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XIV.

vidual states, in cases of palpable violations of the Con- CHAPTER stitution, "to interfere for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining, within their respective limits, 1799. the authorities, liberties, and rights appertaining to them," i. e., the states, was now explained to mean nothing more than a general right of resistance, not the right of the states particularly, or at all growing out of their federal relations, but that general right of human nature -a right fully admitted on all sides—to resist, and to attempt to rectify by force, when other means should fail, intolerable grievances and oppressions; a right which no American ever thought of disputing, and which it was hardly necessary to have set forth in legislative resolutions.

The same Legislature which adopted this report expressed their confidence in Monroe and approval of his policy by electing him governor of the state.

Immediately after the confirmation by the Senate of new envoys to France, a letter had been written to Murray, at the Hague, directing him to convey information of that appointment to the French minister for Foreign Affairs, and also to inform him that the other two envoys would not embark for Europe without direct and unequivocal assurances from the Directory, previously given through their minister for foreign affairs, that the new embassadors would be received and admitted to an audience in their official character, and a minister of equal grade appointed to treat with them. At the same time, Murray was directed to have no more informal communications of any kind with any French agents.

In answer to Murray's communication, Talleyrand hastened to give assurances, in the terms required, not May 5 without expressions of regret that the negotiation should

be so long delayed for the mere confirmation of what he had so repeatedly declared to Gerry.

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Upon the arrival in America of these assurances, in spite of the known reluctance of the majority of his cab1799. inet, the president, who had been at Braintree since the August. close of the session, directed orders to be sent to the envoys to prepare for immediate embarkation; and that the Secretary of State, with the assistance of the other heads. of departments, should immediately draw up and send to him for approval a draft of instructions. The two principal points of these instructions, indemnity for the spoliations heretofore committed on American commerce, and freedom for the future from any obligation to guarantee any part of the French dominions, had been agreed upon previous to the president's leaving Philadelphia. But the preparation of the instructions in detail, including a draft of a new treaty as a substitute for the present ones, had been delayed, perhaps, by the reluctance of Pickering, but partly, also, by the reappearance of the yellow fever, which had again compelled the removal of the public offices to Trenton.

As finally proposed and agreed to, the instructions directed that, if Talleyrand's assurances were not promptly fulfilled, and the negotiation commenced within twenty days after the arrival of the envoys at Paris, and continued in good faith, they should at once demand their passports and leave France without listening to any fresh overtures that might be offered; nor, unless for special reasons, were they to allow the negotiation to be protracted beyond the first of the ensuing April. Indemnification for spoliations and the release from the guarantee, indeed from all the obligations of the old treaties and the consular convention, were to be insisted on as previously agreed; also the repeal of the French decree for confiscating neutral vessels having English merchandise on board. In other respects, the instructions

substantially agreed with those given to the former en- CHAPTER

voys.

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By the time these instructions were nearly ready, 1799. news arrived of the Revolution in France of the 30th Sept. 11. Prarial (June 18th), by which the whole Directory, except Barras, had been changed-a consequence of the severe reverses which the arms of the Republic had lately experienced. Accounts of these reverses, arriving from time to time in America, had increased the disinclination felt from the beginning by many of the active Federal leaders to any renewal of diplomatic intercourse with France; and they eagerly insisted upon the recent change as a reason for further delay. Who could tell if the new directors would hold themselves bound by the assurances of the old ones? Further revolutions were also foreseen. Such, of late, had been the rapid successes of the allies, the Arch-duke Charles triumphant on the Rhine, and the French quite driven out of Italy by the arms of Suwarrow, and Bonaparte absent and unsuccessful, perhaps already slain in the East, that even the Republic itself seemed in danger. Indeed, the restoration of the Bourbons began to be talked of as an event by no means improbable; Murray's recent dispatches were all in that strain; and the whole cabinet concurred in a letter to the president suggesting the suspension of the mission. Ellsworth also wrote to him to the same effect. Before coming to a final decision, the president resolved to proceed to Trenton. When he reached that place he found Davie already there. Ellsworth, whom the president had seen and talked with on the way, arrived a day or two after. Hamilton, accompanied by General Wilkinson, happened also to be present on af fairs of the army. But Adams strongly suspected his real business to be, to overlook the deliberations of a cab

CHAPTER inet, of which he afterward vehemently complained that XIV. it was more Hamilton's than his. Well knowing, from 1799. many conversations with its separate members, what the opinion of the cabinet would be, and the instructions being at last finally arranged, the president, as on the former occasion of the nomination of Murray, issued directions, without any special cabinet consultation, that the envoys should embark as speedily as possible in the frigate United States, then lying at Newport ready to receive them.

This second slight put upon their opinions, and disregard of what they seem to have esteemed their right to be consulted, made a final and permanent breach between the president and three of his secretaries. Stoddard, the Secretary of the Navy, who had exhibited great energy and ability in that department, and Lee, the Attorney General, were by no means so strenuous in opposing the departure of the envoys, being inclined to defer to the president's judgment in that matter. The three offended secretaries complained, in addition, of what they seemed to consider an unjustifiable finesse, and which did, indeed, show a certain adroitness on the part of the president in obtaining their concurrence in the instructions, without giving them an opportunity of protesting against the mission itself, which, in agreeing to the instructions, they might seem to have approved. But, though all confidence between them and the president was now at an end, they still continued to hold their places. They appear to have been influenced by the hope of availing themselves of their official position to secure a successor to Adams whose policy might more conform to theirs, and of acting, meanwhile, as far as might be, as a clog upon those measures which they did not approve; while Adams, on his part, hesitated to widen the already alarm

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ing breach in the Federal party by actually turning CHAPTER them out of office. Their position in Adams's cabinet bore, indeed, a certain resemblance to Jefferson's in that 1799. of Washington.

The objections on the part of Pickering, Wolcott, and M'Henry, to a renewal of diplomatic relations with France-objections in which Hamilton and a large number of the more zealous Federalists concurred were ostensibly based upon doubts as to the sincerity of the French government; the impossibility of relying with confidence upon any stipulations made by Talleyrand; and the idea that the honor of the country did not allow any further advances on our part, while the piratical French decrees against American commerce remained unrepealed. Washington himself was strongly disposed to this view, though, with his usual candor and caution, he declined to express a definitive opinion as to a matter the whole of which did not lie before him.

But, while such were the objections openly urged, what, no doubt, had quite as much real weight, whether the parties so influenced were perfectly conscious of it or not, was the effect which the resumption of negotiations might have and would be likely to have on the domestic. politics of the country.

The manly resistance made by the Federalists to the insults and aggressions of France seemed to give them a hold upon the public mind such as they had never possessed before. The self-styled Republican party, having come forward as advocates of submission, had withered and wasted under the meridian blaze of an excited patriotism; and as a means of keeping up that feeling, and raising it to a still higher pitch, many of the more ardent Federalists were ready and anxious for open war; especially now that the declining fortune of the French re

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