1797

 

__________ 

“Our government and people branded as cowards.” 

James Monroe

__________ 

 

A FRENCH TRAVELER in Philadelphia notes that among the ladies of that city, “beauty is general.” 

    Had he been interested he could, at that juncture, have visited Charles Wilson Peale’s museum. A popular exhibit was the skeleton of a mastodon. Even so learned a man as Thomas Jefferson would, a few years later, tell Lewis and Clark to be on the lookout for mastodons, still possibly living in the West.

Peale's museum. Picture not in blogger's possession.

 

* 

March 5: The meeting of the Fifth Congress opens. Harrison Gray Otis, a member from Massachusetts, will soon declare that he does “not wish to invite hordes of wild Irishmen, nor the turbulent and disorderly of all parts of the world” who might “come here with a view to disturb our tranquillity [sic].”

 

* 

Summer: When the story of Alexander Hamilton’s affair with Maria Reynolds, wife of James Reynolds, broke, Hamilton accused James Monroe of having a hand in revealing it. An eyewitness described the scene when Hamilton visited Monroe at his lodgings. Monroe had just returned from France, having been recalled by the new Federalist administration. “Colo. Monroe rising first and saying do you say I represented falsely, you are a scoundrel. Colo. H. said I will meet you like a gentleman. Colo. M. said I am ready get your pistols, both said we shall for it will not be settled in any other way.” 

    Fortunately, calmer heads prevailed, and a duel was prevented by the intervention of others. (24/159)

Maria Reynolds. Picture not in blogger's possession.

 

* 

November: James Monroe expresses his displeasure with the way foreign nations are treating the young Republic, and the Federalist leaders’ failure to take action. 

Our national honor is in the dust; we have been kicked, cuffed, and plundered all over the ocean; our reputation for faith scouted; our government and people branded as cowards, incapable of being provoked to resist. … Long will it be before we shall be able to forget what we are, nor will centuries suffice to raise us to the high ground from which we have fallen. (24/166)

     Says Harry Ammon: “Monroe was quite sincere in his belief that the Federalists were seeking an alliance with England not just in the interests of trade but, like the aristocrats of Europe, in the hopes of checking the onrushing tide of republicanism.” 

    On Washington’s part, he believed that Monroe’s subservience to France had led him to sacrifice U.S. interests. (24/166, 168) 

    Ammon also explains: “It was Jefferson’s firm opinion that it was of ‘immense consequence, that the states retain as complete authority as possible over their own citizens’ to combat the tendency of the central government to seize powers not specifically excluded from its sphere.” (24/170)