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Title: The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Volume III. - 1791-1804
Author: Paine, Thomas, 1737-1809
Language: English
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THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE
By Thomas Paine
Edited By Moncure Daniel Conway
VOLUME III.
1791-1804
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York London
Copyright, 1895
By G. P. Putnam's Sons
CONTENTS.
Introduction to the Third Volume
I. The Republican Proclamation
II. To the Authors of "Le Républicain"
III. To the Abbe Sieyes
IV. To the Attorney General
V. To Mr. Secretary Dundas
VI. Letters to Onslow Cranley
VII. To the Sheriff of the County of Sussex
VIII. To Mr. Secretary Dundas
IX. Letter Addressed to the Addressers on the Late Proclamation
X. Address to the People of France
XI. Anti-Monarchal Essay
XII. To the Attorney General, on the Prosecution AGAINST
THE SECOND PART OF RIGHTS of Man
XIII. On the Propriety of Bringing Louis XVI to Trial
XIV. Reasons for Preserving the Life of Louis Capet
XV. Shall Louis XVI. Have Respite?
XVI. Declaration of Rights.
XVII. Private Letters to Jefferson
XVIII. Letters to Danton
XIX. A Citizen of America to the Citizens of Europe
XX. Appeal to the Convention
XXI. The Memorial to Monroe
XXII. Letter to George Washington
XXIII. Observations
XXIV. Dissertation on First Principles of Government
XXV. The Constitution of 1795
XXVI. The Decline and Fall of the English System of Finance
XXVII. Forgetfulness
XXVIII. Agrarian Justice
XXIX. The Eighteenth Fructidor
XXX. The Recall of Monroe
XXXI. Private Letter to President Jefferson
XXXII. Proposal that Louisiana be Purchased
XXXIII. Thomas Paine to the Citizens of the United States
XXXIV. To the French Inhabitants of Louisiana
INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRD VOLUME.
WITH HISTORICAL NOTES AND DOCUMENTS.
In a letter of Lafayette to Washington ("Paris, 12 Jan., 1790") he
writes: "_Common Sense_ is writing for you a brochure where you will see
a part of my adventures." It thus appears that the narrative embodied in
the reply to Burke ("Rights of Man," Part I.), dedicated to Washington,
was begun with Lafayette's collaboration fourteen months before its
publication (March 13, 1791).
In another letter of Lafayette to Washington (March 17, 1790) he writes:
"To Mr. Paine, who leaves for London, I entrust the care of sending
you my news.... Permit me, my dear General, to offer you a picture
representing the Bastille as it was some days after I gave the order for
its demolition. I also pay you the homage of sending you the principal
Key of that fortress of despotism. It is a tribute I owe as a son to
my adoptive father, as aide-de-camp to my General, as a missionary of
liberty to his Patriarch."
The Key was entrusted to Paine, and by him to J. Rut-ledge, Jr., who
sailed from London in May. I have found in the manuscript despatches of
Louis Otto, Chargé d' Affaires, several amusing paragraphs, addressed to
his govern-ment at Paris, about this Key.
"August 4, 1790. In attending yesterday the public audience of the
President, I was surprised by a question from the Chief Magistrate,
'whether I would like to see the Key of the Bastille?' One of his
secretaries showed me at the same moment a large Key, which had
been sent to the President by desire of the Marquis de la Fayette. I
dissembled my surprise in observing to the President that 'the time had
not yet come in America to do ironwork equal to that before him.'
The Americans present looked at the key with indifference, and as if
wondering why it had been sent But the serene face of the President
showed that he regarded it as an homage from the French nation."
"December 13, 1790. The Key of the Bastille, regularly shown at the
President's audiences, is now also on exhibition in Mrs. Washington's
_salon_, where it satisfies the curiosity of the Philadelphians. I am
persuaded, Monseigneur, that it is only their vanity that finds pleasure
in the exhibition of this trophy, but Frenchmen here are not the less
piqued, and many will not enter the President's house on this account."
In sending the key Paine, who saw farther than these distant Frenchmen,
wrote to Washington: "That the principles of America opened the Bastille
is not to be doubted, and therefore the Key comes to the right place."
Early in May, 1791 (the exact date is not given), Lafayette writes
Washington: "I send you the rather indifferent translation of Mr. Paine
as a kind of preservative and to keep me near you." This was a hasty
translation of "Rights of Man," Part I., by F. Soûles, presently
superseded by that of Lanthenas.
The first convert of Paine to pure republicanism in France was Achille
Duchâtelet, son of the Duke, and grandson of the authoress,--the friend
of Voltaire. It was he and Paine who, after the flight of Louis XVI.,
placarded Paris with the Proclamation of a Republic, given as the first
chapter of this volume. An account of this incident is here quoted from
Etienne Dumont's "Recollections of Mirabeau":
"The celebrated Paine was at this time in Paris, and intimate in
Condorcet's family. Thinking that he had effected the American
Revolution, he fancied himself called upon to bring about one in France.
Duchâtelet called on me, and after a little preface placed in my hand an
English manuscript--a Proclamation to the French People. It was nothing
less than an anti-royalist Manifesto, and summoned the nation to
seize the opportunity and establish a Republic. Paine was its author.
Duchâtelet had adopted and was resolved to sign, placard the walls of
Paris with it, and take the consequences. He had come to request me to
translate and develop it. I began discussing the strange proposal,
and pointed out the danger of raising a republican standard without
concurrence of the National Assembly, and nothing being as yet known
of the king's intentions, resources, alliances, and possibilities of
support by the army, and in the provinces. I asked if he had consulted
any of the most influential leaders,--Sieves, Lafayette, etc. He had
not: he and Paine had acted alone. An American and an impulsive nobleman
had put themselves forward to change the whole governmental system
of France. Resisting his entreaties, I refused to translate the
Proclamation. Next day the republican Proclamation appeared on the walls
in every part of Paris, and was denounced to the Assembly. The idea of
a Republic had previously presented itself to no one: this first
intimation filled with consternation the Right and the moderates of the
Left. Malouet, Cazales, and others proposed prosecution of the author,
but Chapelier, and a numerous party, fearing to add fuel to the fire
instead of extinguishing it, prevented this. But some of the seed sown
by the audacious hand of Paine were now budding in leading minds."
A Republican Club was formed in July, consisting of five members, the
others who joined themselves to Paine and Duchâtelet being Condorcet,
and probably Lanthenas (translator of Paine's works), and Nicolas de
Bonneville. They advanced so far as to print "Le Républicain," of which,
however, only one number ever appeared. From it is taken the second
piece in this volume.
Early in the year 1792 Paine lodged in the house and book-shop of Thomas
"Clio" Rickman, now as then 7 Upper Marylebone Street. Among his friends
was the mystical artist and poet, William Blake. Paine had become to
him a transcendental type; he is one of the Seven who appear in Blake's
"Prophecy" concerning America (1793):
"The Guardian Prince of Albion burns in his nightly tent
Sullen fires across the Atlantic glow to America's shore;
Piercing the souls of warlike men, who rise in silent night:--
Washington, Franklin, Paine, and Warren, Gates, Hancock, and Greene,
Meet on the coast glowing with blood from Albion's fiery Prince."
The Seven are wrapt in the flames of their enthusiasm. Albion's Prince
sends to America his thirteen Angels, who, however, there become
Governors of the thirteen States. It is difficult to discover from
Blake's mystical visions how much political radicalism was in him, but
he certainly saved Paine from the scaffold by forewarning him (September
13, 1792) that an order had been issued for his arrest. Without
repeating the story told in Gilchrist's "Life of Blake," and in my "Life
of Paine," I may add here my belief that Paine also appears in one of
Blake's pictures. The picture is in the National Gallery (London), and
called "The spiritual form of Pitt guiding Behemoth." The monster jaws
of Behemoth are full of struggling men, some of whom stretch imploring
hands to another spiritual form, who reaches down from a crescent
moon in the sky, as if to rescue them. This face and form appear to me
certainly meant for Paine.
Acting on Blake's warning Paine's friends got him off to Dover, where,
after some trouble, related in a letter to Dundas (see p. 41 of this
volume), he reached Calais. He had been elected by four departments to
the National Convention, and selected Calais, where he was welcomed
with grand civic parades. On September 19, 1792, he arrived in Paris,
stopping at "White's Hotel," 7 Passage des Pétits Pères, about five
minutes' walk from the Salle de Manége, where, on September 21st, the
National Convention opened its sessions. The spot is now indicated by a
tablet on the wall of the Tuileries Garden, Rue de Rivoli. On that
day Paine was introduced to the Convention by the Abbé Grégoire, and
received with acclamation.
