cestors; when I perceive passion, tumult, and violence, usurping those
seats where reason and cool deliberation ought to preside--I acknowledge
that I am glad to believe there is no real resemblance between what was
the cause of America and what is the cause of France; that the
difference is no less great than that between liberty and
licentiousness. I regret whatever has a tendency to confound them, and I
feel anxious, as an American, that the ebullitions of inconsiderate men
among us may not tend to involve our reputation in the issue."[50]

Genet had scarcely reached the seat of government, before his conduct in
authorizing the fitting out of privateers, and the capture of _The
Grange_ by _L'Embuscade_, called forth complaints from Mr. Hammond, the
British minister at Philadelphia. Genet, in his address to the president
on presenting his credentials, had disavowed any wish to involve the
United States in the pending war.

"We wish you to do nothing," he said, "but what is for your own good,
and we will do all in our power to promote it. Cherish your own peace
and prosperity. You have expressed a willingness to enter into a more
liberal commerce with us; I bring full powers to form such a treaty, and
a preliminary decree of the National Convention to lay open our country
and its colonies to you, for every purpose of utility, without your
participating in the burden of maintaining and defending them. We see in
you the only person on earth who can love us sincerely, and merit to be
so loved."

This was uttered while the secret instructions in his pocket authorized
him to foment discord between the United States and Great Britain; to
set the government of our republic at defiance, if necessary; and in the
face of his open insult to the government by his acts at Charleston. And
yet Mr. Jefferson, apparently blinding his eyes to passing events in
Genet's brief career here, said in a letter to Madison, in reference to
the French minister's speech, "It was impossible for anything to be more
affectionate, more magnanimous, than the purport of Genet's
mission.... He offers everything and asks nothing."

"Yet I know," Jefferson added, "that the offers will be opposed, and
suspect they will not be accepted. In short, my dear sir, it is
impossible for you to conceive what is passing in our conclave; and it
is evident that _one or two_ [meaning Hamilton and Knox] at least, under
pretence of avoiding war on the one side, have no