fcarcely confider this charge as ferious, and has ever cherished the hope, that a candid review of its conduct, founded on the documents, and aided by the arguments with which the Executive Directory has been furnished, would have refcued it from the injurious fufpicion. This hope feems not to have been realized, The underfigned, therefore, deem it proper to precede their application for that juftice which they claim from France, by an effort to remove the cause, which is alleged to have produced the injuries of which they complain. With this view, they pray the attention of the Executive Directory to a ferious and candid reconfideration of the leading meafures adopted by the government of the United States, and they perfuade themselves, that, however various and multiplied the channels may be through which mifinformation, concerning the difpofitions of that government, may have been received, yet this reconfideration, muft remove unfounded prejudices, and entirely exculpate the American nation from an accufation it knows to be unfounded, and believes to be supported by no fingle fact.

When that war which has been waged with fuch unparalleled fury, which, in its vaft viciffitudes of fortune, has alternately threatened the very existence of the conflicting parties, but which, in its progrefs, has furrounded France with fuch fplendour, and added ftill more to her glory than her territory-when that war first involved thofe nations with whoin the United States were in habits of friendly intercourfe, it became incumbent on their government to examine their fituations, their connexions, and their duties. America found herfelf at peace with all of the belligerent powers. She was connected with fome of them by treaties of amity and commerce, and France by a treaty of alliance alfo. Thefe feveral treaties were confidered with the most serious attention, and with a fincere wifh to determine, by fair conftruction, the obligations which they really impofed. The refult of this inquiry was a full conviction, that her engagements by no means bound her to take part in the war, but left her fo far the mistress of her own conduct, as to be at perfect liberty to obferve a fyltem of real neutrality. It is deemed unneceffary to analyfe thofe treaties in order to fupport the propriety of this decifion, becaufe it is not recollected ever to have been queftioned, and is believed not to admit of doubt.

Being bound by no duty to enter into the war, the government of the United States conceived itself bound by duties the moft facred to abftain from it. Contemplating man, even in a different fociety, as the friend of man, a ftate of peace, though unftipulated by treaty, was confidered as impofing obligations not to be wantonly violated.

Thefe obligations, created by the laws of nature, were in fome

inftances

inftances ftrengthened by folemn exifting engagements, of which good faith required a religious obfervance.

To a fenfe of moral right, other confiderations of the greatest magnitude were added, which forbade the government of the United States to plunge them unneceffarily into the miseries of the bloody conflict then commencing. The great nations of Europe, either impelled by ambition, or by exifting or fuppofed political interefts, peculiar to themfelves, have confumed more than a third of the prefent century in wars. Whatever caufes may have produced fo affecting an evil, they cannot be supposed to have been entirely extinguished, and humanity can scarcely indulge the hope, that the temper or condition of man is fo altered as to exempt the next century from the ills of the paft. Strong fortifications, powerful navies, immenfe armies, the accumulated wealth of ages, and a full population, enable the nations of Europe to fupport thofe wars in which they are induced to engage, by motives which they deem adequate, and by interests inclufively their own. In all refpects different is the fituation of the United States; poffeffed of an extenfive unfettled territory, on which bountiful Nature has bestowed with a lavish hand all the capacities for future legitimate greatnefs, they indulge no thirst for conqueft, no ambition for the extenfion of their limits. Encircled by no dangerous powers, they neither fear nor are jealous of their neighbours, and are not, on that account, obliged to arm for their own fafety. Separated from Europe by a vast and friendly ocean, they are but remotely, if at all, affected by thofe interefts which agitate and influence this portion of the globe. Thus circumftanced, they have no motive for a voluntary war. On the contrary, the most powerful confiderations urge them to avoid it. An extenfive and undefended commerce, peculiarly neceffary to a nation which does not manufacture for itfelf, which is, and for a long time to come will be, almoft exclufively agri'cultural, would have been its immediate and certain victim. The furplus produce of their labour muft have perished on their hands, and that increase of population fo effential to a young country, muft, with their profperity, have fuftained a serious check. Their exertions, too, would not have been confiderable, unless the war had been transferred to their own bofoms.

Great as are the means and refources of the United States for felf-defence, it is only in felf-defence that those resources can be completely difplayed. Neither the genius of the nation, nor the ftate of its finances, admit of calling its citizens from the plough, but to defend their own liberty and their own fire-fides. How criminal must have been that government, which could have plunged its conflituents in a war, to which they were neither impelled by duty or folicited by intereft; in which they committed

fo

fo much to hazard; in which they muft fuffer in order to act efficiently, and could only difplay their energy too in repelling invafion? But motives ftill more powerful than the calamities of the moment have influenced the government of the United States. It was perhaps impoffible to have engaged voluntarily in the exifting conflict, without launching into the almoft boundless ocean of European politics, without contracting habits of national conduct, and forming clofe political connexions, which muft have compromitted the future peace of the nation, and have involved it in all the future quarrels of Europe. A long train of armies, debts, and taxes, checking the growth, diminishing the happiness, and endangering the liberty of the United States, must have followed the adoption of fuch a fyftem. And for what pur pose should it have been adopted? For what purpose should America thus burden herfelf with the conflicts of Europe?-Not to comply with any engagements fhe has formed, not to promote her own views, her own objects, her own happiness, or her own fafety, but to move as a fatellite around fome greater planet, whofe laws the muft of neceffity obey. In addition to these weighty confiderations, it was believed that France would derive more benefit from the neutrality of America, than from her becoming a party in the war.

