was not denied by the representatives of that state, then present; all which goes to show that agitation of the subject of change in the government was begun none too early. The matter was tersely summed up in a letter of Mr. Madison, written April 9, 1786, in which he said: "The question, whether it be possible and worth while to preserve the union of the states, must be speedily decided some way or other. Those who are indifferent to its preservation would do well to look forward to the consequences of its extinction. The prospect, to my eye, is a gloomy one, indeed."

Closely following these events came another circumstance calculated to impair the harmony that had already been so severely shaken. This was the difficulty with Spain regarding the occupation of the Mississippi river, which, at one time, seemed likely to result in open war. The eastern states were willing to abandon all claim to the occupancy of the Mississippi, while Virginia, claiming large territory on the western bank of the Ohio, would consent to no arrangement that would preclude access to a market in the south; Kentucky was no less earnest in opposition to any treaty that would limit her occupancy of the Mississippi. Mr. Jay was instructed to enter into treaty negotiations with the minister of Spain, his acts to be subject to the approval of Congress. In May, 1786, he addressed a communication to the president of Congress, recommending the appointment of a committee, which should be empowered "to instruct and direct him on every point relative to the proposed treaty with Spain." The question was brought before the House, and a committee consisting of Mr. King, of Massachusetts; Mr. Pettit, of Pennsylvania; and Mr. Monroe, was appointed. Mr. Jay's plan was to enter into commercial stipulations, granting Spain exclusive control of the Mississippi river for a period of twenty-five or thirty years. Strong efforts were made by the friends of Jay to bring the treaty to a successful termination, but stronger efforts were made against any action that should limit the extension of the powers of the government to all parts of the west and southwest, and eventually the latter prevailed.

CHAPTER II.

ELECTED TO STATE LEGISLATURE-OPPOSITION TO FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONAPPOINTED MINISTER TO FRANCE.

A

LMOST at the outset of his Congressional career Mr. Monroe accepted an appointment, together with eight other distinguished men, as members of a federal court to adjust certain long-standing differences between Massachusetts and New York. The court was continued during two years, without, however, accomplishing the object in view, which was finally settled. by the two states themselves, in 1786; soon thereafter Mr. Monroe resigned his commission. His term as a member of Congress expired late in this year, and he removed to Fredericksburg, with the view of engaging in the practice of law, to which he had already devoted several years of preparation. Very soon after opening a law office, he was elected a member of the legislature, which met at Richmond, the 15th of October, 1787. Consideration of the new Constitution, which had been framed by the convention of 1787, and duly signed the 17th day of September, was to be had in convention of delegates of the state, to be held in Richmond on the 2d day of June, 1788, and great activity was displayed by men of all shades of opinion, in the election of delegates. Mr. Madison, as a leader in the convention that framed the Constitution, and its most active promoter, was elected a delegate to the state convention. Mr. Monroe was believed to be a friend to the Constitution, though a cool one. In a letter to Mr. Madison, dated October 13, 1787, he said: "There are, in my opinion, some strong objections against the project, which I will not weary you with a detail of; but, under the predicament in which the Union now stands, and this state in particular, with respect to this business, they are overbalanced by the arguments in its favor." At the election of delegates, which took place in January, Mr. Monroe was chosen from the county of Spottsylvania. The assembling of the convention developed the fact that he was to be classed among the opponents of the measure, with powerful associates in

the persons of Patrick Henry, Colonel Mason, Mr. Grayson, Colonel Benjamin Harrison, and Mr. Tyler. Regarding the confederation, he said in convention: "I consider it void of energy, and badly organized. . . . I am strongly impressed with the necessity of having a firm, national government; but I am decidedly against giving the power of direct taxation, because I think it endangers our liberties. My attachment to the Union and an energetic government is such, that I would consent to give the general government every power contained in the plan, except that of direct taxation."

While he believed the articles of confederation possessed radical defects, he feared the Constitution allowed Congress too extended powers, that might be used to the manifest disadvantage of certain of the states; also that the legislative and executive departments were not guarded by sufficient checks, and a proper responsibility. "When once elected," he said, "the President may be elected for ever." That this fear influenced the votes of many delegates, in other of the states as well as in Virginia, is undoubtedly true; but, thanks to the patriotism of George Washington, the first President under the Constitution, and his immediate successors, such has never been the case, and in all probability never will be.

A day or two later he was called upon in committee of the whole, as also was his colleague, Mr. Grayson, to give in detail the efforts made in Congress to conclude the treaty with Spain. The action of seven of the states in voting to accept a treaty giving Spain control of the Mississippi, was dwelt upon, showing how a majority of the states could, in emergency, control legislation; and even pass laws that would seriously injure the commerce of their neighbors. This was brought forward to influence delegates to vote against ratification without amendment, and was used to the best advantage by Mr. Henry and others who were arrayed against the Constitution. Notwithstanding the determined opposition to ratification of many of the most powerful men in the convention, it was impossible to overcome the clear and logical arguments presented by Mr. Madison, and the proposition favoring immediate ratification was carried by a vote of eightynine to seventy-nine. In accordance with the course he had pursued throughout the convention, Mr. Monroe voted in the negative.

