Part 39 (1/2)
The exportation of arms and ammunition was prohibited, and the importation of the same encouraged, by law. The president was also authorized to call out the militia to the number of eighty thousand, and to accept of the services of volunteers. A small naval force was also provided for, and means for extraordinary expenses incident to a state of war.
Was.h.i.+ngton had doubts of the success of the new mission. In a letter to Timothy Pickering, at the close of August, he said: ”Candor is not a more conspicuous trait in the character of governments than it is of individuals. It is hardly to be expected, then, that the Directory of France will acknowledge its errors, and tread back its steps immediately. This would announce at once that there has been precipitancy and injustice in the measures they have pursued; or that they were incapable of judging, and had been deceived by false representations. Pride would be opposed to all these; and I can scarcely think the Directory will relinquish the hold it has upon those who more than probably have suggested and promoted the measures they have been pursuing. I rather suppose that they will lower their tone by degrees, and, as is usual, place the change to the credit of _French magnanimity_.”
Yet Was.h.i.+ngton had no fears concerning a war with France. To Pickering he wrote: ”I can say with truth that my mind has never been alarmed by any fears of a war with France. I always knew that this government had no desire to go to war with that or any other country; and I as firmly believed that no power, without a _semblance of justice_, would declare war against it. That France has stepped far beyond the line of rect.i.tude, can not be denied; that she has been encouraged to do so by a party among ourselves is, to my mind, equally certain; and when it is considered, moreover, that enriching themselves and injuring Great Britain were the expected consequences of their spoliation's, I could account, though not on honorable principles in them, for their going to a certain point; but I never did believe that they would declare an open war against us, or compel us, if they foresaw that would be the result, to declare it against them.”
In the autumn of 1797, Was.h.i.+ngton received a letter dated ”Warren, Albemarle county,” and signed ”John Langhorne,” in which the writer condoled with him on the aspersions of his character by his political opponents, and suggested that he ought not to allow them to disturb his repose. This letter was a forgery, there being no such person as John Langhorne, and was evidently intended to draw from Was.h.i.+ngton some expressions that might be used to his injury, and serve a party purpose.
But Was.h.i.+ngton, ever guarded, let fall no word in his reply that could be so used. ”For the divisions which have taken place among us, with respect to our political concerns,” he said, ”for the attacks which have been made upon those to whom the administration of the government has been intrusted by the people, and for the calumnies which are levelled at all those who are disposed to support the measures thereof, I feel, on public account, as much as any man can do, because in my opinion much evil and no good can result to this country from such conduct. So far as these attacks are aimed at me personally, it is, I can a.s.sure you, a misconception, if it be supposed I feel the venom of the darts.”
This letter appears to have been written by a person whose name has never been given to the public. The fraud was discovered by a gentleman who lived near the residence of Mr. Jefferson. He was informed of a letter in the Charlottesville post-office, in the well-known handwriting of Was.h.i.+ngton, addressed to one whose name was unknown in that neighborhood; and he immediately apprized Was.h.i.+ngton, not only of that fact, but that his reply was sent for by a person whose political sentiments were averse to those of the late administration. Was.h.i.+ngton furnished his informant with a copy of the correspondence; and that gentleman, on investigation, expressed his opinion that the ”plot”
originated with Jefferson. Was.h.i.+ngton appears to have considered that opinion of some weight, for, in a response to the letter of his informant, he said: ”If the person whom you _suspect_, was really the author of the letter under the signature of _John Langhorne_, it is not at all surprising to me that the correspondence should have ended where it did; for the penetration of that man would have perceived, at the first glance, that nothing was to be drawn from that mode of attack. In what form the next invidious attempts may appear, remains to be discovered.”
There is no evidence that Mr. Jefferson had any knowledge of the matter until the forgery was exposed, and his name had been connected with it by Was.h.i.+ngton's informant, whom he denominated his ”malignant neighbor.”
That neighbor was John Nicholas, commonly known as ”Clerk John,” who, Mr. Randall says, ”was a weak-headed, absurd busybody, with that restless itching for notoriety which renders a man, dest.i.tute of ability, sense, or delicacy, almost indifferent as to the subject.”[125]
Was.h.i.+ngton was naturally indignant at this attempt to ensnare him, and his feelings were much disturbed by the alleged secret attacks upon him and his public measures by Jefferson and his friends. As we have already observed, he lost confidence in the genuineness of Jefferson's professions of friends.h.i.+p; and, from this time, there was no correspondence between them.
At about this time, Was.h.i.+ngton received the welcome news of the liberation of his friend Lafayette, and his expected speedy departure for America. Also a pamphlet on the ”Military and Political Situation of France,” by General Dumas, an officer who had served under Rochambeau at Yorktown. On the subject of his friend's release, he wrote to M. de La Colombe, who had been Lafayette's adjutant-general when the latter commanded the National Guard, and who was then in Philadelphia, saying: ”I congratulate you on the happy event of the liberation of our mutual friend, whose reception in this country will be, I am sure, cordial from all descriptions of people; from none more than myself. The answer given by him to the minister is n.o.ble, and worthy of himself.[126] The only regret I should feel on his arrival in America, if it should happen soon, would be his disappointment at not finding his son here.
