3168. FRANCE, Reliance on.—
President
Washington observed [that] there was no nation
on whom we could rely, at all times, but
France; and that, if we did not prepare in
time some support, in the event of rupture
with Spain and England, we might be charged
with a criminal negligence. I was much
pleased with the tone of these observations.
It was the very doctrine which had been my
polar star, and I did not need the successes of
the republican arms in France, lately announced
to us. to bring me to these sentiments
* * * I, therefore, expressed to the President
my cordial approbation of these ideas.—
The Anas. Washington ed. ix, 128.
Ford ed., i, 212.
( Dec. 1792)
