The Life of John Marshall Volume II Part 33

Cong.; or Sparks MSS., Ma.s.s. Hist. Soc.

[631] Marshall's Journal, Oct. 26, 12.

[632] _Am. St. Prs., For. Rel._, ii, 161-62.

[633] Marshall's Journal, Oct. 27, 16-17. This statement of the American case by Marshall is given in the dispatches, which Marshall prepared as coming from the envoys generally. (See _Am. St. Prs., For. Rel._, ii, 161-62.)

[634] Marshall's Journal, Oct. 23, 11-12.

[635] _Am. St. Prs., For. Rel._, ii, 163; Marshall's Journal, Oct. 29, 21-22.

[636] Marshall's Journal, Oct. 23, 12.

[637] Marshall's Journal, Oct. 28, 18-19.

[638] _Am. St. Prs., For. Rel._, ii, 163.

[639] "Infinite pains have been taken there [in France] to spread universally the idea that there are, in America, only two parties, the one entirely devoted to France and the other to England." (J. Q. Adams to his father, The Hague, July 2, 1797; _Writings, J. Q. A._: Ford, ii, 181.)

[640] Marshall's Journal, Oct. 30, 25-26; _Am St. Prs., For. Rel._, 164.

[641] "The French were extremely desirous of seeing Mr. Jefferson President; ... they exerted themselves to the utmost in favor of his election [in 1796]; ... they made a great point of his success." (Harper to his Const.i.tuents, Jan. 5, 1797; _Bayard Papers_: Donnan, 25; and see _supra_, chaps. I, II, III, and IV, of this volume.)

[642] See _supra_, chap. III, 86 _et seq._

[643] Was.h.i.+ngton to King, June 25, 1797; King, ii, 194.

[644] King to Murray, March 31, 1798; _ib._, 294.

[645] Smith to King, Philadelphia, April 3, 1797; King, ii, 165.

[646] _Am. St. Prs., For. Rel._, ii, 163-64.

[647] Marshall's Journal, Nov. 4, 31.

[648] _Ib._, 31.

[649] Marshall's Journal, Nov. 8, 33.

[650] Marshall to Lee, Nov. 3, 1797; MS., Lib. Cong. Lee was Attorney-General. Marshall's letter was in cipher.

[651] Marshall to Lee, Nov. 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11; MS., Lib. Cong.

[652] _Am. St. Prs., For. Rel._, ii, 166.

[653] Marshall to his wife, Paris, Nov. 27, 1797; MS.

[654] King to Pinckney, Marshall, and Gerry, Nov. 15, 1797; enclosing Dispatch no. 52 to Pinckney; King, ii, 240-41. See _ib._, 245; and Dec.

9, 1797; _ib._, 247.

[655] Pinckney to King, Paris, Dec. 14, 1797; King, ii, 259-60.

[656] Talleyrand, who gave the fete, wrote: "I spared no trouble to make it brilliant and attractive; although in this I experienced some difficulty on account of the vulgarity of the directors' wives who, of course, enjoyed precedence over all other ladies." (_Memoirs of Talleyrand_: Broglie's ed., i, 197; also see Sloane: _Life of Napoleon_, ii, 20; and Lanfrey: _Life of Napoleon_, i, 254-57.)

[657] "At first sight he [Bonaparte] seemed ... to have a charming face, so much do the halo of victory, fine eyes, a pale and almost consumptive look, become a young hero." (_Memoirs of Talleyrand_: Broglie's ed., i, 196.)

CHAPTER VIII

THE AMERICAN MEMORIAL

Separated far from Europe, we mean not to mingle in her quarrels.

(Marshall.)

A fraudulent neutrality is no neutrality at all. (Marshall.)

We have a very considerable party in America who are strongly in our interest. (Madame de Villette.)

Four days after the festival of triumph to Bonaparte, Talleyrand's agents resumed their work. The sordid scenes were repeated, but their monotony was broken. Now the lady of the plot appeared upon the scene.

In the long, vexed, and fruitless days of their stay in Paris, the American envoys, it seems, were not without the solace and diversion of the society of the French Capital.

Among the attractive feminine acquaintances they made, one was undoubtedly an agent of the French Foreign Office. Madame de Villette was one of the most engaging women in the French Capital.[658]

Cultivated, brilliant, and altogether charming, she made herself particularly agreeable to the American envoys. She and Marshall became especially good friends; but Madame de Villette ventured no diplomatic suggestions to him, notwithstanding his easy good nature. She was far too good a judge of character to commit that indiscretion. So was Talleyrand, who by this time had begun to appreciate Marshall's qualities. But Pinckney, hearty, handsome man of the world, but without Marshall's penetration and adroitness, was another matter. Gerry the intriguers could already count upon; and only one other member of the commission was necessary to their ends. Perhaps Pinckney might be won over by this captivating Frenchwoman. On some occasion Madame de Villette approached him:--

"Why will you not lend us money?" said she to Pinckney. "If you were to make us a loan, all matters will be adjusted. When you were contending for your Revolution we lent you money." Pinckney pointed out the differences--that America had _requested_ a loan of France, and France now _demanded_ a loan of America. "Oh, no," said she. "We do not make a demand; we think it more delicate that the offer should come from you; but M. Talleyrand has mentioned to me (who am surely not in his confidence) the necessity of your making us a loan, and I know that he has mentioned it to two or three others; and that you have been informed of it; and I will a.s.sure you that, if you remain here six months longer, you will not advance a single step further in your negotiations without a loan."

