The West India islands were lost without causing an apparent smart at home; but it was different, when the news came of Mr. Jay’s negotiation in England. The Republic was stung to the quick, and, when the treaty became known, did not conceal its indignant anger. In a formal note, dated March 9, 1796, it set forth its complaints, dwelling especially upon the “inexecution of the treaties,” and upon the formation of the recent treaty with Great Britain, in which the United States “knowingly and evidently sacrificed their connections with the Republic.”[173] In conversation with Mr. Monroe, the French minister said “that France had much cause of complaint against us, independently of our treaty with England, but that by this treaty ours with them was annihilated.”[174] The year closed with the recall of Mr. Monroe, and with a notice from the French Government “that it will no longer recognize nor receive a Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States, _until after a reparation of the grievances demanded of the American Government_, and which the French Republic has a right to expect”; and then, adding ingratitude to the list of our offences, it declared an equal expectation “that the successors of Columbus, Raleigh, and Penn, always proud of their liberty, will never forget that _they owe it to France_.”[175] Meanwhile, M. Adet, the French plenipotentiary in Philadelphia, was addressing our Government in similar strain, calling for the discharge of our engagements, and heaping reproaches: “The undersigned, Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republic, now fulfils to the Secretary of State of the United States a painful, but sacred duty. _He claims, in the name of American honor, in the name of the faith of treaties, the execution of that contract which assured to the United States their existence_, and which France regarded as the pledge of the most sacred union between two people the freest upon earth.” And he charges the Government of the United States with “sacrificing France to her enemies,” “forgetting the services that she had rendered it,” and “throwing aside the duty of gratitude, as if ingratitude was a Governmental duty.”[176] From this time forward the claims of the United States never failed to encounter the counter-claims of France.