327.] The reader is requested to pause, to reflect on the state of things at the date of this letter, and to ask himself if its inevitable tendency be not to strengthen the impression in the Directory of France which had influenced its conduct towards the United States ?--If it be not in the same spirit with the interpolated sentence, carried to a greater extreme, and calculated to produce the same effect ?--If the editor who made the interpolation might not reasonably suppose that he was only applying expressly to France a sentiment already indicated in terms too plain to be misunderstood?
France and Great Britain were then waging deadly war against each other.

In this mortal conflict, each sought to strengthen herself, or weaken her adversary by any influence to be acquired over foreign powers--by obtaining allies when allies were attainable, or securing neutrality where co-operation was not to be expected.

The temper with which the American people contemplated this awful spectacle can not be forgotten.

The war of our revolution, in which France fought by the side of America against Great Britain, was fresh in their recollection.

Her unexamined professions of republicanism enlisted all their affections in her favour, and all their antipathies against the monarchs with whom she was contending.