This horrid system seemed awhile to threaten the subversion of civilized society and the introduction of general disorder among mankind. And though the frightful evils which have been its first and only fruits have given a check to its progress, it is to be feared that the poison has spread too widely and penetrated too deeply to be as yet eradicated. Its activity has indeed been suspended, but the elements remain, concocting for new eruptions as occasion shall permit. It is greatly to be apprehended that mankind is not near the end of the misfortunes which it is calculated to produce, and that it still portends a long train of convulsion, revolution, carnage, devastation, and misery. Symptoms of the too great prevalence of this system in the United States are alarmingly visible. It was by its influence that efforts were made to embark this country in a common cause with France in the early period of the present war; to induce our government to sanction and promote her odious principles and views with the blood and treasure of our citizens. It is by its influence that every succeeding revolution has been approved or excused; all the horrors that have been committed justified or extenuated; that even the last usurpation, which contradicts all the ostensible principles of the Revolution, has been regarded with complacency, and the despotic constitution engendered by it slyly held up as a model not unworthy of our imitation. In the progress of this system, impiety and infidelity have advanced with gigantic strides. Prodigious crimes heretofore unknown among us are seen....[298] FOOTNOTES: [270] _The Writings of Thomas Jefferson_, vol. vii, pp. 93 _et seq._ In similar strain, Jefferson wrote Adams a day later, offering his best wishes for his administration, but with the thought of the impending “storm” still well fixed in his mind. _Cf. ibid._, pp. 95 _et seq._ _Cf._ Jefferson’s letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, _ibid._, pp. 113 _et seq._ [271] The following clause in the treaty seemed to afford ample protection to the rights of France: “Nothing in this treaty contained shall, however, be construed or operate contrary to former and existing public treaties with other sovereigns or states.” (_United States Statutes at Large_, vol. viii, p. 128: Article XXV of the treaty.) But France was unable to blind her eyes to the practical consideration that her European enemy, Great Britain, and an American government, suspicious of if not positively antagonistic to French influence, were to be the interpreters of the treaty. [272] _Annals of Congress_, vol. vii, p. 103. [273] Gibbs, _Memoirs of the Administrations of Washington and John Adams_, vol. i, p. 416, letter of Uriah Tracy to Oliver Wolcott. [274] _Works of Fisher Ames_, vol. i. pp. 232 _et seq._, Ames’ letter to Timothy Pickering.