Washington [476]
The political ramifications of the quarrel over the neutrality proclamation were no less far-reaching than the constitutional ones. The dispute over supporting England versus France further polarized an already divided country, and the Republicans sensed, with some satisfaction, that they could capitalize on a deep-seated attachment to France. “The war between France and England seems to be producing an effect not contemplated,” Jefferson observed to Monroe in May in a tone of pleasant surprise. “All the old spirit of 1776 is rekindling.”38
Bringing the controversy to full boil was the arrival in Charleston, South Carolina, on April 8 of the new French minister, Edmond-Charles Genet, who incarnated the new militance of French foreign policy following the king’s deposition. French radicals had taken to hailing each other as citoyen and citoyenne (“citizen” and “citizeness”) to supplant the bourgeois terminology of monsieur and madame, so the new minister became known as Citizen Genet. Gouverneur Morris had already predicted that Washington would find him insufferable and see in him “at the first blush, the manner and look of an upstart.”39 Only thirty years old, well versed in music and foreign languages, with a personality as flamboyant as his flaming red hair, Genet had already rendered diplomatic service in London and St. Petersburg. Dispensing with diplomatic niceties, he would take flagrant liberties and brazenly interfere in American politics.
The rabble-rousing diplomat lost no time in trying to nullify the neutrality proclamation. He set about converting American ships into privateers, manned by American and French sailors, hoping they would pounce on British merchant vessels and bring them into American ports as prizes of war. He also tried to recruit Americans to infiltrate Spanish and British possessions in Louisiana, Florida, and Canada and instigate uprisings. The dizzying acclaim that greeted Genet in Charleston foreshadowed his reception as he worked his way north to Philadelphia. More than a month elapsed before he presented his credentials to Washington; in the meantime he engaged in open politicking along the eastern seaboard, to the delight of Francophile citizens. But to the horror of Federalists, this brash, impetuous man, prone to grand pronouncements, drew huge throngs as he disseminated the messianic message of the French Revolution.
As Washington braced for his advent, he adopted a finely calibrated policy to suit both Hamilton and Jefferson. He would receive Genet, to please Jefferson, but without “too much warmth or cordiality,” to satisfy Hamilton.40 On May 16 Genet arrived in Philadelphia to an enthusiastic popular response. When he addressed a large crowd at the City Tavern, it reacted with hearty shouts and salutations. Slow to perceive Genet’s folly or the way he overplayed his hand, Jefferson at first saw only another grand chapter of the democratic revolution unfolding. “He offers everything and asks nothing” was his early estimate of the ambassador.41When Jefferson presented Genet to Washington, the president received him at the executive mansion with the touch of coolness already decided upon.
The Frenchman’s mere presence in Philadelphia opened floodgates of press criticism. Continuing its vendetta against the president, the National Gazette blasted Washington for toadying to England and showing base ingratitude toward France, complaining that the United States should not “view with cold indifference the struggles of those very friends to support their own liberties against an host of despots.”42 A few days later, in an open letter to Washington, the paper accused him of being isolated from the masses while surrounding himself with sycophants. “Let not the little buzz of the aristocratic few and their contemptible minions,” read the letter, “of speculators, Tories, and British emissaries, be mistaken for the exalted