at were lawful, and if it were found to be
unlawful, them that the refusal should be explained. Mr. Jefferson's
advice was followed.

Mr. Jefferson, also, though he firmly withstood the many illegal and
unwarrantable acts attempted by Genet, did so in such a manner as not to
lose the friendship of the minister or even a degree of control over him.
To Madison Jefferson wrote of Genet: "He renders my position immensely
difficult. He does me justice personally; and giving him time to vent
himself and become more cool, I am on a footing to advise him freely, and
he respects it; but he will break out again on the very first occasion."

Finally Citizen Genet, becoming desperate, fitted out one of L'Embuscade's
prizes as a frigate to be used against England, which amounted on the part
of the United States to a breach of neutrality; and being hindered in
sending her to sea, he threatened to appeal from the President to the
people of the United States. Thereupon the question arose, what shall be
done with Genet? and upon this question the cabinet divided with more than
usual acrimony. Knox was for sending him out of the country without
ceremony; Hamilton for publishing the whole correspondence between him and
the government, with a statement of his proceedings. Jefferson was for
sending an account of the affair to the French government, with copies of
the correspondence, and a request for Genet's recall. Meanwhile the whole
country was thrown into a state of tumultuous excitement. There was a riot
in Philadelphia; and even the sacred character of Washington was assailed
in prose and verse.

The President decided to adopt the course proposed by Jefferson; France
appointed another minister, and the Genet episode ended by his marriage to
a daughter of George Clinton, governor of New York, in which State he
lived thereafter as a respectable citizen and a patron of agriculture. He
died in the year 1834.

The summer of delirium at Philadelphia culminated in the panic and
desolation of the yellow fever, and every member of the government fled
from the city, Jefferson being the last to depart.

When, in the next year, the correspondence between Genet and Jefferson,
and between the English minister and Jefferson, was published, the
Secretary was seen to have conducted it on his part with so much ability,
discretion, and tact, and with so true a sense of what was due to each
nation concerned, that he may be said to have retired to his