The French Minister in London, Chauvelin, had sent to his government
(still royalist) a despatch unfavorable to Paine's work in England, part
of which I translate:
"May 23, 1792. An Association [for Parliamentary Reform, see pp. 78,
93, of this volume] has been formed to seek the means of forwarding the
demand. It includes some distinguished members of the Commons, and a few
peers. The writings of M. Payne which preceded this Association by a
few days have done it infinite harm. People suspect under the veil of
a reform long demanded by justice and reason an intention to destroy a
constitution equally dear to the peers whose privileges it consecrates,
to the wealthy whom it protects, and to the entire nation, to which
it assures all the liberty desired by a people methodical and slow in
character, and who, absorbed in their commercial interests, do not
like being perpetually worried about the imbecile George III. or public
affairs. Vainly have the friends of reform protested their attachment
to the Constitution. Vainly they declare that they desire to demand
nothing, to obtain nothing, save in lawful ways. They are persistently
disbelieved. Payne alone is seen in all their movements; and this author
has not, like Mackintosh, rendered imposing his refutation of Burke. The
members of the Association, although very different in principles, find
themselves involved in the now almost general disgrace of Payne."
M. Noël writes from London, November 2, 1792, to the republican
Minister, Le Brun, concerning the approaching trial of Paine, which had
been fixed for December 18th.
"This matter above all excites the liveliest interest. People desire
to know whether they live in a free country, where criticism even of
government is a right of every citizen. Whatever may be the decision in
this interesting trial, the result can only be fortunate for the cause
of liberty. But the government cannot conceal from itself that it is
suspended over a volcano. The wild dissipations of the King's sons
add to the discontent, and if something is overlooked in the Prince of
Wales, who is loved enough, it is not so with the Duke of York, who
has few friends. The latter has so many debts that at this moment the
receivers are in his house, and the creditors wish even his bed to be
seized. You perceive, Citizen, what a text fruitful in reflexions this
conduct presents to a people groaning under the weight of taxes for the
support of such whelps (_louvetaux_)."
Under date of December 22, 1792, M. Noël writes:
"London is perfectly tranquil. The arbitrary measures taken by the
government in advance [of Paine's trial] cause no anxiety to the mass
of the nation about its liberties. Some dear-headed people see well that
the royal prerogative will gain in this crisis, and that it is dangerous
to leave executive power to become arbitrary at pleasure; but this very
small number groan in silence, and dare not speak for fear of seeing
their property pillaged or burned by what the miserable hirelings
of government call 'Loyal Mob,' or 'Church and King Mob.' To the
'Addressers,' of whom I wrote you, are added the associations for
maintaining the Constitution they are doing all they can to destroy.
There is no corporation, no parish, which is not mustered for this
object. All have assembled, one on the other, to press against
those whom they call 'The Republicans and the Levellers,' the most
inquisitorial measures. Among other parishes, one (S. James' Vestry
Room) distinguishes itself by a decree worthy of the sixteenth century.
It promises twenty guineas reward to any one who shall denounce those
who in conversation or otherwise propagate opinions contrary to the
public tranquillity, and places the denouncer under protection of the
parish. The inhabitants of London are now placed under a new kind of
_Test_, and those who refuse it will undoubtedly be persecuted. Meantime
these papers are carried from house to house to be signed, especially by
those lodging as strangers. This _Test_ causes murmurs, and some try to
evade signature, but the number is few. The example of the capital is
generally followed. The trial of Payne, which at one time seemed likely
to cause events, has ended in the most peaceful way. Erskine has been
borne to his house by people shouting _God Save the King! Erskine
forever!_ The friends of liberty generally are much dissatisfied with
the way in which he has defended his client. They find that he threw
himself into commonplaces which could make his eloquence shine, but
guarded himself well from going to the bottom of the question. Vane
especially, a distinguished advocate and zealous democrat, is furious
against Erskine. It is now for Payne to defend himself. But whatever
he does, he will have trouble enough to reverse the opinion. The Jury's
verdict is generally applauded: a mortal blow is dealt to freedom of
thought. People sing in the streets, even at midnight, _God save the
King and damn Tom Payne!_" (1)
1 The despatches from which these translations are made are
in the Archives of the Department of State at Paris, series
marked _Angleterre_ vol. 581.
The student of that period will find some instruction in a collection,
now in the British Museum, of coins and medals mostly struck after the
trial and outlawry of Paine. A halfpenny, January 21,1793: _obverse_,
a man hanging on a gibbet, with church in the distance; motto "End of
Pain"; _reverse_, open book inscribed "The Wrongs of Man." A token: bust
of Paine, with his name; _reverse_, "The Mountain in Labour, 1793."
Farthing: Paine gibbeted; _reverse_, breeches burning, legend,
"Pandora's breeches"; beneath, serpent decapitated by a dagger,
the severed head that of Paine. Similar farthing, but _reverse_,
combustibles intermixed with labels issuing from a globe marked
"Fraternity"; the labels inscribed "Regicide," "Robbery," "Falsity,"
"Requisition"; legend, "French Reforms, 1797"; near by, a church with
flag, on it a cross. Half-penny without date, but no doubt struck in
1794, when a rumor reached London that Paine had been guillotined:
Paine gibbeted; above, devil smoking a pipe; _reverse_, monkey dancing;
legend, "We dance, Paine swings." Farthing: three men hanging on a
gallows; "The three Thomases, 1796." _Reverse_, "May the three knaves
of Jacobin Clubs never get a trick." The three Thomases were Thomas
Paine, Thomas Muir, and Thomas Spence. In 1794 Spence was imprisoned
seven months for publishing some of Paine's works at his so-called
"Hive of Liberty." Muir, a Scotch lawyer, was banished to Botany Bay for
fourteen years for having got up in Edinburgh (1792) a "Convention," in
imitation of that just opened in Paris; two years later he escaped from
Botany Bay on an American ship, and found his way to Paine in Paris.
Among these coins there are two of opposite character. A farthing
represents Pitt on a gibbet, against which rests a ladder; inscription,
"End of P [here an eye] T." _Reverse_, face of Pitt conjoined with that
of the devil, and legend, "Even Fellows." Another farthing like the
last, except an added legend, "Such is the reward of tyrants, 1796."
These anti-Pitt farthings were struck by Thomas Spence.
In the winter of 1792-3 the only Reign of Terror was in England. The
Ministry had replied to Paine's "Rights of Man" by a royal proclamation
against seditious literature, surrounding London with militia, and
calling a meeting of Parliament (December, 1792) out of season.
Even before the trial of Paine his case was prejudged by the royal
proclamation, and by the Addresses got up throughout the country in
response,--documents which elicited Paine's Address to the Addressers,
chapter IX. in this volume. The Tory gentry employed roughs to burn
Paine in effigy throughout the country, and to harry the Nonconformists.
Dr. Priestley's house was gutted. Mr. Fox (December 14, 1792) reminded
the House of Commons that all the mobs had "Church and King" for their
watchword, no mob having been heard of for "The Rights of Man"; and
he vainly appealed to the government to prosecute the dangerous libels
against Dissenters as they were prosecuting Paine's work. Burke, who in
the extra session of Parliament for the first time took his seat on the
Treasury Bench, was reminded that he had once "exulted at the victories
of that rebel Washington," and welcomed Franklin. "Franklin," he said,
"was a native of America; Paine was born in England, and lived under the
protection of our laws; but, instigated by his evil genius, he conspired
against the very country which gave him birth, by attempting to
introduce the new and pernicious doctrines of republicans."
In the course of the same harangue, Burke alluded to the English and
Irish deputations, then in Paris, which had congratulated the Convention
on the defeat of the invaders of the Republic. Among them he named
Lord Semphill, John Frost, D. Adams, and "Joel--Joel the Prophet" (Joel
Barlow). These men were among those who, towards the close of 1792,
formed a sort of Paine Club at "Philadelphia House"--as White's Hotel
was now called. The men gathered around Paine, as the exponent of
republican principles, were animated by a passion for liberty which
withheld no sacrifice. Some of them threw away wealth and rank as
trifles. At a banquet of the Club, at Philadelphia House, November 18,
1792, where Paine presided, Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Sir Robert Smyth,
Baronet, formally renounced their titles. Sir Robert proposed the toast,
"A speedy abolition of all hereditary titles and feudal distinctions."
Another toast was, "Paine--and the new way of making good books known by
a Royal proclamation and a King's Bench prosecution."
There was also Franklin's friend, Benjamin Vaughan, Member of
Parliament, who, compromised by an intercepted letter, took refuge in
Paris under the name of Jean Martin. Other Englishmen were Rev. Jeremiah
Joyce, a Unitarian minister and author (coadjutor of Dr. Gregory in
his "Cyclopaedia "); Henry Redhead Yorke, a West Indian with some negro
blood (afterwards an agent of Pitt, under whom he had been imprisoned);
Robert Merry, husband of the actress "Miss Brunton"; Sayer, Rayment,
Macdonald, Perry.
