paint Mr. Washington on his milk-white steed, receiving the incense of all the little girls on Trenton Bridge, and then I would march him about in the streets of Boston, so like a roasted ox that I once saw carried a whole day in triumph by the people of that famous town, that the automaton chief should groan and sweat under the weight of those laurels, which are momently dropping from his brows into the sink and dirt of his puny and anti-republican administration." "1

There is a significant paragraph in Thiers's "History of the French Revolution," which may be regarded, I think, as showing the impression which Monroe made upon the people to whom he was accredited:

"In the French government there were persons in favor of a rupture with the United States. Monroe, who was ambassador to Paris, gave the Directory the most prudent advice on this occasion. War with France, said he, will force the American government to throw itself into the arms of England and to submit to her influence; aristocracy will gain supreme control in the United States, and liberty will be compromised. By patiently enduring, on the contrary, the wrongs of the present President, you will leave him without excuse, you will enlighten the Americans, and decide a contrary choice at the next election. All the wrongs of which France may have to complain will then be repaired. This wise and provi

1 Gouverneur MSS. May 15, 1797.

dent advice had its effect upon the Directory. Rewbell, Barras, and Laréveillère, had caused it to be adopted in opposition to the opinion of the systematic Carnot, who, though in general favorably disposed to peace, insisted on the cession of Louisiana, with a view to attempt the establishment of a republic there."

In addition to this diplomatic controversy, Monroe was involved in another more personal collision with Hamilton, occasioned by the Callender publication,1- but into the details of this disagreeable story I see no reason for entering now.

Monroe was much displeased by the publication of that part of his dispatches which related to the Jacobins, and thus wrote to Judge Jones, June 20, 1795:

"The publication of extracts from my letters respecting the Jacobins was an unbecoming and uncandid thing, as they were the only parts of my correspondence that were published. I stated the truth, and therefore am not dissatisfied with the publication in that respect. But to me it appears strange that the fortunes of that misguided club should be the only subject treated in my correspondence upon which it was necessary to convey the information it could to our countrymen. Certainly, in relation to

1 "An undigested and garrulous collection of libels." Hildreth, ii. 104.

the honor and welfare of my country, it was the least important of all the subjects upon which I treated. Besides, that club was as unlike the patriotic societies in America as light is to darkness, the former being a society that had absolutely annihilated all other government in France, and whose denunciations carried immediately any of the deputies to the scaffold, whereas the latter are societies of enlightened men, who discuss measures and principles, and of course whose opinions have no other weight than as they are well founded and have reason on their side, to extirpate which is to extirpate liberty itself."

During all his exciting residence in Paris, it is interesting to trace the minute interest maintained by Monroe in whatever pertained to his domestic affairs. There are long letters in the Gouverneur collection devoted to his financial business, to the welfare of his brothers, Andrew and Joseph, and of his sister, to his land bought near Mr. Jefferson, his servants, fruittrees, etc., besides many a passage in regard to his nephew Joseph, who was at school at St. Germain, and young Rutledge, likewise placed under the envoy's paternal care. His interest in the progress of these American boys in their French school betrays an unvarying kindness of heart in the midst of pressing anxieties and

cares.

Times change. Five years after Monroe's

recall, Jefferson writes: 1 "We have ever looked to France as our natural friend, one with whom we could never have an occasion of difference; but there is one spot on the globe, the possessor of which is our natural enemy. That spot is New Orleans. France placing herself in that door assumes to us the attitude of defiance.

From that moment we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation."

1 To Livingston, April 18, 1802.

CHAPTER IV.

ENVOY IN FRANCE, SPAIN, AND ENGLAND.

JEFFERSON, never wanting in interest when Monroe's affairs required counsel, and trusting him implicitly, wrote to the despondent and angry envoy that he ought to come forward again into public life. "Come to Congress," was his advice, as if coming to Congress was an act of the will," reappear on the public theatre; Cabel has said he would give way to you.' But instead of entering at once into national affairs, Monroe became governor of Virginia, and held the office three years. Jefferson, meanwhile, had become President, and soon had an opportunity to return Monroe to the legation in France. The story of this second embassy includes the purchase of Louisiana, and has therefore been examined over and over again by those who are interested in the growth of our national territory.

In addition to the usual publication of the correspondence of the times, much reliance is placed on the volume by Barbé Marbois, in

1 Letter to Monroe, May 21, 1798. Jefferson, iv. 241–243.