Includes bibliographical reference and index.

The frontier soldier -- A revolutionary capital -- Debating the constitution -- Slaves and hypocrites -- Innocence lost -- Citizen Genet -- Entangling alliances -- Jay's treaty -- Talleyrand -- Not a sixpence -- Love and war -- Tossed into the Seine -- The XYZ papers -- The Jonathan Robbins affair -- Privateers and pirates -- The new order of things -- Showdown -- A strategic retreat -- Prizes of war -- High crimes -- Treason -- Estrangement -- The meaning of sovereignty -- Washington burning -- Friends and enemies -- The supreme law -- The pirate lottery -- The great steamboat case -- Public and private -- Right remains with the strongest -- An extravagant pretense -- In the conqueror's court -- A union prolonged by miracles.