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BRITISH PROTEST; GENÊT'S TRIUMPHAL JOURNEY.

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the French consuls, who were authorized to act as courts of admiralty.*

The British minister, Mr. Hammond, now sent to Jefferson a long memorial complaining of the Frenchman's acts, basing his complaint chiefly on what had transpired at Charleston. He complained also because of an act of international hostility had been committed within the jurisdiction of the United States. † This was the capture of the British ship The Grange. Shortly after Genêt disembarked, the French frigate L'Ambuscade sailed for Philadelphia and on the way captured some richly laden British merchantmen. Some of these prizes were sent to Charleston, one was sent to New York, and one accompanied L'Ambuscade to Philadelphia. On April 25, 1793, the French ship, flying the British colors, entered the waters of Delaware Bay and there discovered another British ship, The Grange. Hauling down the British colors and running up the flag of France, L'Ambuscade attacked The Grange and forced her captain to strike. The British vessel was then sent to Philadelphia as a prize.

Shortly

afterward two other prizes appeared, which had been captured by the Citi

* McMaster, vol. ii., pp. 98-99; F. J. Turner, in Annual Report of the American Historical Association for 1903, vol. ii., pp. 253, 848.

† Lodge, George Washington, vol. ii., p. 170. See also Jefferson's letters to the English and French ambassadors in Ford's ed. of Jefferson's Writings, vol. vi., pp. 236-237, 252-257; Turner, in Annual Report of American Historical Association, vol. ii., pp. 196–198.

zen Genêt.* In behalf of the British government, Hammond demanded the restitution of these ships, and Washington laid the matter before the Cabinet for discussion.t

Meanwhile Genêt had started from Charleston on his journey to Philadelphia, and everywhere along the route the citizens came forth by hundreds to meet and press upon him invitations to civic feasts, and other public functions. According to one description, Genêt was "quite active and seems always in a bustle, more like a busy man than a man of business." At every town and hamlet through which he passed the bells were rung, the people shouted themselves hoarse, and Genêt was presented with an address and regaled with a civic banquet. At Philadelphia every means had been taken to make his entry triumphal; and the opposition papers exultingly stated that he was met at Gray's Ferry " by crowds of people who flocked from every avenue of the city to meet the Republican ambassador of an allied nation." The next day addresses of congratulation were presented to him

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HONORS PAID TO GENÊT.

to

by various societies and the citizens of Philadelphia, who waited upon him in. a body. The answers to these addresses were well calculated strengthen the idea of a complete fraternity between the peoples of the two nations.* In reply to the address presented by David Rittenhouse, spokesman of one committee, Genêt

said:

cap of liberty, first placed on his own head, was passed around the table for each guest to don, the audience became frantic with joy. Later a banquet was held to commemorate the fall of the Bastile, at which Governor Mifflin and Genêt were guests, and it was stated that the head of a pig severed from the body was passed around and that into it each guest

“I cannot tell you, gentlemen, how penetrated plunged his knife, as though to man

I am by the language of the address to which I have listened, nor how deeply gratified my fellowcitizens will be in reading so noble an avowal of the principles of the Revolution of France, and on learning that so cordial an esteem for her citizens exists in a country for which they have shed their blood and disbursed their treasures,

and to which they are allied by the dearest fraternal sentiments and the most important political interests. France is surrounded by difficulties; but her cause is meritorious: it is the cause of mankind and must prevail. With regard to you, citizens of the United States, I will declare openly and freely (for the ministers of republics should have no secrets, no intrigues), that, from the remote situation of America and other circumstances, France does not expect that you should become a party in the war; but, remembering that she has always combatted for your liberties (and if it were necessary, and she had the power, would cheerfully again enlist in your cause), we hope (and everything I hear and see assures me our hope will be realized) that her citizens will be treated as brothers in danger and distress. Under this impression, my feelings at this moment are inexpressible; and when I transmit your address to my fellow-citizens in France, they will consider this day as one of the happiest of their infant republic." +

At one of the civic feasts held in Genêt's honor, May 23, 1793, aristocrats and kings were denounced. Genêt sang the "Marseillaise," rapturously applauded, and when the red

* McMaster, vol. ii., pp. 101-102. Parton, Life of Jefferson, p. 472.

gle the remains of the late king, while uttering some appropriate malediction.* Counter demonstrations in favor of the British were feeble in comparison, but at a dinner given at Philadelphia on the birthday of George III., the French party who wore the cap of liberty was admonished that there was another cap for licentiousness. British and French sailors engaged in street brawls, the crowd usually taking part with the latter. Men and women put on the French tri-colored cockade; Freneau's Gazette and Bache's Advertiser bitterly assailed the administration and the neutrality proclamation; and it is stated that 10,000 people paraded the streets of Philadelphia threatening to drag Washington out of his house and make him resign or else declare war with France.t

war

On the 18th, notwithstanding Genêt's audacious course in thus defying

* Schouler, United States, vol. i., p. 266. See also Autobiography of Charles Biddle, p. 253; Lossing. Field-Book of the War of 1812, p. 80. Schouler, p. 267.

