n one part of the Union against another, an efficacious remedy will be
to assemble the youth from every part, under such circumstances as will,
by the freedom of intercourse and collision of sentiment, give to their
minds the direction of truth, philanthropy, and mutual conciliation." He
then expressed his preference of the proposed university at the federal
capital, as the object of his appropriation, but left the matter at the
disposal of the legislature. That body, in resolutions, approved of his
appropriation of the fifty shares in the Potomac company to the proposed
university, and requested him to appropriate the hundred shares in the
James River company "to a seminary at such place in the upper country,
as he may deem most convenient to a majority of the inhabitants
thereof."[74]

FOOTNOTES:

[73] Life of Washington, ii, 356

[74] See page 48 of this volume.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

JAY'S MISSION TO ENGLAND--ITS SPECIFIC OBJECTS--HIS ARRIVAL IN
LONDON--HIS JUDICIOUS CONDUCT THERE--DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF
NEGOTIATION--JAY'S ENCOURAGING LETTER TO WASHINGTON--HIS LETTER TO
THE SECRETARY OF STATE--THE PROVISIONS OF THE TREATY--ITS RECEPTION
BY WASHINGTON--HE KEEPS ITS PROVISIONS SECRET--OPPOSITION TO THE
TREATY--MEETING OF THE SENATE--THE TREATY DISCUSSED AND ITS
RATIFICATION RECOMMENDED--A SYNOPSIS OF ITS CONTENTS MADE PUBLIC.

Mr. Jay's mission to England had been from its inception a cause of much
anxiety to Washington. Its object was beneficent and patriotic in the
highest degree, and yet it had been opposed with the bitterest party
spirit, and regarded with distrust even by friends of the
administration, who had watched the ungenerous and despotic course of
the British government toward the United States ever since the peace of
1783.

Mr. Jay's instructions contemplated three important objects to be
obtained by treaty. These were, compensation for the losses sustained by
American merchants in consequence of the orders in council; a settlement
of all existing disputes in relation to the treaty of peace; and a
commercial treaty. Great discretion was to be given to the envoy. He was
to consider his instructions as recommendatory, not as peremptory. Only
two restrictions were imposed upon him. One was, not to enter into any
stipulation inconsistent with the existing engagements of the United
States with France; the other was, not to conclude any commercial treaty
that did n