Your fellow-citizens think they have a
right to full information, in a case of such great concernment to them.
It is their sweat which is to earn all the expenses of the war, and
their blood which is to flow in expiation of the causes of it. It may
be in your power to save them from these miseries by full communications
and unrestrained details, postponing motives of delicacy to those of
duty. It rests with you to come forward independently; to make your
stand on the high ground of your own character; to disregard
calumny, and to be borne above it on the shoulders of your grateful
fellow-citizens; or to sink into the humble oblivion to which the
federalists (self-called) have secretly condemned you; and even to be
happy if they will indulge you with oblivion, while they have beamed
on your colleagues meridian splendor. Pardon me, my dear Sir, if my
expressions are strong. My feelings are so much more so, that it is
with difficulty I reduce them even to the tone I use. If you doubt the
dispositions towards you, look into the papers, on both sides, for the
toasts which were given throughout the States on the fourth of July.
You will there see whose hearts were with you, and whose were ulcerated
against you. Indeed, as soon as it was known that you had consented to
stay in Paris, there was no measure observed in the execrations of
the war-party.
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