sentiments, especially as regarded the French Revolution, were too well
founded upon the tenor of his conduct. "Not to go further into detail,"
he said, "I will place the ideas of your political adversaries in the
light in which their arguments have presented them to me, namely: that
the promptitude with which your lively and brilliant imagination
displays itself allows too little time for deliberation and correction,
and is the primary cause of those sallies which too often offend, and of
that ridicule of character which begets enmity not easy to be
forgotten, but which might easily be avoided if it were under the
control of more caution and prudence. In a word, that it is
indispensably necessary that more circumspection should be observed by
our representatives abroad than they conceive you are inclined to adopt.
In this statement you have the _pros_ and _cons_. By reciting them I
give you a proof of my friendship, if I give none of my policy or
judgment. I do it on the presumption that a mind conscious of its own
rectitude fears not what is said of it, but will bid defiance to shafts,
that are not baited with accusations against honor or integrity. Of my
good opinion and of my friendship and regard you may be assured."

Count de Moustier had been succeeded as French minister to the United
States by M. Ternant, a more agreeable gentleman; and diplomatic
intercourse had been opened with Great Britain, by the arrival of Mr.
Hammond as minister plenipotentiary of that government, in the previous
autumn, and the appointment, on the part of the United States, of Thomas
Pinckney, of South Carolina, as minister to the court of St. James. Mr.
Hammond was the first minister Great Britain had deigned to send to the
United States, and John Adams was the only person who had been sent in
the same capacity from his government to the British court. For some
years there had been no diplomatic intercourse between the two
countries.

Mr. Morris arrived in Paris, in May, 1792, and on the second of June he
was introduced to the king and queen. Two days afterward he presented a
letter from the president to his majesty--a letter which, according to
Morris, gave several members of the _corps diplomatique_ a high idea of
Washington's wisdom. "It is not relished by the democrats," Morris wrote
to the president, "who particularly dislike the term '_your people_;'
but it suits well the prevailing temper, which is monarchical." Mr.
Morris was