Though he did not believe that in every instance the government had been just and impartial, yet, generally speaking, it had been so.

He did not approve the British treaty, though he attributed no bad motives to its makers; but he did not think that the laws respecting the subordinate departments of the executive and judiciary had been fairly executed.

He therefore would not consent to the sentence in the answer to the address, that the House did not hesitate to declare that "they would give their most cordial support to principles so deliberately and uprightly established." What, he asked, were these principles?
Otis denounced this as an artful attempt to cast a censure, not only on the executive, but on all the departments of government, and Allen of Connecticut declared "that there was American blood enough in the House to approve this clause and American accent enough to pronounce it." The rough prejudice of the Saxon against the Latin race showed itself in this language, and expressed the antagonism which Mr.Gallatin found to increase with his political progress.

Both the resolution and the amendment were defeated, 53 nays to 45 yeas.

But when the final vote came upon the address, Mr.
Gallatin, with that practical sense which made him the sheet anchor of his party in boisterous weather, voted with the Federalists and carried the moderate Republicans with him.