The adoption of the Constitution by the requisite number of states assured, the election of senators and members of the House of Representatives followed. Mr. Madison was proposed as senator, and in the house of representatives of the state was defeated by five votes only. In apportioning the districts of the state, efforts were made by Patrick Henry and others who had become embittered against him, to so arrange them as to defeat Mr. Madison in a re-election to the national House of Representatives. Monroe was nominated as his opponent, because of his popularity with the people, and also because in the convention he had voted with the element that opposed ratification of the Constitution. The few weeks preceding the elec

tion were spent in active canvass of the field, both by Monroe and Madison; on one occasion they met in discussion, on a cold January day, and addressed the people from the portico of a Lutheran meeting-house, after the close of religious service. Such was the severity of the day that Madison's ear was frost-bitten, and in after-life he was wont laughingly to point to the scar as an honorable mark received in battle. Monroe did not seem so much affected by the cold, on this occasion; but in the election he was defeated. In writing to Jefferson a few weeks afterward, Madison said: "It gives me great pleasure to inform you, that the friendship of Monroe and myself has not been affected, in any degree, by our late political opposition."

The death of Mr. Grayson, who had been elected to the Senate in November, 1788, caused a vacancy in the representation of Virginia in that body, and Colonel John Walker was temporarily assigned to the place by the governor, until the meeting of the legislature, when James Monroe was elected senator. He took his seat in 1790, and shared in the discussions that arose over the incorporation of the national bank. Party lines were already drawn, and the names federalist and republican given the two divisions to distinguish them. Of the latter party Mr. Monroe became a prominent member, and soon an acknowledged leader in the Senate, in which body he remained until the close of his term in 1794, opposed to the administration of President Washington as influenced by Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury. At the close of his term as senator he was appointed minister to France, relieving Gouverneur Morris, whose recall the French republic had requested. In the selection of Mr. Monroe for this trust, the President plainly expressed the sentiments which actuated him; in the instructions he gave the new minister he announced to the world the feeling of regard he had for the success and perpetuation of the republic. The minister was told that "the President has been an early and decided friend of the French revolution; he is immutable in his wishes for its accomplishment, and persuaded that success will attend it." Regarding Jay's mission to London, Monroe was requested to say, that "he is positively forbidden to weaken the engagements between this country and France;" "you will be amply justified in repelling with firmness any imputation of the most distant intention to sacrifice our connection with France to any connection with England. . You go, sir, to France, to strengthen our friendship with that country; you will let it be seen that, in case of war with any nation on earth, we shall consider France as our first and natural ally. You may dwell upon the sense we entertain of past services, and for the more recent interposition in our behalf with the dey of Algiers." Truly a friendly feeling was expressed by the great chief for the country that was the home of many who shared with him the perils and hardships of the war of independence. Afterward the President's sentiments seem to have undergone a change, caused no doubt, in part, by the excesses

connected with the revolution in France, and partly by a feeling that the opportunity for the conclusion of a treaty of commerce with Great Britain should not be allowed to pass unimproved.

On his arrival in Paris August 2, 1794, Mr. Monroe was everywhere received with demonstrations of respect and affection. Twelve days later he was publicly introduced to the national convention, where he was greeted by its president, Merlin de Douay, with a fervid speech, and publicly embraced. The flags of the two countries were intertwined in the halls of the assembly. He immediately availed himself of the favorable impression produced to enter upon the business of his mission. In this he was very successful, the convention, on his representations, repealing its retaliatory decree, passed under the sting of the British orders in council, which subjected provisions on board American vessels to seizure and forced sale. Promise was made of restitution for wrongs already done; and assurances of friendly aid in the settlement of existing difficulties with the Barbary powers. In short, as in his report Mr. Monroe said: "Such is now our situation with the French republic, and with other powers so far as depended on the French republic, that there is but one point upon which we have cause to feel or express any solicitude,-which is that it may not vary."

The lavish attentions bestowed upon the American minister by the leaders in the French republic, and which were accepted in the same spirit which prompted them, called for the unqualified disapproval of the federalist members of President Washington's cabinet. Pickering, at that time secretary of state, with all others of his party, had strong leanings toward England, and a cordial hatred of everything that tended to strengthen friendly relations with France. Immediately on receipt of intelligence regarding Monroe's reception, he wrote him, strongly censuring him for not understanding many things not contained in his written instructions, and which would have been in direct contradiction of his rules of guidance. In his View of the Conduct of the Executive in the Foreign Affairs of the United States, published after his return from France, Mr. Monroe thus speaks of the captious communication he received from the secretary of "In this he notices my address to the convention; as also my letter to the committee of public safety, of the 3d of September following; both of which acts he censures in the most unreserved and harsh manner. In the first he charges me with having expressed a solicitude for the welfare of the French republic in a style too warm and affectionate, much more so than my instructions warranted; which, too, he deemed the more reprehensible, from the consideration, that it was presented to the convention in public, and before the world, and not to a committee in a private chamber; since thereby, he adds, we were likely to give offense to other countries, particularly England, with whom we were in treaty; and since, also, the dictates

state: