On receiving it, he gave a loose to the most extravagant passion.

After exclaiming with vehemence against the measure, he complained, in strong terms, and with many angry epithets, of the ill treatment which he had received from some of the officers of the general government, which he contrasted with the cordial attachment that was expressed by the people at large for his nation.

He ascribed the conduct of those officers to principles inimical to the cause of France, and of liberty.

He insinuated that, by their influence, the President had been misled; and observed with considerable emphasis, that the President was not the sovereign of this country.

The powers of peace and war being vested in congress, it belonged to that body to decide those questions growing out of treaties which might involve peace or war; and the President, therefore, ought to have assembled the national legislature before he ventured to issue his proclamation of neutrality, or to prohibit, by his instructions to the state governors, the enjoyment of the particular rights which France claimed under the express stipulations of the treaty of commerce.