Though made under cover of the treaty of 1778, this latter provision ran counter to its spirit and purpose.

Captures of American ships began at once.

As Joel Barlow wrote, the decree of March 2, 1797, "was meant to be little short of a declaration of war." The curious situation which ensued from the efforts made by Adams to deal with this emergency cannot be understood without reference to his personal peculiarities.

He was vain, learned, and self-sufficient, and he had the characteristic defect of pedantry: he overrated intelligence and he underrated character.

Hence he was inclined to resent Washington's eminence as being due more to fortune than to merit, and he had for Hamilton an active hatred compounded of wounded vanity and a sense of positive injury.