Show installment 25 towards the close of june wash ington ventured to go for a little to mount vernon for rest at once there was trouble A privateer was found taking arms and stores aboard in the very river at philadelphia jef ferson allowed her to drop down tc chester believing genet instead ol 01 the agents of the government and she was upon the point of getting to sea before washington could reach the seat of government jefferson was not in town when the president arria ed what Is to be done in the case ol 01 the little sarah now at chester came washington s hot questions after him Is the minister of the french republic to set the acts of this gov crement at defiance with impunity and then threaten the executive with an appeal to the people what must the world such conduct and 0 the united states in submitting to it circumstances press for decision and as you have had time to consider them I 1 wish to know your opinion upon them even before tomorrow for the vessel may then be gone it ft as indeed too late to stop her a gross violation of neutrality had been permitted under the very eyes of the secretary of state washington stayed henceforth in philadelphia in person al control of affairs it was an ap peal to the people that finally ered genet into his hands washing ton revoked the of one du plagne french consul at boston for continuing to ignore the laws of neu tr allty genet declared he would appeal from the president to the sov erelyn state of massachusetts rumors of the silly threat got abroad and genet demanded of the president that he deny them washington answered ith a chilling rebuke the correspond ence was given to the public prints and at last the country saw the french minister tor what he was A demand for his recall had been resolved upon in the cabinet in august by february 1794 the slow processes of diplomatic action were complete and a successor had arrive I 1 genet did not venture to return to his distract cd country but he atas as promptly and as readily forgotten in america some might find it possible to love france still but no one could any longer stomach genet washington had divined french at fairs much too clearly to be for a moment tempted to think with anything but contempt of the french party who hid truckled truc kled to genet it was his clear perception what the danger would be should america bo drawn in to the gathering european wars that had led him to accept a second term as president it bad been bis wish to remain only tour years in the arduous office but he had no thought to leave a task unfinished knew that he was in the very midst of the critical busl ness of holding the country to the course which should make it a fielt respecting nation and consented to submit himself once more to the vote t the electors elected for second term parties were organizing but there was no opposition to washington he received agian a unanimous vole and john adams was again chosen vice president the second inauguration march 1793 seemed but a routine confirmation of the first dut the elections to congress showed a change sitting in in the senate the avowed supporters of the adman bad still a narrow majority but in the house they fell ten votes short of control and washington had to put his policy of neutrality into ex against the mad genet with nothing but doubts bow be should be Bup the insane folly of genet caved laved the president serious embar ras after all made the evidence that washington was right too plain to ba missed by anybody and gave the country at last vision enough to aee what was in tact the course of affairs abroad within and without un happy france before that trying year was out an attack upon hamilton in the house though led by madison had tailed jefferson had left the cabinet and the hands of those who definitely and heir supported the president were not a letle strengthened there was sharp bitterness between parties a bitterness sharper as yet indeed than their differences of view but the federalists who stood to the support of washington and hamilton were able none the less to carry their more indispensable measure even an act of neutrality which made the pres identa policy the explicit law of the aind the sober second thought of country was slowly coming about to their aid doubts about england the air might have cleared altogether had the right method of deal ing with france been the only question that pressed but the fortune of the time forced the president to teem not only the recreant friend of fance but also the too complacent partisan of england areat britain seemed as bously bent upon forcing the united states tp war as genet himself had been she would not withdraw her from the border costs it X H was believed that she was inciting the indians to their savage inroads upon the border as the french had done in the old days she set herself to destroy neutral trade by seizing all vessels that carried the products of the french islands or were laden with provisions for their ports she would admit american vessels to her own west indian harbors only upon sufferance and within the limits of a most jealous restriction it gave a touch of added bitterness to the country s feeling against her that she should thus levy as it were covert war upon the union while at to be at peace with it as it ehe counted on its weakness ay iy on the seas and congress bould have taken measures of retaliation which must certainly have led to open hostilities had not washington inter dispatching des patching john jay the trusted chief justice across sea as minister extraordinary to negotiate terms of accommodation and so alv ing pause to the trouble whisky riots suppressed while the country waited upon the negotiation it witnessed a wholesome object lesson in the power of its new government in march 1791 congress had passed an act laying taxes on ds tilled spirits part of hamilton s plan to show that the federal govern ment could and would use its great authority the act bore nowhere so hard upon the people as in the vast far counties of pennsylvania and clr glela beyond the mountains and there the very allegiance of the people had been but the other day doubt ful as washington very well knew how were they to get their corn to market over the long roads it they were not to be permitted to reduce its bulk and increase its value by turn ing it into whisky the tax seemed to them intolerable and the remedy plain they would not pay it they had not been punctilious to obey the laws of the states they would not begin obedience now by submitting to the worst laws of the united states at first they only amused them selves by tarring and feathering an ex caseman here and there but resist ance could not stop with that in the face of a government bent upon hav ing its own way opposition organized itself and spread till the writs of federal courts bad been defied by violent mobs and the western counties of pennsylvania were fairly quick with incipient insurrection bad said and my aim has been and will continue to be neither to stretch nor to relax from them in any in