tion and also by
reservations founded on the general principles of international law. "By
our treaties with several of the belligerent Powers," he told Genet, "we
have established a style of peace with them. But without appealing to
treaties, we are at peace with them all by the law of nature: for, by
nature's law, man is at peace with man." Hence the propriety of forbidding
acts within American jurisdiction that would cause disturbance of this
peace, a point on which he quoted copiously from Vattel. Genet manifested
some irritation at being referred to treatises on international law when
he was resting his case on a treaty the validity of which Jefferson
acknowledged. "Let us not lower ourselves," he wrote, "to the level
of ancient politics by diplomatic subtleties. Let us be frank in
our overtures, in our declarations, as our two nations are in their
affections, and, by this plain and sincere conduct, arrive at the object
by the shortest way."

Logically Jefferson's position was that of maintaining the validity of the
treaty while opposing the fulfillment of its obligations. At the same time
he had to carry on a correspondence with Hammond, the British Minister,
who was making complaints of the use of American ports for French
depredations on British commerce, and to him Jefferson pleaded entire
willingness to discharge in good faith the obligations of a neutral Power.
It may seem as if Jefferson was attempting the impossible feat of trying
to ride at one time two horses going in opposite directions, but such was
his dexterity that in appearance he was largely successful. Meanwhile he
contrived to throw on Hamilton and his adherents the blame for the
feebleness and inconsistency of national policy. In letters to his
Congressional lieutenants, Monroe in the Senate and Madison in the House,
he lamented "the anglophobia, secret antigallomany" that have "decided the
complexion of our dispositions." He spoke scornfully of Randolph, whom he
regarded as so irresolute that the votes in the Cabinet were "generally
two and a half against one and a half," by which he meant that Hamilton
and Knox stood together against Jefferson, while Randolph divided his
influence between the two actions.

So inflamed was the state of public opinion that a rising against the
Government seemed possible. In a letter written twenty years later, John
Adams described "the terrorism excited by Genet, in 1793, when ten
thousand people in the streets