DECEMBER, 1798.] Usurpation of Executive Authority. [H. or R constantly followed up its proclamations by ac- tions. Why, asked Mr. H., may they interfere to tions, that whenever it should find, in any country. a party disposed to subvert the established Government, it would support that party. The policy of this system was obvious; for that party, coming into power by the aid of France and depending on her for the support of their authority, will generally be subservient to her views, and willing to place the affairs of the country under her control. With respect to this country, the French Government had told us plainly, and in so many words, that such a party did exist among ; that they relied on this party; that we, indeed, might be good natured and credulous enough to believe the persons composing this party, when they denied having any connexion with France, or acting under her influence, but that they had better proofs than the words of these persons, they had their actions; and that, although this party could not direct the Government, it could so embarrass and fetter it as to disable it from moving hand or foot against France. Under these circumstances, while France entertains, and acts upon, this belief, an Envoy goes thither from this country, and goes-as Mr. H. said seemed evident to him from the reasons which he had stated— with credentials from, and in the name of, certain persons here, who exercise the right of speaking the sentiments of this party, and acting in its behalf. What must be the objects of such a mission? What must be the language which the Envoy, supposing him or those who sent him to possess some small portion of common sense, must have employed to the French Government, in order to attain those objects? make peace? Because they judge peace desirable. But they may also judge war desirable, and upon precisely the same principle, they may, in that case, interfere to make war. When, under pretence of making peace, they have assumed a public character, and by themselves or their Envoys, addressed themselves directly and openly, to a foreign Government, they may treat with that Government about any other matter, and all other matters. Under this pretence, if this principle be once established, any discontented faction, under the name of a club, a patriotic society, a revolution society, a whig club, or any other name, may usurp the most essential functions of Government in their own country, negotiate, on all sorts of subjects with the Governments of other countries, and open a direct and broad road for the entrance of that foreign influence which, with equal truth and force, has been characterized as "the Angel of Destruction to Republican Governments." Leaving this principle, therefore, continued Mr. H., where my colleague has placed it, exposed to view in all its nakedness and deformity, as visible as the pillar to which I point, I will proceed to remark on the connexion between this mission and the system and views of France towards this country; and I will repeat the question, what, under such circumstances, must have been the object of this mission, and what considerations must the Envoy, supposing him or his employers to possess common sense, have urged to the Directory in order to attain that object? Could this mission, he would ask, have arisen from a conviction in its authors that the conduct I know, said Mr. H., that the gentleman from of France towards this country was unjust or injuVirginia (Mr. NICHOLAS) has told us that the ob-rious, and ought, on that account, to be altered? jeet of this person in going to France was to No; for in that case the zeal which gave rise to the obtain peace for his country: and this object, the mission, would have been sooner awakened, and gentleman from Virginia says, is so laudable, that the mission itself would have taken place as soon the person in question, instead of censure for this as that conduct had been reduced to a regular sysinterference with the affairs of the Government, tem, and adhered to for a time. Was it the object deserves, and no doubt will receive, the applause of the mission to rescue the violated rights of this af every sincere friend to his country, every sin- country from further outrage? No; for it was cere lover of peace. That gentleman affirms that notorious that the acts whereby this violation had every person has a right to take such a step, has a been effected, so far from rousing the indignation ngat to go. of his own authority, and attempt to of these persons, or giving rise to an embassy from make peace with a foreign nation, if he conceives them, had been excused, and even justified. What, himself to possess the means of accomplishing then, was the object? The answer, Mr. H. said, the object. It may, he admits, be a proof of great was to be found in the time when the mission was folly and presumption in an individual to believe sent. France had pursued, for a long time, a syshimself possessed of those means; but if he really tem of hostility and aggression towards this counentertains the belief, he ought to exert them: and try. During this whole time, the zeal which gave the gentleman from Virginia has declared, that rise to this mission had slept. France had not could he believe himself able to succeed in such