The Life of John Marshall (Volume 2 of 4)

arers and the shorn. We should always be wit

ent power is to relinquish

nversations on the extraordinary silence of the Government concerning our reception," writes Marshall in his Journal. "The plunder of our commerce s

inister [Talleyrand] ... to pray for a suspension of all further proceed

three days longer but not more.... The existing state of things is to France the most beneficial & the most desirable, but

what to do and "any movement on our part" would relieve her and put the blame on the envoys. "But," records Marshall, "in the address I propose I would say nothing which could give umbrage, & if, as is to be feared, Fra

sian business man called on Pinckney and told him that a Mr. Hottenguer,[615] "a native of Switzerland who had been in America,"[616] and "a gentleman of considerable credit and reputation," would call on Pinckney. Pinckney had met Hottenguer on a former occasion, probably at The Hague. That evening this cosmopolitan agent of

or the pockets of its members and the Foreign Minister which would be "at the disposal of M. Talleyrand." Also a loan must be made to France. Becoming still more explicit, Hottenguer stated the exact amount of financial salve w

poliations committed on our commerce ... & make a considerable loan.... Besides this, added Mr. Hottenguer, there must be something for the poc

odation, to give any countenance whatever to such a proposition would be certainly to destroy that possibility because it would induce France to demand from us terms to which it was impossible for us to accede. I therefore," continues Marshall, "thought we ought, so soon as we could obtain the whole information, to treat the terms as inadmissible and without taking any notice of the

." Hottenguer had no objection, however, to writing out his "suggestions," which he did the next evening.[619] The following morning he advised the envoys that a Mr. Bellamy, "the

e could not completely understand the scope & object of the propositions & conceiv'd that we ought not abruptly object to them." Marshall and Pinckney thought "that they [Talley

l, "a genevan now residing in Hamburg but in Paris on a visit."[621] He went straight to the point. Talleyrand, he confided to the envoys, was "a friend of America ... the kindness and civilities he had personally received in America" had touched his heart; and he was burning

would do his best to get the Directory to receive the Americans if the latter agreed to Talleyrand's terms. Nevertheless, Bellamy "stated explicitly and repeatedly that he was clothed with no authority"-he was not a

ary to the treaty of 1778"; must state "in writing" the depredations on American trade "by the English and French privateers," and must make "a formal declaration" that Adams in his speech to Congress had not referred to the French Government or its agents: if all this were done "the French Republic is disposed to re

the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars bribe; "that," declare the envoys' dispatches to the American Secretary of State, "being completely understood on all sides to be required for the officers of the government, and, therefore, needing no further explanation." When all these conditions wer

rests of our country to permit ourselves, while unacknowledg'd, to carry on this clandestine negotiation with persons who produced no evidence of being authoriz'd by the Directoire or the Minister to treat with us. Mr. Gerry was quite of a cont

take their propositions into consideration-I improperly interrupted him & declared that I wou'd not consent to any proposition of the sort, that the subject was a

o "consult our government" on this express condition only-"that France should previously and immediately suspen

much depressed; the Directory, he declared, would not receive the envoys until the latter had disavowed President Adams's speech, unless they "could find the means to change their [the Dire

of their own honor and the honor of the nation"; they demanded the same treatment formerly accorded to the King; and their "honor mu

Dutch Government would repay ... the money, so that America would ultimately lose nothing" and everybody would be happy. But even if the envoys made the loan in this way, the bribe of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars must be pa

coming from the Directory? It was only his own personal suggestion. Then "what has led to our present conversa

he demands made upon them, Bellamy became excited. The envoys' conduct was not to be borne, he exclaimed; let them beware of the resentment

orldly wisdom. They must remember "the respect which the Directory required"; they must realize that that august body "would exact as much as was paid

ropean diplomacy. Marshall declared that the envoys were there to adjust international differences. If, howeve

o Washington French conditions as he had observed them up to that time. He confirms to the former Pres

abound. The whole earth appears to be in cultivation & the harvests of the pres

aspect. If this be the fact, there will probably remain, notwi

analyzes the economic and c

. War has been made upon the great manufacturing towns & they are in a considerable degree d

t of Rotterdam is purposely left open by the English & their goods are imported by the Dutch

onies with provisions and needing manufactures to be imported for her own consumption.... Fra

a searching commenta

powerfully operating causes by which it has been & will continue to be greatl

an half the land of France has become national.[629] Of this

migrants. Among the emigrants are many whose attachment to their country has never been shaken; & what is re

he district, write & subscribe against any person whatever a charge, that such person is an emigrant, on r

of the fact of emigration, but of the identity of the persons, & if this identity be established, he is instantly fusiller'd

er offended, who have been banished by a terror which the government itself has reprobated, & to permit in ca

