maintain the dignity of the government, whose duties were interrupted and even dictated by a foreign functionary-to preserve the country from a war, into which they were about to be involved without the consent and almost the knowledge of their own rulers. This state of things, also, brought out with zeal, activity and firmness all those men, who had been concerned in establishing the Federal Constitution. The work, so recently completed, was in great jeopardy. Part of the danger arose from the steps taken by the French envoy; and it was unavoidable, but that a part of their opposition should be directed against him and his cause. A large portion of this party became opposed to the Revolution, because they were alarmed for the constitution. In truth, the re-action, caused by Mr. Genet's intemperance and violence, was one of the circumstances that enabled the government to support in a tolerably efficient manner, its system of neutrality. If he had conducted himself with the discretion and propriety of his successor, Mr. Fauchet, it is in some degree doubtful whether, with all the advantages derived from the personal character of the President and the talents of the Cabinet,* the administration would not have been compelled to recede.

Mr. Fauchet arrived in this country in February '94. The consuls having assumed admiralty powers, and having in other respects interfered with the exercise of the laws, the exequatures of several were withdrawn. One of the most striking violations of the laws of the country was the case of M. Duplaine, Vice Consul of France at Boston. He assisted a party of armed men from the frigate La Concorde, then lying in Boston harbour, to rescue a schooner, called the Greyhound, taken by a French privateer, from the hands of an officer of the United States' Court, in August '93.†

* Mr. Adams was then Vice President, and Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Hamilton were both in the Cabinet. The country has never seen a more powerful administration.

George Washington, President of the United States of America, to all whom it may concern:-The Sieur Antoine Charbonnet Duplaine,

Mr. Fauchet, instructed to renew the applications made by Mr. Genet, for an alliance, or a guarantee of the islands in the West India seas, or for aid in money, munitions, and naval stores, was principally engaged, during the short time he remained in this country, in remonstrating against the decisions of our courts, in relation to prizes taken by French privateers, or in soliciting the interposition of the executive. That part of the constitution which separates the executive from the judicial authority, was little understood by the ministers sent to America by the European states, during the

heretofore having produced to me his commission as Vice Consul for the Republic of France within the States of New-Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode-Island, and having thereon received from me an exequatur, bearing date the 5th day of June, 1793, recognizing him as such, and declaring him free to exercise and enjoy such functions, powers and privileges as are allowed to Vice Consuls of the French Republic by the laws, treaties, and conventions in that case made and provided; and the said Sieur Duplaine having, under colour of his said office, committed sundry encroachments and infractions on the laws of the land, and particularly having caused a vessel to be rescued with an armed force, out of the custody of an officer of justice, who had arrested the same by process from his court; and it being, therefore, no longer fit nor consistent with the respect and obedience due to the laws, that the said Sieur Duplaine should be permitted to continue in the exercise and enjoyment of the said functions, privileges, and powers, these are, therefore, to declare, that I do no longer recognize the said Antoine Charbonnet Duplaine, as Vice Consul of the Republic of France in any part of these United States, nor permit him to exercise or enjoy any of the functions, powers, or privileges allowed to the Vice Consuls of that nation; and that I do, hereby, wholly revoke and annul the said exequatur, heretofore given, and do declare the same to be absolutely null and void from this day forward. In testimony whereof, I have caused these letters to be made patent, and the seal of the United States of America to be hereunto affixed.

Given under my hand, this

day of

in the year

of our Lord 1793, and of the independence of the United States of GEORGE WASHINGTON.

America the eighteenth.

By the President:

TH: JEFFERSON.

first years of the government. It seems to have been a general belief, that the executive was authorized to interpose, and set aside or direct the decisions of the courts. Mr. Fauchet made great complaints of the violation of our neutrality by British cruisers; and, in some instances, his complaints were well founded. British vessels did, undoubtedly, equip in our ports, and anchor, with their prizes, in our waters, particularly in Lynnhaven bay, and other parts of the Chesapeake. Foreigners, and our own citizens in some cases, armed vessels privately, for illegal purposes. But the reproaches uttered at this time against the government, and particularly the courts of law, are entirely groundless. Many intricate questions came before those tribunals; questions new to them, and embarrassed by the confusion often arising from the mixture of state and national sovereignty, and entering very deeply into a vast and obscure range of neutral and belligerent rights. Some of those cases were not divested of all appearance of fraud and collusion. The just duties of a neutral nation were occasionally overlooked, in the temptations that an evasion of the laws offered; but the decisions of the courts were delivered with firmness, intelligence and impartiality. We can now judge of them, without any of the excitement or predilections of that day. Every principle of public law, then touched upon, has been confirmed by the whole practice of the government, to the present hour. The administration, acting with vigour and independence, proclaimed, at an early period, the system by which its conduct would be regulated. It was steady and faithful to its purposes and doctrines; and, if its neutrality was sometimes violated, it is only to be attributed to the impossibility of executing, with a feeble naval force, its laws, on so extensive a coast, whose deep and spacious bays, or inlets, afforded shelter to the vessels of the belligerents. The numerous and precise instructions issued to its officers, its frequent communications with the state executives, bear witness to the solicitude with which it was animated to render a full measure of justice, according either to

