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Washington retired from the chair of state at a time when his country was enjoying the highest degree of prosperity. Through the wisdom of Hamilton and the firmness of the president, a sound credit at home had been created, and an immense floating debt funded in a manner perfectly satisfactory to the creditors, and to all except ignorant or unscrupulous partisans. An ample revenue was provided for; all difficulties which a system of internal taxation is liable to encounter at the outset, had been removed; and the authority of and thorough respect for the federal government were firmly established. Means had been provided for the gradual extinguishment of the public debt; a large portion of it had been actually discharged; and a system, which had finally brought about an almost entire extinction of it when the war of 1812 broke out, had been matured. The agricultural and commercial wealth of the nation had increased beyond all former example; and the numerous Indian tribes, warlike and hostile, that inhabited the western frontiers and the immense country beyond, even to the west of the Mississippi, had been taught, by sad experience, the folly of opposing the power of the United States, and were then at peace with them.

The foreign relations of the United States were in a condition more desirable than at any time since the establishment of the government, except in regard to France. The differences with Spain had been adjusted; the free navigation of the Mississippi had been acquired; and the use of New Orleans as a commercial dÉpÔt, for a specific time, had been secured. The causes which, at one time, threatened a war between the United States and Great Britain, had been removed by diplomacy; and the military posts on the frontier, which served as nuclei of Indian hostilities, had passed into the possession of the government of the United States. Treaties not perfectly satisfactory, but nevertheless advantageous by comparison with the past, had been made with Algiers and Tripoli; and as Tunisian corsairs had never depredated upon American commerce, the Mediterranean sea was now opened to the mercantile marine of the United States.

Such, in brief outline, were the condition and position of the United States, when Washington retired from public life; yet over the bright future, discerned by the eye of faith, hung an ominous cloud, growing blacker and blacker every day. France, haughty, imperious, dictatorial, and ungenerous, had severed with ruthless hand the bond of friendship between itself and the United States, and had cut the tether of legal restraint which kept her corsairs from depredating upon American commerce. Her course, unjust and unwise, indicated inevitable war, unless she should draw back, for peace with her could not be maintained with honor upon terms which her insolence dictated. Her government had declared, on the recall of Monroe, that no other minister from the United States should be received until that power should fully redress the grievances of which the republic complained; and Pinckney, whose letter of credence declared that he had been sent “to maintain that good understanding which, from the commencement of the alliance, had subsisted between the two nations, and to efface unfounded impressions, banish suspicions, and restore that cordiality which was at once the evidence and pledge of a friendly union,” was not received.

Pinckney was not only denied a reception, but was ordered to quit the territory of France. He claimed the right to a passport and safe escort, but these were denied, while measures for his expulsion were not put into operation. In that position he remained some time. Meanwhile, Monroe, unmindful of the insult offered to his country in the person of its accredited representative, instead of leaving France indignantly himself, consented to play a part in another scene more unworthy of him than that enacted at his reception. The Directory, evidently for the purpose of treating the United States government with contempt, decreed a formal audience to Monroe, to present his letters of recall and to take his leave. On that occasion, Monroe warmly acknowledged “the important services rendered by France to America;“ congratulated the republic on its victories, and the excellence of its constitution; and expressed his earnest wishes that a close union and perfect harmony might exist between the two governments.

To this the president of the Directory responded in pompous and high-sounding words. “Minister plenipotentiary of the United States,” he said, “by presenting this day to the executive Directory your letter of recall, you offer a very strange spectacle to Europe. Rich in her freedom, surrounded by the train of her victories, strong in the esteem of her allies, France will not stoop to calculate the consequences of the condescension of the American government to the wishes of its ancient tyrants. The French republic expects, however, that the successors of Columbus, Raleigh, and Penn, always proud of their liberty, will never forget that they owe it to France. They will weigh in their wisdom the magnanimous friendship of the French people with the crafty caresses of perfidious men, who meditate to bring them again under their former yoke. Assure the good people of America, Mr. Minister, that, like them, we admire liberty; that they will always possess our esteem, and find in the French people that republican generosity which knows how to grant peace as well as how to cause its sovereignty to be respected. As for you, Mr. Minister Plenipotentiary, you have ever battled for principles; you have known the true interests of your country Depart with our regret. We restore in you a representative to America; we preserve the remembrance of a citizen whose personal qualities did honor to that title.”

Toward the close of January, 1798, Pinckney was notified that, having resided in Paris nearly two months without special permission, he was amenable to law. He immediately applied for and obtained his passports, and on the third of February he departed for Holland, whence he sent despatches to his government, presenting the state of his mission. They were received on the twenty-fifth of March, and produced much excitement. The indignities to which the United States minister had been subjected, and the continued capture of American merchant-vessels by French privateers, some of them commanded by Americans, caused President Adams to issue a proclamation, convening the Congress in special session on the fifteenth of May.

