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licate nature, which was immediately made public. That the French government had not mingled with its desire to separate America from Britain, a willingness to see the United States acquire a degree of strength which might render them truly independent, and formidable to their neighbours, though well known to congress, had been concealed from the people at large. It seems, therefore, to have been apprehended by the leaders of the revolution in France, that some remnant of that affection which. had been so lavishly expressed for their fallen monarch while exercising sovereign power, might still be cherished in the American bosom, and might obstruct the endeavours they were about to make to produce a more intimate connexion between the two nations. It might be supposed that such sentiments, if they existed, would be effectually destroyed by a disclosure of the motives which had inAuenced the conduct of those by whom the aids so highly valued had been granted. The letter alluded to contains this passage: "From the instructions that were given by the former ministry to the agents in that country (America) which the executive council caused to be laid before them, they have seen with indignation, that at the very time when the good people of America expressed to us their friendship and gratitude in the most affectionate manner, Vergennes and Montmorin thought, that it was not suitable to France to give to America all the consistence of which it was capable, because it would acquire a strength which it might probably abuse. They, therefore, enjoined on their agents a passive conduct in regard to that nation, and to speak of nothing but the personal views of the king for its prosperity. The operations of war were directed by the same Machiavelian maxims. The same duplicity was employed in the negotiations of peace; in which, when signed, the people for whom we had taken up arms were altogether neglected." The official letter brought by Mr. Genet, to the executive of the United States, conveyed in less explicit terms the same idea; and to prove the correctness of these allegations, he communicated copies of official documents expressing in plain terms the solicitude of France and Spain to exclude the United States from the Mississippi; their jealousies of the growing power and ambition of this

country; and the wish of France, expressed while the question was pending, that the constitution might not be adopted, as it "suits France that the United States should remain in their present state, because if they should acquire the consistence of which they are susceptible, they would soon acquire a force or a power which they would be very ready to abuse." The minister of the king, however, was directed not to avow the inclination of his sovereign on this point.

NOTE, No. VIII....See page 454.

Of the excessive and passionate devotion which was felt for the French Republic, and of the blind and almost equally extensive hostility to the measures of the administration, the gazettes of the day are replete with the most abundant proof. As an example of this spirit, the following toasts are selected, because they were given at a festival made by persons of some distinction, at which the governor of Pennsylvania and the minister of France were present.

To commemorate the 14th of July, the anniversary of the destruction of the Bastile, the officers of the 2d regiment of Philadelphia militia assembled at Weed's ferry. Eighty-five rounds were discharged from the artillery in honour of the eighty-five departments of France, and the following toasts were given:

1st. The fourteenth day of July; may it be a sabbath in the calendar of freedom, and a jubilee to the European world.

2nd. The tenth of August: May the freemen who offered up their lives on the altar of liberty be ever remembered as martyrs, and canonized as saints.

3rd. May the Bastile of despotism throughout the earth be crumbled into dust, and the Phoenix of freedom grow out of the ashes.

4th. Nerve to the arm, fortitude to the heart, and triumph to the soul struggling for the rights of man.

5th. May no blind attachment to men lead France to the precipice of that tyranny from which they have escaped.

6th. May the sister republics of France and America be aș incorporate as light and heat, and the man who endeavours to disunite them be viewed as the Arnold of his country.

7th. May honour and probity be the principles by which the connections of free nations shall be determined; and no Machiavelian commentaries explain the text of treaties.

8th. The treaty of alliance with France: may those who attempt to evade or violate the political obligations and faith of our country be considered as traitors, and consigned to infamy.

9th. The citizen soldiers, before they act may they know and approve the cause, and may remorse attend the man that would think of opposing the French while they war for the rights of man.

10th. The youth of the Paris legion: may the rising gene ration of America imitate their heroism and love of country. 11th. The republics of France and America; may the cause of liberty ever be a bond of union between the two nations.

