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July 26, 2025 • 39 mins
Volume 5 of John Marshalls riveting biography takes us on a journey through Washingtons second presidential term. This ends with the election of John Adams and Washingtons well-deserved rest in Mount Vernon. As America sails through tumultuous times of complicated foreign and domestic affairs, Washingtons astute leadership steers the nation with confidence and wisdom. This volume continues the engaging in-depth analysis of its predecessors, shedding light on the young, burgeoning nations struggles and triumphs.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter three, Part two of the Life of Washington, Volume
five by John Marshall. This LibriVox recording is in the
public domain. Those who were of opinion that the occasion
demanded a full trial of the ability of the government
to enforce obedience to the laws, were also of opinion

(00:23):
that policy and humanity equally dictated the employment of a
force which would render resistance desperate. The insurgent country contained
sixteen thousand men able to bear arms, and the computation
was that they could bring seven thousand into the field.

(00:44):
If the army of the government should amount to twelve
thousand men, it would present an imposing force which the
insurgents would not venture to meet. It was impossible that
the President could hesitate to embrace the latter of these opinions,
that a government intrusted to him should be trampled under

(01:05):
foot by a lawless section of the Union, which set
a defiance the will of the Nation, as expressed by
its representatives, was an abasement to which neither his judgment
nor his feelings could submit. He resolved, therefore to issue
the proclamation, which by law was to precede the employment

(01:28):
of force. On the same day, a requisition was made
on the governors of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia
for their several quotas of militia to compose an army
of twelve thousand men, who were to be immediately organized
and prepared to march at a minute's warning. While steps

(01:50):
were taken to bring this force into the field, alast
as they was made to render its employment unnecessary, three
distinguished popular citizens of Pennsylvania were deputed by the government
to be the bearers of a general amnesty for past offenses,
on the sole condition of future obedience to the laws.

(02:13):
It having been deemed advisable that the executive of the
state should act in concert with that of the United States,
Governor Mifflin also issued a proclamation and appointed commissioners to
act with those of the general government. Meanwhile, the insurgents
omitted nothing which might enlarge the circle of disaffection. Attempts

(02:38):
were made to embark the adjacent counties of Virginia in
their cause, and their violence was extended to Morgantown, at
which place an inspector resided, who saved himself by flight
and protected his property by advertising on his own door
that he had resigned his office. They also made similar

(02:58):
excursions into the contiguous counties of Pennsylvania lying east of
the Allegheny Mountains, where numbers were ready to join them.
These deluded men, giving too much faith to the publications
of democratic societies and to the furious sentiments of general
hostility to the administration, and particularly to the internal taxes

(03:23):
with which the papers in the opposition abound, it seemed
to have entertained the opinion that the great body of
the people were ready to take up arms against their government,
and that the resistance commenced by them would spread throughout
the Union and terminate in a revolution. The Convention at

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Parkinson's Ferry had appointed a Committee of Safety, consisting of
sixty members, who chose fifteen of their body to confer
with the commissioners of the United States and of the
State of Pennsylvania. This Committee of Conference was not empowered
to conclude on anything. They could only receive and report

(04:03):
the propositions which might be made to them. Men of
property and intelligence, who had contributed to kindle the flame
under the common error of being able to regulate its heat,
now trembled at the extent of the conflagration it had passed.
The limits they had assigned to it, and was no
longer subject to their control. The Committee of Conference expressed

(04:27):
themselves unanimously in favor of accepting the terms offered by
the government, and exerted themselves in the Committee of Safety
to obtain a decision to the same effect. In that committee,
the question whether they would submit peaceably to the execution
of the law, retaining expressly the privilege of using all

(04:48):
constitutional means to effect its repeal, was debated with great zeal.
The less violent party carried it by a small majority,
but not thinking themselves if authorized to decide for their
constituents on so momentous a question, they afterwards resolved that
it should be referred to the people, this reference resulting

(05:10):
in demonstrating that though many were disposed to demean themselves peaceably,
yet a vast massive opposition remained determined to obstruct the
re establishment of civil authority from some causes, among which
was disaffection to the particular service. The prospect of bringing

