in the Analysis of Randolph's Vindication, in the New Year's Gift, and in the Account of the British Treaty, vol. ii. The difpatch is introduced here for the purpose of showing that the French Minister had no fufpicion that the friends of Great Britain had any concern in the Infurrection, and that that Infurrection was fomented and prolonged by the partifans of France. I beg the reader to peruse it with attention. It is a most interesting document, and, with the subsequent comments, completely unravels the whole mystery of the delay in fuppreffing the Infurrection. "Tranflation of Mr. Fauchet's Political Dispatch, No. 10*.. 66 LEGATION OF PHILADELPHIA.]

"Philadelphia, the 10th Brumaire, 3d Year of the French Republic, one and indivifible. (October 31st, 1794.)

"Jofeph Fauchet, Minifter Plenipotentiary of the French Republic, near the United States, to the Commiffioner of Foreign Relations.

❝ CITIZEN,

"1. The measures which prudence prefcribes to me to take with refpect to my colleagues, have ftill prefided in the digefting of the dispatches figned by them, which treat of the infurrection of the western countries, and of the repreffive means adopted by the Government. I have allowed them to be confined to the giving of a faithful but naked recital of

* It was tranflated by Mr. PICKERING, by order of the Prefident.

events the reflections therein contained fcarcely exceed the conclufions eafily deducible from the character affumed by the public prints. I have referved myself to give you, as far as I am able, a key to the facts detailed in our reports. When it comes in queftion to explain, either by conjectures or by certain data, the fecret views of a foreign Government, it would be imprudent to run the risk of indiscretions, and to give one's felf up to men, whose known partiality for that Government, and fimilitude of paffions and interefts with its chiefs, might lead to confidences, the iffue of which is incalculable. Befides, the precious confeffions of Mr. Randolph alone throw a fatisfactory light upon every thing that comes to pafs. Thefe I have not yet communicated to my colleagues. The motives already mentioned lead to this reserve, and ftill lefs permit me to open myself to them at the prefent moment. I fhall then endeavour, Citizen, to give you a clue to all the measures, of which the common difpatches give you an account, and to discover the true caufes of the explofion, which it is obftinately refolved to reprefs with great means, although the ftate of things has no longer any thing alarming.

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2. To confine the prefent crifis to the fimple queftion of the excife, is to reduce it far below its true scale; it is indubitably connected with a general explosion for fome time prepared in the public mind, but which this local and precipitate eruption will cause to miscarry, or at least check for a long time. In order to fee the real caufe, in order to calculate the effect and the confequences, we muft afcend to the origin of the parties exifting in the State, and retrace their progrefs.

Secretary of State of the United States Government.-See the Analysis of his Vindication, vol. ii.

3. The

' 3. The prefent fyftem of government has created malcontents. This is the lot of all new things. My predeceffors have given information in detail upon the parts of the fyftem which have particularly awakened clamours and produced enemies to the whole of it. The primitive divifions of opinion as to the political form of the State, and the limits of the fovereignty of the whole over each State individually fovereign, had created the Federalifts and the Antifederalifts. From a whimfical contraft between the name and the real opinion of the parties, a contraft hitherto little understood in Europe, the former aimed, and fill aim with all their power, to annihilate federalism, whilft the latter have always wished to preferve it. This contraft was created by the Confolidators or the Conftitutionalifts, who being firft in giving the denominations (a matter fo important in a revolution), took for themselves that which was the moft popular, although in reality it contradicted their ideas, and gave to their rivals one which would draw on them the attention of the people, notwithstanding they really wifhed to preserve a fyftem whose prejudices fhould cherish at least the memory and the

name.

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4. Moreover, these first divifions, of the nature of those to be deftroyed by time, in proportion as the nation fhould have advanced in the experiment of a form of government which rendered it flourishing, might now have completely disappeared, if the fyftem of finances which had its birth in the cradle of the constitution, had not renewed their vigour under various forms. The mode of organizing the national credit, the confolidating and funding of the public debt, the introduction in the political economy of the ufage of States which prolong their existence, or ward off their fall only by expedients, imperceptibly created a financiering clafs who threaten to become the aristocratical order of the State. Several citizens, and among others thofe

who

who have aided in establishing independence with their purfes or their arms, conceived themselves aggrieved by thofe fifcal engagements. Hence an oppofition which declares itself between the farming or agricultural intereft, and that of the fifcal; federalism and antifederalism, which are founded on those new denominations, in proportion as the Treafury ufurps a preponderance in the Government and Legislation: hence, in fine, the State, divided into partifans and enemies of the Treafurer and of his theories. In this new claffification of parties, the nature of things gave popularity to the latter; an innate instinct, if I may ufe the expreffion, caused the ears of the people to revolt at the names alone of treasurer and flockjobber; but the oppofite party, in confequence of its ability, obftinately perfifted in leaving to its adverfaries the fufpicious name of antifederalift, whilft, in reality, they were friends of the Conftitution, and enemies only of the excrefcences which financiering theories threatened to attach

to it.

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5. It is useless to flop longer to prove that the monarchical fyftem was interwoven with thofe novelties of finances, and that the friends of the latter favoured the attempts which were made in order to bring the Conftitution to the former by infenfible gradations. The writings of influential men of this party prove it; their real opinions too avow it; and the journals of the Senate are the depofitary of the first attempts.

"6. Let us, therefore, free ourfelves from the intermediate spaces in which the progrefs of the fyftem is marked, fince they can add nothing to the proof of its exiftence; let us pafs by its fympathy with our regenerating movements, while running in monarchical paths; let us arrive at the fituation in which our republican revolution has placed things and parties.

7. The Antifederalifts difembarrass themfelves

of

of an infignificant denomination, and take that of patriots and of republicans: their adverfaries become aristocrats, notwithstanding their efforts to preferve the advantageous illufion of ancient names; opinions clash, and prefs each other; the ariftocratic attempts which formerly had appeared fo infignificant, are recollected; the Treafurer, who is looked upon as their first fource, is attacked; his operations and plans are denounced to the public opinion; nay, in the feffions of 1792 and 1793, a folemn inquiry into his administration was obtained. This first victory was to produce another; and it was hoped, that, faulty or innocent, the Treasurer would retire, no lefs by neceflity in the one cafe, than from felf-love in the other. He, emboldened by the triumph which he obtained in the ufelefs inquiry of his enemies, of which both objects proved equally abortive, feduced befides by the momentary reverse of republicanism in Europe, removes the mask, and announces the approaching triumph of his principles.

8. In the mean time, the popular focieties are formed; political ideas concentre themselves; the patriotic party unite and more closely connect themfelves; they gain a formidable majority in the Legiflature; the abafement of commerce, the flavery of navigation, and the audacity of England, ftrengthen it; a concert of declarations and cenfures against the Government arifes, at which the latter is even itself aftonished.

9. Such was the fituation of things towards the clofe of the laft, and at the beginning of the present year. Let us pafs over the difcontents which were moft generally expreffed in these critical moments: they have been fent to you at different periods, and

*They were formed by GENET, the predeceffor of Fauchet; and DALLAS, Secretary of the State of Pennsylvania, was at the head of them, and was the principal agent in their formation.