Gazette Of The United States & Evening Advertiser

INSTRUCTIONS

From the Constituted Authorities of France,

To CITIZEN GENET,

Minister of the French Republic, to the United States of North-America.

Philadelphia, 20th Dec. 1793; second year of the French Republic, one and indivisible.

Citizen Genet, Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republic to the United States, to M. Jefferson, Secretary of State.

SIR,

The politics of regenerated France, having candor, frankness and publicity for their only basis, the mysterious secrecy of courts being entirely rejected from her councils, and the only art of her public agents being that of using none, I have informed you, that I would publish my correspondence with the federal government, and likewise the instructions that have been given to me by the Executive Council of the French Republic. The sheets which contain my correspondence are not yet printed off ; but those which contain the translation of my instructions being finished, I hasten to enclose to you copies of them. I beg that they may be distributed among the members of Congress, and that you will request the President of the United States to lay them officially before both houses of that legislative body. This first part of the collection, which I announce to you, and which I shall transmit to you in due succession, will enable the representatives of the American people to determine whether my political conduct since I have resided in the United States, has been conformable to the intentions of the French people. This step is a duty which I conceive I owe to my country, and thus leaving it to your sage Legislators to take such measures respecting the points that are in negociation between us as the interest of the United States shall appear to require, nothing will remain for me to do but to prosecute in your courts of Judicature, the authors and abettors of the odious and vile machinations that have been plotted against me by means of a series of impostures which for a while have fascinated the minds of the public, and misled even your first magistrate, with a view to shake at least, if not to break off entirely, the alliance between two nations which every consideration calls upon to unite and rivet still faster the bonds which tie them to each other, at a period when the most imminent danger equally threatens them both.

Accept my respects.

GENET.

INSTRUCTIONS.

Memorial to serve as instructions to Citizen Genet, adjutant-general and colonel, going to America in quality of Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republic to the Congress of the United States.

