when in 1793 England
joined the European powers in the war against France, while all Europe
watched with horror and panic the progress of the Reign of Terror in
the French Republic, the situation of the United States was suddenly
changed.

In the spring of 1793 there came the news of the war between England
and France, and, following it by a few days only, an emissary from the
French Republic, One and Indivisible, "Citizen Edmond Genet," arrived
at Charleston, South Carolina, April 15. There now exploded a sudden
overwhelming outburst of sympathy and enthusiasm for the French nation
and the French cause. All the remembered help of the days of Yorktown,
all the tradition of British oppression and ravages, all the recent
irritation at the British trade discrimination and Indian policy
coupled with appreciation of French concessions, swept crowds in every
State and every town into a tempest of welcome to Genet. Shipowners
rushed to apply for privateers' commissions, crowds adopted French
democratic jargon and manners. Democratic clubs were formed on the
model of the Jacobin {161} society, and "Civic Feasts," at which Genet
was present, made the country resound. It looked as though the United
States were certain to enter the European war as an ally of France out
of sheer gratitude, democratic sympathy, and hatred for England. The
French Minister, feeling the people behind him, hastened to send out
privateers and acted as though the United States were already in open
alliance.

It now fell to the Washington administration to decide a momentous
question. Regardless of the past, regardless of the British policy
since the peace, was it worth while to allow the country to become
involved in war at this juncture? Decidedly not. Before Genet had
presented his credentials, Washington and Jefferson had framed and
issued a declaration of neutrality forbidding American citizens to
violate the law of nations by giving aid to either side. It was not
merely caution which led to this step. The Federalist leaders and most
of their followers--men of property, standing, and law-abiding
habits--were distinctly shocked at the horrors of the Reign of Terror,
and felt with Burke, their old friend and defender in Revolutionary
days, that such liberty as the French demanded was something altogether
alien to that known in the United States or in England. And as the
{162} news became more and more ghastly, the Federalists grew rapidly