objection to his reception; though it would probably have been so in any other country in the world. It has not been alleged either that there was any want of cordiality in that reception. We shall see what return was made for this manifestation of moderation and friendship. Knowing, as we do, the opposition of the government to the prevention of fitting out privateers in our ports, it cannot be doubted that an early opportunity was taken to make known its disapprobation to the French Minister; nor is it possible that the Executive of the United States can have neglected to remonstrate against so improper an exercise of Consular jurisdiction as that which has been mentioned; yet we have seen that the practice of fitting out privateers has been openly persisted in. Their number has so increased, and their depredations have been so multiplied, as to give just cause of alarm for the consequences to the peace of this country. It is also matter of notoriety that the Consuls of France have gone on with the condemnation of prizes; that one of them has had the audacity, by a formal protest to the District Court of New-York, not only to deny its jurisdiction, but to arrogate to himself a complete and exclusive jurisdiction over the case.

gov.

The aggravating circumstances which attended the fitting out the Little Democrat at this port, under the very nose of the government; the means which were used to obtain a suspension of her progress until the return of the President to the seat of ernment; the refusal which those overtures met with; the intemperate and menacing declarations which they produced on the part of the French Minister-have been the subject of general conversation.

How much more there is in the case; what further contempt of the government may have succeeded the return of the President, can only be matter of conjecture. We know, however, that the Little Democrat proceeded to sea; and we conclude, from the known consistency of our Chief Magistrate, that this could not have been with his consent.

Prosecutions have been instituted, and carried on, against some of our citizens for entering into the service of France. It i known that Mr. Genet has publicly espoused and patronized the

practice, even, as it is asserted without contradiction, to the feeing of counsel for carrying on the defence of the guilty; and we see, but a few days since, an advertisement from the Consul of France at Philadelphia, inviting to enter into her service, not only her own citizens but all friends to liberty, including of course the citizens of the United States.

We read of cases in which one nation has raised men for military service in the dominions of another, with the consent of the nation in whose territories they were raised; but the raising of men, not only without the consent but against the will of the government of the country in which they are raised; is a novelty reserved for the present day, to display the height of arrogance on one side and the depth of humiliation on the other. This is but a part of the picture.*

NO JACOBIN.

REPLY OF WASHINGTON.

Draft by Hamilton.

TO NICHOLAS CRUGER, Esq., Chairman of a Meeting of the Citizens of New-York,

SIR:

1793.

Your letter, conveying to me the resolutions of the citizens of New-York at their late meeting, affords me much satisfaction.

The approving voice of my fellow-citizens can never be heard by me with indifference. That of the inhabitants of your respectable metropolis must always give particular pleasure. An unanimity so perfect as appears to have prevailed among them upon an occasion so interesting to our national peace and happiness, furnishes an example of good sense, moderation, and patriotic virtue, which cannot cease to be remembered to their honor. Discerning in it a sure pledge of their firm and perse

*Hamilton being ill with the yellow fever, these essays were not continued.

vering support, I request you to make known to them the high sense I entertain of the dispositions they have manifested, and the complete reliance I place upon those dispositions.

I cannot omit the opportunity of publicly uniting with them in acknowledging the prompt and decided co-operation of the Governor of New-York, towards the support of the neutrality of our country. The disposition hitherto shown by the Chief Magistrates of the several States in relation to this point, is a pleasing evidence of a spirit of concern for the general good, happily calculated to harmonize and invigorate all the parts of our political system.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

AMERICANUS.

I.

February 1, 1794.

The two following papers were prepared some time since, but from particular circumstances have been postponed. The fresh appearances of a covert design to embark the United States in the war, induce their publication at this time.

An examination into the question how far regard to the cause of Liberty ought to induce the United States to take part with France in the present war, is rendered necessary by the efforts which are making to establish an opinion, that it ought to have that effect. In order to a right judgment on the point, it is requisite to consider the question under two aspects.

I. Whether the cause of France be truly the cause of Liberty, pursued with justice and humanity, and in a manner likely to crown it with honorable success.

II. Whether the degree of service we could render, by partici

pating in the conflict, was likely to compensate, by its utility to the cause, the evils which would probably flow from it to ourselves. If either of these questions can be answered in the negative, it will result, that the consideration which has been stated ought not to embark us in the war.

A discussion of the first point will not be entered upon. It would involve an examination too complicated for the compass of these papers; and, after all, the subject gives so great scope to opinion, to imagination, to feeling, that little could be expected from argument. The great leading facts are before the public; and by this time most men have drawn their conclusions so firmly, that the issue alone can adjust their differences of opinion. There was a time when all men in this country entertained the same favorable view of the French revolution. At the present time, they all still unite in the wish, that the troubles of France may terminate in the establishment of a free and good government; and dispassionate, well-informed men must equally unite in the doubt whether this be likely to take place under the auspices of those who now govern the affairs of that country. But agreeing in these two points, there is a great and serious diversity of opinion as to the real merits and probable issue of the French revolution.

None can deny, that the cause of France has been stained by excesses and extravagances, for which it is not easy, if possible, to find a parallel in the history of human affairs, and from which reason and humanity recoil. Yet many find apologies and extenuations with which they satisfy themselves; they still see in the cause of France, the cause of liberty; they are still sanguine in the hope, that it will be crowned with success; that the French nation will establish for themselves not only a free, but a repub lican government, capable of promoting solidly their happiness. Others, on the contrary, discern no adequate apology for the horrid and disgusting scenes, which have been and continue to be acted. They conceive, that the excesses which have been com mitted, transcend greatly the measure of those which, with every due allowance for circumstances, were reasonably to have been expected. They perceive in them proofs of atrocious depravity

in the most influential leaders of the revolution. They observe that among these, a MARAT* and a ROBERTSPIERRE, assassins still reeking with the blood of their fellow-citizens, monsters who outdo the fabled enormities of a Busiris and a Procrustes, are predominant in influence as well as iniquity. They find every where marks of an unexampled dissolution of all the social and moral ties. They see nowhere any thing but principles and opinions so wild, so extreme, passions so turbulent, so tempestuous, as almost to forbid the hope of agreement in any rational or wellorganized system of government. They conclude that a state of things like this is calculated to extend disgust and disaffection throughout the nation, to nourish more and more a spirit of insurrection and mutiny; facilitating the progress of the invading armies, and exciting in the bowels of France commotions, of which it is impossible to compute the mischief, the duration, or the end: that if by the energy of the national character, and the intrinsic difficulty of the enterprise, the enemies of France shall he compelled to leave her to herself, this era may only prove the commencement of greater misfortunes: that after wading through seas of blood, in a furious and sanguinary civil war, France may find herself at length the slave of some victorious Sylla, or Marius, or Cæsar: and they draw this afflicting inference from the whole view of the subject, that there is more reason to fear, that the CAUSE OF TRUE LIBERTY has received a deep wound in the mismanagements of it, by those who, unfortunately for the French nation, have for a considerable time past maintained an ascendant in its affairs, than to regard the revolution of France in the form it has lately worn, as entitled to the honors due to that sacred and all important cause; or as a safe bark in which to freight the fortunes, the liberties, and the reputation of this now respectable and happy land.

Without undertaking to determine which of these opposite opinions rests most firmly on the basis of facts, I shall content myself with observing, that if the latter is conceived to have but

* This man has lately met a fate, which, though the essential interests of society will not permit us to approve, loses its odium in the contemplation of the character.