e as a resort for privateers.
He was received by the governor of that state, and by its citizens,
with an enthusiasm well calculated to dissipate every doubt he might
previously have entertained, concerning the dispositions on which he
was to operate. At this place he continued for several days, receiving
extravagant marks of public attachment, during which time, he
undertook to authorize the fitting and arming of vessels in that port,
enlisting men, and giving commissions to cruise and commit hostilities
on nations with whom the United States were at peace. The captures
made by these cruisers were brought into port, and the consuls of
France were assuming, under the authority of Mr. Genet, to hold courts
of admiralty on them, to try, condemn, and authorize their sale.

From Charleston, Mr. Genet proceeded by land to Philadelphia,
receiving on his journey, at the different towns through which he
passed, such marks of enthusiastic attachment as had never before been
lavished on a foreign minister. On the 16th of May, he arrived at the
seat of government, preceded by the intelligence of his transactions
in South Carolina. This information did not diminish the extravagant
transports of joy with which he was welcomed by the great body of the
inhabitants. Means had been taken to render his entry pompous and
triumphal; and the opposition papers exultingly stated that he was met
at Gray's ferry by "crowds who flocked from every avenue of the city,
to meet the republican ambassador of an allied nation."

The day succeeding his arrival, he received addresses of
congratulation from particular societies, and from the citizens of
Philadelphia, who waited on him in a body, in which they expressed
their fervent gratitude for the "zealous and disinterested aids,"
which the French people had furnished to America, unbounded exultation
at the success with which their arms had been crowned, and a positive
conviction that the safety of the United States depended on the
establishment of the republic. The answers to these addresses were
well calculated to preserve the idea of a complete fraternity between
the two nations; and that their interests were identified.

The day after being thus accredited by the citizens of Philadelphia,
he was presented to the President, by whom he was received with
frankness, and with expressions of a sincere and cordial regard for
his nation. In the conversation which took place on this occasion, Mr.
Genet g