de Ternant took his leave, and was received by the
President. He found himself immediately immersed in business, the
consequence of this war. The incidents to which that gives daily rise,
and the questions respecting chiefly France and England, fill the
executive with business, equally delicate difficult, and disagreeable.
The course intended to be pursued being that of a strict and impartial
neutrality, decisions rendered by the President rigorously on that
principle, dissatisfy both parties, and draw complaints from both. That
you may have a proper idea of them, I enclose you copies of several
memorials and letters, which have passed between the executive and the
ministers of those two countries, which will at the same time develope
the principles of the proceedings, and enable you to satisfy them in
your communications, should it be necessary. I enclose also the answer
given to Mr. Genet, on a proposition from him to pay up the whole of
the French debt at once. While it will enable you to explain the
impracticability of the operation proposed, it may put it in your power
to judge of the answer which would be given to any future proposition
to that effect, and perhaps to prevent their being brought forward. The
bill lately passed in England, prohibiting the business of this country
with France from passing through the medium of England, is a temporary
embarrassment to our commerce, from the unhappy predicament of its all
hanging on the pivot of London.
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