(05:31):
the quota of troops required from Pennsylvania into the field
was at first unpromising, but the Assembly, which had been
summoned by the governor to meet on the first of
September expressed in strong terms its abhorrence of this daring
attempt to resist the laws and to subvert the government

(05:52):
of the country, and a degree of ardor and unanimity
was displayed by the people of other states, which exceeded
the hopes of the most sanguine friends of the administration.
Some feeble attempts were indeed made to produce a disobedience
to the requisition of the President, by declaring that the

(06:14):
people would never be made the instruments of the Secretary
of the Treasury to shed the blood of their fellow citizens,
that the representatives of the people ought to be assembled
before a civil war was commenced, and by avowing the
extravagant opinion that the President could not lawfully call forth
the militia of any other state until actual experiment had

(06:36):
ascertained the insufficiency of that of Pennsylvania. But these insidious
suggestions were silenced by the general sense of the nation,
which loudly and strongly proclaimed that the government and laws
must be supported. The officers displayed an unexampled activity, and
intelligence from every quarter gave full assurance that with respect

(07:00):
to both numbers, in time, the requisitions of the President
would be punctually observed. The Governor of Pennsylvania compensated for
the defects in the militia law of that state by
his personal exertions. From some inadvertence, as was said on
the part of the Brigade Inspectors, the militia could not

(07:20):
be drafted, and consequently of Pennsylvania could be completed only
by volunteers. The Governor, who was endowed with a high
degree of popular elocution, made a circuit through the lower
counties of the state and publicly addressed the militia at
different places where he had caused them to be assembled
on the crisis in the affairs of their country. So

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successful were these animating exhortations that Pennsylvania was not behind
her sister states in furnishing the quota required from her.
On the twenty fifth September, the President issued a second proclamation,
describing in terms of great energy, the obstinate and perverse
spirit with which the lenient propositions of the government had

(08:04):
been received, and declaring his fixed determination, in obedience to
the High an irresistible duty consigned to him by the Constitution,
to take care that the laws be faithfully executed to
reduce the refractory to obedience. The troops of New Jersey
and Pennsylvania were directed to rendezvous at Bedford, and those

(08:25):
of Maryland and Virginia at Cumberland on the Potomac. The
command of the expedition had been conferred to Governor Lee
of Virginia, and the governors of New Jersey and Pennsylvania
commanded the militia of their respective states under him. The
President in person visited each division of the army, but
being confident that the force employed must look down all resistance,

(08:49):
he left the Secretary of the Treasury to accompany it,
and returned himself to Philadelphia, where the approaching session of
Congress required his presence. Quilled by the prompt and vigorous
measures of the government from Cumberland and Bedford, the army
marched into divisions into the country of the insurgents. The
greatness of the force prevented the effusion of blood. The

(09:12):
disaffected did not venture to assemble in arms. Several of
the leaders who had refused to give assurances a future
submission to the laws were seized, and some of them
detained for legal prosecution. But although no direct and open
opposition was made the spirit of insurrection was not subdued,
A sour and malignant temper displayed itself, which indicated but

(09:36):
too plainly, that the disposition to resist had only sunk
under the pressure of the great military force brought into
the country, but would rise again should that force be withdrawn.
It was therefore thought advisable to station for the winter
a detachment to be commanded by Major General Morgan in
the center of the disaffected country. Thus, without shedding a

(10:00):
drop of blood, did the prudent vigor of the executive
terminate an insurrection which at one time threatened to shake
the government of the United States to its foundation. That
so perverse the spirit should have been excited in the
bosom of prosperity, without the pressure of a single grievances
among those political phenomena which occur not unfrequently in the

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course of human affairs, and which the statesman can never
safely disregard. When real ills are felt, there's something positive
and perceptible to which the judgment may be directed, the
actual extent of which may be ascertained, and the cause
of which may be discerned. But when the mind inflamed
by separstitious dangers gives a full loose to the imagination

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and fastens upon some object with which to disturb itself.
The belief that the danger exists seems to become a
matter of faith, with which reason combats in. Under a
government emanating entirely from the people, and with an administration
whose sole object was their happiness, the public mind was

