treaty, he wrote to Madison: "The whole mass of your constituents are looking to you as their last hope to save them from the effects of the avarice and corruption of the first agent [Jay], the revolutionary machinations of others, and the incomprehensible acquiescence of the only honest man who has assented to it. I wish that his honesty and his political errors may not furnish a second occasion to exclaim: 'Curse on his virtues, they have undone his country."

* * *

* * *

Jay's treaty and the insurrection against the Excise Law drew Jefferson into the current of active politics. The Presidential election of 1796 found him the candidate of his party. If we may trust his own protestations, he became a candidate much against his will. To Madison's urgent appeal that he assume the leadership of his party he replied (April, 1795): "There is not another person (beside yourself) in the United States, who being placed at the helm of affairs, my mind would be so completely at rest for the future of our political bark. As to myself, the subject had been thoroughly weighed and decided on, and my retirement from office had been meant from all office, high and low, without exception. I can say, too, with truth, that the subject had not been presented to my mind by any vanity of my own. But the idea being once presented to me, my own quiet required that I should face and examine it. I did so thoroughly, and had no difficulty to see that every reason which had determined me to retire from the office I then held operated more strongly against that which was insinuated from a hostile quarter to be my object. * * Special considerations which have supervened on my retirement still more insuperably bar the door to it. My health is entirely broken down within the last eight months; my age requires that I shall place my affairs in a clear state; these are sound if taken care of, but capable of considerable dangers if longer neglected; and above all things, the delights I feel in the society of my family and in the agricultural pursuits in which I am so eagerly engaged. The little spice of ambition which I had in my younger days has long since evaporated, and I set still less store by a posthumous than present name. In stating to you the

heads of reasons which have produced my determination, I do not mean an opening for future discussion, or that I may be reasoned out of it. The question is forever closed with me; my sole object is to avail myself of the first opening ever given me from a friendly quarter (and I could not with decency do it before) of preventing any division or loss of votes which might be fatal to the Republican interests."

There is no good reason to doubt that Jefferson was sincere when he made these assertions; but he had mistaken a purely temporary condition of body and mind for a lasting one. Time had restored his health and brought events of national and international importance in whose settlement he could but feel an absorbing interest. True, he was not now aggressively eager for the nomination; but it was only natural that he should not be indifferent to the spontaneous and unanimous wish of his party. It was not definitely known until Washington's Farewell Address appeared, in September, that he would retire, but his retirement was anticipated, and by midsummer Jefferson was recognized as the Republican candidate. The contest was between him and Adams, the Federalist candidate. The campaign was strangely quiet. Jefferson wrote but one political letter, and was not outside of his county during the three months preceding the election.

*

It was late in December when Jefferson learned the result of the contest. On January 1st, 1797, he wrote Madison: "The event of the election has never been a matter of doubt in my mind. * Indeed, the vote comes much nearer an equality than I had expected. I know the difficulty of obtaining belief in one's declarations of a disinclination to honors, and that it is greatest to those who still remain in the world. But no arguments were wanting to reconcile me to a relinquishment of the first office or acquiescence under the second. As to the first, it was impossible that a more solid unwillingness settled on full calculation could have existed in any man's mind, short of the degree of absolute refusal. As to the second,

it is the only office in the world about which I am unable to decide in my own mind whether I had rather have it or not have

it. Pride does not enter into the estimate; for I think with the Romans that the general of to-day should be a soldier of tomorrow if necessary. I can particularly have no feelings which would revolt at a secondary position to Mr. Adams. I am his junior in life, was his junior in Congress, his junior in the diplomatic line, his junior lately in our civil Government." It seems almost inexplicable at first sight that Jefferson should thus view the success of a rival and an acknowledged Federalist; but the idea of a compromise with Adams, of which we shall see later the development, was already in his mind.

On February 8th, 1797, the votes for President and Vice-President were opened in the presence of the two Houses of Congress. Adams had received the entire votes of the New England States, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware, one from Pennsylvania, seven from Maryland, one from Virginia, and one from North Carolina-seventy-one in all. Jefferson had received the entire votes of South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee with fourteen from Pennsylvania, four from Maryland, twenty from Virginia and eleven from North Carolina-a total of sixty-eight. Adams was therefore declared President and Jefferson Vice-President.

