In the beginning of our national existence, we were bound to two great European nations: to England by ties of consanguinity, commerce, ideals, and long habit, to which no afterglow of war could blind thoughtful men; to France by a sense of gratitude for past assistance and by certain special treaty concessions.
Two treaties of 1778 existed with the latter nation, one a treaty of amity and commerce, the other a treaty of alliance. The former provided for mutual trade privileges, regulated contraband, prohibited visitation and search of the ships of either nation by those of the other, and established free West Indian ports. It gave full privileges for each nation to take into the ports of the other the prizes of its privateers, and forbade the ports of either nation to the captors of prizes from the other. Subjects of either nation must not serve against the other, and no foreign nation should fit out privateers in the ports of either nation against the commerce of the other. The treaty of alliance pledged each contracting nation to guarantee the integrity of the territory of the other so long as the treaty should last.
Thus we were bound to receive French, and not to receive English, prizes in our ports; not to allow England to fit out privateers against France in our waters; and to defend France's title to her West Indian possessions should England seize them. France, however, did not call on us for a strict performance of our treaties, and she made that an excuse for not observing strictly her obligations towards us. A consular convention of 1788 defined the rights of merchants and other citizens of one nation resident in the territory of the other.
It was not to the interest of the country to be bound to any foreign power; but our position as a new and defenceless state, as well as the difficult position in which foreign affairs at that time threw us, made the wisest Americans content to submit their nation to a degree of subordination for a time, in the hope that events would bring the ability and the occasion to assert complete independence. This thought is the true explanation of our foreign relations for the first twenty-five years of the federal government.
In 1793 a very exciting incident began to divide us from France, and relations steadily grew worse till 1798. A long series of injuries and a second war were necessary to destroy our dependence on England. The proclamation of the French republic and the execution of Louis XVI. (January, 1793), created great enthusiasm in America. A wave of republicanism swept over the country as far north as New England. French songs were sung, titles were decried, "citizen" and "citess" began to be used, and tri-colored cockades were worn in all companies. The Federalists scoffed at all this, but they were impotent to stem the popular movement. Early in April, 1793, came news of another kind. War was declared between France on the one side and England and Spain on the other. The more thoughtful portion of the community foresaw the serious possibilities for our government, but the populace shouted the more for France and liberty. It was enough for them that somebody was fighting our old enemy.
In this situation both Jefferson and Hamilton turned at once to thoughts of neutrality; and to Washington, who was then at Mount Vernon, they opened their minds. The president hurried back to Philadelphia, a cabinet meeting was called, at which the situation was reviewed, and a proclamation of neutrality was ordered to issue. Hamilton, who had long regretted the French treaties, thought this a good chance to get them repealed. In the coming struggle they must necessarily, through the special privileges they gave the French in our ports, bring us into disagreement with England. But Jefferson and Randolph objected, and that part of the matter was postponed.
The proclamation issued on April 23 nowhere used the word "neutrality," but simply declared that we were at peace with both France and England, and warned all citizens to abstain from acts of hostility. Jefferson and Hamilton were always on the watch for political results, whatever the matter before them. The proclamation, therefore, was no sooner issued than the former began carping at it in his letters to his friends, on the ground that as the right to declare peace and war was reserved to Congress, the executive had no power to settle the matter in favor of peace without consulting the legislature. This was a good Republican suggestion, for that party had a majority in the House.
Hamilton, also, thought of the interest of his own party. In a series of powerful letters in the Federalist papers he defended, over the signature of "Pacificus," the principles of the proclamation against the criticism of the Republican editors. He never wrought with a more effective hand, for Jefferson winced deeply and turned at length to Madison. "For God's sake, my dear sir,"he exclaimed, "take up your pen, . . . and cut him to pieces in the face of the public." Madison did his best under the name "Helvidius." He said that it was a most grating task,^ and the paper itself showed how little the author threw his soul into it.
April 8, 1793, two weeks before the proclamation was issued, there arrived at Charleston, Genet, the minister of the newly established French republic. He had been minister to Russia, where he got into difficulties through his republicanism, a circumstance which seemed to his superiors to recommend him for the vacant post in America. In her struggle with the combined European monarchs, France had need of the great republic in the west.