Sampson Perry of London, having attacked the government in his journal,
"The Argus," fled from an indictment, and reached Paris in January,
1793. These men, who for a time formed at Philadelphia House their
Parliament of Man, were dashed by swift storms on their several rocks.
Sir Robert Smyth was long a prisoner under the Reign of Terror, and died
(1802) of the illness thereby contracted. Lord Edward Fitzgerald was
slain while trying to kindle a revolution in Ireland. Perry was a
prisoner in the Luxembourg, and afterwards in London. John Frost, a
lawyer (struck off the roll), ventured back to London, where he was
imprisoned six months in Newgate, sitting in the pillory at Charing
Cross one hour per day. Robert Merry went to Baltimore, where he died
in 1798. Nearly all of these men suffered griefs known only to the "man
without a country."
Sampson Perry, who in 1796 published an interesting "History of the
French Revolution," has left an account of his visit to Paine in
January, 1793:
"I breakfasted with Paine about this time at the Philadelphia Hotel, and
asked him which province in America he conceived the best calculated
for a fugitive to settle in, and, as it were, to begin the world with no
other means or pretensions than common sense and common honesty. Whether
he saw the occasion and felt the tendency of this question I know not;
but he turned it aside by the political news of the day, and added that
he was going to dine with Petion, the mayor, and that he knew I should
be welcome and be entertained. We went to the mayoralty in a hackney
coach, and were seated at a table about which were placed the following
persons: Petion, the mayor of Paris, with his female relation who did
the honour of the table; Dumourier, the commander-in-chief of the French
forces, and one of his aides-de-camp; Santerre, the commandant of the
armed force of Paris, and an aide-de-camp; Condorcet; Brissot; Gaudet;
Genson-net; Danton; Rersaint; Clavière; Vergniaud; and Syèyes; which,
with three other persons, whose names I do not now recollect, and
including Paine and myself, made in all nineteen."
Paine found warm welcome in the home of Achille Du-châtelet, who with
him had first proclaimed the Republic, and was now a General. Madame
Duchâtelet was an English lady of rank, Charlotte Comyn, and English was
fluently spoken in the family. They resided at Auteuil, not far from the
Abbé Moulet, who preserved an arm-chair with the inscription, _Benjamin
Franklin hic sedebat_, Paine was a guest of the Duchâtelets soon after
he got to work in the Convention, as I have just discovered by a letter
addressed "To Citizen Le Brun, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Paris."
"Auteuil, Friday, the 4th December, 1792. I enclose an Irish newspaper
which has been sent me from Belfast. It contains the Address of the
Society of United Irishmen of Dublin (of which Society I am a member)
to the volunteers of Ireland. None of the English newspapers that I have
seen have ventured to republish this Address, and as there is no other
copy of it than this which I send you, I request you not to let it go
out of your possession. Before I received this newspaper I had drawn up
a statement of the affairs of Ireland, which I had communicated to my
friend General Duchâtelet at Auteuil, where I now am. I wish to confer
with you on that subject, but as I do not speak French, and as the
matter requires confidence, General Duchâtelet has desired me to say
that if you can make it convenient to dine with him and me at Auteuil,
he will with pleasure do the office of interpreter. I send this letter
by my servant, but as it may not be convenient to you to give an answer
directly, I have told him not to wait--Thomas Paine."
It will be noticed that Paine now keeps his servant, and drives to the
Mayor's dinner in a hackney coach. A portrait painted in Paris about
this time, now owned by Mr. Alfred Howlett of Syracuse, N. Y., shows him
in elegant costume.
It is mournful to reflect, even at this distance, that only a little
later both Paine and his friend General Duchâtelet were prisoners. The
latter poisoned himself in prison (1794).
The illustrative notes and documents which it seems best to set before
the reader at the outset may here terminate. As in the previous volumes
the writings are, as a rule, given in chronological sequence, but an
exception is now made in respect of Paine's religious writings, some of
which antedate essays in the present volume. The religious writings
are reserved for the fourth and final volume, to which will be added
an Appendix containing Paine's poems, scientific fragments, and several
letters of general interest.
I. THE REPUBLICAN PROCLAMATION.(1)
"Brethren and Fellow Citizens:
"The serene tranquillity, the mutual confidence which prevailed amongst
us, during the time of the late King's escape, the indifference with
which we beheld him return, are unequivocal proofs that the absence of
a King is more desirable than his presence, and that he is not only a
political superfluity, but a grievous burden, pressing hard on the whole
nation.
"Let us not be imposed on by sophisms; all that concerns this is reduced
to four points.
"He has abdicated the throne in having fled from his post. Abdication
and desertion are not characterized by the length of absence; but by the
single act of flight. In the present instance, the act is everything,
and the time nothing.
"The nation can never give back its confidence to a man who, false to
his trust, perjured to his oath, conspires a clandestine flight, obtains
a fraudulent passport, conceals a King of France under the disguise of
a valet, directs his course towards a frontier covered with traitors
and deserters, and evidently meditates a return into our country, with a
force capable of imposing his own despotic laws.
"Should his flight be considered as his own act, or the act of those
who fled with him? Was it a spontaneous resolution of his own, or was
it inspired by others? The alternative is immaterial; whether fool or
hypocrite, idiot or traitor, he has proved himself equally unworthy of
the important functions that had been delegated to him.
1 See Introduction to this volume. This manifesto with which
Paris was found placarded on July 1, 1791, is described by
Dumont as a "Republican Proclamation," but what its literal
caption was I have not found.--_Editor_.
"In every sense in which the question can be considered, the reciprocal
obligation which subsisted between us is dissolved. He holds no longer
any authority. We owe him no longer obedience. We see in him no more
than an indifferent person; we can regard him only as Louis Capet.
"The history of France presents little else than a long series of public
calamity, which takes its source from the vices of Kings; we have been
the wretched victims that have never ceased to suffer either for them
or by them. The catalogue of their oppressions was complete, but to
complete the sum of their crimes, treason was yet wanting. Now the
only vacancy is filled up, the dreadful list is full; the system is
exhausted; there are no remaining errors for them to commit; their reign
is consequently at an end.
"What kind of office must that be in a government which requires for its
execution neither experience nor ability, that may be abandoned to the
desperate chance of birth, that may be filled by an idiot, a madman, a
tyrant, with equal effect as by the good, the virtuous, and the wise? An
office of this nature is a mere nonentity; it is a place of show, not of
use. Let France then, arrived at the age of reason, no longer be deluded
by the sound of words, and let her deliberately examine, if a King,
however insignificant and contemptible in himself, may not at the same
time be extremely dangerous.
"The thirty millions which it costs to support a King in the eclat of
stupid brutal luxury, presents us with an easy method of reducing taxes,
which reduction would at once relieve the people, and stop the progress
of political corruption. The grandeur of nations consists, not, as Kings
pretend, in the splendour of thrones, but in a conspicuous sense of
their own dignity, and in a just disdain of those barbarous follies and
crimes which, under the sanction of Royalty, have hitherto desolated
Europe.
"As to the personal safety of Louis Capet, it is so much the more
confirmed, as France will not stoop to degrade herself by a spirit of
revenge against a wretch who has dishonoured himself. In defending
a just and glorious cause, it is not possible to degrade it, and the
universal tranquillity which prevails is an undeniable proof that a free
people know how to respect themselves."
II. TO THE AUTHORS OF "LE RÉPUBLICAIN."(1)
Gentlemen:
M. Duchâtelet has mentioned to me the intention of some persons to
commence a work under the title of "The Republican."
As I am a Citizen of a country which knows no other Majesty than that of
the People; no other Government than that of the Representative body;
no other sovereignty than that of the Laws, and which is attached to
_France_ both by alliance and by gratitude, I voluntarily offer you my
services in support of principles as honorable to a nation as they are
adapted to promote the happiness of mankind. I offer them to you with
the more zeal, as I know the moral, literary, and political character
of those who are engaged in the undertaking, and find myself honoured in
their good opinion.
But I must at the same time observe, that from ignorance of the French
language, my works must necessarily undergo a translation; they can of
course be of but little utility, and my offering must consist more of
wishes than services. I must add, that I am obliged to pass a part of
this summer in England and Ireland.
As the public has done me the unmerited favor of recognizing me under
the appellation of "Common Sense," which is my usual signature, I shall
continue it in this publication to avoid mistakes, and to prevent
my being supposed the author of works not my own. As to my political
principles, I shall endeavour, in this letter, to trace their general
features in such a manner, as that they cannot be misunderstood.
