3075. FOREIGN INFLUENCE, French.—[continued].
Those [members of Congress]
who have no wish but for the peace of
their country, and its independence of all foreign
influence, have a hard struggle indeed,
overwhelmed by a cry as loud and imposing
as if it were true, of being under French
influence, and this raised by a faction composed
of English subjects residing among us,
or such as are English in all their relations
and sentiments. However, patience will bring
all to rights, and we shall both live to see the
mask taken from their faces, and our citizens
sensible on which side true liberty and independence
are sought.—
To Horatio Gates. Washington ed. iv, 178.
Ford ed., vii, 131.
(Pa.,
May. 1797)