ith the men who
brought Louis XVI. to the guillotine. Money, they knew, was needed, and
it was a crime against liberty to delay payment when payment was due to
the French government. With Hamilton the question was, not whether the
revolutionists ought to be, but whether they were, France. With
Jefferson and Madison they were France, because they ought to be.
Hesitation to acknowledge that the Revolution was the nation, they
thought, could only come from an "Anglican party," the "enemies of
France and of Liberty," who would lead the American people "into the
arms and ultimately into the government of Great Britain,"--to use the
terms in which Madison spoke, a little later, of the Federalists. Which
of these men, in this regard at least, were the thoughtful and prudent
statesmen, and which were _doctrinaires_, nobody now, probably,
questions. The larger proportion of the people, however, were then
carried away by the enthusiasm for the French revolutionists. It was so,
no doubt, at first without much distinction of party; but it was
inevitable, when the government should be called upon to take some
decisive stand in relation to European politics, that the country should
divide into two hostile camps; or, rather, that the two camps already
existing should become more hostile to each other than ever. It is not
necessary to assume that the mass of the people gave themselves up to
any very hard thinking about the matter. For the most part they
followed, as the way is with parties, the political leaders to whom they
were already accustomed, never doubting that not to do so would be
treacherous to the gratitude America owed to France, and to the cause of
liberty and democracy, which, in the hands of the Frenchmen, was
hurling monarchs from their thrones--at least one monarch from his, and
more, it was hoped, would follow. But when the revolution ran into the
terrible excesses of a later stage, if any Federalists had wavered in
their allegiance to their chiefs they soon returned, persuaded that the
wild and bloody anarchy of Paris was not the road that led to the
establishment of a wise and safe popular government.

There was no need now of pretexts for quarreling; real causes came fast
enough. France declared war against England, and the United States had
its part to play in this strife of giants. Its real interest was to keep
out of trouble; and, if all were agreed on that point, it does not seem
that there should have been mu