The French Revolution had for some years been gathering strength. In the autumn of 1792 France had been declared a Republic; and the execution of the King on the 21st of January, 1793, was followed on the 1st of February by a declaration of war against Great Britain. The French also declared war against Spain, the power which now held New Orleans and Louisiana west of the Mississippi. The position in North America became at once very critical and very dangerous. Popular feeling in the United States ran strongly in favour of France. The Republicans of the New World were enthusiastic for the people who had enabled them to gain their independence and who, having put an end to monarchy in France, were preparing to insist upon the adoption of a Republican system elsewhere in Europe. Sympathy with France in the United States implied enmity to England, and Thomas Jefferson, Washington’s Secretary of State, was pronounced on the side of the French alliance, representing the views of the Republican party as opposed to the Federalists, the latter being headed by Alexander Hamilton and Jay and supported by the unrivalled influence of Washington himself. On the 22nd of April, 1793, Washington--with popular feeling strongly against him in the matter--issued a declaration of neutrality. At the same time, Genet, sent from France as representative of the new Republic, reached Charleston. With complete disregard of international law, which, when the French Revolution was at its height, had largely lost its meaning, Genet proceeded to make the United States a base for war against Great Britain and Spain, fitting out privateers, sending agents to Canada, planning a campaign against Louisiana. For some months the popularity of his country and his cause, the unpopularity of Great Britain, and the sympathy which Jefferson the Secretary of State had with his views, enabled him, in Washington’s words, to set the acts of the American Government at defiance with impunity and to threaten the Executive with an appeal to the people; but gradually Washington’s firmness and the Frenchman’s own outrageous pretensions had due effect; and, before a year had passed, Genet was, early in 1794, on the demand of the American Government, replaced by another minister. [Sidenote: Danger of war between Great Britain and the United States.] [Sidenote: Dorchester’s views.]