Degrading Treatment of Envoys

At a subsequent meeting, October 27th, the same secret agent said: Gentlemen, you mistake the point, you say nothing of the money you are to give-you make no offer of money—on that point you are not explicit.' We are explicit enough," replied the American envoys. "We will not give you one farthing; and before coming here, we should have thought such an offer as you now propose, would have been regarded as a mortal insult.'

On this indignant reply, the wily agent intimated that if they would only pay, by way of fees, just as they would to a lawyer, who should plead their cause, the sum required for the private use of the Directory, they might remain at Paris until they should receive further orders from America as to the loan required for government.*

Being inaccessible to any such disgraceful and degrading propositions, the envoys remained several months in Paris unaccredited, and finally returned at separate times, without an official discussion of the object of their mission.†

*See Life of Talleyrand, by the Rev. Charles K. McHarg, pp. 161, 162.

† Marshall left France April 26th, 1798; Gerry on the 26th of July. Pinckney, detained by the illness of his daughter, did not arrive in the United States until early in October.

During this residence of the envoys in Paris, the Directory, believing the people of the United States would not sustain their government in a war against France, proceeded to enact a law subjecting to capture and condemnation neutral vessels and their cargoes, if any portion of the latter was of British fabric or produce, although the entire property might belong to neutrals. As the United States were at this time the great neutral carriers of the world, this iniquitous decree struck at a vital point in their maritime power.*

When this act and the degrading treatment of the American envoys became known, the spirit of the nation was aroused, and war with France seemed inevitable.

The crisis was at once brought to Washington's own door. "You ought to be aware,' writes Hamilton to him, May 19th, "that in the event of an open rupture with France, the public voice will again call you to command the armies of your country; and though all who are attached to you will, from attachment as well as public considerations, deplore an occasion which should once more tear you from that repose to which you have so good a right, yet it is the opinion of all those with whom I converse, that you will be compelled to make

* McHarg's Life of Talleyrand, 160.

the sacrifice. All your past labors may demand, to give them efficacy, this further, this very great sacrifice."

The government was resolved upon vigorous measures. Congress, on the 28th of May, authorized Mr. Adams to enlist ten thousand men as a provisional army, to be called by him. into actual service, in case of hostilities.

Adams was perplexed by the belligerent duties thus suddenly devolved upon him. How should he proceed in forming an army? Should he call on all the old generals who had figured in the Revolution, or appoint a young set? Military tactics were changed, and a new kind of enemy was to be met. If the French come here," said he, we will have to march with a quick step and attack, for in that way only they are said to be vulnerable."

These and other questions he propounded to Washington by letter, on the 22d of June. “I must tax you sometimes for advice," writes he. "We must have your name if you will in any case permit us to use it. There will be more efficacy in it than in many an army.”

And McHenry, the Secretary of War, writes about the same time: " You see how the storm thickens, and that our vessel will soon require its ancient pilot. Will you may we flatter ourselves, that, in a crisis so awful and im

portant, you will-accept the command of all our armies? I hope you will, because you alone can unite all hearts and all hands, if it is possible that they can be united."

In a reply to the President's letter, Washington writes, on the 4th of July: "At the epoch of my retirement, an invasion of these States by any European power, or even the probability of such an event happening in my days, was so far from being contemplated by me, that I had no conception that that or any other occurrence would arise in so short a period, which could turn my eyes from the shade of Mount Vernon. In case of

actual invasion, by a formidable force, I certainly should not intrench myself under the cover of age and retirement, if my services. should be required by my country to assist in repelling it."

And in his reply of the same date, to the Secretary of War, he writes: "I see, as you do, that clouds are gathering, and that a storm may ensue; and I find, too, from a variety of hints, that my quiet, under the circumstances, does not promise to be of long continuance.

'As my whole life has been dedicated to my country in one shape or another, for the poor remains of it, it is not an object to contend for ease and quiet, when all that is valuable is at