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VIII.

as to the reception of Genet, and the binding effect of CHAPTER the French treaty, having appeared in the Aurora, designed to prejudice the president in the minds of the 1796. partisans of France, and which could only have become public by a betrayal of confidence, Jefferson hastened, in

a letter to Washington, to disclaim, with vehement as- June 19. severations, the having communicated this paper, or, indeed, any thing else, to any of the public prints, all connection with which, direct or indirect, he positively disavowed. Thence he diverged into a virulent attack upon General Lee, as trying "to sow tares" between him and Washington, by representing him "as still engaged in the bustle of politics, and in turbulence and intrigue against the government," and especially by having reported the tone of political conversation, by no means complimentary to Washington, in which Jefferson was accustomed to indulge at his own table. After a somewhat singular request in one so abstracted from politics, for a copy of a confidential cabinet opinion given by Knox and Hamilton on a point in which they had differed from himself-for, though he did not know that it would ever be of the least importance to him, "yet one loves to possess arms, though they may never have occasion for them" this letter winds up, like most of Jefferson's political letters of this period, with quite a long dissertation on pease, clover, and threshing machines.

Washington replied that, as he knew well whence July 6. came the paper published in the Aurora-the allusion probably was to Randolph-Jefferson's assurances on that head were unnecessary. "As you have mentioned the subject yourself, it would not be frank, candid, or friendly to conceal that your conduct has been represented as derogating from that opinion I had conceived you entertained of me; that to your particular friends and

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CHAPTER Connections you have described and they have denounced me as a person under a dangerous influence, and that, 1796. if I would listen more to some other opinions, all would be well. My answer invariably has been, that I had never discovered any thing in the conduct of Mr. Jefferson to raise suspicions in my mind of his insincerity; that, if he would retrace my public conduct while he was in the administration, abundant proofs would occur to him that truth and right decisions were the sole objects of my pursuit; that there were as many instances within his own knowledge of my having decided against as in favor of the opinions of the person alluded to [Hamilton]; and, moreover, that I was no believer in the infallibility of the politics or measures of any man living. In short, that I was no party man myself, and that the first wish of my heart was, if parties did exist, to reconcile them.

"To this I may add, and very truly, that until within the last year or two I had no conception that parties would or could go the length I have been witness to, nor did I believe until lately that it was within the bounds of probability, hardly within those of possibility, that, while I was using my utmost exertions to establish a national character of our own, independent, as far as our obligations and justice would permit, of every nation on the earth, and wished, by steering a steady course, to preserve this country from the horrors of a desolating war, I should be accused of being the enemy of one nation and subject to the influence of another; and, to prove it, that every act of my administration would be tortured, and the grossest and most insidious misrepresentations of them be made, by giving one side only of a subject, and that, too, in such exaggerated and indecent terms as could scarcely be applied to a Nero, a no

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torious defaulter, or even to a common pickpocket. But CHAPTER enough of this: I have already gone further in the expression of my feelings than I intended." Coming thus 1796. to an abrupt conclusion, without any reference to the paper which Jefferson had asked for, Washington did not withhold his customary expressions of regard and esteem; but this was the last letter, so far as now appears, that ever passed between him and Jefferson. They had, indeed, reached a point where their views of the public interest became fundamentally different, while their ideas appear to have differed not less fundamentally as to the honorable method and lawful weapons of political warfare. Washington thought positive proof necessary to sustain political accusations, especially when they involved the charges of corruption and treason; Jefferson was ever ready to proceed upon surmise, conjecture, and the promptings of suspicion and hatred. Washington was no believer in the political infallibility of any man; while Jefferson, in the true spirit of party fanaticism, never hesitated to denounce as fools, dupes, or knaves all who presumed to differ from that varying view of political affairs which the passions, the prejudices, the interests of the moment led him to take.

The great question of the British treaty having been disposed of, and a peaceful and profitable intercourse with Great Britain for ten years longer thus secured, it only remained for Congress to mature and pass the bills under discussion during the previous part of the session. Meanwhile, the necessary appointments were made for carrying the treaty into effect. Knox, and, on his declining, Howell of Rhode Island, was made commissioner for ascertaining the true St. Croix; Fitzsimmons and James Innes, the latter succeeded presently by Sitgreaves, were appointed commissioners on the subject of British

CHAPTER debts; and Christopher Gore, late district attorney of VIII. Massachusetts, and William Pinckney of Maryland, 1796. commissioners on the matter of British spoliations.

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Thomas Pinckney had returned from Spain to England, but, as he desired a recall, Rufus King was appointed to succeed him. Humphreys was appointed minister to Spain in place of Carmichael, who was dead, Short being recalled at his own request. J. Q. Adams being appointed to succeed Humphreys at Lisbon, his place at the Hague was presently given to Murray.

An act regulating intercourse with the Indians established a boundary-line along the whole extent of the Western frontier, beyond which no white man was to be allowed to go either for hunting or pasturage, nor, south of the Ohio, for any purpose whatever, without a passport from the governor of some state, from the officer of the nearest post on the frontier, or from some other person authorized by the president to grant passports. Commencing on Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, where the town of Cleveland now stands, this line followed the Indian boundary of Wayne's treaty to a point on the Ohio opposite the mouth of the Kentucky River. Thence it descended the Ohio (including, however, Clarke's grant on the north bank, opposite Louisville) to the promontory formed by the extremity of the dividing ridge between the rivers Cumberland and TenTurning there to the southeast, it followed that ridge to a point forty miles above Nashville. Thence, striking off northeast to the Cumberland River, it ascended that stream to the Kentucky crossing, not far from the southwesternmost point of the State of Virginia. Thence in a general southerly, but zigzag direction, the Cherokee boundary was followed to the head of the main south branch of the Oconee River, called the Appalachee.

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VIII.

The 1796.

Descending the Oconee to its junction with the Altama- CHAPTER ha, from the lower part of that river the line extended, by the Creek boundary, south to the St. Mary's. establishment of this line secured to the Indians a goodhalf of the territory between the Atlantic and the Mississippi, divided, however, into a northern and a southern portion by the intervention of Kentucky.

The president might remove by force any persons attempting to settle west of the Indian boundary. Intrusion beyond it, for making surveys or for any other illegal purpose, was made punishable by fine and imprisonment, and by forfeiture of the title under which the surveys were made. In case of robbery or any other trespass on the person or property of Indians, besides the punishment of the offender, there was to be a pecuniary reparation to the sufferer, to be made by the United States if the offender had no property. But this pecuniary reparation was to be withheld in case of any attempt by the sufferer or his tribe at private revenge or satisfaction by force or violence. The murder of Indians was

made punishable by death.

In case of injuries committed by Indians in the territories belonging to the whites, application for redress was to be made through the Indian agents, or other persons appointed for that purpose, to the president, who was to demand, and, after waiting a proper time, to take such means as he saw fit for enforcing reparation. Indemnity, meanwhile, was to be made to the sufferers by the United States out of the Indian annuities, if it were judged expedient, but only on consideration that no attempt were made to obtain private revenge or redress by crossing the Indian boundary. Any Indian caught within the white limits in the commission of crime might be tried and punished by the local tribunals. All white violators of

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