the result of the last elections had again placed a majority in the house of representatives in opposition. This was manifest from the answers returned by the respective houses to the president's speech.

That of the senate, adopted fourteen to eight, expressed an entire approbation of the conduct of the executive.

The answer reported by a committee of the house, contained expressions of undiminished confidence in the president. But a motion was made to strike out this part; and in the debate on this motion, some of the members did not hesitate to say, that their confidence in the chief magistrate had diminished; and it was evident, that a majority were in favor of the motion. The answer was, therefore, recommitted, and so varied as to meet the unanimous assent of the house.

Mr. Munroe, we would here state, arrived in France about the first of August, 1794, and was received by the convention with great cordiality and affection.

He afterwards presented to the French government the American colors, which were placed with those of France, in the hall of the national convention. Mr. Munroe was the bearer of answers from the senate and house of representatives, to a letter previously addressed to them by the committee of public safety, expressing their friendship and good will, as well as the deep interest they took in the happiness and prosperity of the French republic.

In October, 1794, the committee of public safety again addressed a letter to "the representatives of the United States in congress assembled." "The connections," they said," which nature, reciprocal wants, and a happy concurrence of circumstances, have formed between two nations, cannot but be indissoluble. You have strengthened those sacred ties, by the declarations which the minister plenipotentiary of the United States has made in your name, to the national convention, and to the French people. They have been received with rapture by a nation, who know how to appreciate every testimony which the United States have given to them of their affection. The colors of both nations, united in the centre of the national convention, will be an everlasting evi

dence of the part which the United States have taken in the suc cess of the French republic." Mr. Adet was the bearer of this letter, as a minister plenipotentiary, and was "specially instructed to tighten the bands of fraternity and mutual benevolence," between the two countries. He did not arrive in the United States, until June, 1795, and was directed to present to the government, the flag of the republic. This was not done, however, until the first of January, 1796, when it was, in a formal manner, presented to the president, together with the letter of the committee of public safety addressed to congress. In presenting the flag, Mr. Adet, in his address, delivered on the occasion, after stating that France only saw in the Americans "friends and brothers," proceeded to say, "long accustomed to regard the American people as her most faithful allies, she has sought to draw closer the ties already formed in the fields of America, under the auspices of victory, over the ruins of tyranny.

"The national convention, the organ of the will of the French nation, have more than once expressed their sentiments to the American people; but above all, these burst forth on that august day, when the minister of the United States presented to the national representation the colors of his country. Desiring never to lose recollections as dear to Frenchmen, as they must be to Americans, the convention ordered that these colors should be placed in the hall of their sittings. They had experienced sensations, too agreeable not to cause them to be partaken of by their allies, and decreed that to them the national colors should be presented."

To this address the president immediately returned an answer; in which, after expressing his own and the sympathetic feelings of the Americans in general, in favor of the French republic, and congratulating him on the brilliant exploits of his nation, and on the security of their liberty in a regularly organized government, he thus concludes, "I receive, sir, with lively sensibility, the symbol of the triumphs and of the enfranchisement of your nation, the colors of France, which you have now presented to the United States.

The transaction will be announced to congress; and the colors will be deposited with those archives of the United States, which are at once the evidences and the memorials of their freedom and independence. May these be perpetual! and may the friendship of the two republics be commensurate with their existence." On the 4th of January, the president, by a special message, communicated to both houses, the letter of the committee of public safety, and informed them that he had received the colors of France, and had directed them to be deposited among the archieves of the United States.

The president was requested, by an unanimous resolution, to make known to the representatives of the French people, that the house received, with the most sincere and lively sensation, the communication of the committee of public safety; and to assure them that the house rejoiced in the opportunity of congratulating the French nation upon their brilliant and glorious achievements; and hoped that these achievements would be attended with the establishment of the liberty and happiness of that great and magnanimous people.

