Volume II Part 56 (1/2)
Few Presidents have ever faced a more difficult party condition than did John Adams when, by a humiliating majority of only three votes, he was elected in 1796. He succeeded Was.h.i.+ngton; the ruling Federalist politicians looked to Hamilton as their party chieftain; even Adams's Cabinet, inherited from Was.h.i.+ngton, was personally unfriendly to the President and considered the imperious New York statesman as their supreme and real commander. ”I had all the officers and half the crew always ready to throw me overboard,” accurately declared Adams some years later.[1102]
Adams's temperament was the opposite of Was.h.i.+ngton's, to which the Federalist leaders had so long been accustomed that the change exasperated them.[1103] From the very beginning they bound his hands.
The new President had cherished the purpose of calling to his aid the ablest of the Republicans, but found himself helpless. ”When I first took the Chair,” bitterly records Adams, ”I was extremely desirous of availing myself of Mr. Madison's abilities, ... and experience. But the violent Party Spirit of Hamilton's Friends, jealous of every man who possessed qualifications to eclipse him, prevented it. I could not do it without quarreling outright with my Ministers whom Was.h.i.+ngton's appointment had made my Masters.”[1104]
On the other hand, the high Federalist politicians, most of whom were Hamilton's adherents, felt that Adams entertained for their leader exactly the same sentiments which the President ascribed to them. ”The jealousy which the P.[resident] has felt of H.[amilton] he now indulges toward P.[inckney], W.[olcott] & to'd _very many of their friends_ who are suspected of having too much influence in the Community, & of not knowing how to appreciate his [Adams's] merits.... The Consequence is that his ears are shut to his best real friends & open to Flatterers, to Time servers & even to some Jacobins.”[1105]
Adams, the scholar and statesman, but never the politician, was the last man to harmonize these differences. And Hamilton proved to be as inept as Adams.
After the President had dispatched the second mission to France, Hamilton's followers, including Adams's Cabinet, began intriguing in a furtive and vicious fas.h.i.+on to replace him with some other Federalist at the ensuing election. While, therefore, the President, as a personal matter, was more than justified in dismissing McHenry and Pickering (and Wolcott also[1106]), he chose a fatal moment for the blow; as a matter of political strategy he should have struck sooner or not at all.
At this late hour the great party task and duty of the President was, by any and every honorable means, to unite all Federalist factions for the impending battle with the eager, powerful, and disciplined Republicans.
Frank and full conference, tolerance, and conciliation, were the methods now required. These might not have succeeded, but at least they would not have irritated still more the ragged edges of party dissension. Not only did the exasperated President take the opposite course, but his manner and conduct were acid instead of ointment to the raw and angry wounds.[1107]
This, then, was the state of the Federalist Party, the frame of mind of the President, and the distracted condition of the Cabinet, when Marshall was asked to become Secretary of State in the late spring of 1800. He was minded to refuse this high station as he had that of Secretary of War. ”I incline to think Mr. Marshall will decline this office also,” wrote McHenry to his brother.[1108] If he accepted, he would be loyal to the President--his nature made anything else impossible. But he was the personal friend of all the Federalist leaders, who, in spite of his disapproval of the Alien and Sedition Laws and of his dissent from his party's plans in Congress, in spite, even, of his support of the President's detested second mission to France,[1109] nevertheless trusted and liked him.
The President's selection of Marshall had been antic.i.p.ated by the Republicans. ”General Marshall ... has been nominated to hold the station of Secretary of War,” said the ”Aurora,” in an article heavy with abuse of Pickering. ”This ... however, is said to be but preparatory to General Marshall's appointment to succeed Mr. Pickering who is expected to resign.”[1110]
Strangely enough the news of his elevation to the head of the Cabinet called forth only gentle criticism from the Republican press. ”From what is said of Mr. Marshall,” the ”Aurora” thought that he was ”as little likely to conciliate” France as Pickering. He ”is well known to have been the disingenuous writer of all the X. Y. Z. Dispatches,” which the Federalists had ”confessed to be one of the best and most successful political _tricks_ that was ever _played off_.... General Marshall's fineering and var[ni]s.h.i.+ng capacity” was ”well known,” said the ”Aurora.” ”General Marshall consequently has been nominated and appointed.... In genuine federal principles, General Marshall is as inflexible as Mr. Pickering; but in the negotiation with France, the General may not have imbibed so strong prejudices--and, having been one of the Envoys to that Republic, he may be supposed to be more conversant with some of the points in dispute, than Col. Pickering, and consequently to be preferred.
”We find him very well spoken of in the _reformed Gazettes of France_,”
continues the ”Aurora,” ”which being now under guardians.h.i.+p[1111] may be considered as speaking the language of the government--'_Le Bien Informe_,' after mentioning the motion Gen. M. made in announcing to Congress the death of Gen. Was.h.i.+ngton, adds--'This is the gentleman who some time since came as Envoy from the _United States_; and who so virtuously and so spiritedly refused to fill the pockets of some of _our gentry_ with Dutch inscriptions, and millions of livres.'”[1112]
For nearly two weeks Marshall pondered over the President's offer. The prospect was not inviting. It was unlikely that he could hold the place longer than three quarters of a year, for Federalist defeat in the presidential election was more than probable; and it seemed certain that the head of the Cabinet would gather political cypress instead of laurel in this brief and troubled period. Marshall consulted his friends among the Federalist leaders; and, finally, accepted the proffered portfolio.
