Edmond-Charles Genet

“ Indeed, French people would treat their co-citizens as brothers and would be less worried to please the English despot than to render justice to the Canadiens, they would not be so much concerned with contenting the kings, but rather their brothers: they would give up their places rather than making an injustice: they would prefer to pensions granted to them the sweet satisfaction to be loved and judged worthy of their origin. ”

“ Will also be abolished hereditary titles, there will no longer be neither lords nor seigneurs nor nobles. All religious cults will be free. Catholic priests will be appointed by the people as in the time of the primitive Church and will enjoy a treatment adequate to their utility. ”

“ Things moved rapidly in France in those days, and Genet's friends were soon removed and he, fearing the guillotine, became an American citizen, "a scientific farmer and an ornament to New York society." In 1810 he moved to Greenbush, where he died in 1834. His tombstone in the burial ground of the Dutch Church in East Greenbush tells us that "His heart was love and friendship's sun."86 His house was once the home of Gen. Hendrick K. Van Rensselaer, whose bravery at Fort Ann saved the American army in 1777. ”

“ Genet was the first envoy sent to represent the wild and revolutionary republic of France,—the republic of Robespierre and the Jacobins. He represented, as well as any man could, the ideas and purposes of those who had wrought such havoc in France. He was meddlesome, wrong-headed, unreasonable, and bold with it all. He sailed from France in a ship which he commanded himself; and instead of going straight to Philadelphia (then the seat of government) , where his business called him, he landed at Charleston in South Carolina. War was then pending between France and Spain ”

“ For the reasons stated, Genet found the people enthusiastic in favor of his enterprise. The enthusiasm was intense. It crossed the Savannah, and found General Elijah Clarke, with his strong nature and active sympathies, ready to embrace it. His military prestige in the South commended him to Genet as the man to lead the military enterprise against the Spanish settlements in the South. Accordingly he was given command of the army that was to be raised, and was made a major general in the French service with a pay of ten thousand dollars. ”

“ Genet therefore went on his mission to America keyed to measures which were audacious but which can hardly be described as reckless. By plunging heavily he might make a big winning; if he failed, he was hardly worse off than if he had not made the attempt. To draw the United States into the war as the ally of France was only one part of his mission. He was also planning to reëstablish the French colonial empire, the loss of which was still an unhealed wound. Canada, Louisiana, and the Floridas were all in his mind. ”

“ When Genet arrived in Philadelphia, he was, although he had already committed some illegal acts in Charleston, profuse in his promises of good behavior. The secretary of state had welcomed him as the representative of France and the Revolution, and naturally he meant to make the most he could out of him, for the sake of the Republican party, as well as for the sake of the sacred cause of "liberty, equality, and fraternity." ”

“ On the other hand, letters written by Hamilton during the time of all this excitement show that he thought little of it, although he more than anyone else was its target. In May, 1793, he wrote that the number of persons who went to meet Genet "would be stated high at a hundred," and he did not believe that a tenth part of the city participated in the meetings and addresses of Genet's sympathizers. "A crowd will always draw a crowd, whatever be the purpose. ”

“ Here he crossed, and then rode on until he reached a village, where he resolved to stop the night, being now off the main roads, and therefore fairly safe from pursuit, even should Genet be able to satisfy his captors that a mistake had been made, and that those who captured him had in fact been aiding a fugitive to escape from justice.
The host of the little inn apologized for the poor fare that was set before him, on the ground of the exactions of the soldiers. "One can scarcely call one's life one's own," he grumbled. ”

“ The Connecticut Courant of May 13, 1793, contains the first announcements of Genet’s arrival which that paper made. Subsequent issues are fairly well occupied with accounts of Genet’s arrival in Philadelphia, the unconfirmed expressions of cordiality and heated enthusiasm which he encountered there, the congratulatory address which the citizens of that place presented him, Genet’s response, etc. In the issue of August 12 mention is made of the Frenchman’s arrival in New York. Thus far not the slightest trace of a suspecting attitude of mind is discoverable. ”

“ Genet appears to have been prevented from acquiescing in a line of conduct thus deliberately adopted and prudently pursued, by a belief that the sentiments of the people were in direct opposition to the measures of their government. So excessive, and so general, were the demonstrations of enthusiastic devotion to France; so open were their expressions of outrage and hostility towards all the powers at war with that republic; so thin was the veil which covered the chief magistrate from that stream of malignant opprobrium directed against every measure which thwarted the views of Mr. Genet ”

“ The wild French-Revolutionary rage that swept through the South now fanned the flame and made the sparks fly over into Canada. In April 1793 a fiery Red Republican, named Genet, landed at Charleston as French minister to the United States and made a triumphal progress to Philadelphia. Nobody bothered about the fundamental differences between the French and American revolutions. France and England were going to war and that was enough. Genet was one of those 'impossibles' whom revolutions throw into ridiculous power. When he began his campaign the Republican South was at his feet. ”

“ In south-western Europe and North Africa it is sought for its soft and beautifully spotted fur. In some parts of Europe, the genet, which is easily tamed, is kept like a cat for destroying mice and other vermin.
GENEVA, a city of Ontario county, New York, U.S.A., at the N. end of Seneca Lake, about 52 m. S.E. of Rochester. Pop. (1890) 7557; (1900) 10,433 (of whom 1916 were foreign-born) ; (1910 census) 12,446. It is served by the New York Central & Hudson River, and the Lehigh Valley railways, and by the Cayuga & Seneca Canal. It is an attractively built city, and has good mineral springs. ”

