James Madison Jr letter to Thomas Jefferson, 19 June 1793

Orange, June 19, 1793.

DEAR Sir, Every Gazette I see (except that of the United States) exhibits a spirit of criticism on the Anglified complexion charged on the Executive politics. I regret extremely the position into which the President has been thrown. The unpopular cause of Anglomany is openly laying claim to him. His enemies, masking themselves under the popular cause of France, are playing off the most tremendous batteries on him. The proclamation was, in truth, a most unfortunate error. It wounds the national honor, by seeming to disregard the stipulated duties to France. It wounds the popular feelings, by a seeming indifference to the cause of liberty. And it seems to violate the forms and spirit of the Constitution, by making the Executive Magistrate the organ of the disposition, the duty, and the interest of the nation, in relation to war and peace subjects appropriated to other departments of the Government. It is mortifying to the real friends of the President that his fame and his influence should have been unnecessarily made to depend in any degree on political events in a foreign quarter of the Globe; and particularly so that he should have anything to apprehend from the success of liberty in another country, since he owes his pre-eminence to the success of it in his own. If France triumphs, the ill-fated proclamation will be a millstone, which would sink any other character, and will force a struggle even on his.