dy to Washington, and of the arranging,
developing, and informing spirit, to Hamilton--the same
characteristic which is found in the great works he devised for the
country, and are still the chart by which his department of the
government is ruled.

"The Farewell Address itself, while in one respect--the question
of its authorship--it has had the fate of the _Eikon Basilike_, in
another it has been more fortunate; for no Iconoclasts has
appeared, or ever can appear, to break or mar the image and
superscription of Washington, which it bears, or to sully the
principles of the moral and political action in the government of a
nation, which are reflected from it with his entire approval, and
were, in fundamental points, dictated by himself."--_"An Inquiry
into the Formation of Washington's Farewell Address_," by Horace
Binney, page 169.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON--PUBLIC MATTERS CLAIM HIS
ATTENTION--MONROE AND THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT--HIS PUBLIC RECEPTION AS
MINISTER--THE DISPLAY DISAPPROVED OF AT HOME--HIS CONCESSIONS TO THE
FRENCH--HIS INDISCREET PROMISE OF PECUNIARY AID--JAY'S
MISSION--MONROE ASKS JAY FOR A COPY OF HIS TREATY FOR THE FRENCH
GOVERNMENT--JAY'S REFUSAL--MONROE OFFENDED--MISAPPREHENSION AND
RESENTMENT OF THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT--MONROE RECALLED--MR. PINCKNEY
HIS SUCCESSOR--MONROE'S DEFENCE--WASHINGTON'S JUSTIFICATION OF HIS
OWN COURSE.

As we have observed, Washington enjoyed the pleasures of retirement and
partial repose at Mount Vernon, for about two months in the summer of
1796. Yet he was not wholly free from the cares and anxieties incident
to his official station. His Farewell Address to his countrymen, as we
have seen, was then carefully prepared for the public consideration; but
subjects of more immediate importance, connected with national affairs,
demanded and received his attention.

Jay's treaty had relieved the country from all apprehension of immediate
war with Great Britain, and, at the same time, it had increased the
unfriendly feeling between the government of the United States and that
of France. The latter had discovered that Washington's original
proclamation of neutrality, and his efforts to preserve that position
for his government, were sincere, and not, as had been hoped, mere
tricks to deceive the British cabinet; and the French Directory, and
their pa