motions of the
militant Federalists were too various to admit of description. It would
have been madness, however, not to accept the proffered olive branch.
Swallowing their wrath, they agreed to the mission, but substituted a
commission of three for a single minister.

From Napoleon, the new master of France, the commissioners secured a
convention which not only restored peace, but safeguarded the rights of
neutrals, by restraining the right of search and conceding the principle
that free ships make free goods. Napoleon consented also to the
abrogation of the treaties of 1778, but only upon condition that the new
treaty should contain no provision for the settlement of claims for
indemnity. John Adams was not far from the truth when he accounted this
peace one of the most meritorious actions of his life. "I desire no
other inscription over my gravestone," he wrote fifteen years later,
"than: 'Here lies John Adams, who took upon himself the responsibility
of the peace with France in the year 1800.'"

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

On the origin and growth of political parties in the United
States, the following books are suggestive and informing: H. J.
Ford, _The Rise and Growth of American Politics_ (1898); C. E.
Merriam, _A History of American Political Theories_ (1910); J. P.
Gordy, _Political History of the United States_ (2 vols.,
1900-03); A. E. Morse, _The Federalist Party in Massachusetts to
the Year 1800_ (1909); J. D. Hammond, _History of the Political
Parties in the State of New York, 1789-1840_ (2 vols., 1850). To
those histories already mentioned which describe the quarrel with
France may be added G. W. Allen, _Our Naval War with France_
(1909), and A. T. Mahan, _Influence of Sea Power on the French
Revolution and Empire_ (2 vols., 1898). A most readable account of
manners and customs in America is given by La
Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, _Travels through the United States,
1795-1797_ (2 vols., 1799). Social life in New York and
Philadelphia is described by R. W. Griswold, _The Republican
Court_ (1864).

CHAPTER VI

THE REVOLUTION OF 1800

The greatest obstacle in the path of the people of the United States in
their struggle toward national life was the vastness of the territory
which they occupied. Even the region between the Alleghanies and the sea
was as yet imperfectly subdued. Great tracts of wilderness separ