CHAP. IV.] DEBATE ON ORDERING GENET AWAY. 201 It will not, it is believed, illustrate Mr. Jefferson's personal or political history in any new light to follow out step by step, with the considerable degree of detail hitherto employed, his remaining acts and correspondence, while he continued in his present office. A few more important facts only will be mentioned without much attention to their connections. On the 8th of November, the Secretary of State read, in a Cabinet meeting, several letters from Genet, and on finishing one of them, asked what should be the answer. The President thereupon submitted the question whether it would not be proper to discontinue his functions and order him away. He went at large into the subject, commenting on the consequences of the minister's attempts to array the people, the State governments, and Congress against the Executive. Mr. Jefferson says: "he showed he felt the venom of Genet's pen, but declared he would not choose his insolence should be regarded any further than as might be thought to affect the honor of the country." Hamilton and Knox "readily and zealously argued for dismissing Genet." Genet." Randolph "opposed it with firmness and lengthily." The President "replied to him lengthily," but not wishing the question "hastily decided," deferred its further consideration until his return from a journey.' Mr. Jefferson wrote Mr. Madison on the 17th, that not a case of yellow fever then existed in Philadelphia-“ no new infection having taken place since the great rains of the 1st of the month, and those before infected being dead or recovered." And the following remark occurs in relation to the French Minister: "Genet, by more and more denials of powers to the President, and ascribing them to Congress, is evidently endeavoring to sow tares between them, and at any event to curry favor with the latter, to whom he means to turn his appeal, finding it was not likely to be well received by the people." couple of plump, placid-looking old gentlemen, it has been Hamilton's (or rather his friends') good fortune, that his lineaments have gone down, ennobled by the genius of Ceracchi; and that solemn and majestic face (which would not have been particularly striking under any ordinary hand) is literally a part of his fame. Let him whose untrained eye cannot conceive the difference between sufficiently correct portraits of the same (physical) man, under such handling, and that of every-day artists, imagine to himself a true likeness of Patrick Henry shouting, give me liberty or give me death," and a true likeness of Patrick Henry ready to drop into a doze after too hearty a dinner-or Job's war-horse, his neck clothed with thunder, and swallowing the ground with fierceness and rage, and the same animal quietly eating oats in a stable! For an original letter of poor Ceracchi and some melancholy further details of his closing career, see APPENDIX, No. 11. 1 See Ana. 1 On the 18th, the Cabinet discussed the subjects of the communications to be made to Congress at its opening by the President. The first point was an explanation of the proclamation, usually termed the "Proclamation of Neutrality." Randolph read a statement which he had prepared. Hamilton did not like it, asserting that a declaration of neutrality by the President would not bind Congress, yet the former had a right to give his opinion; and he was against any explanation which should concede that the President did not intend that foreign nations should "consider it as a declaration of neutrality future as well as present "-that he [Hamilton] "understood it as meant to give them that sort of assurance and satisfaction; and to say otherwise now, would be a deception on them." He was for the President's "using such expressions as would neither affirm his right to make such a declaration, nor yield it." Jefferson and Randolph opposed the President's right to declare anything future to the effect there should or should not be war; and asserted that no such thing was at the time intended.' And they further took the unanswerable ground that a proclamation of neutrality would have been, in effect, a determination in advance, on the sole responsibility of the President, that our guaranty in our treaty with France, of her West Indian possessions, should in no case be acted on. This would give the President power to disregard, or entirely set aside, treaties at will. Randolph said he meant that foreign nations should understand the proclamation "as an intimation of the President's opinion that neutrality would be our interest." Jefferson declared he intended foreign nations "should understand no such thing; that on the contrary he would have chosen them to be doubtful, and to come and bid for our neutrality." He admitted that the President might proclaim anything necessary to preserve peace till the meeting of Congress. Thereupon: "The President declared he never had an idea that he could bind Congress against declaring war, or that anything contained in his proclamation could look beyond the first day of their meeting. His main view was to keep our people in peace; he apologized for the use of the term neutrality in his answers, and justified it, by having submitted the first of them (that to the merchants, wherein it was The quotations from Hamilton's remarks on this occasion are from Jefferson's Ana, Nov. 18th. The Draft of the President's Speech, on this topic, which Hamilton prepared, will be found in his Works, vol. iv. p. 486. See ante, p. 123. CHAP. IV.] GENET'S RENVOI DISCUSSED HIS RECALL. 203 used) to our consideration, and we had not objected to the term. He concluded in the end, that Colonel Hamilton should prepare a paragraph on this subject for the speech, and it should then be considered."1 The Cabinet adjourned for dinner, and on their reassembling, the President himself reopened the discussion in regard to Genet, by proposing to send him out of the country. Jefferson thus continues the details of a remarkable debate: "I opposed it on these topics. France, the only nation on earth sincerely our friend. The measure so harsh a one, that no precedent is produced where it has not been followed by war. Our messenger has now been gone eighty-four days; consequently, we may hourly expect the return, and to be relieved by their revocation of him. Were it now resolved on, it would be eight or ten days before the matter on which the order should be founded, could be selected, arranged, discussed, and forwarded. This would bring us within four or five days of the meeting of Congress. Would it not be better to wait and see how the pulse of that body, new as it is, would beat? They are with us now, probably, but such a step as this may carry many over to Genet's side. Genet will not obey the order, etc., etc. The President asked me what I would do if Genet sent the accusation to us to be communicated to Congress, as he threatened in the letter to Moultrie? I said I would not send it to Congress; but either put it in the newspapers, or send it back to him to be published if he pleased. Other questions and answers were put and returned in a quicker altercation than I ever before saw the President use. Hamilton was for the renvoi; spoke much of the dignity of the nation; that they were now to form their character; that our conduct now would tempt or deter other foreign ministers from treating us in the same manner; touched on the