(11:09):
violently agitated with apprehensions of a powerful and secret combination
against liberty, which was to discover itself by the total
overthrow of the republican's system. That those who were charged
with these designs were as destitute of the means as
of the will to affect them did not shake the
firm belief of their existence. Disregarding the apparent partiality of

(11:35):
the administration for France, so far as that partiality was
compatible with an honest neutrality, the zealous of the day
ascribed its incessant labors for the preservation of peace to
attemper hostile to the French Republic, And while themselves loudly
imprecating the vengeance of Heaven and Earth on one of

(11:56):
the belligerents, and openly rejoicing in the victories of the other,
while impetuously rushing into a war with Britain and pressing
measures which would render accommodation impracticable. They attributed a system
calculated to check them in this furious career, not to
that genuine American spirit which produced it, but to an

(12:17):
influence which, so far as opinions are to depend on facts,
has at no time insinuated itself into the councils of
the United States. In popular governments, the resentments, the suspicions,
and the discuss produced in the legislature by warm debate,
and the chagrin of defeat, by the desire of gaining

(12:37):
or the fear of losing power, and which are created
by personal views among the leaders of parties, will infallibly
extend to the body of the nation. Not only will
those causes of dissatisfaction be urged which really operate from
the minds of intelligent men, but every instrument will be
seized which can affect the purpose, and the passions will

(12:59):
be inflamed by whatever may serve to irritate them. Among
the multiplied evils generated by faction, it is perhaps not
the least that it has a tendency to abolish all
distinction between virtue and vice, and to prostrate those barriers
which the wiser good have erected for the protection of morals,

(13:20):
and which are defended solely by opinion. The victory of
the party becomes the great object, and too often all
measures are deemed right or wrong as they tend to
promote or impede it. The attainment of the end is
considered as the supreme good, and the detestable doctrine is
adopted that the end will justify the means. The mind

(13:40):
habituated to the extenuation of acts of moral turpitude becomes
gradually contaminated and loses that delicate sensibility which instinctively inspires
horror for vice and respect for virtue. In the intemperate
abuse which was cast on the principal measures of the

(14:00):
government and on those who supported them, in the violence
with which the discontents of the opponents to those measures
were expressed, and especially in the denunciations which were uttered
against them by the democratic societies, the friends of the
administration searched for the causes of that criminal attempt which
had been made in the western parts of Pennsylvania to

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oppose the will of the nation by force of arms.
Had those misguided men believed that this opposition was to
be confined within their own narrow limits. They could not
have been so mad or so weak as to have
engaged in it. The ideas of the President on this
subject were freely given to several of his confidential friends.

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The real people, he said, occasionally assembled in order to
express their sentiments on political subjects, ought never to be
confounded with permanent, self appointed societies usurping the right to
control the constituted authorities and to dictate to public opinion.
While the former was entitled to respect, the letter was

(15:04):
incompatible with all government, and must either sink into general
disesteem or finally overturn the established order of things Meeting
of Congress. In his speech at the opening of Congress,
the President detailed at considerable length the progress of opposition
to the laws, the means employed both by the legislature

(15:25):
and executive to appease the discontents which have been fomented,
and the measures which he had finally taken to reduce
the refractory to submission. As Commander in chief of the
militia when called into actual service, yet, he said, visited
the places of general rendezvous to obtain more correct information

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and to direct a plan for ulterior movements. Have there
been room for persuasion that the laws were secure from obstruction,
he would have caught with avidity at the opportunity of
restoring the militia to their families homes. But succeeding intelligence
had tended to manifest the necessity of what had been done,

(16:06):
it being now confessed by those who were not inclined
to exaggerate the ill conduct of the insurgence, that their
malevolence was not pointed merely to a particular law, but
that a spirit inimical to all order had actuated many
of the offenders. After bestowing a high encomium on the
alacrity and promptity with which persons in every station had

(16:29):
come forward to assert the dignity of the laws, thereby
furnishing an additional proof that they understood the true principles
of government and liberty and felt their inseparable union. He
added democratic societies to every description and deed of citizens.

