surrender of the military posts in the present States of Ohio and
Michigan; it also gave the United States a standing in the family of
nations which it was difficult to claim elsewhere while Great Britain
continued to refuse to treat on terms of equality. The Senate therefore
ratified the treaty, and it was constitutionally complete. The
democratic majority in the House of Representatives, objecting to the
treaty as a surrender of previous engagements with France, and as a
failure to secure the rights of individuals against Great Britain,
particularly in the matter of impressment, raised the point that the
House was not bound to vote money for carrying into effect a treaty with
which it was seriously dissatisfied. The speech of Gallatin has been
selected to represent the republican view. It is a strong reflection of
the opposition to the Treaty. The reply of Ames is a forcible
presentation of both the national and the commercial aspects of his
party; it had a very great influence in securing, though by a very
narrow majority, the vote of the House in favor of the appropriation.

There is some difficulty in fixing on any completely representative
oration to represent the republican point of view covering this period.
Gallatin's speech on the Jay Treaty together with Nicholas' argument for
the repeal of the sedition law may serve this purpose. The speech of
Nicholas shows the instinctive sympathy of the party for the individual
rather than for the government. It shows the force with which this
sympathy drove the party into a strict construction of the Constitution.
It seems also to bear the strongest internal indications that it was
inspired, if not entirely written, by the great leader of the party,
Jefferson. The federalists had used the popular war feeling against
France in 1798, not only to press the formation of an army and a navy
and the abrogation of the old and trouble-some treaties with France, but
to pass the alien and sedition laws as well. The former empowered the