A change in public opinion was now perceptible. The people began to understand the real character and designs of the French, the chief of which was to sow the seeds of bitter discord between the government and the people of the United States—a task in which Genet and Adet zealously labored. “The speech of the president of the Directory,” said Adams, in his opening address to the Congress, “discloses sentiments more alarming than the refusal of a minister, because more dangerous to our independence and union; and, at the same time, studiously marked with indignities toward the United States. It evinces a disposition to separate the people from their government; to persuade them that they have different affections, principles, and interests, from those of their fellow-citizens whom they themselves have chosen to manage their common concerns, and thus to produce divisions fatal to our peace. Such attempts ought to be repelled with a decision which shall convince France and the world that we are not a degraded people, humiliated under a colonial spirit of fear, and sense of inferiority, fitted to be the miserable instruments of foreign influence, and regardless of national honor, character, and interest....

“I should have been happy,” he continued, “to throw a veil over the late transactions of the French government, if it had been possible to conceal them; but they have passed on the great theatre of the world, in the face of all Europe and America, and with such circumstances of publicity and solemnity that they can not be disguised, and will not soon be forgotten.”

Mr. Adams then expressed his sincere desire for reconciliation with France, and announced his intention to institute a fresh attempt at negotiation for that object; but he recommended the Congress to provide, meanwhile, effectual measures for defence, especially in the increase and strengthening of the navy.

From his retirement, Washington looked out upon the moving panorama of national affairs with great solicitude. He took a lively interest in all that was passing, in which the welfare of his country was involved. “It remains to be seen,” he said in a letter to Thomas Pinckney, lately arrived from Europe, “whether our country will stand upon independent ground, or be directed in its political concerns by any other nation. A little time will show who are its true friends, or, what is synonymous, who are true Americans.... The president's speech will, I conceive, draw forth, mediately or immediately, an expression of the public mind; and, as it is the right of the people that this should be carried into effect, their sentiments ought to be unequivocally known, that the principles on which the government has acted, and which, from the president's speech, are likely to be continued, may either be changed, or the opposition, that is endeavoring to embarrass every measure of the executive, may meet effectual discountenance. Things can not and ought not to remain any longer in their present disagreeable state. Nor should the idea that the government and the people have different views, be suffered any longer to prevail, at home or abroad; for it is not only injurious to us, but disgraceful also, that a government constituted as ours is should be administered contrary to their interests, if the fact be so.”

Public sentiment had now begun to assume a character coincident with that expressed by Washington. Because of the failure of Jefferson to be elected president of the United States, the French Directory signified their disapprobation and resentment, by issuing a decree against American commerce, equal in its effects to the worst practices of the British cruisers in their impressment of seamen, and seizure of vessels and goods of neutrals. It was intended by the French to be little short of a declaration of war. These outrages and insults of the French Directory had a powerful effect in arresting the fanaticism in regard to France that had so long prevailed; while the Aurora and other democratic newspapers, not daring, in the face of public opinion, to justify them, attempted to cast all the blame upon Jay's treaty.

The Congress moved with caution in carrying out the recommendations of the president. There was a decided federal majority in each branch of the national legislature, and both houses responded to the president's speech in terms of approval. Several members, who had usually acted with the opposition, voted in favor of resolutions for supporting the honor of the country; and the senate, by unanimous vote, confirmed the nomination, by the president, of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Elbridge Gerry, and John Marshall, as special envoys to the French republic, clothed with ample powers. They were to act jointly and severally as ministers plenipotentiary, the object of their mission being, as the president expressed it, to “dissipate umbrages, remove prejudices, rectify errors, and adjust all differences, by a treaty between the two powers.”

While the president and Congress were making these peaceful provisions for maintaining a good understanding, measures for defence were adopted. An act was passed to prevent American citizens from fitting out or employing privateers against nations at peace with the United States. The exportation of arms and ammunition was prohibited, and the importation of the same encouraged, by law. The president was also authorized to call out the militia to the number of eighty thousand, and to accept of the services of volunteers. A small naval force was also provided for, and means for extraordinary expenses incident to a state of war.

Washington had doubts of the success of the new mission. In a letter to Timothy Pickering, at the close of August, he said: “Candor is not a more conspicuous trait in the character of governments than it is of individuals. It is hardly to be expected, then, that the Directory of France will acknowledge its errors, and tread back its steps immediately. This would announce at once that there has been precipitancy and injustice in the measures they have pursued; or that they were incapable of judging, and had been deceived by false representations. Pride would be opposed to all these; and I can scarcely think the Directory will relinquish the hold it has upon those who more than probably have suggested and promoted the measures they have been pursuing. I rather suppose that they will lower their tone by degrees, and, as is usual, place the change to the credit of French magnanimity.”

