XI.

the famous letter to Mr. Van Buren already referred to, CHAPTER in which he attempted to make out that he had retained Washington's confidence to the last.

Apart from all other evidence, there are sufficient indications even in Jefferson's writings, as prepared by himself for publication, that he rated Washington as low and hated him with as much energy as he did all the other distinguished Federalists who had stood in his way. But dreading that great man's towering and indestructible popularity, made more solid by time, as a rock on which his own crumbling reputation might be dashed to pieces should he venture to assail it, and cringing, as he always did, to popular opinion, whether right or wrong, he has attempted the same course with posterity which he so long successfully practiced with Washington himself; he has assumed in his published writings the character of that great man's admirer, eulogist, and friend, while many passages of those same writings covertly hold him up to contempt as a mere tool in the hands of abler men, who took advantage of his monarchical predilections and decaying faculties to make him the cover and the instrument of their criminal projects.

But it is time to return from these dark intrigues to affairs of a more public nature.

1798.

August.

The two new envoys, not long after their appointment, 1797. had separately embarked for Europe, there to join Pinck- July. ney, and to unite with him in a new attempt to arrange matters with the French republic. Their letters of credence and full powers declared them to have been appointed for terminating all differences, and restoring harmony, and good understanding, and commercial and friendly intercourse between the two republics. That the negotiation might not be interrupted by the death or disability of one or two of the envoys, these powers were

CHAPTER Conferred upon them jointly and severally.

Their very XI. elaborate and explicit instructions commenced by vin1797. dicating the neutral position of the United States, assumed, as was alleged, with the full concurrence of the French government; and by defending what had been done in support of that neutrality, as "pure in princi ple, impartial in operation, and conformable to the indispensable rights of sovereignty." The ministers were directed to seek, as an important object of their mission, redress for the various injuries inflicted by France, both the more recent depredations on American commerce, and the older ones, of which a series existed from the very commencement of the existing war; but, though this was to be pressed with the greatest earnestness, it was not to be insisted upon as indispensable to a treaty. The claims, however, were in no event to be renounced; nor were they to be assumed by the United States as a loan to France.

Though the Directory had no pretensions to claim it as a matter of right, yet, should they insist upon it, the treaty of commerce might be so modified as to allow the seizure of enemies' goods in neutral vessels, and the ingrafting into it, to last during the present war, of regulations on the subject of provisions and other articles not usually deemed contraband, similar to those contained in the British treaty.

The mutual renunciation of the guarantee contained in the treaty of alliance, and which was assumed to ap ply only to defensive wars, was also suggested as very desirable for the United States; or, if that could not be obtained, a specification of the succors to be mutually rendered those from the United States to be in money or provisions, and those from France in money, military stores, or clothing - the total amount not to exceed

XI.

$200,000 in any one year. Special care was to be tak- CHAPTER en not to recognize the existence of any claim under the guarantee, so far as related to the present war, nor to 1797. make any admission that the present war came within the purview of the treaty. Indeed, the precaution was suggested of not referring to the guarantee at all, unless the subject were first introduced on the other side. Particular instructions were also given as to the consular convention, and to such articles of the treaty of commerce as had been differently understood by the two gov

ernments.

In any arrangement that might be made, the envoys were to insist that no blame for any past transactions should be either directly or indirectly imputed to the United States. Exceptionable as the conduct of France had been, the United States, on the other hand, were willing to pass it over without comment. The envoys

were further expressly forbidden to stipulate any aid to France during the pending war; any engagement inconsistent with any existing treaty with other nations; any restraint upon lawful commerce with other nations; any stipulations under color of which French tribunals of any sort might be established in the United States; or any personal privileges to be claimed by Frenchmen resident in the United States incompatible with their complete sovereignty and independence in matters of internal polity, commerce, and government.

As it was the object of the mission to do and to obtain justice, and to preserve peace, the style and manner of the proceeding were to be of the sort most directly tending to that end. If such changes had taken place in the French government as would render it politic, strong language was to be used; but if there appeared a determination to frustrate the negotiation, any warmth or

CHAPTER harshness which might furnish the Directory with a preXL tense for breaking it off was to be carefully avoided. In 1797. the representation to be made to the French government,

Oct. 4.

a style was recommended uniting, as much as possible, "calm dignity with simplicity, and force of sentiment with mildness of language," but calculated, at the same time, to convey the idea of "inflexible perseverance."

Having joined each other in Paris, the three envoys sent notice of their arrival to the French minister for Foreign Affairs, requesting him to appoint a time for receiving copies of their letters of credence. The events which had transpired in France between the appointment of the envoys and their arrival were by no means encouraging. A favorable change had been hoped, and not without reason, from the periodical renewal, as provided for by the French Constitution of the year Three, of one of the directors and two thirds of the councils. But this infusion of popular sentiment into the governing machinery of the French republic had been promptly met and speedily extinguished. Two of the directors, the least exposed to suspicion of personal corruption, with seventy members of the councils, including Pichegru, president of the Council of Five Hundred, and Pastoret and Segur, who had ably exposed from the tribune the wrongs inflicted upon the United States, had been seized by their colleagues, and, under the old pretense of Royalism, had been shipped off to Cayenne. Of the two new directors since appointed, one was Merlin, the same who, as president of the Convention, had given the fraternal hug to Monroe, and who, as minister of Justice, had sustained the condemnation of American vessels under the frivolous pretense of the want of a role d'equipage, that is, a certified list of the crew-a service which the privateers were believed to reciprocate by

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allowing Merlin a share in the proceeds of their captures. CHAPTER The new minister of foreign affairs to whom the envoys addressed themselves proved to be no other than Talley- 1797. rand, lately a proscribed exile in the United States, whose visits, like those of other French emigrants, Washington had declined to receive, lest such acts of courtesy might have been added to the long list of complaints on the part of the French republic. But by one of those rapid transmutations so common in French politics, this late exile had now become the trusted and confidential agent of the Directory. The contemptuous observations as to the United States in which he indulged, as already reported in Pinckney's dispatches, afforded no very favorable omens for the success of the present mission.

The envoys were informed by Talleyrand that he was then engaged upon a report to the Directory on American affairs. When that was finished, he would let them know what was to be done. To authorize their residence in Paris meanwhile, he sent them permits, known at that time as cards of hospitality.

After an interval of ten days, the envoys were informed Oct. 11. by a gentleman to whom the information had been given by Talleyrand's private secretary, that the Directory were very much exasperated by some parts of the president's speech at the opening of Congress, and that no audience would probably be granted until the conclusion of the negotiation, which would, it was likely, be carried on by persons appointed for that purpose, and who would report to Talleyrand, to whom the management of the matter would be intrusted.

Shortly after, a gentleman well known to the envoys, Oct. 18. a partner in a noted mercantile house at Paris, which had already volunteered to answer their drafts for any sum they might need, called on Pinckney, and stated