only refused reparation for the past and forbearan enterprise, he would undertake it and glory in ance in future, but had spurned at our remonMy colleague (Mr. PINCKNEY) has shown, strances, slapt the door in the faces of our Minismost undeniably, that this principle, once admit- ters of peace, and finally demanded tribute as ted must go to the utter subversion of Govern- the price of an audience. Still this zeal slept. ment-the principle being, that whenever an At length the spirit of the country, roused by these individual, or, by stronger reason, a number of repeated injuries and insults, comes in aid of the individuals, conceive themselves wiser than the Government; measures of preparation and resistGovernment, more able to discern, or more will-ance are adopted, and a universal indignation ing to pursue, the true interests of the country, they may assume its functions, counteract it views and interfere in its most important opera burst forth against France and her adherents. Then this sleeping zeal was awakened-by what? By the dread lest this public spirit and indignation H. OF R.] Usurpation of Executive Authority. should strengthen the hands of our Government and arm the nation against France, and strip off all popularity and power from the individuals who were devoted to her interests, and expected to flourish under her patronage. How was this evil to be averted? By persuading France to tread back some of her offensive steps; to assume a line of conduct something less courageous; to hold out some appearances of a conciliatory spirit; in short, to change her system of menace and blustering, for an insidious system, whereby our resentments might be disarmed, and our spirit of resistance lulled asleep. How was France to be thus persuaded? By a mission, which, going under the sanction and with the credentials of her partisans here, might obtain the confidence of her Government. The mission, therefore, was sent. This, Mr. H. said, he took to be a true history of this transaction as to its motives and objects. What, he would now ask, must have been the arguments urged to the Directory in order to insure its success? Could any reliance have been placed by the authors of this mission on an appeal to the justice of France? Certainly not, unless they were downright blockheads. And that, although he had never thought highly of the understanding of the person whom he supposed to have been the prime mover in this affair, yet he could not estimate it so very low as to imagine him capable of talking seriously about justice to a Government which had told us plainly "that it cared nothing about the justice of our complaints or our claims; that we might, indeed, have just cause of complaint, but the question was not about justice or injustice, but whether we were prepared to submit on the conditions prescribed." To a Government holding openly this language, it would have been the last stage of folly to talk about justice, with any serious expectation of being listened to. The appeal, therefore, must, he conceived, have been to the policy, the interests, of the Directory. And in what language would this appeal be made? By what topics would it be enforced? He imagined by such as these: "You have, it is true, a party in America, and a strong one; but not so strong a one as you imagine; and much of the force which it does possess depends on public opinion, and the adherence of persons not fully apprized of its views. Of this force you are about to strip it by the intemperate violence of your late conduct. You overshoot the mark, and rouse the public indignation against yourselves and your friends, whose popularity and influence you wholly destroy, thereby breaking their strength, and thereby disabling them from rendering you any service in future. Therefore slacken your hand a little. Assume a language somewhat more complaisant, a behaviour somewhat less offensive. Hold out some appearance of an amiable and conciliatory spirit. You need not repeal your decrees against our commerce, but abate a little, and for a time, from the rigor of their execution. Talk about calling in privateers; release a few seamen and a ship or, two now and then. This will assuage the resentment of the people, unnerve the arm of the [DECEMBER, 1798. Government, and leave you at leisure to prepare your plans for execution at a more favorable moment. In the meantime, we, your friends, shall regain our influence, or, at least, preserve what we have left, and may render you good service in future. After your war with England is at an end, we may, perhaps, show you the way into America, as well as Citizen Ocks and his friends showed you the way into Switzerland, as soon as you got the Emperor off your hands. On the contrary, should you push matters to extremities now, when the national spirit is roused and high, a war must be the consequence, and that will overwhelm you and us, as far as respects your influence in America, in one common ruin." This, Mr. H. said, he supposed must have been, and he verily believed was, the language which the person employed in this mission was intrusted to hold, and did hold, in secret, to the French Government. His more ostensible communications, if he made any, as was said to be the case, might have been, and probably were, more