navy with which to retaliate.  She meant that there should be no neutrals, and so adopted a policy which would make us the active ally of France.  It was no answer to say, what was perfectly true, that French privateers preyed upon our commerce with that fine indifference to rights and treaties which characterized the governments of the Revolution.  If both sides maltreated us, the natural course was to unite with the power to which we at least owed a debt of gratitude.

About the same time a speech was reported from Quebec, in which Lord Dorchester told the Indians that they should soon take the war-path for England against the United States.  Lord Grenville denied in Parliament, and subsequently to Jay, that the ministry had ever taken any step to incite the Indians against the United States, and the authenticity of Lord Dorchester’s utterances has been questioned in later days; but it was not disavowed at the time, even by Hammond in a sharp correspondence which he held on that and other topics with Randolph.  The speech, as is now known and proved, was probably made, whether it was authorized or not, and it was universally accepted at the moment as both true and authoritative.

This menace of desolating savage war in the West, in addition to the unquestioned outrages to our seamen, the loss of our ships, and the destruction of our commerce, with consequent ruin to all our seaboard towns, led to a general outburst of indignation from men of all parties, and Congress began to prepare for war.  Many of the methods suggested were feeble and inadequate, but there could be no doubt of either the spirit or intentions which dictated them.  News that an order of January 8, 1794, modified that of November 6, and confined the seizure to vessels carrying French property, and reports that some of our vessels were being restored, moderated the movements of Congress, but it was nevertheless evident that a resolution cutting off commercial intercourse with Great Britain would soon pass.  In the existing state of things such a step in all probability meant war, and Washington was thus brought face to face with the most serious problem of his administration.  It did not take him unawares, nor find him unprepared, for he had anticipated the situation, and his mind was made up.  He had no intention of letting the country drift into war without a great effort to prevent it, and the time for that effort had now come.  As in the case of Spain, he was resolved to send a special envoy to make a treaty.  His first choice for this important mission was Hamilton, which, like most of his selections, would have been the best choice that could have been made.  Hamilton, however, was so conspicuous as the great leader of the party which supported both the foreign and domestic policy of the administration, and he was so hated by the opposition, that a loud outcry was at once raised against his appointment.  At that particular juncture it was very important that the envoy should depart