just heard of Gouverneur Morris's appointment. It
is a most unfortunate one; and, as I shall mention the same
thing to him when I see him, I do not express it to you with
the injunction of confidence."--Paine to Jefferson, Feb.
13,1792.--_Editor._

3 Paine could not of course know that Morris was willing
that the Americans, to whom he alludes, captains of captured
vessels, should suffer, in order that there might be a case
against France of violation of treaty, which would leave the
United States free to transfer the alliance to England. See
Introduction to XXI.. also my "Life of Paine," ii., p.
83.--_Editor._.

"If the inconsistent conduct of Morris exposed the interest of America
to some hazard in France, the pusillanimous conduct of Mr. Jay in
England has rendered the American government contemptible in Europe.
Is it possible that any man who has contributed to the independence of
Amer-ica, and to free her from the tyranny and injustice of the British
government, can read without shame and indignation the note of Jay to
Grenville? It is a satire upon the declaration of Independence, and an
encouragement to the British government to treat America with contempt.
At the time this Minister of Petitions was acting this miserable part,
he had every means in his hands to enable him to have done his business
as he ought. The success or failure of his mission depended upon the
success or failure of the French arms. Had France failed, Mr. Jay might
have put his humble petition in his pocket, and gone home. The case
happened to be otherwise, and he has sacrificed the honour and perhaps
all the advantages of it, by turning petitioner. I take it for granted,
that he was sent over to demand indemnification for the captured
property; and, in this case, if he thought he wanted a preamble to his
demand, he might have said,

'That, tho' the government of England might suppose itself under
the necessity of seizing American property bound to France, yet
that supposed necessity could not preclude indemnification to the
proprietors, who, acting under the authority of their own government,
were not accountable to any other.'

"But Mr. Jay sets out with an implied recognition of the right of the
British government to seize and condemn: for he enters his complaint
against the _irregularity_ of the seizures and the condemnation, as if
they were reprehensible only by not being _conf