s having cemented with its blood
the independence of the United States:--It was at this moment their
government made a treaty of amity with their ancient tyrant, the
implacable enemy of their ancient ally. Oh Americans covered with
noble scars! Oh you who have so often flown to death and to victory
with French soldiers! You who know those generous sentiments which
distinguish the true warrior! whose hearts have always vibrated with
those of your companions in arms! consult them to-day to know what
they experience; recollect at the same time, that if magnanimous souls
with liveliness resent an affront, they also know how to forget one.
Let your government return to itself, and you will still find in
Frenchmen faithful friends and generous allies."

[Illustration: Martha Washington's Bedroom at Mount Vernon

_Returning to their beloved Mount Vernon with General Washington after
his retirement, in 1796, as First President of the United States,
Martha Washington seldom spent a night away from the historic mansion
overlooking the Potomac. There she continued to offer a gracious
hospitality to the many visitors attracted by her distinguished
husband. She never recovered from his death in 1799, and dwelt in deep
mourning until she followed him, May 22, 1802. Her remains rest with
those of Washington in the vault at Mount Vernon._]

As if to remove all doubts respecting the purpose for which this
extraordinary letter was written, a copy was, on the day of its date,
transmitted to a printer for publication.

Whatever motives might have impelled Mr. Adet to make this open and
direct appeal to the American people, in the critical moment of their
election of a chief magistrate, it does not appear, in any material
degree, to have influenced that election. Many reflecting men, who had
condemned the course of the administration, could not approve this
interference in the internal affairs of the United States; and the
opposite party, generally, resented it as an attempt to control the
operations of the American people in the exercise of one of the
highest acts of sovereignty, and to poison the fountain of their
liberty and independence, by mingling foreign intrigue with their
elections. Viewing it as a fulfilment of their most gloomy prognostics
respecting the designs of France to establish an influence in the
councils of America, they believed the best interests of their country
to require that it should be defeated; and their exe