One great
point, at least, the British government had yielded. After the
Revolutionary war, the English had retained several western posts, to
the great annoyance of settlers, and the indignation of the whole
country. These posts were now to be surrendered, provided the treaty was
accepted and its conditions fulfilled.
President Washington and the Senate had ratified the treaty--with
reluctance, it is true; but still they had ratified it; and nothing
remained but for the House of Representatives to appropriate the money
requisite for carrying the treaty into effect. But here was the
difficulty. The treaty was so unpopular that members of Congress shrunk
from even seeming to approve it. There had been riotous meetings in all
the large cities to denounce it. In New York, Alexander Hamilton, while
attempting to address a meeting in support of it, was pelted with
stones, and the people then marched to the residence of Mr. Jay, and
burned a copy of the treaty before his door.
"Blush," said a Democratic editor, "to think that America should degrade
herself so much as to enter into any kind of treaty with a power now
tottering on the brink of ruin, whose principles are directly contrary
to the spirit of Republicanism!"
A Virginia newspaper advised that, if the treaty negotiated by "that
arch-traitor, John Jay, with the British tyrant, should be ratified,"
Virginia should secede from the Union.
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