The ardent Frenchman burned to draw the United States into France's war against England, and his instructions appear to have been framed with the same intent. He was ordered to send bands of adventurous Americans against Spain, who was believed to be about to declare for England, in Florida and Louisiana, and against England herself in Canada; to offer us free trade with the French West Indies if we would continue to guarantee French rights there; and to protest against the armament of British ships in American waters and against the admission into our ports of French ships taken by English vessels as prizes. He understood that he was to equip privateers in American waters, and for this purpose brought over two hundred and fifty blank letters of marque. If the United States lent themselves to these plans, England would hardly fail to consider them a party to the war. Among his instructions, however, were matters of a more peaceable nature: he was to negotiate a new treaty of commerce, to secure large quantities of supplies, and to cultivate American friendship; but these pacific injunctions were lost sight of in his heedless attempt to bring the others to pass.
Genet came to America in the frigate UAmbusgade, bound for Philadelphia; but contrary winds brought her to Charleston, where he decided to continue his journey by land, ostensibly to see the president at Mount Vernon. Two other reasons probably had something to do with the change of his route: he learned that two British frigates were cruising off New York and Philadelphia on the lookout for him; and he wanted to make an appeal to the people of the south on his way northward.
His reception in Charleston was an ovation. The rich planters and merchants, the backbone of the Federalist faction, held back; but the rest of the population were in ecstasies. Mangourit, the French consul, introduced him to Governor Moultrie, the Revolutionary hero. Leading citizens pressed round him, to all of whom he smiled, bowed, and said things that pleased them. That a foreign minister should be so accessible to all who came, pleased them greatly. His ten days' stay in the city was marked by every feature of a personal triumph.
But these days were not all given to social affairs. Although he was not yet an accredited minister, not having presented his credentials, he undertook to discharge some of the most important business committed to him. He commissioned four privateers, manned chiefly by Amercans, and sent them out to attack the British commerce along our coast; he appointed consuls and gave them admiralty jurisdiction for the condemnation of prizes; he even went so far as to arrange for an expedition of American adventurers to be organized on the Georgia frontier in order to attack the Spaniards. In all of these proceedings he consulted Moultrie and declared that he had the governor's approval. On April 18 he set out for Philadelphia.
Two routes offered themselves to his march: one along the coast passed through a region controlled by large planters; another to the westward traversed a region settled by small farmers, among whom there was supposed to be much dissatisfaction with government on account of the excise. He chose the latter, not without design. His progress was a continued ovation. "The good American farmers," he said, "who have received me in their arms and under their modest roofs, have offered me much grain and corn. I have in my hands offers of more than six hundred thousand barrels." At Salisbury, John Steele, a Federalist congressman, described his appearance: "a good person, fine ruddy complexion," he said; "quite active, and seems always in a bustle, more like a busy man than a man of business." Genet rode into Philadelphia on May 16, escorted by thousands of the people, who had gone out to meet him. On the same day a delegation of merchants went in a body to thank Washington for the neutrality proclamation, which meant so much to their business.
All this glory might have turned a weaker head than Genet's. Everywhere he was told that the people were with him. He had not reached the city before there began to arrive congratulatory addresses from all parts of the country. He took them as the people's reply to the neutrality proclamation. "You could appreciate the value," he wrote to his superior in Paris, "of the declarations of neutrality which have been made if you knew the enthusiasm and the entire devotion of our friends in the United States."
Washington was unmoved by the clamor. He knew how much depended on neutrality, and he did not flinch in his determination. On May 18 he received Genet with formal dignity. It was the first bit of homely dealing which the Frenchman had met in America, but he was in no frame of mind to profit by it. He had come a great distance to carry on a delicate piece of negotiation, but he was about to range against him the only man through whom he could hope to accomplish his task. His ideas about Washington are interesting: "this old man," as he called him, was not what history had painted him. The president, he added, impeded him at every turn, could not forgive him his success with the people, and was thus about to force him "to press secretly the convening of Congress," From that time it was a prime idea with Genet that he could override the executive. Much of his folly was no doubt suggested to him by the enthusiastic Republicans to whom he surrendered himself; but not all of that party were devoid of wisdom, and it is known that he received moderate advice from some of them. His inability to distinguish the sane from the erratic is enough evidence of his own weakness.
