overnment, seen a crisis, which in my
judgment has been so pregnant with interesting events, nor one from
which more is to be apprehended, whether viewed on one side or the
other. From New York there is, and I am told will further be, a counter
current; but how formidable it may appear I know not. If the same does
not take place at Boston and other towns, it will afford but too strong
evidence that the opposition is in a manner universal, and would make
the ratification a very serious business indeed. But, as it respects the
French, even counter resolutions would, for the reasons I have already
mentioned, do little more than weaken in a small degree the effect the
other side would have."

Two days afterward (the thirty-first of July) he wrote to Mr. Randolph,
informing him that he should not set out for Philadelphia until he
should receive answers to some letters, and then said:--

"To be wise and temperate, as well as firm, the present crisis most
eminently calls for. There is too much reason to believe, from the
pains which have been taken, before, at, and since the advice of
the senate respecting the treaty, that the prejudices against it
are more extensive than is generally imagined. This I have lately
understood to be the case in this quarter, from men who are of no
party, but well disposed to the present administration. How should
it be otherwise, when no stone has been left unturned that could
impress on the minds of the people the most arrant
misrepresentation of facts; that their rights have not only been
_neglected_, but absolutely _sold_; that there are no reciprocal
advantages in the treaty; that the benefits are all on the side of
Great Britain; and, what seems to have had more weight with them
than all the rest and to have been most pressed, that the treaty is
made with the design to oppress the French, in open violation of
our treaty with that nation, and contrary, too, to every principle
of gratitude and sound policy? In time, when passion shall have
yielded to sober reason, the current may possibly turn; but, in the
meanwhile, this government, in relation to France and England, may
be compared to a ship between the rocks of Scylla and Charybdis. If
the treaty is ratified, the partisans of the French, or rather of
war and confusion, will excite them to hostile measures, or at
least to unfri