History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

598 HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTON. [1796-1800.
United States Sen- Upoii its acloptioii liG was elected a Senator
^to''- of the United States, and served in that ca-
pacity for six years, being re-elected at the
close of his first term, but resigning before the expiration
of the second.
"Mr. Strong was an active and useful member of the Senate. He
appears to have been recognized as one of the leading lawyers in that
body, and most of the committees on which he served were those whose
duties would now be assigned to the Judiciary Committee. His most
important service was on the committee which drafted the famous act
to establish the judiciary, which passed at the first session, and which
has had an importance and an effect equal to almost any measure ever
enacted by Congress." ^
During the whole of this period he was a principal confident
and close friend of Gen. Washington. It was with
reluctance that he had accepted this office, and when he
resigned in 1796, he undoubtedly felt that his retirement to
private life was final, and that he had earned the right to
indulge his taste for the quiet enjoyment of home.
But again he recoguized in the voice of the
Governor of Massachusetts.
people the call of duty. In the year 1800
Caleb Strong was nominated Governor of
Massachusetts, and " one of the most beautiful moral pic-
tures ever displayed to the eye, was exhibited at that election;"^
for, although party feeling ran high, not a single
vote was cast against him in the seven or eight towns of
which Northampton is the center. " In the very scene of
his professional labors, in which, if anywhere, causes of
jealousy and discontent must have existed, not a man
could be found whispering anything to his dishonor."^
These were indeed "times that tried men's souls." The
unanimity that had existed during the administration of
Washington had given place to strong partisan feeling,
and party lines were more definitely drawn from year to
year as the storm of war raged in Europe between England
and France. Of these two parties, the republicans or democrats
sympathized heartily with France, regarding her
struggle as a defense of the same principles of democracy
1 studies in History, pp. 238, 230.
2 American Quarterly Register, vol. 12, p. 12.
3 Ibid.
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