The Life of George Washington, Vol. 5 | Page 4

real liberty, and approving unequivocally
the republican form of government, he hoped for a favourable result
from the efforts which were making to establish that form, by the great

ally of the United States; but was not so transported by those efforts, as
to involve his country in their issue; or totally to forget that those aids
which constituted the basis of these partial feelings, were furnished by
the family whose fall was the source of triumph to a large portion of his
fellow citizens.
He therefore still preserved the fixed purpose of maintaining the
neutrality of the United States, however general the war might be in
Europe; and his zeal for the revolution did not assume so ferocious a
character as to silence the dictates of humanity, or of friendship.
Not much time elapsed before the firmness of this resolution was put to
the test.
[Sidenote: War between Great Britain and France.]
Early in April, the declaration of war made by France against Great
Britain and Holland reached the United States. This event restored full
vivacity to a flame, which a peace of ten years had not been able to
extinguish. A great majority of the American people deemed it criminal
to remain unconcerned spectators of a conflict between their ancient
enemy and republican France. The feeling upon this occasion was
almost universal. Men of all parties partook of it. Disregarding totally
the circumstances which led to the rupture, except the order which had
been given to the French minister to leave London, and disregarding
equally the fact that actual hostilities were first commenced by France,
the war was confidently and generally pronounced a war of aggression
on the part of Great Britain, undertaken with the sole purpose of
imposing a monarchical government on the French people. The few
who did not embrace these opinions, and they were certainly very few,
were held up as objects of public detestation; and were calumniated as
the tools of Britain, and the satellites of despotism.
Yet the disposition to engage in the war, was far from being general.
The inclination of the public led to a full indulgence of the most
extravagant partiality; but not many were willing to encounter the
consequences which that indulgence would infallibly produce. The
situation of America was precisely that, in which the wisdom and

foresight of a prudent and enlightened government, was indispensably
necessary to prevent the nation from inconsiderately precipitating itself
into calamities, which its reflecting judgment would avoid.
As soon as intelligence of the rupture between France and Britain was
received in the United States, indications were given in some of the
seaports, of a disposition to engage in the unlawful business of
privateering on the commerce of the belligerent powers. The President
was firmly determined to suppress these practices, and immediately
requested the attention of the heads of departments to this interesting
subject.
[Sidenote: Queries put by the president to his cabinet in relation to the
conduct proper to be adopted by the American government in
consequence of this event.]
As the new and difficult situation in which the United States were
placed suggested many delicate inquiries, he addressed a circular letter
to the cabinet ministers, inclosing for their consideration a well
digested series of questions, the answers to which would form a
complete system by which to regulate the conduct of the executive in
the arduous situations which were approaching.[3]
[Footnote 3: See note No. I. at the end of the volume.]
These queries, with some of the answers of them, though submitted
only to the cabinet, found their way to the leading members of the
opposition; and were among the unacknowledged but operating pieces
of testimony, on which the charge against the administration, of
cherishing dispositions unfriendly to the French republic, was founded.
In taking a view of the whole ground, points certainly occurred, and
were submitted to the consideration of the cabinet, on which neither the
chief magistrate nor his ministers felt any doubt. But the introduction of
questions relative to these points, among others with which they were
intimately connected, would present a more full view of the subject,
and was incapable of producing any mischievous effect, while they
were confined to those for whom alone they were intended.

In the meeting of the heads of departments and the attorney general,
which was held in consequence of this letter, it was unanimously
agreed, that a proclamation ought to issue, forbidding the citizens of the
United States to take part in any hostilities on the seas, with, or against,
any of the belligerent powers; warning them against carrying to any of
those powers articles deemed contraband according to the modern
usages of nations; and enjoining them from all acts inconsistent with
the duties of a friendly nation towards those at war.
With the