Introduction

One thing that can be said of Edmond Genêt is that he did not adhere to Talleyrand’s cynical motto, “surtout pas trop de zèle.” This was partly because it was still too early in the saga of the French Revolution to have learned that particular lesson and partly because of his reception in the United States. A committee of thirty leading Republicans, pressed by a large crowd of ordinary citizens, greeted Genêt with a message of solidarity at his lodgings at the City Tavern on May 17. The next evening, after Genêt had presented his credentials to Washington, the French residents of the city hosted a sumptuous dinner, where guests sang the “Marseillaise” and Genêt showed off his own fine voice in a stirring patriotic solo. A line from his letter to the foreign minister in Paris the same day is indicative of his mood: “The true Americans are at the height of joy.” Two weeks later he was still living in “the midst of perpetual fêtes.” Nearly two hundred people, including Governor Thomas Mifflin and other state and federal officials, raised their glasses to Genêt and the French cause at Oeller’s Hotel on June 1.

The euphoria was catching. Jefferson wrote Madison two days after Genêt’s arrival that “It is impossible for anything to be more affectionate, more magnanimous than the purport of his mission.” He paraphrased Genêt’s message thusly: