tiring
out my adversary. Therefore, in the early summer of 1793, I went to
Philadelphia. At that time, travellers embarking on such a journey were
prayed over as though they were going to Tartary. I was absent from
Louisville near a year, and there is a diary of what I saw and felt
and heard on this trip for the omission of which I will be thanked. The
great news of that day which concerns the world--and incidentally this
story--was that Citizen Genet had landed at Charleston.

Citizen Genet, Ambassador of the great Republic of France to the little
Republic of America, landed at Charleston, acclaimed by thousands, and
lost no time. Scarcely had he left that city ere American privateers had
slipped out of Charleston harbor to prey upon the commerce of the hated
Mistress of the Sea. Was there ever such a march of triumph as that of
the Citizen Ambassador northward to the capital? Everywhere toasted and
feasted, Monsieur Genet did not neglect the Rights of Man, for
without doubt the United States was to declare war on Britain within
a fortnight. Nay, the Citizen Ambassador would go into the halls of
Congress and declare war himself if that faltering Mr. Washington
refused his duty. Citizen Genet organized his legions as he went along,
and threw tricolored cockades from the windows of his carriage. And at
his glorious entry into Philadelphia (where I afterwards saw the great
man with my own eyes), Mr. Washington and his Federal-Aristocrats
trembled in their boots.

It was late in April, 1794, when I reached Pittsburg on my homeward
journey and took passage down the Ohio with a certain Captain Wendell of
the army, in a Kentucky boat. I had known the Captain in Louisville, for
he had been stationed at Fort Finney, the army post across the Ohio from
that town, and he had come to Pittsburg with a sergeant to fetch down
the river some dozen recruits. This was a most fortunate circumstance
for me, and in more ways than one. Although the Captain was a gruff and
blunt man, grizzled and weather-beaten, a woman-hater, he could be a
delightful companion when once his confidence was gained; and as we
drifted in the mild spring weather through the long reaches between the
passes he talked of Trenton and Brandywine and Yorktown. There was more
than one bond of sympathy between us, for he worshipped Washington,
detested the French party, and had a hatred for "filthy Democrats"
second to none I have ever encountered.

We stopped for a