Life and Times of Washington Part 50

"I have this moment 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 releas.e.m.e.nt 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."

Such an insolent style of address as this could not be otherwise than deeply offensive to Was.h.i.+ngton. He must have regarded this, and most of the other effusions of Genet, as studied insults, net only to himself, but to the country of which he was the chief magistrate. Yet, in no single instance did the administration in its communications with Genet, permit itself to be betrayed into the use of one intemperate expression.

The firmness with which his extravagant pretensions were resisted, proceeding entirely from a sense of duty and conviction of right, was unaccompanied with any marks of that resentment which his language and his conduct were alike calculated to inspire.

Genet's intemperate language and insolent conduct arose from a belief that the people were ready to support his pretensions, in opposition to their own government. This belief was strengthened by the proceedings and publications of the party opposed to the administration. Civic festivals and other public a.s.semblages of people, at which the ensigns of France were displayed in union with those of America--at which the red cap, as a symbol of French liberty and fraternity, triumphantly pa.s.sed from head to head--at which toasts were given expressive of a desire to identify the people of America with those of France, and, under the imposing guise of adhering to principles not to men, containing allusions to the influence of the President which could not be mistaken--appeared to Genet to indicate a temper extremely favorable to his hopes, and very different from that which would be required for the preservation of an honest neutrality.

Through the medium of the press, these sentiments were communicated to the public, and were represented as flowing from the hearts of the great body of the people.

Soon after the arrival of Genet, a democratic society was formed in Philadelphia on the model of the Jacobin clubs in Paris. An anxious solicitude for the preservation of freedom, the very existence of which was menaced by a "European confederacy transcendent in power and unparalleled in iniquity," which was endangered also by "the pride of wealth and arrogance of power" displayed within the United States, was the motive a.s.signed for the a.s.sociation. "A constant circulation of useful information, and a liberal communication of republican sentiments, were thought to be the best antidotes to any political poison with which the vital principle of civil liberty might be attacked;" and to give the more extensive operation to their labors, a corresponding committee was appointed, through whom they would communicate with other societies which might be established on similar principles throughout the United States.

Faithful to their founder, and true to the real objects of their a.s.sociation, these societies continued during the term of their existence to be the resolute champions of all the encroachments attempted by the agents of the French republic on the government of the United States, and the steady defamers of the views and measures of the American executive.

Thus strongly supported, Genet persisted in his construction of the treaties between the two nations, and, in defiance of the positive determination of the government, continued to act according to that construction.

At this period Was.h.i.+ngton was called to Mount Vernon by urgent business, which detained him less than three weeks; and, in his absence, the heads of departments superintended the execution of those rules which had been previously established.

In this short interval a circ.u.mstance occurred, strongly marking the rashness of Genet, and his disrespect to the executive of the United States.

The Little Sarah, an English merchantman, had been captured by a French frigate and brought into the port of Philadelphia, where she was completely equipped as a privateer, and was just about to sail on a cruise, under the name of le Pet.i.t Democrat, when Hamilton communicated her situation to Jefferson and Knox, the Secretaries of State and of War; in consequence of which, Governor Mifflin was desired to cause an examination of the fact. The warden of the port was directed to inst.i.tute the proper inquiries, and, late in the evening of the 6th of July, he reported her situation, and that she was to sail the next day.

In pursuance of the instructions which had been given by the President, the governor immediately sent Secretary Dallas for the purpose of prevailing on Genet to relieve him from the employment of force, by detaining the vessel in port until the arrival of Was.h.i.+ngton, who was then on his way from Mount Vernon. Mr. Dallas communicated this message to the French minister in terms as conciliatory as its nature would permit. On receiving it, he gave aloose to the most extravagant pa.s.sion.

After exclaiming with vehemence against the measure, he complained, in strong terms, and with many angry epithets, of the ill treatment which he had received from some of the officers of the general government, which he contrasted with the cordial attachment that was expressed by the people at large for his nation. He ascribed the conduct of those officers to principles inimical to the cause of France and of liberty.