The senate also received with pleasure, the evidence of the continued friendship of the French republic, and expressed a wish that the colors of France, presented as a symbol of the triumphs of that great people, and given as a pledge of faithful friendship, might contribute to cherish and perpetuate the sincere affection by which the two republics were so happily united.

The French minister was disappointed that the colors of the republic had not the honor of a conspicuous place in the hall of the house of representatives; and in a note informed the president he could not remain silent on a circumstance which must make all France discontented. That as the American flag was placed in the hall of the legislative body of France, the French flag should receive the same honor. He was informed that the president was the constitutional organ of communication with foreign nations, and for this purpose was the sole representative of the American people; that he had deposited the French flag with the evidences and memorials of the freedom and independence of his

own country. That the people of the United States did not exhibit in their deliberative assemblies, "any public spectacles or tokens of their victories, the symbols of their triumphs or the monuments of their freedom.”

On the first of March the president informed congress, by message, that the treaty with Great Britain had been duly ratified, that he had directed it to be promulgated, and had transmitted a copy thereof for their information. This important subject, in various ways, occupied the attention of the house for a great part of the remainder of the session. Soon after its ratification by the president was known, petitions against it were circulated throughout the United States, for signatures. These petitions, all couched in the same language, were addressed to the house of representatives. The petitioners, after stating that certain stipulations in the treaty tended to involve their country in the political intrigues of European nations, to infract the treaty of alliance with France, and to produce the sad spectacle of war, between that magnanimous republic and the republic of the United States, 'proceeded to declare, that many of its stipulations were manifest encroachments on the constitutional powers of congress. After enumerating also the instances of such encroachments, which principally referred to the legislative powers vested in the national legislature,* the petitioners in conclusion said, "Wherefore solemnly protesting against the exercise of pow

The instances mentioned are

1. In the regulation of commerce with foreign nations.

2. In the regulation of trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes.

3. In regulating the territory of the United States and of individual states.

4. In establishing duties and imposts.

5. In establishing a rule of naturalization.

6. In constituting a tribunal of appeal, paramount to the supreme judicial court of the United States.

7. In changing the terms of, and establishing a rule to hold real estate.

8. In defining piracies committed on the high seas, and declaring the punishment thereof.

9. In depriving free citizens of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, in the case of piracy, as defined and punished by the said treaty; and

10. In attempting, in various other instances, to restrain and limit the legislative authority of congress.

er by the president and senate, in any of the foregoing cases, without the concurrence of congress, as manifestly tending to absorb all the powers of government in that department alone; to establish, as the sole rule of legislation over all the great foreign and domestic concerns of the United States, the mere will and absolute discretion of the president and senate, in conjunction with a foreign power; and finally to overturn and effect a total change in the present happy constitution of the United StatesWe most earnestly pray, that the representatives of the people, in congress assembled, will, in their wisdom, adopt such measures, touching the said treaty, as shall most effectually secure from encroachment, the constitutional delegated powers of congress, and the rights of the people, and preserve to our country an uninterrupted continuance of the blessings of peace."

Many of these petitions were presented in the winter of 1796, from different parts of the union, and laid the foundation of the proceedings of the house in relation to the treaty. Before the merits of the treaty itself became a subject of debate, an important preliminary question arose upon a resolution calling on the president for the instructions of Mr. Jay, and the correspondence and documents relating to it.

This resolution was offered by Mr. Livingston of New York, on the 2d of March, and was debated until the 24th of that month, when it passed, sixty two to thirty seven.

The principal question on this resolution was, as to the constitutional power of the house, in relation to treaties. The public feeling on the treaty, was brought into the house; and never, since the adoption of the constitution, had so much talent been displayed, or so much warmth manifested, as in the debates on this preliminary question, and on the merits of the treaty itself.

The speakers on both sides were numerous, and a very wide range was taken in debate. Every article and every word in the constitution, having the least bearing on the question, was critically examined.

These debates at large have been given to the public, and a sketch of the principal arguments can only here be presented.