valry, Washington wrote to Lafayette, saying:
"Many of your old acquaintances and friends are concerned with me in the
administration of this government. By having Mr. Jefferson at the head
of the department of state, Mr. Jay of the judiciary, Hamilton of the
treasury, and Knox of war, I feel myself supported by able coadjutors
who harmonize extremely well."

Out of the rivalry between Jefferson and Hamilton, and the conflict of
their opinions respecting the national jurisprudence and French
politics, grew the two political parties known respectively, for about
twenty years, as _Federal_ and _Republican_. We shall observe that
growth as we progress in our narrative.

While Congress and the nation were agitated by discussions concerning
the public debt, another topic elicited a still more exciting
discussion: it was African slavery and the slave-trade. Slavery then
existed in all the states of the Union except Massachusetts, in whose
constitution a clause had been inserted for the purpose of tacitly
abolishing the system from the commonwealth. Pennsylvania had adopted
measures with the same view, and had been imitated by Connecticut, Rhode
Island, and New Hampshire. New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland,
had prohibited the further importation of slaves; and in Virginia and
Maryland restrictions upon emancipation had been repealed. A desire to
get rid of the system appeared to prevail throughout the Union. The
Presbyteries of New York and Pennsylvania, composing a united synod, had
constituted themselves as the general assembly of the Presbyterian
church in America; and that representative body issued a pastoral letter
in 1788, in which they strongly recommended the abolition of slavery,
and the instruction of negroes in letters and religion. The Methodist
church, then rising into notice, even refused slaveholders a place in
their communion; and the Quakers had made opposition to slavery a part
of their discipline. In these benevolent movements Washington
sympathized; for he desired to see the system extinguished by some just
method.

It was only a few days after the commencement of the debate on the
public debt, that a petition from the yearly meeting of the Quakers of
Pennsylvania and Delaware, with another from that of New York, was laid
before the house of representatives. A motion for reference to a special
committee caused a warm debate, and some of those who opposed its
reception spoke sneeringly of "the