A Sovereign People

by Carol Berkin

  2. Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, April 7, 1793, Adams Family Correspondence, Vol. 9, ed. Margaret A. Hogan et al. (Harvard University Press, 2009) pp. 421–422; Samuel Allyne Otis to John Adams, April 17, 1793, FOL.

  3. James Madison to the Minister of the Interior of the French Republic, April 1793, PJM, Vol. 15, p. 4; Thomas Jefferson to William Smith, November 13, 1787, PTJ, Vol. 12, pp. 355–357.

  4. Elkins and McKitrick, The Age of Federalism, p. 322.

  5. John Adams to Tench Coxe, April 25, 1793, FOL.

  2: “I find him to be a great treasure to sustain and employ.”

  6. For a discussion of the various proposed instructions to the minister to the United States, see Regina Katharine Crandall, “Genet’s Projected Attack on Louisiana and the Floridas, 1793–94,” PhD Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1902; Eugene R. Sheridan, “The Recall of Edmond Charles Genet: A Study in Transatlantic Politics and Diplomacy,” Diplomatic History, Vol. 18 (Fall 1994), pp. 463–488; Harry Ammon, The Genet Mission (W. W. Norton, 1973); Albert Hall Bowman, The Struggle for Neutrality: Franco-American Diplomacy During the Federalist Era (University of Tennessee Press, 1974), pp. 42–55.

  7. Ammon, The Genet Mission, pp. 7–8.

  8. George Clinton Genet, Washington, Jefferson, and “Citizen” Genet, 1793 (New York Public Library, 1905), p. 7.

  9. Crandall, “Genet’s Projected Attack,” p. 9.

  3: “FREEMEN, WE ARE YOUR BROTHERS AND FRIENDS.”

  10. Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on the Opinions regarding the Reception of Edmond Genet,” March 30, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 12, pp. 392–393.

  11. James Parton, “The Exploits of Edmond Genet in the United States,” The Atlantic Monthly: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art and Politics, Vol. 31, No. 186 (April 1873), pp. 385–405, 390.

  12. C. L. Bragg, Crescent Moon over Carolina: William Moultrie and American Liberty (University of South Carolina Press, 2013), pp. 249, 253–261; Harlow Giles Ungar, The French War Against America: How a Trusted Ally Betrayed Washington and the Founding Fathers (John Wiley & Sons, 2005), pp. 145–146. For continued infractions of neutrality in South Carolina, see Alexander Hamilton to Isaac Holmes, June 2, 1794, PAH, Vol. 16, pp. 446–447.

  13. George Washington to the Cabinet, April 18, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 12, pp. 452–454.

  14. Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, April 9, 1793, PAH, Vol. 14, pp. 297–299.

  15. Minutes of a Cabinet Meeting, April 19, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 12, pp. 459–460.

  16. For the Proclamation of Neutrality of 1793, see The Avalon Project, Documents in Law History and Diplomacy, Yale University.

  17. [Alexander Hamilton], Enclosure: Answer to Question the 3d. Proposed by the President of the U. States, May 2, 1793, PAH, Vol. 14, pp. 367–396.

  18. [Thomas Jefferson], IV. Opinion on the Treaties with France, April 28, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 25, pp. 608–619.

  19. See, for example, Conversation with George Hammond, March 7–April 2, 1793, PAH, Vol. 14, pp. 193–195; Conversation with George Hammond, June 10–July 6, 1793, PAH, Vol. 14, pp. 525–528; Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, July 7, 1793, PJM, Vol. 15, p. 43.

  4: “The Republics of France and America: may they be forever united in the cause of liberty.”

  20. George Washington to the Earl of Buchan, April 22, 1793, GWP, Presidential Series, Vol. 12, pp. 468–471.

  21. Bernard, Mayo, ed. “Instructions to the British Ministers to the United States, 1791–1812,” No. 3, American Historical Association, (1941), pp. 37–39.

  22. John Steele to Alexander Hamilton, April 30 [1793], PAH, Vol. 14, pp. 358–360.

  23. Alexander Hamilton, On the Reception of Edmond Charles Genet in Philadelphia, May 14–16, 1793, PAH, Vol. 14, pp. 449–450.

  24. Parton, “The Exploits of Edmond Genet in the United States,” pp. 391–393.

  25. Ibid., p. 393.

  26. Ibid., p. 394.

  27. Thomas Jefferson to Jean Baptiste Ternant, May 14, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 42–44.

  28. William Vans Murray to Alexander Hamilton, May 8, 1793, PAH, Vol. 14, pp. 425–428; Memorandum from Alexander Hamilton, May 15, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 12, pp. 577–584.

