th volume of Sparks' "Life and Writings of
Washington."

[110] For a notice of a general plan of a military academy at West
Point, prepared by Washington, see Sparks's "Life and Writings of
Washington," viii., 417.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

FRIENDLY OVERTURES TO FRANCE--PICKERING'S HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY
LETTER TO PINCKNEY--WASHINGTON'S SUGGESTIONS--FRENCH OUTRAGES UPON
AMERICAN COMMERCE--RESULTS OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION--JOHN ADAMS
THE NATION'S CHOICE--HIS FOREBODINGS RESPECTING HIS
HOUSEHOLD--WASHINGTON'S SALE OF SUPERFLUITIES--MRS. WASHINGTON'S
LAST DRAWING-ROOM--BIRTHDAY FESTIVITIES--WASHINGTON'S
EMOTIONS--LETTERS TO HIS FRIENDS ON HIS RETIREMENT--FAREWELL
DINNER--HIS DECLARATIONS RESPECTING THE SPURIOUS
LETTERS--INAUGURATION OF ADAMS--WASHINGTON'S PARTING WORDS--ADAMS'S
INAUGURAL ADDRESS--A TINGE OF JEALOUSY--ELEGANT ENTERTAINMENT GIVEN
TO WASHINGTON--VIOLENT ATTACKS UPON HIM BY THE "AURORA"--THE EDITOR
BEATEN AND HUMBLED.

Sincerely desirous of maintaining a good understanding with the French,
the president, early in January, requested Mr. Pickering, the secretary
of state, to address a letter to Mr. Pinckney, the United States
minister in France, stating in full the causes of difficulty between the
two governments, examining and reviewing the same, and submitting, with
his letter, a mass of relative documents, by which the whole matter
might be fully understood. Pickering's letter and the documents were
laid before Congress on the nineteenth of January, accompanied by a
message from the President, in which he said that the immediate object
of Mr. Pinckney's mission to France was, "to make to that government
such explanations of the principles and conduct of our own, as by
manifesting our good faith, might remove all jealousy and discontent,
and maintain that harmony and good understanding with the French
republic which it had been his constant solicitude to preserve. A
government which required only a knowledge of the _truth_ to justify its
measures, could but be anxious to have this fully and frankly
displayed."

Previous to the completion of the letter to Pinckney, Washington wrote
to Pickering, suggesting that some such summing up as the following
might be proper:--

"That the conduct of the United States toward France has been, as
will appear from a foregoing statement, regulated by the strictest
principles of neutrality.

"