Page:Henry Adams' History of the United States Vol. 4.djvu/201

1808. , assures me that a rupture with France is inevitable and at hand." That Robert Smith acted in the matter as negotiator for the President was afterward made known by Jefferson himself.

Jefferson clung with touching pathos to the love and respect of his fellow-citizens, who repaid his devotion with equal attachment; but many an American President who yearned no less passionately for the people's regard would have died an outcast rather than have trafficked in their dignity and his own self-respect in order to seek or save a personal popularity. Perhaps Jefferson never knew precisely what was said of him by his Secretary of the Navy,—a passing remark by such a man as Robert Smith, repeated through such a medium as George Rose, need count for little; but the truth must be admitted that in 1808—for the first and probably for the last time in history—a President of the United States begged for mercy from a British minister.

In obedience to the President's decision, Madison yielded to the British demand on condition that the Executive should not be exposed to the appearance of having yielded. He arranged with Rose the "bridge" which Robert Smith had previously prepared for the President to cross. In a "secret and