They had been preceded by a report, which was whispered in private circles, that the French minister had avowed a determination to appeal from the President to the people.

The confidential intercourse subsisting between these gentlemen and a part of the administration rendering it probable that this declaration, if made, had been communicated to them, they were asked, whether the report was true; having received the information through a channel[10] which was entitled to the most implicit faith, they answered that it was.
[Footnote 10: They received it from the secretaries of the treasury and of war.] Their having said so was controverted; and they were repeatedly required, in the public papers, to admit or deny that they had made such an assertion.

Thus called upon, they published a certificate avowing that they had made the declaration imputed to them.
On reflecting men this communication made a serious impression.

The recent events in Poland, whose dismemberment and partition were easily traced to the admission of foreign influence, gave additional solemnity to the occurrence, and led to a more intent consideration of the awful causes which would embolden a foreign minister to utter such a threat.
That party, which in the commencement of the contests respecting the constitution was denominated federal, had generally supported the measures of the administration.
That which was denominated anti-federal, had generally opposed those measures.

South of the Potomac especially, there was certainly many important exceptions to this arrangement of parties; yet as a general arrangement, it was unquestionably correct.
In the common partialities for France, in the common hope that the revolution in that country would be crowned with success, and would produce important benefits to the human race, they had equally participated; but in the course to be pursued by the United States, the line of separation between the two parties was clear and distinct.
The federalists were universally of opinion that, in the existing war, America ought to preserve a neutrality as impartial as was compatible with her treaties; and that those treaties had been fairly and justly construed by the executive.