  29. See The Provisional Executive Council of France to George Washington, January 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 12, pp. 77–79; see also Enclosure: Letter of Credence from the Provisional Executive Council of France, December 30, 1792, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 48–49; The French National Convention to George Washington, December 22, 1792, PGW, Presidential Series, pp. 538–540.

  30. Alexander Hamilton to——, May 18, 1793, PAH, Vol. 14, pp. 473–476.

  31. Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, May 19, 1793, PJM, Vol. 15, pp. 18–20.

  32. Ibid.

  33. Notes on the Citoyen Genet and Its Prizes, May 20, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 71–73.

  34. Ibid.

  5: “Our common enemies are trying to dampen American zeal for liberty.”

  35. Translation: Edmond Genet to Thomas Jefferson, May 22, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 86–87.

  36. Edmond Charles Genet to Thomas Jefferson, May 23, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 98–99; ASP, Foreign Relations, Vol. 1, p. 147.

  37. Notes of a Conversation with George Washington, May 23, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 101–102.

  38. Citizen Genet, Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of France, to Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State of the United States, May 27, 1793, ASP, Foreign Relations, Vol. 1, pp. 149–150; PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 124–129.

  6: “No one has a right to shackle our operations.”

  39. Edmond Charles Genet to Thomas Jefferson, June 1, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, p. 159; Translation, ASP, Foreign Relations, Vol. 1, 151.

  40. Thomas Jefferson to Edmond Charles Genet, June 1 [June 4], 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 160–161; ASP, Foreign Relations, Vol. 1, p. 151.

  41. Thomas Jefferson to Edmond Charles Genet, June 5, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 195–197.

  42. Edmond Charles Genet to Thomas Jefferson, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 231–234; Translation, ASP, Foreign Relations, Vol. 1, p. 151.

  43. Conversation with George Hammond, June 10–July 6, 1793, PAH, Vol. 14, pp. 525–528.

  44. Thomas Jefferson to Edmond Charles Genet, June 11, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, p. 252.

  45. Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, June 13, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 274–277.

  46. Henry Lee to George Washington, June 14, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 13, pp. 77–78.

  47. Edmond Charles Genet to Thomas Jefferson, June 14, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 283–284; Translation, ASP, Foreign Relations, Vol. 1, pp. 156–157.

  48. Edmond Charles Genet to Thomas Jefferson, June 14, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 281–283; Translation, ASP, Foreign Relations, Vol. 1, pp. 152–153; Edmond Genet to Thomas Jefferson, June 15, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 290–292; ASP, Foreign Relations, Vol. 1, p. 157. The case in New York referred to by Genet concerned the ship Republicain, a vessel owned by one Frenchman and commanded by another. According to an affidavit by the French consul in the city, Alexandre Maurice Blanc de Lanautte, Comte d’Hauterive, the governor of New York had ordered a detachment of state militia to detain the Republicain until the president had the facts of the case. At issue was how long a belligerent’s ship must wait in a neutral port before undertaking pursuit of a departed ship belonging to the enemy. Genet insisted that the pursuing ship did not have to honor the customary European twenty-four-hour truce. It had only to commit no hostile action against the enemy on American territory or in American territorial waters. Although the question was submitted to a cabinet meeting on June 17, no decision was made. The US policy on a truce would not be set until six months after Jefferson left office. In June 1794, the new secretary of state, Edmund Randolph, gave the British minister President Washington’s decision: all belligerent warships and privateers would be required to wait twenty-four hours before pursuing an enemy ship that had reached a point “beyond the jurisdictional line of the
United States on the ocean.” See Cabinet Opinion on French Privateers, June 17, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 13, pp. 90–91; and Edmund Randolph to George Hammond, June 19, 1794, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 16, pp. 253–255.

  49. For the use of the term “anglomancy,” see, for example, James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, June 19, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 323–324.

  50. George Hammond to Thomas Jefferson, June 14, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 284–285; Cabinet Opinion on French Privateers, June 17, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 296–297; Thomas Jefferson to George Hammond, June 19, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, p. 321.

  51. Thomas Jefferson to Edmond Genet, June 17, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 297–300.

  52. Edmond Charles Genet to Thomas Jefferson, June 18, 1793, ASP, Foreign Relations, Vol. 1, p. 158; Thomas Jefferson to Edmond Charles Genet, June 23, PAH, Vol. 15, p. 17; see also Citizen Genet, Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republick, to the Citizens of the United States, June 17, 1793, ASP, Foreign Relations, Vol. 1, p. 158. This address to the citizens of the United States was not published.

  7: “[Genet] has threatened to appeal from The President of The United States to the People.”

