“New York, April 28, 1798.
“I have been most happy, my dear Marquis, to receive at last a letter from you. It confirms that which I had already learned of your disposition; that though your engagements have not permitted you to follow the fortunes of the French Republic, you have never ceased to be attached to it. I frankly avow that my sentiments on that point differ from yours. The execution of the king and the massacres of September have cured all my sympathy for the French Revolution. I have never believed that one could make France a republic, and I am convinced that this attempt, so long as it shall be prolonged, can only bring misfortune.
“Amidst the sad results of this revolution, I regret extremely the discussions which have arisen between our countries, and which seem to menace a complete rupture. It will be useless to retrace the causes of the actual state. I will only say that the project of alliance with Great Britain, of which we have been accused, we have not been a party to, although our adversaries have believed it useful to their views to report such an opinion in France.
“I give you this assurance upon the strength of our ancient friendship. The future will prove that my assertion is true. The basis of the politics of the party to which I belong is to avoid all intimate or exclusive relations with any foreign power.
“But, leaving politics, the rest of my letter will be consecrated to assuring you that my friendship for you will survive all revolutions and all vicissitudes. No one more than myself realizes how much cause our country has to love you, to desire your happiness, and to wish to contribute thereto. As I feel so sensitively for you, I hope that I shall never show it to you in an equivocal manner.
“In the actual state of our relations with France, I cannot press you to come here, and until a radical change shall operate in France I shall be grieved to learn that you have returned there. If a prolongation of this evil order of things shall be continued in your country, and shall make you wish to seek elsewhere a permanent asylum, you can be assured of finding in America a reception tender and cordial. The only thing in which all our parties accord is in the affection which they equally feel towards yourself.”
The difficulties alluded to by Hamilton between the United States and France, which almost resulted in open warfare, were caused by false rumors of an alliance between Great Britain and the United States, occasioned by England’s endeavors to draw neutral America into hostilities with France, regarding the liberty of commerce. To this letter La Fayette sent the following reply:—
“Witmold, Aug. 12, 1798.
“Your letter of the 28th of April caused me much happiness, my dear Hamilton. You speak to me with a touching friendship of the warm reception which awaits me in America, but you cannot, you say, press me to hasten my departure under actual circumstances. Truly, my dear friend, it is much against my desires that I have been forced to defer it for so long a time. Immediately upon my deliverance I had wished to embark; but it was impossible for my wife, in the state of her health, to set sail, and I could not resolve to leave her. I have been waiting until the moment when she could undertake a journey to France, necessary to our affairs. I wait news from her. Would that I also might receive that which shall give me the hope of a reconciliation between the United States and the French government.
