and approbation he acted on the prospects, which negotiation held out, and acted with success; and might well say, in relation to this and another incident of his administration, not connected with this subject, that "they were two measures that I recollect with infinite satisfaction, and which will console me in my latest hour."* "He [Mr. Gerry] was nominated and approved and finally saved the peace of the nation; he alone discovered and furnished the evidence that X, Y, and Z, were employed by Talleyrand; and he alone brought home the direct formal official assurances, upon which the subsequent commission proceeded and peace was made."+

Long before this satisfactory declaration was offered to Mr. Gerry, by the distinguished chief from whom his appointment had proceeded, and while yet the public mind was abused by the philippics, which had been launched against his conduct and character, his own conscious rectitude of intention was gratified, and his wounded spirit consoled, and cheered and comforted by high testimonials of approbation bestowed upon him by the great head of the republican party, whose encomiums may be placed in contrast, although they overwhelm by their incomparably superior value

the vituperations of an angry and mortified political rival.*

If it has been the lot of few indivinuals, against whom neither treachery nor corruption could be alleged, to be more severely censured than was Mr. Gerry for his share of this memorable embassy, so probably no man can boast of more ardent or honourable praise. The testimony of the two great statesmen, who by different parties were placed at the head of the nation, and thus together may be said to have represented each separate part of the people, is placed in credit against the charges of that bold account, by which a few intemperate partizans would have made him bankrupt in character and fame.t

How well he discharged the duty assigned to him is yet an open question, which neither the au

* The great length of Mr. Jefferson's letters would of itself prevent their insertion, but there are remarks in them, which communicated as they were under the seal of confidence the author does not feel at liberty to disclose. He represses his desire to publish them with great reluctance.

† A petty punishment was devised by Mr. secretary Pickering for the contumacy of Mr. Gerry.

On June 20, 1799, he thus addresses him, "I consider your stay in France after the 12th of May, when my letter of March 23, 1798 was delivered to you as perfectly gratuitous, and consequently that your salary ceased on May 12, excepting the allowance of one quarter's salary for your return according to usage."

On an appeal to the president, after Mr. Marshall was secretary of state, this decision of the former secretary was reversed.

thority of Adams and Jefferson in his favour, nor of Pickering, such as it is, against him, will conclusively determine. There is an appeal to the people; not to a people excited by intemperate political feeling and party zeal, but to a people calm, intelligent and dispassionate; to posterity, who will set in judgment on the great men of the past age, when the little causes of private hostility shall have been buried in the silence of the grave; posterity who will be able to mark the difficulties, which any measure would have presented, and the thousand roads of deviation with the one solitary and obscure path, which the wise political traveller should have selected and steadily maintained.

CHAPTER VIII.

Commentary on the mission continued.......Further strictures on Mr. Pickering's publication.

Or the circumstances occurring after the departure of the two envoys, the most important are those, which ensued when their despatches had returned from America. These probably changed the whole complexion of the case. Mr. Gerry communicated to Talleyrand at his request the names of those individuals, whose discourse about loans and doceurs was conveyed to the American government. This forms another allegation against the propriety of his conduct.

There is something so ludicrous in finding in the diplomatic despatches of an important embassy grave discourse with people, who have neither local habitation nor a name, save at the end of the alphabet, that it is almost forgotten; these diminutive appellations were inserted not by the envoys but by the secretary of state.*

On the return of these despatches to France and to Europe, the envoys were exhibited as the subjects of an intrigue too base to permit even its agents to be named. But the implication, for in diplomatic arrangements insinuations often supply

* American state papers, vol. 3. p. 475. 2d ed.

the place of facts, plainly was that the French directory or its minister had endeavoured for their own corrupt purposes to impose on the unaccredited envoys, and taking advantage of the isolated condition in which they kept themselves, proposed to open a passage to the French government by bribery and fraud.

Whatever was the truth of the case, no course was left but for the French minister to pretend ignorance of the whole transaction, and demand, with the show of indignation, who it was that thus had offended the government, and tampered with envoys at its court?

The demand being made of the only individual, who was in a condition to answer it, Mr. Gerry might have refused to reply; and his silence would have been trumpeted through Europe as evidence of the fabrication, which in the spirit of a war party its ministers had circulated to rouse the indignation they were desirous of producing.

Or Mr. Gerry might have said, you Mr. minister know who they were: you employed, authorized, countenanced and directed them. You saw them with the American envoys, you knew what they were saying, doing, desiring, soliciting. You knew we refused to accede to their propositions, and you would not receive us. They were your agents, and it is an insult for you to ask met their residence or their name.

To such an honest expression of the truth