That the expense was trifling in comparison with the objects achieved must deeply impress any one who examines the records of the times.

A mistake might have been fatal to the existence of the Government.
It has become so powerful and massive since that time, that we can hardly realize what a rickety structure it then was, and how readily, in less capable hands, it might have collapsed.
Randolph, then Secretary of State, seems to have been in a panic.

Fauchet, the French minister at that time, reported to his government that Randolph called upon him and with a grief-stricken countenance declared, "It is all over; a civil war is about to ravage our unhappy country." He represented to Fauchet that there were four men whose talents, influence, and energy might save it.

"But debtors of English merchants, they will be deprived of their liberty if they take the smallest step." He wanted to know whether Fauchet could lend "funds sufficient to shelter them from English persecution." Fauchet's letter was captured by the British and made public.

Randolph's explanations did not clear up the obscurity that surrounds the affair.