In 1793 Edmond Genet arrived in America and began to outfit privateers to raid British commerce, and to raise armies to attack British interests. Many Americans enthusiastically supported Genet’s activities. Washington did not; he desperately wanted to keep America out of the war. Hamilton penned his famous “Pacificus” letters to support Washington’s declaration of neutrality, contending France had supported America’s revolution for its own motives, that we had given France the revenge it had sought against England and owed it nothing more, that intervention in the European war carried immense
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