(16:50):
Let praise be given, but let them persevere in their
affectionate vigilance over that precious deposit to it of American happiness,
institution of the United States. And when in the calm
moments of reflection, they shall have retraced the origin and
progress of the insurrection. Let them determine whether it has

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not been fomented by combinations of men who careless of consequences,
and disregarding the unerring truth that those who rouse cannot
always appease a civil convulsion have disseminated from an ignorance
or perversion of facts, suspicions, jealousies, and accusations of the

(17:33):
whole government. The President could not omit this fair occasion
once more to press on Congress a subject which had
always been near his heart. After mentioning the defectiveness of
the existing system, he said, the devising and establishing of
a well regulated militia would be a genuine source of

(17:55):
legislative honor and a perfect title to public gratitude. I
therefore entertain a hope that the present session will not
pass without carrying to its full energy the power of
organizing army and disciplining the militia, and thus providing, in
the language of the Constitution, for calling them forth to

(18:16):
execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions.
After mentioning the intelligence from the army under the command
of General Wayne and the state of Indian affairs. He
again called the attention of the House of Representatives to
his subject scarcely less interesting than a system of defense

(18:40):
against external and internal violence. The time, he said, which
has elapsed since the commencement of our physcal measures, has
developed our pecuniary resources so as to open the way
for a definitive plan for the redemption of the public debt.
It is believed that the result is such as to

(19:02):
encourage Congress to consummate this work without delay. Nothing can
more promote the permanent welfare of the Union, and nothing
would be more grateful to our constituents. Indeed, whatever is
unfinished of our system of public credit cannot be benefited
by procrastination, And as far as may be practicable, we

(19:24):
ought to place that credit on grounds which cannot be disturbed,
and to prevent that progressive accumulation of debt which must
ultimately endanger all governments. He referred to subsequent communications for
certain circumstances attending the intercourse of the United States with
foreign nations. However, he edited, it may not be unseasonable

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to announce that my policy in our foreign transactions has
been to cultivate peace with all the world, to observe
treaties with pure and involid faith, to check every deviation
from the line of impartiality, to explain what may have
been misapprehended, and correct what may have been injurious to

(20:11):
any nation, And having thus acquired the right to lose
no time in acquiring the ability to insist upon justice
being done to ourselves. In the Senate an answer was
reported which contained the following clause, Our anxiety, arising from
the licentious and open resistance to the laws in the

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western counties of Pennsylvania, has been increased by the proceedings
of certain self created societies relative to the laws and
administration of the government. Proceedings, in our apprehension, founded in
political error, calculated, if not intended, to disorganize our government,

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and which, by inspiring delusive hopes of support, have been
instrumental in misleading our fellow citizens in the scene of insurrection.
The address proceeded to express the most decided approbation of
the conduct of the President in relation to the insurgents, and,
after noticing the different parts of the speech, concluded with saying,

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at a period so momentous in the affairs of nations,
the temperate, just, and foreign policy that you have pursued
in respective foreign powers has been eminently calculated to promote
the great and essential interests of our country, and has
created the Affairs Title to the public gratitude. And thanks
to this unequivocal approbation of the policy adopted by the

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Executive with regard to foreign nations, no objections were made.
The clause respecting democratic societies was seriously opposed, but the
party in favor of the administration had been strengthened in
the Senate by recent events, and the address reported by
the Committee was agreed to without alteration. The same spirit

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did not prevail in the House of Representatives. In that
branch of the legislature. The opposition party continued to be
the most powerful and the respective of their leaders. For
the person and character of the Chief Magistrate was visibly diminishing.
His interference with a favorite system was not forgotten, and

(22:24):
the mission of Mister j still rankled in their bosoms.
The address prepared by the committee to whom the speech
was referred, omitted to notice those parts which respected self
created societies. The victory of General Wayne and the policy
observed by the Executive in its intercourse with foreign nations.

