tanding
his extraordinary talent and exalted integrity, it must be
considered as singularly fortunate that he should have experienced
a lot which so seldom falls to the portion of humanity, and have
passed through such a variety of scenes without stain and reproach.
It must indeed create astonishment, that, placed in circumstances
so critical, and filling for a series of years a station so
conspicuous, his character should never once have been called in
question; that he should in no one instance have been accused
either of improper insolence or of mean submission in his
transactions with foreign nations. For him it has been reserved to
run the race of glory, without experiencing the smallest
interruption to the brilliancy of his career."

CHAPTER XXV.

DEBATES ON MADISON'S RESOLUTIONS--THEIR FATE--PROCEEDINGS IN REGARD
TO ALGERINE CORSAIRS--COMMENCEMENT OF A NAVY--FIRST COMMITTEE OF
WAYS AND MEANS--FRIGATES ORDERED TO BE BUILT--NAVAL OFFICERS
APPOINTED--GENET RECALLED--ARRIVAL OF HIS SUCCESSOR--GENET MARRIES
AND BECOMES AN AMERICAN CITIZEN--EXCITEMENT AGAINST GREAT
BRITAIN--APPOINTMENT OF A SPECIAL ENVOY TO THE BRITISH COURT
DISCUSSED--JOHN JAY APPOINTED--BELLIGERENT ACTION IN CONGRESS--JAMES
MONROE APPOINTED MORRIS'S SUCCESSOR IN FRANCE--ADJOURNMENT OF
CONGRESS--WASHINGTON VISITS MOUNT VERNON--REBELLIOUS MOVEMENTS IN
KENTUCKY--WASHINGTON'S COMMENTS THEREON.

Madison's resolutions elicited very warm, and at times, violent debates.
The subject was of a purely commercial nature; but the questions it
involved were so interwoven with political considerations, that the
debates inevitably assumed a political and partisan aspect. The
federalists plainly saw that the recommendations in Jefferson's report,
and in the resolutions of Madison, hostility to England and undue favor
toward France, neither position being warranted by a wise policy, nor
consistent with neutrality. The republicans, on the other hand, regarded
the scheme as equitable in itself, and as absolutely necessary for the
assertion of the rights of neutral nations, and the protection of
American commerce from insult, aggression, and plunder. These debates,
which commenced on the thirteenth of January, continued until the third
of February, with few intermissions; and the house was so nearly equally
divided in sentiment, that the first resolution, authori