The negotiation of a new commercial treaty, which was the most prominent feature of his instructions, was hardly suggested to the government before all his attention was taken up with difficulties arising from the arming of the privateers. From the stipulations of the treaty of 1778, Genet deduced two important principles: that, since an enemy of France was forbidden to fit out privateers in our ports, the privilege was intended to be reserved to the French; and that, if French privateers might bring their prizes into our ports, they might also sell them there.
The problem was not an easy one. Hamilton, who desired heartily to be rid of the French connection, would yield nothing to our former friend. Jefferson would yield all that would not involve us in war with England. Washington held the balance. His actions leaned to France, as if to give her no excuse to say that we had been guilty of bad faith. After much debate it was decided that we could not forbid France to license her privateers in our ports, as this was in keeping with the international practice of the day, but that vessels thus commissioned must leave our waters and not send their prizes back. To do otherwise would put us in the position of furnishing a base of operations against England. In accordance with this determination, Genet was informed that he must send the new privateers out of our waters. About the prizes already taken, nothing was said, although Hamilton desired that they should be given up. To the decision Genet gave unwilling compliance. To his own government he reported that he had armed fourteen privateers, which took more than eighty rich prizes, and that only the opposition of the American government kept him from arming many more.
This happened early in June, and for a short time there was some prospect of a calm, of which Washington took advantage to make a necessary visit to Virginia. He was soon recalled by a most alarming incident. Early in July it was learned that The Little Sarah, a prize which had been sent in by a French national ship, was being armed for the sea. Genet's purpose, which he carefully disguised, was to send her to close the mouth of the Mississippi and to co-operate with an expedition from Kentucky; but it was assumed that she was to be a privateer. Loud complaint was made. The governor of Pennsylvania sent Dallas, his secretary of state, to interview the minister to know if the ship would go to sea. Genet flew into a rage and uttered many complaints of his treatment by the administration. Dallas was a most conspicuous Republican, and Genet may have felt that he could unbosom himself to him. At any rate, he went so far as to say that he would appeal from Washington to the people, and Dallas reported the statement. No promise was given that The Little Sarah, whose new name was La Petite Democrate, should not go to sea, and the preparations for sending her out were not stopped. The cabinet was in deep apprehension. Should they allow the orders of the government to be violated before their very faces? Hamilton and Knox were for force, but Jefferson got all to agree that he should make an attempt to influence Genet by persuasion. He sought out the Frenchman and urged him to promise that the ship should not sail till Washington, who was summoned, could arrive from Virginia. Genet raged again, as was his custom; but he finally came to his right mind and said that the ship would not be ready to sail before the time named for the arrival of the president. He added that she would drop down the river at once to take on some stores, but would not go to sea. Jefferson concluded that this was a diplomatic way of saying that Genet would do as was desired, and so reported to the cabinet. Ten days later, much to his astonishment, he learned that she was gone.
Washington arrived on the nth, full of chagrin. "Is the minister of the French republic," he said, "to set the acts of this government at defiance with impunity, and then threaten the executive with an appeal to the people?" Various other small happenings tended to aggravate his impatience, and he decided to settle the matter once for all. As soon as the attorney-general could finish some business in court, a cabinet meeting was called to consider the state of affairs. After several days of deliberation it decided that Morris, our minister in Paris, should be instructed to ask the French republic to recall their representative. On the question of privateers and prizes it decided that we were responsible for failing to deny the use of our waters, and that we should pay for or restore all prizes taken by privateers fitted out in our ports and sent back to them after capture. The amounts thus expended were to be referred to France for future reimbursement.
Genet's whole course had an important political bearing. The Republicans received him with open arms. The great wave of enthusiasm for republican principles which his presence stimulated, coming as it did within six months of their success in the last congressional elections, gave them much encouragement. In Pennsylvania many Democratic clubs were organized, after the model of the famous French clubs of the day. Genet probably was in close association with them, although they had for an immediate object the carrying of the elections in that state. They were composed of enthusiasts who roused the opposition of the steadiest men in the community.
The Federalists watched the movement with anxiety. To them it seemed that it must culminate in excesses which would produce a reaction. The events connected with the sailing of La Petite Democrate seemed to give them the opportunity which they had awaited. Hamilton gave a hint to Jay, who with King issued a statement charging the French minister with having threatened to appeal from Washington to the people. Genet denied the charge. He even wrote a letter to Washington in which he demanded that King and Jay should be indicted for slandering him. Dallas was the only witness of his words, and he was assured that Dallas would testify that they did not support the allegation of the two Federalists. The spectacle of a foreign minister wrangling with everybody within his reach had the expected effect. The American people were disgusted, and even the Republicans turned from him. He was on the point of being dismissed incontinently when news came that he was recalled.
