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Read Online Textbook Wrecked A Chaotix Boys Book Chaotix Boys Books 1 Harper Ashley Ebook All Chapter PDF
Read Online Textbook Wrecked A Chaotix Boys Book Chaotix Boys Books 1 Harper Ashley Ebook All Chapter PDF
Read Online Textbook Wrecked A Chaotix Boys Book Chaotix Boys Books 1 Harper Ashley Ebook All Chapter PDF
VI
It was common knowledge early in the spring that Hamilton would exert
his ingenuity to defeat Adams by hook or crook. ‘The Aurora’ declared,
March 12th, that ‘the party with Alexander Hamilton at their head have
determined to defeat Adams in the approaching elections.’ The watchful
eye of the suspicious Adams, who felt the treachery, unquestionably read
the article and heard the gossip. When, after the death of Washington, the
Cincinnati met in New York to select Hamilton as the head of the order,
Adams was informed that his enemy had electioneered against him among
the members. He heard particularly of the action of ‘the learned and pious
Doctors Dwight and Babcock, who ... were attending as two reverend
knights of the order, with their blue ribbons and bright eagles at their sable
button-holes,’ in saying repeatedly in the room where the society met, ‘We
must sacrifice Adams,’ ‘We must sacrifice Adams.’
Thus, when in June, Hamilton, under the pretext of disbanding the army
in person, fared forth in his carriage on a tour of the New England States,
no one doubted the political character of his mission. His purpose was to
prevail upon the leaders to give unanimous support to Pinckney and to drop
a few Adams votes, or, that impossible, to give Pinckney the same support
as Adams. The records of this dramatic journey are meager enough. It is
known that in New Hampshire he talked with Governor Gilman, who was
the popular leader, and ‘took pains’ to impress upon him ‘the errors and the
defects of Mr. Adams and of the danger that candidate cannot prevail by
mere Federal strength.’ He urged support of Pinckney on the ground that in
the South he would get some anti-Federal votes.[1758] In Rhode Island he
evidently encountered a spirited protest from Governor Fenner. The
Governor expressed the hope that all the electors would be Federalists, but
clearly gave no encouragement to the Pinckney candidacy, according to
Hamilton’s own version of the conference.[1759] There were other versions,
however, indicative of a stormy interview. The ‘Albany Register’ advised
Hamilton, in giving the story of his tour to the ‘Anglo-Federal party which
wishes to make Charles C. Pinckney President,’ to ‘forget his interview
with the Governor of Rhode Island.’[1760] ‘The Aurora’ followed in a few
days with a more circumstantial story. Hamilton had ‘warmly pressed
Governor Fenner to support Pinckney’ and ‘the old Governor’s eyes were
opened and he literally drove the gallant Alexander out of the door.’[1761] 3
But in Massachusetts, albeit the home of Adams, Hamilton could count
upon a cordial reception for his views, since it was also the home of the
Essex Junto. This was composed of the Big-Wigs of the party in that State,
all ardently devoted to Hamilton, sharing in his hate of democracy and
doubt of the Republic. For years these men had met at one another’s homes
and directed the politics of Massachusetts. They were men of intellect and
social prestige, intimately allied with commerce and the law. There was
George Cabot, the greatest and wisest of them all, and one of the few men
who dared tell Hamilton his faults. He was a man of fine appearance, tall,
well-moulded, elegant in his manners, aristocratic in his bearing, earnest but
never vehement in conversation; a man of wealth, and a merchant.[1762]
There was Fisher Ames, brilliant, vivacious, smiling, cynical, eloquent,
exclusive in his social tastes, and wealthy. There was Theophilus Parsons,
learned in the law, contemptuous of public opinion and democracy,
reactionary beyond most of his conservative contemporaries, more
concerned with property than with human rights. Tall, slender, cold in his
manner, colder in his reasoning, he stood out among the other members of
the Junto because of his slovenliness in dress. Among his friends, at the
dinner table, he was a brilliant conversationalist, for he liked nothing better
than to eat and drink, talk and laugh, unless it was to smoke, chew tobacco,
and use snuff.[1763] He was the personification of the political intolerance
of his class. There, too, was Stephen Higginson, one of the wealthiest and
most cultured merchants of his day, a handsome figure of a man who took
infinite pains with his toilet and always carried a gold-headed cane. Given
to writing for the press, he made ferocious attacks on John Hancock under
the nom-de-plume of ‘Laco,’ and the truckmen on State Street whom he
passed on his way to business taught a parrot to cry, ‘Hurrah for Hancock;
damn Laco.’ So intolerant and bigoted was his household that a child,
hearing a visitor suggest that a Democrat might be honest, was shocked.
