In the progress of this system, impiety and infidelity have advanced with gigantic strides. Prodigious crimes heretofore unknown among us are seen....[298]
[270] _The Writings of Thomas Jefferson_, vol. vii, pp. 93 _et seq._ In similar strain, Jefferson wrote Adams a day later, offering his best wishes for his administration, but with the thought of the impending “storm” still well fixed in his mind. _Cf. ibid._, pp. 95 _et seq._ _Cf._ Jefferson’s letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, _ibid._, pp. 113 _et seq._
[271] The following clause in the treaty seemed to afford ample protection to the rights of France: “Nothing in this treaty contained shall, however, be construed or operate contrary to former and existing public treaties with other sovereigns or states.” (_United States Statutes at Large_, vol. viii, p. 128: Article XXV of the treaty.) But France was unable to blind her eyes to the practical consideration that her European enemy, Great Britain, and an American government, suspicious of if not positively antagonistic to French influence, were to be the interpreters of the treaty.
[272] _Annals of Congress_, vol. vii, p. 103.
[273] Gibbs, _Memoirs of the Administrations of Washington and John Adams_, vol. i, p. 416, letter of Uriah Tracy to Oliver Wolcott.
[274] _Works of Fisher Ames_, vol. i. pp. 232 _et seq._, Ames’ letter to Timothy Pickering.
[275] _Cf._ _The Writings of Thomas Jefferson_, vol. vii, pp. 127 _et seq._, letter of Jefferson to Thomas Pinckney. Even Jefferson’s steadfast faith and loyalty to France was momentarily put to rout.
[276] _Cf._ Morison, _The Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis_, vol. i, p. 69, letter of Otis to Gen. William Heath. This letter was published in full in the _Massachusetts Mercury_ of April 17, 1798.
[277] Morison, _The Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis_, vol. i, p. 69.
[278] _The Works of John Adams_, vol. viii, pp. 615, 620. President Adams was fully persuaded that French notions of domination “comprehended all America, both _north_ and _south_”. (_Ibid._) _Cf._ also _Annals of Congress_, vol. vii, p. 1147, speech of Otis on Foreign Intercourse; _American Historical Association Report for 1896_, p. 807, Higginson’s letter to Pickering.