fect the pacific dispositions avowed in the speech,
three envoys extraordinary were appointed, at the head of whom General
Pinckney was placed. Their instructions conformed to the public
language of the President. Peace and reconciliation were to be pursued
by all means, compatible with the honour and the faith of the United
States; but no national engagements were to be impaired; no innovation
to be permitted upon those internal regulations for the preservation
of peace which had been deliberately and uprightly established; nor
were the rights of the government to be surrendered.

The debates in the house of representatives, on the answer to the
speech, were long and earnest. To expressions approving the conduct of
the executive with regard to foreign nations, the opposition was
ardent, but unsuccessful. On the third of June, an answer was agreed
to which contained sentiments worthy of an American legislature, and
for which several of the leaders of the opposition voted.

The speech of the President was well adapted to the occasion, and to
the times. It was calculated to rouse those indignant feelings which a
high spirited people, insulted and injured by a foreign power, can
never fail to display, if their judgment be not blinded, or their
sensibility to external wrongs blunted, by invincible prejudices. He
relied principally on the manifestation of these feelings for the
success of the negotiation; and on their real existence, for the
defence of the national rights, should negotiation fail. His
endeavours were not absolutely unsuccessful. Some impression was made
on the mass of the people; but it was too slight to be productive of
the advantages expected from it. The conduct of France was still
openly defended; and the opinion, that the measures which had been
adopted by the executive of the United States furnished that republic
with just cause of war, was still publicly maintained, and
indefatigably circulated. According to these opinions, America could
entitle herself to peace, only by retracing the steps she had taken,
and yielding to the demands of her justly offended but generous and
magnanimous ally.

Still jealous for the honour, as well as confident of the importance,
of his country, and retaining that full conviction respecting the
propriety of its measures which had induced their adoption, General
Washington could not repress the solicitude with which he contemplated
passing events. His confidential lette