JEFFERSON AS VICE-PRESIDENT.

In March, 1797, Jefferson arrived in Philadelphia in time to assume his duties as Vice-President. He had written Madison on January 22nd: "Though I am not aware of any necessity of going on to Philadelphia immediately, yet I have determined to do it as a mark of respect to the public, and to do away with the doubts which have spread that I will consider the second office as beneath my acceptance. The journey, indeed, for the month of February is a tremendous undertaking for one who has not been seven miles from home since my re-settlement."

Adams' inaugural speech was regarded by the extreme Federalists as "temporizing, and as having the air of a lure for the favor of his opponents at the expense of his sincerity." This opinion, divested of its harsh tone, was not without founda

tion, for interviews had already taken place between Adams and Jefferson which looked toward a coalition of their forces. Jefferson was more than willing to meet him half way. He had, on March 2nd, called on the President-elect. The call was returned the next morning. Jefferson described the interview at length:

"Mr. Adams found me alone in my room, and shutting the door himself, said he was glad to find me alone, for that he wished a free conversation with me. He entered immediately on an explanation of the situation of our affairs with France and the danger of rupture with that nation, a rupture which would convulse the attachments of this country. * * * That he had, therefore, concluded to send a mission, which by its dignity should satisfy France, and by its selection from the three great divisions of the continent, should satisfy all parts of the United States; in short, that he had determined to join Gerry and Madison to Pinckney, and he wished me to consult Mr. Madison for him. * * * I consulted Mr. Madison, who declined as I expected."

But the attempt to harmonize was destined to be abortive, for Adams, before two days should elapse, was to prove himself not so far freed from party ties. Jefferson's "Anas" gives the sequel: "I think it was on Monday, the sixth of March, Mr. Adams and myself met at dinner at Gen. Washington's, and we happened in the evening to rise from the table and come away together. As soon as we got into the street, I told him the event of my negotiation with Mr. Madison. He immediately said that on consultation some objections to that nomination had been raised which he had not contemplated; and was going on with excuses, which evidently embarrassed him, when we came to Fifth street, where our road separated, his being down Market street, mine along Fifth, and we took leave; and he never after that said one word to me on the subject, or ever consulted me as to any measures of the Government." The usual extra session of the Senate for confirming appointments lasted a few days, and Jefferson returned to Monticello immediately.

The most urgent matter awaiting the new administration was that of our French relations. In 1794, Monroe had been sent by Washington as special envoy to France, and had been received by the National Convention with every demonstration of good will. He had secured the repeal of the decree which authorized the seizure and sale of provisions found on board United States vessels; and payment for seizures already made was promised. But Jay's mission to England, with the uncertainty as to its true purpose, had proved itself an insuperable obstacle to full unity with France. The French Government complained that the impending treaty was an infraction of the existing one of 1778 between America and France. The United States Government, after it had committed itself to the ratification of the treaty, recalled Monroe.

At this the French Government, whose executive power had, in 1795, been merged into a Directory of five members, took violent offense. They alleged that Monroe's recall was due solely to his friendly disposition toward their country, and they immediately entered upon extreme measures of retaliation. French cruisers were ordered to treat neutrals as those neutrals permitted the English to treat them; and, in October, 1796, an Arrêt was issued directing the seizure of British property and provisions found on board American vessels.

The relations between the United States and France were at this tension when Adams became President. In less than three weeks came news of still greater importance. The head of the Directory, in granting Monroe his letters of recall had used severe language in regard to the policy of the American Government toward England, and had refused letters of hospitality to Pinckney, who had been sent as Monroe's successor. Adams immediately called an extra session of Congress to meet on May 15th, and opened it with a speech of warlike tone. The answers of the two Houses were of a similar character, and in this spirit they began legislation. With this special session of Congress began Jefferson's first service as the permanent presiding officer of a deliberative body. The duties were not entirely strange to him, for he had often been called to the chair