stance whatever unless compelled to it by imperious circumstances and that was what he meant the country to know whether the law s purpose was good or bad wrath over english treaty the next year the people knewt hat mr jay had done he reached new york may 28 1796 and the treaty he brought with him was laid before the senate on the ath of june on the ad of july the country knew what he had agreed to and the senate bad ratified there was an instant out burst 0 wrath it swept from one end of the country to the other the treaty yielded so much gained so little that to accept it seemed a veritable humiliation the northwest ern posts were indeed to be given up at last the boundaries between eng elsh and american territory were to be determined by commissioners un restricted commerce with england herself and a tree direct trade with her east indian possessions were con ceded but not a word was said about the of american seamen american claims tor damages tor un coveted trade with the west indian referred to a commission along with american debts to englishmen the coveted trade with the west indies islands was secured only to vessels of seventy tons and under and at the cost of renouncing the right to ex port sugar molasses coffee cocoa or cotton to europe washington agreed with the senate that ratifications of the treaty ought not to be exchanged without a modify cation of the clauses respecting the west indian trade and october had come before new and better terms could be agreed upon but he had no doubt that the treaty as a whole ought to be accepted the opposition party in congress had refused to vote money for an efficient navy and so had made it impossible to check british they must now accept this un palatable treaty as better at any rate than war storm rages fiercely it was hard to stand steady in the storm the country took alre as it bad done at the passage of the stamp act harder things had never been said of king and parliament than were now said of washington and bis ad many stout champions stood to his defence none stouter or more washington and his family for two years washington watched the slow gathering of the storm warn ing those who resisted keeping con gress abreast 0 him in preparation for action when the right time should come letting all the country know what was afoot and prepare its mind tor what was to come it must have won him to a stern humor to learn that seven thousand armed men had t adhered in mass meeting on brad docks field to defy him at last he summoned an army of out of the stales sent it straight to the lawless counties going with it himself till he learned there would be no serious resistance and taught the country what was back of federal law haell ton had had bis way the country its lesson jeffersons the servile copyist of mr patt thought he must have hla alarms his insurrections and plots against the constitution sneered jefferson it aroused the favorite purposes lot strengthening government and increase ing the debt and therefore an insurrection was announced and proclaimed and armed against and marched against but could never bo found and all athla under the sanction has done too which of a name much good not to bo sufficient to cov harm also er the powers of the executive of more definite add bet his country are ter understood perhaps than those country washington ot adv other formidable than hamilton no longer a member of the cabinet tor imperative private interests had withdrawn him these six months and more but none the less redoubtable in the field of controversy for long nevertheless the battle went heavily against the treaty even washington for once stood a little while perplexed not doubting his own purpose indeed but very anxious what the outcome should be against bis signing the treaty poured in upon him from every quarter of the country many of them earnest almost to the point of en treaty some hot with angry comment his reply when he vouchsafed any was always that his vary gratitude tor the approbation of the country in the past fixed him but the more firm ly in hla resolution to deserve it now by obeying his own conscience it Is very desirable he wrote to hamilton to ascertain if possible after the paroxysm of the fever Is a little abated what the real temper of the people Is concerning it for at present the cry against the treaty Is like that against a mad dog but he showed himself very calm to the gen eral eye making his uneasiness known only to bis intimates the cruel abuse heaped upon him cut him to abo quick such exaggerated and indecent terms he cried could scarcely be applied to a nero a notorious defaulter or even to a corn mon pickpocket but the men who and stormed talked of usurpation and am peach ment called him base tent traitorous even were permitted to see not to much as the quiver of an eyelid as they watched him go steadily from step to step in the course he had chosen abuse Is regretted at last the storm cleared the bitter months were over men at the ports saw at length how much more freely trade ran under the terms of the treaty and remembered that while they had been abusing jay and maligning mali gning the president thomas pinckney had obtained a treaty from spain which settled the florida bound ary opened he mississippi without restriction secured a place of deposit at new orleans and made commerce with the spaniards as tree as corn merce with the french the whole country felt a new am pulse of prosperity the paroxysm of the fever was over and shame came upon the men who had so vilely abused the great president and bad made him wish in bis bitterness that he were in his grave rather than in the presidency who bad even said that he had played false in the revolution and had squandered public moneys who had gone beyond threats of impeachment and dared to hint at assassination they saw the end of his term approach and would have recalled their insults but they had alienated his great spirit forever becomes flat federalist when he had seen parties forming in his cabinet in the quiet days of his first term as president he had sought to placate differences bad tried to bring hamilton and jefferson to a cordial understanding which should purged of partisan bias as he meant his own judgments to be had deemed parties unnecessary and loyalty to the new constitution the only standard of preferment to office but he had come to another mind in the hard years that followed I 1 shall not whilst I 1 have the hon or to administer the government bring a man into any office of consequence knowingly he declared in the closing days of 1795 whose political tenets are adverse to the tenets which the general government are pursuing for this in my opinion would be a sort of political suicide and he left the presidency ready to call himself very flatly a federalist of the party that stood for the constitution and abated nothing of its powers You could as soon scrub a blacka more white he cried as to change the principle of a protest democrat he will leave nothing to overturn the government of this coun try TO BE CONTINUED |