I've always been interested in the Washington administration, but I can't really find anything about his response to the French Revolution. What were his thoughts/actions relating to it, and did they change as the revolution went on? Specifically, did he ever have any correspondence with Robespierre or Louis XVI? I imagine he'd be concerned about the execution of the king, but that's pure speculation. Also any recommended texts would be amazing, as I like to learn about how these major world leaders/events all tie in together.
Washington did believe that the French Revolution was an extension of the ideals of the American Revolution, and he did have a good deal of gratitude towards the French (and affection for the Marquis de Lafayette), but Washington was careful to preserve America's neutrality in world affairs. America's position on France later ended up being a politically divisive issue.
There was a strong push from the Republican camp, led by Jefferson, to push Washington into adopting an explicitly pro-France position. Jefferson was much more in favor of a permanent French alliance, seeing the French Revolution as a natural extension of "The Spirit of '76". In fact, this later caused a rift between them as Jefferson tried to paint Washington as anti-French in their newspaper the Aurora. Washington thought they were hypocrites: he wrote to Lafayette that "they had no more regard for that Nation [France] than for the Grand Turk, farther than their own views were promoted by it."^1 Basically, he thought that Jefferson saw only validation of American ideals in France, not what was best for America as a nation.
Washington's policy on France was that America should stay out of European affairs. In his Farewell Address he urged America to stay out of "foreign alliances", and the alliance he was undoubtedly referring to was one with France:
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.
Effectively, he sympathized with Revolutionary France, but unlike his Republican colleagues, he still felt that France was a different nation with its own self-interests that we ought to stay out of.
1: Letter, Washington to Lafayette, 25 December 1798