antageous or dangerous.

They reviewed the most prominent of those transactions which had
recently taken place in France, and noticed the turbulence, the fury,
and the injustice with which they were marked. The Jacobin club at
Paris, whose influence was well understood, had even gone so far,
previous to the meeting of the convention, as to enter into measures
with the avowed object of purging that body of those persons,
favourers of royalty, who might have escaped the attention of the
primary assemblies. This review was taken, to show that the course of
the revolution had been attended with circumstances which militate
against a full conviction of its having been brought to its present
stage, by such a free, regular, and deliberate act of the nation, as
ought to silence all scruples about the validity of what had been
done. They appeared to doubt whether the present possessors of power
ought to be considered as having acquired it with the real consent of
France, or as having seized it by violence;--whether the existing
system could be considered as permanent, or merely temporary.

They were therefore of opinion, not that the treaties should be
annulled or absolutely suspended, but that the United States should
reserve, for future consideration and discussion, the question whether
the operation of those treaties ought not to be deemed temporarily and
provisionally suspended. Should this be the decision of the
government, they thought it due to a spirit of friendly and candid
procedure, in the most conciliating terms, to apprize the expected
minister of this determination.

On the questions relative to the application of the clause of
guarantee to the existing war, some diversity of sentiment also
prevailed. The secretary of state and the attorney general conceived,
that no necessity for deciding thereon existed, while the secretaries
of the treasury, and of war, were of opinion that the treaty of
alliance was plainly defensive, and that the clause of guarantee did
not apply to a war which, having been commenced by France, must be
considered as offensive on the part of that power.

Against convening congress, the opinion appears to have been
unanimous.

The cabinet being thus divided on an important part of the system
which, in the present critical posture of affairs, ought to be adopted
by the executive, the President signified his desire that the
ministers would respectively state to him in writing the opinions th