He insinuated that, by their influence, Was.h.i.+ngton had been misled, and observed, with considerable emphasis, that the President was not the sovereign of this country. The powers of peace and war being vested in Congress, it belonged to that body to decide those questions growing out of treaties which might involve peace or war, and the President, therefore, ought to have a.s.sembled the national Legislature before he ventured to issue his proclamation of neutrality, or to prohibit, by his instructions to the State governors, the enjoyment of the particular rights which France claimed under the express stipulations of the treaty of commerce. The executive construction of that treaty was neither just nor obligatory, and he would make no engagement which might be construed into a relinquishment of rights which his const.i.tuents deemed indispensable. In the course of this vehement and angry declamation, he spoke of publis.h.i.+ng his correspondence with the officers of government, together with a narrative of his proceedings, and said that, although the existing causes would warrant an abrupt departure, his regard for the people of America would induce him to remain here, amidst the insults and disgusts that he daily suffered in his official character from the public officers, until the meeting of Congress, and if that body should agree in the opinions and support the measures of the President, he would certainly withdraw, and leave the dispute to be adjusted between the two nations themselves. His attention being again called by Mr. Dallas to the particular subject, he peremptorily refused to enter into any arrangements for suspending the departure of the privateer, and cautioned him against any attempt to seize her, as she belonged to the republic, and, in defense of the honor of her flag, would unquestionably repel force by force.

On receiving the report of Mr. Dallas, Governor Mifflin ordered out 120 militia, for the purpose of taking possession of the privateer, and communicated the case, with all its circ.u.mstances, to the officers of the executive government. On the succeeding day, Jefferson waited on Genet, in the hope of prevailing on him to pledge his word that the privateer should not leave the port until the arrival of the President.

The minister was not less intemperate with Jefferson than he had been with Dallas. He indulged himself in a repet.i.tion of nearly the same pa.s.sionate language, and again spoke, with extreme harshness of the conduct of the executive. He persisted in refusing to make any engagements for the detention of the vessel, and, after his rage had in some degree spent itself, he entreated that no attempt might be made to take possession of her, as her crew was on board, and force would be repelled by force.

He then also said that she was not ready to sail immediately. She would change her position and fall down the river a small distance on that day, but was not yet ready to sail.

In communicating this conversation to Governor Mifflin, Jefferson stated his conviction that the privateer would remain in the river until the President should decide on her case, in consequence of which, the governor dismissed the militia, and requested the advice of the heads of departments on the course which it would be proper for him to pursue. Both the governor and Jefferson stated, that in reporting the conversation between Genet and himself, Dallas had said that Genet threatened, in express terms, "to appeal from the President to the people."

Thus braved and insulted in the very heart of the country, Hamilton and Knox were of opinion that it was expedient to take immediate measures for establis.h.i.+ng a battery on Mud Island, under cover of a party of militia, with directions, that if the vessel should attempt to depart before the pleasure of the President should be known concerning her, military coercion should be employed to arrest her progress.

The Secretary of State dissenting from this opinion, the measure was not adopted. The vessel fell down to Chester before the arrival of Was.h.i.+ngton and sailed on her cruise before the power of the government could be interposed.

On the 11th of July (1793), Was.h.i.+ngton reached Philadelphia, and requested that the Cabinet ministers would convene at his house the next day at 9 in the morning.

Among the important papers placed in his hands, which required immediate attention were those which related to the Little Democrat. On reading them, a messenger was immediately dispatched for Jefferson, but he had retired, indisposed, to his seat in the country. Upon hearing this, the President instantly addressed a letter to him, of which the following is an extract:

"What is to be done in the case of the Little Sarah, now at Chester? Is the minister of the French republic to set the acts of this government at defiance with impunity and then threaten the executive with an appeal to the people? What must the world think of such conduct, and of the government of the United States in submitting to it?

"These are serious questions. Circ.u.mstances press for decision, and as you have had time to consider them (upon me they come unexpectedly), I wish to know your opinion upon them even before to-morrow, for the vessel may then be gone."

In answer to this letter, Jefferson stated the a.s.surances which had on that day been given to him by Genet, that the vessel Would not sail before the President's decision respecting her should be made.

In consequence of this information, immediate coercive measures were suspended, and in the council of the succeeding day it was determined to retain in port all privateers which had been equipped by any of the belligerent powers within the United States. Genet was informed of this determination, but in contempt of it, the Little Democrat proceeded on her cruise. This proceeding furnished a subject of exultation to the opponents of the government, as did also the acquittal by a Charleston jury of Gideon Henfield, who had been arrested for s.h.i.+pping on board a French privateer, he being an American citizen.

