nation than to establish a national character of their own; and that, unless the virtuous and independent men of this country will come forward, it is not difficult to predict the consequences.  Such is my decided opinion.”  He felt, as he wrote to Hamilton at the close of his administration, that “the conduct of France towards this country is, according to my ideas of it, outrageous beyond conception; not to be warranted by her treaty with us, by the law of nations, by any principle of justice, or even by a regard to decent appearances.”  This was after we had begun to reap the humiliations which Monroe’s folly had prepared for us, and it is easy to understand that Washington regarded their author with anything but satisfaction or approval.

The culprit himself took a very different view, came home presently in great wrath, and proceeded to pose as a martyr and compile a vindication, which he entitled “A View of the Conduct of the Executive,” and which surpassed in bulk any of the vindications in which that period of our history was prolific.  It was published after Washington had retired to private life, and did not much disturb his serenity.  In a letter to Nicholas, on March 8, 1798, he said:  “If the executive is chargeable with ’premeditating the destruction of Mr. Monroe in his appointment, because he was the centre around which the Republican party rallied in the Senate’ (a circumstance quite new to me), it is to be hoped he will give it credit for its lenity toward that gentleman in having designated several others, not of the Senate, as victims to this office before the sacrifice of Mr. Monroe was even had in contemplation.  As this must be some consolation to him and his friends, I hope they will embrace it.”

Washington apparently did not think Monroe was worthy of anything more serious than a little sarcasm, and he was quite content, as he said, to leave the book to the tribunal to which the author himself had appealed.  He read the book, however, with care, and in his methodical way he appended a number of notes, which are worth consideration by all persons interested in the character of Washington.  They are especially to be commended to those who think that he was merely good and wise and solemn, for it would be difficult to find a better piece of destructive criticism, or a more ready and thorough knowledge of complicated foreign relations, than are contained in these brief notes.  His own opinion of Monroe is concisely stated in one of them.  Referring to one of that gentleman’s statements he said:  “For this there is no better proof than his own opinion; whilst there is abundant evidence of his being a mere tool in the hands of the French government, cajoled and led away always by unmeaning assurances of friendship.”  With this brief comment we may leave the Monroe incident.  His appointment was a mistake, and increased existing complications, which were not finally settled until the next administration.