you the fraternal
embrace, which I am ordered to give in the name of the French people.
Come and receive it in the name of the American people, and let this
spectacle complete the annihilation of an impious coalition of tyrants."

At this affectionate appeal Monroe stepped forward, and received the
president's "national embrace," and afterward, the warm congratulations
of the assembly. He was offered the confiscated house of one of the
nobility as a place of residence; and, for a few days, he was the idol
of the French people. Then came the less ethereal operations of the
grave business of his office; and when the pageant was all over--the
apotheosis completed--Mr. Monroe found himself afflicted with many
cares, and assailed by many annoyances. Clamorous American ship-masters
and merchants flocked to his diplomatic residence, and preferred urgent
claims; some for cargoes which they had been compelled to sell to the
French government, and some asking the liquidation of dishonored bills,
drawn by French agents in America, in payment for provision shipped to
France, or the French West Indies. In many forms complaints and claims
were made by Monroe's countrymen upon the French government, and the
minister found a host of unpleasant duties to perform, for he did not
wish to break the charm of that "sweetest, most frank fraternity," to
the preservation of which he had so recently pledged his constituents.
He, therefore, made some extraordinary concessions in relation to claims
founded on breaches of the French treaty, in the seizure of enemy's
goods in American vessels. He asked the French government to rescind the
order authorizing such seizures, not because it would be just--be in
accordance with treaty provisions--but because it would be for the
pecuniary and commercial interests of France to do so. He was even so
careful not to wound French pride, as to assure that government that he
had no instructions to complain of that order as a breach of the treaty;
and that, should it be thought productive of real benefit to France, the
American government and people would bear it, not only with patience,
but with pleasure.

When intelligence of Monroe's theatrical performances at his reception
reached his government, it produced much mortification, and the
secretary of state, in an official letter, suggested to him that the
American cabinet expected nothing more than a private reception, and an
oral speech; and reminded him that