ”will obey the voice of his const.i.tuents.” He thinks, however, it will be unwise to revive the Alien and Sedition Acts which are, by their own terms, about to expire; and Marshall pledges that he will ”indisputably oppose their revival.”[882]

Upon Marshall as their favorite candidate for Congress, the eyes of the Federalist leaders in other States were focused. They were particularly anxious and uncertain as to his stand on the Alien and Sedition Laws; for he seems to have privately expressed, while in Philadelphia on his return from France, a mild disapproval of the wisdom and political expediency of this absurd legislation. His answers to ”Freeholder” were therefore published everywhere. When the New England Federalists read them in the ”Columbian Centinel” of Sat.u.r.day, October 20, most of them were as hot against Marshall as were the rabid Virginia Republicans.

Ames whetted his rhetoric to razor edge and slashed without mercy. He describes Republican dismay when Marshall's dispatches were published: ”The wretches [Republicans] looked round, like Milton's devils when first recovering from the stunning force of their fall from Heaven, to see what new ground they could take.” They chose, says Ames, ”the alien and sedition bills, and the land tax” with which to arouse discontent and revive their party. So ”the implacable foes of the Const.i.tution--foes before it was made, while it was making, and since--became full of tender fears lest it should be violated by the alien and sedition laws.”

The Federalists, complained Ames, ”are forever hazarding the cause by heedless and rash concessions. John Marshall, with all his honors in blossom and bearing fruit, answers some newspaper queries unfavorably to these laws.... No correct man,--no incorrect man, even,--whose affections and feelings are wedded to the government, would give his name to the base opposers of the law.... This he has done. Excuses may palliate,--future zeal in the cause may partially atone,--but his character is done for.... Like a man who in battle receives an ounce ball in his body--it may heal, it lies too deep to be extracted....

There let it lie. False Federalists, or such as act wrong from false fears, should be dealt hardly by, if I were Jupiter Tonans.... The moderates [like Marshall] are the meanest of cowards, the falsest of hypocrites.”[883] Theodore Sedgwick declared that Marshall's ”mysterious & unpardonable” conduct had aided ”french villainy” and that he had ”degraded himself by a mean & paltry electioneering trick.”[884]

At first, the Republicans praised Marshall's stand; and this made the New England Federalists frantic. Cabot, alone, defended Marshall in the press, although not over his own name and only as a matter of party tactics. He procured some one to write to the ”Columbian Centinel” under the name of ”A Yankee Freeholder.” This contributor tried to explain away Marshall's offense.

”General Marshall is a citizen too eminent for his talents, his virtues and his public services, to merit so severe a punishment as to [receive the] applause of disorganizers [Republicans].” He should be saved from the ”admiration of the _seditious_”--that much was due to Marshall's ”spirit, firmness and eloquence” in the contest with ”the Despots of _France_.” As ”drowning men would catch at straws” so ”the eagle-eyed and disheartened sons of faction” had ”with forlorn and desperate ...

avidity ... seized on” Marshall's answers to ”Freeholder.”

And no wonder; for ”even _good men_ have stood appalled, at observing a man whom they so highly venerate soliciting votes at the expense of principles which they deem sacred and inviolable.” ”Yankee Freeholder”

therefore proposes ”to vindicate General MARSHALL.”

Marshall was the only Richmond Federalist who could be elected; he ”patriotically” had consented to run only because of ”the situation and danger of his country at this moment.” Therefore ”it was absolutely necessary to take all the ordinary steps” to succeed. This ”may appear extraordinary ... to those who are only acquainted with the delicacy of _New England_ elections where _personal_ solicitation is the Death-warrant to success”; but it was ”not only pardonable but necessary ... in the Southern States.”