  53. For Genet’s comments on Washington, see Francois Louis Michel Chemin Deforgues’s reply to Genet’s Dispatch No. 4, quoted in Crandall, “Genet’s Projected Attack,” pp. 88–91. Edmond Charles Genet to Thomas Jefferson, June 22, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 339–342; Translation, ASP, Foreign Relations, Vol. 1, p. 155; Edmond Charles Genet to Thomas Jefferson, June 22, 1793, ASP, Foreign Relations, Vol. 1, p. 155.

  54. Thomas Jefferson to Edmond Charles Genet, June 23, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, p. 344; Edmond Charles Genet to Thomas Jefferson, June 25, ASP, Foreign Relations, Vol. I, p. 159.

  55. Thomas Jefferson to Edmond Charles Genet, June 29, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, p. 399; Thomas Mifflin to George Washington, June 22, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 13, pp. 126–127; Thomas Mifflin to George Washington, June 22, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 13, p. 127; George Washington to Henry Knox, June 23, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 13, pp. 131–132; Thomas Mifflin to George Washington, June 22, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 13, p. 128; Thomas Jefferson to the Minister Plenipotentiary of France, June 29, 1793, ASP, Foreign Relations, Vol. 1, p. 162; Memorandum from Alexander Hamilton and Henry Knox, July 8, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 13, pp. 185–191; Cabinet Opinion on the Little Sarah (Petite Democrate), July 8, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 13, pp. 180–185; [Thomas Jefferson], Dissenting Opinion on the Little Sarah, July 8, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 449–452; Enclosure: Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on a Conversation with Edmond Genet, July 10, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 13, pp. 202–207; I. Alexander Hamilton’s Questions for the Supreme Court (c. July 18, 1793), PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 527–530.

  56. For Mifflin’s account of the Dallas and Genet meeting, see Thomas Mifflin to George Washington, July 8, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 13, pp. 191–194; see also John Jay and Rufus King, November 26, 1793, in The Historical Magazine: And Notes and Queries Concerning the Antiquities, History and Biography of America, Vol. 10 (Henry B. Dawson, 1866), pp. 333–335; see The Works of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Paul Leicester Ford (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904), Vol. 1, Anas, July 10, 1793.

  57. Enclosure: Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on a Conversation with Edmond Genet, July 10, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 13, pp. 202–207; Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, July 7, 1793, JMP, Vol. 15, p. 43.

  58. Memorandum from Alexander Hamilton and Henry Knox, July 8, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 13, pp. 185–191.

  59. Cabinet Opinion on the Little Sarah (Petite Democrate), July 8, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 13, 180–185.

  60. [Thomas Jefferson], Dissenting Opinion on the Little Sarah, July 8, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 449–452.

  61. Enclosure: Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on a Conversation with Edmond Genet, July 10, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 13, pp. 202–207.

  8: “Is the Minister of the French Republic to set the Acts of this Government at defiance—with impunity?”

  62. The Citizen Genet, Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republic, to Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State, July 9, 1793, ASP, Foreign Relations, Vol. 1, p. 163.

  63. This is the second letter on July 9, 1793, regarding the British privateer, the Jane. See The Citizen Genet, Minister Plenipotentiary of the French republic, to Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State of the United States, July 9, 1793, ASP, Foreign Relations, Vol. 1, p. 163.

  64. George Washington to Thomas Jefferson, July 11, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 13, pp. 211–212; [Thomas Jefferson], Memorandum of a Conversation with Edmond Charles Genet, July 10, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 463–467. For the letters and documents Jefferson forwarded to Washington, see Memorandum from Thomas Jefferson, July 11, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 13, pp. 200–202.

  65. Cabinet Meeting, Opinion on Vessels Arming and Arriving in United States Ports, July 12, 1793, PAH, Vol. 15, pp. 87–88; Thomas Jefferson to Edmond Genet and George Hammond, July 12, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 487–488; I. Alexander Hamilton’s Questions for the Supreme Court, c. July 18, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 527–530.

  66. Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, July 14, 1793, JMP, Vol. 15, p. 44; James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, July 18, 1793, JMP, Vol. 15, pp. 44–45.

  67. Thomas Jefferson to Edmond Charles Genet, c. July 16, 1793 [not sent], PTJ, Vol 26, pp. 510–514.

  68. [Thomas Jefferson], Notes of Cabinet Meeting on Edmond Charles Genet, July 23, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 553–556.

  69. “Pacificus,” June 29, July 3, 6, 10, 13–17, 27, 1793, PAH, Vol. 15, pp. 33–43, 55–63, 65–69, 82–86, 90–95, 100–106, 130–135. “No Jacobin,” No. 1, July 31, 1793, PAH, Vol. 15, pp. 145–151.