While the correspondence between Genet and Jefferson concerning this affair was still going on, the former obtained cause of complaint on his part, and urged that the British were in the habit of taking French property out of American vessels, in contravention of the principles of neutrality avowed by the rest of Europe. His letters to Jefferson on this subject were still more insulting than those which had preceded them. On the 9th of July (1793), he wrote to Jefferson, demanding an instant answer to the question--What measures the President had taken, or would take, to cause the American flag to be respected? Receiving no answer, toward the end of July he again addressed the Secretary of State on the subject. In this extraordinary letter, after complaining of the insults offered to the American flag by seizing the property of Frenchmen confided to its protection, he added: "Your political rights are counted for nothing. In vain do the principles of neutrality establish that friendly vessels make friendly goods; in vain, sir, does the President of the United States endeavor, by his proclamation, to reclaim the observation of this maxim; in vain does the desire of preserving peace lead to sacrifice the interests of France to that of the moment; in vain does the thirst of riches preponderate over honor in the political balance of America--all this management, all this condescension, all this humility, end in nothing; our enemies laugh at it; and the French, too confident, are punished for having believed that the American nation had a flag, that they had some respect for their laws, some conviction of their strength, and entertained some sentiment of their dignity. It is not possible for me, sir, to paint to you all my sensibility at this scandal, which tends to the diminution of your commerce, to the oppression of ours, and to the debas.e.m.e.nt and vilification of republics. It is for the Americans to make known their generous indignation at this outrage, and I must confine myself to demand of you, a second time, to inform me of the measures which you have taken in order to obtain rest.i.tution of the property plundered from my fellow-citizens under the protection of your flag. It is from our government they have learned that the Americans were our allies, that the American nation was sovereign, and that they knew how to make themselves respected. It is then under the very same sanction of the French nation that they have confided their property and persons to the safeguard of the American flag, and on her they submit the care of causing those rights to be respected. But if our fellow-citizens have been deceived, if you are not in a condition to maintain the sovereignty of your people, speak; we have guaranteed it when slaves, we shall be able to render it formidable, having become freemen."

On the day preceding the date of this offensive letter, Jefferson had answered that of the 9th of July, and, without noticing the unbecoming style in which the decision of the executive was demanded, had avowed and defended the opinion that, "by the general law of nations, the goods of an enemy found in the vessels of a friend, are lawful prize." This fresh insult might therefore be pa.s.sed over in silence.

While a hope remained that the temperate forbearance of the President, and the unceasing manifestations of his friendly dispositions toward the French republic might induce the minister of that nation to respect the rights of the United States, and to abstain from violations of their sovereignty, an anxious solicitude not to impair the harmony which he wished to maintain between the two republics had restrained him from adopting those measures respecting Genet which his conduct required. He had seen a foreign minister usurp, within the territories of the United States, some of the most important rights of sovereignty, and persist, after the prohibition of the government in the exercise of those rights.

In a.s.serting this extravagant claim, so incompatible with national independence, the spirit in which it originated had been pursued, and the haughty style of a superior had been subst.i.tuted for the respectful language of diplomacy. He had seen the same minister undertake to direct the civil government, and to p.r.o.nounce, in opposition to the decisions of the executive, in what departments the const.i.tution of the United States had placed certain great national powers. To render this state of things more peculiarly critical and embarra.s.sing, the person most instrumental in producing it had, from his arrival, thrown himself into the arms of the people, stretched out to receive him, and was emboldened by their favor to indulge the hope of succeeding in his endeavors, either to overthrow their government, or to bend it to his will. But the' full experiment had now been made, and the result was a conviction not to be resisted, that moderation would only invite additional injuries, and that the present insufferable state of things could be terminated only by procuring the removal of the French minister, or by submitting to become, in his hands, the servile instrument of hostility against the enemies of his nation. Information was continually received from every quarter of fresh aggressions on the principles established by the government, and, while the executive was thus openly disregarded and contemned, the members of the administration were reproached, in all the papers of an active and restless opposition, as the violators of the national faith, the partisans of monarchy, and the enemies of liberty and of France.

The unwearied efforts to preserve that station in which the various treaties in existence had placed the nation were incessantly calumniated as infractions of those treaties, and ungrateful attempts to force the United States into a war against France.

The judgment of Was.h.i.+ngton was never hastily formed, but, once made up, it was seldom to be shaken. Before the last letter of Genet was communicated to him he had decided to terminate future intercourse with him.

In a Cabinet council the whole matter was carefully reviewed, and it was unanimously agreed that Gouverneur Morris, the American minister at Paris, should present the whole case to the French government and request Genet's recall. The faction by whom he had been originally sent out having pa.s.sed out of power, this was easily effected.

At the same time the Cabinet, under Was.h.i.+ngton's direction, drew up a system of rules to be observed by the belligerents in the ports of the United States. These rules evidence the settled purpose of the executive faithfully to observe all the national engagements and honestly to perform the duties of that neutrality in which the war found them and in which those engagements left them free to remain.

