Irving,' a clerk in the treasury, an Irishman, is the author of the pieces now coming out under the signature of Veritas,' & attacking the President. I have long suspected this detestable game was playing by the fiscal party, to place the Presidt. on their side.

July 5. 1793. A meeting desired by A. H. at my office. Himself, Knox & myself met accdly. He said that according to what had been agreed on in presence of the President, in conseqce of Mr. Genet's declining to pay the 45,000 D. at his command in the treasury to the holders of the St. Domingo bills, we had agreed to pay the holders out of other monies to that amount: that he found however that these bills would amount to 90,000 D. and the question was whether he should assume 90,000 to be paid out of the September instalment. This he said wd. enable holders to get discounts at the banks, would, therefore be equal to ready money, & save them from bankruptcy. Unanimously agreed to.

We also agreed to a lre written by Genl. Knox to Govr. Mifflin to have a particular inquiry made whether the Little Sarah' is arming &c or not.

I read lre from the Presidt. about the Swallow lre of marck at N. York. compld. of by the French Consul. Agreed as the case was new, to let it wait for the Presidt."

I read also Govr. Lee's Ire abt the Govr. of S. C.'s proclamn. respectg pestilential disease in W. Indies. We are all of opn the v evidence is too slight for interferce. & doubt the power to interfere. Therefore let it lie.

Mr. Genet called on me and read to me very rapidly instrns he Į

'Presumably intended for William Irvine, a clerk in the Controller's Office. 'The first number appeared in Freneau's National Gazette of June 12, 1793, and was answered in subsequent issues by "A Friend to Peace." Genet was at this time writing to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs: "Jefferson, Secretary of State, appeared to me in the beginning better disposed to second our views. He has published in the newspapers, over the name of Veritas, three letters against the system of these gentlemen."

A vessel then in the Deleware river, which was re-named the Le Petit Democrat.

4 It was decided August 5th that there was no ground for an order in this.

case.

had prepared for Michaud' who is going to Kentucky, an address to the inhab. of Louisiana, & another to those of Canada. In these papers it appears that besides encouraging those inhabitants to insurrection, he speaks of two generals at Kentucky who have proposed to him to go & take N. Orleans if he will furnish the exp. about £3,000 sterl. He declines advancing it, but promises that sum ultimately for their expenses, proposes that officers shall be commissd. by himself in Kentucky & Louisiana, that they shall rendezvous out of the territories of the U. S. suppose in Louisiana, & there making up a battalion to be called the of inhabitants of Louisiana & Kentucky and getting what Indns. they could, to undertake the expedn against N. Orleans, and then Louisiana to be established into an independant state connected in commerce with France and the U. S. That two frigates shall go into the river Mississipi and cooperate against N. Orleans. The address to Canada, was to encourage them to shake off English yoke, to call Indians to their assistance, and to assure them of the friendly disposns of their neighbors of the U. S.

He said he communicated these things to me, not as Secy. of state, but as Mr. Jeff. I told him that his enticing officers & souldiers from Kentucky to go against Spain, was really putting a halter about their necks, for that they would assuredly be hung, if they commd. hostilities agt. a nation at peace with the U S. That leaving out that article I did not care what insurrections should be excited in Louisiana. He had, about a fortnight ago sent me a commn for Michaud as consul of France at Kentucky, & desired an Exequatur. I told him this could not be given, that it was only in the ports of the U S. they were entitled to consuls, & that if France shd have a consul at Kentucky Engld and Spain would soon demand the same, & we shd have all our interior country filled with foreign agents. He acquiesced, & asked me to return the commission & his note, which I did. But he desired I would give Michaud a lre of introduction for Govr. Shelby. I sent him

1 André Michaux, who was appointed by Genet to organize a force to seize Louisiana for the French, on Spain's declaring war against that nation. He apparently never went further in the attempt. Cf. Gayarre's History of La., Spanish Domination, 341.

one a day or two after. He now observes to me that in that letter I speak of him only as a person of botanical & natural pursuits, but that he wished the Govr. to view him as something more, as a French citizen possessing his confidence. I took back the letter,

& wrote another. See both.

July 10, 1793.1

The Secretary of the Treasury having communicated to General Knox and myself, that he had been informed that the Little Sarah had much augmented her arms, and was greatly advanced in her preparations, we concurred in opinion, that the governor (of Pennsylvania) should be desired to have a re-examination of the fact. It was done, and a report made, that she had entered the port with only four guns, and now had fourteen. The next day, being Sunday the 7th instant, I received a letter from the governor by express, informing me, that he understood she would sail that day. I went instantly to town. He told me he had received the intelligence the night before, and had sent Mr. Dallas at midnight to M. Genet. Mr. Dallas told me, that, on his proposing the subject of detaining the vessel, he flew into a great passion, talked extravagantly, and concluded by refusing to order the vessel to stay.

