The year 1793 brought an early foreign policy test for the United States. Struggling to build the young nation's fragile economy, Americans received with excitement and sympathy the news of the French Revolution. France and the United States had signed a formal alliance in 1788, whose terms dictated that the U.S. should now aid the French.
Jefferson, the Secretary of State, was among the French Revolution's fervent backers. In this he and his fellow Republicans represented most people in the nation, who saw the events in France as a natural progression of their own struggle against monarchs and tyrants. Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, urged caution, pointing out that the young nation was too weak to send material support nor could it risk a confrontation with Britain and Spain, upon whom the French had declared war. President Washington's friendship with Lafayette helped him look favorably on early events in France, but as the reign of terror set in and Lafayette went into exile, Washington's support cooled.
News reached the U.S. in March, 1793, of the execution of Louis XVI, followed a month later by the arrival in Charleston, South Carolina, of French diplomat Edmond Genet. A dashing figure, age 30, Citizen Genet received an enthusiastic public welcome. Rather than travel to the nation's capital in Philadelphia to present his credentials, normally the first task of protocol, Genet traveled throughout the South to increase support for the French cause.
Determined to avoid entanglement in a war for which the nation was not prepared, Washington issued a Neutrality Proclamation in late April, 1793. Genet, however, continued his efforts. He enlisted American privateers to raid British shipping, with prizes being brought to American ports, actions which mocked the government's neutral stance. He attempted to raise an army to attack Spanish Florida and New Orleans. Caught up in revolutionary fervor, Genet even published a list of prominent men in Boston who were appropriate candidates for the guillotine.
The President finally had enough. Incensed by Genet's willingness to violate America's stated neutrality, Washington demanded that the French recall their young representative. Genet learned that his own government was also displeased with his actions. Facing a likely trip to the guillotine himself upon his return, he appealed and Washington pardoned him, making him the first person to receive political sanctuary in the United States. Genet ended up marrying Cornelia Clinton, the daughter of the New York governor, and settled down to life on a farm.
His actions had increased partisanship throughout the nation, not just in Washington's Cabinet, with newspapers and political parties ardently taking sides. The dance Genet's Recall, which appears in a 1799 manuscript, gives testimony of how this political turmoil soon made its way into the world of early American country dance.