He had made a good choice in Thomas Pinckney, better even than he knew.  Triumphing over all obstacles, with persistence, boldness, and good management, Pinckney made a treaty and brought it home with him.  Still more remarkable was the fact that it was an extremely good treaty, and conceded all we asked.  By it the Florida boundary was settled, and the free navigation of the Mississippi was obtained.  We also gained the right to a place of deposit at New Orleans, a pledge to leave the Indians alone, a commercial agreement modeled on that with France, and a board of arbitration to settle American claims.  All this Pinckney obtained, not as the representative of a great and powerful state, but as the envoy of a new nation, distant, unknown, disliked, and embroiled in various complications with other powers.  Our history can show very few diplomatic achievements to be compared with this, for it was brilliant in execution, and complete and valuable in result.  Yet it has passed into history almost unnoticed, and both the treaty and its maker have been singularly and most unjustly neglected.  Even the accurate and painstaking Hildreth omits the date and circumstances of Pinckney’s appointment, while the last elaborate history of the United States scarcely alludes to the matter, and finds no place in its index for the name of its author.  It was in fact one of the best pieces of work done during Washington’s administration, and perfected its policy on a most difficult and essential point.  It is high time that justice were done to the gallant soldier and accomplished diplomatist who conducted the negotiation and rendered such a solid service to his country.  Thomas Pinckney, who really did something, who did work worth doing and without many words, has been forgotten, while many of his contemporaries, who simply made a noise, are freshly remembered in the pages of history.

There was, however, another nation out on our western and northern border more difficult to deal with than Spain; and in this quarter there was less evasion and delay, but more arrogance and bad temper.  It was to England that Washington turned first when he took up the presidency, and it was in her control of the western posts and her influence among the Indian tribes that he saw the greatest dangers to the continental movement of our people.  Morris, as we have seen, sounded the British government with but little success.  Still they promised to send a minister, and in due time Mr. George Hammond arrived in that capacity, and opened a long and somewhat fruitless correspondence with the Secretary of State on the various matters of difference existing between the two countries.  This interchange of letters went on peaceably and somewhat monotonously for many months, and then suddenly became very vivid and animated.  This was the effect of the arrival of Genet; and at this point begins the long series of mistakes made by Great Britain in her dealings with the United States.