them.

To these considerations was added another which could not be
disregarded. The party in France, to which Mr. Genet owed his
appointment, had lost its power; and his fall was the inevitable
consequence of the fall of his patrons. That he would probably be
recalled was known in America; and that his conduct had been
disapproved by his government was generally believed. The future
system of the French republic, with regard to the United States, could
not be foreseen; and it would be committing something to hazard, not
to wait its development.

These objections did not exist to an indulgence of the partialities
and prejudices of the nation towards the belligerent powers, in
measures suggested by its resentment against Great Britain. But,
independent of these considerations, it is scarcely possible to doubt
that congress really approved the conduct of the executive with regard
to France, and was also convinced that a course of hostility had been
pursued by Great Britain, which the national interest and the national
honour required them to repel. In the irritable state of the public
temper, it was not difficult to produce this opinion.

In addition to the causes of dissatisfaction with Great Britain which
have already been suggested, others soon occurred. Under her auspices,
a truce for one year had been lately negotiated between Portugal and
the Regency of Algiers, which, by withdrawing a small squadron
stationed during the war, by the former power, in the Streights,
opened a passage into the Atlantic to the cruisers of the latter. The
capture of American merchantmen, which was the immediate consequence
of this measure, was believed, in the United States, to have been its
motive. Not admitting the possibility that a desire to extricate
Portugal from a war unproductive of any advantages, and to leave her
maritime force free to act elsewhere, could have induced this
interposition of England, the Americans ascribed it, exclusively, to
that enmity to their commerce, and to that jealousy of its prosperity,
which had, as they conceived, long marked the conduct of those who
administered the affairs of that nation.

This transaction was afterwards explained by England, and was ascribed
to her desire to serve an ally, and to enable that ally to act more
efficaciously in a common cause.

[Illustration: George Washington

_From the painting by Charles Willson Peale._

_In June, 1783, Washington spent some time in Prince