garding the provisions of the American
constitution, although their attention must have been particularly
directed to them by the circumstance that the letter to congress was
referred by that body to the executive, again addressed the
legislature in terms adapted to that department of government which
superintends its foreign intercourse, and expressive, among other
sentiments, of the sensibility with which the French nation had
perceived those sympathetic emotions with which the American people
had viewed the vicissitudes of her fortune. Mr. Adet, who was to
succeed Mr. Fauchet at Philadelphia, and who was the bearer of this
letter, also brought with him the colours of France, which he was
directed to present to the United States. He arrived in the summer;
but probably in the idea that these communications were to be made by
him directly to congress, did not announce them to the executive until
late in December.

{1796}

The first day of the new year was named for their reception; when the
colours were delivered to the President, and the letter to congress
also was placed in his hands.

In executing this duty, Mr. Adet addressed a speech to the President,
which, in the glowing language of his country, represented France as
struggling, not only for her own liberty, but for that of the human
race. "Assimilated to, or rather identified with free people by the
form of her government, she saw in them," he said, "only friends and
brothers. Long accustomed to regard the American people as her most
faithful allies, she sought to draw closer the ties already formed in
the fields of America, under the auspices of victory, over the ruins
of tyranny."

To answer this speech was a task of some delicacy. It was necessary to
express feelings adapted to the occasion, without implying sentiments
with respect to the belligerent powers, which might be improper to be
used by the chief magistrate of a neutral country. With a view to both
these objects, the President made the following reply:

"Born, sir, in a land of liberty; having early learned its value;
having engaged in a perilous conflict to defend it; having, in a word,
devoted the best years of my life to secure its permanent
establishment in my own country; my anxious recollections, my
sympathetic feelings, and my best wishes, are irresistibly attracted,
whensoever, in any country, I see an oppressed nation unfurl the
banners of freedom. But above all, the events of the Fre