war (no matter with whom) and disgrace, they would be among
the first and loudest of the clamorous against the expense and impolicy
of the measure."

[59] Genet's Letter to Jefferson, September 18, 1793.

[60] De Noailles was a young French nobleman, who married a sister of
Madame Lafayette, and served with distinction at the siege of Yorktown,
in 1781. Like his brother-in-law, the marquis, he had engaged warmly in
the French Revolution, in its earlier stages, but, like him, found
himself in a proscribed party, and obliged to fly for safety. He came to
the United States by way of England, and early in May he was in
Philadelphia with his friend Talon, seeking an audience with Washington.
The latter, with his usual circumspection, declined any direct
communication with him until the object of his visit should be known. In
a note to Hamilton, Washington remarked, "I pray you intimate to him
[Viscount de Noailles], gently and delicately, that if the letters or
papers which he has to present are, knowingly to him, of a nature which
relates to public matters, and not particularly addressed to me, or if
he has any verbal communications to make of a similar kind, I had rather
they should come through a proper channel. Add thereto, generally, that
the peculiar situation of European affairs at this moment, my good
wishes for his nation aggregately, my regard for those of it, in
particular, with whom I have had the honor of an acquaintance, my
anxious desire to keep this country in peace, and the delicacy of my
situation, render a circumspect conduct indispensably necessary on my
part. I do not, however, mean by this that I am to withhold from him
such civilities as are common to others. Those more marked,
notwithstanding our former acquaintance, would excite speculations,
which had better be avoided."

[61] Dr. Benjamin Rush was then in the prime of life, being forty-eight
years of age. He had already achieved the highest success in his
profession as a writer and practitioner; and as a member of the
continental Congress, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, he
had a wide-spread popularity. He founded the Philadelphia dispensary in
1786, and was one of the principal founders of Dickinson college, at
Carlisle, in Pennsylvania. He was professor of medical science in the
medical college of Philadelphia, and also in the medical college of
Pennsylvania. He was president of the American Anti-slavery society and
other assoc