History of the United States of America, Volume 2 (of 9) : $b During the first administration of Thomas JeffersonAdams, Henry
History
History of the United States of America, Volume 2 (of 9) : $b During the first administration of Thomas Jefferson
Adams, Henry
United States -- History -- 1801-1809; United States -- History -- 1809-1817
The Administration had every reason to rejoice that Burr’s factious
influence in the State of New York was at an end; for other causes of
anxiety gave the President more personal annoyance. The strength of the
Republican party lay in the alliance between Virginia and Pennsylvania.
So long as these two central States, with their forty members of
Congress, remained harmonious, nothing could shake Jefferson’s power;
but any discord which threatened his control of Pennsylvania caused
him anxiety. Hardly had Burr’s schism been checked in New York by a
succession of measures as energetic as De Witt Clinton could persuade
Jefferson to adopt, when a schism, that threatened greater mischief,
broke out in Pennsylvania.
In this State no social hierarchy existed such as governed New England,
nor were rich families with political followings to be found there,
as in New York; but instead, Duane’s “Aurora” shone without break or
bar over one broad democratic level. Duane was represented in Congress
by Michael Leib; while over the State Legislature his influence was
complete. In Jefferson’s Cabinet Pennsylvania was represented by
Gallatin, who had little sympathy with the “Aurora,” and began his
administration of the finances by resisting Duane’s demand for Federal
patronage.
“The thirst for offices,” to use Gallatin’s own words,[126] “too
much encouraged by Governor McKean’s first measures, created
a schism in Philadelphia as early as 1802. Leib, ambitious,
avaricious, envious, and disappointed, blew up the flame, and
watched the first opportunity to make his cause a general one.
The vanity, the nepotism, and the indiscretion of Governor
McKean afforded the opportunity. Want of mutual forbearance
among the best-intentioned and most respectable Republicans has
completed the schism. Duane, intoxicated by the persuasion that
he alone had overthrown Federalism, thought himself neither
sufficiently rewarded nor respected; and possessed of an engine
which gives him an irresistible control over public opinion, he
easily gained the victory for his friends.”
In the spring of 1803 the “Aurora” began to attack Gallatin and
Madison, under cover of devotion to the President; and from this
beginning Duane went on to quarrel with Governor McKean and Alexander
J. Dallas, the district attorney.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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