your arms, forgot your friend, and became
silent.

"As every thing I have been doing in Europe was connected with my wishes
for the prosperity of America, I ought to be the more surprised at this
conduct on the part of her government. It leaves me but one mode of
explanation, which is, _that every thing is not as it ought to be
amongst you_, and that the presence of a man who might disapprove, and
who had credit enough with the country to be heard and believed, was not
wished for. This was the operating motive with the despotic faction
that imprisoned me in France, (though the pretence was, that I was a
foreigner,) and those that have been silent and inactive towards me
in America, appear to me to have acted from the same motive. It is
impossible for me to discover any other.(1)

"After the part I have taken in the revolution of America, it is
natural that I feel interested in whatever relates to her character
and prosperity. Though I am not on the spot to see what is immediately
acting there, I see some part of what she is acting in Europe. For
your own sake, as well as for that of America, I was both surprised
and concerned at the appointment of Gouverneur Morris to be Minister
to France. His conduct has proved that the opinion I had formed of that
appointment was well founded. I wrote that opinion to Mr. Jefferson at
the time, and I was frank enough to say the same thing to Morris--_that
it was an unfortunate appointment?_ His prating, insignificant
pomposity, rendered him at once offensive, suspected, and ridiculous;
and his total neglect of all business had so disgusted the Americans,
that they proposed drawing up a protest against him. He carried this
neglect to such an extreme, that it was necessary to inform him of it;
and I asked him one day, if he did not feel himself ashamed to take the
money of the country, and do nothing for it?' But Morris is so fond of
profit and voluptousness, that he cares nothing about character. Had
he not been removed at the time he was, I think his conduct would have
precipitated the two countries into a rupture; and in this case,
hated _systematically_ as America is and ever will be by the British
government, and at the same time suspected by France, the commerce of
America would have fallen a prey to both countries.

1 This paragraph of the original letter was omitted from the
American pamphlet, probably by the prudence of Mr. Bache.--
_Editor._

2 "I have