a government as that of the
United States, and exercised a very mischievous effect. Kentucky was
already under the influence of the same forces that were at work in
Virginia and elsewhere, and the classes of her people who were
politically dominant were saturated with the ideas of those doctrinaire
politicians of whom Jefferson was chief. These Jeffersonian doctrinaires
were men who at certain crises, in certain countries, might have
rendered great service to the cause of liberty and humanity; but their
influence in America was on the whole distinctly evil, save that, by a
series of accidents, they became the especial champions of the westward
extension of the nation, and in consequence were identified with a
movement which was all-essential to the national well-being.

Kentucky Ripe for Genet's Intrigues.

Kentucky was ripe for Genet's intrigues, and he found the available
leader for the movement in the person of George Rogers Clark. Clark was
deeply imbittered, not only with the United States Government but with
Virginia, for the Virginia assembly had refused to pay any of the debts
he had contracted on account of the State, and had not even reimbursed
him for what he had spent. [Footnote: Draper MSS., J. Clark to G. R.
Clark, Dec. 27, 1792.] He had a right to feel aggrieved at the State's
penuriousness and her indifference to her moral obligations; and just at
the time when he was most angered came the news that Genet was agitating
throughout the United States for a war with England, in open defiance of
Washington, and that among his plans he included a Western movement
against Louisiana. Clark at once wrote to him expressing intense
sympathy with the French objects and offering to undertake an expedition
for the conquest of St. Louis and upper Louisiana if he was provided
with the means to obtain provisions and stores. Clark further informed
Genet that his country had been utterly ungrateful to him, and that as
soon as he received Genet's approbation of what he proposed to do he
would get himself "expatriated." He asked for commissions for officers,
and stated his belief that the Creoles would rise, that the adventurous
Westerners would gladly throng to the contest, and that the army would
soon be at the gates of New Orleans. [Footnote: _Do_., Letter of George
Rogers Clark, Feb. 5, 1793; also Feb. 2d and Feb. 3d.]

Clark Commissioned as a French Major General.

Genet immediately commissioned Clark as a Ma