If that is so, bluntly answered Pinckney, the envoys might as well leave at once. "Why," exclaimed Talleyrand's fair agent, "that might possibly lead to a rupture, which you had better avoid; for we have a very considerable party in America who are strongly in our interest."[659]

The fox-like Talleyrand had scented another hole by which he might get at his elusive quarry. "Every man has his price" was his doctrine; and his experience hitherto had proved it sound. He found that the brilliant Paris adventurer, Beaumarchais, had a lawsuit against the State of Virginia. Beaumarchais had won this suit in the lower court and it was now pending on appeal. John Marshall was his attorney.[660] Here, then, thought Talleyrand, was the way to reach this unknown quant.i.ty in his problem.

On December 17, Marshall, happening into Gerry's apartment, found Bellamy there. Beaumarchais had given a dinner to Marshall and his fellow envoys, from which Bellamy had been kept by a toothache. The envoys had returned Beaumarchais's courtesy; and he had retired from this dinner "much indisposed."[661] Since then Marshall had not seen his client. Bellamy casually remarked that he had not known, until within a short time, that Marshall was the attorney for Beaumarchais, who, he said, had very high regard for his Virginia attorney.

Marshall, his lawyer's instincts at once aroused, told Bellamy that Beaumarchais's case was of very great magnitude and that he was deeply interested in it. Whereupon, in a low tone, spoken aside for his ear only, Bellamy told Marshall that, in case the latter won the suit, Beaumarchais would "sacrifice 50,000 Sterling of it as the private gratification" demanded by the Directory and Talleyrand, "so that the gratification might be made without any actual loss to the American government." Marshall rejected this offer and informed Pinckney of it.[662]

Marshall's character is revealed by the entry he promptly made in his Journal. "Having been originally the Counsel of Mr. de Beaumarchais, I had determined & so I informed Genl. Pinckney, that I would not by my voice establish any argument in his favor, but that I would positively oppose any admission of the claim of any French citizen if not accompanied with the admission of claims of the American citizens to property captured and condemned for want of a Role d'equipage."[663]

Bellamy then urged upon Gerry his plan of the Marshall-Beaumarchais arrangement. Talleyrand had been entertaining Gerry privately, and the flattered New Englander again wished to call on the French Minister, "to return the civility" by inviting Talleyrand to dinner.[664] To Talleyrand, then, went Gerry in company with Bellamy and asked the Foreign Minister to dine with him. Then Gerry tediously reviewed the situation, concluding in a manner that must have amused the bored Talleyrand: He would rather see the envoys depart for some city in another nation, said Gerry, until the Directory would receive them, than to stay in Paris under the circ.u.mstances.

Gerry was sure that the French diplomat was alarmed by this stern threat. "M. Talleyrand appeared to be uneasy at this declaration," he told his colleagues. Still, Talleyrand avoided "saying a word on it"; but he did say that Bellamy's representations "might always be relied on." Talleyrand declared that he would go further; he would himself write out his propositions. This he proceeded to do, held the writing before Gerry's eyes and then burned it; after this performance Talleyrand said he would dine with Gerry "the decade [ten days] after the present."[665]

Meanwhile, however, Gerry dined with the Foreign Minister. It was not a merry function. Aside from his guest of honor, the French Minister also had at his board Hottenguer, Bellamy, and Hauteval. Gerry could not speak French and Hauteval acted as translator. It must have been a pallid feast; the brilliant, witty, accomplished Talleyrand, man of the world, _bon vivant_, and lover of gayety; the solemn, dull, and rigid Gerry; the three trained French agents, one of them, as interpreter, the only means of general communication.[666] On rising from the table, Hottenguer at once brought up the question of the bribe. Would the envoys now give it? Had they the money ready? Gerry answered no![667]

Talleyrand, by now the mouthpiece of the rising Bonaparte, had proposed terms of peace to Great Britain; "the price was a Bribe of a Million Sterling to be divided among Directors, Ministers, and others.

Talleyrand's Department was to share one hundred thousand Pounds Sterling." The British Government declined.[668]

King in London hastens to inform his American diplomatic a.s.sociates in Paris of this offer, and cautions the envoys to act in concert. To Pinckney, King writes in cipher his anxiety about Gerry, whose integrity King had hoped would "overcome a miserable vanity and a few little defects of character ... which I now fear have been discovered by those who will be a.s.siduous to turn them to mischief."