402.] The offence consists in the reference to the letter written by him to Mr.Mazzei, which was published in Florence, and republished in Paris by the editor of the Moniteur, then the official paper of the Directory.

In this letter, Mr.Jefferson says, a paragraph was interpolated which makes him charge his own country with ingratitude and injustice to France.
By the word "country," Mr.Jefferson is understood to allude to the government, not to the people of America.
This letter, containing the sentence now alleged to be interpolated, was published throughout the United States in the summer of 1797.

It became immediately, as may well be supposed, the subject of universal conversation.

The writer, and the individual to whom it particularly alludes, filled too large a space in the public mind for such a paper not to excite general attention and deep interest.

It did excite both.
Had it been fabricated, Mr.Jefferson, it was supposed, could not have permitted it to remain uncontradicted.