134 ALEXANDER HAMILTON 



It was the French Revolution and the consequent 

 war between France and Great Britain that so reacted 

 upon American politics as to bring about the down- 

 fall of the Federalist party and hurry to an untimely 

 end the career of its illustrious founder. During the 

 last decade of the eighteenth century the whole civil- 

 ized world seemed bitten with the fierce malady that 

 was raging in France. Semel insanivimus omnes. In 

 America the excitement soon reached such a point as 

 to subordinate all questions of domestic policy; and 

 Hamilton's opponents, foiled in their attempts to de- 

 feat his financial measures, were not unwilling to shift 

 the scene of battle to the questions connected with 

 our foreign relations. It was the aim of the French 

 revolutionary party to drag the United States into 

 war with Great Britain, but the only sound policy for 

 the Americans was that of strict neutrality. The in- 

 solence of the British court made this a very difficult 

 course to pursue, and probably it would have been 

 impossible had not the French in their demands upon 

 us shown equal insolence. The pendulum of popular 

 feeling in America, under the stimulus of alternate 

 insults from London and from Paris, vibrated to and 

 fro. The Federalists, as friends of strong government, 

 saw in the French convulsions nothing but the orgies 

 of a crazy mob; while on the other hand the Repub- 

 licans had a keener appreciation of the vileness of the 

 despotism that was being swept away and the whole- 

 some nature of the reforms that were being effected 

 amid all the horrors and bloodshed. Under the influ- 

 ence of such feelings the antagonism between Hamil- 

 ton and Jefferson grew into a bitter personal feud, and 

 the quarrels in the cabinet were so fierce that Wash- 



