A new Seat at the Table episode is now available!
Aug. 20, 2017

1.15 – It’s Not Easy Being Neutral

1.15 – It’s Not Easy Being Neutral

Year(s) Discussed: 1791-1793

The British and French are at war, and the Washington administration is caught in the middle. Though the US government had established a Treaty of Alliance with the French back in the Revolutionary War, the administration had to question whether the new French republican government was in fact valid and whether the US was still bound by the treaty made with the government of the recently executed Louis XVI. However, they are given little time to consider the situation as French ships start capturing British vessels off the coast of North America and bringing them into Philadelphia harbor. Washington wants to stay out of it, but will the European powers force his hand?

Audio editing for this episode by Andrew Pfannkuche

 

  • Bernhard, Winfred E A. Fisher Ames: Federalist and Statesman 1758-1808. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1965.
  • “Cabinet Opinions on the Debt to France, 25 February 1793,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 29, 2017, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-25-02-0237. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 25, 1 January–10 May 1793, ed. John Catanzariti. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992, p. 260.] [Last Accessed: 9 Aug 2017]
  • Chernow, Ron. Alexander Hamilton. New York: Penguin Press, 2004.
  • Chernow, Ron. Washington: A Life. New York: Penguin Press, 2010.
  • Doyle, William. The Oxford History of the French Revolution. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.
  • “Editorial Note: Jefferson’s Questions and Observations on the Application of France,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 29, 2017, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-25-02-0163-0001. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 25, 1 January–10 May 1793, ed. John Catanzariti. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992, pp. 172–174.] [Last Accessed: 9 Aug 2017]
  • Ferling, John. The Ascent of George Washington: The Hidden Political Genius of an American Icon. New York, Berlin, and London: Bloomsbury Press, 2009.
  • Flexner, James Thomas. George Washington: Anguish and Farewell (1793-1799). Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown and Co, 1972 [1969].
  • Jefferson, Thomas. “To Gouverneur Morris, 12 March 1793,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 29, 2017, http://founders.archive.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-25-02-0330. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 25, 1 January-10 May 1793, ed. John Catanzariti. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992, pp. 367-370.] [Last Accessed: 7 Aug 2017]
  • Leepson, Marc. Lafayette: Lessons in Leadership from the Idealist General. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
  • Morris, Gouverneur. “To George Washington, 6 January 1793,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 29, 2017, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-11-02-0378. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 11, 16 August 1792 – 15 January 1793, ed. Christine Sternberg Patrick. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2002, pp. 593–594.] [Last Accessed: 9 Aug 2017]
  • Provincial Executive Council of France. ““To George Washington, 30 December 1792,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 29, 2017, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-11-02-0353. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 11, 16 August 1792 – 15 January 1793, ed. Christine Sternberg Patrick. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2002, pp. 566–568.] [Last Accessed: 9 Aug 2017]
  • Randolph, Edmund. “To George Washington, 6 May 1793,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 29, 2017, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-12-02-0429. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 12, 16 January 1793 – 31 May 1793, ed. Christine Sternberg Patrick and John C. Pinheiro. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005, pp. 534–548.] [Last Accessed: 10 Aug 2017]
  • Reardon, John J. Edmund Randolph: A Biography. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co, 1974.
  • Rogers, George C, Jr. Evolution of a Federalist: William Loughton Smith of Charleston (1758-1812). Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1967 [1962].
  • Smith, Richard Norton. Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co, 1993.
  • “Treaty of Alliance Between The United States and France; February 6, 1778.” The Avalon Project. Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fr1788-2.asp. [Last Accessed: 1 Aug 2017]
  • “Treaty of Amity and Commerce Between The United States and France; February 6, 1778.” The Avalon Project. Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fr1788-1.asp [Last Accessed: 10 Aug 2017]
  • Twohig, Dorothy, ed. The Journal of the Proceedings of the President 1793-1797: The Papers of George Washington. W W Abbot, ed. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1981.
  • Washington, George. “To Thomas Jefferson, 12 April 1793,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 29, 2017, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-12-02-0353. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 12, 16 January 1793 – 31 May 1793, ed. Christine Sternberg Patrick and John C. Pinheiro. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005, pp. 448–449.] [Last Accessed: 3 August 2017]
  • Washington, George. “To the Cabinet, 18 April 1793,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 29, 2017, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-12-02-0358. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 12, 16 January 1793 – 31 May 1793, ed. Christine Sternberg Patrick and John C. Pinheiro. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005, pp. 452–454.] [Last Accessed: 9 Aug 2017]
  • Washington, George. “Proclamation 4—Neutrality of the United States in the War Involving Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, Great Britain, and the United Netherlands Against France,” April 22, 1793. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=65475. [Last Accessed: 31 Jul 2017]
  • Winik, Jay. The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788-1800. New York: Harper Perennial, 2008 [2007].