who came second in the presidential election should be made vice-president; and so Mr. Jefferson was assigned to that office under Mr. Adams, though they differed a great deal in their politics. President Adams had been one of the foremost of the patriots from the outbreak of the Revolution. He had afterwards assisted in framing the Declaration of Inde

pendence; and he had been one of

was removed thence to Washington, to a site. which President Washington himself had selected.

JOHN ADAMS.

After President Adams came into power, the troubles with France went on increasing. Ambassadors had been sent there from the United States; but the French Government would not receive them. Then it was hinted to the ambassadors that a payment of money would reconcile France; and one of them answered, "Millions for defence, not a cent for trib

ute." It was Charles C. Pinckney of South Carolina who said this; and the sentiment was repeated everywhere through the United States. There seemed to be great prospect of another war; and General Washington was called from his quiet home in Virginia, to take command of the army. There were some seafights between French and American vessels; but,

when Napoleon Bonaparte came into power, President Adams succeeded in making a treaty with him, in 1800; and after this there was peace with France.

But there had to be an increase of taxation to meet the expense of these preparations for war; and this made the administration of President Adams unpopular with many people. Some laws had also been passed, called 66 Alien and Sedition Laws," which were very much disliked, because they gave the president authority to arrest any foreigner, and to send him out of the country, without a trial; and also gave unusual power to the president in other ways. Great as President Adams's public services had been, he was made very unpopular by these laws; and he was not reelected for a second term, as Washington had been. The popular vote was so divided, that there was no choice; and the House of Representatives, which had in such cases the right of deciding, chose Mr. Jefferson as president, in Mr. Adams's place.

It was during the administration of President Adams, that General Washington died, Dec. 14, 1799. There had been much party bitterness during the latter part of Washington's administration; but when he died the whole nation mourned. All felt how much the new American Republic had owed to his courage,

The

foresight, truthfulness, and disinterestedness. resolutions passed by the House of Representatives declared that he was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." This was very true; and the phrase has become almost a proverb in speaking of Washington.

No new States were admitted into the Union in President Adams's time; but the region between Georgia and the Mississippi River was organized into a "territory," and began to be settled. It comprised what is now included by the States of Mississippi and Alabama. None of the vast region west of the Mississippi yet belonged to the United States, nor did Florida. Another census of the nation was taken in 1800; and the population had risen to nearly five millions and a half (5,308,483).

TH

CHAPTER XXIV.

JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATION.

HOMAS JEFFERSON of Virginia was the third president of the United States, and served two terms (1801-1809). He was well known as having been the framer of the Declaration of Independence, and as having been vice-president under John Adams. He represented the Republican party, as it was then called, or Democratic party, as it was afterwards called,the party which sympathized with France rather than with England in

the war that was

going on between

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

this war, because it put the United States in a very diffi· cult position. Both France and England had issued orders, each nation forbidding all trade with the other, and claiming the right to confiscate all vessels engaged in such trade. Thus every American vessel on the ocean was liable to capture by the one or the other of these two nations; and, whether an American shipmaster saw the English or the French flag, he tried equally hard to keep out of the way, for fear of having his vessel seized, and his crew perhaps imprisoned.

Besides this, the English claimed the right to search American vessels to see if there were any English seamen on board, and to take any such, if found; and several hundred men were thus seized in the course of a single year. It even happened, once or twice, that the whole crew of a ship was taken, and the vessel was left with nobody to man it. Once the British manof-war "Leopard" attempted to search the American frigate "Chesapeake," for deserters, within sight of Fortress Monroe in Virginia; and, when the American commander refused to submit, his ship was fired upon, and compelled to surrender; and four men were carried away, one of whom was hanged. All this caused the greatest injury to American commerce, and much angry feeling against Great Britain. Then Congress, wishing to punish England by ceasing to trade with her, laid, in 1807, an "embargo," as it was called, or prohibition, forbidding American shipping from leaving American ports. But this hurt the United States, in the end, much more than it hurt England. It completed the injury that other causes had begun ; and it made President Jefferson very unpopular, for a time, with Ameri can merchants.