GENET'S LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE ON THE SUBJECT OF TREATY
GUARANTIES--THE QUESTION RECONSIDERED BY THE CABINET--THEIR DECISION
AND GENET'S ANGER--GENET SUPPORTED AND MISLED BY THE
REPUBLICANS--HIS INDECOROUS CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE SECRETARY OF
STATE--MADNESS OF THE POPULACE--HAMILTON AND MADISON--POSITION OF
THE GOVERNMENT ASSAILED--WASHINGTON ON THE DEMOCRATIC
SOCIETIES--CALLED TO MOUNT VERNON--GENET FITS OUT A PRIVATEER AT
PHILADELPHIA--MEASURES TO PREVENT HER SAILING--WASHINGTON RETURNS TO
PHILADELPHIA--A CABINET COUNCIL--GENET DEFIES THE GOVERNMENT--ONE OF
THE AMERICAN PRIVATEERS ACQUITTED--WASHINGTON LAMENTS THE
DISAFFECTION OF THE PEOPLE, BUT SWERVES NOT--DETERMINATION TO HAVE
GENET RECALLED--PROCEEDINGS IN THE CABINET--WASHINGTON'S WRATH.
The action of the cabinet gave umbrage to Genet, and he wrote a spirited
letter to the secretary of state. He assented to the restoration of "The
Grange," she having been captured within American waters, but he
protested most vehemently against all interference on the part of the
United States with the privateers at sea. He alleged that they were
armed and furnished by French residents in Charleston, were commanded by
French officers, or Americans who knew of no law or treaty to restrain
their action, and that they had gone to sea with the consent of the
governor of South Carolina. He argued, that as the treaty of commerce
secured to the parties the right of bringing prizes into each other's
ports, it followed that their right to the control and disposal of
prizes so brought in, was conceded to each. As the treaty of 1778 only
forbade each party allowing _enemies_ to fit out privateers in their
respective ports, it was fair to conclude that there was also conceded a
mutual right in the parties themselves to fit out privateers in the
ports of the other. He insisted that the Americans on board the
privateers had, for the time, entered the service of France and
renounced the protection of the United States, and that therefore they
were no longer responsible to their own government for their acts.
Notwithstanding the want of decorum in some portions of Genet's letter,
the president and his cabinet reconsidered the questions at issue in the
light of the minister's arguments. Their opinions remained unchanged,
and Genet was informed that the privateer then in the Delaware, bearing
his name, must forthwith leave American waters; that orders had been
sent to all the ports of the United States for the seizure of all
vessels fitted out as privateers, and to prevent the sale of any prizes
captured by such vessels; and also for the arrest of Henfield and
Singleterry, two Americans, who had enlisted on board the _Citizen
Genet_ at Charleston.
The decision and action of the cabinet made Genet very angry, and he
resolved not to acquiesce in it. He was led to believe that the great
body of the American people, grateful for what France had done in times
past, were ready to go all lengths in his favor, short of actual war. He
had heard clamors among the people, and read violent paragraphs in the
republican newspapers against the position of neutrality taken by the
government, and he resolved to encourage privateering, and to defend his
position before the American people by his pen. At that time, Freneau's
paper was assisted in its warfare upon the administration by another
called the _General Advertiser_, known afterward as the _Aurora_. It was
edited by a grandson of Doctor Franklin, whose French education caused
him to favor the fanaticism of that people in their revolutionary
movements. It was sometimes more virulent in its vituperation than
Freneau's _Gazette_, and both urged Genet to go forward, heedless of the
executive and his cabinet, at the same time charging Washington himself
with an intention of joining in the league of kings against the French
republic.[55]
"I hope," said a writer in Freneau's paper, "the minister of France will
act with firmness and spirit. The _people_ are his friends, or the
friends of France, and he will have nothing to apprehend; for, _as
yet_, the people are the sovereigns of the United States. Too much
complacency is an injury done to his cause; for, as every advantage is
already taken of France (not by the _people_), further condescension may
lead to further abuse. If one of the leading features of our government
is pusillanimity, when the British lion shows his teeth, let France and
her minister act as becomes the dignity of their cause, and the honor
and faith of nations."[56]
The arrest and indictment of the two Americans on board the _Citizen
Genet_ added greatly to the irritation of the French minister. "The
crime laid to their charge," said Genet in a letter to Jefferson on the
first of June--"the crime which my mind can not 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 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. I
renew at the same time, sir, the requisition which I made in favor of
another French officer, detained for the same cause and for the same
object."
