Life and Times of Washington, Volume 2 / Revised, Enlarged, and Enriched

by John Frederick Schroeder; Benson John Lossing

As soon as the commotions which succeeded the deposition of Louis XVI had, in some degree, subsided, the attention of the French government was directed to the United States, and the resolution was taken to recall the minister who had been appointed by the King, and to replace him with one who might be expected to enter with more enthusiasm into the views of the republic.

Edmund Charles Genet, a man of considerable talents, and of an ardent temper, was selected for this purpose. The letters he brought to the executive of the United States and his instructions, which he occasionally communicated, were in a high degree flattering to the nation, and decently respectful to its government. But Mr. Genet was also furnished with private instructions, which the course of subsequent events tempted him to publish. These indicated that if the American executive should not be found sufficiently compliant with the views of France, the resolution had been taken to appeal to the people of the United States against their own government, and thus to effect an object which legitimate negotiations might fail to accomplish.

Mr. Genet possessed many qualities which were peculiarly adapted to the objects of his mission, but he seems to have been betrayed by the flattering reception which was given him and by the universal fervor expressed for his republic, into a too speedy disclosure of his intentions.

On the 8th of April (1793) he arrived, not at Philadelphia, but at Charleston in South Carolina, a port whose contiguity to the West Indies would give it peculiar convenience as a resort for privateers. He was received by the governor of that State, and by its citizens, with an enthusiasm well calculated to dissipate every doubt he might previously have entertained concerning the dispositions on which he was to operate. At this place he continued for several days, receiving extravagant marks of public attachment, during which time he undertook to authorize the fitting and arming of vessels in that port, enlisting men, and giving commissions to cruise and commit hostilities on nations with whom the United States were at peace.

The captures made by these cruisers were brought into port and the consuls of France were assuming, under the authority of Mr. Genet, to hold courts of admiralty on them, to try, condemn, and authorize their sale.

From Charleston Mr. Genet proceeded by land to Philadelphia, receiving on his journey at the different towns through which he passed such marks of enthusiastic attachment as had never before been lavished on a foreign minister. On the 16th of May (1793) he arrived at Philadelphia, preceded by the intelligence of his transactions in South Carolina. This information did not diminish the extravagant transports of joy with which he was welcomed by the great body of the inhabitants. Means had been taken to render his entry pompous and triumphal, and the opposition papers exultingly stated that he was met at Gray's ferry by "crowds who flocked from every avenue of the city to meet the republican ambassador of an allied nation."

The day succeeding his arrival he received addresses of congratulation from particular societies, and from the citizens of Philadelphia, who waited on him in a body, in which they expressed their fervent gratitude for the "zealous and disinterested aids" which the French people had furnished to America, unbounded exultation at the success with which their arms had been crowned, and a positive conviction that the safety of the United States depended on the establishment of the republic. The answers to these addresses were well calculated to preserve the idea of a complete fraternity between the two nations, and that their interests were identified.

The day after being thus accredited by the citizens of Philadelphia he was presented to the President, by whom he was received with frankness and with expressions of a sincere and cordial regard for his nation. In the conversation which took place on this occasion Mr. Genet gave the most explicit assurances that, in consequence of the distance of the United States from the theater of action, and of other circumstances, France did not wish to engage them in war, but would willingly leave them to pursue their happiness and prosperity in peace. The more ready faith was given to these declarations, because it was believed that France might derive advantages from the neutrality of America, which would be a full equivalent for any services which she could render as a belligerent.

Before Genet had reached Philadelphia, however, a long catalogue of complaints, partly founded on his proceedings in Charleston, had been made by the British minister to the American executive.

This catalogue was composed of the assumptions of sovereignty already mentioned—assumptions calculated to render America an instrument of hostility to be wielded by France against those powers with which she might be at war.