”I said all I could with decency, both to him and M. Frestel, to induce their awaiting direct accounts from the prisoners before their departure; but the eagerness of the former to embrace his parents in the first moments of their release from a cruel imprisonment, was not to be restrained.”
These two great men and loving friends never met again on earth.
Circ.u.mstances caused Lafayette to remain in Europe, and his visit to America was deferred more than a quarter of a century, when he came as the Nation's Guest.
Dumas's pamphlet, to which we have just alluded, and the author's accompanying letter, awakened pleasant emotions in the bosom of Was.h.i.+ngton, for intelligence of an old companion-in-arms was conveyed.
”General Rochambeau,” wrote Dumas, ”is still at his country-seat near Vendome. He enjoys there tolerably good health, considering his great age, and reckons, as well as his military family, amongst his most dear and glorious remembrances, that of the time we had the honor to serve under your command.”
This announcement gave Was.h.i.+ngton real pleasure, for he had heard from time to time vague rumors of the vicissitudes of Rochambeau--first as field-marshal, in command of the revolutionary army of the north; then as a thwarted and disappointed man, dwelling in retirement; and then as a victim prepared for the guillotine, but saved by a sudden change in public affairs. He was glad to know that the general was enjoying repose in his old age. Rochambeau survived all the tempests of the Revolution, was honored by Napoleon with the cross of grand officer of the Legion of Honor, and a marshal's pension, and died in 1807, at the age of eighty-two years.
FOOTNOTES:
[125] Life of Jefferson, ii. 371.
[126] The emperor of Austria communicated to Lafayette, through the marquis de Chasteler, his intention to liberate him from his confinement at Olmutz, on certain conditions, to which the marquis refused to accede. In his reply to De Chasteler, Lafayette said:--
”His majesty, the emperor and king, demands an a.s.surance that, immediately after my release, I will depart for America. This is an intention which I have often manifested; but since, in the actual state of things, an a.s.surance to this effect would seem to recognise a right to impose this condition upon me, I think it not proper to satisfy such a demand.
”His majesty, the emperor and king, has done me the honor to signify that, as the principles which I profess are incompatible with the security of the Austrian government, it is his wish that I should never again enter his dominions without his special permission. There are duties from which I can not release myself--duties which I owe to the United States, and above all to France; nor can I consent to any act which shall derogate from the rights of my country over my person.
”With these reservations, I can a.s.sure the marquis de Chasteler that it is my fixed determination never again to set my foot in any country which yields obedience to his imperial majesty the king of Bohemia and Hungary.”--Sparks's Life of Was.h.i.+ngton, vol. xi., note ix. of the Appendix.
CHAPTER x.x.xIX.
AMERICAN ENVOYS IN PARIS--DIRECTORY SEEKING MONEY--TALLEYRAND AND HIS AGENTS--PROPOSITIONS FOR AN APOLOGY, LOAN, AND BRIBE--INDIGNANT REFUSAL--ATTEMPTS TO FRIGHTEN THE ENVOYS--TWO OF THEM ORDERED OUT OF FRANCE--THEY ALL LEAVE--EXCITEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES--CONGRESS PREPARES FOR WAR--PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES TO THE PRESIDENT--HAMILTON CALLS WAs.h.i.+NGTON TO THE RESCUE OF HIS COUNTRY--WAs.h.i.+NGTON'S RESPONSE--THE PRESIDENT PERPLEXED--HE TURNS TO WAs.h.i.+NGTON--APPEAL OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR--WAs.h.i.+NGTON'S REPLIES--IS APPOINTED COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES--HAMILTON URGES HIM TO ACCEPT--THE PRESIDENT SENDS HIM A COMMISSION--SECRETARY OF WAR AT MOUNT VERNON--WAs.h.i.+NGTON ACCEPTS THE APPOINTMENT--HIS SELECTION OF OFFICERS.
The three United States envoys--Pinckney, Gerry, and Marshall--met in Paris on the fourth of October, 1797, and were approached by the wily diplomat, M. de Talleyrand, minister for foreign affairs, in a spirit not at all pleasing either to their expectations or their desires. They had been sent upon a mission of peace, charged with honorable purposes, and were met with propositions insulting and disgraceful. On their arrival, the envoys sent a joint letter to Talleyrand, informing him of their presence and purposes, and requesting him to appoint a time for receiving copies of their letters of credence. He informed them that he was then engaged upon a report to the Directory on American affairs, and that, when it should be completed, he would inform them what was to be done. At the same time he sent them permits (cards of hospitality) to reside in Paris meanwhile.
The Directory had resolved to extort money from the envoys, if possible; and in the course of a few days after their first communication with Talleyrand, that minister, through secret agents, began to sound them.
One of these informed them that he had, as if by accident, learned through Talleyrand's private secretary that the Directory were very much exasperated at the tone of the president's speech at the opening of the special session of Congress. Another, a partner in a noted commercial house in Paris, volunteered to answer their drafts to any amount; a third called on them, and, in a private interview with Pinckney, said that he had a message from Talleyrand, suggesting a plan by which a reconciliation between the two governments might be brought about. That ”plan” proposed that some of the most offensive pa.s.sages in the president's speech should be expunged or softened before the envoys should be received; a loan to be made to the republic; and a _douceur_ to the Directory of nearly two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The envoys were astonished, but resolved to treat the matter in such a way that they might ascertain the real sentiments of the French government, without exciting suspicions.