Neutrality between belligerents is a difficult and delicate part to sustain. It was not France alone that advanced extraordinary pretensions. The British government issued orders for stopping all neutral s.h.i.+ps, laden with provisions, bound for the ports of France, thus declaring that country in a state of blockade. The National Convention of France had, indeed, set the example of this by an act of the same tendency, doubly rash, because impotent. But this, however strong a plea for retaliating upon France, was none for making America suffer. Corn, indeed, formed the chief export of the United States, and to prohibit them from s.h.i.+pping it at all--for the new regulation amounted in fact to this--was a grievance which the most pacific neutral could scarcely submit to. Another continually recurring source of complaint on the part of the United States against England was the pressing of their seamen, which the difficulty of distinguis.h.i.+ng between natives of the two countries rendered of frequent occurrence and tardy rectification. These causes came to swell the tide of faction in America as the enemies of England and of authoritative inst.i.tutions took advantage of them to raise their cry, whilst the anti-gallican, on the other hand, were as indignant against the arrogance of the French and of their envoy.

Genet was in New York receiving all sorts of demonstrations of approbation and attachment from his political friends when he received notice of his recall (September, 1793). His rage was indescribable.

He wrote to Jefferson a letter full of the most atrocious abuse of Was.h.i.+ngton and the administration generally, in which Jefferson himself was not spared. But as his powers of mischief were now at an end very slight notice was taken of his splenetic effusions. It appeared in the sequel, however, that he had not confined his attempts to employ the force of America against the enemies of his country to maritime enterprises. 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 princ.i.p.al officers were engaged, and the temper of the people 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 a.s.surances 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 cooperate in frustrating this improper application of the military resources of his State.

While Genet was in New York a schooner, brought as a prize into the port of Boston by a French privateer, was claimed by the British owner, who inst.i.tuted proceedings at law against her for the purpose of obtaining a decision on the validity of her capture. She was rescued from the possession of the marshal 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 Was.h.i.+ngton to submit.

The facts being well attested, the exequatur which had been granted to Mr. Duplaine was 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 const.i.tution and a new indignity to France.

Meantime events were transpiring in Europe which added not a little to the excitement in the public mind against Great Britain. For many years war had existed between Portugal and Algiers. In consequence of this Algerian cruisers had been confined to the Mediterranean by a Portuguese fleet, and the commerce of the United States, as well as that of Portugal herself, had been protected in the Atlantic from piratical depredations. In September, 1793, an unexpected truce for a year was concluded between Portugal and Algiers. The Dey's cruisers, therefore, immediately, and without previous notice, pa.s.sed into the Atlantic, and American vessels, while on their way to Portugal and other parts of Europe, and without the smallest suspicion of danger, became a prey to these lawless freebooters, and many American seamen were doomed to slavery. There was no reasonable doubt that England had a great deal to do with this matter and that, besides her determination to carry on war against France, she was not very unwilling that the United States should also suffer the evils incident to their commerce being entirely unprotected by any naval force.

The causes of discontent which were furnished by Spain, as Marshall states, though less the theme of public declamation, continued to be considerable. That which related to the Mississippi was peculiarly embarra.s.sing. The opinion had been industriously circulated that an opposition of interests existed between the eastern and the western people, and that the endeavors of the executive to open this great river were feeble and insincere. At a meeting of the Democratic Society in Lexington, Kentucky, this sentiment was unanimously avowed in terms of extreme disrespect to the government, and a committee was appointed to open a correspondence with the inhabitants of the entire west for the purpose of uniting them on this subject and of preparing a remonstrance to the President and Congress of the United States, to be expressed "in the bold, decent, and determined language proper to be used by injured freemen when they address the servants of the people." They claimed much merit for having thus long abstained from using the means they possessed, for the a.s.sertion of "a natural and unalienable right,"

and indicated their opinion that this forbearance could not be long continued. The probability that the public expression of these dangerous dispositions would perpetuate the evil could not moderate them. This restless temper gave additional importance to the expedition of Genet projected against Louisiana.

Private communications strengthened the apprehensions entertained by the President that hostilities with Spain were not far distant. The government had received intelligence from their ministers in Europe that propositions had been made by the Cabinet of Madrid to that of London, the object of which was the United States. The precise nature of these propositions was not ascertained, but it was understood generally that their tendency was hostile, and Was.h.i.+ngton, writing to the Secretary of War, in June, urged the importance of ascertaining the Spanish force in the Floridas and such other matters as might be necessary in view of the possible outbreak of a contest with Spain.