cautious in their expressions, and more guarded in their sense; but it was on these considerations, and these alone, that, in his opinion, any reliance was placed by the authors of the mission. These. he had no doubt, were the substantial parts of the negotiation. The rest was mere talk and ceremony-the cover thrown over the real design. To have held other language, under such circumstances, would, in his apprehension, have betrayed a degree of incapacity, of ignorance, and of childish simplicity, of which he could not suspect the contriver of this mission, nor even the agent employed in it. I am very sensible, sir, continued Mr. H., that the gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. NICHOLAS,) may again tell me, as he did on a former occasion, that in reasoning thus I set up my own understanding as a measure for those of other men, and find everybody guilty of ignorance or folly who differs from myself in opinion. But there are some propositions on which, such is their fulness of evidence, it is impossible for the mind to doubt, and in which we must suppose all men of common sense to agree; in the same manner as every man who has eye-sight must agree that the sun now shines; and should any one deny it, whatever respect we might have for his discernment on other occasions, we must suppose him to be blind upon this. Mr. H. said he was ready to admit, with the gentleman from Pennsylvania, (Mr. GALLATIN,) that the embassy in question had produced no effect. Of this he was well assured, for he believed it to be a very weak project, not calculated to produce any effect whatever. The small apparent changes, in a few trifling particulars, which are said to have taken place, he had no doubt, were to be ascribed, not to the representations of this Envoy, but to the vigorous measures of Government, the firmness of the Executive, and the spirit displayed by the country at large. It was not the effect of the mission, but its principles, its nature, and its tendency, at which he was alarmed. He wished to nip this most dangerous practice in the bud, to cut up, by times, this plant of usurpa DECEMBER, 1798.] Usurpation of Executive Authority. tion, which, if suffered to take root and flourish, must soon destroy the Government by its poisonous shade. This was to be effected, not by punishing this individual, which he believed could not be done, for he knew of no law wherein the case was included, but by making a law to prevent such mischievous practices in future. And when we know, said he, that other countries have been ruined by this very engine of a factious intercourse between their turbulent citizens and the French Government; when we know that that Government openly avows its determination to encourage such intercourse, to protect all factions, all malcontents, all insurgents, in all countries; when we know, in fine, that this intercourse and her consequent protection of domestic factions, are the great engines of her foreign policy, and the weapons wherewith she has already prostrated so many wretched countries; when we know all this, shall we not oppose an effectual barrier against this terrible plague? shall we not pass a law to prevent individuals from thus transferring to themselves, by their own authority, the powers of the Government, which they may afterwards use for placing the country under foreign dominion? I hope, Mr. Speaker, that we shall pass this necessary law, that we shall courageously meet this new and formidable danger. To do so, I know, will be contrary to the new code of the rights of man, according to which an handful of individuals, twenty, fifty, or one hundred, may assemble, call themselves "the people," and assume, at once, all the powers of Government. It will, I know, be sinning against the new light. But in this new light I am not a believer. I still think that the majority of the people, by their representatives and agents legally appointed, ought to rule. and that all interference with their functions, or usurpations of their authority, by selfappointed individuals, or self-constituted bodies, are dangerous encroachments, which ought to be restrained and punished. This, I am sensible, is an old-fashioned doctrine; but the experience had under the new system does not seem to me to speak much in its favor, and I therefore wish to adhere, closely and steadfastly, to the old plan. Although, therefore, Mr. H. said, he was ready to acknowledge this embassy to have been, in itself. a very silly affair, yet he believed that if the practice were once permitted, and thus the principle established, it would speedily be drawn into precedent, and must lead to the total subversion of the Government. The effects of such a principle, reduced to practice, had already, he said, made themselves sufficiently manifest in several nations of Europe, to the catalogue of which, presented by his colleague, the gentleman from Pennsylvania had with great propriety added Switzerland. And by whom were the inhabitants of that beautiful and happy country delivered up to pillage, slaughter, and a foreign yoke? By whom but her own profligate sons, who, stimulated by a boundless and unprincipled ambition, chose, rather than not rule, to rule over a country plundered and ruined, and to hold a precarious power as