To this appeal Jefferson replied by sending Genet a copy of the opinion
of the attorney-general of the United States, who decided that the
prisoners had acted in violation of treaties, and were guilty of an
indictable offence. In a subsequent note, the secretary of state
reiterated the opinion of the president that it was the right of every
nation, and the duty of neutral nations, to prohibit acts of sovereignty
within their limits, injurious to either of the belligerent powers; that
the granting of military commissions within the United States by any
foreign authority was an infringement of their sovereignty, especially
when granted to American citizens as an inducement to act against the
duty which they owed to their country; and that it was expected that the
French privateers would immediately leave the waters of the United
States.
Genet, with impudent pertinacity, denounced these doctrines as contrary
to right, justice, the law of nations, and even the proclamation of
neutrality by the president; and when he was informed that a French
privateer, fitted out in New York, had been seized by a body of militia
acting under the authority of Governor Clinton, he was greatly enraged,
and demanded its immediate "restitution, with damages and interest, and
also the immediate" "restitution, with damages and interest, of the
French prizes arrested and seized at Philadelphia." But the government
was unmoved. The prisoners were not released, nor the vessels restored;
whereupon Genet ventured to declare that he "would appeal from the
president to the people." His only excuse for this rash assertion was
his utter ignorance of the character of the president and people whose
actions, in concerns so momentous, he assumed to control or defy. He
seemed really to have imagined that the love of France and the sentiment
of republicanism were so strong among the people of the United States,
that he would be able to overthrow the government. He had already said,
in a letter to Jefferson, "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 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 French 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. This 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 its 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 them. It is by such proceedings
that they will render themselves respectable to all the powers--that
they will preserve their friends, and deserve to augment their numbers."
All around the French minister there was a sea of passion while the
controversy was progressing. The republican party became more and more
bold in their denunciations. Open expressions of enthusiastic devotion
to France, and of hatred toward all the powers at war with that
republic, were heard on every side. Every measure of the government that
tended to thwart the views of Genet was assailed with the most malignant
zeal. The president's proclamation of neutrality, as we have observed,
was branded as a "royal edict." It was condemned as having been issued
without authority, and in contradiction with the treaties with France;
as contrary to the gratitude which was due to that country by the people
of the United States, and out of time and unnecessary; and a series of
articles written by Hamilton in support of the proclamation, over the
signature of _Pacificus_, were assailed in another series against the
proclamation, written by Madison (at the suggestion of Jefferson) over
the signature of _Helvidius_, as having "been read with singular
pleasure and applause by the foreigners and degenerate citizens among
us, who hate our republican government and the French Revolution."
The declaration that "the duty and interest of the United States
required that they should, with sincerity and good faith, adopt and
pursue a conduct friendly and impartial toward the belligerent powers,"
was assailed as a monstrous doctrine, and gave the greatest umbrage to
Genet and his friends. The latter insisted that the French minister's
demands were sanctioned by solemn treaties, and that his interpretation
of the instruments was correct. The wrongs inflicted upon America by
Great Britain, and the aid given to the struggling patriots by France,
were recited in most pathetic terms; and the questions were
significantly asked, "Shall the services of the one, as well as the
injuries of the other, be forgotten? Shall a friend and an enemy be
treated with equal favor? Shall neither gratitude nor resentment
constitute a feature of the American character?" It was concluded that
there was a natural and inveterate hostility between monarchies and
republics; that the present combination against France was a combination
against liberty in every part of the world; and that the destinies of
America were inseparably connected with those of the French republic.
