There had been no period since the Revolution which had so powerfully called on Americans for that fortitude and wisdom which they knew so well how to display in great and solemn emergencies. It was not his intention to offend any one by stating the question in such strong terms; but he was persuaded that when the present situation of our affairs with respect to France was well understood, it would be found that to acquiesce in her present demands was virtually and essentially to surrender our self-government and independence.
Tuesday, May 23.
Two other members, to wit: from North Carolina, Joseph McDowell, and from Virginia, Josiah Parker, appeared, produced their credentials, were qualified, and took their seats.
Answer to the Presidents Speech.
The House then went into a Committee of the Whole, Mr. Dent in the chair, on the amendment of Mr. Nicholas to the report of the select committee, in answer to the President's Speech.
Mr. Freeman first rose. He observed, that in his observations on the subject before the committee, amid the conflicting opinions of gentlemen whom he respected, he did not mean to express his own either with confidence or with zeal. Though one of the committee that had reported the Address, he could not approve it in toto. He had two principal objections to it. First, to that part which went to an unequivocal approbation of all the measures of the Executive respecting our foreign relations; and, secondly, to that part which contained expressions of resentment and indignation towards France. In framing an answer to the President, he conceived the committee should have refrained from expressing an unqualified approbation of all the measures of the Executive. To omit it would not imply censure. By introducing it, it forced all those who entertain even doubts of the propriety of any one Executive measure to vote against the Address.
The principal causes of the irritation on the part of France, insisted upon in the Answer, were the rejection of our Minister, and the sentiments contained in the Speech of the President of the Directory to our late Minister. If gentlemen would look into the documents laid before the House by the President, he was confident they would find the true reason for the refusal to receive our Minister. He came only as an ordinary Minister, without any power to propose such modifications as might lead to an accommodation, and when the Directory discovered this from his credentials they refused him. In answer to this, it had been urged that M. Delacroix, Minister of Foreign Affairs, from the first, well knew that Mr. Pinckney was only the successor to Mr. Monroe, and that his coming in that quality was not the reason why the French refused to receive him. Mr. F. referred to the documents which had been laid before the House on this subject, from which it appeared that the secretary of M. Delacroix had suggested a reason for the apparent change of opinion on the subject of receiving Mr. Pinckney. Suppose, the secretary observed, that M. Delacroix had made a mistake at first in the intentions of the Directory, was that mistake to be binding on the Directory?
He did not wish to be understood to consider the conduct of the French as perfectly justifiable; but he could not conceive that it was such as to justify, on our part, irritating or violent measures. As to the Speech of the President of the Directory, he could not say much on it, he did not perfectly understand it. As far as he did, he considered it a childish gasconade, not to be imitated, and below resentment. [He read part of it]. It was certainly arrogant in him to say that we owed our liberty to their exertions. But if the French could derive any satisfaction from such vain boasting he had no objection to their enjoying it. There was another part of the Speech that had been considered as much more obnoxious. It was said to breathe a design to separate the people here from their Government. The part alluded to was no more than an expression of affection for the people; he could see nothing in this irritating or insulting; it was a mode of expression which they used as to themselves, and by which they wished to convey their affection for the whole nation. The term people, certainly included the Government, and could not with propriety, therefore, be said to separate the people from it.
An idea had been thrown out by the gentleman from South Carolina, that the people generally approved of the British Treaty; he inferred it from the fate of the late elections. For his part he could see no great alteration to have been produced by the late elections; and if there had been it would not have been an evidence to his mind that the people approved of the British Treaty. He believed, for his part, that the opinions of a great majority of the people had been uniformly averse to it; and those who advocated it were by this time nearly sick of it. It was true a spirit was aroused by the cry of war at the time the subject of appropriation was pending, that produced petitions, not approving however of the stipulations of the treaty, but asking that it might be carried into effect since it had reached so late a stage.
Another engine, he observed, had been wielded with singular dexterity. Much had been effected by the use, or rather abuse, of the terms federalist and anti-federalist, federalism and anti-federalism. When the Federal Constitution was submitted to the people, to approve it, and endeavor to procure its ratification, it was federalism. Afterwards, when the Government was organized and in operation, to approve every measure of the Executive and support every proposition from the Secretary of the Treasury, was federalism; and those who entertained even doubts of their propriety, though they had been instrumental in procuring the adoption of the constitution, were called anti-federalists. In 1794 to be opposed to Madison's propositions, the resolution for the sequestration of the British debts, and the resolution prohibiting all intercourse with Great Britain, was federalism. In 1796 it was federalism to advocate the British Treaty; and now he presumed that it would be federalism to support the report of the committee and hightoned measures with respect to France. In 1793 he acknowledged that federalism assumed a very different attitude from what it had on the present occasion; it was then the attitude of meekness, of humanity, and supplication. The men who exclusively styled themselves federalists, could only deplore with unavailing sighs the impotence of their country, and throw it upon the benevolence and magnanimity of the British Monarch. Their perturbed imaginations could even then see our cities sacked and burnt, and our citizens slaughtered. On the frontier they heard the war-hoop, and the groans of helpless women and children, the tortured victims of savage vengeance. Now we are at once risen from youth to manhood, and are ready to meet the haughty Republic of France animated with enthusiasm and flushed with victory. Mr. F. observed, that he rejoiced however that gentlemen adopted a bolder language on this than had been used on the former occasion. He felt his full shame in the national degradation of that moment. He was in favor of firm language; but he would distinguish between the language of manly firmness and that of childish petulance or ridiculous bombast.