yf # PROPERTY OF ^ linwmim jWms. •817 ARTES SCIENTIA VERITAS THE AMERICAN NATION A HISTORY FROM ORIGINAL SOURCES BY ASSOCIATED SCHOLARS EDITED BY ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, LL.D. PROFESSOR OP HISTORY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY ADVISED BY VARIOUS HISTORICAL SOCIETIES IN 27 VOLUMES VOL. 12 4 THE AMERICAN NATION A HISTORY LIST OP AUTHORS AND TITLES Group I. Foundations of the Nation VoL I European Background of American History, by Edward Potts Chey- ney, A.M., Prof. Hist. Univ. of Pa. *' 2 Basis of American History, by Livingston Farrand, M.D., Prof. Anthropology Columbia Univ. ** 3 Spain in Ameri ca, by Edward Gay- lord Bourne, Ph.D., Prof. Hist. Yale Univ. " 4 England in America, by Lyon Gar- diner Tyler, LL.D., President WilHam and Mary College. " 5 Colonial Self -Government, by Charles McLean Andrews, Ph.D., Prof. Hist. Johns Hopkins Univ. Group II. Transformation into a Nation Vol. 6 Provincial America, by Evarts Boutell Greene, Ph.D., Prof. Hist, and Dean of College, Univ. of 111. " 7 France in America, by Reuben Gold Thwaites, LL.D., Sec. Wis- consin State Hist. Soc. Vol. 8 Preliminaries of the Revolution, by George Elliott Howard, Ph.D., Prof. Hist. Univ. of Nebraska. " 9 The American Revolution, by Claude Halstead Van Tyne,Ph.D., Prof. Hist. Univ. of Michigan. ** 10 The Confederation and the Consti- tution, by Andrew Cunningham McLaughlin, A.M., Head Prof. Hist. Univ. of Chicago. Group III. Development op the Nation Vol, 1 1 The Federalist System, by John Spencer Bassett, Ph.D., Prof. Am. Hist. Smith College. ** 12 The Jeffersonian System, by Ed- ward Channing, Ph.D., Prof. Hist, Harvard Univ. •* 13 Rise of American Nationality, by Kendric Charles Babcock, Ph.D., Pres. Univ. of Arizona. ** 14 Rise of the New West, by Freder- ick Jackson Turner, Ph.D., Prof. Am. Hist. Univ. of Wisconsin. " 15 Jacksonian Democracy, by Will- iam MacDonald, LL.D., Prof. Hist. Brown Univ. Group IV. Trial op Nationality Vol. 16 Slavery and Abolition, by Albert Bushnell Hart, LL.D., Prof. Hist. Harvard Univ. Vol. 17 Westward Extension, by George Pierce Garrison, Ph.D., Prof. Hist. Univ. of Texas. " 18 Parties and Slavery, by Theodore Clarke Smith, Ph.D.. Prof. Am. Hist. Williams College. " 19 Causesofthe Civil War,bv Admiral French Ensor Chadwick, U.S.N., recent Pres. of Naval War Col. " 20 The Appeal to Arms, by James Kendall Hosmer, LL.D., recent Librarian Minneapolis Pub. Lib. *' 21 Outcome of the Civil War, by James Kendall Hosmer, LL.D., re- cent Lib. Minneapolis Pub. Lib. Group V. National Expansion Vol. 2 2 Reconstruction , P olitical and Eco- nomic, by William Archibald Dun- ning, Ph.D. , Prof. Hist, and PoHti- cal Philosophy Columbia Univ. * * 23 National Devel o pm ent , by Edwin Erie Sparks, Ph.D., Prof. Ameri- can Hist. Univ. of Chicago. " 24 National Problems, by Davis R. Dewey, Ph.D., Professor of Eco- nomics, Mass. Institute of Tech- nology. " 25 America as a World Power, by John H. Latan6, Ph.D., Prof. Hist. Washington and Lee Univ. " 26 National Ideals Historically Traced, by Albert Bushnell Hart, LL.D., Prof. Hist. Harvard Univ. ** 27 Index to the Series, by David Maydole Matteson, A.M. COMMITTEES APPOINTED TO ADVISE AND CONSULT WITH THE EDITOR The Massachusetts Historical Society Charles Francis Adams, LL.D., President Samuel A. Green, M.D., Vice-President James Ford Rhodes, LL.D., ad Vice-President Edward Channing, Ph.D., Prof. History Harvard Univ. Worthington C. Ford, Chief of Division of MSS. Library of Congress The Wisconsin Historical Society Reuben G. Thwaites, LL.D., Secretary and Super- intendent Frederick J. Turner, Ph.D., Prof, of American His- tory Wisconsin University James D. Butler, LL.D., formerly Prof. Wisconsin University William W. Wight, President Henry E. Legler, Curator The Virginia Historical Society William Gordon McCabe, Litt.D., President Lyon G. Tyler, LL.D., Pres. of William and Mary College Judge David C. Richardson J. A. C. Chandler, Professor Richmond College Edward Wilson James The Texas Historical Society Judge John Henninger Reagan, President George P. Garrison, Ph.D., Prof, of History Uni- versity of Texas Judge C. W. Raines Judge Zachary T. FuUmore THOMAS JEFFERSON [From the painting by Gilbert Stuart, owned by T. Jefferson Coolidge, Esq.] THE AMERICAN NATION : A HISTORY VOLUME la THE JEFFERSONIAN SYSTEM 180I-181I BY EDWARD CHANNING, Ph.D. PROFESSOR OP HISTORY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY WITH MAPS NEW YORK AND LONDON HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS ' ^r'l' \ Copyright, 1906, by Harper & Brothbrs. Jlil rights reserved. Published February, 1906. ' /96y Co:}.. 1 / r CONTENTS PAGB Editor's Introduction xi Author's Preface xiii I. Organization of Jefferson's Administra- tion (1801-1805) 3 ir. Republican Reformations (1801-1802) . 21 HI. The Tripolitan War (1801-1804) .... 