facts form the background against which Genet's activities should be
viewed. He came with deliberate intent to rush the situation, and armed
with all needful powers for that purpose, so far as the French government
could confer them. According to a dispatch from Morris to the State
Department, Genet "took with him three hundred blank commissions which he
is to distribute to such as will fit out cruisers in our ports to prey on
the British commerce."

At Charleston, Genet received an enthusiastic reception. The Revolutionary
commander, General Moultrie, who was then governor of South Carolina,
entered so cordially into Genet's plans that in his first dispatch home,
Genet was able to say to his government that Moultrie had permitted him to
arm privateers and had assisted the various branches of his mission in
every possible way. Such was Genet's energy that within five days after
his arrival he had opened a recruiting station at which American seamen
were taken into the French service; he had commissioned American vessels
as French privateers; and he had turned the French consul's office into an
admiralty court for which business was provided by the prizes that were
being brought in.

After seeing under way all matters that he could attend to in Charleston,
Genet moved on to Philadelphia, and received on his way thither such
greetings as to give to his journey the character of a triumphal progress.
Meanwhile, _L'Ambuscade_, the French frigate which had brought Genet to
Charleston, was proceeding to Philadelphia, taking prizes on her way and
sending them to American ports. In Delaware Bay she captured the _Grange_,
an English merchantman lying there at anchor, and took this vessel
with her to Philadelphia as a prize. As Genet neared Philadelphia on
May 16, _L'Ambuscade_ gave notice by firing three guns, at which signal a
procession was formed to meet Genet at Gray's Ferry and escort him to his
lodgings. He found awaiting him a letter from George Rogers Clark, which
gave an account of his plans for the invasion of Louisiana and the capture
of New Orleans, and which announced his readiness to start if he were
assisted by some frigates and provided with three thousand pounds sterling
to meet expenses. Genet received reports from other agents or friendly
correspondents in the Spanish territory, and so active was he in
forwarding the objects of his mission that on June 19 he was able to write
to his government, "I am provisioni