CHAPTER great violence, as a piece of usurpation on the part of VL the executive, issued without authority, and in deroga. 1793. tion of the treaties with France, of the gratitude and

May 23.

sympathy due to that country, and of the rights of Congress, to whom only the decision belonged. Genet was exhorted to act with firmness, since the people were his friends, and since it was they, and not the president, who were sovereigns. The key-note thus struck at Philadelphia was soon responded to by Greenleaf's Patriotic Register at New York, by the Chronicle at Boston, and, indeed, by the opposition presses generally.

It appears from Jefferson's Ana that, in a private conversation about this time, Washington expressed his opinion of Freneau's paper in terms amounting to an intimation that Jefferson's interposition was desired, and perhaps the dismissal of Freneau from his office of translating clerk. "But that," observes this faithful secretary, "I would not do ;" and he proceeds, with a partiality little short of paternal, to extol Freneau's paper as having saved the Constitution, then fast galloping into a monarchy.

Nor was it from newspapers only that Genet found encouragement and support. Shortly after his arrival May 30. at Philadelphia, there had been formed in that city, in imitation of the famous clubs of Paris, so predominant at that moment in the politics of France, a "Democratic Society," intended to have affiliated branches in all the counties of the state, the immediate object of which seems to have been to control the state politics, and to infuse into them a larger portion of the new French enthusiasm. Imitations or offshoots of this society soon sprung up in various parts of the Union. French in all their feelings, and not a few of them Frenchmen by birth, inspired with all the fanaticism then prevalent in

VI.

France, the members of these societies seemed bent upon CHAPTER forcing the United States into that "family compact," that "confusion of interests," which Genet had suggest- 1793. ed as one of the objects of his mission. It was these societies which first introduced the name DEMOCRAT, as a party appellation, into American politics; but a long time elapsed before that name was accepted by any but the more ultra portion of the opposition. It was never recognized by Jefferson; and even of these societies, several preferred to call themselves Republican. It was only in combination with that earlier name that the epithet Democratic came into general use, the combined opposition taking to themselves the title of DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICANS.

The enthusiasm in favor of France, to which the recent opening of the French West India ports tended to add, operated very much to diminish the support which the federal government had hitherto received from the State of Pennsylvania, and especially from the city of Philadelphia. Governor Mifflin and Chief Justice M'Kean, altogether the most popular and influential men in that state, determined also to retain their popularity and to secure Mifflin's re-election as governor, came out decidedly as partisans of France, and openly in favor of a war with Great Britain. Frederic H. Muhlenburg, speaker of the first Congress and member elect to the new one, took the same side. The respectable Rittenhouse accepted the post of president of the Democratic Society, of which Duponceau was secretary, while Sergeant, the attorney general of the state, as well as several other well-known leaders among the old Revolutionary Whigs, were active and zealous members. Among the most busy in this movement was Alexander Dallas, Mifflin's secretary of state, a native of Jamaica,

CHAPTER but educated in Edinburgh, and an emigrant to the VI. United States since the conclusion of the Revolutionary 1793. war. For some time he had with difficulty supported

himself with his pen, having undertaken the editorship of a monthly magazine. But his ability and adroitness had raised him to a high rank at the bar, and he had begun to take an active part in the politics of Pennsylvania. Among other recent steps by Mifflin's political friends to secure their hold upon that state had been the obtaining a charter, during the past winter, for the Bank of Pennsylvania, in which the state itself became a stockholder, an imitation, in fact, of the Bank of the United States, and intended as an offset to the old Bank of North America, the control of which was in hands less friendly to Mifflin.

By the indications of a strong popular sentiment in his favor, Genet was encouraged to set the remonstrances of the government at defiance, and to persist in his original policy of carrying on, from the ports of the United States, a privateering warfare against British commerce. He was taught by the opposition newspapers to believe -and it would seem that even Jefferson himself made confidential communications of the same sort - that Washington was acting under the influence of a British monarchical faction, and that every thing was to be hoped from the predominance of republican opinions in the new Congress now in the progress of being chosen.

Besides the Sans Culotte and the Citizen Genet, the two privateers fitted out at Charleston, and both of which persisted in cruising from the ports of the United States, two others, the Cincinnatus and Vanqueur de la Bastile, were equipped at the same port, the Anti-George at Savannah, the Carmagniole in the Delaware, a schooner, the Roland, and a sloop, at Boston. In conjunction with

VI.

the frigates L'Ambuscade and Concord, these cruisers CHAPTER captured more than fifty British vessels, quite a number within the very waters of the United States. The French 1793. consuls, in spite of the prohibitions hitherto issued, still persisted in trying and condemning these prizes, not, however, without occasional appeals, on the part of the British owners, to the legal tribunals for the rescue of their property. But it was in the case of the Little Sarah, an English vessel captured by the frigate L'Ambuscade, and sent into Philadelphia, where Genet, under the very eye of the federal authorities, undertook to equip her as a privateer, with the new name of the Little Democrat, that the authority of the government was most distinctly trampled under foot. This equipment, discovered by Hamilton, was communicated by him to the cabinet, to which Washington, during a short absence at Mount Vernon, had intrusted the control of affairs. investigation was ordered, the fact was ascertained, and the July 6. probability, also, that the vessel might sail the next day. Governor Mifflin being called upon to interfere, sent Dallas, his secretary of state, at midnight, to request Genet to save the necessity of employing force by himself detaining the vessel. Upon receipt of this message the French minister fell into a great rage. The president, he said, was a misled man, wholly under the influence of those inimical to France. He was resolved to appeal from him to the people, the real sovereigns-an intention already intimated in some of his official letters, and still more distinctly stated in subsequent ones.

An

As Genet would give no distinct pledge, Mifflin ordered out a detachment of militia to seize the vessel. But, before this decisive step was taken, Jefferson, always very tender of the feelings of the French minister, and very fearful of any disrespect to the French republic,

CHAPTER Waited on Genet in person, to induce him to detain her VI. till the arrival of the president, who was expected in a 1793. day or two. Genet again broke out into the same comJuly 7. plaints as before. He declared that any attempt at

seizure would be resisted by the crew; but he intimated, at the same time, that the ship was not yet ready for sea, and that, although she intended to drop a little way down the river, it was not with the design of sailing. Jefferson caught at this bait; and on his suggestion to Mifflin that the vessel would not sail immediately, the militia were dismissed. Knox and Hamilton the July 8. next day proposed to erect a battery on Mud Island, and to fire at, and even to sink, the privateer if she attempted to pass. But in this Jefferson would not concur; and she soon afterward fell down to Chester, quite beyond the reach of any means then within the power of the government to stop her.

July 11.

On his arrival at Philadelphia, having examined the papers relating to this affair, Washington addressed a note to Jefferson intimating some discontent at these proceedings. "What is to be done in the case of the Little Sarah? 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 July. to the people ?" The next day, at a cabinet council, it was resolved to refer to the judges of the Supreme Court the case of the Little Democrat, as well as of several other privateers and their prizes indeed, all the questions that had been raised as to the duties of neutrality; and 'Genet was informed that the detention of these vessels was expected until a final decision was had. But, in spite of this intimation, the Little Democrat sailed a few days after, and the other vessels took the earliest oppor tunity to imitate her example.