As the governor had sent for General Knox also, I told him I would in the meantime go to M. Genet, and speak with him on the subject. I went. On his coming into the room I told him I had called on the subject of the Little Sarah; that our information was, that she was armed contrary to the decision of the President, which had been communicated to him, and that she would sail that day; and I requested that he would detain her till we could inquire into the fact, and lay it before the President, who would be here on Wednesday.

He took up the subject instantly in a very high tone, and went into an immense field of declamation and complaint. I found it

'Jefferson's rough draft of this paper was retained by him in the Anas, but as it is abbreviated to an extent that renders it almost unintelligible I have printed it here from the fair copy given to Washington. Cf. Jefferson's. Cabinet opinion, post, under July 8, 1793.

necessary to let him go on, and in fact could do no otherwise; for the few efforts, which I made to take some part in the conversation were quite ineffectual. It is impossible for me to state the particulars of what he said. Such of the general topics as I can now recollect were these. He charged us with having violated the treaties between the two nations, and so went into the cases which had before been subjects of discussion; complained that we suffered our flag to be insulted and disregarded by the English; that they stopped all our vessels, and took out of them whatever they suspected to be French property; that they had taken all the provisions he had embarked in American vessels for the colonies; that if we were not able to protect their vessels in our ports, nor their property on the high seas, we ought to permit them to protect it themselves; that they, on the contrary, paid the highest respect to our flag; that, though it was notorious that most of the cargoes sent from America were British property, yet, being in American vessels, or pretended American vessels, they never touched it, and thus had no chance of retaliating on their enemies; that he had been thwarted and opposed in everything he had had to do with the government; that he found himself in so disagreeable a situation, that he sometimes thought of packing up and going away, as he found he could not be useful to his nation in any thing.

He dwelt on the friendly propositions he brought from his nation, on the instructions and dispositions with which he came to do whatever would gratify us; that to such propositions such a return ought not to have been made by the executive, without consulting Congress; and that, on the return of the President, he would certainly press him to convene Congress. He had by this time got into a moderate tone, and I stopped him at the subject of calling Congress, explained our constitution to him, as having divided the functions of government among three different authorities, the executive, legislative, and judiciary, each of which were supreme in all questions belonging to their departments, and independent of the others; that all the questions, which had arisen between him and us, belonged to the executive department, and, if Congress were sitting, could not be carried to them, nor would they take notice of them.

He asked if they were not the sovereign. I told him so, they were sovereign in making laws only, the executive was sovereign in executing them, and the judiciary in construing them where they related to their department. "But," said he, "at least, Congress are bound to see that the treaties are observed." I told him no; there were very few cases indeed arising out of treaties, which they could take notice of; that the President is to see that treaties are observed. "If he decides against the treaty, to whom is a nation to appeal?" I told him the constitution had made the President the last appeal. He made me a bow, and said, that indeed he would not make me his compliments on such a constitution, expressed the utmost astonishment at it, and seemed never before to have had such an idea.

He was now come into perfect good humor and coolness, in which state he may with the greatest freedom be spoken with. I observed to him the impropriety of his conduct in persevering in measures contrary to the will of the government, and that too within its limits, wherein unquestionably they had a right to be obeyed. "But," said he, "I have a right to expound the treaty on our side." 'Certainly," said I, "each party has an equal right to expound their treaties. You, as the agent of your nation, have a right to bring forward your exposition, to support it by reasons, to insist on it, to be answered with the reasons for our exposition where it is contrary; and when, after hearing and considering your reasons, the highest authority in the nation has decided, it is your duty to say you think the decision wrong, that you cannot take upon yourself to admit it, and will represent it to your government to do as they think proper; but in the meantime, you ought to acquiesce in it, and to do nothing within our limits contrary to it."

He was silent as to this, and I thought was sensible it was right. I brought him to the point of the Little Sarah, and pressed his detaining of her till the President's return. "Why detain her?" said he. "Because," said I, "she is reported to be armed with guns acquired here." He said the guns were all French property, and surely we did not pretend to control them in the disposal of their own property; that he could name to me the French vessels, from which he had taken every gun. I told him I would be