George Washington / Alexander Hamilton on Genêt

Alexander Hamilton


George Washington






Edmond Charles Genêt was sent to the United States in the position of French minister in 1793. It could not have been foreseen that this man would work to further undermine the relationship between the United States and France. His efforts angered George Washington to the point that a diplomatic crisis could not be avoided. Washington wanted to remain neutral in the war between Great Britain and France but France thought the United States owed that country for having saved the budding nation from defeat in the Revolutionary War. The controversy was ultimately resolved.  was Genêt recalled. As a result of the Citizen Genêt affair, the United States established a set of procedures governing neutrality.

Alexander Hamilton: I am terribly sorry, Sir that matters have reached such proportions.

George Washington: This man is a bur in my shoe. I cannot walk a step without feeling pain.

Hamilton: As much as I have little sympathy for the French, the source of our problem has always been that frenchified  troublemaker Jefferson.

Washington: Please not about Jefferson this morning. I have Edmund Charles Genêt giving me indigestion with my meals and nightmares in my sleep. France could not have selected a more antagonist minister to this country.

Hamilton: France will never let us forget the strong support it gave us during the war. We would be naïve to think that the French will not now present a bill for services rendered.

Washington: I labored long over my decision for neutrality and I still believe it was a good decision. Our French-born citizens have criticized me for my stance, especially Mr. Girard who claims we should not forget the French lives that were lost during the war. I am not ungrateful but a new and developing nation cannot afford to make enemies by plunging again into war. Our resources and efforts must be used in building a strong and independent republic.

Hamilton: In that time of need and despair, we would have made a contract with the devil.

Washington: It is not as though the French helped us for altruistic reasons. We have a significant monetary debt to pay.

Hamilton: French policymakers needed the United States to help defend France’s colonies in the Caribbean – either as a neutral supplier or as a military ally.

Washington: I was twenty-one when Virginia governor Robert Dinwiddie sent me, a young inexperienced officer, to demand that the French abandon the string of forts they were building between Lake Erie and the Forks of the Ohio River. When the French would not comply with my demand I returned to the Ohio Valley with a regiment of Virginia provisional troops and Indian allies and defeated the French. It’s quite possible that they remember that battle and want me to pay in other ways.

Hamilton: Running the risk of provoking your anger, I would like to point out that rather than a long festering anger from your days of Lieutenant Colonel in 1753, it may be a recent irritant in the form of Thomas Jefferson. Bear with me. He spends five years as minister to France and at the end of his tenure in Paris, the French Revolution breaks out. Is that a coincidence or the tireless efforts of a monumental meddler inciting the masses to riot?

Washington: We were discussing the arrogance of Monsieur Genêt. As this nation’s first minister from France, he carries a list of almost impossible requirements. The French assigned Genêt several additional duties: to obtain advance payments on debts that the U.S. owed to France, to negotiate a commercial treaty between the United States and France, and to implement portions of the 1778 Franco-American treaty which allowed attacks on British merchant shipping using ships based in American ports. I will not stand for his attitude or comply with his demands. We must find a way to limit his influence. Do you know who gave Genêt this commission?

Hamilton: Since the start of the French Revolution we have not yet a clear idea of the hierarchy. Perhaps Genêt himself can provide us with answers to this question.

Washington: He arrived at the southern port of Charleston, South Carolina. Is that correct?

Hamilton: Yes, he arrived on April 8th.

Washington: Jefferson reported that he arrived in Philadelphia in May. I suppose he was seeing the sights in Charleston for a short time.

Hamilton: Perhaps, but he also found time to influence and receive the consent of South Carolina governor William Moultrie to establish commissions. These commissions authorized the bearers, regardless of their country of origin, to seize British merchant ships and their cargo for personal profit, with the approval and protection of the French Government.

Washington: That is precisely what I’ve been told. This man comes to America which he arrogantly treats like a subordinate French possession and immediately begins a business of privateering for France. Have you had words with Jefferson on this matter?

Hamilton: Yes, indeed. When Citizen Genêt arrived in Philadelphia to present his credentials, Jefferson informed him that the United States Cabinet considered the outfitting of French privateers in American ports to be a violation of the U.S. policy of neutrality.

Washington: Tell me again why he calls himself “Citizen?”

Hamilton: Before the French Revolution, ministerial positions were filled by members of the lower aristocracy. After so many were executed at the guillotine, the egalitarian term of “Citizen” was adopted.

Washington: How have we come to this unfortunate pass? The politics of France have driven an even deeper division between the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans. We want and need a continued relationship with England while Jefferson and his band prefer supporting the rabble now in control of France.

No comments:

Post a Comment