36 IV. La Louisiane (i 684-1 800) 47 V. The Louisiana Purchase (1801-1803) , . ^60 VI. The Administration of Louisiana (1803- 1812) 73 VII. The Exploration of the West (1803-1806) 2^6 VIII. Slavery and the Slave-Trade (i8oi~i8o8) 100 IX. The Chase Impeachment (1804-1805) . iii X. John Randolph and the Yazoo Men (1801- 1813) 126 XI. The End op the Harvest Season (1803- 1805) 140 XII. The Burr Expedition (1805-1807) . , 155 XIII. Foreign Relations (1805) 169 XIV. The Chesapeake - Leopard Affair (1801- 1807) 182 XV. The Belligerents and Neutral Commerce (1801-1807) 195 X CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE XVI. The Embargo (1807-1808) 209 XVII. Jefferson's Failure and Flight (1808- 1809) 224 xvni. International Complications (1809-1810) 233 XIX. Madison and the Belligerents (1810-1811) 246 XX. Approach of War (1809-1812) 256 XXI. Critical Essay on Authorities .... 270 Index 287 MAPS North America (1800) {in colors) . , . facing 6 Barbary States (1802-1805) 38 The Louisiana Purchase (1803--1809) (in colors) 70 Route op Lewis and Clark to Oregon and Return (i 803-1 806) (in colors) . 94 West Florida (1803-1819) West Florida under the English (1763- 142 1780) West Florida (1756) Route of Aaron Burr (1806-1807) . 160 Indian Cessions in the Northwest (1789- 1816) 253 EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION THE title of The Jeffersonian System^ chosen for this volume, with the title of its predecessor, Bassett's Federalist System, suggests two rival, and in some respects opposed, groups of political prin- ciples and methods of carrying on both the federal and the state governments. Nevertheless, however different in point of view, the problems of Jefferson and Madison were, with the one great exception of the Louisiana purchase, substantially the same as^ those of Washington and Adams. The personality of Thomas Jefferson is in many ways the dominant note in the period from 1801 to 181 1. In chapters i. and ii. Professor Channing brings out how far Jefferson supposed himself to be inaugurating a new era, and in what respects he tried to undo or to supplant the work of his predecessors. After a brief chapter (iii.) on the Tripolitan War fol- lows, in chapters iv., v., and vi., a systematic ac- count of the conditions, progress, and results of the annexation of Louisiana, to which a convenient introduction may be found in Thwaites*s France in America, chapter xviii. In chapter vii. the ex- ploration of the west is taken up at a point where that important subject was left by McLaughlin's xii EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION Confederation and Constitution^ chapter viii., and by Bassett's Federalist System, chapter xiii. Chapter viii. is on the prohibition of the slave-trade. Chap- ters ix. and x. deal with the political controversies centring about the impeachment of Justice Chase and the defection of John Randolph on the Yazoo question. Chapters xi. and xii. again resume the thread of our frontier relations in West Florida and in Texas, in- cluding Burr's conspiracy. Thereafter the main subject of the book is the complications arising from the renewal of the war in Europe in 1803, and the consequent aggressions upon the neutral trade of the United States, including the Chesapeake-Leopard affair, the decrees and orders in council, the embar- go and non-intercourse. Chapter xx., on the ap- proaching war with Great Britain, may be compared with chapters i. and ii. of Babcock's Riseof Amer- ica:tiJ)lationalit^ (vol. XIIL), which show the results of the causes here suggested. In the American Nation series this volume em- phasizes the innate tendency to expansion of terri- tory, of which Louisiana, West Florida, and Oregon were all examples. The special and successful pur- pose of the author is to make clear how it was pos- sible for the nation to expand in territory and in spirit, and for the federal government to gain conse- quence and authority, while at the same time the government was growing more democratic: it is a study in imperial democracy. AUTHOR'S PREFACE JEFFERSON'S first administration has always wJ had a great attraction for the writer of the present volume. At one time, indeed, he thought of making it the subject of a prolonged investiga- tion. From that design he was turned by the sight of some advanced sheets of Henry Adams's work on the early Republican administrations. In no way can the admiration for that notable book be better shown than by making it the foundation of the following sketch. In this place, therefore, a general reference is made to Henry Adams's master- piece. In the following pages only those portions of it will be cited which contain matter inaccessible to the present writer. In addition to Mr. Adams's History and his Gallatin, recourse has been had to the well-known collections of documents and letters and to the more important material published since the close of Mr.