7375. REPUBLICANS, Early contests of.—[further continued].
The spirit of both the
speech [message of the President] and the address
[of Congress] has been so whittled down
by Bonaparte's victories, victories on the Rhine,
the Austrian peace, Irish insurgency, English
bankruptcy, insubordination of the [British]
fleet, &c., that Congress is rejecting, one by
one, the measures brought in on the principles
of their own address. But nothing less
than such miraculous events, as have been
pouring in on us from the first of our convening,
could have assuaged the fermentation
produced in men's minds. In consequence of
these events, what was the majority at first,
is by degrees become the minority, so that we
may say that, in the Representatives, moderation
will govern.—
To E. Randolph. Washington ed. iv, 192.
Ford ed., vii, 155.
(Pa.,
June. 1797)
See Federalists.