They declared that the conduct of the executive, in withholding
privileges to which France was said to be entitled by the most solemn
engagements, was indicative of a desire to coalesce with despots in a
crusade against liberty, furnishing to the French republic just motives
for war; and that all her moderation and forbearance were required to
restrain her from declaring it against the United States. They went so
far, as we have seen, as to exhort Genet not to relax in his endeavors
to maintain the just rights of his country; and he received assurances
of the steady and affectionate support of the American people. Genet was
taught to believe that Washington was acting under the influence of a
British monarchical faction, and that everything was to be hoped from
the predominance of republicanism in the new Congress then in progress
of being chosen.
It was now midsummer, and the whole social and political fabric of the
Union was shaken by these party contentions; and the democratic
societies of which we have spoken, secret and open, were exceedingly
active. "That these societies," Washington observed, "were instituted by
the artful and designing members (many of their body, I have no doubt,
mean well, but know little of the real plan), primarily to sow among the
people the seeds of jealousy and distrust of the government, by
destroying all confidence in the administration of it, and that these
doctrines have been budding and blowing ever since, is not new to any
one who is acquainted with the character of their leaders, and has been
attentive to their manoeuvres.
"Can anything be more absurd, more arrogant, or more pernicious to the
peace of society, than for self-created bodies, forming themselves into
permanent censors, and under the shade of night, in a conclave,
resolving that acts of Congress, which have undergone the most
deliberate and solemn discussion by the representatives of the people,
chosen for the express purpose, and bringing with them from the
different parts of the Union the sense of their constituents,
endeavoring, as far as the nature of the thing will admit, to form
_their will_ into laws for the government of the whole--I say, under
these circumstances, for a self-created _permanent_ body (for no one
denies the right of the people to meet occasionally to petition for, or
remonstrate against, any act of the legislature) to declare that _this
act_ is unconstitutional, and _that act_ is pregnant with mischiefs, and
that all who vote contrary to their dogmas are actuated by selfish
motives or under foreign influence, nay, are traitors to their country?
Is such a stretch of arrogant presumption to be reconciled with laudable
motives, especially when we see the same set of men endeavoring to
destroy all confidence in the administration, by arraigning all its
acts, without knowing on what ground or with what information it
proceeds?"
While the controversy was at its height, Washington was suddenly called
to Mount Vernon by the death of the chief manager of his estates. He was
absent a little more than a fortnight. Meanwhile, an incident occurred
which brought the controversy between the United States government and
the French minister to a crisis. A British merchant-vessel was captured
by _L'Embuscade_, sent to Philadelphia, and there Genet, under the very
eye of the federal authorities and in direct opposition to the decision
of Washington and his cabinet, undertook to equip her as a privateer,
under the new name of _Le Petite Democrat_. This movement was discovered
by Hamilton on the sixth of July. He communicated the facts to the
cabinet, with whom Washington had left the control of the public affairs
during his absence, and an investigation was ordered. It was ascertained
that the vessel would probably sail on a cruise the next day, and
Governor Mifflin was called upon to interfere. At midnight he sent
Alexander Dallas, his secretary, to request Genet to desist from his
unlawful course, and to inform him that the vessel would be detained by
force if he refused compliance. The minister flew into a rage, declared
that the president was not the sovereign of the country, and had no
right, without consulting Congress, to give such instructions as he had
done to state governors; that he was a misled man, and wholly under the
influence of the enemies of France and human liberty; and then again
expressed his determination to appeal to the people.
Genet refused to give Mifflin any distinct pledges, and early in the
morning the governor ordered out one hundred and twenty of the militia
to take possession of the privateer. Mr. Jefferson, who perceived the
rashness of Genet's course, now took the matter in hand, and at a
personal interview tried to persuade him to detain the privateer until
the president's return to the seat of government. The secretary of state
was not more successful than the secretary of Governor Mifflin. Genet
stormed like a madman. Jefferson was unable, most of the time, to thrust
in a word, and he sat in silence while the angry minister poured out the
vials of his wrath upon the United States government. He declared that
any attempt to seize the vessel would be resisted by the crew; that he
had been thwarted in all his plans by the government; and that he was
half a mind to leave the country in disgust, as he could not be useful
to his nation here. He censured the president severely, and declared
that on Washington's return he should press him to convene the Congress
immediately.