the miserable vicegerents of a foreign despotism! Are [H. of R. there no persons of this description among us? none who, for the sake of authority, would consent to obtain it by foreign aid, and hold it by a foreign tenure? I hope in God that there are none; but I know of no reason why we should be happier in this respect than the Swiss. Surely we have not less reason to be discontented than they had. But this spirit, a spirit of usurpation, of assumed power, and of revolt, out of which this particular case has grown, is not confined to this or that country, nor to this or that form of Goyernment. It exists more or less in all countries and under all Governments, however just and mild; for in all countries are there to be found restless, discontented, turbulent individuals, unsatisfied with the portion of power which they possess, or can, by regular means, obtain, and therefore disposed, according to opportunities and circumstances, to use irregular means for the attainment of more. This spirit, thus universal, has committed dreadful ravages in all those countries where it has not been vigorously resisted and closely restrained. It is therefore our wisdom to meet it on the threshold, and oppose to it a timely and a vigorous resistance, lest it destroy us also. "Obsta principiis" is a wise maxim in all circumstances of human affairs, especially in the affairs of Government. When a cancer has shot deep its roots, it cannot be torn out without destroying the vital parts. A timely use of the knife, or the caustic, might have destroyed it in the beginning without danger or inconvenience. This cancer in the body politic has but just made its appearance. Its roots are yet short and feeble. The proposed law is the caustic and the knife, which I hope to see applied with a firm and steady hand ere the evil spread and grow more inveterate. Otherwise it certainly will spread, and destroy the body politic, perhaps in less time than any one now apprehends. The House indeed had been told, Mr. H. said, that they ought to reject the proposed resolution, because of some defects in its form of expression, which, however, would be found in no degree to affect the principle whereon the resolution was founded. Objections of this kind are never proper except to a bill on its third reading, when, being no longer open to amendment, it must be rejected by those who cannot agree to its particular provisions; but such objections were wholly inadmissible, when urged against a resolution which must pass through various subsequent stages, where all those small defects may be amended. In this first stage nothing but the principle ought to be in question, and it was the principle alone for which he contended. As little regard, he said, was due to what had been said respecting the intention with which an interference of this kind must be made. The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. GALLATIN) had said that the impropriety of acts like this must depend on the intention with which they were done. But how were men's intentions to be judged of, but from their actions? Might they not sometimes think their projects beneficial, when they were, in fact, of a most mischievous tendency? And if the principle were once admitted, how would the in H. OF R.] Usurpation of Executive Authority. tentions of those who might practice on it be ascertained? The principle, in fact, was everything; and this principle the gentleman from Pennsylvania had been too prudent to defend. He had, on the contrary, endeavored to call away the attention of the House from the true principle to some trifling details of the resolution. In this he acted wisely. But the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. NICHOLAS,) less cautious, had spoken out with his usual candor, and asserted that the practice was proper, the principle justifiable, and that he himself should glory in having acted in the same manner. This, said Mr. H., is a candor which I admire, for I like the man who tells plainly what he aims at, and what he means. The gentleman from Virginia has declared it honorable and proper for any individual, or set of individuals, who believe themselves more fit than the Government for conducting the foreign relations of the country, to take the business into their hands, and adopt such measures as they may deem proper for obtaining peace: or, by a necessasy consequence, for accomplishing any other national objects which they may think beneficial. This principle, so utterly subversive of all regular Government, has been so fully exposed by my colleague (Mr. PINCKNEY) that it is unnecessary to say anything more on the subject. But I request the House to bear it in mind, when they come to a decision on this subject, that this princíple has been justified and even extolled by one of the most respectable members on this floor. Little petty insurgents, the mere journeymen of sedition, who now and then peep out of their houses to search for mischief, and then shrink back to escape from punishment, excite more contempt than dread; but when principles utterly subversive of all law, order, and Government, are openly avowed and preached up by men of character, station, and influence in the country, then it is that we ought to be alarmed, and to prepare for opposing