[1764] There also was John Lowell, able lawyer, cultured, ultra-conservative,
disdainful of democracy; and there was Christopher Gore, who amassed a
fortune in speculation, and held a brilliant position at the Bar. A striking
figure he was, when he appeared at the unconventional meetings of the
group, tall, stout, with black eyes and florid complexion, his hair tied
behind and dressed with powder, courtly in his manners, eloquent in speech,
utterly intolerant in his Federalism, and completely devoted to Hamilton’s
policies.[1765] These and their satellites were Hamilton’s Boston friends;
more, they were the backbone of his personal organization, his shock
troops. Thus, when he crossed into Massachusetts on his tour, he was going
to his own with the knowledge that they would receive him gladly—and
they did.
Reaching Boston on Saturday evening, he conferred with his friends, and
on Sunday ‘attended divine services at the Rev. Mr. Kirkland’s.’ On
Monday a dinner was given in his honor, where, the party paper insisted,
‘the company was the most respectable ever assembled in the town on a
similar occasion.’ General Lincoln presided. Higginson and Major Russell
of the ‘Centinel’ were vice-presidents. Governor Strong, the Lieutenant-
Governor, the Speaker of the House, Chief Justice Dana, Ames, Cabot,
several members of Congress, and members of ‘the Reverend Clergy’ sat
about the boards. ‘The tables were loaded with every dainty the season
affords and every luxury which could be procured.’[1766] It appears that
some Adamsites or Jeffersonians declined to do homage, for we find the
‘Centinel’ commenting that ‘had a certain citizen known that General
Hamilton resembled his demi-god, Bonaparte, instead of refusing a ticket to
the dinner he would have solicited the honor of kissing—his hand.’[1767]
The Hamiltonians were clearly delighted with the occasion; Hamilton
himself expanded and talked with freedom in the friendly atmosphere. He
talked for Pinckney and against Adams; and in an especially expansive
moment, dwelling on the sinister presumption of democracy, said that
within four years ‘he would either lose his head or be the leader of a
triumphant army.’ The dinner over, the conference concluded, he made an
inspection of Fort Independence on Castle Island, and was on his way,
accompanied ‘as far as Lynn by a cavalcade of citizens.’[1768] Everything
had been carried off with becoming éclat, for had he not stayed at ‘the
elegant boarding house of Mrs. Carter?’[1769] Unhappily the carriage in
which he rode with the ‘cavalcade’ broke down in the middle of the street,
[1770] to the delight of the Jacobins, but his composure gave his followers
much satisfaction.
Had not the Adamsites implied that he had received the cold shoulder
elsewhere in Massachusetts we might never have known his activities
beyond Lynn. He was ‘everywhere welcomed with unequivocable marks of
respect, cordiality, and friendship.’ He dined in Salem with Mr. Pickman,
‘drank tea at Ipswich,’ arrived at Davenport’s late in the evening, departed
early in the morning for Portsmouth, and reached Newburyport on Sunday.
That is the reason there was no demonstration there. But there in the
evening he stayed with Parsons ‘in company with some of the most
respectable gentlemen of the town.’[1771]
But Hamilton and the Junto were not soon to hear the last of that tour.