12th. A dagger to the bosom of that man who makes patriotism a cover to his ambition, and feels his country's happiness absorbed in his own.

13th. May French, superior to Roman or Grecian virtue, be the electric fluid of freedom, that shall animate and quicken the earth.

14th. Union and mutual confidence to the patriots of France; confusion and distress to the counsels of their enemies.

15th. May the succeeding generation wonder that such beings as kings were ever permitted to exist.

Volunteer from the chair.

The rule of proportion; as France acted with respect to America, so may America act with respect to France!

NOTE, No. IX....See page 440.

Of the sensibility of the president to the calumnies against his administration with which the press abounded, and of their new direction against him personally, his correspondence

furnishes but few evidences. The first and almost only notice taken of them is in a private letter of the 21st of July, to his friend general Lee, then governor of Virginia, an extract from which follows:

"That there are in this, as in all other countries, discontented characters I well know; as also that these characters are actuated by very different views:....Some good, from an opinion that the measures of the general government are impure ;....some bad, and (if I might be allowed to use so harsh an expression) diabolical, inasmuch as they are not only meant to impede the measures of that government generally, but more especially to destroy the confidence which it is necessary the people should place (until they have unequivocal proof of demerit) in their public servants :....for in this light I consider myself whilst I am an occupant of office; and if they were to go further and call me their slave, during this period, I would not dispute the point with them. But in what will this abuse terminate?

"For the result, as it respects myself, I care not. I have a consolation within of which no earthly efforts can deprive me;....and that is, that neither ambitious nor interested motives have influenced my conduct. The arrows of malevolence, therefore, however barbed and pointed, can never reach my most valuable part; though, whilst I am up as a mark, they will be continually aimed at me. The publications in Freneau's and Bache's papers are outrages on common decency; and they progress in that style in proportion as their pieces are treated with contempt, and passed over in silence by those against whom they are directed. Their tendency, however, is too obvious to be mistaken by men of cool and dispassionate minds....and, in my opinion, ought to alarm them; because it is difficult to prescribe bounds to their effect."

NOTE, No. X....See page 442.

They are as follows:

Ist. The original arming and equipping of vessels in the ports of the United States by any of the belligerent par

ties, for military service, offensive or defensive, is deemed unlawful.

2nd. Equipments of merchant vessels, by either of the bel ́ligerent parties in the ports of the United States, purely for the accommodation of them as such, is deemed lawful.

3rd. Equipments in the ports of the United States of vessels of war in the immediate service of the government of any of the belligerent parties, which if done to other vessels would be of a doubtful nature as being applicable either to commerce or war, are deemed lawful, except those which shall have made prize of the subjects, people, or property of France, coming with their prizes into the ports of the United States pursuant to the seventeenth article of our treaty of amity and commerce with France.

4th. Equipments in the ports of the United States by any of the parties at war with France of vessels fitted for merchandise and war, whether with or without commissions, which are doubtful in their nature as being applicable either to commerce or war, are deemed lawful, except those which shall have made prize, &c.

5th. Equipments of any of the vessels of France, in the ports of the United States, which are doubtful in their nature as being applicable to commerce or war, are deemed lawful.

6th. Equipments of every kind in the ports of the United States, of privateers of the powers at war with France, are deemed unlawful.

7th. Equipments of vessels in the ports of the United States, which are of a nature solely adapted to war, are deemed unlawful; except those stranded or wrecked, as mentioned in the eighteenth article of our treaty with France, the sixteenth of our treaty with the United Netherlands, the ninth of our treaty with Prussia, and except those mentioned in the nineteenth article of our treaty with France, the seventeenth of our treaty with the United Netherlands, the eighteenth of our treaty with Prussia.

8th. Vessels of either of the parties, not armed, or armed previous to their coming into the ports of the United States, which shall not have infringed any of the foregoing rules, may lawfully engage or inlist therein their own subjects or citizens, not being inhabitants of the United States, except privateers

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