to regard England, with all its unfriendliness, with all its commercial
selfishness, as the saving power of civilization, and France as the
chief enemy on earth of God and man. The result was to precipitate the
United States into a new contest, a struggle on the part of the
Federalist administration, led by Hamilton and Washington, to hold back
the country from being hurled into alliance with France or into war
with England. In this, they had to meet the attack of the already
organizing Republican party, and of many new adherents who flocked to
it during the years of excitement.

The first contest was a short one. Genet, his head turned by his
reception, resented the strict neutrality enforced by the
administration, tried to compel it to recede, endeavoured to secure the
exit of privateersmen in spite of their prohibition, and ultimately in
fury appealed to the people against their government. This conduct
lost him the support of even the most sanguine democrats, and, when the
administration asked for his recall, he fell from his prominence
unregretted. But his successor, Fauchet, a less extreme man, was
warmly welcomed by the opposition leaders, including Madison and
Randolph, Jefferson's {163} successor as Secretary of State, and was
admitted into the inmost councils of the party.

Hardly was Genet disposed of when a more dangerous crisis arose, caused
by the naval policy of England. When war broke out, the British
cruisers, as was their custom, fell upon French commerce, and
especially upon such neutral commerce as could, under the then
announced principles of international law, be held liable to capture.
Consequently, American vessels, plying their lucrative trade with the
French West Indies, were seized and condemned by British West India
prize courts. It was a British dogma, known as the Rule of 1756, that
if trade by a neutral with enemies' colonies had been prohibited in
peace, it became contraband in time of war, otherwise belligerents, by
simply opening their ports, could employ neutrals to do their trading
for them. In this case, the trade between the French West Indies and
America had not been prohibited in peace, but the seizures were made
none the less, causing a roar of indignation from the entire American
seacoast. Late in 1793, the British Ministry added fresh fuel to the
fire by declaring provisions taken to French territory to be contraband
of war. If an intention to force the United Stat