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. XII. 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. XIII. They are as follows: 1st. The original arming and equipping of vessels in the ports of the United States by any of the belligerent parties, for military service, offensive or defensive, is deemed unlawful. 2d. Equipments of merchant vessels, by either of the belligerent parties in the ports of the United States, purely for the accommodation of them as such, is deemed lawful. 3d. 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. 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. XI. 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. 2d. 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. 3d. 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 as 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 connexions 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 generation 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. XII. 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. XIII. They are as follows: 1st. The original arming and equipping of vessels in the ports of the United States by any of the belligerent parties, for military service, offensive or defensive, is deemed unlawful. 2d. Equipments of merchant vessels, by either of the belligerent parties in the ports of the United States, purely for the accommodation of them as such, is deemed lawful. 3d. 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 5th. Equipments of any of the vessels of France, in the ports of the United States, 6th. Equipments of every kind in the ports of the United States, of privateers of the 7th. Equipments of vessels in the ports of the United States, which are of a nature NOTE-No. XIV. The earnestness as well as force with which the argument against this measure On the 9th of May, 1793, the national convention passed a decree relative to the On the 23d of May, in consequence of the remonstrances of Mr. Morris, the con- So far was this regulation from affecting the sentiments of America for France, that NOTE-No. XV. Before these resolutions were offered, the strength of parties was in some measure PAGE. John Adams elected President, and Thomas Jefferson Vice President, 421 422 Political situation of the United States, ib. The French government refuses to receive General Pinckney as minister, 424 425 Measures of hostility adopted by the American government against France, 429 434 439 |