n sold as national but which in truth was never so,

ortion of the population of France. They are not only important in consequence of their numbers, but in con

property for its performance. The effect of these circumstances cannot escape your

so disgusted that they were on the point of "returning to America immediately." The continuan

as let out to hardy adventurers the national frigates. Among those who plunder us, who are most active in this infamous busines

f means seem to have acquired gr

ations which may intercept the passage of the spoils they have made on our commerce, to their pockets. The government I

every object which presents itself to them & fabricate in my own mind non-exis

consideration will be sufficiently powerful to check the extremities to which the temper of th

be. A week later, when Marshall wrote the above letter to Washington (October 24, 1797), he reported that "The negotiations with the Emperor of Austria are said not to have been absolutely broken off. Yesterday it was said that peace with him was certain.

script: "The definitive peace is made with the Emperor. You will have seen the conditions

the American envoys. Bellamy came and, Pinckney and Gerry being at the opera, saw Marshall alone. The triumph of Bonaparte was his th

ror of Europe, whose diplomatic right arm he so soon was to become. The next morning the thrifty Hottenguer again visits the envoys. Bonaparte's success in t

ided course in regard to America" if the envoys "could not soften them," exclaims Talleyrand's solicitous messenger. Surely the envoys

, he cries, of the "power and violence of France." Think of the present danger the envoys are in. Think of the wisdom of "softening the Directory." But he hints that "the Dire

ican "situation was more ruinous than a declared war could be"; for now American "c

er passionately cries out; "it is money;

nswer to that deman

guer, "you have not!

ts Pinckney; "no

n claims; care nothing even for the French colonies; "consider themselves as perfectly invulnerable" from the United States. Money is the only thing that will interest such terrible m

t tenacious go-between. Does not your Government "kno

spected such a state of things,

information.... Hamburgh and other states of Europe were obliged to buy peace ... nothing cou

tterances ever made by him more clearly reveal the mettle of the man; and none better show his co

OTESWORTH

That America had taken a neutral station. She had a right to take it. No nation had a right to force us out of it. That to lend ... money to a belligerent power abounding in every thing requisite for war but money was to relinquish our neutrality and take part in the war. To l

a was a great, & so far as concerned her self-defense, a powerful nation. She was able to maintain her independence & must deserve to lose it if she permitted it t

her independence it was most probable that she would not in future be afraid as she had been for four years past-but if she now surrendered her rights

ng dialogue between the French bribe procurers and the American envoys. Day after day, week after week, the plot ran on like a play upon the stage. "A Mr. Hauteval whose fortune lay in the island of St. Dom

spectful" to their country, they could not visit the Minister of Foreign Affairs "in the existing state of things ... unless he should expressly signify his wish" to see them "& would

d Hottenguer makes the most of this. "The power and haughtiness of France," the inevitable destruction of England, the terrible consequences to America, are revealed to the Americans. "Pay by way of fees" the t

owners. They will not, was the answer. Will the Directory stop further outrages on American commerce, ask the envoys? Of course not, exclaims Hottenguer. We do "not so much regard a little money as [you] said,

d the loan, and held a new decree of the Directory before Gerry, but proposed to withhold it for a week so that the Americans could think it over. Gerry hastened to his colleagues with the news. Marshall a

onnected with Bonaparte and the army in Italy. Let Gerry ponder over that! "The fate of Venice was one which might befall the United States," exclaimed Talleyrand's mouthpiece; and let Gerry not permit Marshall and Pinckney to

Foreign Minister and Directory, they now went still further. The door of the chamber of horrors was now opened wide to the

f this government, you will unite them in their resistance to those demands. You are mistaken; you ought to know that the diplomatic skill of France and the means she possesses in your country are sufficient to enable her, with the French p

the obstinate Marshall pause. For the envoys knew it to be true. There was a French party in America, and there could be little doubt that it was constantly growing stronger.[641] Genêt's reception had made that plain. The outbursts

overnment of the United States.[642] Thorough information of the state of things in the young country across the ocean had emboldened Barras, upon taking leave of Monroe, to make a direct appeal to the American people in disregard of their own Government, and, indeed, almost openly against it. The threat, by Talleyrand's agents, of the force which France could exert in America, was thoroughly understood by the envoys. For, as we have seen, the

before the President, in 1797, had called Congress in special session on French affairs, "the active and incessant man?uvres of French agents in" America made William Sm

guer that they thought it "degrading our country to carry on further such an indirect intercourse"; and that they "would receive no propositions"

stituted the Mission, the difference between the two nations would have been accommodated before this time." Talleyrand was even prepar

eal on themselves when they undertook to say how the Directory would have received Colonel Bu

arshall. "It appears to me that for three envoys extraordinary to be kept in Paris thirty days without being received can only be designed to degrade & humiliate their country & to postpone a consideration of its just & reasonable complaints till

wer of the Administration [Directory]," says Marshall, "to circulate by means of an enslaved press prec

immediately affect the interior of the nation. With respect to its designs against America it experiences not so much difficulty as ...

