3138. FRANCE, Federalist Hostility to.—[further continued] .
President [Adams] has
appointed, and the Senate approved Rufus
King, to enter into a treaty of commerce with
the Russians, at London, and William Smith
(Phocian) Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary, to go to Constantinople
to make one with the Turks. So that as
soon as there is a coalition of Turks, Russians
and English, against France, we seize
that moment to countenance it as openly as
we dare by treaties, which we never had with
them before. All this helps to fill up the
measure of provocation towards France, and
to get from them a declaration of war, which
we are afraid to be the first in making.—
To Edmund Pendleton. Washington ed. iv, 289.
Ford ed., vii, 358.
(Pa.,
Feb. 1799)