THE patriotism which Citizen Genet has shewn in the different employments entrusted to him, and his known attachment for the cause of liberty and equality, have determined the executive council to nominate him Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republic to the Congress of the United States of North-America. This proof of confidence is the more flattering for citizen Genet, as the French nation sets a high value upon the ties which unite them to the American people, ties which the national assembly has, on the 2d June, 1791, shewn the desire to draw still closer, and the legislature has, moreover, expressed
has ordered the executive power to negotiate with the United States a new treaty of commerce, which may increase between the two nations those connexions mutually advantageous both to the one and to the other of them. Struck with the grandeur and importance of this negotiation, the Executive Council prescribe to citizen Genet, to exert himself to strengthen the Americans in the principles which led them to unite themselves to France: to make them perceive that they have no ally more natural or more disposed to treat them as brethren: that these sentiments are engraven in the hearts of all Frenchmen enlightened upon the true interests of their own country; and, if the two nations have not yet reaped the advantage, it has been the fault of the government we have just overthrown; it is thro' the treason of the cabinet of Versailles. This truth is this day revealed. The Executive Council has called for the instructions given to Citizen Genet's predecessors in America. and has seen in them, with indignation, that at the very time the good people of America expressed their gratitude to us in the most feeling manner, and gave us every proof of their friendship, Vergennes and Montmorin thought, that it was right for France to hinder the United States from taking that political stability of which they were capable; because they would soon acquire a strength, which, it was probable, they would be eager to abuse. They, in consequence, directed both the one and the other of these Ministers of Louis XVI. to the Congress, to preserve the most passive conduct, and to speak only of the Prince's personal wishes for the prosperity of the United States. The same machiavelian principle influenced the operations of the war for Independence; the same duplicity reigned over the negotiations for peace. -The deputies from Congress expressed the desire that the cabinet of Versailles would aid in the conquest of the two Floridas, of Canada, and of Nova Scotia; but Louis and his ministers constantly refused, looking upon the possession of these countries by Spain and England, as a useful principle of uneasiness and vigilance for the Americans after the peace. This useful jealousy turned into contempt; the people for whom they pretended to have taken up arms became an object of disdain; for the court neglected to correspond with them, and by that criminal conduct they gave the power, whose influence in America we ought to have extinguished, arms to combat and to destroy our own. It is thus the ministers, under the old system, blindly labored with all their exertions to stifle liberty, after having been compelled by the general voice of the nation to assist its birth in the new world; 'tis thus they cooled the zeal; 'tis thus they loosened the bands of the two people; 'tis thus that by their infamous policy they disgusted the Americans with the French alliance, and strengthened, themselves, that of the English. The republicans who have displaced these vile supporters of despotism are eager to mark out for citizen Genet, a path diametrically opposite to the crooked windings by which his predecessors were entangled. The Executive-Council, faithful to its duties and obedient to the will of the French people, authorize citizen Genet to declare with freedom & sincerity, to the ministers of Congress, that those of the French republic, throwing far from them every thing appertaining to the old embassy, the revenue system, the cautious policy, and all those impediments to the riches and prosperity of the nations, have highly approved the overtures made to citizen Ternant, as well by Gen. Washington as by Mr. Jefferson, upon the means of renewing and consolidating our commercial ties, in placing them on the principles of truth itself; that the Executive Council are disposed to set on foot a negotiation upon those foundations, and that they do not know but that such a treaty admits a latitude still more extensive in becoming a national agreement, in which two great people shall suspend their commercial and political interests and establish a mutual understanding, to befriend the empire of liberty, wherever it can be embraced, to guarantee the sovereignty of the people, and punish those powers who still keep up an exclusive colonial and commercial system, by declaring that their vessels shall not be received in the ports of the contracting parties. Such a pact which the people of France will support with all the energy which distinguishes them, and of which they have already given so many proofs, will quickly contribute to the general emancipation of the new world. However vast this project may be, it will not be difficult to execute if the Americans determine on it, and it is to convince them of its practicability that Citizen Genet must direct all his attention: For besides the advantages which humanity in general will draw from the success of such a negotiation, we have at this moment a particular interest in taking steps to act efficaciously against England and Spain, if, as every thing announces, these powers attack us from hatred to our principles; if the English ministers instead of sharing in the glory of France, instead of considering that our liberty, as well as that of those people whose chains we have broken, for ever establishes that of their own country, suffer themselves to be influenced by our enemies and by those to the liberty of mankind, and embark with every tyrant against that cause which we are defending. The military preparations making in Great Britain become every day more and more serious and have an intimate connection with those of Spain. The friendship which reigns between the ministers of the last power and those of St. James' proves it; and in this situation of affairs we ought to excite, by all possible means, the zeal of the Americans, who are as much interested as ourselves, in disconcerting the destructive projects of George the Third, in which they are probably an object. Their own safety still depends on ours, and if we fail they will sooner or later fall under the iron rod of Great Britain. The Executive Council has room to believe that these reasons in addition to the great commercial advantages which we are disposed to concede to the United States, will determine their government to adhere to all that citizen Genet shall propose to them on our part. As it is possible, however, that the false representations which have been made to Congress of the situation of our internal affairs, of the state of our maritime force, of our finances, and especially of the storms with which we are threatened may make her ministers, in the negotiations which citizen Genet is entrusted to open, adopt a timid and wavering conduct, the executive council charges him, in expectation that the American government will finally determine to make a common cause with us, to take such steps as will appear to him exigencies may require, to serve the cause of liberty and the freedom of the people. Citizen Genet will lend the assistance of his good offices to all the French citizens who shall have recourse to him, and whose conduct shall be unexceptionable; but the executive council understand that this protection shall in no case contravene the laws of the country, and shall not extend to people of doubtful character, banished from their country, or to citizens whose conduct shall be reprehensible. Citizen Genet will avoid as much as he can those ridiculous disputes about etiquette which so much occupied the old diplomacy. The representatives of other powers are not however to be suffered to attempt to deprive France, become free, of that precedence it enjoyed under its ancient form. The Executive Council informs citizen Genet for his regulation of the conduct which they wish to be followed by the ministers of the French Republic, if disputes should arise respecting the ceremony and the precedence between them and the representatives of other powers. The intention of the council is, that the ministers of the nation should declare without reserve, that the French people see in all other people their brethren and their equals, and that they desire to remove every idea of superiority or precedence; but that if any state, mistaking the generosity of these principles, pretends to any particular distinction and endeavors to obtain it by any steps direct or indirect, the ministers of the French people shall then insist on all the prerogatives the French power has at any time enjoyed; the nation determining that in that case its ministers should defend those rights, being certain that the nation will make them respected. As to the ceremonies of his first audience, the delivery of his credentials, and his communications with the Federal government, Citizen Genet will conform himself to those rules which the Congress shall have established for all the diplomatic corps in this respect; exceptions only offend; general rules wound no one. Such are the political objects trusted to the zeal of citizen Genet; the Executive Council will give him particular instructions upon the Consular affairs with which he will be charged, upon the negotiations relative to the liquidation of the debt of the United States, upon the supplies for the colonies, upon those which the marine and war departments call for, and upon the negotiations which citizen Ternant was charged to set on foot with the United States to induce them to furnish corn, flour, and salt provisions on account of their debt. With the minister for foreign affairs Citizen Genet will correspond upon these different objects, and it is from him that he will receive the nation's orders. His communications with the other ministers will only extend to the details of administration, relative to their respective departments, and he will be careful to give distinct information to the minister for foreign affairs, to the end that he may have always before his eyes the whole of the operations of the French Agents with Foreign Powers. Read and agreed upon in Executive Council at Paris, January 4th, 1793 Second year of the French Republic. (Signed) MONGE, President, LE BRUN, Minister for Foreign Affairs. (To be continued.)