His last follies were his worst. Although he knew he was out of favor with the government of the United States, and forsaken by that which sent him out, he hoped to get Congress to do something which would restore him to power, perhaps by making an investigation of his conduct. This step, he said, "will give a great impetus to the necessary revolution which is preparing here . . . America is lost to France if the purging fire of our revolution does not reach its midst." When Congress met, Washington submitted to it the full correspondence with Genet, saying that the tendency of the minister's conduct was "to involve us in war abroad, and discord and anarchy at home." In the acquiescent reply of the two Houses, Genet read his defeat. "Congress has met, Washington has unmasked himself, America is befouled," he wailed. He had the madness to imagine that he could in the last resort call Washington before the supreme court of the land to answer for the wrongs which he imagined the chief magistrate had done him.
Genet's recall was accompanied with circumstances peculiarly unfortunate for him. The Robespierre faction, which was now supreme in France, hated him because he was identified with the discarded Girondins. His successor, Fauchet, brought orders to arrest him, and send him back to France to be tried for malversation in office. Washington, disliking to press him to this extremity, refused to allow him to be extradited, and thus probably saved his life. He remained in America and married a daughter of Governor Clinton of New York, where he lived to old age.
The ultimate result of the Genet mission was to injure the Republican cause. Had he contented himself with a dignified protest against the attitude of the government when it ruled against him, the effects might have been otherwise. But his rancorous attacks had discredited all who had supported him. Jefferson at first tried to keep him within bounds, but without success. In disgust he relieved his feelings in a confidential letter to Madison: "Never in my opinion was so calamitous an appointment made, as that of the present minister of F. here. Hot headed, all imagination, no judgment, passionate, disrespectful, and even indecent towards the P. in his written as well as his verbal communications, talking of appeals from him to Congress, from them to the people, urging the most unreasonable and groundless propositions, & in the most dictatorial style." Later, August 3, he wrote: "He will sink the Republican interest if they do not abandon him. Hamilton presses eagerly an appeal — i.e., to the people. Its consequence you may readily seize, but I hope we shall prevent it tho the Pr. is inclined to it." And Madison replied: "Your account of Genet is dreadful. He must be brought right if possible. His folly will otherwise do mischief which no work can repair."
Washington's attitude in the whole affair was moderate. He had been up to this time sincerely in favor of preserving friendship with France. He was far more of a neutral than either Jefferson or Hamilton. But this incident weakened his feeling for the Republican party, and he felt a proportional inclination towards the Federalists. From that time till the close of his presidency he was more than ever alienated from Jefferson and Madison, and the influence of Hamilton in political affairs was more marked.
Jefferson understood this and repeated his desire to withdraw from the cabinet, first announced in January, 1792, and since then frequently repeated. He now announced his ultimate determination in July, 1793. Washington urged the condition of foreign affairs as a reason why the secretary should not resign at that time. The force of this reasoning appealed to Jefferson, and it was agreed between them that he should hold office till the end of the year. The two men then parted in good feeling, Washington expressing his appreciation of his secretary's "integrity and talents." But the new French minister repeated the general opinion when he said, "He has retired prudently in order not to be forced to figure in spite of himself in scenes the secret of which will sooner or later be disclosed." His position, indeed, had been a difficult one. He was a party man in a cabinet which was committed to a non-partisan policy. He saw the genius of Hamilton ride over his views in many measures the execution of which must come into his own hands. To get out of such a position and to assume the leadership of those who thought with him on political matters was natural and becoming. To his credit it must be said that in the course of his cabinet service he had always carried out the instructions given to him, regardless of his opinions about them. He differed from many of the decisions in regard to the Genet affair, but he is not accused of having failed to execute them in good faith.
The mission of Genet marks the beginning of the alliance between the Republican party and the French ministers, a relation which overshadowed for a long time the career of the followers of Jefferson. It affected unfavorably both the interests of the Republicans, and our friendship for France, and it lowered the national dignity. But for the good sense of Washington and the ultimate firmness of Adams it might have had serious consequences for the new government.