3465. GERRY (Elbridge), French negotiations.—
You suppose that you have been
abused by both parties. As far as has come to
my knowledge, you are misinformed. I have
never seen or heard a sentence of blame uttered
against you by the republicans; unless we were
so to construe their wishes that you had more
boldly cooperated in a project of a treaty, and
would more explicitly state, whether there was
in your colleagues [Marshall and Pinckney]
that flexibility, which persons earnest after
peace would have practiced? Whether, on the
contrary, their demeanor was not cold, re
served, and distant, at least, if not backward?
And whether, if they had yielded to those informal
conferences which Talleyrand seems to
have courted, the liberal accommodation you
suppose might not have been effected, even with
their agency? You fellow citizens think they
have a right to full information in a case of
such great concernment to them. It is their
sweat which is to earn all the expenses of the
war, and their blood which is to flow in expiation
of the causes of it. It may be in your
power to save them from these miseries by
full communications and unrestrained details,
postponing motives of delicacy to those of
duty. It rests with you to come forward independently;
to make your stand on the high
ground of your own character; to disregard
calumny, and to be borne above it on the
shoulders of your grateful fellow citizens; or
to sink into the humble oblivion, to which the
federalists (self-called) have secretly condemned
you; and even to be happy if they will
indulge your oblivion, while they have beamed
on your colleagues meridian splendor.—
To Elbridge Gerry. Washington ed. iv, 272.
Ford ed., vii, 333.
(Pa.,
Jan. 1799)
