re, before
symptoms were observed of that difference of views which had been
suspected to exist. In the mean time, however, the aspect of our
government towards the French republic had become so ardent, that the
people of America generally took the alarm. To the southward, their
apprehensions were early excited. In the Eastern States also, they at
length began to break out. Meetings were held in many of your towns, and
addresses to the government agreed on in opposition to war. The example
was spreading like a wild-fire. Other meetings were called in other
places, and a general concurrence of sentiment against the apparent
inclinations of the government was imminent; when, most critically for
the government, the despatches of October the 22nd, prepared by your
colleague Marshall, with a view to their being made public, dropped into
their laps. It was truly a God-send to them, and they made the most of
it. Many thousands of copies were printed and dispersed gratis, at the
public expense; and the zealots for war co-operated so heartily, that
there were instances of single individuals who printed and dispersed ten
or twelve thousand copies at their own expense. The odiousness of
the corruption supposed in those papers excited a general and high
indignation among the people. Unexperienced in such manoeuvres, they
did not permit themselves even to suspect that the turpitude of private
swindlers might mingle itself unobserved, and give its own hue to the
communications of the French government, of whose participation there
was neither proof nor probability. It served, however, for a time,
the purpose intended. The people, in many places, gave a loose to the
expressions of their warm indignation, and of their honest preference of
war to dishonor. The fever was long and successfully kept up, and in the
mean time, war measures as ardently crowded. Still, however, as it
was known that your colleagues were coming away, and yourself to stay,
though disclaiming a separate power to conclude a treaty, it was
hoped by the lovers of peace, that a project of treaty would have been
prepared, ad referendum, on principles which would have satisfied our
citizens, and overawed any bias of the government towards a different
policy. But the expedition of the Sophia, and, as was supposed, the
suggestions of the person charged with your despatches, and his probable
misrepresentations of the real wishes of the American people, prevented
these hopes