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 armed in American ports, and that some of them had actually been taken in the waters of the United States. The obligation of the United States to make compensation for these captures was also admitted by Washington. But the great difficulty of bringing the negotiation to a satisfactory issue cannot be better described than in the words of Mr. Wm. Jay.

"On his arrival in England, the revolutionary frenzy in France was at its height. Robespierre was revelling in all the wantonness of unbridled power, and the French people, the unconscious vassals of a bloody tyrant, were perpetrating acts of cruelty and impiety which excited the astonishment and abhorrence of all who duly estimated the claims of humanity and the obligations of religion. With this people the British monarch was waging a war, in which he was supported by the enthusiastic co-*operation of his own subjects, and by the alliance of Russia, Austria, Spain, and Sardinia. Although in this war the United States were professedly neutral, yet it was well known that the sympathies of a large portion of their citizens were enlisted on the side of France, and that they were with difficulty restrained by their government from violating the duties of neutrality. The late proceedings of Congress, also, had tended but little to conciliate the goodwill of England. The American war, and the consequent independence of her colonies, had moreover wounded the pride of Britain, and engendered feelings towards