of a commission of three.”  The committee of the Senate to whom the nomination was referred made a call upon Adams to inquire his reasons.  According to Adams’s own account, they informed him that a commission would be more satisfactory to the Senate and to the public.  According to Secretary Pickering, Adams was asked to withdraw the nomination and refused, but a few days later, on hearing that the committee intended to report against confirmation, he sent in a message nominating Chief Justice Ellsworth and Patrick Henry, together with Murray, as envoys extraordinary.  The Senate, much to Adams’s satisfaction, promptly confirmed the nominations, but this was because Hamilton’s influence had smoothed the way.  Patrick Henry declined, and Governor Davie of North Carolina was substituted.  By the time this mission reached France, Napoleon Bonaparte was in power and the envoys were able to make an acceptable settlement of the questions at issue between the two countries.  The event came too late to be of service to Adams in his campaign for reelection, but it was intensely gratifying to his self-esteem.

Some feelers were put forth to ascertain whether Washington could not be induced to be a candidate again, but the idea had hardly developed before all hopes in that quarter were abruptly dashed by his death on December 14, 1799, from a badly treated attack of quinsy.  Efforts to substitute some other candidate for Adams proved unavailing, as New England still clung to him on sectional grounds.  News of these efforts of course reached Adams and increased his bitterness against Hamilton, whom he regarded as chiefly responsible for them.  Adams had a deep spite against members of his Cabinet for the way in which they had foiled him about Hamilton’s commission, but for his own convenience in routine matters he had retained them, although debarring them from his confidence.  In the spring of 1800 he decided to rid himself of men whom he regarded as “Hamilton’s spies.”  The first to fall was McHenry, whose resignation was demanded on May 5, 1800, after an interview in which—­according to McHenry—­Adams reproached him with having “biased General Washington to place Hamilton in his list of major-generals before Knox.”  Pickering refused to resign, and he was dismissed from office on May 12.  John Marshall became the Secretary of State, and Samuel Dexter of Massachusetts, Secretary of War.  Wolcott retained the Treasury portfolio until the end of the year, when he resigned of his own motion.

The events of the summer of 1800 completed the ruin of the Federalist party.  That Adams should have been so indifferent to the good will of his party at a time when he was a candidate for reelection is a remarkable circumstance.  A common report among the Federalists was that he was no longer entirely sane.  A more likely supposition was that he was influenced by some of the Republican leaders and counted on their political support.  In biographies of