He never had much patience with instructions. Like Napoleon, who tore up his letters from the National Council, and Dewey who cut his cables, John Jay when on the war-path decided things for himself. From that date he neglected entirely to consult with Vergennes about anything. On the contrary he called on Benjamin Vaughan, private secretary to Lord Shelburne, Prime Minister of England, and laid the plot before him, sending him post haste like a second D'Artagnan to London, to circumvent Reyneval, and prevent the coup.
The question naturally is: Why did he suppose that he could save his country by confiding in the enemy?
This was because of a fact which is at the very foundation of our government, the one fundamental basis of our entire history, and the keynote of the present alignment of the nations in the fight for liberty.
The fact was that the English people were a power not only apart from but in opposition
