terior expedience of the measure, but
from a desire to try the effect of negotiation previous thereto." Mr.
Monroe, acting under instructions from the Virginia legislature,
proposed in the senate to suspend by law the article of the treaty of
peace which secured to British creditors the right of recovering in the
United States their honest debts. This proposition was frowned down by
every right-minded man in that chamber.

Another delicate matter connected with the foreign relations of the
United States now occupied the mind of Washington. The French
government, as we have observed, on recalling Genet, asked that of the
United States to recall Mr. Morris. Washington was anxious to appoint a
judicious successor--one that would be acceptable to the French, and who
would not compromise the neutrality of his own country. He confided in
Pinckney, and desired Mr. Jay, in the event of his mission being
successful, to remain in London as resident minister. Pinckney would
then be sent to France. But Jay would not consent to the arrangement.
Washington then offered the French mission to Robert R. Livingston,
chancellor of the state of New York, who, with his extensive and
influential family connections, was in politics a republican. Livingston
declined, and the president finally offered it to James Monroe. He
consented to serve, and his nomination was confirmed by the senate on
the twenty-eighth of May. Soon after this, John Quincy Adams, son of the
vice-president, was appointed minister at the Hague in place of Mr.
Short, Jefferson's secretary of legation in France, who went to Spain to
ascertain what Carmichael, the American minister there, was doing, his
government being unable to hear from him except at long intervals.

Mr. Monroe arrived in Paris toward the middle of August, and immediately
sent to the president of the convention the following letter:--

"_Citizen-President:_--Having, several days since, arrived with a
commission from the president of the United States of America, to
represent those states in quality of minister plenipotentiary at
the capital of the French republic, I have thought it my duty to
make my mission known as early as possible to the national
representatives. It belongs to them to determine the day, and to
point out the mode, in which I am to be acknowledged the
representative of their ally and sister republic. I make this
communication with the greate