Charleston,
profuse in his promises of good behavior. The secretary of state had
welcomed him as the representative of France and the Revolution, and
naturally he meant to make the most he could out of him, for the sake of
the Republican party, as well as for the sake of the sacred cause of
"liberty, equality, and fraternity." But he soon saw that he was dealing
with one who was a cross between a mountebank and a madman, as we learn
from a letter of Madison to Jefferson, written within two months of
Jefferson's first interview with Genet. "Your account of Genet," says
the letter, "is dreadful. He must be brought right if possible. His
folly will otherwise do mischief which no wisdom can repair."

The mischief dreaded was that the administration party would take
advantage of the insolent and outrageous conduct of the French minister
to show the folly of precipitancy, and to gain popularity and strength
for itself. Madison soon writes to Jefferson to acquaint him with the
reaction taking place in Virginia, "in the surprise and disgust of those
who are attached to the French cause, and who viewed this minister as
the instrument for cementing, instead of alienating, the two republics."
He asserts that "the Anglican party is busy, as you may suppose, in
making the worst of everything, and in turning the public feelings
against France and thence in favor of England." In a sense this must
have been true. The "fiscals," the "Anglomanys," the "Anglican party,"
the "monarchists,"--which were Mr. Madison's pet names for his old
friends,--were good enough politicians to take great satisfaction in
keeping well stirred and in lively use the muddy waters into which their
opponents had floundered. They were not, probably, careful always to
remember that France was neither the better nor worse, neither the wiser
nor the less wise, because one of the mad fanatics, bred of the
Revolution, had found his way, unfortunately, to the United States as a
minister plenipotentiary. But, on the other hand, it was not true that
there was any "Anglican party," in the sense in which Madison used the
term,--a party led by men who were "the enemies of France and of
liberty, at work to lead the well-meaning from their honorable
connection with those [the French people] into the arms and ultimately
into the government of Great Britain." Washington said that he did not
believe there were ten men in the United States, whose opinions deserved
any respect, wh