The Democrats harped incessantly on the promise to lose his head or be the
leader of a triumphant army. ‘We have often heard of a French gasconade,’
said ‘The Aurora,’ ‘but we have now to place alongside of it a Creole
gasconade in America. Alexander Hamilton leading an army to effect a
Revolution! Why, the very idea is as pregnant with laughter as if we were to
be told of Sir John Falstaff’s military achievements.’[1772] ‘Manlius’ rushed
to the attack, ostensibly in behalf of Adams, in the ‘Chronicle.’ Why this
trip to ‘disband the army’? Had Hamilton ever been in the camp before?
Had he appeared ‘to plant the seed of distrust in the bosom of the troops?
against Adams?’ And what a painful effect upon the great men of Boston!
‘Your personal appearance threw poor Cabot into the shade. Even what had
been deemed eloquence in the smiling Ames was soon reduced to
commentary; and so petrifying was your power that our District Judge has
scarcely since dared to report an assertion from his Magnus Apollo of
Brookline, either on politics or banking.’ And lose his head or lead a
triumphant army if Pinckney were not elected? ‘Your vanity was more gross
than even your ignorance of the characters of the people of the eastern
States.’[1773] Two months later, the echoes were still heard. The Reverend
Mr. Kirkland, flattered by Hamilton’s cultivation and ingratiation, and
young, not content with indiscreetly repeating Hamilton’s observations
made in company, rushed into the papers with an attack on Adams and a
glorification of Hamilton. What a disgrace to the clergy, wrote ‘No
Politician,’ for this flattered youth ‘to vindicate the character of a confessed
adulterer, and artfully to sap the well-earned reputation of President
Adams.’[1774] Even King heard from a Bostonian that Hamilton ‘in his
mode of handling [political themes] did not appear to be the great General
which his great talents designate him.’[1775] But Hamilton made his
observations and reached his conclusions—that the leaders of the first order
were in a mood to repudiate Adams, but that those of the second order,
more numerous, were almost solidly for him. He merely changed his
tactics.
CHAPTER XX
HAMILTON’S RAMPAGE
F INDING that persuasion had failed to shake the fidelity of the second-
class leaders, Hamilton bethought himself of coercion. The moment he
returned to New York, he wrote Charles Carroll of Carrollton proposing
to ‘oppose their fears to their prejudices,’ by having the Middle States
declare that they would not support Adams at all. Thus they might be
‘driven to support Pinckney.’ Both New Jersey and Connecticut, he thought,
might agree to the plan, since in both places Adams’s popularity was on the
wane. In any event, it was not ‘advisable that Maryland should be too
deeply pledged to the support of Mr. Adams.’[1776] The effect on Carroll
was all that could have been desired. Two months later, an emissary of
McHenry’s, sent to interview the venerable patriot, found that he considered
Adams ‘totally unfit for the office of President, and would support ... the
election of General Pinckney.’[1777] Throughout the summer the leaders in
the inner circle of the Hamiltonian conspirators were busy with their pens.
Richard Stockton urged on Wolcott the wisdom of making a secret fight.
‘Prudent silence ... get in our tickets of electors ... they will be men who
will do right in the vote ... and Mr. Pinckney will be the man of their
choice.’[1778]
No one was deeper in the business than Wolcott, who, holding on to his
position, and presenting a suave, unblushing front to his chief, was writing
feverishly to the leaders of the conspiracy. While Hamilton was receiving
the homage of his New England idolaters in June, Wolcott was writing
Cabot that ‘if General Pinckney is not elected all good men will have cause
to regret the inactivity of the Federal party.’[1779] In July he was writing
McHenry that if ‘you will but do your part, we shall probably secure Mr.