“ GENTZ, FRIEDRICH VON (1764–1832) , German publicist and statesman, was born at Breslau on the 2nd of May 1764. His father was an official, his mother an Ancillon, distantly related to the Prussian minister of that name. On his father’s transference to Berlin, as director of the mint, the boy was sent to the Joachimsthal gymnasium there; his brilliant talents, however, did not develop until later, when at the university of Königsberg he fell under the influence of Kant. ”

“ Genet stuck to the boche and opened fire on him. He knows he hit the machine and at one time he thought he saw the machine on fire, but nothing happened. At last the boche had Genet in a bad position, so he (Genet) piqued down about a thousand meters and got away from the boche. He looked around for Mac but couldn't find him, so he came home. Mac hasn't yet shown up and we are frightfully worried. Genet has a dim recollection that when he attacked the boche, the other boche piqued down in Mac's direction, and it looks as if the boche got Mac unawares. ”

“ Genet not only [Pg 112] asked for the anticipation of payments soon to mature, but insisted that he should receive the whole amount of the debt. He threw a bait to American sentiment by the suggestion that the money would be spent in the United States for provisions and supplies. Hamilton treated his rude demands just as he would those of any other creditor. He was willing to anticipate certain payments when the Treasury resources justified it, but absolutely refused to do more. Genet then threatened to pay for what he bought with drafts upon the Treasury. ”

“ For if the great citizen of Ghent combines in an extraordinary degree the reflective and the energetic character, our author unites, in a manner almost as peculiar, two modes of thinking which at first appear to be opposed: he unites that practical sagacity which gives grave, and serious, and useful counsels upon human conduct, with that sad and profound irony—that reasoned despondency—which so generally besets the speculative mind. ”

“ In the time of Charles V., Ghent was not only the most powerful city in the rich Netherlands, but one of the most opulent in all Europe. And what the Belfry, whose chimes ring out with such sweet melody by night and day, was to Bruges, that was to the more warlike men of Ghent the 'iron tongue' of Roland, the mighty bell which hung in the lofty watch-tower. It called them to arms. It sent them forth to battle. It welcomed them home victorious, or bade them meet and defend their privileges in the market-place. ”

“ Genet calculates upon the partialities of the American people for France and openly insults their government.
In pursuance of the instructions which had been given by the President, the governor immediately sent Mr. Secretary Dallas for the purpose of prevailing on Mr. Genet to relieve him from the employment of force, by detaining the vessel in port until the arrival of the President, who was then on his way from Mount Vernon. Mr. Dallas communicated this message to the French minister in terms as conciliatory as its nature would permit. ”

“ Ned started when he heard the landlord describe the leader of the party. This, then, accounted for Genet's presence at Antwerp; he had been sent from Brussels to arrest this cloth manufacturer. He had evidently succeeded in establishing his identity late in the evening or at early morning, and guessing that Ned would have ridden on without loss of time after setting the soldiers on to assault him, had proceeded to carry out the mission with which he was charged.
"The villagers would tear the villain limb from limb if they dared," the landlord went on.
"Why don't they dare?" Ned asked. ”

“ The sufferings of Ghent seem to be so generally admitted, and so unequivocally ascribed to the operation of the revolution, that no scruple or delicacy is observed by the press or the public in ascribing them to its proper cause. ”

“ Sainte Aldegonde agreed, "if we had also a sufficient force to keep down the city. These knaves think vastly more of their own privileges than of the good of the State, or even of the safety of the town. Here, as in Ghent, the people are divided into sections and parties, who, when there is no one else to quarrel with, are ever ready to fly at each other's throats. Each of these leaders of guilds and presidents of chambers considers himself a little god, and it is quite enough if anyone else expresses an opinion for the majority to take up at once the opposite view." ”

“ In 1297 the Ghenters repulsed an English army of 24,000 men under the warlike Edward I. and in 1302 they defeated a French army under Count John of Namur in the famous battle of the Spurs. The warlike Edward III. of England was glad to obtain the alliance of the famous Jacques Van Artevelde, Brewer of Ghent, and flattered him by the title of "dear gossip." For a time Artevelde induced his fellow-citizens to remain faithful to Edward against France and the Count of Flanders; but the politic English king sought through his "dear gossip" to obtain a real hold on Ghent. ”

“ But in the main, the streets of Ghent are lively and attractive, and its squares, spacious and planted with trees, forming a striking contrast to the melancholy [75] brick and mortar buildings, that compose the manufacturing towns of England. Here too, as in Manchester and Leeds, the population seem all alive and active, but instead of the serious and important earnestness which one sees in every countenance in Lancashire, the Gantois seems to go about his affairs with cheerfulness and alacrity, as if he was less employed on business than amusement. ”

“ Ghent was enabled, virtually, to cast off its allegiance to the courts of Flanders, to elect Artevelde as their Ruwaert or Protector, and to bid defiance to their native sovereign, backed by all the power of France. Artevelde became the personal friend and counsellor of the English King, who sent ambassadors to his court, and entered into alliance with the city he commanded in conjunction with that of Bruges and Ypres. It was at the suggestion of Artevelde, that Edward quartered the arms of France and assumed the fleur de lis, which for so many centuries was borne upon the shield of England ”

“ Ghent was the largest and most powerful of the Flemish towns, and here his enemies were in the ascendant. Gerard Denis and the weavers had been stirring up the people against him. All kinds of accusations had been spread, and he was accused of robbing and selling his country. The news of the hostile feeling of the population reached Van Artevelde, and he despatched Walter with the request to the king for a force of five hundred English soldiers as a guard against his enemies. ”

“ But there were some good folk living at Ghent, who considered themselves as the most important people in the world, as well they might, considering what pains were being taken, and what oceans of blood were to be shed, in order to make it safe for them to depart from East Flanders and go back again to France, whence they had lately fled in a great hurry. ”