1 "Le Républicain; ou le Défenseur du gouvernement
Représentatif. Par une Société des Républicains. A Paris.
July, 1791." See Introduction to this volume.--_Editor_.
It is desirable in most instances to avoid that which may give even the
least suspicion as to the part meant to be adopted, and particularly
on the present occasion, where a perfect clearness of expression is
necessary to the avoidance of any possible misinterpretation. I am
happy, therefore, to find, that the work in question is entitled "The
Republican." This word expresses perfectly the idea which we ought to
have of Government in general--_Res Publico_,--the public affairs of a
nation.
As to the word _Monarchy_, though the address and intrigue of Courts
have rendered it familiar, it does not contain the less of reproach or
of insult to a nation. The word, in its immediate or original sense,
signifies _the absolute power of a single individual_, who may prove
a fool, an hypocrite, or a tyrant. The appellation admits of no other
interpretation than that which is here given. France is therefore not a
_Monarchy_; it is insulted when called by that name. The servile spirit
which characterizes this species of government is banished from France,
and this country, like AMERICA, can now afford to Monarchy no more than
a glance of disdain.
Of the errors which monarchic ignorance or knavery has spread through
the world, the one which bears the marks of the most dexterous
invention, is the opinion that the system of _Republicanism_ is only
adapted to a small country, and that a _Monarchy_ is suited, on the
contrary, to those of greater extent. Such is the language of Courts,
and such the sentiments which they have caused to be adopted in
monarchic countries; but the opinion is contrary, at the same time, to
principle and to experience.
The Government, to be of real use, should possess a complete knowledge
of all the parties, all the circumstances, and all the interests of a
nation. The monarchic system, in consequence, instead of being suited
to a country of great extent, would be more admissible in a small
territory, where an individual may be supposed to know the affairs and
the interests of the whole. But when it is attempted to extend this
individual knowledge to the affairs of a great country, the capacity of
knowing bears no longer any proportion to the extent or multiplicity of
the objects which ought to be known, and the government inevitably falls
from ignorance into tyranny. For the proof of this position we need only
look to Spain, Russia, Germany, Turkey, and the whole of the Eastern
Continent,--countries, for the deliverance of which I offer my most
sincere wishes.
On the contrary, the true _Republican_ system, by Election and
Representation, offers the only means which are known, and, in my
opinion, the only means which are possible, of proportioning the wisdom
and the information of a Government to the extent of a country.
The system of _Representation_ is the strongest and most powerful center
that can be devised for a nation. Its attraction acts so powerfully,
that men give it their approbation even without reasoning on the cause;
and France, however distant its several parts, finds itself at this
moment _an whole_, in its _central_ Representation. The citizen is
assured that his rights are protected, and the soldier feels that he
is no longer the slave of a Despot, but that he is become one of the
Nation, and interested of course in its defence.
The states at present styled _Republican_, as Holland, Genoa, Venice,
Berne, &c. are not only unworthy the name, but are actually in
opposition to every principle of a _Republican_ government, and the
countries submitted to their power are, truly speaking, subject to an
_Aristocratic_ slavery!
It is, perhaps, impossible, in the first steps which are made in a
Revolution, to avoid all kind of error, in principle or in practice, or
in some instances to prevent the combination of both. Before the sense
of a nation is sufficiently enlightened, and before men have entered
into the habits of a free communication with each other of their natural
thoughts, a certain reserve--a timid prudence seizes on the human mind,
and prevents it from obtaining its level with that vigor and promptitude
that belongs to _right_.--An example of this influence discovers
itself in the commencement of the present Revolution: but happily this
discovery has been made before the Constitution was completed, and in
time to provide a remedy.
The _hereditary succession_ can never exist as a matter of _right_; it
is a _nullity_--a _nothing_. To admit the idea is to regard man as a
species of property belonging to some individuals, either born or to
be born! It is to consider our descendants, and all posterity, as mere
animals without a right or will! It is, in fine, the most base and
humiliating idea that ever degraded the human species, and which, for
the honor of Humanity, should be destroyed for ever.
The idea of hereditary succession is so contrary to the rights of man,
that if we were ourselves to be recalled to existence, instead of being
replaced by our posterity, we should not have the right of depriving
ourselves beforehand of those _rights_ which would then properly belong
to us. On what ground, then, or by what authority, do we dare to deprive
of their rights those children who will soon be men? Why are we not
struck with the injustice which we perpetrate on our descendants, by
endeavouring to transmit them as a vile herd to masters whose vices are
all that can be foreseen.
Whenever the _French_ constitution shall be rendered conformable to its
_Declaration of Rights_, we shall then be enabled to give to France, and
with justice, the appellation of a _civic Empire_; for its government
will be the empire of laws founded on the great republican principles
of _Elective Representation_, and the _Rights of Man_.--But Monarchy
and Hereditary Succession are incompatible with the _basis_ of its
constitution.
I hope that I have at present sufficiently proved to you that I am
a good Republican; and I have such a confidence in the truth of the
principles, that I doubt not they will soon be as universal in _France_
as in _America_. The pride of human nature will assist their evidence,
will contribute to their establishment, and men will be ashamed of
Monarchy.
I am, with respect, Gentlemen, your friend,
Thomas Paine.
Paris, June, 1791.
III. TO THE ABBÉ SIÈYES.(1)
Paris, 8th July, 1791.
Sir,
At the moment of my departure for England, I read, in the _Moniteur_
of Tuesday last, your letter, in which you give the challenge, on
the subject of Government, and offer to defend what is called the
_Monarchical opinion_ against the Republican system.
I accept of your challenge with pleasure; and I place such a confidence
in the superiority of the Republican system over that nullity of a
system, called _Monarchy_, that I engage not to exceed the extent of
fifty pages, and to leave you the liberty of taking as much latitude as
you may think proper.
The respect which I bear your moral and literary reputation, will be
your security for my candour in the course of this discussion; but,
notwithstanding that I shall treat the subject seriously and sincerely,
let me promise, that I consider myself at liberty to ridicule, as they
deserve, Monarchical absurdities, whensoever the occasion shall present
itself.
By Republicanism, I do not understand what the name signifies in
Holland, and in some parts of Italy. I understand simply a government
by representation--a government founded upon the principles of the
Declaration of Rights; principles to which several parts of the French
Constitution arise in contradiction. The Declaration of Rights of France
and America are but one and the same thing in principles, and almost in
expressions; and this is the Republicanism which I undertake to defend
against what is called _Monarchy_ and _Aristocracy_.
1 Written to the _Moniteur_ in reply to a letter of the Abbé
(July 8) elicited by Paine's letter to "Le Républicain"
(II.). The Abbé now declining a controversy, Paine dealt
with his views in "Rights of Man," Part IL, ch. 3.--
_Editor_.
I see with pleasure that in respect to one point we are already agreed;
and _that is, the extreme danger of a civil list of thirty millions_. I
can discover no reason why one of the parts of the government should
be supported with so extravagant a profusion, whilst the other scarcely
receives what is sufficient for its common wants.
This dangerous and dishonourable disproportion at once supplies the one
with the means of corrupting, and throws the other into the predicament
of being corrupted. In America there is but little difference, with
regard to this point, between the legislative and the executive part of
our government; but the first is much better attended to than it is in
France.
In whatsoever manner, Sir, I may treat the subject of which you
have proposed the investigation, I hope that you will not doubt my
entertaining for you the highest esteem. I must also add, that I am not
the personal enemy of Kings. Quite the contrary. No man more heartily
wishes than myself to see them all in the happy and honourable state of
private individuals; but I am the avowed, open, and intrepid enemy of
what is called Monarchy; and I am such by principles which nothing can
either alter or corrupt--by my attachment to humanity; by the anxiety
which I feel within myself, for the dignity and the honour of the human
race; by the disgust which I experience, when I observe men directed by
children, and governed by brutes; by the horror which all the evils that
Monarchy has spread over the earth excite within my breast; and by those
sentiments which make me shudder at the calamities, the exactions, the
wars, and the massacres with which Monarchy has crushed mankind: in
short, it is against all the hell of monarchy that I have declared war.
Thomas Paine.(1)
1 To the sixth paragraph of the above letter is appended a
footnote: "A deputy to the congress receives about a guinea
and a half daily: and provisions are cheaper in America
than in France." The American Declaration of Rights referred
to unless the Declaration of Independence, was no doubt,
especially that of Pennsylvania, which Paine helped to
frame.--Editor.
IV. TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL.
[Undated, but probably late in May, 1793.]
Sir,
Though I have some reason for believing that you were not the original
promoter or encourager of the prosecution commenced against the work
entitled "Rights of Man" either as that prosecution is intended to
affect the author, the publisher, or the public; yet as you appear
the official person therein, I address this letter to you, not as Sir
Archibald Macdonald, but as Attorney General.