their schemes with energy. I am very sensible, Mr. Speaker, that all this will be treated, by some gentlemen, as mere empty declamation, the mere wanderings of a heated imagination. This has heretofore been the case with me, and it is thus that have always been treated, by some descriptions of men, those warning voices, for neglecting to listen to which, some other countries are now plunged in irretrievable ruin. To me these considerations appear to be the most important truths, on our attention to which the preservation of this Government, and the safety of this country, in a great measure, depend. It is from this quarter, from the introduction of foreign influence, through the medium of domestic faction, that republican Governments are especially menaced with destruction. Monarchies, despotisms, aristocracies, which, for the most part, depend on the support of a few, may be subverted by foreign force, but popular Governments, unless quite contemptible, in point of extent, cannot be subverted without the aid of internal division. This division is effected by means of foreign influence, which mutually supports, and is supported by, domestic faction; therefore, everything that tends, however remotely, to facilitate the alliance [DECEMBER, 1796. between those two deadly foes, is most carefully to be guarded against. What Bonaparte said to the Italians, after he had subdued and plundered them, by means of the divisions excited by himself, is a most important lesson for all Republics: "While a nation," said he, "is armed, united, and disposed to defend itself, it is always invincible." Let us well reflect upon this all-important lesson. and oppose on the threshold, by adopting the res olution now on the table, the first beginnings of this fatal alliance between foreign influence and domestic faction; this prolific germ of intestine division, which, if suffered to grow, will soon produce the bitterest fruits to this country. Mr. GALLATIN observed, that the gentleman from South Carolina, and the gentleman from Connecticut, had both found fault with the manner in which he had discussed this question; that he had objected to the detail of the resolution, instead of attending to its principle; and that the adopting of this resolution would be only adopting a general principle, which might hereafter be modified. The gentleman from Connecticut had been pleased to say that he (Mr. G.) was old enough in legislation to know this. Mr. G. said, he was old enough to know that when the principle of an original proposition was vague, the bill which was founded upon it was also vague, and nine times out of ten copied verbatim. As an instance of this, Mr. G. mentioned the sedition bill, which was also introduced into the House as a measure of defence. The same complaint was then made against the original proposition, which is now made against this; and it was said then, as it is said now, that when the bill came in, the object would be more defined, yet the section of that bill which is thought to infringe the liberty of the press, is as liable to misconstruction as the present resolution. Gentlemen have admitted the validity of the objection which he had made to the want of precision in this resolution, yet they will not make it more precise. We are told that, when an individual carries on a negotiation with a foreign Government, it is an usurpation of the Executive power, yet the word used is correspond, and not negotiate; and when they are told that what an unauthorized individual does cannot bind a nation, they are silent, but still say our arguments are vague. If. said Mr. G., as gentlemen assert, there is what they call a French party in this country, and it is the object of this resolution to prevent them from carrying on negotiations with the French Republic for subverting the Government, let them come forward openly on this ground, instead of producing a resolution perfectly vague and uncertain. As to the arguments of both gentlemen, he was at a loss how to set about answering them; for when, without paying any regard to fact, gentlemen deal boldly in assertion, it is very difficult to make them a reply. He was not surprised that the gentleman from South Carolina took the ground he did. The mover of this resolution declared, in making it, he had no reference to a recent event; but the gentleman from South Caro DECEMBER, 1798.] Usurpation of Executive Authority. [H. or R. lina asserts that he did mean to refer to it; and be to establish an opinion that one-half of the he may certainly do so, without running the risk American people are in league with France, and of being contradicted, as the House is at present ready to support her cause by force of arms. It unacquainted with any facts relative to this sub- was only by raising such a clamor in the country ject. So far, Mr. G. said, as he could credit the as this, that they could hope to get such measreports and letters which he had seen printed in ures as the alien and sedition laws approved by the newspapers, it appeared that the measures the people of the United States, or to believe that which had lately been taken by the French Gov-a standing army was necessary, not to repel an inernment, and which he had heard ascribed to the vasion, but, as it is now confessed, for the