"THE FIRST FORMAL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN A PRESIDENT AND HIS GOVERNMENT": WASHINGTON ON THE GENÊT AFFAIR, 1793 FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL MESSAGE PRINTED FOR CONGRESS

WASHINGTON, George. A Message of the President of the United States to Congress Relative to France and Great-Britain. Delivered December 5, 1793. With the Papers Therein Referred To. To Which are Added the French Originals. Philadelphia: Childs and Swaine, 1793. Octavo, original self-wrappers, stitched as issued, uncut and partially unopened; pp. 102, (1). $9000.

First edition of the first presidential message printed for Congress, "the official document of the celebrated Genêt affair" (Sabin 48045), heightening an already passionate federalist debate between Hamilton and Jefferson, leading to Jefferson's resignation from the cabinet that same year. An excellent uncut copy.

In early 1793, "Citizen" Edmond Genêt, the French Minister Plenipotentiary, arrived in South Carolina where "thousands of Americans turned out to see the French Republic's first ambassador to the United States" (Banning, 375). The French having declared war on England, Genêt's first act was to commission four privateering ships to raid British vessels on America's coast. This serious breech of America's policy of non-involvement in Europe's war worsened tensions between Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson until, in July, "Genêt committed a colossal blunder that dwarfed all previous gaffes," when he boasted of his plan "to go above Washington's head and appeal directly to the American people… [thereby] slapping the face of the one man who could not be slapped: George Washington" (Chernow, 438, 441). Genêt's boldness briefly aligned Hamilton and Jefferson and provoked Washington to issue a Proclamation of Neutrality, declaring that "the arming and equipping vessels in the ports of the United States, to cruise against nations with whom they are at peace, was incompatible with the sovereignty of the United States."

After the English began seizing American ships en route to France, Washington's cabinet sought to have Genêt recalled but, forestalled by the Jacobin Reign of Terror and a threat of certain death on his return to France, instead granted Genêt political asylum. Ultimately any truce between Hamilton and Jefferson produced by the Genêt affair quickly disappeared that year when Hamilton published a series of essays under the pseudonym "Pacificus," defending the Neutrality Proclamation's expansion of executive powers, and James Madison responded, at Jefferson's urging, with essays published under the name "Helvidius," arguing that full authority over foreign policy remain with Congress, except where otherwise designated by the Constitution. The Genêt controversy subsequently played a key role in Jefferson's resignation from the cabinet at the end of 1793 and continued to inflame passions between federalists and antifederalists. This printing of A Message of the President is "the first official statement of the Genêt imbroglio" (Evans 26334) and contains, in its printing of the December 5, 1793 letter from George Washington to "the Gentlemen of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives," the first formal communication between a President and his government. Bound without the 148 supplemental pages of the "French Originals" mentioned on the title page, as often seen. Howes M554. Sabin 48045. Early owner signature to title page, with Washington's name inked on the title page as well.

Minor foxing. An important and rare piece of early Americana, uncut and in near-fine condition.