and had consulted the ministry there as to whether they would
receive an American minister. Thence he had returned to Paris,
and at the beginning Of 1792 Washington appointed him minister of
the United States to France.

As an American, Morris's sympathies had run strongly in favor of
the movement to relieve France from the despotism under which she
was sinking, and to give her a better and more liberal
government. But, as the Revolution progressed, he became outraged
and disgusted by the methods employed. He felt a profound
contempt for both sides. The inability of those who were
conducting the Revolution to carry out intelligent plans or
maintain order, and the feebleness of the king and his advisers,
were alike odious to the man with American conceptions of ordered
liberty. He was especially revolted by the bloodshed and cruelty,
constantly gathering in strength, which were displayed by the
revolutionists, and he had gone to the very verge of diplomatic
propriety in advising the ministers of the king in regard to the
policies to be pursued, and, as he foresaw what was coming, in
urging the king himself to leave France. All his efforts and all
his advice, like those of other intelligent men who kept their
heads during the whirl of the Revolution, were alike vain.

On August 10 the gathering storm broke with full force, and the
populace rose in arms to sweep away the tottering throne. Then it
was that these people, fleeing for their lives, came to the
representative of the country for which many of them had fought,
and on both public and private grounds besought the protection of
the American minister. Let me tell what happened in the words of
an eye-witness, an American gentleman who was in Paris at that