FOOTNOTES:
[658] Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 167. This lady was "understood to be Madame de Villette, the celebrated Belle and Bonne of Voltaire." (Lyman: Diplomacy of the United States, ii, footnote to 336.) Lyman says that "as to the lady an intimation is given that that part of the affair was not much to the credit of the Americans." (And see Austin: Gerry, ii, footnote to 202.) Madame de Villette was the widow of a Royalist colonel. Her brother, an officer in the King's service, was killed while defending Marie Antoinette. Robespierre proscribed Madame de Villette and she was one of a group confined in prison awaiting the guillotine, of whom only a few escaped. (Ib.)
[659] Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 167.
[660] Beaumarchais was one of the most picturesque figures of that theatrical period. He is generally known to-day only as the author of the operas, The Barber of Seville and the Marriage of Figaro. His suit was to recover a debt for supplies furnished the Americans during the Revolution. Silas Deane, for our Government, made the original contract with Beaumarchais. In addition to the contest before the courts, in which Marshall was Beaumarchais's attorney, the matter was before Congress three times during the claimant's life and, through his heirs, twice after his death. In 1835 the case was settled for 800,000 francs, which was nearly 2,500,000 francs less than Alexander Hamilton, in an investigation, ordered by Congress, found to be due the Frenchman; and 3,500,000 livres less than Silas Deane reported that America owed Beaumarchais.
Arthur Lee, Beaumarchais's enemy, to whom Congress in 1787 left the adjustment, had declared that the Frenchman owed the United States two million francs. This prejudiced report was the cause of almost a half-century of dispute, and of gross injustice. (See Loménie: Beaumarchais et son temps; also, Channing, iii, 283, and references in the footnote; and Perkins: France in the American Revolution. Also see Henry to Beaumarchais, Jan. 8, 1785; Henry, iii, 264, in which Henry says: "I therefore feel myself gratified in seeing, as I think, ground for hope that yourself, and those worthy and suffering of ours in your nation, who in so friendly a manner advanced their money and goods when we were in want, will be satisfied that nothing has been omitted which lay in our power towards paying them.")
[661] Marshall's Journal, ii, Dec. 17, 36.
[662] Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 167; Marshall's Journal, Dec. 17, 36-37.
[663] Marshall's Journal, Dec. 17, 38. The "Rôle d'équipage" was a form of ship's papers required by the French Government which it was practically impossible for American masters to furnish; yet, without it, their vessels were liable to capture by French ships under one of the many offensive decrees of the French Government.
[664] Marshall's Journal, Dec. 17, 38.
[665] Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 168.
[666] This account in the dispatches is puzzling, for Talleyrand spoke English perfectly.
[667] Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 230.
[668] King to Secretary of State (in cipher) London, Dec. 23, 1797; King, ii, 261. King to Pinckney, Marshall, and Gerry, Dec. 23, 1797; ib., 263.
[669] King to Pinckney (in cipher) London, Dec. 24, 1797; King, ii, 263-64.
[670] Pinckney to King, Dec. 27, 1797; King, ii, 266-67.
[671] Marshall's Journal, Dec. 18, 1797, 38.
[672] Ib., Jan. 2, 1798, 39.
[673] Marshall's Journal, Jan. 2 and 10, 39.
[674] Ib., Jan. 22, 40.
[675] Ib., 40.
[676] Ib., Jan. 31.
[677] The Ellsworth mission. (See infra, chap. xii.)
[678] Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 169.
[679] Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 169-70.
[680] Ib., 170.
[681] Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 170.
[682] Marshall's Journal, 39; also see Austin: Gerry, ii, chap. vi.
[683] Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 170-71.
[684] Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 172.
[685] Ib., 173.
[686] Ib.
[687] Ib.
[688] Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 175.
[689] Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 175.
[690] Ib., 176.
[691] Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 177.
[692] Ib., 178.
[693] Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 181.
[694] Ib., 181-82.
[695] Ib., 182.
[696] British Debts cases. (See vol. i, chap. v.)
[697] Murray to J. Q. Adams, Feb. 20, 1798, Letters: Ford, 379. Murray thought Marshall's statement of the American case "unanswerable" and "proudly independent." (Ib., 395.) Contrast Murray's opinion of Marshall with his description of Gerry, supra, chap. vii, 258, and footnote.
[698] Marshall's Journal, Jan. 31, 1798, 40.
[699] Ib., Feb. 2.
[700] Ib., Feb. 2, 41.
[701] Marshall's Journal, Feb. 3, 42.
[702] Ib., Feb. 4, 42.
[703] Ib., 42-43, 46.
[704] Marshall's Journal, Feb. 4, 42-45.
[705] Marshall's Journal, Feb. 5, 45-46.
[706] Ib., Feb. 6 and 7, 46.
[707] Marshall's Journal, Feb. 10, 47-48.
[708] Undoubtedly Beaumarchais. Marshall left his client's name blank in his Journal, but Pickering, on the authority of Pinckney, in the official copy, inserted Beaumarchais's name in later dates of the Journal.
[709] Marshall's Journal, Feb. 26, 52-60.
[710] Marshall's Journal, Feb. 27, 61-67.
[711] Ib., Feb. 28, 67-68. See supra, 312.
[712] Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 186-87; Marshall's Journal, March 2, 68-72.
[713] Marshall's Journal, March 3, 74.
[714] Marshall's Journal, March 6, 79-81.
[715] Marshall's Journal, 82-88; Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 187-88.
[716] Marshall's Journal, March 13, 87-93.
[717] This would seem to indicate that Marshall knew that his famous dispatches were to be published.
[718] France was already making "actual war" upon America; the threat of formally declaring war, therefore, had no terror for Marshall.
[719] Here Marshall contradicts his own statement that the French Nation was tired of the war, groaning under taxation, and not "universally" satisfied with the Government.
[720] Marshall to Washington, Paris, March 8, 1798; Amer. Hist. Rev., Jan., 1897, ii, 303; also MS., Lib. Cong.
[721] Marshall's Journal, March 20, 93.
[722] Marshall's Journal, March 22, 95.
[723] Murray to J. Q. Adams, April 3, 1798, quoting Pinckney; Letters: Ford, 391.
[724] The exact reverse was true. Up to this time American newspapers, with few exceptions, were hot for France. Only a very few papers, like Fenno's Gazette of the United States, could possibly be considered as unfriendly to France at this point. (See supra, chap. i.)
[725] Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 190-91.
[726] Ib., 191.
[727] Marshall's Journal, March 22, 95.
[728] Marshall's Journal, March 22, 95-97.
[729] The Fairfax purchase.
[730] Marshall's Journal, March 23, 99.
[731] Marshall's Journal, March 29, 99-100.
[732] Ib., April 3, 102-07.
[733] Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 191.
[734] Am. St. Prs., For. Rel., ii, 196.
[735] This would seem to dispose of the story that Marshall brought home enough "very fine" Madeira to serve his own use, supply weddings, and still leave a quantity in existence three quarters of a century after his return. (Green Bag, viii, 486.)
[736] Marshall's Journal, April 10 and 11, 1798, 107-14.
[737] Marshall to Skipwith, Bordeaux, April 21, 1798; MS., Pa. Hist. Soc.
[738] Murray to J. Q. Adams, April 24, 1798; Letters: Ford, 399.
[739] Same to same, May 18, 1798; ib., 407.
[740] Pinckney to King, Paris, April 4, 1798, enclosed in a letter to Secretary of State, April 16, 1798; Pickering MSS., Mass. Hist. Soc.