nd to continue the war and peace with England ... will put us more in her [France's] power.... Our situation is more intricate and difficult than you can believe.... The demand for money has been again repeated. The last address to us ... concluded ... that the French party in America would throw all the blame of a rupture on the federalists.... We were warned of the fate of Venice. All these conversations are preparing for a public letter but the dela

and delayed. "We are not yet received," wrote the envoys to Secretary of State Pickering, "and the condemnation of our vessels ... is unremittingly continued. Frequent and urgent attempts have been made to inveigle us again into negot

self, he was far more concerned as to the health of his wife, from whom he had heard nothing since leaving America. Marshall writes her a

not permit myself for a moment to suspect that you are in any degree to blame for this. I am sure you have written often to me but unhappily for me your letters have not found me. I fear they will not. They ha

s at furthest & such is my impatience to see you & my dear children that I had determined to risk a winter passage." He asks his wife to reques

terests the heart. Every day you may see something new magnificent & beautiful, every night you may see a spectacle which astonishes & enchants the imagination. The most lively fancy aided by the strongest description c

days in a house where I kept my own apartments perfectly in the style of a miserable old bachelor without any mixture of female society. I now have rooms in the house of a very accomplished a ve

& I ... can venture to assert that no consideration would induce me ever again to consent to place the Atlantic between

ning of their experiences, King writes that "I will not allow myself yet to despair of your success, though my apprehensions are greater than my hopes." Ki

ossible, to effectuate a change in our administration, and to oblige our present President [Adams] to resign," and further adds that th

... The American Jacobins here pay him [Gerry] great Court."[655] The little New Englander already was yielding to the seductions of Talleyrand, and was also responsive

into absolutism. Early in December Bonaparte arrived in Paris. Swiftly the Conqueror had come from Rastadt, traveling through France incognito, after one of his lightning-flas

French, clad in the garments of a plain citizen, slipped unnoticed through the crowds. He would meet nobody but scholars and savants of world renown. These

embourg. The scene flames with color: captured battle-flags as decorations; the members of the Directory appareled as Roman Consuls; foreign ministers in their diplomatic costumes; officers in their uniforms; women brilliantly attired in the he

publicanism. Marshall beheld no devotion here to equal laws which should shield all men, but only adoration of the sword-wielder who was strong enough to rule all men. In the fragile, eagle-faced little warrior,[

the time when the French Revolution was just sprouting; and he foresaw only that beautiful ide

rnment; and when military glory in the name of liberty had become the deity of the people. So where Jefferson expec

TNO

l's Journal,

urray records the effect on Gerry, who had written to his friends in Boston of "how han

oliteness for deference to his rank of which he rarely loses the idea.... Gerry is no more fit to enter the labyrinth of Paris as a town-alone-than an innocent is, much less formed to play a game with the political genius of that city ... without some very steady friend at his el

shall's J

b., Oct

helped Marshall's brother negotiate the F

ll's Journal

or. Rel., ii, 158; Ma

hall's Jou

Prs., For. R

l's Journal,

l's Journal,

Supr

n ships, thus nullifying the declaration in the Franc

Prs., For. R

, Oct. 20, 10. Am. St. P

l's Journal,

Prs., For. Rel

Prs., For. Rel

ds, Marshall refers to

th), 1797: Amer. Hist. Rev., Jan., 1897, ii, 301-03; also, W

ll's Journal

Prs., For. Rel

case by Marshall is given in the dispatches, which Marshall prepared as c

l's Journal,

Rel., ii, 163; Marshall's

ll's Journal

l's Journal,

Prs., For. R

ere are, in America, only two parties, the one entirely devoted to France and the other to Eng

l, Oct. 30, 25-26; Am S

he utmost in favor of his election [in 1796]; ... they made a great point of his success." (Harper to his Con

pra, chap. i

o King, June 25, 1

urray, March 31

Philadelphia, April 3

Prs., For. Rel

ll's Journal

] Ib

ll's Journal

MS., Lib. Cong. Lee was Attorney-Gene

, Nov. 7, 8, 9, 10, a

Prs., For. R

his wife, Paris,

, 1797; enclosing Dispatch no. 52 to Pinckney; King,

g, Paris, Dec. 14, 17

ed some difficulty on account of the vulgarity of the directors' wives who, of course, enjoyed precedence over all other ladies."

so much do the halo of victory, fine eyes, a pale and almost consumptive