GENÊT REQUESTS MONEY.

the proclamation of neutrality, Washington received him frankly and with the cordiality due to the representative of a great nation. It would not have been easy to find a stranger contrast even in that strange time, and it is unlikely that two men so totally different have ever faced each other as the representatives of two great nations. While undoubtedly Washington felt much like giving vent to one of his rare outbursts of passionate contempt, still his selfrestraint was remarkable. His demeanor was a little colder than usual and his reserve a little more marked, but there was no trace of feeling. Nevertheless his manner chilled Genêt and fell upon him like a cold bath after the warmth of the addresses and plaudits which previously had been showered upon him.* As Genêt afterward complained, "not a revolutionary sentiment escaped his lips while all the towns from Charleston to Philadelphia had made the air resound with their most ardent wishes for the French Republic.' "' +

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Genêt now engaged in a correspondence with the government officials which is most remarkable. He first said that France needed money and requested that the United States advance the day of payment of the $2,

Lodge, George Washington, vol. ii., pp. 149150. See also Jefferson's estimate of Genêt's mission, quoted in Irving, Life of Washington, vol. v., pp. 172-173.

† Parton, Life of Thomas Jefferson, p. 478.

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or

*

300,000 due France. In reciprocation, he would spend this money in the United States in purchasing goods to goods to be sent to France San Domingo. He said that France had already thrown open her ports and those of her colonies to Americans, and that he was now empowered to propose a new treaty.* Jefferson told him that no treaty could be made until the Senate met in the autumn, as that body alone possessed the treaty-making power.t Hamilton said that even were the Treasury full, which it was not, the United States would not follow such a course regarding the debt, and that if Genêt should make drafts on the Treasury, these would not be honored, as that would be aiding and abetting France in her struggle with nations at peace with the United States. Genêt then said that to all those who would sell him provisions or supplies he would assign a part of the debt as payment for the goods, but to this Hamilton strenuously objected.||

* American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i., pp. 142-146.

See Jefferson's letter to Gouverneur Morris in Ford's ed. of Jefferson's Writings, vol. vi., p. 396.

‡ Lodge, Alexander Hamilton, pp. 169–170. On June 6, 1793, Jefferson advised Washington: "I think it very material myself to keep alive the friendly sentiments of that country as far as can be done without risking war, or double payment. If the installments falling due this year can be advanced, without incurring those dangers, I should be for doing it."- Ford's ed. of Jefferson's Writings, vol. vi., p. 288; Morse, Thomas Jefferson, p. 157.

|| McMaster, vol. ii., pp. 102-103; Schouler,

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Meanwhile the whole matter was being thoroughly discussed by the Cabinet. Marshall says:

"On many of the points suggested by the conduct of M. Genêt, and by the memorials of the British minister, it would seem impossible, that a difference of opinion could exist among intelligent men, not under the dominion of blind infatuation. Accordingly, it was agreed, without a dissenting voice, in the cabinet, that the jurisdiction of every independent nation, within 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 treaty, were usurpations of national ereignty, and violations of neutral rights, a repetition of which it was the duty of the government to prevent.* The question of restitution, except as to The Grange, was more dubious. The secretary of state and the attorney-general were of

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United States, vol. i., pp. 267-268; F. J. Turner, in Report of the American Historical Association for 1903, vol. ii., pp. 256, 282. See also the letters in American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i., pp. 156–157.

*

Writing to Genêt June 5, Jefferson said: "It is the right of every nation to prohibit acts of sovereignty from being exercised by any other within its limits; and the duty of a neutral nation to prohibit such as would injure one of the warring powers: that the granting military commissions within the United States by any other authority than their own is an infringement on their Sovereignty, and particularly SO when granted to their own citizens, to lead them to commit acts contrary to the duties they owe their own country; that the departure of vessels thus illegally equipped, from the ports of the United States, will be but an acknowledgment of respect analogous to the breach of it, while it is necessary on their part, as an evidence of their faithful neutrality. On these considerations, Sir, the President thinks that the United States owe it to themselves, and to the nations in their friendship, to expect this act of reparation [the restoration of the prizes captured by the Citizen Genêt], on the part of vessels marked in their very equipment with offence to the laws of the land, of which the law of nations makes an integral part."- Ford's ed. of Jefferson's Writings, vol. vi., p. 283; American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i., p. 150. See also Jefferson's letter to Genêt of June 17, in ibid, p. 307 et seq.

opinion, that vessels which had been captured on the high seas, and brought into the ports of the United States, by vessels fitted out and commissioned in their ports, ought not to be restored. The secretaries of the treasury and of war were of a different opinion. The president took time to deliberate on the point on which his cabinet was divided. Those principles on which they were united being considered as settled, the secretary of state was desired to communicate them to the ministers of France and Britain; and circular letters were addressed to the executives of the several states, requiring their co-operation, with force if necessary, in the execution of the rules which were established.*