Jefferson stopped him at the subject of calling a Congress, and
explained to him the threefold character of the government; assuring him
that all questions which had arisen between himself and the executive
belonged only to that department, and that, were Congress in session,
the matters would not be carried to them, nor would they take any notice
of them. Genet was surprised, and inquired if the Congress were not the
sovereign? Jefferson replied that they were sovereign only in making
laws; that the executive was the sovereign in executing them, and the
judiciary in construing them. "But at least," said Genet, "Congress are
bound to see that the treaties are observed." "There are very few
cases," replied Jefferson, "arising out of treaties, which Congress can
take notice of. The president is to see that treaties are observed." "To
whom then is the nation to appeal, if the president decides against a
treaty?" quickly inquired Genet. "The constitution has made the
president the last appeal," replied Jefferson. Genet was confounded by
his own ignorance, shrugged his shoulders, and, making a bow, remarked
that he would not compliment Mr. Jefferson on such a constitution.
Genet had now become cool, assured Mr. Jefferson that the privateer was
not yet ready for sea, and, without promising that she should not sail
before the president's return, said that it would be necessary for her
to shift her position to the lower end of the town to receive supplies,
and gave the secretary to understand that she would not leave before
Washington's return to Philadelphia. Jefferson accepted his remarks as
honest assurance, and Governor Mifflin dismissed his soldiers; but
Hamilton and Knox, having no faith in the minister's word, proposed the
immediate erection of a battery below the city, where Fort Mifflin stood
in the Revolution, with guns mounted to prevent the privateer's going
down the river. Jefferson, fearing further to offend Genet, refused to
concur in this measure, and the next day the vessel went down the river
as far as Chester.
Washington returned to Philadelphia on the eleventh, and received some
papers, concerning the events we have just described, from Mr.
Jefferson, with an intimation that they required "instant attention."
They aroused the president's indignation. "What is to be done in the
case of the _Little Sarah_ [the original name of the _Petite Democrat_]
now at Chester?" he asked, in a note written to Mr. Jefferson on the
spur of the moment. "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. Circumstances press for a 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."
Mr. Jefferson assured Washington that the privateer was not yet ready
for sea, and that Genet had promised that she should not sail before the
decision of the president in her case should be known. In a cabinet
council held the next day, it was resolved to detain in the ports of the
United States all privateers which had been equipped therein, and this
decision was immediately communicated to Genet. In defiance of it, the
French minister sent the privateer to sea; and yet the republicans,
forgetful of all national dignity, commended the representative of a
foreign nation in thus offering a marked insult to the chief magistrate
and the government of the republic.
At about the same time, Henfield, one of the prisoners indicted, under
the advice of the attorney-general, for having enlisted on board the
French privateer at Charleston, was tried. The populace, instigated by
the opposition leaders, took the part of the prisoner, and the jury
acquitted him. At once the opposition press heaped obloquy upon the
administration, for having attempted what they were pleased to call an
unlawful measure. They asked, scornfully, "What law had been offended,
and under what statute was the indictment supported? Are the American
people already prepared to give to a proclamation the force of a
legislative act, and to subject themselves to the will of the executive?
But," they said, "if the people are already sunk to such a state of
degradation, are they to be punished for violating a proclamation which
had not been published when the offence was committed, if indeed it
could be termed an offence to engage with France combatting for liberty
against the combined despots of Europe?" And when the prisoner was
acquitted, the event was celebrated with extravagant marks of joy and
exultation.[57]
These events annoyed Washington exceedingly. He perceived the spirit of
the French Revolution animating his own people, making them regardless
of law and justice, and drunk with ideas that tended to anarchy and
confusion. He perceived the futility of attempts to enforce laws in
support of the doctrines of his proclamation of neutrality, and the
disposition of a large class of people to thwart that conservative
policy which he advised as being most conducive to the welfare of the
state. Yet, strong in his consciousness of rectitude, he swerved not a
line from his prescribed course of duty. "As it respects myself," he
said in a letter to Governor Lee on the twenty-first of July, "I care
not; for I have a consolation within, that no earthly efforts can
deprive me of; and that is, that neither ambitious nor interested
motives have influenced my conduct. The arrows of malevolence,
therefore, however barbed and well pointed, never can reach the most
vulnerable point of me; though, whilst I am up as a _mark_, they will be
continually aimed. 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 are passed by
in silence, by those at whom they were aimed. The tendency of them,
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 the effect."
