CHAP. VI. which had been established for preserving neu. 1793. trality in the American ports. Mr. Genet persisted in refusing to acquiesce in those rules; and fresh instances of attempts to violate them were continually recurring. Among these was an outrage committed in Boston, too flagrant to be overlooked.

A schooner, brought as a prize into the port of Boston by a French privateer, was claimed by the British owner, who had legal process served upon her, for the purpose of obtaining a decision on the validity of her capture. After the marshal had taken her into his possession, she was rescued by an armed force acting under the authority of Mr. Duplaine, the French consul, which was detached from a frigate then lying in port. Until the frigate sailed, she was guarded by a part of the crew; and notwithstanding the determination of the American government that the consular courts should not exercise a prize jurisdiction within the territories of the United States, Mr. Duplaine declared his purpose to take cognizance of the case.

To this act of open defiance it was impossible for the president to submit. The facts being well attested, the exequatur which had been granted to Mr. Duplaine was immediately revoked, and he was forbidden further to exercise the consular functions. It will excite surprise that even this necessary measure could not escape censure. The self proclaimed champions of liberty discovered in it a violation of the constitution, and a new indignity to France.

1793.

Mr. Genet did not confine to maritime enter. CHAP. VL -prises his attempts to employ the force of America against the enemies of his country. On his first arrival he is understood to have planned an expedition against the Floridas, to be carried on from Georgia, and another against Louisiana, to be carried on from the western parts of the United States. Intelligence was received that the principal officers were engaged, and the temper of the peo. ple inhabiting the western country was such as to furnish some ground for the apprehension that the restraints which the executive was capable of imposing would be found too feeble to prevent the execution of this plan. The remonstrances of the Spanish commissioners on this subject, however, were answered with explicit assurances that the government would effectually interpose to defeat any expedition from the territories of the United States against those of Spain; and the governor of Kentucky was requested to co-operate in frustrating this improper application of the military resources of his state.

It was not by the machinations of the French minister alone that the neutrality of the United States was endangered. The party which, under different pretexts, urged measures the inevitable tendency of which was war, derived considerable aid, in their exertions to influence the passions of the people, from the conduct of others of the belligerent powers. The course pursued both by Britain and Spain rendered the task of the execu-. tive still more arduous, by furnishing weapons to

CHAP. VI. the enemies of neutrality, capable of being wielded great effect.

1793.

Decret of

with

The impression made on the temper of the American people, by the rigour with which the maritime powers of Europe retained the monopoly of their colonial commerce, has already been noticed. Without the aid of those powerful causes which had lately been brought into operation, the resentments excited by these restrictions had been directed peculiarly against Great Britain. These resentments had been greatly increased. That nation had not mitigated the vexations and inconveniencies which war necessarily inflicts on neutral trade, by such relaxations as were desired in her colonial regulations. From that system to which many of her statesmen suppose she is in a great degree indebted for her grandeur and her safety, she discovered no disposition to recede.

To this rigid and repulsive system, that of the national France presented a perfect contrast. Either influenced by the politics of the moment, or sus

convention

relative to neutral commerce.

pecting that in a contest with the great maritime nations of Europe, her commerce must search for security in other bottoms than her own, she opened the ports of her colonies to every neutral flag, and offered to the United States a new treaty, in which it was understood that every mercantile distinction between Americans and Frenchmen should be totally abolished.

With that hasty credulity which, obedient to the wishes, cannot await the sober and deliberate decisions of the judgment, the Americans ascribed this change and these propositions to the liberal

genius of freedom; and expected the new com- CHAP. VI. mercial and political systems to be equally durable. 1793. As if, in the term REPUBLIC, the avaricious spirit of commercial monopoly would lose its influence over men: as if the passions were to withdraw from the management of human affairs, and leave the helm to the guidance of reason and of disinterested philanthropy; a vast proportion of the American people believed this novel system to be the genuine offspring of new born liberty, and consequently expected that, from the success of the republican arms, a sudden flood of untried good was to rush upon the world.

The avidity with which the neutral merchants pressed forward to reap the rich and tempting harvest offered to them by the regulations and the wants of France, presented a harvest not less rich and tempting to the cruisers of her enemies. Captures to a great extent were made, some with, others without justifiable cause; and the irritations inseparable from disappointment in gathering the fruits of a gainful traffic, were extensively communicated to the agricultural part of society. They were rendered the more considerable by the delays in deciding on the claims made in behalf of friendly vessels brought in with enemy cargoes for freight and demurrage.

The vexations commonly experienced in war by neutrals on the ocean, were aggravated by a measure of the British cabinet, which war was not admitted to justify.

The vast military exertions of the French republic had carried many hands from their usual

CHAP. VI. Occupations to the field, and the measures of gov 1793. ernment added to the internal commotions, had dis

British order of 1793.

couraged labour by rendering its profits insecure. These causes, aided perhaps by unfavourable seasons, had produced a scarcity which threatened to issue in famine. This state of things suggested the policy of increasing the internal distress by cutting off the external supply. In execution of this plan, instructions were issued on the eighth of June, which authorized the British cruisers, "to stop all vessels loaded wholly or in part with corn, flour, or meal, bound to any port in France, or any port occupied by the armies of France, and to send them to such ports as shall be most convenient, in order that such corn, meal or flour, may be purchased on behalf of his majesty's government, and the ships be relieved after such purchase, and after a due allowance for freight; · or that the masters of such ships on giving due security, to be approved by the court of admiralty, be permitted to proceed to dispose of their cargoes of corn, meal, or flour, in the ports of any country in amity with his majesty."

In the particular character of the war, and in the general expressions of some approved modern writers on the law of nations, the British government sought a justification of this strong measure. But by neutrals generally, it was deemed an unwarrantable invasion of their rights, and the remonstrances made against it by the American government in particular, were serious and carnest. This attempt to make a principle, which was understood to be applicable only to blockaded