ave done
this, would choose to accompany them any further or not, I shall
not undertake to decide. But I shall be mistaken if the candid part
of my countrymen, although they may be under a French influence, do
not see and acknowledge that they have imbibed erroneous
impressions of the conduct of this government toward France, when
the communication which I promised at the opening of the session,
and which will be ready in a few days, comes before the public. It
will be seen, if I mistake not, also, that country has not such
a claim upon our gratitude as has been generally supposed; and
that this country has violated no engagement with it, been guilty
of no act of injustice toward it, nor been wanting in friendship
when it could be rendered without departing from the neutral
station we had taken and resolved to maintain."

FOOTNOTES:

[107] "Although I never wrote, nor even saw one of these letters until
they issued from New York in print," wrote Washington to a friend, in
January, 1797, "yet the author of them must have been tolerably well
acquainted in, or with some person of my family, to have given the names
and some circumstances, which are grouped in the mass of erroneous
details. But, of all the mistakes which have been committed in this
business, none is more palpable, or susceptible of detection, than the
manner in which it is said they were obtained, by the capture of my
mulatto, Billy, with a portmanteau. All the army under my immediate
command could contradict this, and I believe most of them know, that no
attendant of mine, nor a particle of my baggage, ever fell into the
hands of the enemy during the whole course of the war."

[108] The title was "Epistles, Domestic, Confidential, and Official,
from General Washington; written about the commencement of the American
Contest, when he entered on the Command of the Army of the United
States. New York, printed by G. Robinson and J. Bull. London, reprinted
by F. H. Rivington, No. 62 St. Paul's Churchyard, 1796." In order to
give the affair the appearance of genuineness, and to make a volume of
respectable size, several important public despatches, which actually
passed between Washington and the British commanders; and also, a
selection from several of his addresses, orders, and instructions, were
added.

[109] A selection from Washington's replies to these addresses may be
found in the twelf