imore, and Charleston. The smaller towns throughout
the Union followed their example. In New York a copy of the treaty was
burnt before the governor's house. In Philadelphia it was suspended on
a pole carried about the streets, and finally burnt in front of the
British minister's house, amid the shoutings of the populace. The
whole country seemed determined, by prompt and clamorous
manifestations of dissatisfaction, to make Washington give way.

He saw their purpose; he was aware of the odious points of view on
which the treaty might justly be placed; his own opinion was not
particularly favorable to it; but he was convinced that it was better
to ratify it, in the manner the Senate had advised, and with the
reservation already mentioned, than to suffer matters to remain in
their present unsettled and precarious state. Before he could act upon
this conviction a new difficulty arose to suspend his resolution. News
came that the order of the British government of the 8th of June,
1793, for the seizure of provisions in vessels going to French ports,
was renewed. Washington instantly directed that a strong memorial
should be drawn up against this order; as it seemed to favor a
construction of the treaty which he was determined to resist. While
this memorial was in course of preparation, he was called off to Mount
Vernon.

The opposition made to the treaty from meetings in different parts of
the Union gave him the most serious uneasiness, from the effect it
might have on the relations with France and England. His reply (July
28th) to an address from the selectmen of Boston, contains the spirit
of his replies to other addresses of the kind: "Without a predilection
for my own judgment I have weighed with attention every argument which
has at any time been brought into view. But the constitution is the
guide which I never can abandon. It has assigned to the President the
power of making treaties with the advice and consent of the Senate. It
was, doubtless, supposed that these two branches of government would
combine, without passion, and with the best means of information,
those facts and principles upon which the success of our foreign
relations will always depend; that they ought not to substitute for
their own conviction the opinions of others, or to seek truth through
any channel but that of a temperate and well-informed investigation.
Under this persuasion, I have resolved on the manner of executing the
duty before me. To