3137. FRANCE, Federalist Hostility to.—[further continued].
The threatening propositions
founded in the address [of Congress
to the President], are abandoned one by one,
and the cry begins now to be that we have
been called together to do nothing. The
truth is, there is nothing to do, the idea of
war being scouted by the events of Europe;
but this only proves that war was the object
for which we were called. It proves that
the Executive temper was for war; and that
the convocation of the Representatives was
an experiment of the temper of the nation,
to see if it was in unison. Efforts at negotiation
indeed were promised; but such a
promise was as difficult to withhold, as easy
to render nugatory. If negotiation alone had
been meant, that might have been pursued
without so much delay, and without calling
the Representatives; and if strong and earnest
negotiation had been meant, the additional
nomination would have been of persons
strongly and earnestly attached to the
alliance of 1778. War then was intended.—
To Aaron Burr. Washington ed. iv, 185.
Ford ed., vii, 146.
(Pa.,
June. 1797)
