human
I see that you have been received by an hospitable and open-hearted people with all the manifestations of friendship of which your predecessors had also been the recipients.... You have fancied, thereupon, that it belonged to you to lead the political actions of this people and make them join our cause. Availing yourself of the flattering statements of the Charleston authorities, you have thought fit to arm corsairs, to organize recruiting, to have prizes condemned, before even having been recognized by the American Government, before having its assent, nay, with the certitude of its disapproval. You invoke your instructions from the 'Conseil exécutif' of the Republic; but your instructions enjoin upon you quite the reverse: they order you to treat with the _government_, not with a _portion_ of the people; to be for Congress the spokesman of the French Republic, and not the leader of an American party. The diplomat's relations with Washington are the opposite of what France desires:
gpt
You say that Washington _does not pardon you your successes, and that he hampers your moves in a thousand ways_. You are ordered to treat with the American Government; there only can you attain real successes; all the others are illusory and contrary to the interests of your country. Dazzled by a false popularity, you have estranged the only man who should represent for you the American people, and if your action is hampered, you have only yourself to blame.
human
to disarm his _Sans-Culotte_ and other corsairs, to revoke all consuls who had taken part in such armaments, and, as for Genet himself, to have him arrested and sent back to France. What such an arrest meant was made evident by the signatures at the foot of the decree:
gpt
Barère, Hérault, Robespierre, Billaud-Varennes, Collot d'Herbois, Saint-Just.
human
We wanted his dismissal, not his punishment, said Secretary of State Randolph, who refused to have him arrested. Genet hastened to give up a country so hard to please, he thought, as that of his birth, became an American, and as, with all his faults, he was not without some merits, being welcomed in many families, and especially in the house of
gpt
General Clinton, Governor, he wrote,