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1792-s] Sympathy with the French Revolution. 317 the Senate, and in the gowns worn by the judges of the Supreme Court, unmistakeable signs of a lingering fondness for aristocracy and monarchy. The Federalists, on the other hand, believed in a broad and liberal construction of the Constitution ; insisted that every bill of credit, every loan office certificate, every promise to pay issued by authority of the Continental Congress, should be redeemed at its face- value; held that the debts which the States had incurred in the struggle for independence were part of the price paid for liberty and had very properly been made part of the national debt; scoffed at the charge of aristocratic and monarchical tendencies ; and declared that the tariff and the excise were no higher than was necessary to support such a government as the people, the States, and foreign Powers would respect. Scarcely were the people thus definitely parted by domestic issues into Federalists and Republicans, when the course of events compelled them to take sides in the great war which began in Europe in April, 1792, and forced them to enter on a struggle, of two and twenty years 1 duration, for commercial independence. From the day when the news of the fall of the Bastille reached America, the progress of the French Revolution had been watched with the deepest interest by the people of the United States. The treaty of alliance which bound the two countries, the grateful recollection of independence recognised, of money lent, of ships and troops furnished by France, and the belief that the uprising of the French people was largely due to the example set by America, aroused all over the United States an interest in the French Revolution and a sympathy with it which could not be felt elsewhere. When therefore, in December, 1792, it became known that the French were slowly making headway against the Allies, the delight of Federalists and Republicans alike found expression in bell-ringings, bonfires, cannonades, and illuminations. Civic feasts were held, "liberty poles'" adorned with the red cap erected, democratic societies formed, and tricolour flags hung up in inns and taverns. Men ceased to be Americans and became all but Frenchmen. They doffed small clothes and put on pantaloons, cut their hair in the "Brutus crop," dropped such old-fashioned terms as " Sir " and " Mr," and called each other " Citizen." They erased from the streets of cities and towns such names as King, Queen, and Prince ; and were in transports of joy when they heard (in April, 1793) that war had broken out between France and Great Britain, and that the first minister plenipotentiary to the United States from the Republic of France was on his way across the ocean. The mission of that functionary, Edmond Genest, was a matter of serious concern to Washington. In the early days of the revolutionary war the King of France had made a treaty of alliance with the little league of States, then struggling desperately for independence. Louis XVI guaran- teed the sovereignty and independence of the United States for ever; Cil. IX.