rs disclose the strong feelings
of his own bosom, but betray no apprehensions that the French
government would press its present system to extremities. He firmly
believed that the hostile attitude it had assumed was to be,
exclusively, ascribed to the conduct of those Americans who had been
the uniform advocates of all the pretensions of France, and who were
said to be supported by a real majority of the people; and confidently
expected that, under the old pretext of magnanimous forbearance, the
executive directory would, slowly, and gradually, recede from its
present system, so soon as the error in which it originated should
become manifest. The opinion he had always entertained of the good
sense and patriotism of his fellow citizens, silenced every doubt
respecting the manner in which they would act, when their real
situation should be perceived by themselves.

{1798}

For a considerable length of time, no certain intelligence reached the
United States respecting the negotiation at Paris. At length, in the
winter of 1798, letters were received from the American envoys,
indicating an unfavourable state of things; and, in the spring,
despatches arrived which announced the total failure of the mission.

History will scarcely furnish the example of a nation, not absolutely
degraded, which has received from a foreign power such open contumely,
and undisguised insult, as were, on this occasion, suffered by the
United States in the persons of their ministers.

[Sidenote: Their treatment.]

It was insinuated that their being taken from the party[53] which had
supported the measures of their own government furnished just cause of
umbrage; and, under slight pretexts, the executive directory delayed
to accredit them as the representatives of an independent nation. In
this situation, they were assailed by persons, not indeed invested
with formal authority, but exhibiting sufficient evidence of the
source from which their powers were derived, who, in direct and
explicit terms, demanded money from the United States as the condition
which must precede, not only the reconciliation of America to France,
but any negotiation on the differences between the two countries.

[Footnote 53: Two of them were of the party denominated
federal; the third was arranged with the opposition.]

That an advance of money by a neutral to a belligerent power would be
an obvious departure from neutrality, though an insuperable objection