have no foreign intercourse was taken
from Washington's Farewell Address, but his words applied only to
alliances offensive and defensive. If ministers were abandoned, envoys
extraordinary must be sent, a much more dangerous practice; the only
choice was between ministers and spies. In conclusion he accused the
Republicans of making one continuous attack upon the administration, and
charged that the opposition to the appropriation bill was not a single
measure, but connected with others, and intended to clog the wheels of
government.

The purpose of the Republicans being thus declared by Nicholas and
squarely met by the friends of the administration, Mr. Gallatin, March
1, 1798, summed up the opposition arguments in an elaborate speech three
hours and a quarter in length. He denied the novel doctrine that each
department had checks within itself, but none upon others; he claimed
that the principle of checks is admitted in all mixed governments.
Commercial intercourse, he said, is regulated by the law of nations, by
the municipal law of respective countries and by treaties of commerce,
the application of which is the province of consuls. What advantages, he
asked, had our commercial treaties given us, either that with France or
that with England? He excepted that part of the treaty with Great
Britain which arranged our difference with that power, as foreign to the
discussion. He claimed that the restriction which we had laid upon
ourselves by our commercial treaties had been attended with political
consequences fatal to our tranquillity. Washington had advised a
separation of our political from our commercial relations. The message
of President Adams intimated a different policy and alluded to the
balance of power in Europe as not to be forgotten or neglected.
Interesting as that balance may be to Europe, how does it concern us? We
shall never throw our weight into the scale. Passing from this to the
danger of the absorption of powers by the executive, he cited the
examples of the Cortes of Spain, the Etats Generaux of France, the Diets
of Denmark. In all these countries the executive is in possession of
legislative, of absolute powers. The fate of the European republics was
similar. Venice, Switzerland, and Holland had shown the legislative
powers merging into the executive. The object of the Constitution of the
United States is to divide and distribute the powers of government. With
uncontrolled command over the purse