You began by a prosecution against the publisher Jordan, and the reason
assigned by Mr. Secretary Dundas, in the House of Commons, in the debate
on the Proclamation, May 25, for taking that measure, was, he said,
because Mr. Paine could not be found, or words to that effect. Mr.
Paine, sir, so far from secreting himself, never went a step out of his
way, nor in the least instance varied from his usual conduct, to avoid
any measure you might choose to adopt with respect to him. It is on the
purity of his heart, and the universal utility of the principles and
plans which his writings contain, that he rests the issue; and he will
not dishonour it by any kind of subterfuge. The apartments which he
occupied at the time of writing the work last winter, he has continued
to occupy to the present hour, and the solicitors of the prosecution
knew where to find him; of which there is a proof in their own office,
as far back as the 21st of May, and also in the office of my own
Attorney.(1)
1 Paine was residing at the house of one of his publishers,
Thomas Rickman, 7 Upper Marylebone Street, London. His
Attorney was the Hon. Thomas Erskine.--_Editor_.
But admitting, for the sake of the case, that the reason for proceeding
against the publisher was, as Mr. Dundas stated, that Mr. Paine could
not be found, that reason can now exist no longer.
The instant that I was informed that an information was preparing to be
filed against me, as the author of, I believe, one of the most useful
and benevolent books ever offered to mankind, I directed my Attorney
to put in an appearance; and as I shall meet the prosecution fully and
fairly, and with a good and upright conscience, I have a right to
expect that no act of littleness will be made use of on the part of the
prosecution towards influencing the future issue with respect to the
author. This expression may, perhaps, appear obscure to you, but I am
in the possession of some matters which serve to shew that the action
against the publisher is not intended to be a _real_ action. If,
therefore, any persons concerned in the prosecution have found their
cause so weak, as to make it appear convenient to them to enter into
a negociation with the publisher, whether for the purpose of his
submitting to a verdict, and to make use of the verdict so obtained as a
circumstance, by way of precedent, on a future trial against myself;
or for any other purpose not fully made known to me; if, I say, I have
cause to suspect this to be the case, I shall most certainly withdraw
the defence I should otherwise have made, or promoted on his (the
publisher's) behalf, and leave the negociators to themselves, and shall
reserve the whole of the defence for the _real_ trial.(1)
But, sir, for the purpose of conducting this matter with at least the
appearance of fairness and openness, that shall justify itself before
the public, whose cause it really is, (for it is the right of public
discussion and investigation that is questioned,) I have to propose to
you to cease the prosecution against the publisher; and as the reason
or pretext can no longer exist for continuing it against him because
Mr. Paine could not be found, that you would direct the whole process
against me, with whom the prosecuting party will not find it possible to
enter into any private negociation.
1 A detailed account of the proceedings with regard to the
publisher will be found infra, in ix., Letter to the
Addressers.--_Editor_.
I will do the cause full justice, as well for the sake of the nation, as
for my own reputation.
Another reason for discontinuing the process against the publisher is,
because it can amount to nothing. First, because a jury in London cannot
decide upon the fact of publishing beyond the limits of the jurisdiction
of London, and therefore the work may be republished over and over
again in every county in the nation, and every case must have a separate
process; and by the time that three or four hundred prosecutions have
been had, the eyes of the nation will then be fully open to see that the
work in question contains a plan the best calculated to root out all the
abuses of government, and to lessen the taxes of the nation upwards of
_six millions annually_.
Secondly, Because though the gentlemen of London may be very expert in
understanding their particular professions and occupations, and how
to make business contracts with government beneficial to themselves as
individuals, the rest of the nation may not be disposed to consider them
sufficiently qualified nor authorized to determine for the whole Nation
on plans of reform, and on systems and principles of Government. This
would be in effect to erect a jury into a National Convention, instead
of electing a Convention, and to lay a precedent for the probable
tyranny of juries, under the pretence of supporting their rights.
That the possibility always exists of packing juries will not be denied;
and, therefore, in all cases, where Government is the prosecutor,
more especially in those where the right of public discussion and
investigation of principles and systems of Government is attempted to be
suppressed by a verdict, or in those where the object of the work that
is prosecuted is the reform of abuse and the abolition of sinecure
places and pensions, in all these cases the verdict of a jury will
itself become a subject of discussion; and therefore, it furnishes
an additional reason for discontinuing the prosecution against the
publisher, more especially as it is not a secret that there has been a
negociation with him for secret purposes, and for proceeding against
me only. I shall make a much stronger defence than what I believe the
Treasury Solicitor's agreement with him will permit him to do.
I believe that Mr. Burke, finding himself defeated, and not being able
to make any answer to the _Rights of Man_, has been one of the promoters
of this prosecution; and I shall return the compliment to him by
shewing, in a future publication, that he has been a masked pensioner at
1500L. per annum for about ten years.
Thus it is that the public money is wasted, and the dread of public
investigation is produced.
I am, sir, Your obedient humble servant,
Thomas Paine.(1)
1 Paine's case was set down for June 8th, and on that day he
appeared in court; but, much to his disappointment, the
trial was adjourned to December 18th, at which time he was
in his place in the National Convention at Paris.--_Editor_.
V. TO MR. SECRETARY DUNDAS.(1)
London, June 6, 1793.
Sir,
As you opened the debate in the House of Commons, May 25th, on the
proclamation for suppressing publications, which that proclamation
(without naming any) calls wicked and seditious: and as you applied
those opprobious epithets to the works entitled "RIGHTS OF MAN," I think
it unnecessary to offer any other reason for addressing this letter to
you.
I begin, then, at once, by declaring, that I do not believe there are
found in the writings of any author, ancient or modern, on the subject
of government, a spirit of greater benignity, and a stronger inculcation
of moral principles than in those which I have published. They come,
Sir, from a man, who, by having lived in different countries, and
under different systems of government, and who, being intimate in
the construction of them, is a better judge of the subject than it is
possible that you, from the want of those opportunities, can be:--And
besides this, they come from a heart that knows not how to beguile.
I will farther say, that when that moment arrives in which the best
consolation that shall be left will be looking back on some past
actions, more virtuous and more meritorious than the rest, I shall then
with happiness remember, among other things, I have written the RIGHTS
OF MAN.---As to what proclamations, or prosecutions, or place-men,
and place-expectants,--those who possess, or those who are gaping for
office,--may say of them, it will not alter their character, either with
the world or with me.
1 Henry D. (afterwards Viscount Melville), appointed
Secretary for the Home Department, 1791. In 1805 he was
impeached by the Commons for "gross malversation" while
Treasurer of the Navy; he was acquitted by the Lords
(1806), but not by public sentiment or by history.--
_Editor_.
Having, Sir, made this declaration, I shall proceed to remark, not
particularly on your speech on that occasion, but on any one to which
your motion on that day gave rise; and I shall begin with that of Mr.
Adam.
This Gentleman accuses me of not having done the very thing that _I have
done_, and which, he says, if I _had_ done, he should not have accused
me.
Mr. Adam, in his speech, (see the Morning Chronicle of May 26,) says,
"That he had well considered the subject of Constitutional Publications,
and was by no means ready to say (but the contrary) that books of
science upon government though recommending a doctrine or system
different from the form of our constitution (meaning that of England)
were fit objects of prosecution; that if he did, he must condemn
Harrington for his Oceana, Sir Thomas More for his Eutopia, and Hume
for his Idea of a perfect Commonwealth. But (continued Mr. Adam) the
publication of Mr. Paine was very different; for it reviled what
was most sacred in the constitution, destroyed every principle of
subordination, and _established nothing in their room_."
I readily perceive that Mr. Adam has not read the Second Part of _Rights
of Man_, and I am put under the necessity, either of submitting to an
erroneous charge, or of justifying myself against it; and certainly
shall prefer the latter.--If, then, I shall prove to Mr. Adam, that in
my reasoning upon systems of government, in the Second Part of _Rights
of Man_, I have shown as clearly, I think, as words can convey ideas, a
certain system of government, and that not existing in theory only,
but already in full and established practice, and systematically
and practically free from all the vices and defects of the English
government, and capable of producing more happiness to the people, and
that also with an eightieth part of the taxes, which the present English
system of government consumes; I hope he will do me the justice, when
he next goes to the House, to get up and confess he had been mistaken in
saying, that I had _established nothing, and that I had destroyed every
principle of subordination_. Having thus opened the case, I now come to
the point.
In the Second Part of the Rights of Man, I have distinguished government
into two classes or systems: the one the hereditary system, the other
the representative system.
