ter, was to
secure the evacuation by Great Britain of the frontier posts. This
all-absorbing purpose of Washington is the key to his administration.
Gouverneur Morris paved the way for Jay's treaty, and he was paid for
it with the French mission. The Senate would not have tolerated his
appointment to England, and only by a majority of four could the
President secure his confirmation as Minister to France (January 12,
1792). The President wrote Gouverneur Morris (January 28th) a friendly
lecture about the objections made to him, chiefly that he favored the
aristocracy and was unfriendly to the revolution, and expressed "the
fullest confidence" that, supposing the allegations founded, he would
"effect a change." But Gouverneur Morris remained the agent of Senator
Robert Morris, and still held Washington's mission to England, and he
knew only as "conspirators" the rulers who succeeded Louis XVI. Even
while utilizing them, he was an agent of Great Britain in its war
against the country to which he was officially commissioned.

1 Ford's "Writings of George Washington" vol. xi., p. 440.

Lafayette wrote to Washington ("Paris, March 15,1792") the following
appeal:

"Permit me, my dear General, to make an observation for yourself alone,
on the recent selection of an American ambassador. Personally I am a
friend of Gouverneur Morris, and have always been, in private, quite
content with him; but the aristocratic and really contra-revolutionary
principles which he has avowed render him little fit to represent the
only government resembling ours.... I cannot repress the desire that
American and French principles should be in the heart and on the lips of
the ambassador of the United States in France." (1)

In addition to this; two successive Ministers from France, after the
fall of the Monarchy, conveyed to the American Government the most
earnest remonstrances against the continuance of Gouverneur Morris in
their country, one of them reciting the particular offences of which
he was guilty. The President's disregard of all these protests and
entreaties, unexampled perhaps in history, had the effect of giving
Gouverneur Morris enormous power over the country against which he
was intriguing. He was recognized as the Irremovable. He represented
Washington's fixed and unalterable determination, and this at a moment
when the main purpose of the revolutionary leaders was to preserve the
alliance with America. Robespierre at that