abroad,
and at home was sweeping away involuntary idleness, want, and ominous
discontent. Madison had known something of popularity during his long
career; but never before had he felt the exultation of riding upon the
very crest of a mighty wave of popular applause. But it was one of those
waves that collapse suddenly into a surprising flatness. Canning
repudiated all that Erskine had done and immediately recalled him. The
ships that had gone to sea, under the sanction of the President's
proclamation, were permitted by an order in council to complete their
voyages unmolested; but otherwise all commerce was once more brought to
a standstill. It would have been easier to bear some fresh misfortune
than to be compelled to struggle again with calamities so well
understood and which it was hoped had been left behind forever. Gallatin
had been retained in the Treasury Department and was the President's
chief adviser, and the two were now accused of having been either
imbecile or treacherous. It was openly said that they had led the young
minister to agree to an arrangement which they knew his government would
not sanction. But they could hardly have been so foolish as to make a
bargain with the certainty that it would stand only so long as a ship
could go and come across the Atlantic. Nobody understood better than
Madison how grateful a reconciliation with England would be to a large
proportion of the people, and nobody was more disappointed that the
negotiations came to worse than nothing, inasmuch as their failure led
to new embarrassments.

He said with some bitterness, in a letter to Jefferson, early in August:
"You will see by the instructions to Erskine, as published by Canning,
that the latter was as much determined that there should be no
adjustment as the former was that there should be one." He was unjust to
Canning; the real fault was with Erskine, and with him only because his
zeal outran his judgment. In another letter to Jefferson, the President
says: "Erskine is in a ticklish situation with his government. I suspect
he will not be able to defend himself against the charges of exceeding
his instructions, notwithstanding the appeal he makes to sundry others
not published. But he will make out a strong case against Canning, and
be able to avail himself much of the absurdity and evident
inadmissibility of the articles disregarded by him." Possibly Mr.
Erskine considered that his government would approve of his no