  70. [Thomas Jefferson], Notes of Cabinet Meeting on Edmond Charles Genet, July 23, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 553–556; George Washington to Henry Lee, July 21, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 13, pp. 260–262.

  9: “He will sink the republican interest if they do not abandon him.”

  71. Memorial From Edmond Charles Genet, May 27, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 130–131; Edmund Randolph’s Opinion on the Case of Gideon Henfield, May 30, 1793, ASP, Foreign Relations, Vol. 1, p. 152; Citizen Genet to Mr. Jefferson, June 1, 1793, ASP, Foreign Relations, Vol. 1, p. 151; Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Genet, June 1, 1793, ASP, Foreign Relations, Vol. 1, p. 151. For the record of the indictment and trial, see State Trials of the United States during the Administrations of Washington and Adams, With References, Historical and Professional, and Preliminary Notes on the Politics of the Times, ed. Francis Wharton (Carey and Hart, 1849), pp. 49–89.

  72. Notes of Cabinet Meeting on Neutrality, July 29, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 579–580; Cabinet Opinion on the Rules of Neutrality, August 3, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 13, pp. 325–327; Cabinet Meeting: Opinion Respecting Certain French Vessels and Their Prizes, August 5, 1793, PAH, Vol. 15, pp. 181–184.

  73. Cabinet Meeting: Notes Concerning the Conduct of the French Minister, August 2, 1793, PAH, Vol. 15, pp. 159–162; Ford, The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 1, Anas, Aug. 1, 2, 3, 6.

  74. Ford, The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 1, Anas, Aug. 1, 2, 1793, pp. 305–308.

  75. Charles Francis Adams to John Quincy Adams, July 29, 1793, AP, Adams Family Correspondence, Vol. 9, pp. 440–442; Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, August 3, 1793, PJM, Vol. 15, pp. 50–51.

  76. Thomas Jefferson, Notes of a Conversation with George Washington, August 6, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 627–630.

  10: “We stand united and firm.”

  77. Cabinet Opinion on the Recall of Edmond Genet, August 23, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 13, pp. 530–531; Cabinet Meetings, Proposals Concerning the Conduct of the French Minister, August 1–23, 1793, PAH, Vol. 15, pp. 157–158.

  78. Genet wrote his own call to arms for the Frenchmen in Spanish-held territory. See Marco Sioli, “Citizen Genet and Political Struggle in the Early Republic,” in “Crise et Crise
s,” special issue, Revue Française D’Études Americaines, No. 64 (May 1995), pp. 259–267; on spies, see Pis-Gignouse to Spanish Ambassador, Correspondence of Clark and Genet, Selections from the Draper Collection in the Possession of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, to Elucidate the Proposed French Expedition under George Rogers Clark Against Louisiana in the Years, 1793–94 (Government Printing Office, 1897), p. 1002.

  79. George Rogers Clark to French Minister, February 5, 1793, Correspondence of Clark and Genet, pp. 967–971.

  80. For Jefferson’s minutes of the conversation, see Correspondence of Clark and Genet, pp. 984–985; Elkins and McKitrick, The Age of Federalism, pp. 349–350.

  81. Robert Troup to Alexander Hamilton, August 8, 1793, PAH, Vol. 15, pp. 208–209; Gazette of the United States, August 14, 1793; Daily Advertiser (New York), August 9, 1793.

  82. Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, June 28, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 392–393; Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, August 11, 1793, JMP, Vol. 15, pp. 56–59.

  83. For Genet’s public denial of the threat, addressed to Governor William Moultrie, see The New-York Journal & Patriotic Advertiser, October 23, 1793; Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, September 1, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 27, pp. 6–8; Alexander Hamilton to Rufus King, August 13, 1793, PAH, Vol. 15, pp. 239–242; [Thomas Jefferson], Memorandum of a Conversation with Edmond Charles Genet, July 10, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 522–523.

  84. Edmond Charles Genet to George Washington, August 13, 1793, PGW, Presidential Series, Vol. 13, pp. 436–438.

  85. Thomas Jefferson to Edmond Charles Genet, August 16, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, p. 684.

  86. William Loughton Smith to Alexander Hamilton, August 22, 1793, PAH, Vol. 15, pp. 262–264; Robert Gamble to Thomas Jefferson, August 23, 1793, PTJ, Vol. 26, pp. 746–747; Resolution on Franco-American Relations, c. August 27, 1793, PJM, Vol. 15, pp. 76–80.

  11: “He is abandoned even by his votaries.”