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On a motion being made by mister Dayton to amend
it by inserting a closet should express the satisfaction of
the House at the success of the Army under General Wayne,
mister Madison said that it had been the wish of
the Committee who framed the address to avoid the minutia
of the speech, but as desire was manifested to amplify

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particular parts that might not be amiss to glance at
the policy observed towards foreign nations, He therefore moved to
amend the amendment by adding the words solicitous. Also, as
we are for the preservation of peace with all nations,
we cannot otherwise than warmly approve of our policy in
our foreign transactions, which keeps in view as well the

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maintenance of our national rights as the continuance of that blessing.
Mister Hillhouse wished the word your to be substituted for
the article A, that the answer might point not to
an abstract policy but that of the executive, and thus
have a direct application to the speech. This motion produced
a warm discussion, which terminated in a request that mister

(23:53):
Madison would withdraw his amendment. The friends of the Administration,
being of opinion that it was more eligible to pass
on over that part of the speech in silence than
to answer it in terms so equivocal as those to
which alone the House seemed willing to assent. A proposition
was then made by mister Fitzsimmons to introduce into the

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Address of clause declaring that in tracing the origin and
progress of the insurrection, they, the House of Representatives, entertained
no doubt that certain self created societies and combinations of men,
careless of consequences and disregarding truth, by disseminating suspicions, jealousies,
and accusations of the government, have had an influence in

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fomenting this daring outrage against the principles of social order
and the authority of the laws. This attempt to censure
certain organized assemblages of factious individuals, who, under the imposing
garb of watchfulness over liberty, concealed designs subversive of all
those principles which preserve the order, the peace, and the

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happiness of society, was resisted by the whole force of
the US opposition. A very eloquent and animated debate ensued,
which terminated in the Committee by striking out the words
self created societies, forty seven voting four and forty five
against expunging them. The question was resumed in the House,

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and the chairman of the Committee being opposed in sentiment
to the Speaker, who was now placed in the chair,
the majority was precisely changed and the words were reinstated.
This victory, however, if it may be termed one, was
soon lost. A motion for confining the center to societies
and combinations within the four western counties of Pennsylvania and

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the adjacent country succeeded by the casting vote of the Speaker,
above which the friends of the amendment gave it up,
and the address was voted without expressing any sentiment on
the subject. This triumph over the administration revived for a
moment the drooping energies of these pernicious societies, but it
was only for a moment. The agency ascribed to them

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by the opinion of the public as well as of
the President, in producing an insurrection which was generally execrated,
had essentially affected them, and while languishing under this wound,
they received a deadly blow from a quarter whence hostility
was least expected. The remnant of the French convention, rendered
desperate by the ferocious despotism of the Jacobins and of

(26:23):
the sanguinary tyrant who had made himself their chief. Perceiving
that the number of victims who were immolated, as his
caprice might suggest, instead of satiating, could only stimulate his
appetite for blood, had at length sought for safety. By
boldly confronting danger, and succeeding in a desperate attempt to
bring Robespierre to the guillotine, had terminated his reign of terror.

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The colissee and power of the clubs, which have been
abused to an excess that gives to faithful history. The
appearance of fiction fell with that of their favorite member,
and they sunk into long merited disgrace. The means by
which which their political influence had been maintained were wrested
from them, and in a short time their meetings were prohibited.
Not more certain is it that the boldest dreams must

(27:10):
disappear if the fountains which led them be emptied, than
was the dissolution of the democratic societies of America. When
the Jacobin Clubs were denounced by France, as if their
destinies depended on the same thread. The political death of
the format was the unerring signal for that of the latter,
and their expiring struggles, incapable of deferring their fate, only

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attest to the reluctance with which they surrendered their much
abused power. Notwithstanding the disagreement between the executive and one
branch of the legislature concerning self created societies and the
policy observed towards foreign nations, the speech of the President
was treated with marked respect, and the several subjects which

(27:53):
are recommended engaged the immediate attention of Congress. A bill
was passed authorizing the President to stay or detachment of
militia in the four western counties of Pennsylvania. Provision was
made to compensate those whose property had been destroyed by
the insurgents, should those who had committed to be unable
to repair it, and an appropriation exceeding one million, one

(28:16):
hundred thousand dollars was made to defray the expenses occasioned
by the insurrection. Many of the difficulties which had occurred
in drawing out the militia were removed, and a bill
was introduced to give greater energy to the milicious system.
Generally but this subject possessed so many intrinsic difficulties that
the session passed away without affecting anything respecting it. A