President's personal feelings; did not believe France would make it a cause of war; if she did, we ought to do what was right, and meet the consequences, etc. Knox on the same side, and said he thought it very possible Mr. Genet would either declare us a department of France, or levy troops here and endeavor to reduce us to obedience. Randolph of my opinion, and argued chiefly on the resurrection of popularity to Genet, which might be produced by this measure. That at present he was dead in the public opinion, if we would but leave him so. The President lamented there was not unanimity among us; that as it was, we had left him exactly where we found him; and so it ended." Probably no reflecting man will now doubt that, on all accounts, it was most fortunately permitted so to end. Genet was in due time recalled in disgrace by his own nation.' His 1 Ana, Nov. 18th. On the 8th day of October, Mr. Morris received and instantly communicated to M. Defourges, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, the dispatches of the United States Government, asking the recall of Genet. On the 10th, the French Minister replied: I shall give the Council an account of the punishable conduct of their agent in the United States, and I can assure you, beforehand, that they will regard the strange abuse of their confidence by this agent, as I do, with the liveliest indignation. The President of the United States has done justice to our sentiments, in attributing the deviations of the citizen Genet to causes entirely foreign from his instructions; and we hope that the measures, which are to be taken, will more and more convince the head and the members of your Government, that so far from having authorized the proceedings and criminal expulsion, if it did not produce the precise effect predicted by Randolph, might have produced a far more formidable one. The reflecting men of all parties felt that Genet's presumptuous and most offensively managed attempt to measure his power, weight, and popularity against the President's had justly consigned him to the indignation of the Government and people. They expected and desired that his recall be demanded. But a vast majority of the American people still regarded France with deep partiality as a friendly and a republican power. On the other hand, they did not regard as a friendly power one whose morning and evening guns daily roared sullen defiance from as many as eight fortresses forcibly held within the conceded boundaries of the United States-which had every year since the treaty of peace impressed seamen at pleasure from American vessels-which was now, while conceding the alacrity with which we had recently met its demands in our construction of, and action under, our neutrality laws, framing and persisting in measures to drive our commerce from the ocean. When it should further become known that England's Minister had hardly brought a conciliatory word to our Government that he had even neglected to answer its repeated calls for information -that he had, on several occasions, exhibited all the arrogance of tone which he could do short of insult; when the news should arrive that still another hostile order in council against our commerce was set in operation-would the public impression of Great Britain's friendship be likely to be increased? manœuvres of citizen Genet, our only aim has been to maintain between the two nations the most perfect harmony."-Life and Writings of Governeur Morris, vol. ii. p. 358. Very soon afterwards, M. Defourges informed Mr. Morris that Genet should be 66 punished" "-that three or four Commissioners would, as soon as some embarrassments in regard to the appointment of one of them could be settled, proceed at once to the United States, and send Genet home a "prisoner."-Ib. vol. ii. p. 371. On the 12th of November, Mr. Morris wrote the President that the Commission was appointed, consisting of M. Fauchet, to act as Minister, and three other persons whom he named. He speaks of two of them, whom he knows, very favorably; and has no doubt that France has the most sincere desire to be on the most cordial terms with us.-Ib. vol. ii. p. 377. A new phase in affairs at the French capital delayed these measures. Fauchet reached the United States in February. 1794, bringing assurances that his Government entirely disapproved of the conduct of Genet. He applied to the President for leave to arrest Genet, to send him a prisoner to France, which was denied. He asked, on behalf of the Republic of France, the recall of Governeur Morris. This was conceded, and the President sent Colonel Monroe to fill his place. Genet did not, of course, choose to voluntarily return to France. He married a daughter of Governor George Clinton, of New York, and settled permanently near Albany, in that State. After the death of his first wife, he married a daughter of Samuel Osgood, the first Postmaster-General of the United States under the Constitution. Genet subsided into a useful and public-spirited American citizen, and was widely respected. He died in 1834. CHAP IV.] THE PRESIDENT'S VIEWS. 205 When, on the other hand, it should be known that France had relieved us from our West India guaranty-put our commerce on the footing of her own '-not only recalled her offending Minister at the first intimation, but ordered him to be brought home a close prisoner and put on trial for his lifethere could be little likelihood that the popular feeling for that country would be diminished either by the facts or the con trast. Had, at such a moment, the spectacle been presented of our own Government, very modestly and undisturbedly "urging" England to do us justice, while we were (as nations view such things) defying France by expelling its Minister before asking his recall-expelling him, too, under circumstances offering a casus belli on the very eve of the meeting of Congress-can there be much doubt that a reactionary feeling would have been roused on the side of France which nothing could have withstood? When Congress met, we shall see that without this provocation, it was with the utmost difficulty that this body could be prevented from entering upon such retaliatory measures towards England as would have provoked instant war with that power. Another drop in the cup of national feeling would have caused an overflow. General Washington could have expressed but very transient feelings on this subject. He was not outnumbered in the Cabinet on the question. Half of its members were eager for the step and its consequences. It required but his casting vote or voice to decide in favor of the renvoi according to the usual forms of Cabinet proceeding. Had the President entertained a fixed opinion that the honor of the country required such a step, is there anything in his history to lead us to suppose he would have hesitated to take as much moral responsibility in the decision as he asked each of his subordinates to take? On the 21st of November the Cabinet met to compare drafts which it had been arranged should be prepared by Randolph and Hamilton, of the manner of explaining to Congress the intentions of the President's proclamation. Randolph's draft assumed that its intention was to keep our citizens We ought to say, however, that the retaliatory decree against neutrals, from which our ships were originally excepted, was extended indiscriminately to all before the meet ing of Congress. See Ana of this date. |