The Life of John Marshall Volume II Part 28

"To-day being the anniversary of the foundation of the Republic, was celebrated with great pomp by the military at this place. Very few indeed of the inhabitants attended the celebration. Everything in Antwerp wears the appearance of consternation and affright.

"Since the late revolution a proclamation has been published forbidding any priest to officiate who has not taken the oath prescribed by a late order. No priest at Antwerp has taken it & yesterday commenced the suspension of their wors.h.i.+p.

"All the external marks of their religion too with which their streets abound are to be taken down. The distress of the people at the calamity is almost as great as if the town was to be given up to pillage."[592]

Five days after leaving Antwerp, Marshall and Pinckney arrived in the French Capital. The Paris of that time was still very much the Paris of Richelieu, except for some large buildings and other improvements begun by Louis XIV. The French metropolis was in no sense a modern city and bore little resemblance to the Paris of the present day. Not until some years afterward did Napoleon as Emperor begin the changes which later, under Napoleon III, transformed it into the most beautiful city in the world. Most of its ancient interest, as well as its mediaeval discomforts, were in existence when Marshall and Pinckney reached their destination.

The Government was, in the American view, incredibly corrupt, and the lack of integrity among the rulers was felt even among the people. "The venality is such," wrote Gouverneur Morris, in 1793, "that if there be no traitor it is because the enemy has not common sense."[593] And again: "The ... administration is occupied in acquiring wealth."[594]

Honesty was unknown, and, indeed, abhorrent, to most of the governing officials; and the moral sense of the citizens themselves had been stupefied by the great sums of money which Bonaparte extracted from conquered cities and countries and sent to the treasury at Paris. Time and again the Republic was saved from bankruptcy by the spoils of conquest; and long before the American envoys set foot in Paris the popular as well as the official mind had come to expect the receipt of money from any source or by any means.

The bribery of ministers of state and of members of the Directory was a matter of course;[595] and weaker countries paid cash for treaties with the arrogant Government and purchased peace with a price. During this very year Portugal was forced to advance a heavy bribe to Talleyrand and the Directory before the latter would consent to negotiate concerning a treaty; and, as a secret part of the compact, Portugal was required to make a heavy loan to France. It was, indeed, a part of this very Portuguese money with which the troops were brought to Paris for the September revolution of 1797.[596]

Marshall and Pinckney at once notified the French Foreign Office of their presence, but delayed presenting their letters of credence until Gerry should join them before proceeding to business. A week pa.s.sed; and Marshall records in his diary that every day the waiting envoys were besieged by "Americans whose vessels had been captured & condemned. By appeals & other dilatory means the money had been kept out of the hands of the captors & they were now waiting on expenses in the hope that our [the envoys'] negotiations might relieve them."[597] A device, this, the real meaning of which was to be made plain when the hour should come to bring it to bear on the American envoys.

Such was the official and public atmosphere in which Marshall and Pinckney found themselves on their mission to adjust, with honor, the differences between France and America: a network of unofficial and secret agents was all about them; and at its center was the master spider, Talleyrand. The unfrocked priest had been made Foreign Minister under the Directory in the same month and almost the day that Marshall embarked at Philadelphia for Paris. It largely was through the efforts and influence of Madame de Stael[598] that this prince of intriguers was able to place his feet upon this first solid step of his amazing career.

Talleyrand's genius was then unknown to the world, and even the Directory at that time had no inkling of his uncanny craft. To be sure, his previous life had been varied and dramatic and every page of it stamped with ability; but in the tremendous and flaming events of that tragic period he had not attracted wide attention. Now, at last, Talleyrand had his opportunity.

Among other incidents of his life had been his exile to America. For nearly two years and a half he had lived in the United States, traveling hither and yon through the forming Nation. Was.h.i.+ngton as President had refused to receive the expelled Frenchman, who never forgave the slight.

In his journey from State to State he had formed a poor opinion of the American people. "If," he wrote, "I have to stay here another year I shall die."[599]

The incongruities of what still was pioneer life, the illimitable forests, the confusion and strife of opinion, the absence of National spirit and general purpose, caused Talleyrand to look with contempt upon the wilderness Republic. But most of all, this future master spirit of European diplomacy was impressed with what seemed to him the sordid, money-grubbing character of the American people. Nowhere did he find a spark of that idealism which had achieved our independence; and he concluded that gold was the American G.o.d.[600]

Fauchet's disclosures[601] had caused official Paris to measure the American character by the same yardstick that Talleyrand applied to us, when, on leaving our sh.o.r.es, he said: "The United States merit no more consideration than Genoa or Geneve."[602]

The French Foreign Minister was not fairly established when the American affair came before him. Not only was money his own pressing need, but to pander to the avarice of his master Barras and the other corrupt members of the Directory was his surest method of strengthening his, as yet, uncertain official position. Such were Talleyrand's mind, views, and station, when, three days after Gerry's belated arrival, the newly installed Minister received the American envoys informally at his house, "where his office was held." By a curious freak of fate, they found him closeted with the Portuguese Minister from whom the very conditions had been exacted which Talleyrand so soon was to attempt to extort from the Americans.