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The citizen Genêt was much dissatisfied with these decisions. He thought them contrary to natural right, and subversive of the treaties by which the two nations were connected. Intoxicated with the sentiments expressed by a great portion of the people, and not appreciating the firm character of the executive, he seems to have expected, that the popularity of his nation would enable him to overthrow that department, or to render it subservient to his views. It is difficult otherwise to account for his persisting to disregard its decisions, and for passages with which his letters abound, such as the following:

'Every obstruction by the government of the United States to the arming of French vessels, must be an attempt on the rights of man, upon which repose the independence and laws of the United States,- -a violation of the ties which unite the people of France and America, and even a manifest contradiction of the system of neutrality of the President; for, in fact, if our merchant vessels, or others, are not allowed to arm themselves, when the Trench alone are resisting the league of all the tyrants against the liberty of the people, they will be exposed to inevitable ruin in going out of the 'ports of the United States; which is certainly not the intention of the people of America. Their fraternal voice has resounded from every quarter around me, and their accents are not equivocal. They are pure as the hearts of those by whom they are expressed; and the more they have touched my sensibility, the more they must interest in the happiness of America the nation I represent; the more I wish, sir, that the Federal Government should observe, as far as in their power, the public engagements contracted by both nations; and that, by this generous and prudent conduct, they will give at least to the world, the example of a true neutrality, which does not consist in the cowardly abandonment of their friends in the moment when danger menaces them, but in adhering strictly, if they can do no better, to the obligations they have contracted with

* See also Hamilton, History of the Republic, vol. v., pp. 253-258.

CAPTURES BY FRENCH PRIVATEERS.

them. It is by such, proceeding that they will render themselves respectable to all the powers; that they will preserve their friends, and deserve to augument their numbers.'*

"A few days previous to the reception of the letter from which the foregoing extract is taken, two citizens of the United States, who had been engaged by M. Genêt, in Charleston, to cruise in the service of France, were arrested by the civil magistrate, in pursuance of a determination of the executive to prosecute persons having thus offended against the laws. M. Genêt demanded their release in the following extraordinary terms:

'I have this moment [June 1, 1793] been informed, that two officers in the service of the republic of France, citizen Gideon Henfield and John Singletary, have been arrested on board the privateer of the French republic, the Citizen Genet, and conducted to prison. The crime laid to their charge the crime which my mind cannot conceive, and which my pen almost refuses to state-is the serving of France, and defending, with her children, the common glorious cause of liberty. Being ignorant of any positive law or treaty which deprives Americans of this privilege, and authorizes officers of police arbitrarily to take mariners, in the service of France, from on board their vessels, I call upon your intervention, sir, and that of the president of the United States, in order to obtain the immediate releasement of the above-mentioned officers, who have acquired, by the sentiments animating them and by the act of their engagement, anterior to every act to the contrary, the right of French citizens, if they have lost that of American citizens.' "'‡

Under the influence of passion, rendered still more furious by the firm attitude of the President, Genêt was ready for any step which might suggest itself. Urged by the party press, he constantly attended public banquets, at which red caps of liberty

appeared and at which toasts were given as flattering to the French republic as vituperative of the American government. These festivities

*American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i., p. 151.

Regarding this case, see Conway, Edmund Randolph, pp. 182-196.

Marshall, Life of Washington, vol. ii., pp. 262-267. See also American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i., p. 151.

McMaster, vol. ii., pp. 104-106.

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somewhat obscured another incident which had taken place. Less than a week after Governor Clinton of New York received the Cabinet resolutions regarding necessary for him to act according to the instructions contained therein. A sloop, formerly named the Polly, had been purchased, renamed The Republican, and was being fitted out at New York as a privateer. As soon as he became aware of these facts, Clinton sent a detachment of troops to seize her, whereupon Genêt protested to Jefferson, but without avail. The government proceeded to stop all privateers of whom it became cognizant, and it was high time, for the seaports swarmed with them. Among them were the Roland, fitted out at Boston; the Carmagnole on Delaware Bay, the Cincinnatus and the Vanqueur de la Bastile at Charleston, the Anti-George, at Savannah, and others.*

privateers, it became

The minds of the people were now wrought up to such a pitch in favor of France that it was almost impossible to secure a jury which would convict privateers on the most direct evidence. The government was denounced as favoring the late enemy of American liberty, and even the name of Washington was insulted. †

* McMaster, vol. ii., pp. 106-108. For the Cabinet opinion on the Polly and the Catherine, see Ford's ed. of Jefferson's Writings, vol. vi., pp. 295-296; for the instructions to the United States Attorney for New York, pp. 296–297.

Writing to his wife December 19, 1793, John Adams said: "If the President has made any

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