The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
FOREIGN RELATIONS / FRANCE
Doctor Logan, about a fortnight ago, sailed for Hamburg. Though for a
twelvemonth past he had been intending to go to Europe as soon as he
could get money enough to carry him there, yet when he had
accomplished this, and fixed a time for going, he very unwisely made a
mystery of it: so that his disappearance without notice excited
conversation. This was seized by the war hawks, and given out as a
secret mission from the Jacobins here to solicit an army from France,
instruct them as to their landing, etc. This extravagance produced a
real panic among the citizens; and happening just when Bache published
Talleyrand's letter, Harper, on the 18th, gravely announced to the
House of Representatives, that there existed a traitorous
correspondence between the Jacobins here and the French Directory;
that he had got hold of some threads and clues of it, and would soon
be able to develop the whole. This increased the alarm; their
libelists immediately set to work, directly and indirectly to
implicate whom they pleased. Porcupine gave me a principal share in
it, as I am told, for I never read his papers. This state of things
added to my reasons for not departing at the time I intended. These
follies seem to have died away in some degree already. Perhaps I may
renew my purpose by the 25th. Their system is, professedly, to keep up
an alarm. Tracy, at the meeting of the joint committee for
adjournment, declared it necessary for Congress to stay together to
keep up the inflammation of the public mind.
to James Madison, 21 June 1798
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