It was a striking group--Talleyrand, tall and thin of body, with pallid, shrunken cheeks and slumberous eyes, shambling forward with a limp, as, with halting speech,[603] he coldly greeted his diplomatic visitors; Gerry, small, erect, perfectly attired, the owl-like solemnity of his face made still heavier by his long nose and enormous wig; Pinckney, handsome, well-dressed, clear-eyed, of open countenance;[604] and Marshall, tall, lean, loose-jointed, carelessly appareled, with only his brilliant eyes to hint at the alert mind and dominant personality of the man.

Talleyrand measured his adversaries instantly. Gerry he had known in America and he weighed with just balance the qualities of the Ma.s.sachusetts envoy; Pinckney he also had observed and feared nothing from the blunt, outspoken, and transparently honest but not in the least subtle or far-seeing South Carolinian; the ill-appearing Virginian, of whom he had never heard, Talleyrand counted as a cipher. It was here that this keen and cynical student of human nature blundered.

Marshall and Talleyrand were almost of an age,[605] the Frenchman being only a few months older than his Virginia antagonist. The powers of neither were known to the other, as, indeed, they were at that time unguessed generally by the ma.s.s of the people, even of their own countries.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TALLEYRAND]

A month after Talleyrand became the head of French Foreign Affairs, Rufus King, then our Minister at London, as soon as he had heard of the appointment of the American envoys, wrote Talleyrand a conciliatory letter congratulating the French diplomat upon his appointment. King and Talleyrand had often met both in England and America.

"We have been accustomed," writes King, "to converse on every subject with the greatest freedom"; then, a.s.suming the frankness of friends.h.i.+p, King tries to pave the way for Marshall, Pinckney, and Gerry, without mentioning the latter, however. "From the moment I heard that you had been named to the Department of Foreign Affairs," King a.s.sures Talleyrand, "I have felt a satisfactory Confidence that the Cause of the increasing Misunderstanding between us would cease, and that the overtures mediated by our Government would not fail to restore Harmony and Friends.h.i.+p between the two Countries."[606]

King might have saved his ink. Talleyrand did not answer the letter; it is doubtful whether he even read it. At any rate, King's somewhat amateurish effort to beguile the French Foreign Minister by empty words utterly failed of its purpose.

The Americans received cold comfort from Talleyrand; he was busy, he said, on a report on Franco-American affairs asked for by the Directory; when he had presented it to his superiors he would, he said, let the Americans know "what steps were to follow." Talleyrand saw to it, however, that the envoys received "cards of hospitality" which had been denied to Pinckney. These saved the Americans at least from offensive attentions from the police.[607]

Three days later, a Mr. Church, an American-born French citizen, accompanied by his son, called on Gerry, but found Marshall, who was alone. From Thomas Paine, Church had learned of plans of the Directory concerning neutrals which, he a.s.sured Marshall, "would be extremely advantageous to the United States." "Do not urge your mission now,"

suggested Church--the present was "a most unfavorable moment." Haste meant that "all would probably be lost." What were these measures of the Directory? asked Marshall. Church was not at liberty to disclose them, he said; but the envoys' "true policy was to wait for events."

That night came a letter from the author of "Common Sense." "This letter," Marshall records, "made very different impressions on us. I thought it an insult which ought to be received with that coldness which would forbid the repet.i.tion of it. Mr. Gerry was of a contrary opinion."

Marshall insisted that the Directory knew of Paine's letter and would learn of the envoys' answer, and that Pinckney, Gerry, and himself must act only as they knew the American Government would approve. It was wrong, said he, and imprudent to lead the Directory to expect anything else from the envoys; and Paine's "aspersions on our government" should be resented.[608] So began the break between Marshall and Gerry, which, considering the characters of the two men, was inevitable.