treaties or public law, to the different parties engaged in the disastrous war of that period. The nation was young, and unconfirmed; it had achieved a great exploit in the separation from the mother country-so great indeed, that the necessity of further efforts, and even denials, was not at once apparent; the second union was just effected, but the creation of this government was, at first, rather known and felt in the intemperate reproaches and accusations of the two vast parties, that then mutilated and preyed upon it, than by any well defined and acknowledged power and authority it possessed, either abroad, or within itself. The state authorities had existed from the foundation of the country; they were the governments, in reality, declared free by the act of July, '76, and acknowledged sovereign and independent by the peace of '83;-they still continued, perhaps, more jealous of their rights, from the institution of another power in the midst of them. There was no navy, no military force; and the government had most difficult laws to execute, in most difficult times. It could not prevent every violation of them; but it displayed, on all occasions, a fixed resolution to maintain the faith of treaties, the principles of public law, and the dignity of the people.

The correspondence of Mr. Fauchet with the government, though not free from some peculiarities in diplomatic intercourse, bears the impression of a more subdued, measured character, than that of his predecessor. It does not appear, that he undertook any justification of the acts or language of Mr. Genet; nor are we aware that any explanations were of fered by him, concerning the painful step, the administration were compelled to take, in relation to that individual. He

* A great outrage was committed on the person of Mr. Fauchet, when about to leave this country. He had embarked on board a small vessel at New-York, for the purpose of going to New Port. This vessel, on her arrival in New Port harbour, was entered by an armed party from the Africa, a British man of war, then lying there; and a forcible search made, for Mr. Fauchet, and his papers. But, either

was succeeded by Mr. Adet, who arrived in this country in the summer of '95. Mr. Adet was intrusted, by the committee of public safety, with a letter addressed to Congress; he also brought with him the colours of the French Republic; which he was instructed to present to the United States, as a return for those offered to the National Convention by Mr. Munroe. The circumstance of his having brought a dispatch addressed to Congress, instead of the executive, the proper body, under the constitution, was a cause of offence and reproach with many. The letters, that Mr. Fauchet had presented, under similar circumstances, to congress, had been referred, by a resolution of each house, to the executive, with a request that they might be answered. These proceedings were known to the committee of public safety, and the answers had been received. A second minister, appearing with a letter addressed

having received intelligence that the jurisdiction of the country would be violated in his own person, or not choosing to trust himself so near a British armed vessel, he had taken the precaution to land at a small port in the sound, with all his papers. No explanation having been made of this affair, either by the British Vice Consul, (who knowingly transmitted an insulting letter from the British captain to the governor of Rhode Island) or by Captain Howe, the commander of the Africa, the exequatur of the consul was withdrawn, and the vessel ordered to leave the waters of the United States.

Mr. Fauchet, on his return to France, published, in 1797, a pamphlet, with this title, “Coup d'œil sur l'état actuel de nos rapports politiques avec les Etats Unis," &c. It is, of course, a vindication of the measures of his own government, but written with moderation. He admits that Mr. Genet was indiscreet, and that the consuls exceeded the limits of consular power. He attributes the prepossessions of Washington against the French, to the death of the King, the persecution of his friend General La Fayette, and to the supposed confidential con ferences of a Mr. Talon, an agent of Louis XVII., sent secretly to obtain aid for the royal government. We believe that very little was ever heard of Mr. Talon; but, according to Mr. Fauchet, he has the merit of suggesting to the president the celebrated questions respecting neutrality, on which he requested the opinion of his cabinet. Mr. Fauchet, believed to be still living, was employed in many honourable stations by the imperial government.