9201. X. Y. Z. PLOT, French government and.—
You know what a wicked use
has been made of the French negotiation; and
particularly the X. Y. Z. dish cooked up by
Marshall, where the swindlers are made to appear
as the French government. Art and industry
combined have certainly wrought out of
this business a wonderful effect on the people.
Yet they have been astonished more than they
have understood it, and now that Gerry's correspondence
comes out, clearing the French
government of that turpitude, and showing
them “sincere in their dispositions for peace,
not wishing us to break the British treaty, and
willing to arrange a liberal one with us”, the
people will be disposed to suspect they have
been duped. But these communications are
too voluminous for them, and beyond their
reach. A recapitulation is now wanting
* * *. Nobody in America can do it so
well as yourself * * *. If the understanding
of the people could be rallied to the
truth on this subject, by exposing the dupery
practiced on them, there are so many other
things about to bear on them favorably for the
resurrection of their republican spirit, that a
reduction of the administration to constitutional
principles cannot fail to be the effect.—
To Edmund Pendleton. Washington ed. iv, 274.
Ford ed., vii, 337.
(Pa.,
1799)
