use her attitude was hostile to the
republican movement in France. Thus old alliances and old hatreds, and a
desire to see all people free, made those of the United States
sympathize strongly with those of France in their revolutionary
movements, and to hate the enemies of that nation in its avowed struggle
for liberty.

But there were wise, and prudent, and thoughtful men in the United
States, who had made the science of government a study, and human nature
their daily reading, who perceived principles of self-destruction in the
French constitution. They saw its want of balances, and the course of
the representatives under it, which must inevitably allow the gallery to
rule the legislature, and mobs to give color to the opinions of the
executive. They clearly perceived, what Lafayette and his compatriots
had already deeply lamented, that the true elements of self-government
did not belong to the French nation; that with liberty they were rapidly
degenerating into licentiousness; and that the constitution must prove
as powerless as a rope of sand in restraining the passions of the
people. And some of them, as we have seen, who wrote or spoke in favor
of a well-balanced and potent government were branded by ungenerous men
as the advocates of royalty and aristocracy, and held up to the people
as traitors to republicanism, and fit subjects for the finger of scorn
to point at. They were charged with blind prejudice in favor of British
institutions, and as conspirators for the re-establishment of British
rule in America. But the conservative or federal party, as they were
called, were more powerful if not so numerous as their opponents; and
when Europe armed against the old ally of the United States, the
government of the latter, professedly representing the popular
sentiment, was so restrained by the wise caution of those who held the
sceptre of political power, that it presented the anomalous character of
a warm-hearted, deeply-sympathizing champion of freedom, apparently in
the ranks of the enemies of liberty.

Washington had hailed with satisfaction the dawn of popular liberty in
France, and earnestly desired the success of those who were working for
the establishment of republicanism there; but his wisdom and sagacity
evidently made him doubtful of their success, even from the beginning.
In the course of his correspondence, we find him often expressing
earnest _wishes_ for the happy results concerning which Lafayette h