here, whose fury shook the Union
to its foundation, and proved to the utmost test the stability of the
character and popularity of Washington.

Rumors of the conclusion of a treaty reached the Congress before its
adjournment in March, 1795; but the treaty itself did not arrive until
two days afterward. The president received it on the fifth of March, but
its contents were kept a profound secret for several months. Washington
studied it carefully, fully digested every article, and resolved to
ratify it, should it be approved by the senate. Parts of it he approved,
parts he disapproved; but he saw in it the basis for a satisfactory
adjustment of the relations of the two governments, and a guaranty of
peace.

The president issued a circular calling the senate together in June, for
the purpose of considering the treaty. He resolved to keep its
provisions a secret until that time, because there was a predisposition
in the public mind to condemn it. Already, as we have seen, the
appointment of a special envoy to negotiate with Great Britain had been
denounced as a cowardly overture, and degrading to the United States;
and it was declared that the mission of a special envoy, if one was to
be sent, should be to make a formal and unequivocal demand of reparation
for wrongs inflicted on our commerce, the payment of damages to owners
of slaves carried away, and the immediate surrender of the western
posts.

A large party in the United States had resolved that the treaty,
whatever it might be, especially if it should remove all pretexts for a
war with Great Britain, should be rejected; and, even before its
arrival, preparations for opposition were made. In the course of a few
days after Washington received it, and had submitted it, under the seal
of strict privacy, to Mr. Randolph, the secretary of state, sufficient
information concerning it leaked out to awaken public distrust, and yet
not enough was known for the formation of any definite opinion
concerning it. But instantly the opposition press commenced a crusade
against it.

"Americans, awake!" cried a writer in one of these. "Remember what you
suffered during a seven-years' war with the satellites of George the
Third (and I hope the last). Recollect the services rendered by your
allies, now contending for liberty. Blush to think that America should
degrade herself so much as to enter into _any kind of treaty_ with a
power, now tottering on the brink of ruin, whose princi