CHAPTER III.

NEGOTIATIONS AND CONVENTION WITH FRANCE.

WHEN Mr. Jefferson was appointed Secretary of State, it became necessary to nominate a successor for the French mission; and certainly, a more perfect contrast to Mr. Jefferson than that successor it would have been impossible to find. Gouverneur Morris sprang from a family which had for generations possessed large wealth and wielded great political influence in New York. His grandfather had been Governor of New Jersey, and Chief Justice of New York. His father had held high judicial office in New York, with jurisdiction extending into the neighboring colonies. His uncle had held both judicial and executive office of the highest rank in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Of his three brothers, one was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, another was Chief Justice of New York, and the third had been for some years an officer in the British army, and a member of Parliament. Mr. Morris himself had taken an active. part in the politics of the United States. He was a member of the Continental Congress, assistant finan

cier to his eminent kinsman, Robert Morris, who was the financial genius of the Revolution, and a member of the convention which framed the Constitution. He was one of Washington's most intimate friends, and had been intrusted by him with the informal negotiations with England, the history of which has already been narrated. He was an accomplished scholar, a thinker of some depth and great quickness, and as an orator he had distinguished himself both in the Congress and in the convention, where his manner was eminently graceful, and his style both pointed and fluent. In spite of an accident by which he had lost a leg, he was a man of elegant address and courtly manners, fond of the pleasant courtesies of society, and an expert in that delicate social science which adds a charm to the warmth of hospitality by the refinement of its display. In more regular times, his presence in Paris would have been agreeable to the court of France, and serviceable to his own government. As it was, never was an ambassador more miserably misplaced. He received his appointment - an appointment very reluctantly confirmed by the Senate in 1792, in Paris, where he had been residing, with short absences, since 1789. In communicating the appointment, General Washington addressed him specially and privately, and stated the objectious which had been made to his nomination. "It was urged," said he, "that in France you were considered as a favorer of the aristocracy, and unfriendly to its Revolution (I suppose they meant the

constitution); that under this impression, you could not be an acceptable character, and, of consequence, you would not be able, however willing, to promote the interest of this country in an essential degree." Whether, at this time, anybody could have served the country "in an essential degree,” may well be doubted; but if there was one man who must have been peculiarly unacceptable to every administration with which he had to deal, from Dumourier, who was Minister of Foreign Affairs when he was presented, to the bloodthirsty ruffians who were in power when he was recalled, Mr. Morris was that man. During the two or three years previous to his appointment, in which he had resided in Paris, he had identified himself, as completely as it was possible for a stranger, with the King's friends. He expressed openly his conviction that the new constitution was a failure; and, through those connected with the court, had submitted to his Majesty the draft of an address to be made when accepting the constitution. The address commences thus:

"GENTLEMEN: It is no longer your King who addresses you. Louis XVI. is only a private individual. You have just offered him the crown, and informed him on what conditions he must accept it. I assure you, gentlemen, that if I were a stranger in France, I would not mount the slippery steps of the throne." It concludes: "I have been a king. Nothing remains for me now either of authority or of influence. Yet I have a last duty to fulfil. It is that of imparting to you my

reflections on your work. I pray you to hear them with serious attention." And then follows a very long, but not very profound political essay, on the faults of the constitution which he had just accepted. Accompanying this strange paper was a still stranger memoir, given to Mons. Montmorin on the 31st of August, 1791. It appears not to have reached the King until after his acceptance of the constitution, and was returned to Mr. Morris, with a request for a translation. It would be useless to review this document, but one paragraph deserves notice. Speaking of the King in the third person, Mr. Morris says: "But it is important for him to show that he has acted consistently. And yet this should be accomplished in such a manner as to produce the effect, without appearing to intend it; because such appearance would place him in the situation of one who defends himself before his judges; and a king should never forget that he is accountable only to God."

That Mr. Morris was entitled to hold his own opinions, and, so long as he was a private person, to advise any policy to which his Majesty thought fit to listen, and to act with any party who had his sympathies, and whose confidence he had, nobody will dispute. But it is equally as indisputable, that any one holding such opinions, and so connected, could be of no possible service either to France or the United States, in a diplomatic capacity, at that time. But Mr. Morris's interference did not end when his public character began.

As minister of the United States, he contrived, and very nearly accomplished, the escape of Louis XVI. from Paris. He became that monarch's agent, by receiving and disbursing a large amount of money; and the unexpended balance of that fund he preserved and accounted for, after the termination of his mission. While it is impossible to attach any moral blame to this conduct, while it is impossible not to sympathize with Mr. Morris's righteous indignation at the horrors with which he was surrounded, while every instinct of common humanity would rejoice at the success of his earnest eudeavor, it is impossible to justify his conduct as the diplomatic representative of the United States. The minister of any other power occupied a different position. The representatives of the kindred Bourbon dynasties, the ambassadors of allied monarchs, would have been justified in regarding Louis as France. Not so with the minister of the United States. They had received from Louis himself notice of his acceptance of the new constitution, and they had expressed their joy at the prospect of a freer life to the French nation. Any difference between the French monarch and the Assembly was a subject purely domestic, and their minister could not interfere with decency. If, after that constitution had gone into operation, such disorganization was the result as dissolved all authority, the course of Mr. Morris was clear; either to disembarrass himself promptly of his diplomatic character, or inform his government of the state of things, and wait their decision.