Pinckney’s election,’[1780] and to Chauncey Goodrich that good men
thought Mr. ‘Adams ought not to be supported.’[1781] He was receiving
letters from Benjamin Goodhue, presumably Adams’s friend, concerning
‘Mr. Adams’ insufferable madness and vanity,’[1782] and from McHenry
that ‘Mr. Harper is now clearly of opinion that General Pinckney ought to
be preferred.’[1783] In August he was assuring Ames that ‘Adams ought not
to be supported,’[1784] and in September ‘The Aurora’ was charging that
during that month he had declared in Washington ‘that Mr. Adams did not
deserve a vote for President.’[1785] Clasping Adams’s hand with one of his,
this consummate master of intrigue was using the other to wig-wag
messages to Hamilton from the window of the fortress.
But Hamilton found much to disconcert him. Albeit Cabot rather boasted
that in July he had not yet paid a visit of courtesy to Braintree, and probably
would not,[1786] he was writing Hamilton that to discard Adams at that
juncture would mean defeat in Massachusetts.[1787] He was opposed,
however, only to an open rupture. Noah Webster, having made a New
England tour of his own, and lingered a moment under the trees at
Braintree, went over to Adams bag and baggage.[1788] All but two of the
Federalist papers were supporting Adams with spirit. To prod him more, the
Jeffersonian press was pouncing upon Hamilton ferociously. ‘Dictator of
the aristocratical party!’ ‘Father of the funding system!’ Working
desperately for Pinckney, ‘continually flying through the continent rousing
his partisans by the presence of their chief, prescribing and regulating every
plan,’ was Hamilton, charged a Jeffersonian editor. Author of ‘a little book’
in which he ‘endeavors to give an elegant and pleasant history of his
adulteries,’ he added.[1789] Hamilton began to meditate a sensational stroke.
II
III
And it was a hit, primarily because it was an assault on the part the
clergy was playing in the campaign. All over New England, and in New
York and Philadelphia, ministers were preaching politics with an
intemperance of denunciation and a recklessness of truth that seems
incredible to-day. The game of the politicians to picture Jefferson as an
atheist, a scoffer at religion who despised the Church and laughed at the
Bible, was entrusted to the Ministerial Corps, which did the best it could. It
was a line of slander that had followed Jefferson from the moment he
forced religious liberty and toleration into the laws of Virginia. The only
campaign canard of which Jefferson took cognizance was set afloat by the
Reverend Cotton Smith, who proclaimed that the man of Monticello had
accumulated his property by robbing a widow and fatherless children of
their estate while acting as their executor. ‘If Mr. Smith thinks that the
precepts of the Gospel are intended for those who preach them as well as
for others,’ wrote Jefferson, ‘he will some day feel the duties of repentance
and acknowledgment in such forms as to correct the wrong he has done. All
this is left to his own conscience.’[1815] But if Jefferson was content to
leave to their consciences clergymen bearing false witness, his followers
were not. When the Reverend Dr. Abercrombie of Philadelphia gravely
warned his congregation against voting for an atheist, Duane made a biting
reply. ‘He is the man who opposed reading the Declaration of Independence
on 4th of July last,’ he wrote. ‘Need we wonder at his hatred of Mr.
Jefferson?’[1816] When the clergyman, stung by the attack, made a weak
reply, Duane asked: ‘During the prevalence of yellow fever ... in 1798 on a
day in the house of Mr. Richard Potter in Germantown did you not provoke
an argument in which you supported monarchical doctrines and assert that
the country would never be happy until it had a king?’[1817] To another
minister, fortunately ‘the late Rev. Dr. J. B. Smith of Virginia,’ was ascribed
one of the most amazing stories of the campaign, that Jefferson on passing a
dilapidated church had sneeringly said that ‘it was good enough for Him
Who was born in a manger.’[1818]
When the Reverend John M. Mason published a political pamphlet under
the cover of religion,[1819] accusing Jefferson of being a Deist, and the
Reverend Dr. Lynn of New York, actively electioneering for Pinckney
against both Adams and Jefferson at the instance of Hamilton, printed