by exciting Indian hostilities on the borders, by
outrages on the high seas, and by an interference with American
commerce, exercised with as little consideration of the rights of an
independent nation as if the States were still colonies in revolt. Never
did a party find, ready made and close at hand, so many elements of
popularity; and these being appealed to as Genet appealed to them, it
was easy to set the country in a blaze. When the administration was
determined that he should be recalled, and the Republican leaders were
anxious to get rid of him, as they could not restrain him, Jefferson
opposed, in a meeting of the cabinet, the proposition to ask for his
recall, lest such popular indignation should be aroused as would enable
the French minister to defy the government itself. The seed sowed by
such a man, on such a soil, bore fruit a thousand fold for almost a
generation. It is not to be wondered at that the Federalists could not
long hold their own against a party that did not ask the people to
think, but bade them only to remember--much, indeed, that ought to be
remembered--and to feel. That is always so much easier to do than the
other, and it is always so much easier to appeal effectually to
sentiment than to reflection, that the wonder rather is that the
Federalists could hold their own so long as they did. All things were
against them but one. Washington, though altogether above any partisan
bias, as he believed to be the imperative duty of the chief magistrate
of the nation, conducted his administration by the principles which
distinguished the Federalists. He was neither, as he intimated to
Jefferson, so careless as not to know what was done, nor such a fool as
not to understand why it was done; and so greatly was he revered for his
exalted character, so universal was the confidence in his integrity,
sagacity, and sound judgment, that, so long as he remained President,
the party that surrounded him was immovable as a mountain. His policy
was to stave off a rupture with England, and, if possible, to bring that
power into pacific and rational relations with the United States. The
government aimed to keep itself clear of entanglement with all foreign
politics; to maintain that perfect neutrality which should violate no
treaties, offend no national friendships, provoke no jealousies, and
leave England and France to fight their own battles, content that the
United States should be an impartial spectator. Thirty