We must now return to Was.h.i.+ngton, who, the reader will have perceived, surrounded by the urgent nature of his official duties and the disturbed state of public affairs, had been detained at Philadelphia during a great portion of the recess of Congress. He left that place for Mount Vernon toward the end of September, after the ravages of the terrible yellow fever of 1793 had already commenced in the city. He remained at Mount Vernon till near the end of October. [4]

During this time he was in constant correspondence with the members of the Cabinet, of whom Jefferson appears to have retired to Virginia and the other heads of departments to other places to avoid the contagion of the fever.

The princ.i.p.al topic discussed in this correspondence was the const.i.tutional power of the President to change the place in which Congress were to rea.s.semble in December--Philadelphia being considered unsafe. Germantown, Wilmington, Trenton, Annapolis, Reading, and Lancaster were suggested each in turn as suitable places, but the power of the President to change the place was doubted on all hands. As the fever subsided, however, the meeting actually took place in Philadelphia on the day appointed by adjournment.

Among those whom Was.h.i.+ngton consulted on the subject of the const.i.tutional power to change the place for the meeting of Congress was Mr. Madison. Was.h.i.+ngton's letter to him, dated Mount Vernon, October 14, 1793, evinces his anxiety to avoid a violation of the const.i.tution, while it presents a lively picture of the state of disorder in the departments, occasioned by the pestilence at the seat of government.

"The calamitous situation of Philadelphia," he writes, "and the little prospect, from the present appearance, of its eligibility to receive Congress by the first Monday in December, involve a serious difficulty.

It has been intimated by some that the President ought, by proclamation, to convene Congress a few days before the above-mentioned period, at some other place, and by others that, although in extraordinary cases he has the power to convene, he has none to change the place. Mr.

Jefferson, when here on his way home, was of the latter opinion, but the laws were not fully examined, nor was the case at that time so serious as it now is. From the Attorney-General (Randolph), to whom I have since written on this subject, requesting an official opinion, I have received no answer, nor is it likely I shall soon, as I believe he has no communication with Philadelphia. Time presses and the malady at the usual place of meeting is becoming more and more alarming. What then do you think is the most advisable course for me to pursue in the present exigency--summon Congress to meet at a certain time and place in their legislative capacity? Simply state facts and say that I will meet the members at the time and place just mentioned for ulterior arrangements?

Or leave matters as they are if there is no power in the executive to alter the place legally? In the first and second cases, especially the first, the delicacy of my naming a place will readily occur to you. My wish would be that Congress could be a.s.sembled at Germantown to show that I meant no partiality, leaving it to themselves, if there should be no prospect of getting into Philadelphia soon, to decide what should be done thereafter. But accounts say that some people have died in Germantown also of the malignant fever. Every death, now, however, is ascribed to that cause, be the disorder what it may. Wilmington and Trenton are almost equidistant from Philadelphia in opposite directions, but both are on the great thoroughfare and equally exposed to danger from the mult.i.tude of travelers, and neither may have a chamber sufficient for the House of Representatives. Annapolis and Lancaster are more secure and both have good accommodations. But to name either of them, especially the first, would be thought to favor the southern convenience, and, perhaps, might be attributed to local views, especially as New York is talked of for this purpose. Reading, if there are proper conveniences there, would favor neither the southern nor northern interest most, but would be alike to both.

"I have written to Mr. Jefferson on this subject. Notwithstanding which, I would thank you for your opinion and that fully, as you see my embarra.s.sment. I even ask more. I would thank you, not being acquainted with forms, to sketch some instrument for publication, adapted to the course you may think it would be most expedient for me to pursue in the present state of things, if the members are called together as before mentioned.

"The difficulty of keeping clerks in the public offices had in a manner put a stop to business before I left Philadelphia, and the heads of departments having matters of their own, which called them away, has prevented my return thither longer than I had intended. I have now desired the different secretaries to meet me there, or in the vicinity, the 1st of next month, for which I shall set out the 27th or the 28th of the present.

"The accounts from the city are really affecting. Two gentlemen now here from New York, Colonels Platt and Sergeant, say that they were told at the Swede's ford of Schuylkill, by a person who had it from Governor Mifflin, that, by an official report from the mayor of the city, upward of 3,500 had died, and that the disorder was raging more violently than ever. If cool weather, accompanied by rain, does not put a stop to the malady, distressing indeed must be the case of that city, now almost depopulated by removals and deaths." [5]