"It was urged that in France you were considered as a favorer of the aristocracy, and unfriendly to its Revolution." Washington's reminder that it was his business to promote the interest of his own country did not have any apparent effect on Morris's behavior.

He became the personal agent of Louis XVI, and he not only received and disbursed large sums on the King's account, but he also entered into plans for the King's flight from Paris.

During the Reign of Terror which began in 1792, he behaved with an energy and an intrepidity honorable to him as a man; in general, however, his course tended to embroil and not to guard American interests.
In the face of the European coalition against revolutionary France, the principle of action was that announced by Danton,--"to dare, and to dare, and without end to dare." Genet therefore went on his mission to America keyed to measures which were audacious but which can hardly be described as reckless.

By plunging heavily he might make a big winning; if he failed, he was hardly worse off than if he had not made the attempt.

To draw the United States into the war as the ally of France was only one part of his mission.