At the beginning of 1793, Jefferson was not only inclined to treat favorably the new French Government but resented strongly any criticism of it. When he discovered that in several letters his friend and disciple Short had censured the proceedings of the French Jacobins, Jefferson, fearing that he had been corrupted by aristocratic friendships, undertook to set him right on the matter. He took the following view of the situation:
The contest had been between the Feuillant patriots favoring a free constitution with an hereditary executive and the Jacobins who thought that expunging that office was an absolute necessity. The Feuillants had their day and their experiment had failed miserably. The nation was with them in opinion and had finally won. Certainly in the struggle many guilty persons fell without the forms of trial and innocents with them. But altogether they are to be considered as soldiers who have fallen during a battle; their memory will be embalmed by truth and time.
Meanwhile the only thing to consider was that the liberty of the whole world depended on the issue of the contest:
Was ever such a prize won with so little innocent blood? My own affections have been deeply wounded by some of the martyrs to this cause, but rather than it should have failed I would have seen half the earth desolated; were there but an Adam and an Eve left in every country, and left free, it would be better than as it is now.
Short was then severely rebuked for having expressed in conversations sentiments offensive to the French patriots. He was reminded that there were in the United States "some characters of opposite principles hostile to France, and fondly looking to England as the staff of their hopes. Their prospects have certainly not brightened.... The successes of republicanism in France have given the _coup de grace_ to their prospects, and I hope to their projects." This was to be kept in mind by Short, and, as Jefferson intended to retire at an early date, he called his attention to the fact that not knowing who his successor would be and into whose hands his further communications would fall, he had better be prudent and not let his "too great sensibility to the misfortunes of some dear friends obscure his republicanism."[284]