ern border, and to organize military
expeditions against Louisiana and the Floridas. It was now determined to
bear with the insolence and mischievous meddling of the French minister
no longer; and, at a cabinet council, it was agreed that his diplomatic
functions should be suspended, the privileges resting thereon to be
denied him, and his person arrested. This was the only course for the
government to pursue for the preservation of its dignity, and perhaps
the safety of the republic. This resolution was about to be put into
execution, when a despatch was received from Gouverneur Morris
announcing Genet's recall. The French minister of foreign affairs had,
as soon as he heard of Genet's misconduct, reprobated it as unauthorized
by his government, and appointed M. Fauchet secretary of the executive
council to succeed him. At the same time the French government asked the
recall of Gouverneur Morris, whose views of democracy, as he saw it
daily in Paris, did not coincide with the doctrines of the Jacobins.
Morris was recalled, and Washington, with a liberal spirit, nominated
James Monroe, a political opponent, as his successor. He knew that
Monroe would be acceptable to the French Convention, and likely,
therefore, to be useful to his government.

Fauchet was a keen diplomatist, and came as the representative of an
administration more radical in its democracy than the one that appointed
Genet. The Girondists had fallen, and the government of France had
passed into the hands of Danton and Robespierre, the leaders of the
Jacobins. The Reign of Terror was now in full force. The republican
constitution had been suspended, and the Convention had assumed despotic
powers with bloody proclivities. Even the warmest sympathizers with the
French Revolution, in America, stood appalled at the aspect of affairs
there; and many began to doubt, after all, whether English liberty was
not preferable to French liberty.[65]

Fauchet arrived at Philadelphia in February, and Genet had liberty to
return to France. But he did not choose to trust his person to the
caprices of his countrymen in that time of anarchy and blood, and he
remained in America. He married Cornelia Tappen, daughter of Governor
Clinton, of New York, and became a resident of that state. He at once
disappeared from the firmament of politics, but was an excellent citizen
of his adopted country, and took great interest in agriculture. His
course as minister has been ably defend