CHAPTER XLI.
gloomy aspect of affairs—washington's hopefulness—the french directory alarmed—new mission to france—opposition to it—washington's views—envoys depart for france—napoleon bonaparte at the head of french affairs—result of the mission—washington at home—correspondence with young custis—marriage of nelly custis—preparations for improvements—washington makes his will—letter to lawrence lewis—plan for managing his estates—washington's latest correspondence.
1799
At the opening of the year 1799, the political firmament was dark with the portentous clouds of war. Washington yet viewed them with calmness, for he fully believed that they would pass by and leave his country unscathed by the lightning and the hail. Already they had begun to break, and let the sunlight through. But these promises were discerned by few, while they were clear and full to the mental eye of the commander-in-chief and other sagacious men. They perceived that the military preparations made so vigorously by the United States had already begun to produce an effect upon the belligerent feelings of the French Directory. The appointment of Washington to the chief command of the American armies had filled the boastful leaders in France with alarm; and the wily Talleyrand, with a sagacity possessed by few of his compeers, had already turned his thoughts toward reconciliation, and made indirect exertions to induce the United States to offer amicable overtures. He at length wrote to the French secretary of legation at the Hague, intimating that any minister plenipotentiary which the American government might be pleased to send to France, to negotiate for the settlement of existing difficulties between the two countries, would undoubtedly be received with all due respect. A copy of this letter was immediately communicated by the secretary to William Vans Murray, the United States minister at the Hague, who transmitted it to his government.
Mr. Murray's despatch gave President Adams much joy. He had been greatly perplexed by the belligerent attitude assumed by the United States and France toward each other. He now perceived an open door of escape from the whole difficulty; and, apparently without considering the impropriety, under the circumstances, of making any overtures to the French republic, he laid the whole matter before the senate on the eighteenth of February, at the same time nominating Mr. Murray to be minister plenipotentiary to that republic. The president pledged himself that Mr. Murray should not enter France without having first received direct and unequivocal assurances from Talleyrand that he should be received as full minister, and be treated with by an officer of equal grade.
This nomination took the country by surprise. Much as Washington desired peace, he was unwilling to obtain it by a sacrifice of national dignity. To Timothy Pickering he wrote on the third of March, saying: “The unexpectedness of the event communicated in your letter of the twenty-first ultimo did, as you may suppose, surprise me not a little. But far, very far indeed, was this surprise short of what I experienced the next day, when, by a very intelligent gentleman, immediately from Philadelphia, I was informed that there had been no direct overture from the government of France to that of the United States for a negotiation; on the contrary, that M. Talleyrand was playing the same loose and round-about game he had attempted the year before with our envoys, and which, as in that case, might mean anything or nothing, as would subserve his purposes best.
“Had we approached the ante-chamber of this gentleman when he opened the door to us,” he continued, “and there waited for a formal invitation into the interior, the governments would have met upon equal ground, and we might have advanced or receded according to circumstances, without commitment. In plain words, had we said to M. Talleyrand, through the channel of his communication, 'We still are, as we always have been, ready to settle by fair negotiation all differences between the two nations upon open, just, and honorable terms, and it rests with the Directory (after the indignities with which our attempts to effect this have been treated), if they are equally sincere, to come forward in an unequivocal manner, and prove it by their acts'—such conduct would have shown a dignified willingness on our part to negotiate, and would have proved their sincerity on the other. Under my present view of the subject, this would have been the course I should have pursued, keeping equally in view the horrors of war and the dignity of the government.”