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
“Thank Heaven!” wrote Dallas to Gallatin, in October,[127]
“our election is over! The violence of Duane has produced a
fatal division. He seems determined to destroy the Republican
standing and usefulness of every man who does not bend to his
will. He has attacked me as the author of an address which I
never saw till it was in the press. He menaces the Governor;
you have already felt his lash; and I think there is reason for
Mr. Jefferson himself to apprehend that the spirit of Callender
survives.”
A struggle took place over the re-election of Leib to Congress, which
the “Aurora” carried by a few hundred votes. Republicans of Dallas’s
kind, who would not support Leib, were nicknamed “Quids” by Duane,
after the _tertium quid_, which was worth not even a name. At
least three fourths of the Republican party followed the “Aurora,” and
left the “Quids” in the solitude of deserted leaders.
Jefferson’s social relations were wholly with Gallatin, McKean, and
Dallas, but his political strength depended on the popular vote, which
followed Duane and Leib. At one moment he wanted to reason with Duane,
but by Gallatin’s advice gave up this idea. At length he temporized,
became neutral, and left Gallatin and Dallas to their own resources.
“I see with infinite pain,” he wrote to Dr. Logan,[128] “the
bloody schism which has taken place among our friends in
Pennsylvania and New York, and will probably take place in
other States. The main body of both sections mean well, but
their good intentions will produce great public evil. The
minority, whichever section shall be the minority, will end in
coalition with the Federalists and some compromise of principle.
Republicanism will thus lose, and royalism gain, some portion of
that ground which we thought we had rescued to good government.”
The idea that “royalism” could in any case gain support among the
factions of Pennsylvania democrats was one which could have occurred
only to Jefferson, who saw monarchy, as the New Englanders saw
Antichrist, in every man who opposed him in politics. Apart from this
trick of words, Jefferson’s theory of his own duties failed to satisfy
his followers. Dallas was disgusted at the situation in which he found
himself left.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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