In the First Part of _Rights of Man_, I have endeavoured to shew, and
I challenge any man to refute it, that there does not exist a right
to establish hereditary government; or, in other words, hereditary
governors; because hereditary government always means a government
yet to come, and the case always is, that the people who are to live
afterwards, have always the same right to choose a government for
themselves, as the people had who lived before them.
In the Second Part of _Rights of Man_, I have not repeated those
arguments, because they are irrefutable; but have confined myself to
shew the defects of what is called hereditary government, or hereditary
succession, that it must, from the nature of it, throw government into
the hands of men totally unworthy of it, from want of principle, or
unfitted for it from want of capacity.--James the IId. is recorded as
an instance of the first of these cases; and instances are to be found
almost all over Europe to prove the truth of the latter.
To shew the absurdity of the Hereditary System still more strongly, I
will now put the following case:--Take any fifty men promiscuously, and
it will be very extraordinary, if, out of that number, one man should be
found, whose principles and talents taken together (for some might have
principles, and others might have talents) would render him a person
truly fitted to fill any very extraordinary office of National Trust.
If then such a fitness of character could not be expected to be found
in more than one person out of fifty, it would happen but once in a
thousand years to the eldest son of any one family, admitting each, on
an average, to hold the office twenty years. Mr. Adam talks of something
in the Constitution which he calls _most sacred_; but I hope he does not
mean hereditary succession, a thing which appears to me a violation of
every order of nature, and of common sense.
When I look into history and see the multitudes of men, otherwise
virtuous, who have died, and their families been ruined, in the defence
of knaves and fools, and which they would not have done, had they
reasoned at all upon the system; I do not know a greater good that an
individual can render to mankind, than to endeavour to break the chains
of political superstition. Those chains are now dissolving fast,
and proclamations and persecutions will serve but to hasten that
dissolution.
Having thus spoken of the Hereditary System as a bad System, and subject
to every possible defect, I now come to the Representative System, and
this Mr. Adam will find stated in the Second Part of Rights of Man, not
only as the best, but as the only _Theory_ of Government under which the
liberties of the people can be permanently secure.
But it is needless now to talk of mere theory, since there is already a
government in full practice, established upon that theory; or in other
words, upon the Rights of Man, and has been so for almost twenty years.
Mr. Pitt, in a speech of his some short time since, said, "That there
never did, and never could exist a Government established upon those
Rights, and that if it began at noon, it would end at night." Mr. Pitt
has not yet arrived at the degree of a school-boy in this species of
knowledge; his practice has been confined to the means of _extorting
revenue_, and his boast has been--_how much!_ Whereas the boast of the
system of government that I am speaking of, is not how much, but how
little.
The system of government purely representative, unmixed with any thing
of hereditary nonsense, began in America. I will now compare the effects
of that system of government with the system of government in England,
both during, and since the close of the war.
So powerful is the Representative system, first, by combining and
consolidating all the parts of a country together, however great the
extent; and, secondly, by admitting of none but men properly qualified
into the government, or dismissing them if they prove to be otherwise,
that America was enabled thereby totally to defeat and overthrow all
the schemes and projects of the hereditary government of England against
her. As the establishment of the Revolution and Independence of America
is a proof of this fact, it is needless to enlarge upon it.
I now come to the comparative effect of the two systems _since_ the
close of the war, and I request Mr. Adam to attend to it.
America had internally sustained the ravages of upwards of seven years
of war, which England had not. England sustained only the expence of the
war; whereas America sustained not only the expence, but the destruction
of property committed by _both_ armies. Not a house was built
during that period, and many thousands were destroyed. The farms and
plantations along the coast of the country, for more than a thousand
miles, were laid waste. Her commerce was annihilated. Her ships were
either taken, or had rotted within her own harbours. The credit of
her funds had fallen upwards of ninety per cent., that is, an original
hundred pounds would not sell for ten pounds. In fine, she was
apparently put back an hundred years when the war closed, which was not
the case with England.
But such was the event, that the same representative system of
government, though since better organized, which enabled her to conquer,
enabled her also to recover, and she now presents a more flourishing
condition, and a more happy and harmonized society, under that system of
government, than any country in the world can boast under any other. Her
towns are rebuilt, much better than before; her farms and plantations
are in higher improvement than ever; her commerce is spread over the
world, and her funds have risen from less than ten pounds the hundred to
upwards of one hundred and twenty. Mr. Pitt and his colleagues talk
of the things that have happened in his boyish administration, without
knowing what greater things have happened elsewhere, and under other
systems of government.
I now come to state the expence of the two systems, as they now stand
in each of the countries; but it may first be proper to observe, that
government in America is what it ought to be, a matter of honour and
trust, and not made a trade of for the purpose of lucre.
The whole amount of the nett(sic) taxes in England (exclusive of the
expence of collection, of drawbacks, of seizures and condemnation, of
fines and penalties, of fees of office, of litigations and informers,
which are some of the blessed means of enforcing them) is seventeen
millions. Of this sum, about nine millions go for the payment of the
interest of the national debt, and the remainder, being about eight
millions, is for the current annual expences. This much for one side of
the case. I now come to the other.
The expence of the several departments of the general Representative
Government of the United States of America, extending over a space
of country nearly ten times larger than England, is two hundred and
ninety-four thousand, five hundred and fifty-eight dollars, which, at
4s. 6d. per dollar, is 66,305L. 11s. sterling, and is thus apportioned;
[Illustration: table046]
On account of the incursions of the Indians on the back settlements,
Congress is at this time obliged to keep six thousand militia in pay, in
addition to a regiment of foot, and a battalion of artillery, which it
always keeps; and this increases the expence of the War Department to
390,000 dollars, which is 87,795L. sterling, but when peace shall be
concluded with the Indians, the greatest part of this expence will
cease, and the total amount of the expence of government, including that
of the army, will not amount to 100,000L. sterling, which, as has been
already stated, is but an eightieth part of the expences of the English
government.
I request Mr. Adam and Mr. Dundas, and all those who are talking of
Constitutions, and blessings, and Kings, and Lords, and the Lord
knows what, to look at this statement. Here is a form and system of
government, that is better organized and better administered than any
government in the world, and that for less than one hundred thousand
pounds per annum, and yet every Member of Congress receives, as a
compensation for his time and attendance on public business, one pound
seven shillings per day, which is at the rate of nearly five hundred
pounds a year.
This is a government that has nothing to fear. It needs no proclamations
to deter people from writing and reading. It needs no political
superstition to support it; it was by encouraging discussion and
rendering the press free upon all subjects of government, that the
principles of government became understood in America, and the people
are now enjoying the present blessings under it. You hear of no riots,
tumults, and disorders in that country; because there exists no cause
to produce them. Those things are never the effect of Freedom, but of
restraint, oppression, and excessive taxation.
In America, there is not that class of poor and wretched people that
are so numerously dispersed all over England, who are to be told by a
proclamation, that they are happy; and this is in a great measure to
be accounted for, not by the difference of proclamations, but by the
difference of governments and the difference of taxes between that
country and this. What the labouring people of that country earn, they
apply to their own use, and to the education of their children, and
do not pay it away in taxes as fast as they earn it, to support Court
extravagance, and a long enormous list of place-men and pensioners;
and besides this, they have learned the manly doctrine of reverencing
themselves, and consequently of respecting each other; and they laugh
at those imaginary beings called Kings and Lords, and all the fraudulent
trumpery of Court.
When place-men and pensioners, or those who expect to be such, are
lavish in praise of a government, it is not a sign of its being a good
one. The pension list alone in England (see sir John Sinclair's History
of the Revenue, p. 6, of the Appendix) is one hundred and seven thousand
four hundred and four pounds, _which is more than the expences of the
whole Government of America amount to_. And I am now more convinced than
before, that the offer that was made to me of a thousand pounds for the
copy-right of the second part of the Rights of Man, together with the
remaining copyright of the first part, was to have effected, by a quick
suppression, what is now attempted to be done by a prosecution. The
connection which the person, who made the offer, has with the King's
printing-office, may furnish part of the means of inquiring into this
affair, when the ministry shall please to bring their prosecution to
issue.(1) But to return to my subject.--
I have said in the second part of the _Rights of Man_, and I repeat
it here, that the service of any man, whether called King, President,
Senator, Legislator, or any thing else, cannot be worth more to any
country, in the regular routine of office, than ten thousand pounds per
annum. We have a better man in America, and more of a gentleman, than
any King I ever knew of, who does not occasion half that ex-pence; for,
though the salary is fixed at £5625 he does not accept it, and it is
only the incidental expences that are paid out of it.(2) The name by
which a man is called is of itself but an empty thing. It is worth and
character alone which can render him valuable, for without these, Kings,
and Lords, and Presidents, are but jingling names.
