[The Life of George Washington, Vol. 5 (of 5) by John Marshall]@TWC D-Link book
The Life of George Washington, Vol. 5 (of 5)

CHAPTER I
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Mr.Genet then, in the coarsest terms, averred the falsehood of the certificate which had been published, and demanded from the attorney general, and from the government, that Mr.
Jay and Mr.King should be indicted for a libel upon himself and his nation.

That officer accompanied his refusal to institute this information with the declaration that any other gentleman of the profession, who might approve and advise the attempt, could be at no loss to point out a mode which would not require his intervention.
While the minister of the French republic thus loudly complained of the unparalleled injury he received from being charged with employing a particular exceptionable phrase, he seized every fair occasion to carry into full execution the threat which he denied having made.

His letters, written for the purpose of publication, and actually published by himself, accused the executive, before the tribunal of the people, on those specific points, from its decisions respecting which he was said to have threatened the appeal.

As if the offence lay, not in perpetrating the act, but in avowing an intention to perpetrate it, this demonstration of his designs did not render his advocates the less vehement in his support, nor the less acrimonious in reproaching the administration, as well as Mr.Jay and Mr.King.
Whilst insult was thus added to insult, the utmost vigilance of the executive officers was scarcely sufficient to maintain an observance of the rules which had been established for preserving neutrality in the American ports.

Mr.Genet persisted in refusing to acquiesce in those rules; and fresh instances of attempts to violate them were continually recurring.


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