The record-union., 1891-03-23
AN OLD-TIME SENATOR.
Journal of William Maclay of
Pennsylvania.
Was Thomas jefferson the Father of
Modern Democracy s-The senate
During the First Congress-Some
Very Interesting "reminiscences.

''The Journal of William Maclay,"
who was United States Senator from
Pennsylvania for the two years from the
organization of our present form of gov
ernment to the 4th of March, 1871, which
has now for the first time been published
in full, is q work of rare historical inter-
est. A trained lawyer, clear-headed
man of business, active in public affairs,
a close observer, with clear and definite
opinions which he did not hesitate to ex-
press, he occupied no small place in the
history of his State during the last thirty
years of the last century. Though an Of
ficer in the proprietary Government of
Pennsylvania at the outbreak of the Rev
olution, he took an active part in favor
of independence, and during the struggle
held the position of Assistant Commits
sary. Later he was a member of the
Pennsylvania Assembly of the Supreme
Executive Council, and was Judge of the
Court of Common Pleas. In January,
1879. he was elected to the United States
Senate, and the question of which of
Pennsylvania's two Senators should hold
the long term of Office was decided by lot,
and Maclay drew the two years term,
and his colleague, Robert Morris, the six
years. The journal now published was
written as private diary each day after
the session of the Senate was ended. 1t
begins with the Inauguration of Wash
ington in New York, and ends with the
life of the first Congress, which closed its
work in Philadelphia.
VERY EARLY IN THE SESSION
Senator Maclay began to differ with the
Federalists. He was strongly opposed to
to the state ceremony attendant upon the
intercourse of the President with Con-
gress; he strongly objected to the pres
ence of the President in the Senate while
business was being transacted, and did
not hesitate to criticise Washington's pol
icy in his presence. He was one of the
foremost in opposition to chartering the
United States Bank, and took such strong
anti-Federalist or Democratic ground
that he utterly lost his popularity in
Pennsylvania, and, falling of reelection,
was succeeded by a thoroughgoing Fed
eralist partisan.
His journal was strictly private in its
nature, was intended merely for personal
reference, the thought of its publication
having probably never entered the mind
OF the writer. In such case numerous
phrases would have been smoothed over,
and certain passages would probably
never have been written. All this, how
ever, gives the journal q greater value,
since we have here what n Pennsylvania
Senator really thought of Washington,
Adams, Hamilton, Jefferson, Ellsworth,
and the other distinguished men Of that
day. Each evening he wrote of the days
events; wrote while his mind was yet
heated with the fierce debate in which he
had participated, and while the scenes
were fresh in his memory, so that it is
easily seen that the journal is to become
one of the valuable
SOURCES OF ORIGINAL INFORMATION
H., L = i ~
more so since in Senator MaclayS time
the sessions of the Senate were held with
closed doors, and the authentic records
we have of its proceedings are extremely
meager. During his two years term IN
the Senate his attitude upon the various
questions that arose, and his growing
distrust of the great Federalist leaders,
including even Washington himself,
combined with his intense partisanship,
has led the editor of his journal to claim
for him the honor of having been the
real founder of the Democratic party.
Jefferson, to whom this honor has usu-
ally been aScribed, was in France when
the Constitution went into effect, and did
not become a part of the Government for
more than year afterward.
1t was during the very first few months of
the new Governments life that questions
arose, the settlement of which did much
TO determine whether our institutions
euOlltl Dt oE really TtDuDll-
can in character, and in settling these
Maclay was foremost in opposition to
anything which in the least savored of
monarchical forms, thus laying, it is
claimed, the broad and deep foundations
on which Thomas Jefferson afterwards
reared the Superstructure which has been
known as the Democratic party. This
however, is probably claiming too much
Maclay could never be called Il leader.
He was out of sympathy with the public
life of his time. He seems to have had
little or no following. He did not fur
nish in his own person the nucleus
around which party might be formed.
He was, indeed, bitterly
OPPOSED TO THE FEDERALIsT LEADERS
And gave them hard blows. He entered
the Senate prepared to be friends with
Adams, whom he had helped make Vice
President, and with the conviction that
Washington was the first man in the
world. He left it cordially hating Adams
and Hamilton, and mourning because
Washington had become, as he believed.
simply the tool of these men.
He naturally sympathized with Jeffer-
son, but does not seem to have had a pro-
found admiration even for the man who
afterwards formulated the principles, for
which during his two years of senatorial
life he contended. into a party plliloso-
ply or creed. This description of Jeffer-
on his return from Europe to accept the
Secretaryship of State, is interesting :
Jefferson IS slender man; has rather
the air of stiffness in his manners: his
clothes seem too small for him; he sits in
lounglng manner, on one hip COM
monty, and with one of his shoulders ell
evated much above the other: his face
has a sunny aspect; his whole figure has
aloose, shackling air. He had a rambling.
vacant look, and nothing of that firm,
collected department which | expected
would dignity the presence of a Secre-
tary or Minister.
II looked for gravity, but laxity of
manner seemed shed about him. He
spoke almost without ceasing. But even
his discourse partook of his personal de-
meanor. 1t was loose and rambling. and
yet he scattered information wherever he
went, and some even brilliant sentences
sparkled from him. The information
which he gave us respecting foreign min
listers was all high spiced. He had been
long enough abroad to catch the tone OF
European folly" The man in public life
whom of all others he most disliked was
vICE-PRESIDENT JOHN ADAMS,
And yet he had worked to secure his elec-
tion to that office. Speaking of this, he
writes one day: 1.-The very principles
which actuated DIR. Rush and myselt
when we brought him forward for Vice
President viii probably make him Presi-
dent. We knew his vanity, and hoped
by laying hold of it to render him useful
among the New England men in oul
scheme of bringing Congress to Penn
sylyania. But his pride, obstinacy and
folly are equal to his vanity, and al
though it is a common observation that