crushagency of a certain gentleman lately in France, ing of a faction at home. had taken place before his arrival there. As to the assertion of gentlemen of the party [Mr. HARPER said, he did not speak of any ef- to which he alluded, that the party in opposition fects produced by the agency to which he had re-to them had sent a certain gentleman to France, ferred; he did not believe any had been produced. It was against the principle which he spoke.] Mr. G. believed the gentleman was rather at a loss on this subject; for, if much effect is ascribed to the interference of this individual, gentlemen get into the difficulty in which the gentleman from South Carolina seems to be, as it would then appear that peace might have been made by our Executive; and if no effect was produced, then there is no ground of complaint. The gentleman from South Carolina says it is incredible, that an individual, unknown twenty miles from Philadelphia, could effect a change in the measures of the French Government, and that, therefore, he must have received credentials from other persons; that he must have been the agent of a certain faction, and he goes on to say that the French depended upon the force of that faction, which naturally led him to the conversation which he supposed this agent would use at Paris; such as, "Your conduct has been impolitic; you have alarmed the American nation, and unless you ameliorate your measures, your cause and our party will be involved in one common ruin." so long as they deal only in assertion, he supposed it unnecessary to notice it. He believed the fact not to be true. He believed the individual, said to have been sent, went of his own accord. So far as his knowledge went, he knew it to be a fact. He knew of no individual from whom he received instruction. If there are such, the gentleman from South Carolina ought to bring them to view, instead of making general assertions, which can have no object except to calumniate certain individuals. In the course of his remarks, the gentleman from South Carolina-though he could not see how he connected his observations with the resolution under consideration-mentioned certain modern doctrines, to which he is not a convert, viz: that twenty or one hundred persons may assemble, and exercise any authority they please, &c. Mr. G. wished to know by whom, or where, and at what time, a doctrine of this kind had been supported. That persons have thought they had a right to petition, if they were only twenty in number, and to communicate with others for their co-operation, and to lay their petitions so framed before Congress, he knew, but he did not consider As the gentleman from South Carolina meant this as a modern doctrine. There appeared to these remarks to apply to him, and others who him to be two modern doctrines in the world, and happen to differ with that gentleman on certain to one of the two the gentleman from South Capolitical subjects, he hoped he should be permit-rolina appeared to be a disciple. In one country ted to appeal from the decision of that gentleman, so far as related to the views and motives of the party to which he was supposed to belong. But he would certainly be justified in taking for granted the confession of that gentleman of the real object of his own party. It seemed, then, that, in their own opinion, the only way by which this gentleman's party could overwhelm their opposers, was through the medium of a war; and the object of this resolution was evidently to raise a clamor about foreign affairs, and to connect what the gentleman is pleased to call the French party in this country, with the French Government: and the gentleman from South Carolina deserves credit for having shown, by his arguments, that this was the intention of this proposition. It is true, said Mr. G., that it would have been extremely difficult for a certain party (whom he certainly would not call a faction) to get a number of measures adopted, the tendency of which is to crush all the rest of the nation who do not agree with them in opinion, except through the medium of a war. They know that even a war would not be sufficient; that the only way would we have seen the doctrine supported of taking a part of the community for the sovereign people, who have a right to dictate and govern. How far these principles are now supported in any part of the globe, he would not say. But he would insist that it never had been either advocated or supported in this country. The other, to which he supposed the gentleman a disciple, is, that because liberty has been abused, or, under the name of liberty, licentiousness and injustice have been practised in a part of Europe, the old maxims of liberty and republicanism, which laid the foundation of our Revolution and of both our General and State Constitutions and Governments, are to be laid aside, at least for a while. It is the doctrine of alarm-a doctrine which has been preached up by gentlemen of great abilities in another country, and repeatedly re-echoed by the gentleman from South Carolina on this floor. In some things, however, the gentleman from South Carolina is mistaken in fact. He says the modern system of Europe is, to transfer all power from the regular authority to mobs and demagogues; and though he draws no conclusions as |