The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation. Volume 1Roger, Charles
History
The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation. Volume 1
Roger, Charles
Canada -- History
respecting the removal of the Collector of Customs at that port, merely
because he was a Federalist or tory, the President quietly replied,
that time and accident would give the Tories their just share. Had he
found a moderate participation of office in the hands of the Democratic
party with whom he acted, his removals and substitutions would have
been less sweeping. But their total exclusion called for a more prompt
corrective. And he would correct the error. When the error was fully
corrected then he would only ask himself concerning an applicant for
office, these questions:--"Is he honest?" "Is he capable?" and "Is he
faithful to the Constitution?" The Tories were almost inclined to burn
the White House.
Ohio was admitted into the Union in 1802; in 1804, Colonel Burr, the
Vice-President of the United States, killed General Hamilton in a duel;
Mr. Jefferson was re-elected President in 1804, and Mr. George Clinton,
of New York, instead of Burr, now deservedly unpopular with all but the
filibustering classes, Vice-President; in 1805, Michigan became a
territorial government of the United States; and in the autumn of 1805
the outcast President Burr was detected at the head of a project for
revolutionizing the territory west of the Alleghanies, and of
establishing an independent empire there, of which New Orleans was to
be the capital, and himself the chief. To the accomplishment of this
scheme, Burr brought into play all the skill and cunning of which he
was possessed. And it was not a little. He had his design long in
contemplation. He pretended to have purchased a large tract of
territory, of which he conceded to his adherents considerable slices.
He collected together, from all quarters where either he himself, or
his agents, possessed influence, the ardent, the restless, and the
desperate, persons ready for any enterprise analogous to their
characters. He also seduced good and well-meaning citizens, by
assurances that he possessed the confidence of the government, and was
acting under its secret patronage. He had another project, in case of
the failure of the first. He designed to make an attack upon Mexico and
to establish an empire there. He failed. Before his standard was
raised, the government was made aware of his designs, and he was
brought to trial, at Richmond, on a charge of treason, committed within
the district of Virginia. It was not proved, however, that he had been
guilty of any overt act, within the State, and he was released. It was
probably to find employment for that restless and desperate class of
persons, with which the United States even then abounded, that the
government of America sought cause of quarrel with Great Britain, as
well as to produce that spurious activity among the industrial classes,
which is ever the result of warlike preparations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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