principles"; and his anger mounted
when he learned that as Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means
he was expected to propose and carry through an appropriation of two
million dollars for the purchase of Florida. Further interviews with the
President and the Secretary of State did not mollify him, for, according
to his version of these conversations, he was informed that France would
not permit Spain to adjust her differences with the United States, which
had, therefore, the alternative of paying France handsomely or of facing
a war with both France and Spain. Then Randolph broke loose from
all restraint and swore by all his gods that he would not assume
responsibility for "delivering the public purse to the first cut-throat
that demanded it."

Randolph's opposition to the Florida programme was more than an
unpleasant episode in Jefferson's administration; it proved to be the
beginning of a revolt which was fatal to the President's diplomacy, for
Randolph passed rapidly from passive to active opposition and fought
the two-million dollar bill to the bitter end. When the House finally
outvoted him and his faction, soon to be known as the "Quids," and the
Senate had concurred, precious weeks had been lost. Yet Madison must
bear some share of blame for the delay since, for some reason, never
adequately explained, he did not send instructions to Armstrong until
four weeks after the action of Congress. It was then too late to
bait the master of Europe. Just what had happened Armstrong could not
ascertain; but when Napoleon set out in October, 1806, on that fateful
campaign which crushed Prussia at Jena and Auerstadt, the chance of
acquiring Florida had passed.

CHAPTER VI. AN AMERICAN CATILINE

With the transfer of Louisiana, the United States entered upon its first
experience in governing an alien civilized people. At first view there
is something incongruous in the attempt of the young Republic, founded
upon the consent of the governed, to rule over a people whose land had
been annexed without their consent and whose preferences in the matter
of government had never been consulted. The incongruity appears the
more striking when it is recalled that the author of the Declaration of
Independence was now charged with the duty of appointing all officers,
civil and military, in the new territory. King George III had never
ruled more autocratically over any of his North American colonies than
President Jefferson over Lo