But without troubling myself about Constitutions of Government, I have
shewn in the Second Part of _Rights of Man_, that an alliance may be
formed between England, France, and America, and that the expences of
government in England may be put back to one million and a half, viz.:
Civil expence of Government...... 500,000L.
Army............................. 500,000
Navy............................. 500,000
----------
1,500,000L.
And even this sum is fifteen times greater than the expences of
government are in America; and it is also greater than the whole peace
establishment of England amounted to about an hundred years ago. So much
has the weight and oppression of taxes increased since the Revolution,
and especially since the year 1714.
1 At Paine's trial, Chapman, the printer, in answer to fa
question of the Solicitor General, said: "I made him three
separate offers in the different stages of the work; the
first, I believe, was a hundred guineas, the second five
hundred, and the last was a thousand."--_Editor_.
2 Error. See also ante, and in vol. ii., p. 435.
Washington had retracted his original announcement, and
received his salary regularly.--_Editor_.
To shew that the sum of 500,000L. is sufficient to defray all civil
expences of government, I have, in that work, annexed the following
estimate for any country of the same extent as England.--
In the first place, three hundred Representatives, fairly elected, are
sufficient for all the purposes to which Legislation can apply, and
preferable to a larger number.
If, then, an allowance, at the rate of 500L. per annum be made to every
Representative, deducting for non-attendance, the expence, if the whole
number attended six months each year, would be.......75,000L.
The Official Departments could not possibly exceed the following number,
with the salaries annexed, viz.:
[ILLUSTRATION: Table]
Three offices at
10,000L.
each
30,000
Ten ditto at
5,000
u
50,000
Twenty ditto at
2,000
u
40,000
Forty ditto at
1,000
it
40,000
Two hundred ditto at
500
u
100,000
Three hundred ditto at 200
u
60,000
Five hundred ditto at
100
u
50,000
Seven hundred ditto at 75
it
52,500
497,500L.
If a nation chose, it might deduct four per cent, from all the offices,
and make one of twenty thousand pounds per annum, and style the person
who should fill it, King or Madjesty, (1) or give him any other title.
Taking, however, this sum of one million and a half, as an abundant
supply for all the expences of government under any form whatever,
there will remain a surplus of nearly six millions and a half out of
the present taxes, after paying the interest of the national debt; and
I have shewn in the Second Part of _Rights of Man_, what appears to me,
the best mode of applying the surplus money; for I am now speaking of
expences and savings, and not of systems of government.
1 A friend of Paine advised him against this pun, as too
personal an allusion to George the Third, to whom however
much has been forgiven on account of his mental infirmity.
Yorke, in his account of his visit to Paine, 1802, alludes
to his (Paine's) anecdotes "of humor and benevolence"
concerning George III.--_Editor_.
I have, in the first place, estimated the poor-rates at two millions
annually, and shewn that the first effectual step would be to abolish
the poor-rates entirely (which would be a saving of two millions to the
house-keepers,) and to remit four millions out of the surplus taxes to
the poor, to be paid to them in money, in proportion to the number of
children in each family, and the number of aged persons.
I have estimated the number of persons of both sexes in England, of
fifty years of age and upwards, at 420,000, and have taken one third of
this number, viz. 140,000, to be poor people.
To save long calculations, I have taken 70,000 of them to be upwards of
fifty years of age, and under sixty, and the others to be sixty years
and upwards; and to allow six pounds per annum to the former class, and
ten pounds per annum to the latter. The expence of which will be,
Seventy thousand persons at 6L. per annum..... 420,000L.
Seventy thousand persons at 10L. per annum.... 700,000
-----------
1,120,000L.
There will then remain of the four millions, 2,880,000L. I have stated
two different methods of appropriating this money. The one is to pay it
in proportion to the number of children in each family, at the rate of
three or four pounds per annum for each child; the other is to apportion
it according to the expence of living in different counties; but in
either of these cases it would, together with the allowance to be
made to the aged, completely take off taxes from one third of all the
families in England, besides relieving all the other families from the
burthen of poor-rates.
The whole number of families in England, allotting five souls to each
family, is one million four hundred thousand, of which I take one third,
_viz_. 466,666 to be poor families who now pay four millions of taxes,
and that the poorest pays at least four guineas a year; and that the
other thirteen millions are paid by the other two-thirds. The plan,
therefore, as stated in the work, is, first, to remit or repay, as is
already stated, this sum of four millions to the poor, because it is
impossible to separate them from the others in the present mode of
collecting taxes on articles of consumption; and, secondly, to abolish
the poor-rates, the house and window-light tax, and to change the
commutation tax into a progressive tax on large estates, the particulars
of all which are set forth in the work, to which I desire Mr. Adam to
refer for particulars. I shall here content myself with saying, that to
a town of the population of Manchester, it will make a difference in its
favour, compared with the present state of things, of upwards of fifty
thousand pounds annually, and so in proportion to all other places
throughout the nation. This certainly is of more consequence than that
the same sums should be collected to be afterwards spent by riotous
and profligate courtiers, and in nightly revels at the Star and Garter
tavern, Pall Mall.
I will conclude this part of my letter with an extract from the Second
Part of the _Rights of Man_, which Mr. Dundas (a man rolling in luxury
at the expence of the nation) has branded with the epithet of "wicked."
"By the operation of this plan, the poor laws, those instruments
of civil torture, will be superseded, and the wasteful ex-pence of
litigation prevented. The hearts of the humane will not be shocked by
ragged and hungry children, and persons of seventy and eighty years of
age begging for bread. The dying poor will not be dragged from place to
place to breathe their last, as a reprisal of parish upon parish. Widows
will have a maintenance for their children, and not be carted away, on
the death of their husbands, like culprits and criminals; and children
will no longer be considered as increasing the distresses of their
parents. The haunts of the wretched will be known, because it will be
to their advantage; and the number of petty crimes, the offspring of
poverty and distress, will be lessened. The poor as well as the rich
will then be interested in the support of Government, and the cause and
apprehension of riots and tumults will cease. Ye who sit in ease, and
solace yourselves in plenty, and such there are in Turkey and Russia,
as well as in England, and who say to yourselves, _are we not well off_
have ye thought of these things? When ye do, ye will cease to speak and
feel for yourselves alone."
After this remission of four millions be made, and the poor-rates
and houses and window-light tax be abolished, and the commutation
tax changed, there will still remain nearly one million and a half
of surplus taxes; and as by an alliance between England, France and
America, armies and navies will, in a great measure, be rendered
unnecessary; and as men who have either been brought up in, or long
habited to, those lines of life, are still citizens of a nation in
common with the rest, and have a right to participate in all plans of
national benefit, it is stated in that work (_Rights of Man_, Part ii.)
to apply annually 507,000L. out of the surplus taxes to this purpose, in
the following manner:
[Illustration: table 053]
The limits to which it is proper to confine this letter, will not admit
of my entering into further particulars. I address it to Mr. Dundas
because he took the lead in the debate, and he wishes, I suppose, to
appear conspicuous; but the purport of it is to justify myself from the
charge which Mr. Adam has made.
This Gentleman, as has been observed in the beginning of this letter,
considers the writings of Harrington, More and Hume, as justifiable and
legal publications, because they reasoned by comparison, though in so
doing they shewed plans and systems of government, not only different
from, but preferable to, that of England; and he accuses me of
endeavouring to confuse, instead of producing a system in the room of
that which I had reasoned against; whereas, the fact is, that I have
not only reasoned by comparison of the representative system against
the hereditary system, but I have gone further; for I have produced
an instance of a government established entirely on the representative
system, under which greater happiness is enjoyed, much fewer taxes
required, and much higher credit is established, than under the system
of government in England. The funds in England have risen since the war
only from 54L. to 97L. and they have been down since the proclamation,
to 87L. whereas the funds in America rose in the mean time from 10L. to
120L.
His charge against me of "destroying every principle of subordination,"
is equally as groundless; which even a single paragraph from the work
will prove, and which I shall here quote:
"Formerly when divisions arose respecting Governments, recourse was had
to the sword, and a civil war ensued. That savage custom is exploded
by the new system, and _recourse is had to a national convention_.
Discussion, and the general will, arbitrates the question, and to
this private opinion yields with a good grace, and _order is preserved
uninterrupted_."
That two different charges should be brought at the same time, the one
by a Member of the Legislative, for _not_ doing a certain thing, and
the other by the Attorney General for _doing_ it, is a strange jumble of
contradictions. I have now justified myself, or the work rather, against
the first, by stating the case in this letter, and the justification of
the other will be undertaken in its proper place. But in any case the
work will go on.
