5343. MONARCHY, French Revolution and.—[continued].
President Washington
added that he considered France as the sheet
anchor of this country and its friendship as a
first object. There are in the United States
some characters of opposite principles; some
of them are high in office, others possessing
great wealth, and all of them hostile to France,
and fondly looking to England as the staff of
their hope. * * * They * * * have espoused
[the Constitution] only as a steppingstone
to monarchy, and have endeavored to
approximate it to that in its administration in
order to render its final transition more easy.
The successes of republicanism in France have
given the coup de grace to their prospects, and
I hope to their projects.—
To William Short. Washington ed. iii, 503.
Ford ed., vi, 155.
(Pa.,
1793)
