Pacificus had borne fruit, and, when Congress reassembled, Washington's public censure of the acts of the French minister was received with general approbation.

It was in this position of affairs, that Jefferson was seized with an intense desire for retirement and philosophic leisure. As if to signalize his withdrawal from office, by something more creditable than his late performances, he produced a very able report on the commercial relations of the country, in which he pointed out the various restrictions and prohibitions that embarrassed the trade of America, and suggested either friendly arrangements with foreign nations to remove them, or else a system of countervailing duties. Allowing for the notions of commercial policy then in vogue, and a certain latent prepossession against England, this document appears to have had considerable merit, and went far to redeem the reputation of its author. It was to have been his last act, but his old friend Genet would not let him depart in peace. The restless envoy now sent him translations of the instructions of the French Government, and desired, that the President should lay them officially before Congress, adding that he would furnish him in

succession with copies of other papers for the same purpose. Jefferson wished to escape the responsibility of answering this offensive letter; but Washington expressed a strong wish that the reply should bear the signature of the Secretary of State, and it was sent accordingly, in these terms:-"I have it in charge to observe that your functions, as the missionary of a foreign nation here, are confined to the transaction of the affairs of your nation with the Executive of the United States; that the communications, which are to pass between the executive and legislative branches, cannot be a subject for your interference; and that the President must be left to judge for himself what matters his duty or the public good may require him to propose to the deliberations of Congress. I have, therefore, the honour of returning you the copies sent for distribution, and of being with great respect, sir, your most obedient and most humble servant." Such was the end of that famous political friendship, and of all those wonderful raptures of international enthusiasm!

The parting words of Jefferson to Washington were: "I carry into my retirement a lively sense of your goodness, and shall continue gratefully to

remember it."-Mr. Randolph succeeded him as Secretary of State, and Mr. William Bradford, of Pennsylvania, became Attorney-General.

But they had not yet done with Genet. It was discovered that he had sent emissaries to Kentucky (then lately admitted as a State of the Union) to enrol American citizens for an attack on the Spanish possessions in the South, and that he was trying to organize a similar expedition in Carolina and Georgia. A cabinet-council was summoned, in which it was determined to supersede his functions, and deprive him of the privileges of an envoy; and Hamilton was charged to prepare a message to Congress in justification of the measure. Before it could be executed, however, news arrived from France that Genet was recalled from his mission, and that all his acts were disavowed by the Committee of Public Safety, then sitting in Paris. Condemned for the failure of intrigues, which would have been sanctioned if successful, Genet was too wise a man to trust himself to the tender mercies of his beloved republic. He had no ambition to finish his career on the scaffold, and preferred the safety of a private life in America, to the honours of an ex-minister, and the chances of the guillotine

at home. He became a citizen of the United States, and so passed away into obscurity, leaving the reputation of perhaps the most impudent diplomatist that was ever employed by one nation to force its designs upon another.

CHAPTER XIV.

PARTY VIOLENCE.

HE great man who held the highest post in

THE

America, and the great minister who so ably seconded his views, had thus far maintained their position against every attack. But those who could neither confute them in argument, nor circumvent them in policy, had yet a weapon which they could use with impunity against them, because it was one with which brave and honest men scorned to soil their hands-and that weapon was calumny.

In the years which followed the retirement of Jefferson from office, nothing is more remarkable than the persevering, unscrupulous, and almost savage spirit, in which the most eminent characters in the Union were assailed by anonymous writers. It was not only their public measures which were properly and fairly made the subjects for criticism, but their secret motives, and the purity of their