Next, Talleyrand's confidential secretary confided to Major Mountflorence, of the American Consulate, that the Directory would require explanations of President Adams's speech to Congress, by which they were exasperated. The Directory would not receive the envoys, he said, until the negotiations were over; but that persons would be appointed "to treat with" the Americans, and that these agents would report to Talleyrand, who would have "charge of the negotiations."[609]

Mountflorence, of course, so advised the envoys.

Thus the curtain rose upon the melodrama now to be enacted--an episode without a parallel in the history of American diplomacy. To understand what follows, we must remember that the envoys were governed by careful, lengthy, and detailed instructions to the effect that "no blame or censure be directly, or indirectly, imputed to the United States"; that in order not to "wound her [France] feelings or to excite her resentment" the negotiations were to be on the principles of the British Treaty; "that no engagement be made inconsistent with ... any prior treaty"; that "no restraint on our lawful commerce with any other nation be admitted"; that nothing be done "incompatible with the complete sovereignty and independence of the United States in matters of policy, commerce, and government"; and "_that no aid be stipulated in favor of France during the present war_."[610]

We are now to witness the acts in that strange play, known to American history as the X. Y. Z. Mission, as theatrical a spectacle as any ever prepared for the stage. Indeed, the episode differs from a performance behind the footlights chiefly in that in this curious arrangement the explanation comes after the acting is over. When the dispatches to the American Government, which Marshall now is to write, were transmitted to Congress, diplomatic prudence caused the names of leading characters to be indicated only by certain letters of the alphabet. Thus, this determining phase of our diplomatic history is known to the present day as "The X. Y. Z. Affair."

FOOTNOTES:

[549] Marshall to his wife, July 2, 1797; MS.

[550] Sedgwick to King, June 24, 1797; King, ii, 192.

[551] Marshall to his wife, July 5, 1797; MS.

[552] Marshall to Was.h.i.+ngton, July 7, 1797; MS., Lib. Cong.

[553] Marshall to his wife, July 11, 1797; MS.

[554] This, of course, was untrue, at that time. Marshall probably listened with polite interest to Adams, who was a master of the subject, and agreed with him. Thus Adams was impressed, as is the way of human nature.

[555] Adams to Gerry, July 17, 1797; _Works_: Adams, viii, 549.

[556] _Aurora_, July 17, 1797.

[557] _Aurora_, July 19, 1797. For doc.u.ments given envoys by the Government, see _Am. St. Prs., For. Rel._, Cla.s.s I, ii, 153.

[558] Marshall to Secretary of State, July 10, 1797; Memorandum by Pickering; Pickering MSS., in _Proc._, Ma.s.s. Hist. Soc., xxi, 177.

[559] Marshall to his wife, "The Bay of Delaware," July 20, 1797; MS.

[560] Was.h.i.+ngton's remarks on Monroe's "View"; _Writings_: Ford, xiii, 452.

[561] See McMaster, ii, 257-59, 319, 370. But Monroe, although shallow, was well meaning; and he had good excuse for over-enthusiasm; for his instructions were: "Let it be seen that in case of a war with any nation on earth, we shall consider France as our first and natural ally." (_Am.

St. Prs., For. Rel._, Cla.s.s I, ii, 669.)

[562] "View of the Conduct of the Executive of the United States, etc.,"

by James Monroe (Philadelphia, Bache, Publisher, 1797). This pamphlet is printed in full in Monroe's _Writings_: Hamilton, iii, as an Appendix.

Was.h.i.+ngton did not deign to notice Monroe's attack publicly; but on the margin of Monroe's book answered every point. Extracts from Monroe's "View" and Was.h.i.+ngton's comments thereon are given in Was.h.i.+ngton's _Writings_: Ford, xiii, 452-90.

Jefferson not only approved but commended Monroe's attack on Was.h.i.+ngton.

(See Jefferson to Monroe, Oct. 25, 1797; _Works_: Ford, viii, 344-46.) It is more than probable that he helped circulate it. (Jefferson to Eppes, Dec. 21, 1797; _ib._, 347; and to Madison, Feb. 8, 1798; _ib._, 362; see also Jefferson to Monroe, Dec. 27; _ib._, 350. "Your book was later coming than was to have been wished: however it works irresistibly. It would have been very gratifying to you to hear the unqualified eulogies ... by all who are not hostile to it from principle.")

[563] Ticknor, ii, 113.

[564] For a condensed but accurate and impartial statement of Monroe's conduct while Minister, see Gilman: _James Monroe_ (American Statesmen Series), 36-73.

[565] Paine to editors of the _Bien-Informe_, Sept. 27, 1797; _Writings_: Conway, iii, 368-69.