Mathew Carey published the Olive Branch on November 8, 1814. The full title was The Olive Branch: or Faults on Both Sides, Federal and Democratic, A Serious Appeal on the Necessity of Mutual Forgiveness & Harmony, to Save our Common Country from Ruin.
Carey believed a small group of wealthy influential Federalists wanted New England to secede from the United States. He noted about half the newspapers in New England opposed Madison’s administration. In New York, Barent Gardenier, a Federalist and former representative, proposed sending President Madison into exile. He suggested replacing Madison with a Federalist, saving the country from the need for an election.[1]
Carey wrote the Olive Branch appealing to moderates in New England, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.[2]
He wrote:
“I believe the country to be in imminent danger of a convulsion, of the result whereof the human mind cannot calculate the consequences. The nation is divided into two hostile parties, whose animosity towards each other is daily increased by inflammatory publications. Each charges the other with the guilt of having produced the present alarming state of affairs.”[3]
When two people argue, he wrote, if they can be convinced that “the errors are mutual” then they can “open their ears to the voice of reason, and are willing to meet each other half way.” He reasoned the same was true for public affairs.[4]
He devoted his second chapter to the errors of the Democratic-Republican Party.[5]
1. The Federal Constitution
He faulted future Democratic-Republicans at the Constitutional Convention for failing to give the federal government enough power. Instead these delegates gave states more power to check tyranny by the federal government. Carey charged this error to lack of knowledge on the history of republics. These framers, he added, had studied the works of authors writing about arrogant, presumptuous monarchies.
2. Establishment of a Navy
The Democratic-Republicans also were “penny wise–pound foolish” for objecting to forming a small navy to protect America’s coasts.
3. The Treaty with England
During Thomas Jefferson’s administration, James Monroe and William Pinckney negotiated with the British to renew the Jay Treaty. Their mission was to stop impressment and secure America’s neutral trading rights. They sent their treaty to Jefferson. Without consulting the Senate, Jefferson rejected it. He asked Monroe and Pinckney to renew negotiations. Carey argued if Jefferson had followed the proper procedure, the Senate would probably have approved most of the treaty. They would have deferred the objectionable passages to further discussion. “Our party divisions,” he wrote “could never have been excited to such a height as to endanger the peace and security of the country.”
4. Separation of the States
Rumblings of discontent and secession increased in New England’s Federalist newspapers during Jefferson’s administration. Carey faulted Jefferson for not asking Congress to pass laws to prevent publishing articles promoting secession. Carey argued Jefferson neglected his duty in not sending law officers to New England to censure the editors promoting civil war. “Every society,” he wrote, “ought to possess within itself, and to exercise when the occasion calls for it, the fundamental principle of self-preservation.”
5. The Embargo
While the Embargo was in effect, smuggling in New England was rampant. Carey faulted Jefferson for not enforcing the Embargo in New England. While honest businessmen suffered, dishonest merchants made fortunes.
6. Alien and Sedition Laws and Eight Percent Loan
Carey was a Democratic-Republican who opposed the Alien and Sedition Laws when they were in effect. He came close to being prosecuted as an alien, as an immigrant Irishman. He found fault with himself and his party for objecting to the laws. After the crisis had passed, he claimed the laws were necessary for support of the government. “…it requires great strength of mind to keep out of the vortex of factious contagion, when prevalent with those whose opinions are generally congenial with our own. Of this strength of mind,” he confessed, “the writer [Mathew Carey] was destitute in common with a large portion of his fellow citizens.” Referring to the Virginia Resolution, Carey noted the state’s legislature was “bitten by the mad dog of faction” and “seized with…the gag-law phobia.”
Thomas Cooper was a newspaper editor from Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. A provocative Democratic-Republican, he claimed President Adams had damaged the nation’s credit. Cooper reported that the nation was forced to borrow money at eight percent interest during peacetime. Under provisions of the Sedition Act he was tried for libel, fined and imprisoned. Carey observed that during the administrations of Jefferson and Madison the United States often paid even more than eight percent in interest.
Next: Faults on Both Sides: Part I (continued): How Carey Found Fault with Madison’s Administration
Look for it Monday, March 18
[1] Mathew Carey, The Olive Branch (Philadelphia: M. Carey, November 8, 1814) 5-9.
[2] Carey, Olive Branch, 10, Edward C. Carter II, “Mathew Carey and ‘The Olive Branch,’ 1814-1818,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, V. 89, N. 4 (October, 1965) 406.
[3] Carey, Olive Branch, 21-2.
[4] Carey, Olive Branch, 22.
[5] Carey, Olive Branch, Chapter 2, 22-53.