Thereupon the ”Aurora,” quoting Pickering's statement that the office of Secretary of State ”was never better filled than by General Marshall,”
hopes that ”Gen. Marshall will take care of his _accounts_,” which that Republican paper had falsely charged that Pickering had manipulated corruptly.[1113]
Expressing the Republican temper the ”Aurora” thus a.n.a.lyzes the new Federalist Cabinet: ”The Secretary of the Treasury [Oliver Wolcott]” was ”scarcely qualified to hold the second desk in a Mercantile Counting-House”; the Attorney-General [Charles Lee] was ”without talents”; the Secretary of the Navy [Benjamin Stoddert] was ”a small Georgetown politician ... cunning, gossiping, ... of no ... character or ... principles”; the Secretary of War [Samuel Dexter] was no more fit for the place than ”his MOTHER”; and Marshall, Secretary of State, was ”more distinguished as a _rhetorician_ and a _sophist_ than as a _lawyer_ and a _statesman_--sufficiently pliant to succeed in a corrupt court, too insincere to command respect, or confidence in a republic.”
However, said the ”Aurora,” Adams was ”able to teach Mr. Marshall 'l'art diplomatique.'”[1114]
Some of the Federalist leaders were not yet convinced, it appears, of Marshall's party orthodoxy. Pinckney rea.s.sures them. Writing from Virginia, he informs McHenry that ”Marshall with reluctance accepts, but you may rely on his federalism, & be certain that he will not unite with Jefferson & the Jacobins.”[1115] Two months later even the Guy Fawkes of the Adams Cabinet declares himself more than satisfied: ”If the gentlemen now in office [Marshall and Dexter] had declined,” declares Wolcott, ”rage, vexation & despair would probably have occasioned the most extravagant conduct[1116] [on the part of the President].” After Marshall had been at the head of the Cabinet for four months, Cabot writes that ”Mr. Wolcott thinks Mr. Marshall accepted the secretarys.h.i.+p from good motives, and with a view of preserving union, and that he and Dexter, by _accepting_, have rendered the nation great service; for, if they had refused, we should have had--_Heaven alone knows whom!_ He thinks, however, as all must, that under the present chief they will be disappointed in their hopes, and that if Jefferson is President they will probably resign.”[1117]
In view of ”the temper of his [Adams's] mind,” which, a.s.serts the unfaithful Wolcott, was ”revolutionary, violent, and vindictive, ...
their [Marshall's and Dexter's] acceptance of their offices is the best evidence of their patriotism.... I consider Gen. Marshall and Mr. Dexter as more than secretaries--as state conservators--the value of whose services ought to be estimated, not only by the good they do, but by the mischief they have prevented. If I am not mistaken, however, Gen.
Marshall will find himself out of his proper element.”[1118]
No sooner was Marshall in the Secretary's chair than the President hastened to his Ma.s.sachusetts home and his afflicted wife. Adams's part in directing the Government was done by correspondence.[1119] Marshall took up his duties with his characteristically serious, yet nonchalant, patience.
The National Capital had now been removed to Was.h.i.+ngton; and here, during the long, hot summer of 1800, Marshall remained amidst the steaming swamps and forests where the ”Federal City” was yet to be built.[1120] Not till October did he leave his post, and then but briefly and on urgent private business.[1121]
The work of the State Department during this period was not onerous.
Marshall's chief occupation at the Capital, it would appear, was to act as the practical head of the Government; and even his political enemies admitted that he did this well. Jefferson's most partial biographer says that ”under the firm and steady lead [of Marshall and Dexter] ... the Government soon acquired an order, system, and character which it never had before possessed.”[1122] Still, enough routine business came to his desk to give the new Secretary of State something to do in his own department.
Office-seeking, which had so annoyed Was.h.i.+ngton, still vexed Adams, although but few of these hornets' nests remained for him to deal with.
”Your knowledge of persons, characters, and circ.u.mstances,” wrote the President to Marshall concerning the applications for the office of United States Marshal for Maryland, ”are so much better than mine, and my confidence in your judgment and impartiality so entire, that I pray you ... give the commission to him whom you may prefer.”[1123] Adams favored the son of Judge Chase; but, on the advice of Stoddert of Maryland, who was Secretary of the Navy, Marshall decided against him: ”Mr. Chase is a young man who has not yet acquired the public confidence and to appoint him in preference to others who are generally known and esteem'd, might be deem'd a mere act of favor to his Father. Mr.
Stoddert supposes it ineligible to acc.u.mulate, without superior pretensions, offices in the same family.”
Marshall generally trimmed his sails, however, to the winds of presidential preference. He undoubtedly influenced the Cabinet, in harmony with the President's wish, to concur in the pardon of Isaac Williams, convicted, under the Jay Treaty, of waging war on the high seas against Great Britain. Williams, though sailing under a French commission, was a pirate, and acc.u.mulated much wealth from his indiscriminate buccaneering.[1125] But the President wrote Marshall that because of ”the man's generosity to American prisoners,” and ”his present poverty and great distress,” he desired to pardon Williams.[1126]