to search for them on board of American vessels, anywhere, in whatever oceans or seas. The fallacy of such pretensions had been conclusively shown under the former administration; yet as they were set forth anew, it became Mr. Madison's first duty again to repel them. This was not only done ably and well, but in a manner which elicited approbation even from his most jealous adversaries. In argument on such topics, Mr. Madison had no superior.

Meanwhile, Napoleon, on the pretense of retaliating upon the United States for submitting to the outrages perpetrated by England, issued his celebrated decree of Rambouillet, which authorized the seizure and confiscation of American vessels which were then in the ports of France, or which might afterwards enter, except those charged with dispatches to the government. In April, 1809, a treaty was concluded with Erskine, the British minister at Washington, which engaged on the part of Great Britain that the orders in council, so far as they affected the United States, should be withdrawn. To this the British ministry at home refused their sanction, alleging that Erskine had exceeded his powers. A successor to Erskine, of the name of Jackson, was appointed, who had the presumption to assert that the administration knew that Erskine was not authorized to make the announcement. This was denied by the secretary of state, but was repeated by Jackson; whereupon Mr. Madison declined further intercourse.

In May, 1810, the non-intercourse act expired; wherepon Mr. Madison caused proposals to be made to both belligerents, that if either would revoke its hostile edicts, this law should only be revived and enforced against the other nation. France, therefore, repealed her decrees, but Great Britain adhered to hers. In November following,

Mr. Madison issued a proclamation declaring all restrictions imposed by the non-intercourse law to have ceased in relation to France and her dependencies.

About this time a collision took place off Cape Charles between the American frigate President, under command of Commodore Rogers, and one of the British vessels, then hovering on our coast, called the Little Belt. The attack was made by the latter, but she was soon disabled, and thirty-two of her men killed or wounded. Cotemporaneously with this occurrence another British minister, of the name of Foster, arrived at Washington, who after an effort to fix upon our government the blame of the affair with the Little Belt, tendered an offer of indemnity for the damages occasioned by the attack on the Chesapeake, and to restore the seamen, which was accepted.

*

But notwithstanding the offer of Great Britain through her minister to settle the affair of the Chesapeake, she adhered firmly to her orders in council, to her right to search American vessels and to impress American seamen, if found to be natives of her realm; and continued to enforce her claims by stationing her men-of-war before the principal harbors of the United States. She was particularly ambitious to capture all vessels, and their cargoes, in trade with France. And it was asserted that, at the commencement of the year 1812, at least nine hundred American vessels, of various forms and tonnage, had fallen into British custody, and had been condemned by the British admiralty as lawful prizes.

On the 9th of March, Mr. Madison submitted to congress copies of certain documents, indicating that on the 6th of February, 1809, the British government, through its agent, Sir James Craig, governor of Canada, had sent

*See Niles' Register, vol. i, page 199, for this correspondence.

one John Henry as an emissary to the United States for the express purpose of conspiring with the Federalists to destroy the government, by effecting a disunion of its parts. The service for which he was particularly employed, was to draw the Federalists of New England into a direct communication with Craig, and induce, if possible, the people of those states to form themselves into a separate dependency or province under the protectorate of Great Britain.

Henry undertook the delicate service, but after proceeding through Vermont and New Hampshire to Boston, returned without effecting his purpose. This failure he attributed to the readiness of Mr. Madison to comply with the proposals of Erskine, which deprived the Federalists of the power to render his administration odious with the people. This was a false pretense, yet it answered the purposes of its invention. Failing then to get a recompense from the British government for the dishonorable service, be disclosed the affair to Mr. Madison, for which he was paid, it is said, the sum of fifty thousand dollars out of the contingent fund raised to defray the charges of our foreign intercourse. This dishonorable attempt, on the part of Great Britain, in time of peace, to instigate sedition among our people, was justly regarded with abhorence by upright men of all parties, and was among the prominent causes of the war which ensued. On the 20th of April, 1812, George Clinton, the vice president, departed this life at Washington.

Before the war was formally declared, and at a congressional caucus held at Washington on the 18th of May, in that year, Mr. Madison was re-nominated for the presidency, with Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, for the second office, after the declension of John Langdon, of New Hampshire. By this time it was perceived that al

though Virginia had given to the country three chief magistrates of acknowledged wisdom, she had monopolized the administration for twenty out of twenty-four years of our then constitutional existence; that unless it could be made to appear that she enjoyed a corresponding monopoly of the patriotism and talents in the country, it was unfair for her to urge the reëlection of Mr. Madison; that the practice of pre-determining, in a caucus of members of congress, who should or should not receive the suffrages of the people without guilt of party treason, was liable to such abuses as to be absolutely dangerous to the republic; and that in this instance, its refusal to nominate De Witt Clinton, of New York, for the vice presidency, in order that he might have precedence at the end of the term over James Monroe, who had been indicated as the proper successor, absolved all Republicans who had not participated in the movement, from supporting that ticket. This, superadded

to disaffections on account of the, so called, inefficient manner in which the administration had conducted our foreign affairs, produced a defection which resulted in an open break, first in the state of New York, and afterward in New England, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. It m be noted as the first of the series of political schisms which mar the constitutional history of the United States.

may

The ranks once broken, it became necessary for the protestants to have a leader; whereupon the Republican members of the New York legislature took the initiative, by placing De Witt Clinton in nomination for the presidency, and Jared Ingersoll, of Pennsylvania, for the vice presidency. This was responded to by conventions held in other northern and eastern states, and drew to the support of these candidates all the elements of opposition to Mr. Madison's administration. Mr. Clinton professed to

be a Republican, but was nevertheless willing to receive the support of the Federalists, who had before the people no ticket of their own.

On the 17th of August, Benjamin De Witt, Matthias B. Tallmadge, Thomas Addis Emmet, William W. Gilber, John McKesson, Preserved Fish, Pierre C. Van Wyck, Gurdon S. Mumford, Jacob De La Montaigne, Sylvanus Miller, Benjamin Ferris, Richard Riker, Elbert Herring, Peter Wilson, John H. Sickles, and Samuel Harris, a committee of the city of New York, acting under the authority of the general committee of correspondence of the state of New York, issued a printed appeal to the electors of the United States, calling upon them to withhold their suffrages from Mr. Madison and to bestow them upon Mr. Clinton. That address distinctly raised the issues involved in that campaign, and became, therefore, an important passage in political history. In the language of later times, it was the platform of the Clintonians in 1812.

1. Opposition to nominations of chief magistrates by congressional caucuses, as well because such practices are the exercise of undelegated authority, as of their repugnance to the freedom of elections.

2. Opposition to all customs and usages in both the executive and legislative departments which have for their object the maintenance of an official regency to prescribe tenets of political faith, the line of conduct to be deemed fidelity or recreancy to republican principles, and to perpetuate in themselves or families the offices of the federai government.

3. Opposition to all efforts on the part of particular states to monopolize the principal offices of the government, as well because of their certainty to destroy the harmony which ought to prevail amongst all the constituent parts of the Union, as of their leanings toward a form