Explanation of in France. But when at last Monroe received a letter from Timothy Pickering, December 1, informing him that the treaty had been ratified by the Senate, and signed by the President, and instructing him as to the defense of it, which he was to make to the French GovMonroe's career ernment, he was placed in an embarrassing position. Filled with the enthusiasm for "liberty, fraternity, and equality," which was "potent enough to drive even wise men into madness," it had been impossible for him to take any but the French view of the relations between the United States and England, or to interpret his instructions from any but that point of view. From such a point of view, he had honestly believed that the object of Jay's mission was to demand satisfaction for injuries. With his passionate wish for France's success, with his intense feeling that she and the United States alone represented the cause of liberty against kings, he had naturally taken the government of France into his entire confidence, and done all that he could do to prepare her to fight the battles of the United States which he was sure would have to be fought by some one. His instructions had reminded him to keep steadily in view the fact that he was to maintain the selfrespect of his own government. But were not France and the United States the two republics of the world, each founded on the doctrine of the inalienable rights of man? For one of these to accept favors of the other was no more to do violence to its self respect from Monroe's point of view, than it is for a sister to accept favors from her brother. They were allies not merely by treaty, but in spirit, each engaged in a holy crusade for liberty. It was in such a spirit that Monroe had entered upon his mission, and attempted to do its work. But when he was confronted with the fact that to demand reparation for injuries was not the sole object of Jay's mission, when he was informed that a treaty had been made, and when he learned that it had been ratified by the Senate, and signed by the President, when he realized that he had been unwittingly deceiving the French Government, and unintentionally misrepresenting the object of Jay's mission, it was impossible for him to see that the source of it all lay in his own enthusiasm, in his inability to take a cold, judicial, impartial view of his instructions, and of the relations between the United States and England on the one hand, and the United States and France on the other. He believed that his own government had willfully deceived him in order that he in turn might deceive France. He accordingiy refused to obey his instructions; with the case of the United States before him, he refused to state it until the middle of February, 1796, and then only because the French minister of Foreign Affairs informed him that since the ratification of Jay's treaty, the Directory regarded the alliance between France and the United States as at an end, and that Adet was about to be recalled, and that a special minister was about to be sent to the United States to make this announcement. Then at last Monroe apparently began to realize that he was, in truth, the minister of the United States. He defended Jay's treaty, and replied to all the charges brought against the United States by the French Government. But his zeal was too tardy to satisfy his own government, especially when it had been preceded by such an inability to really separate the interests of France from those of his own country. Washington accordingly decided to recall him, and in September, 1796, Charles C. Pinckney was appointed in his stead. Perhaps the sharpest criticism on his career in France ever made is found in a paragraph in Washington's Farewell Address given to the American people the very month in which he recalled Monroe. "Constantly keeping in view that 'tis folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another, that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet with being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more, there can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. "Tis all illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard." Washington's farewell address. QUESTIONS. 1. How did France interpret the nineteenth article of the treaty of 1778? 2. How did Adet attempt to influence the presidential election? 3. Why was Gouverneur Morris recalled from France? 4. What seems to have been Monroe's object? 5. Describe his address in the hall of the French National Convention. 6. What did he say to the French government about its infraction of the treaty with the United States? 7. What did he endeavor to persuade the United States to do with reference to the war between France and England? 8. How did he purpose to secure protection against Algiers and get possession of the western posts? 9. Why did he wish to communicate Jay's treaty to the French government? 10. Draw a parallel between Jay and Monroe. 11. Account for his conduct in France. 12. Why did he refuse to state the American view of Jay's treaty? 13. When was he recalled, and why? 14. What seems to have been Washington's opinion of him? 15. Shortly after Monroe's recall, Gallatin wrote to his wife as follows: "The time they chose to recall Monroe, was when from his correspondence they had reason to believe he had succeeded in allaying the resentment of the French. Then, thinking they had nothing to fear from France, and that they had used Monroe so as to obtain every service that he could render, they recalled him with the double view of giving to another person the merit of terminating the differences and throwing upon him the blame, if any, that existed before." Discuss and explain. CHAPTER XVI. THE EXTRA SESSION OF 1797. In the presidential election of 1796, Jefferson received sixty-eight and John Adams seventy-one votes. Adams was therefore elected President, and Jefferson Vice-president. When Adams was inaugurated in March, Pinckney. 1797, our relations with France were in a France rejects very critical condition. The conduct of the Republicans in the United States and of Monroe in France, had borne their natural fruits. Charles C. Pinckney reached Paris as Monroe's successor in December, 1796. The day after his arrival (December 9) he and Monroe waited upon De La Croix, the French minister of foreign affairs, Pinckney presenting his credentials and Monroe his letters of recall. These the minister promised to submit to the French Directory, and to send Pinckney and his secretary "letters of hospitality," without which, according to the laws of France, no stranger could remain in Paris. A few days later (December 12) De La Croix notified Monroe that the Directory would not receive another minister from the United States until the grievances of which France complained were redressed. "But this breach," he added, in the style of Genet, "did not oppose the continuance of affection between the French Republic and the American |