VI.

CHAPTER the question in favor of a rigid neutrality, and as amounting to a suspension of the guarantee during the pending 1793. war. Jefferson, on the other hand, regarded the proclamation as a merely reserving the question till Congress could meet. He considered the guarantee in full binding force; and though he was not disposed to plunge the United States into the war, if it could be avoided, he was not the less inclined to favor France by all possible

means.

To accept his proffered resignation would lead to greater unanimity in the cabinet, but it would also expose the government to new and more dangerous assaults. Washington's confidence in Jefferson's personal honor and political integrity was as yet unshaken. It was certain that Jefferson himself possessed the confidence of a powerful and growing party, and that his retirement from office would be at once denounced as the triumph of antirepublican principles in the cabinet. He was, therefore, solicited to remain, and readily agreed to postpone his resignation till the close of the year. By that time the new Congress would be in session, containing, at least in the Lower House (so Jefferson fondly expected), a Republican majority able to hold Hamilton in check. Should he retire before the meeting of Congress, leaving Hamil ton uncontrolled in the cabinet, advantage might be taken of the folly and insolence of Genet to bring the people over to Hamilton's views, and perhaps to embroil the United States with France. Such we may conjecture to have been Jefferson's motives for continuing in the cabinet, in spite of the "immense difficulty" of his equivocal position, and for undertaking the composition of the proposed letter to Morris, containing a statement of GeAug. 23. net's conduct, and requesting his recall. As finally agreed to by the cabinet, this was a very able and vigorous doc

VI.

ument. Genet, indeed, in his comments upon it, bitterly CHAPTER reproached Jefferson with having allowed himself to be made the instrument of so ungenerous an attack, "after 1793. pretending to be his friend and initiating him into mysteries which had inflamed his hatred against all those who aspire to an absolute power"-pregnant allusions to a confidential intercourse between the French embassador and the Secretary of State, very different from the tenor of their official correspondence. The same confidential intercourse seems to be further alluded to in Genet's sarcastic intimation "that it was not in his character to speak, as many people do, in one way, and to act in another-to have an official language and a language confidential." These side thrusts, to which no reply was ever made, make it easy to see that Jefferson had not exaggerated the difficulty of the position in which Genet's imprudent violence had placed him.

Pending this application for the recall of Genet, the balance, which had seemed so doubtful, began at length to settle down in the government's favor. Hitherto a few noisy enthusiasts, a few violent newspapers, and the newly-organized democratic clubs, had taken it upon themselves to speak, and had made Genet believe-if, indeed, Jefferson himself did not incline to the same opinion that they were speaking the sentiments of the American people. The apathy with which this usurpation had been allowed, on the part of the great body of more sober citizens, presently gave way before the consideration that, if suffered to go on, it would inevitably involve the country in a war with England, and would thus sweep from the ocean all that growing commerce which had given such a start to the public prosperity. Though the advice of Jefferson and Randolph had prevented a publication of the correspondence with Genet,

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CHAPTER hints already began to leak out as to the insolence of his conduct. On the occasion of a visit of his to New York, 1793. to receive the compliments of his partisans there, a stateAug. 8. ment of his having insulted the president, by threats to appeal to the people, appeared in one of the city newspapers, and when the truth of that statement was denied, Chief Justice Jay and Rufus King assumed the responsibility of it. The reference was to the threats made to Dallas, of which an account has been given above. This statement drew out a letter from Genet to the president, in which, after many complaints of the treatment he had received, he put the question whether Washington had been threatened, as this statement alleged. Genet reAug. 22. ceived a note, in reply, from the State Department, which he had the folly to publish along with his own letter, informing him that direct correspondence with the executive was not according to diplomatic usage, and that the president did not think fit to make any statement as to a declaration which, whether made to him or to others, was, perhaps, immaterial.

The appeal to the people was thus actually made; for the published correspondence was a sufficient indication how matters stood, Genet's letter being little better than a bill of indictment against the president. The same day that Genet's partisans in New York had received him with the ringing of bells and the firing of cannon, a public meeting had been held in that city, in approval of the policy of the proclamation of neutrality. This example was soon followed in all the principal towns and cities, and a demonstration of public opinion speedily appeared, which added effectual weight to the orders lately issued by the government for the strict observance of neutral duties. The more violent French partisans, and the newspapers in that interest, exerted themselves with

VI.

vigor to check this counteracting tide of public senti- CHAPTER ment, and to defend the course of the French minister. Dallas came to his assistance with some modification or 1793. softening of the report he had made of the threats to him of an appeal to the people, and Genet was thus encouraged to demand of the president that Jay and King, who were assailed by the opposition newspapers in the grossest terms, should be prosecuted for libel. This the attorney general declined, at the same time informing Genet that the law was open to him to commence a prosecution on his own account. All this did but damage Genet still the more in the estimate of all reasonable people. while the determination was very emphatically expressed to allow no foreign interference between the people and the government, the general tenor of the resolutions. adopted expressed also a very warm friendship and sympathy for France.

But

Oct.

As the French consuls and vice-consuls were still disposed to exercise their pretended admiralty jurisdiction, a circular was issued threatening to revoke the exequa- Sept. 7. tur-the permission, that is, on the part of the American government to exercise consular authority-of any officer who might persist in such usurpation. In case of the French vice-consul at Boston, it soon became necessary to carry this threat into execution. He had the insolence, by the help of a French frigate at anchor in that harbor, to rescue out of the hands of the United States marshal a vessel brought in as a French prize, but upon which process had been served at the suit of the British owners, who claimed that she had been illegally captured within the waters of the United States. The attempt failed, however, to obtain an indictment against this deposed consul for usurpation of authority.

It was not on the sea-coast alone that it was neces

CHAPTER sary to guard against Genet's machinations. He had VI. two other projects on foot: one for a military expedition, 1793. to be organized in South Carolina, and to rendezvous in

Georgia, for the invasion of Florida; the other for a like. expedition against New Orleans, to be set on foot in Kentucky. The leadership of this latter expedition had been undertaken by George Rogers Clarke, who had distinguished himself during the Revolutionary war by the conquest of the Illinois country, but whom the combined influence of intemperance and pecuniary embarrassment had reduced at this time to an equivocal position. There were in the State of Kentucky very inflammable materials. The refusal by Spain of the free navigation of the Mississippi was regarded as a great grievance, and suspicions were very generally entertained that no proper efforts had been made to secure it. The newly-organized Democratic society of Lexington had taken this matter in hand, and had got up a remonstrance to the president and Congress not a little extravagant in its tone. French emissaries were employed both in Kentucky and South Carolina, and commissions were issued, but both enterprises were greatly impeded by want of money. An advance of the remainder of the debt due to France seems to have been confidently relied upon as a fund out of which Genet might carry on the various undertakings intrusted to his charge, including the general superintendence of the maritime war against England on the American coast, and the purchase of provisions for the supply both of France and her colonies. A further pecuniary burden was also thrown upon him in consequence of a new civil war, in addition to the servile one already prevailing there, which had broken out in the unhappy colony of St. Domingo between the commissioners lately dispatched thither by the French Con