It is February 4th. Welcome to Episode 35 of History in a Year. Today, the world catches fire. The French Revolution explodes across the Atlantic, forcing every American to choose a side. At first, we cheer for our “Sister Republic,” wearing tricolor cockades and singing “La Marseillaise” in the streets. But as the guillotine begins to drop and the King loses his head, the dream turns into a nightmare. We watch as the violence in Paris tears the friendship of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson apart forever.
STEPHEN: Welcome to History in a Year: America’s First 250 Years.
LEAH: Join us every single day as we journey from the Revolution of 1776 to the 250th anniversary of the United States.
STEPHEN: You can find every episode, full transcripts, and join the discussion at PointedWords.com. I’m Stephen.
LEAH: And I’m Leah.
STEPHEN: It is February 4th. Welcome to Episode 35. Yesterday, we watched the bank war divide the cabinet. But today, that internal crack is going to be pried open by a sledgehammer from across the ocean.
LEAH: The French Revolution.
STEPHEN: We have to talk about how Americans felt about France in the beginning. We loved them!
LEAH: Of course we did. Without France, we would still be British colonies. They gave us the money, the gunpowder, and the navy to win our independence. We felt a deep debt of gratitude.
STEPHEN: So, when the French Revolution started in 1789—with the Storming of the Bastille—Americans went wild with joy. We thought, “Look! They are copying us! We lit the spark of liberty, and now it’s spreading to Europe!”
LEAH: It was a party. In Boston, they held a massive banquet with a 1,000-pound ox roasted whole. In New York, people started wearing “Tricolor Cockades” (red, white, and blue ribbons) on their hats to show solidarity.
STEPHEN: Key to the Bastille was actually sent to George Washington as a gift! It was sent by the Marquis de Lafayette—Washington’s “adopted son.”
LEAH: Lafayette was leading the revolution in the early days. He wanted a constitutional monarchy, just like England, but with more freedom. Washington was so proud. He displayed the key in his hallway at Mount Vernon. (You can still see it there today!)
STEPHEN: But then… things got dark.
LEAH: The Revolution stopped being about constitutions and started being about revenge. The “Reign of Terror” began.
STEPHEN: In January 1793, King Louis XVI—the man who had signed the treaty to help America—was dragged to the guillotine and beheaded.
LEAH: Then his wife, Marie Antoinette. Then priests. Then aristocrats. Then just random people who didn’t look enthusiastic enough. The streets of Paris literally ran with blood.
STEPHEN: This changed everything in America. The news took weeks to arrive by ship, but when it did, it hit like a bomb.
LEAH: Suddenly, the “Universal Spirit of Liberty” didn’t look so pretty. It looked like mob rule.
STEPHEN: And this is where the split between Hamilton and Jefferson becomes a chasm.
LEAH: Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists were horrified. They looked at France and saw anarchy. They saw a godless mob destroying civilization.
STEPHEN: Hamilton said, effectively, “This is what happens when you give too much power to the people. You don’t get liberty; you get a bloodbath.” He became even more convinced that America needed a strong government to keep order.
LEAH: But Thomas Jefferson? Jefferson didn’t flinch.
STEPHEN: This is the part of Jefferson that is hard for modern people to understand. He was a revolutionary zealot. He believed that the tree of liberty had to be watered with the blood of tyrants.
LEAH: He famously wrote a letter in 1793 defending the violence. He said, “The liberty of the whole earth was depending on the issue of the contest… rather than it should have failed, I would have seen half the earth desolated.”
STEPHEN: “Half the earth desolated.” He was saying he would rather see half the world die than see the French Revolution fail.
LEAH: The Democratic-Republicans (Jefferson’s party) kept wearing the tricolor cockades. They started calling each other “Citizen” and “Citizeness” instead of “Mr.” and “Mrs.” just like the French radicals.
STEPHEN: They formed “Democratic-Republican Societies”—basically political clubs—where they drank toasts to the guillotine and sang “La Marseillaise.”
LEAH: So now, American politics wasn’t just about banks or taxes. It was tribal. If you were a Federalist, you were “Pro-British” (because Britain was fighting France). You valued Order and Tradition. If you were a Republican, you were “Pro-French.” You valued Liberty and Revolution.
STEPHEN: And poor George Washington. He was sitting in the middle of this hurricane.
LEAH: Washington was terrified that the US would get dragged into the war. Britain and France were now at war (again).
STEPHEN: The US had a treaty with France from 1778. It said we were “allies forever.” Technically, we were supposed to help them defend their islands in the Caribbean.
LEAH: But Washington knew that if the US entered a war against Great Britain in 1793, we would be crushed. We had no navy. We had no money. It would be national suicide.
STEPHEN: So, on April 22, 1793, Washington issued the Proclamation of Neutrality.
LEAH: He declared that the United States would be “friendly and impartial” to both sides. We would trade with everyone, but fight for no one.
STEPHEN: This furious Jefferson. He thought Washington was betraying our oldest friend. He thought we were turning our backs on liberty to suck up to the British King.
LEAH: But Washington stood firm. He believed that the most important thing for the young nation was time. Time to grow. Time to get strong.
STEPHEN: But just because Washington declared neutrality didn’t mean the French were going to respect it.
LEAH: In fact, they sent a new ambassador to America to make sure we didn’t stay neutral. A man named Edmond-Charles Genêt.
STEPHEN: “Citizen Genêt.” This guy is a piece of work. He arrives in Charleston, South Carolina, and acts like a rock star. He ignores the President. He starts handing out French military commissions to American citizens!
LEAH: He hires American privateers (basically legal pirates) to attack British ships. He holds massive rallies where he incites the crowd against Washington.
STEPHEN: He is basically trying to overthrow the American government’s foreign policy by appealing directly to the mob.
LEAH: And for a moment, it looked like it might work. The crowds loved him.
STEPHEN: Join us tomorrow for Episode 36. Citizen Genêt. We watch as this rogue ambassador pushes George Washington to the breaking point, threatens to go over the President’s head, and finally learns the hard way that you do not mess with the Father of the Country.
LEAH: I’m Leah.
STEPHEN: And I’m Stephen.
STEPHEN: You can find every episode at PointedWords.com. And this… is our story.