t backward; and whether, if
they had yielded to those informal conferences which Talleyrand seems to
have courted, the liberal accommodation you suppose, might not have been
effected, even with their agency. Your fellow-citizens think they have a
right to full information, in a case of such great concernment to them.
It is their sweat which is to earn all the expenses of the war, and
their blood which is to flow in expiation of the causes of it. It may
be in your power to save them from these miseries by full communications
and unrestrained details, postponing motives of delicacy to those of
duty. It rests with you to come forward independently; to make your
stand on the high ground of your own character; to disregard
calumny, and to be borne above it on the shoulders of your grateful
fellow-citizens; or to sink into the humble oblivion to which the
federalists (self-called) have secretly condemned you; and even to be
happy if they will indulge you with oblivion, while they have beamed
on your colleagues meridian splendor. Pardon me, my dear Sir, if my
expressions are strong. My feelings are so much more so, that it is
with difficulty I reduce them even to the tone I use. If you doubt the
dispositions towards you, look into the papers, on both sides, for the
toasts which were given throughout the States on the fourth of July.
You will there see whose hearts were with you, and whose were ulcerated
against you. Indeed, as soon as it was known that you had consented to
stay in Paris, there was no measure observed in the execrations of
the war-party. They openly wished you might be guillotined, or sent to
Cayenne, or any thing else. And these expressions were finally stifled
from a principle of policy only, and to prevent you from being urged
to a justification of yourself. From this principle alone proceed the
silence and cold respect they observe towards you. Still, they cannot
prevent at times the flames bursting from under the embers, as Mr.
Pickering's letters, report, and conversations testify, as well as the
indecent expressions respecting you, indulged by some of them in the
debate on these despatches. These sufficiently show that you are never
more to be honored or trusted by them, and that they wait to crush you
for ever, only till they can do it without danger to themselves.

When I sat down to answer your letter, but two courses presented
themselves, either to say nothing or every thing; for half confidences
are