Matters had now reached a point where forbearance toward the insolent
French minister was no longer required by the most exacting courtesy.
His official communications, and public and private acts, were becoming
too offensive to be longer tolerated by the government, without
virtually abdicating authority and acknowledging its utter incompetency.
So the president called the cabinet together at the beginning of August
to consult upon the matter, when the whole official correspondence
between Jefferson and Genet, and the conduct of the latter, were
thoroughly reviewed. The result was, a determination that the French
government should be requested to recall their minister, because he was
offensive to that of the United States. Jefferson recommended great
delicacy in the terms of this request; the others were favorable to a
peremptory demand for his recall; while Knox, whose indignation had been
thoroughly aroused by the conduct of Genet, proposed to dismiss him at
once without consulting his government. It was at length agreed that a
letter should be written to Gouverneur Morris, the American minister in
Paris, in which should be given a statement of the case, with
accompanying documents, with directions to lay the whole subject before
the Executive Council of France; also that a letter, the same in
substance as the one written to Morris, should be sent to Genet.
It was also proposed to publish the whole correspondence, as an appeal
to the people of the United States and the world, in justification of
the action of the administration. Jefferson opposed the proposition on
the ground that it would make matters worse. He said Genet would appeal,
also; that anonymous writers would take up the subject; that public
opinion would still be divided; and there would be a difference of
opinion in Congress, likewise, for the matter must be laid before them.
"It would," Jefferson said, "be a contest between the president and
Genet."
Washington took fire at this last suggestion. Wearied and annoyed by the
continual dissentions in his cabinet, and the unjust abuse of his
political opponents, the idea that he should stand before the world as a
contestant with a man like Genet, and be subjected to the ribaldry of
the press, touched his sensitive nature at the most tender point. At
that moment, Knox, with peculiar mal-appropriateness, "in a foolish,
incoherent sort of speech," says Jefferson, "introduced the pasquinade,
lately printed, called _The Funeral of George Washington_"--a parody on
the decapitation of the French king, in which the president was
represented as placed on a guillotine. "The president," says Mr.
Jefferson, "was much inflamed; got into one of those passions [which
only for a moment and very rarely occurred] where he can not control
himself; ran on much on the personal abuse that had been bestowed upon
him; defied any man on earth to produce one single act of his, since he
had been in the government, which was not done on the purest motives;
that he had never repented but once the having slipped the moment of
resigning his office, and that was every moment since; that he had
rather be in his grave than in his present situation; that he had rather
be on his farm than to be made an emperor of the world." And yet, he
said with most emphatic indignation, "they are charging me with wanting
to be king!"
When Washington ceased there was a pause. All had remained silent during
this burst of passion, and it was with some difficulty that the
questions at issue were resumed. The president soon recovered his
equanimity, and opened the subject again by saying that there was no
necessity for deciding the question of an appeal to the people on
Genet's recall at that moment. The propositions already agreed to
respecting the letter to Gouverneur Morris might be put into execution,
and events would doubtless show whether an appeal would be necessary or
not. The cabinet agreed to send a circular to all the collectors of
customs, instructing them in their duty respecting ships of the
belligerent nations within the waters of the United States. It was also
agreed that information should be communicated to the British minister
that compensation would be made to the owners of British vessels
captured by French privateers, fitted out within the United States,
previous to the notice given to Genet that such equipments would not be
allowed; but that in future the British government must regard the
efforts of that of the United States, to prevent the arming of
privateers within its waters, as a full discharge of all neutral
obligations. At the same time, Genet was called upon to give up all the
vessels captured previous to the notice above alluded to, as otherwise
the French government would be held responsible for the amount of
necessary indemnities; also, all vessels captured within the waters of
the United States, those waters being defined as within a marine league
from the exterior coast.
FOOTNOTES:
[55] Life and Writings of John Jay, i. 303.
[56] Greenleaf's _Patriotic Register_, at New York, and the _Boston
Chronicle_ echoed these sentiments, and the smaller opposition journals
throughout the country re-echoed the strain.
[57] Marshall, ii. 273.