Whether France will declare war against you, is not for me in
this place to mention, or to hint, even if I knew it; but it must be
madness in you to do it first. The matter is come now to a full
crisis, and peace is easy if willingly set about. Whatever you may
think, France has behaved handsomely to you. She would have been
unjust to herself to have acted otherwise than she did; and having
accepted our offer of alliance she gave you genteel notice of it.
There was nothing in her conduct reserved or indelicate, and while she
announced her determination to support her treaty, she left you to
give the first offence. America, on her part, has exhibited a
character of firmness to the world. Unprepared and unarmed, without
form or government, she, singly opposed a nation that domineered
over half the globe. The greatness of the deed demands respect; and
though you may feel resentment, you are compelled both to wonder and
admire.
Here I rest my arguments and finish my address. Such as it is, it is
a gift, and you are welcome. It was always my design to dedicate a
Crisis to you, when the time should come that would properly make it a
Crisis; and when, likewise, I should catch myself in a temper to write
it, and suppose you in a condition to read it. That time has now
arrived, and with it the opportunity for conveyance. For the
commissioners- poor commissioners! having proclaimed, that "yet
forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown," have waited out the date,
and, discontented with their God, are returning to their gourd.
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