people of the extreme South and West; and as a part of
Genet's programme of operations in this country contemplated an armed
invasion of Louisiana and the opening of the Mississippi, he and his
cause were very popular with the settlers in the great valleys beyond
the mountains of the Southwest.

While these things were perplexing Washington's cabinet, the dissentions
in that cabinet were more perplexing to the president. And yet, so
profoundly was Washington impressed with the skill, judgment, forecast,
and patriotism of the chief contestants, Jefferson and Hamilton, that he
contemplated the loss of their service, in their respective stations,
with the greatest solicitude. Such contemplations were pressed upon his
mind during the season of contest with Genet, which we have just
considered. Toward the close of June, Hamilton notified the president
that "considerations relative both to the public interest and to his own
delicacy" had brought him to the conclusion of resigning at the close of
the ensuing session of Congress; and on the thirty-first of July,
Jefferson informed him that, at the close of the ensuing month of
September, he should "beg leave to retire to scenes of greater
tranquillity from those for which," he said, "I am every day more and
more convinced that neither my talents, tone of mind, nor time of life
fit me."

These communications distressed the president; and on the sixth of
August he called upon Mr. Jefferson at his house, a little out of
Philadelphia, and expressed himself greatly concerned because of the
threatened desertion of those on whom he most relied, in this the hour
of greatest perplexity to the government. He did not know where he
should look to find suitable characters to fill up the offices. Mere
talents, he said, did not suffice for the department of state; for its
duties required a person conversant with foreign affairs, and perhaps
with foreign courts.

"He expressed great apprehensions," says Jefferson in his _Anas_, "at
the fermentation which seemed to be working in the mind of the public;
that many descriptions of persons, actuated by different causes,
appeared to be uniting [alluding to the democratic societies]; what it
would end in he knew not; a new Congress was to assemble, more numerous,
and perhaps of a different spirit; and the first expression of their
sentiments would be important." He then urged Jefferson to remain until
the close of the next session, if no longer.