of the secretaries to obtain seats in congress or even the I 7 8 9 right to personal hearings there had been a heavy blow 1 7 9 7 to the plan. Another was the creation of the house committee of ways and means instead of taking direct action upon the financial plans submitted by the secretary of the treasury. Specific instead of general appropriations for the use of the executive departments also tended to diminish the power of the executive in financial legislation, as did the extension of the standing committee system in other directions. Two years after his retirement from office, Hamilton wrote to Fisher Ames: "The heads of departments are chief clerks. Instead of being the ministry, the organs of executive power, and imparting a kind of momentum to the operation of the laws, they are precluded from communicating with the house even by reports. Committees already are the ministers.'

Constitutional
Amendment

Hitherto, the senate had deliberated in secret, but it The Eleventh now opened its doors to the public except during executive sessions-a step in the direction of democracy. Another change was in the constitution itself, the direct result of a suit instituted by a citizen of South Carolina against the state of Georgia. When the case came up for trial in the United States supreme court, Georgia refused to plead and protested against the exercise of jurisdiction; the court postponed the case until the fifth of February, 1793. Meanwhile, the Georgia legislature resolved that the supreme court had no constitutional authority to force a state to answer a process and that the state would not be bound by any judgment. But the supreme court issued an order to the effect that if Georgia did not appear or show cause by the first day of the next term, judgment would be rendered by default. But there were other commonwealths that feared their creditors and the doctrine of states' rights was strong throughout the country. Sedgwick of Massachusetts at once introduced into the senate a constitutional amendment providing that a state cannot be sued in a federal court by a citizen of another state or of a foreign state. The amendment

1 7 9 3 passed the senate on the second of January, 1794, and 1798 the house on the fourth of March. Meanwhile, Georgia threatened to hang any officer who should attempt to execute such a judgment. The amendment was ratified by a sufficient number of states and was promulgated as part of the constitution. The chief effect of the amendment has been to allow a dishonorable repudiation of state debts.

January 8,

1798

The Flag of

and Stripes

January 13,

1794

The admission of Vermont and Kentucky as states Fifteen Stars called for a modification of the flag of thirteen stars and thirteen stripes and it was therefore enacted "that from and after the first day of May, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five, the flag of the United States shall be fifteen stripes, alternate red and white, that the Union be fifteen stars, white, in a blue field." This was the national standard until 1818 when a change was made to thirteen stripes and twenty stars, with one star to be added to the flag for each state added to the Union, the change to be made on the fourth day of July next succeeding such admission.

The New
Navy

Owing largely to the fact that European wars had

ATTACKTEDAN DE FUCA STRAIT

Attack on the Ship "Columbia"

thrown much of the carrying trade to American vessels, the commerce of the United States was greatly increased and made very profitable. In 1790, the ship "Columbia,

Captain Rob

ert Gray, returned to Boston by way of Canton, China, the first to carry the American flag around the globe. Gray made a second voyage on which he discovered the May 11, 1791 mouth of a great river to which he gave the name "Colum

bia," that of his own vessel. By this time, the corsairs 1794 of Algiers and of other Barbary powers had begun to seize American seamen, ships, and merchandise and to hold them for ransom money as they long had done with those of European nations. In the political chaos that followed the Revolutionary war, most of the few remaining ships of the American navy were sold. Under the new government that followed the adoption of the constitution, maritime affairs were left to the care of the secretary of war. In 1794, the English orders in council inflamed public feeling in America as related in a preceding chapter, the Barbary corsairs held more than a hundred American captives, and the dey of Algiers refused to negotiate a treaty unless all tribute that he reckoned as being in arrears was paid. Under such conditions and in

opposition to a strong sentiment against a standing army or a permanent naval

99

force, congress authorized the building of six frigates, the "Constitution," the "President,' and the "United States" of fortyfour guns each, and the "Chesapeake," the Congress," and the "Constellation" of thirty-six guns each. The

66

Captain John Barry

secretary of war reported that these vessels "separately would be superior to any European frigate of the usual dimension." On the fifth of June, John Barry, Samuel

March 27

1 7 9 4 Nicholson, Silas Talbot, Joshua Barney, Richard Dale, 1795 and Thomas Truxton, all of whom had taken parts in

the struggle for independence and four of whom had

been captains in the old navy, were chosen as captains in the new navy. Barney declined to serve and James Sever July 18, 1794 was appointed in his place. The "United States," the Constellation," and the "Constitution" were launched in 1797, but the signing of the Jay treaty in 1794, and of a treaty with the dey of Algiers in 1795 removed the war pressure, and the timber and other material that had been secured for the other frigates were sold.

Humiliating
Treaties

In the senate, the movement for an increase of the army and the re-creation of the navy was opposed as "the entering wedge of a new monarchy in America." In the house, it was urged that the contemplated force was inadequate, that the finances of the nation did not justify expensive fleets, that sacred duty and sound policy demanded the payment of the public debt, that older and more powerful nations bought the friendship of Algiers and we might do the same, or that we might subsidize some of the European naval powers to protect With Algiers our trade. In 1795, following long-established European precedents, the United States made a treaty with the dey of Algiers giving as the price thereof money and presents

D Humphrys

Autograph of David Humphreys

to the amount of a million dollars and pledging an annual tribute of about twenty-two thousand dollars. David Humphreys, the United States minister

to Portugal, sent Joseph Donaldson to Algiers as special agent for that purpose. The treaty was concluded on the fifth of September and approved and signed by Humphreys at Lisbon on the twenty-eighth of November, 1795. According to a clause in the final paragraph, the treaty was in "consideration of the United States paying annually the value of twelve thousand Algerine sequins in maritime stores." As the United States was almost powerless on the sea, it accepted the humiliating terms.