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stitution;" expressing his earnest wishes for that "close CHAPTER union and perfect harmony" between France and America, the promotion of which had been his sole object in accepting the mission, and, since his acceptance of it, the object of his "utmost exertions."

Monroe had been so unfortunate as to have fallen under the displeasure of Washington, from whom he had derived his appointment; but for this he found compensation in the approval and applause of Barras, president of the Directory. "Mr Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America"-such was the reply of Barras" in presenting this day to the Executive Directory your letter of recall, you offer a very strange spectacle to Europe. Rich in her freedom, surrounded by the train of her victories, strong in the esteem of her allies, France will not stoop to calculate the consequences of the condescension of the American government to the wishes of its ancient tyrants. The French republic expects, however, that the successors of Columbus, Raleigh, and Penn, always proud of their liberty, will never forget that they owe it to France. They will weigh in their wisdom the magnanimous friendship of the French people with the crafty caresses of perfidious men, who meditate to bring them again under their former yoke. Assure the good people of America, Mr. Minister, that, like them, we admire liberty; that they will always possess our esteem, and find in the French people that republican generosity which knows how to grant peace as well as how to cause its sovereignty to be respected. As for you, Mr. Minister Plenipotentiary, you have ever battled for principles; you have known the true interest of your country. Depart with our regret We restore in you a representative to America; we preserve the

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CHAPTER remembrance of a citizen whose personal qualities did honor to that title."

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1797.

While Monroe was dismissed in these flattering terms, the position of Pinckney was uncomfortable enough. The insolence of the French republic grew with its victories. While Hoche was preparing to invade Ireland, where the United Irishmen were ready to join him, Bonaparte in Italy was overwhelming the Austrians with repeated defeats. Thirteen foreign ministers had been already sent off. The republic of Genoa had been obliged to renounce its neutrality, and to purchase pardon for having attempted to preserve it by the payment of nearly a million of dollars. Talleyrand, late a refugee in America, but recently returned to France, had told the Directory, so Pinckney was informed, that the United States were of no greater consequence and need be treated with no greater ceremony than Genoa. News having reached Paris of Bonaparte's great victory at Rivoli, securing, by the repulse of Alvinzi, the surrender of Mantua and the possession of all Northern Italy; and Washington's speech at the opening of the late session of Congress, having also arrived, together with the anJan. 25. swer of the Senate; De la Croix, in the name of the Di

rectory, notified Pinckney that, having already resided in Paris nearly two months without special permission, he had become amenable to the law. Having thus obtained that dismissal in writing which he deemed essential, Pinckney wrote the next day for passports, and having Feb. 3. obtained them, speedily departed for Holland.

Meanwhile the French cruisers were busily employed in giving new proofs of that "republican generosity" of which Barras had boasted in his farewell to Monroe. Constant captures were made of American vessels, on the ground of having enemy's property on board. When

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carried into France the validity of these prizes was de- CHAPTER termined, in the first instance, by a new set of local tribunals lately erected, and principally composed of mer- 1797. cantile men, many of whom were themselves interested in privateers, and who made it a point to condemn, ou some pretext or other, almost every vessel brought in. If an appeal were taken to the High Court of Cassation, the law officer of the Directory was authorized to refer the whole case to the minister of justice, in order that the opinion of the government might be taken. Thus the final decision depended, not upon any treaty provisions or established rules of international law, nor upon any principles of justice or equity, but upon the policy of the government for the time being. Pretenses, indeed, had been lately set up sufficient to insure the condemnation of every American vessel. An old anteRevolutionary ordinance authorized French ships of war to arrest and bring in as pirates all vessels not having a role d'equipage, that is, articles containing a list of the crew, signed by the seamen, and countersigned by some public officer. But as no such counter-signature was required by the American law, no American vessel had it. Another of these old ordinances required, as a necessary proof of neutrality, a national sea-letter, a document little known in America, and with which vessels were never provided except when bound upon some new voyage among barbarous nations. The treaty between France. and the United States had, indeed, specified the form of a passport to serve in time of war as proof of the nationality of French and American vessels; but to passports in that form it was now objected, that as the treaty had been set aside, the Americans must conform to the standing French law above referred to. Merlin, minister of justice, the same who, as president of the Conven

CHAPTER tion, had given to Monroe the fraternal embrace, and X. who was believed to be himself largely interested as a 1797. secret partner in privateers, wrote a treatise, of which the object was to show that the want of a sea-letter was good ground of capture. What was most mortifying of all, several of the privateers by which the most important captures were made had been fitted out and were commanded by Americans, sharers in the enthusiasm of citizens Monroe and Barney for the French republic, and who, in their eagerness to punish and plunder the enemies of France, were constantly stimulating the Directory to new extravagances and new decrees. The French consuls at Malaga and Cadiz, who exercised the authority of courts of admiralty, and the special agents of the Directory in the West Indies, outdid even the domestic tribunals. Of these vessels thus condemned, the crews were placed in confinement, and treated with all the harshness of prisoners of war.

Mar 25.

Upon the receipt of Pinckney's despatches, a proclamation was immediately issued convening a special session of Congress. The outrages and insults of the French Directory were not without their effect upon public opinion. The Aurora, and the more zealous partisans of France, still labored to throw all the blame of the French captures, and of the insults to Pinckney and the American gov ernment, on Jay's treaty; but among the more moderate and rational part of the community enthusiastic partiality for France began to decline. It could not but have a certain effect upon the merchants that, almost simultaneously with the increase of French captures, commenced the issue, by the commissioners under Jay's treaty, of decrees of compensation for former British captures. The French and American flags intertwined, which, cut in tin, had ornamented for three years the

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coffee rooms in New York where the merchants were CHAPTER accustomed to assemble, after having been the occasion

of several quarrels, were now finally removed by a 1797. formal vote of the proprietors.

This change of sentiment was perceptible, also, in the congressional election going on in Virginia, as well as in the state election of Massachusetts. Induced by increas ing age and waning popularity, Samuel Adams had declined a re-election as governor, and Increase Sumner, the candidate of the Federalists, was elected by a decided April majority. The opposition vote was divided between Gill, the late lieutenant governor, and James Sullivan, the attorney general, a brother of the late General Sullivan, of New Hampshire, one of the few New England men of distinguished talents and social eminence who arranged themselves on the so-called Republican side.

Nor was the cause of the opposition much aided by the appearance in print just at this moment of Jefferson's famous letter to Mazzei, of which that gentleman had published an Italian translation in a newspaper at Florence, whence the Moniteur, the official paper of the French government, had given a version in French, as proof that the views of the Directory were shared by some of the most virtuous and enlightened citizens of America, and as affording ground to hope that the late vigorous proceedings of the French government might give rise to discussions leading to a triumph of "the party of good Republicans, the friends of France." This letter to Mazzei, the material parts of which there has been already occasion to quote, amounted, in fact, to a general endorsement, under Jefferson's own hand, of all the charges against Washington and his administration, lately urged in the Aurora, Argus, Chronicle, and other Democratic organs; and its publication brought to a

May.