“Do you think that is all the preparation you need?”
“I allers kept up good line fence, and give good weight and measure. I s’pose the less we do, the less there’s charged to us.”
Mr. Goodhue now relinquished the effort in despair; as Uncle Isaac would have said, he could find nothing to nail to. The old man had grown up, like the beasts he hunted, without culture, and could neither read nor write. But, although he found great difficulty in hearing, he could talk fast enough, and however impervious to religious sentiment, was shrewd enough in other matters.
The subject which at that period most divided the opinions and agitated the minds of the people, was the state of affairs in France, and our relations to that nation. That nation having dethroned their king, and proclaimed liberty and equality, naturally expected to receive fraternal sympathy and aid from this country, and from the people whom they had aided in their recent struggle for liberty.
The members in Congress were divided in sentiment on the subject. The people at large, especially the mercantile portion of the community (who were very much embittered against England on account of the impressment of seamen and the right of search), felt that the movement in France was resistance to arbitrary power, a struggle for self-government against oppression, and a mere carrying out of the principles of our own revolution, that we owed it to the cause of liberty, and were obligated in gratitude to aid them to the extent of entering into an offensive and defensive alliance, and declaring war with Great Britain. The party espousing these sentiments was large and influential, and a strong pressure was brought to bear upon the administration. To complicate matters still more, Genet, the French minister, a hot-headed, overbearing man, appealed to the prejudices and sympathies of the people, and, without the sanction or knowledge of the government, attempted to raise men and arms, and fit out privateers to prey on British commerce, and sell their prizes in American ports.
On the other hand, Washington, and those of cooler heads and calmer judgment, shocked at the excesses of the French revolution, and having no confidence in the capacity of the French people for self-government, were as resolutely opposed to any interference. Old Mr. Griffin, in opposition to his son and the great majority of his neighbors, was of the latter party, and Mr. Goodhue was of the same opinion.
“What’s that rapscallion’s name, parson, that’s come over here, and is kickin’ up sich a dust, and tryin’ to get us into a quarrel with the old country?”
“Genet, the French minister,” replied Mr. Goodhue, rejoiced at the introduction of a topic in respect to which their sympathies were in unison.
“A minister goin’ about tryin’ to stir up people agin their government, and to git up a war!”
“He’s not a minister of the gospel, but a sort of ambassador.”