The determination then of the government of the United States to preferve that neutral ftation in which the war found them, far from manifefting a partiality for the enemies of France, was only a measure of juftice to itself and others, and did not even derogate from that predilection for this republic, which it has fo repeatedly expreffed and difplayed. Having avowed this determination, increased motives of honour and of duty commanded its faithful obfervance. It is not a principle which remains now to be fettled, that a fraudulent neutrality is no neutrality at all; and that the nation which would be admitted to its privileges must alfo perform the duties it enjoins. Had the government of the United States, declaring itself neutral, indulged its partialities by granting favours unftipulated by treaty, to one of the belligerent powers, which it refufed to another, it could no longer have claimed the immunities of a fituation of which the obligations were forgotten; it would have become a party to the war as certainly as if war had been openly and formally declared; and it would have added to the madness of wantonly engaging in fuch hazardous conflict, the dishonour of infincere and fraudulent conduct; it would have attained circuitously an object which it could not plainly avow or directly purfue, and would have tricked the United States into a war which it-could not venture openly to declare.

It was a matter of real delight to the government and the people VOL. VI.

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of America to be informed, that France did not wish to interrupt the peace they enjoyed.

The underfigned have been induced to rest upon this first neceffary and decifive step taken by their government, although its propriety may not be controverted, from a conviction, that, if the fight of the United States to obferve a fair and honeft neutrality be established, the general charges of an unfriendly difpofition made against them by France must be relinquished, because the facts by which thofe charges are fupported will be found to have grown inevitably out of that fituation.

This measure was accompanied by another, which, in repelling fo aftonishing a charge as partiality for the enemies of France, deferves to be noticed. Soon after the government of the United States had noticed to its citizens the duties which its neutrality enjoined, Mr. Genet, the first minifter from this republic, arrived at Philadelphia: although his conduct had been fuch as to give caufe for ferious alarm; although, before he was even acknowledged as a minifter, or had reached the authority which could infpect his credentials, he had affumed the functions of the government to which he was deputed; yet the government was refolved to fee in him only the reprefentative of a republic to which it was fincerely attached, gave him the fame warm and cordial reception which he had experienced from its citizens, without a fingle exception, from Charleston to Philadelphia. The then fituation of France deferves to be remembered.

While the recollection adds, Citizen Minifter, to the glory with which your nation is encircled, it cftablishes the fincerity of the United States.

The most formidable combination that the world had ever feen threatened the extermination of this republic. Auftria, Germany, Pruffia, Britain, Spain, Holland, and Sardinia, were in arms against France, and Ruffia was leagued in the coalition. Nor was this all the republic, diftracted by internal divifions, contained numerous enemies within its own bofom, and a confidera ble portion of its proper force was arrayed against itfelf. In fuch a state of things the moft fanguine might fear and the most ardent hefitate. Confident in their itrength, and relying on fuccefs, the coalefced powers fought to arm in their caufe the refidue of the world, and deemed it criminal to acknowledge the fovereignty of the republic. The nations of Europe, even those who had not entered into the conteft, were either of themfelves unwilling to acknowledge this fovereignty, or were deterred by fear from doing fo. Had the partialities of America been against France, this example would have been followed. According to the rules of ordinary calculation the meafure would have been fafe, and confequently a government feeling the attachments now fo unjustly

altri

attributed to that of the United States, would have indicated thofe attachments by its adoption. Far from purfuing fuch a fyftem, the United States, unawed by the ftrength of the coalition, received with open arms the minifter of this republic, acknowledged with enthusiasm the government which had deputed him, overlooked his extraordinary attacks on their fovereignty, and manifefted a cordial friendship for his nation and a fincere with for its fuccefs.

Scarcely were the firft ceremonies of his reception over, when Mr. Genet difplayed a difpofition to ufurp and exercife, within the United States, the choiceft and most important duties and powers of fovereignty. He claimed the privileges of arming and embodying the citizens of America within their own territory, to carry on from thence expeditions against nations with whom they are at peace, of fitting out and equipping within their limits privateers, to cruise on a commerce deftined for their ports, of exercising within their jurisdiction an independent judiciary, and arraigning their government at the bar of the people. The undersigned will not afk, in what manner France would have treated any foreign minifter who fhould have dared fo to conduct himfelf towards this republic?-But in what manner would the American government have treated fuch a minifter, if the reprefentative of a nation it viewed with coldnefs or even indifference? In what manner would it have treated him, had he been the reprefentative of any other nation than France? No man acquainted with, that government can doubt how these inquiries ought to be answered. From the minister of France alone could this extraordinary conduct be borne with temper. To have continued to have borne it, without perceiving and feeling its extreme impropriety, would have been to have merited the contempt as well of France as of the powers of the earth. The government of the United States did feel it; but far from transferring to his nation that refentment, which fuch conduct could not fail to excite, it diftinguished ftrongly between the government and its minifter; and the reprefentations it made were in the language of a friend afflicted but not irritated by the injuries it complained of. The recall of that minifter was received with univerfal joy, as a confirmation that his whole fyftem of conduct was attributable only to himself; and not even the publication of his private inftructions could perfuade the American government to afcribe any part of it to this republic.

At the fame time the exertions of the United States to pay up the arrearages of their debt to France, which had been unavoidably permitted to accumulate; to make difinterested and liberal advances to the fufferers of St. Domingo, thrown fuddenly upon them, without provifions or money, whofe recommendation was, that they were Frenchmen and unfortunate; the perfeverance

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