either in the resolutions which are or will be handed to me, or
in the newspaper publications, which you promise to be attentive
to) have seen all the objections against the treaty which have
any real force in them, and which may be fit subjects for
representation in a memorial, or in the instructions, or both. But
how much longer the presentation of the memorial can be delayed
without exciting unpleasant sensations here, or involving serious
evils elsewhere, you, who are at the scene of information and
action, can decide better than I. In a matter, however, so
interesting and pregnant with consequences as this treaty, there
ought to be no precipitation; but on the contrary, every step
should be explored before it is taken, and every word weighed
before it is uttered or delivered in writing.

"The form of the ratification requires more diplomatic experience
and legal knowledge than I possess, or have the means of acquiring
at this place, and therefore I shall say nothing about it."

Three days later, on August 3, he wrote again to Randolph to say that
the mails had been delayed, and that he had not received the Baltimore
resolutions. He then continued:--

"The like may be expected from Richmond, a meeting having been
had there also, at which Mr. Wythe, it is said, was seated as
moderator; by chance more than design, it is added. A queer chance
this for the chancellor of the state.

"All these things do not shake my determination with respect to
the proposed ratifications, nor will they, unless something more
imperious and unknown to me should, in the judgment of yourself
and the gentlemen with you, make it advisable for me to pause."

A few days later Washington was recalled by a letter from Randolph,
and also by a private note from Pickering, which said, mysteriously,
that there was a "special reason" for his immediate return. He had
been expecting to be recalled at any moment, and he now hastened to
Philadelphia, reaching there on August 11. He little dreamed, however,
of what had led his two secretaries, one ignorantly and the other
wittingly, to hasten his return. On the very day when he dated his
letter to the selectmen of Boston as from the United States, the
British minister placed in the hands of Mr. Wolcott, the Secretary of
the Treasury, an intercepted letter from Fauchet, the French minister,
to his own government