(28:38):
bill for the gradual redemption of the national debt was
more successful. The President had repeatedly and earnestly recommended to
the legislature the adoption of measures which might effect this
favorite object. But although that party which had been reproached
with a desire to accumulate debt as a means of
subverting the republican system a uniformly manifested disposition to carry

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this recommendation and to effect their desire, had hitherto been
opposed by obstacles. They were unable to surmount professions of
an anxious solicitude. To discharge the national engagements without providing
the means of actual payment might gratify those who consider
words as things, but would be justly estimated by men who,

(29:23):
neither condemning indiscriminately nor approving blindly all the measures of government,
expect that in point affect it shall be rightly and
honestly administered on the friends of the administration. Therefore, it
was incumbent to provide real, substantial funds which should attest
the sincerity of their professions. This provision could not be

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made without difficulty. The duty on imported articles and on tonnage,
though rapidly augmenting, could not immediately be rendered sufficiently productive
to meet alone the various exigencies of the treasury and
yield a surplus for the secure establishment of a permanent
fund to redeem the principle of the debt. Additional sources

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of revenue must therefore be explored, or the idea of
reducing the debt be abandoned. New taxes of the never
failing sources of discontent to those who pay them, and
will ever furnish weapons against those who impose them, too
operative not to be seized by their antagonists. In a
government where popularity is power, it requires no small degree

(30:26):
of patriotism to encounter the odium, which, however urgently required,
they seldom failed to excite. Ready, faith is given to
the declaration that they are unjust, tyrannical, and unnecessary, and
no inconsiderable degree of firmness is requisite to persevere in
a course attended with so much political hazard. The opposition

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made to the internal taxes which commenced in Congress had
extended itself through the community. Although only the act imposing
duties on spirits distilled within the United States have been
resisted by force, yet such a degree of irritation was
manifested against the whole system as to evince the repugnance
with which a large portion of the people saw it

(31:10):
go into operation. The duties of refined sugars the manufactured
tobacco especially, were centered in terms which would authorize an
opinion that a defective power, rather than of will to
resist the execution of the law, confined some of its
opponents to remonstrances. Nothing could be more unfriendly than the
spirit to the reduction of the debt. The reports of

(31:32):
the Secretary of the Treasury, having suggested the several steps
which had been taken by Congress in the system of
internal taxation, he was justly considered as its author. The
perseverance which marked the character of this officer came full
assurance that no clamor would deter him from continuing to
recommend measures which he believed to be essential to the

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due administration of the finances. That the establishment of public
credit on a sound basis was all important to the
character and prosperity of the United States. Constituted one of
those political maxims to which he invariably adhered, and to
effect it completely seems to have been among the first
objects of his ambition. He bestowed upon this favorite subject.

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The most attentive consideration about the legislature was engaged in
the discussion of a report made by a Select Committee
on a resolution moved by mister Smith of South Carolina,
purporting that further provision ought to be made for the
reduction of the debt. Addressed a letter to the House
of Representatives through their speaker, informing them that he had

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digested and prepared plan on the basis of the actual
revenues for the further support of public credit, which he
was ready to communicate. The comprehensive and valuable report presented
the result of his laborious and useful investigations on a
subject equally intricate and interesting. This was the last official

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act of Colonel Hamilton. The Venereus provision made for those
who filled the high executive departments in the American Government
excluded from our long continuance in office all those whose
fortunes were moderate and whose professional talents placed a decent
independence within their reach. Whilst landed as the accumulator of

(33:18):
thousands by illicit means. Colonel Hamilton had wasted in the
public service great part of the property acquired by his
previous labors, and had found himself compelled to decide on
retiring from his political actation. The accusations brought against him
in the last session of the Second Congress had postponed
the execution of his design until opportunities should be afforded

(33:41):
for a more full investigation of his official conduct. But
he informed the President that on the close of the
session to meet in December seventy ninety three, he should
resign his situation of the administration. The events which accumulated
about that time, in which where he set in a
letter to the President of a nature to under the
continuance of peace and a considerable degree precarious, deferred his

