After recovering from his "shock" Jefferson tried to make light of the revelations; the envoys had "been assailed by swindlers," he said, "but that the Directory knew anything of it is neither proved nor probable." Adams was to blame for the unhappy outcome of the mission, declared Jefferson; his "speech is in truth the only obstacle to negotiation."[765] Promptly taking his cue from his master, Madison asserted that the publication of the dispatches served "more to inflame than to inform the country." He did not think Talleyrand guilty—his "conduct is scarcely credible. I do not allude to its depravity, which, however heinous, is not without example. Its unparalleled stupidity is what fills me with astonishment."[766]
The hot-blooded Washington exploded with anger. He thought "the measure of infamy was filled" by the "profligacy ... and corruption" of the French Directory; the dispatches ought "to open the eyes of the blindest," but would not "change ... the leaders of the opposition unless there shou'd appear a manifest desertion of the followers."[767] Washington believed the French Government "capable [of] any thing bad" and denounced its "outrageous conduct ... toward the United States"; but he was even more wrathful at the "inimitable conduct of its partisans [in America] who aid and abet their measures." He concluded that the Directory would modify their defiant attitude when they found "the spirit and policy of this country rising with resistance and that they have falsely calculated upon support from a large part of the people thereof."[768]
Then was heard the voice of the country. "The effects of the publication [of the dispatches] ... on the people ... has been prodigious.... The leaders of the opposition ... were astonished & confounded at the profligacy of their beloved friends the French."[769] In New England, relates Ames, "the Jacobins [Republicans] were confounded, and the trimmers dropt off from the party, like windfalls from an apple tree in September."[770] Among all classes were observed "the most magical effects"; so "irresistible has been the current of public opinion ... that ... it has broken down the opposition in Congress."[771] Jefferson mournfully informed Madison that "the spirit kindled up in the towns is wonderful.... Addresses ... are pouring in offering life & fortune."[772] Long afterwards he records that the French disclosures "carried over from us a great body of the people, real republicans & honest men, under virtuous motives."[773] In New England, especially, the cry was for "open and deadly war with France."[774] From Boston Jonathan Mason wrote Otis that "war for a time we must have and our fears ... are that ... you [Congress] will rise without a proper climax.... We pray that decisive orders may be given and that accursed Treaty [with France] may be annulled.... The time is now passed, when we should fear giving offense.... The yeomanry are not only united but spirited."[775]
Public meetings were held everywhere and "addresses from all bodies and descriptions of men" poured "like a torrent on the President and both Houses of Congress."[776] The blood of Federalism was boiling. "We consider the present crisis as the most awful since the days of Vandalism," declared the ardent Troup.[777] "Yankee Doodle," "Stony Point," "The President's March," supplanted in popular favor "Ça ira" and the "Marseillaise," which had been the songs Americans best loved to sing.
The black cockade, worn by patriots during the Revolutionary War, suddenly took the place of the French cockade which until the X. Y. Z. disclosures had decorated the hats of the majority in American cities. The outburst of patriotism produced many songs, among others Joseph Hopkinson's "Hail Columbia!" ("The President's March"), which, from its first presentation in Philadelphia, caught the popular ear. This song is of historic importance, in that it expresses lyrically the first distinctively National consciousness that had appeared among Americans. Everywhere its stirring words were sung. In cities and towns the young men formed American clubs after the fashion of the democratic societies of the French party.
"Hail, Columbia! happy land!
Hail, ye heroes! heaven-born band!
Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause,"—
sang these young patriots, and "Hail, Columbia!" chanted the young women of the land.[778] On every hilltop the fires of patriotism were signaling devotion and loyalty to the American Government.
Then came Marshall. Unannounced and unlooked for, his ship, the Alexander Hamilton, had sailed into New York Harbor after a voyage of fifty-three days from Bordeaux.[779] No one knew of his coming. "General Marshall arrived here on Sunday last. His arrival was unexpected and his stay with us was very short. I have no other apology to make," writes Troup, "for our not giving him a public demonstration of our love and esteem."[780] Marshall hurried on to Philadelphia. Already the great memorial to Talleyrand and the brilliantly written dispatches were ascribed to his pen, and the belief had become universal that the Virginian had proved to be the strong and resourceful man of the mission.
On June 18, 1798, he entered the Capital, through which, twenty years before, almost to a day, he had marched as a patriot soldier on the way to Monmouth from Valley Forge. Never before had any American, excepting only Washington, been received with such demonstration.[781] Fleets of carriages filled with members of Congress and prominent citizens, and crowds of people on horseback and on foot, went forth to meet him.
"The concourse of citizens ... was immense." Three corps of cavalry "in full uniform" gave a warlike color to the procession which formed behind Marshall's carriage six miles out from Philadelphia. "The occasion cannot be mentioned on which so prompt and general a muster of the cavalry ever before took place." When the city was reached, the church bells rang, cannon thundered, and amid "the shouts of the exulting multitudes" Marshall was "escorted through the principal streets to the city Tavern." The leading Federalist newspaper, the "Gazette of the United States," records that, "even in the Northern Liberties,[782] where the demons of anarchy and confusion are attempting to organize treason and death, repeated shouts of applause were given as the cavalcade approached and passed along."[783] The next morning O'Ellers Tavern was thronged with Senators and Representatives and "a numerous concourse of respectable citizens" who came to congratulate Marshall.[784]