Yet Washington had no fears concerning a war with France. To Pickering he wrote: “I can say with truth that my mind has never been alarmed by any fears of a war with France. I always knew that this government had no desire to go to war with that or any other country; and I as firmly believed that no power, without a semblance of justice, would declare war against it. That France has stepped far beyond the line of rectitude, can not be denied; that she has been encouraged to do so by a party among ourselves is, to my mind, equally certain; and when it is considered, moreover, that enriching themselves and injuring Great Britain were the expected consequences of their spoliation's, I could account, though not on honorable principles in them, for their going to a certain point; but I never did believe that they would declare an open war against us, or compel us, if they foresaw that would be the result, to declare it against them.”

In the autumn of 1797, Washington received a letter dated “Warren, Albemarle county,” and signed “John Langhorne,” in which the writer condoled with him on the aspersions of his character by his political opponents, and suggested that he ought not to allow them to disturb his repose. This letter was a forgery, there being no such person as John Langhorne, and was evidently intended to draw from Washington some expressions that might be used to his injury, and serve a party purpose. But Washington, ever guarded, let fall no word in his reply that could be so used. “For the divisions which have taken place among us, with respect to our political concerns,” he said, “for the attacks which have been made upon those to whom the administration of the government has been intrusted by the people, and for the calumnies which are levelled at all those who are disposed to support the measures thereof, I feel, on public account, as much as any man can do, because in my opinion much evil and no good can result to this country from such conduct. So far as these attacks are aimed at me personally, it is, I can assure you, a misconception, if it be supposed I feel the venom of the darts.”

This letter appears to have been written by a person whose name has never been given to the public. The fraud was discovered by a gentleman who lived near the residence of Mr. Jefferson. He was informed of a letter in the Charlottesville post-office, in the well-known handwriting of Washington, addressed to one whose name was unknown in that neighborhood; and he immediately apprized Washington, not only of that fact, but that his reply was sent for by a person whose political sentiments were averse to those of the late administration. Washington furnished his informant with a copy of the correspondence; and that gentleman, on investigation, expressed his opinion that the “plot” originated with Jefferson. Washington appears to have considered that opinion of some weight, for, in a response to the letter of his informant, he said: “If the person whom you suspect, was really the author of the letter under the signature of John Langhorne, it is not at all surprising to me that the correspondence should have ended where it did; for the penetration of that man would have perceived, at the first glance, that nothing was to be drawn from that mode of attack. In what form the next invidious attempts may appear, remains to be discovered.”

There is no evidence that Mr. Jefferson had any knowledge of the matter until the forgery was exposed, and his name had been connected with it by Washington's informant, whom he denominated his “malignant neighbor.” That neighbor was John Nicholas, commonly known as “Clerk John,” who, Mr. Randall says, “was a weak-headed, absurd busybody, with that restless itching for notoriety which renders a man, destitute of ability, sense, or delicacy, almost indifferent as to the subject.”[125] Washington was naturally indignant at this attempt to ensnare him, and his feelings were much disturbed by the alleged secret attacks upon him and his public measures by Jefferson and his friends. As we have already observed, he lost confidence in the genuineness of Jefferson's professions of friendship; and, from this time, there was no correspondence between them.

At about this time, Washington received the welcome news of the liberation of his friend Lafayette, and his expected speedy departure for America. Also a pamphlet on the “Military and Political Situation of France,” by General Dumas, an officer who had served under Rochambeau at Yorktown. On the subject of his friend's release, he wrote to M. de La Colombe, who had been Lafayette's adjutant-general when the latter commanded the National Guard, and who was then in Philadelphia, saying: “I congratulate you on the happy event of the liberation of our mutual friend, whose reception in this country will be, I am sure, cordial from all descriptions of people; from none more than myself. The answer given by him to the minister is noble, and worthy of himself.[126] The only regret I should feel on his arrival in America, if it should happen soon, would be his disappointment at not finding his son here. I said all I could with decency, both to him and M. Frestel, to induce their awaiting direct accounts from the prisoners before their departure; but the eagerness of the former to embrace his parents in the first moments of their release from a cruel imprisonment, was not to be restrained.”

These two great men and loving friends never met again on earth. Circumstances caused Lafayette to remain in Europe, and his visit to America was deferred more than a quarter of a century, when he came as the Nation's Guest.

Dumas's pamphlet, to which we have just alluded, and the author's accompanying letter, awakened pleasant emotions in the bosom of Washington, for intelligence of an old companion-in-arms was conveyed. “General Rochambeau,” wrote Dumas, “is still at his country-seat near VendÔme. He enjoys there tolerably good health, considering his great age, and reckons, as well as his military family, amongst his most dear and glorious remembrances, that of the time we had the honor to serve under your command.”

This announcement gave Washington real pleasure, for he had heard from time to time vague rumors of the vicissitudes of Rochambeau—first as field-marshal, in command of the revolutionary army of the north; then as a thwarted and disappointed man, dwelling in retirement; and then as a victim prepared for the guillotine, but saved by a sudden change in public affairs. He was glad to know that the general was enjoying repose in his old age. Rochambeau survived all the tempests of the Revolution, was honored by Napoleon with the cross of grand officer of the Legion of Honor, and a marshal's pension, and died in 1807, at the age of eighty-two years.