(34:05):
meditated retreat. I do not perceive heeta that I could
voluntarily quit my post at such a juncture consistently with
considerations either of duty or character. Therefore, I find myself
reluctantly obliged to defer the offer of my resignation. But
if any circumstances should have taken place in consequence of
the intimation of an intention to resign, or should otherwise

(34:28):
exist which served to render my continuance in office in
any degree inconvenient or ineligible. I beg leave to assure you, Sir,
that I should yield to them with all the readiness
naturally inspired by an impatient desire to relinquish the situation
in which even a momentary stay is opposed by the
strongest person on family reasons, and could only be produced

(34:49):
by a sense of duty or reputation. Seventeen ninety five
resignation of Colonel Hamilton. Assurance is being given by the
President of the pleasure with which the intelligence that he
would continue at his post through the crisis was received.
He remained in office until the commencement of the ensuing
year on the first of December. Immediately on his return

(35:10):
from the Western Country, the dangers of domestic insurrection or
far more having subsided, he gave notice that he should,
on the last day of January give in his resignation.
Seldom as any minister e cited the opposite passions of
love and hate in a higher degree than Colonel Hamilton.
His talents were too pre eminent not to receive from

(35:30):
all the tribute of profound respect, and his integrity and
honor as a man not less than his official rectitude.
Those standed at a distance were admitted to be superior
to reproach by those enemies who knew him. But with
respect to his political principles and designs, the most contradictory
opinions were entertained. While one party sincerely believed his zobect

(35:51):
to be the preservation of the Constitution of the United
States and its original purity, the other, which perhaps equal
sinceritly imputed to him the insidious intention of subverting it.
While his friends were persuaded that as a statesmen he
viewed all foreign nations with an equal eye, his enemies
could perceive in his conduct only hostility to France an

(36:13):
attachment to her rival. It was his fortune to hold
a conspicuous station in times which were peculiarly tempastuous, and
under circumstances peculiarly unfavorable to the fair action of the judgment.
In the midst of prejudice against the national debt which
had taken deep root and had long been nursed, he
was called to the head of a department whose duty

(36:35):
it was to contend with those prejudices, and to offer
a system which, in doing justice to the creditor of
the public, might retrieve the reputation of his country. While
the passions were inflamed by a stern contest between the
advocates of a national and of state, government's duties were
assigned to him in the execution of which there were

(36:55):
frequent occasions to manifest his devotion to the former. When
a rage fever caught from that which was desolating France
and exhibiting some of its symptoms that seized the public
mind and reached its understanding, it was unfavorable to his
quiet and perhaps to his fame, that he remained uninfected
by the disease. He judged the French Revolution without prejudice,

(37:17):
and had the courage to predict that it could not
terminate in a free and popular government. Such opinions at
such a time could not fail to draw a load
of obloquy upon a man whose frankness gave them publicity,
and whose boldness and decision of character ensured them enable
him steady support. The suspicions they were calculated to generate

(37:38):
derived great additional force from the political theories. He was
understood to hold. It was known that, in his judgment,
the Constitution of the United States was rather chargeable with
imbecility than censurable for its too great strength, and that
the real sources of danger to American happiness and liberty
were to be found in its want of the means

(38:00):
to affect the objects of its institution, in its being
exposed to the encroachments of the States, not in the
magnitude of its powers. Without attempting to conceal these opinions,
he declared his perfect acquiescence in the decision of his country.
Is hoped that the issue would be fortunate, and his
firm determination in whatever might depend upon his exertions to

(38:24):
give the experiment the faier's chance for success. No part
of his political conduct has been perceived which would inspire
doubts of the sincerity of these declarations. His friends may
appeal with confidence to his official acts, to all his
public conduct, for the refutation of those charges which were
made against him while at the head of the Treasury Department,

(38:47):
and were continued without interruption until he ceased to be
the object of jealousy in the esteem and good opinion
of the President to whom he was best known, Colonel Hamilton,
at all times maintained a high place while balancing on
the mission to England, and searching for a person to
whom the interesting negotiation with that government should be confided.
The mind of the Chief Magistrate was directed, among others,

(39:10):
to this gentleman. He carried with him out of office
the same cordial esteem for his character and respect for
his talents which had induced his appointment. In Chapter three,
Part two,
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