In pursuance of the instructions which had been given by the
President, the governor immediately sent Mr. Secretary Dallas for the
purpose of prevailing on Mr. Genet to relieve him from the employment
of force, by detaining the vessel in port until the arrival of the
President, who was then on his way from Mount Vernon. Mr. Dallas
communicated this message to the French minister in terms as
conciliatory as its nature would permit. On receiving it, he gave a
loose to the most extravagant passion. After exclaiming with vehemence
against the measure, he complained, in strong terms, and with many
angry epithets, of the ill treatment which he had received from some
of the officers of the general government, which he contrasted with
the cordial attachment that was expressed by the people at large for
his nation. He ascribed the conduct of those officers to principles
inimical to the cause of France, and of liberty. He insinuated that,
by their influence, the President had been misled; and observed with
considerable emphasis, that the President was not the sovereign of
this country. The powers of peace and war being vested in congress, it
belonged to that body to decide those questions growing out of
treaties which might involve peace or war; and the President,
therefore, ought to have assembled the national legislature before he
ventured to issue his proclamation of neutrality, or to prohibit, by
his instructions to the state governors, the enjoyment of the
particular rights which France claimed under the express stipulations
of the treaty of commerce. The executive construction of that treaty
was neither just nor obligatory; and he would make no engagement which
might be construed into a relinquishment of rights which his
constituents deemed indispensable. In the course of this vehement and
angry declamation, he spoke of publishing his correspondence with the
officers of government, together with a narrative of his proceedings;