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signats, already at a great discount, and rapidly depre- CHAPTER ciating. Even these it was difficult to get, and, when obtained, they could not be laid out in the purchase of a 1794. return cargo without special license.

According to his own account, in an official letter in vindication of himself against the strictures of the State Department, Monroe found American affairs "in the worst possible condition." "Our commerce was harassed in every quarter and in every article, even that of tobacco not excepted"—a very poor return for the zeal of Virginia in the French cause. "American seamen, taken from on board our vessels, were often abused, generally imprisoned, and treated in other respects like the subjects of hostile powers. Our former minister was not only without the confidence of the government, but an object of particular jealousy and distrust. In addition to which, it was suspected that we were about to abandon them for a connection with England, for which purpose principally it was believed that Jay had been sent there." In consequence of unfavorable reports brought home by the officers of French ships of war, the friendly disposition toward America had greatly abated. Even Monroe, though his zeal for the French cause was well known, was received at first with marked coldness, it being naturally supposed that, having accepted an appointment from the American government, he must be prepared to conform himself to its policy. The Committee of Public Safety-in which the administrative functions continued principally to rest-or, at least, the controlling party in it, were disposed, according to Monroe's account, to delay his reception, indeed, to throw him entirely out of view, and so to destroy the effect of his mission. The connection between the two countries seemed to hang upon a thread, and Monroe insisted that if some

CHAPTER person possessing, like himself, the confidence of the IX. French had not been sent, that thread would have been

1794. broken.

From the moment of its institution, the French republic had been administered in the spirit of the most intolerant and unrelenting despotism. It had been, in fact, one continued reign of terror; imprisonment and the guillotine being the formidable instruments by which all opposition had been silenced. All this, however, had not in the least shaken Monroe's faith in the excellence or permanency of the new French political system, nor in the policy which he had brought with him from Virginia, of an intimate and fraternal union with France. In his eyes, and in those of many others, every excess was excused by the necessities of the war and the pressure from without. Had not a like necessity, less in degree, and therefore less noticeable in its effects, driven the revolutionary governments of America into many arbitrary and violent proceedings? Reeking, as it was, in the blood of so many victims, including the most illustrious founders of the Republican party, even Thomas Paine himself being in prison; trampling under foot every one of those rights of man and those principles of policy which its Constitution had proclaimed-a Constitution suspended as soon as made-Monroe saw, nevertheless, in the French republic the great avatar of European liberty, to which also America might look for guidance and instruction, as well as for protection against monarchists and aristocrats at home as well as abroad. Filled with these enthusiastic sentiments, his policy seems to have been to commit the United States to France so thoroughly and completely as to counterwork Washington's system of impartial neutrality. As a senator, he had not been able to prevent Jay's mission; as embassador

IX.

to France, he might succeed in defeating it. With CHAPTER these ideas, and this object in view, he was not long in coming to an understanding with the administrators of 1794. the French government.

On the ground that his application to the committee had not been answered, Monroe addressed a letter directly to the Convention, requesting them to fix the day and prescribe the mode in which he should be acknowledged "as the representative of their ally and sister republic." At the same time, he took occasion to testify his own "devotion to the cause of liberty," and to "assure them, in the most solemn manner, of the profound interest taken by the government and people of America in the liberty, the success, and the prosperity of the French republic." This letter, as soon as read, was referred to the Committee of Safety, and a report was soon brought in and adopted by the Convention to give the American minister a public reception the next day.

Monroe had been authorized by his instructions to declare the very friendly wishes of the president and of the people of the United States for the success of the French Revolution, and to contradict the reports believed to have been forwarded to France by Genet and others of two parties in the United States, one republican and friendly to the French Revolution, the other monarchical, aristocratic, British, and anti-Gallican. He had also been made the bearer of two letters from the Department of State, founded on resolutions adopted by the two houses of Congress, expressive, especially that on behalf of the House, of very decided sympathy for France, and written by way of reply to a letter from the French Committee of Public Safety addressed to Congress, and brought out by Fauchet.

Resolved to make the most public use of this author

IX.

CHAPTER ity and these documents, Monroe readily agreed to the pageant; indeed, it had doubtless been all arranged be1794. fore his letter was written. Introduced into the ConAug. 14. vention, he presented a written address (of which a French translation was read by one of the secretaries), expressing, very much in the prevailing style of the American Democratic societies, and with very little of diplomatic reserve, admiration alike of the fortitude, magnanimity, and heroic valor of the French troops, and of the wisdom and firmness of the French councils. To this address a reply was made by Merlin de Douay, president of the Convention—a comprehensive and pointed statement of what the French republic expected of America, all of which Monroe and the French-American faction were ready and anxious to grant. "The French people," said Merlin, "have not forgotten that it is to the American people that they owe their initiation into the cause of liberty. It was in admiring the sublime insurrection of the American people against Britain, once so haughty, but now so humbled; it was in themselves taking arms to second your courageous efforts, and in cementing your independence by the blood of our brave warriors, that the French people learned in their turn to break the scepter of tyranny, and to elevate the statue of Liberty on the wreck of a throne, supported during fourteen centuries only by crimes and by corruption.

"How, then, should it happen that we should not be friends? Why should we not associate the mutual means of prosperity that our commerce and navigation offer to two people freed by each other? But it is not merely a diplomatic alliance; it is the sweetest, the most frank fraternity that must at the same time unite us, that, indeed, already unites us; and this union shall be forever indissoluble, as it will be forever the dread of ty

IX.

rants, the safeguard of the liberty of the world, and the CHAPTER preserver of all the social and philanthropic virtues!

"In bringing to us, citizen, the pledge of this union, 1794. so dear to us, you could not fail to be received with the liveliest emotions. Five years ago, a usurper of the sovereignty of the people would have received you with the pride which alone belongs to vice, thinking it much to have given to the minister of a free people some tokens of an insolent protection. But to-day, the sovereign people themselves, by the organ of their faithful representatives, receive you; and you see the tenderness, the effusion of soul, that accompanies this simple and touching ceremony! I am impatient to give you the fraternal embrace, which I am ordered to give in the name of the French people. Come and receive it in the name of the American people, and let this spectacle complete the annihilation of an impious coalition of tyrants!"

At this word Monroe stepped forward, and received. and returned Merlin's national embrace, thus publicly responding and assenting to the speech by which it had been introduced. The process verbal or minute of the sitting was ordered to be transmitted by the President of the Convention in a letter to the President of the United States. Monroe was even offered one of the confiscated hotels of the nobility as a place of residence ; but this he declined, on the strength of that clause of the Constitution which forbids the receiving, by any public officer, of any present or emolument from any foreign state.

This theatrical accolade, in which the American government had been itself made to play a part by the pres entation of the letters written by the president's order on behalf of the two houses, was far from being approved of by the president and his cabinet. Randolph's official