disposition the combination of European govern. CHAP. VI. ments against France, and the unconcern with 1793. which this combination was contemplated by the executive. At the same time, the most vehement declamations were published, for the purpose of inflaming the public resentments against Britain; of enhancing the obligations of America to France; of confirming the opinion that the coalition of European monarchs was directed, not less against the United States than against that power to which its hostility was avowed; and that those who did not embrace this opinion were the friends of that coalition, and equally the enemies of America and France.

These publications, in the first instance suffi. ciently bitter, quickly assumed a highly increased degree of acrimony.

As soon as the commotions which succeeded the deposition of Louis XVI. had in some degree subsided, the attention of the French government was directed to the United States, and the resolution was taken to recall the minister who had been appointed by the king, and to replace him with one who might be expected to enter with more enthusiasm into the views of the republic.*

The citizen Genet, a gentleman of considerable talents, and of an ardent temper, who had been employed during the existence of the monarchy first, as a sub-clerk in one of the bureaus, and

CHAP. VL afterwards as charge d'affaires in Russia, was 1793. selected for this purpose.

Arrival of

minister

The letters he brought to the executive of the United States, and his instructions, which he occasionally communicated, wore an aspect in a high degree flattering to the nation, and decently respectful to its government. But Mr. Genet was also furnished with private instructions, which the course of subsequent events tempted him to publish. These indicate that, if the American executive should not be found sufficiently compliant with the views of France, the resolution had been taken to employ with the people of the United States the same policy which was so successfully used with those of Europe; and thus to effect an object which legitimate negotiations with the constituted authorities might fail to accomplish.

Mr. Genet possessed many qualities which were Mr. Genet as peculiarly adapted to the objects of his mission; from France, but he seems to have been betrayed by the flattering reception which he experienced, and by the universal fervor expressed for his republic, into a too speedy disclosure of his intentions.

On the eighth of April he arrived, not at Philadelphia, but at Charleston in South Carolina, a port, the contiguity of which to the West Indies would give it peculiar convenience as a resort for privateers. By the governor of that state and by its citizens, he was received with an enthusiasm well calculated to dissipate every doubt he might previously have entertained concerning the dispositions on which he was to operate. At this

His conduct.

place he continued for several days, receiving CHAP. VI. extravagant marks of public attachment, during 1793. which time he undertook to authorize the fitting and arming of vessels in that port, enlisting men, and giving commissions to cruise and commit hostilities on nations with whom the United States were at peace. The captures made by these cruisers were brought into port, and the consuls of France were assuming under the authority of Mr. Genet, who was not then recognised as a public minister by the American gov ernment, to hold courts of admiralty on them, to try, condemn, and authorize their sale.

From Charleston, Mr. Genet proceeded by land to Philadelphia, receiving on his journey, at the different towns through which he passed, such marks of enthusiastic attachment as had perhaps never before been exhibited to a foreign minister. On the 16th of May, he arrived at the seat of government, where he had been preceded by the intelligence of his transactions in South Carolina. This information did not diminish the extravagant transports of joy with which he was welcomed by the great body of the inhabitants. Means had been taken to render his entry pompous and triumphal; and the opposition papers exultingly stated that he was met at Gray's ferry by "crowds who flocked from every avenue of the city, to meet the republican ambassador of an allied nation."

The day succeeding his arrival, he received congratulatory addresses from particular societies, and from the citizens of Philadelphia who waited

CHAP. VI. on him in a body, in which they expressed their 1793. fervent gratitude for the "zealous and disin

terested aids" which the French people had furnished to America, unbounded exultation at the success with which their arms had been crowned, and a positive conviction that on the establishment of the republic depended the safety of the United States. The answers to these addresses were well calculated to preserve the idea of a complete fraternity between the two nations, and that their interests were absolutely identified.

On the 18th, the day after being thus accredited by the citizens of Philadelphia, he was presented to the president, by whom he was received with frankness, and with expressions of a sincere and cordial regard for his nation.* In the conversation which took place on this occasion, Mr. Genet gave the most explicit assurances that, in consequence of the distance of the United States from the theatre of action, and of other circumstances, France did not wish to engage them in the war, but would willingly leave them to pursue their happiness and prosperity in peace. more ready faith was given to these declarations, because it was by no means clear that, in the actual state of things, France would not derive advantages from the neutrality of America which would be a full equivalent for any services which she might render as a belligerent.

The

Mr. Genet afterwards complained that the president said nothing on this occasion respecting the revolution.

Before the ambassador of the republic had CHAP. VI. reached the seat of government, a long catalogue 1793. of complaints, partly founded on his proceedings in Charleston, had been made by the British minister to the American executive.

This catalogue was composed of the assump. tions of sovereignty already mentioned;...assumptions calculated to render America an instrument of hostility to be wielded by France against those powers with which she might be at war.

ceedings of

cruisers.

These were still further aggravated by the Illegal procommission of actual hostilities within the terri. the French tories of the United States. The ship Grange, a British vessel which had been cleared out from Philadelphia, was captured by the French frigate L'Ambuscade within the capes of the Delaware, while on her way to the ocean.

The prizes thus unwarrantably made, being brought within the power of the American government, Mr. Hammond, among other things, demanded a restitution of them.

On many of the points suggested by the conduct of Mr. Genet, and by the memorials of the British minister, it would seem impossible that any difference of opinion could exist among intelligent men, not under the dominion of a blind infatuation. Accordingly it was agreed in the cabinet, without a dissenting voice, that, the jurisdiction of every independent nation within the limits of its own territory being of a nature to exclude the exercise of any authority therein by a foreign power, the proceedings complained of, not being warranted by any treaty, were usurpa