I shall now conclude this letter with saying, that the only objection
I found against the plan and principles contained in the Second Part
of _Rights of Man_, when I had written the book, was, that they would
beneficially interest at least ninety-nine persons out of every hundred
throughout the nation, and therefore would not leave sufficient room for
men to act from the direct and disinterested principles of honour; but
the prosecution now commenced has fortunately removed that objection,
and the approvers and protectors of that work now feel the immediate
impulse of honour added to that of national interest.
I am, Mr. Dundas,
Not your obedient humble Servant,
But the contrary,
Thomas Paine.
VI. LETTERS TO ONSLOW CRANLEY,
Lord Lieutenant of the county of Surry; on the subject of the late
excellent proclamation:--or the chairman who shall preside at the
meeting to be held at Epsom, June 18.
FIRST LETTER.
London, June 17th, 1792.
SIR,
I have seen in the public newspapers the following advertisement, to
wit--
"To the Nobility, Gentry, Clergy, Freeholders, and other Inhabitants of
the county of Surry.
"At the requisition and desire of several of the freeholders of the
county, I am, in the absence of the Sheriff, to desire the favour of
your attendance, at a meeting to be held at Epsom, on Monday, the 18th
instant, at 12 o'clock at noon, to consider of an humble address to his
majesty, to express our grateful approbation of his majesty's paternal,
and well-timed attendance to the public welfare, in his late most
gracious Proclamation against the enemies of our happy Constitution.
"(Signed.) Onslow Cranley."
Taking it for granted, that the aforesaid advertisement, equally as
obscure as the proclamation to which it refers, has nevertheless some
meaning, and is intended to effect some purpose; and as a prosecution
(whether wisely or unwisely, justly or unjustly) is already commenced
against a work intitled RIGHTS OF MAN, of which I have the honour and
happiness to be the author; I feel it necessary to address this letter
to you, and to request that it may be read publicly to the gentlemen who
shall meet at Epsom in consequence of the advertisement.
The work now under prosecution is, I conceive, the same work which is
intended to be suppressed by the aforesaid proclamation. Admitting this
to be the case, the gentlemen of the county of Surry are called upon by
somebody to condemn a work, and they are at the same time forbidden by
the proclamation to know what that work is; and they are further called
upon to give their aid and assistance to prevent other people from
knowing it also. It is therefore necessary that the author, for his own
justification, as well as to prevent the gentlemen who shall meet from
being imposed upon by misrepresentation, should give some outlines of
the principles and plans which that work contains.
The work, Sir, in question, contains, first, an investigation of general
principles of government.
It also distinguishes government into two classes or systems, the one
the hereditary system; the other the representative system; and it
compares these two systems with each other.
It shews that what is called hereditary government cannot exist as a
matter of right; because hereditary government always means a government
yet to come; and the case always is, that those who are to live
afterwards have always the same right to establish a government for
themselves as the people who had lived before them.
It also shews the defect to which hereditary government is unavoidably
subject: that it must, from the nature of it, throw government into
the hands of men totally unworthy of it from the want of principle, and
unfitted for it from want of capacity. James II. and many others are
recorded in the English history as proofs of the former of those cases,
and instances are to be found all over Europe to prove the truth of the
latter.
It then shews that the representative system is the only true system of
government; that it is also the only system under which the liberties of
any people can be permanently secure; and, further, that it is the
only one that can continue the same equal probability at all times of
admitting of none but men properly qualified, both by principles and
abilities, into government, and of excluding such as are otherwise.
The work shews also, by plans and calculations not hitherto denied nor
controverted, not even by the prosecution that is commenced, that the
taxes now existing may be reduced at least six millions, that taxes may
be entirely taken off from the poor, who are computed at one third of
the nation; and that taxes on the other two thirds may be considerably
reduced; that the aged poor may be comfortably provided for, and the
children of poor families properly educated; that fifteen thousand
soldiers, and the same number of sailors, may be allowed three
shillings per week during life out of the surplus taxes; and also that a
proportionate allowance may be made to the officers, and the pay of the
remaining soldiers and sailors be raised; and that it is better to apply
the surplus taxes to those purposes, than to consume them on lazy and
profligate placemen and pensioners; and that the revenue, said to be
twenty thousand pounds per annum, raised by a tax upon coals, and given
to the Duke of Richmond, is a gross imposition upon all the people of
London, and ought to be instantly abolished.
This, Sir, is a concise abstract of the principles and plans contained
in the work that is now prosecuted, and for the suppression of which the
proclamation appears to be intended; but as it is impossible that I can,
in the compass of a letter, bring into view all the matters contained
in the work, and as it is proper that the gentlemen who may compose that
meeting should know what the merits or demerits of it are, before they
come to any resolutions, either directly or indirectly relating thereto,
I request the honour of presenting them with one hundred copies of the
second part of the Rights of Man, and also one thousand copies of my
letter to Mr. Dundas, which I have directed to be sent to Epsom for that
purpose; and I beg the favour of the Chairman to take the trouble of
presenting them to the gentlemen who shall meet on that occasion, with
my sincere wishes for their happiness, and for that of the nation in
general.
Having now closed thus much of the subject of my letter, I next come
to speak of what has relation to me personally. I am well aware of the
delicacy that attends it, but the purpose of calling the meeting appears
to me so inconsistent with that justice that is always due between man
and man, that it is proper I should (as well on account of the gentlemen
who may meet, as on my own account) explain myself fully and candidly
thereon.
I have already informed the gentlemen, that a prosecution is commenced
against a work of which I have the honour and happiness to be the
author; and I have good reasons for believing that the proclamation
which the gentlemen are called to consider, and to present an address
upon, is purposely calculated to give an impression to the jury before
whom that matter is to come. In short, that it is dictating a verdict by
proclamation; and I consider the instigators of the meeting to be held
at Epsom, as aiding and abetting the same improper, and, in my opinion,
illegal purpose, and that in a manner very artfully contrived, as I
shall now shew.
Had a meeting been called of the Freeholders of the county of Middlesex,
the gentlemen who had composed that meeting would have rendered
themselves objectionable as persons to serve on a Jury, before whom the
judicial case was afterwards to come. But by calling a meeting out
of the county of Middlesex, that matter is artfully avoided, and the
gentlemen of Surry are summoned, as if it were intended thereby to give
a tone to the sort of verdict which the instigators of the meeting no
doubt wish should be brought in, and to give countenance to the Jury in
so doing. I am, sir,
With much respect to the
Gentlemen who shall meet, Their and your obedient and humble Servant,
Thomas Paine.
TO ONSLOW CRANLEY,
COMMONLY CALLED LORD ONSLOW.
SECOND LETTER. SIR,
London, June 21st 1792.
WHEN I wrote you the letter which Mr. Home Tooke did me the favour to
present to you, as chairman of the meeting held at Epsom, Monday, June
18, it was not with much expectation that you would do me the justice of
permitting, or recommending it to be publicly read. I am well aware that
the signature of Thomas Paine has something in it dreadful to sinecure
Placemen and Pensioners; and when you, on seeing the letter opened,
informed the meeting that it was signed Thomas Paine, and added in a
note of exclamation, "the common enemy of us all." you spoke one of the
greatest truths you ever uttered, if you confine the expression to
men of the same description with yourself; men living in indolence and
luxury, on the spoil and labours of the public.
The letter has since appeared in the "Argus," and probably in other
papers.(1) It will justify itself; but if any thing on that account
hath been wanting, your conduct at the meeting would have supplied
the omission. You there sufficiently proved that I was not mistaken in
supposing that the meeting was called to give an indirect aid to the
prosecution commenced against a work, the reputation of which will long
outlive the memory of the Pensioner I am writing to.
When meetings, Sir, are called by the partisans of the Court, to
preclude the nation the right of investigating systems and principles
of government, and of exposing errors and defects, under the pretence
of prosecuting an individual--it furnishes an additional motive for
maintaining sacred that violated right.
The principles and arguments contained in the work in question, _Rights
OF Man_, have stood, and they now stand, and I believe ever will stand,
unrefuted. They are stated in a fair and open manner to the world, and
they have already received the public approbation of a greater number of
men, of the best of characters, of every denomination of religion, and
of every rank in life, (placemen and pensioners excepted,) than all the
juries that shall meet in England, for ten years to come, will amount
to; and I have, moreover, good reasons for believing that the approvers
of that work, as well private as public, are already more numerous than
all the present electors throughout the nation.
1 The _Argus_ was edited by Sampson Perry, soon after
prosecuted.--_Editor_.
Not less than forty pamphlets, intended as answers thereto, have
appeared, and as suddenly disappeared: scarcely are the titles of any of
them remembered, notwithstanding their endeavours have been aided by all
the daily abuse which the Court and Ministerial newspapers, for almost
a year and a half, could bestow, both upon the work and the author;
and now that every attempt to refute, and every abuse has failed,
the invention of calling the work a libel has been hit upon, and the
discomfited party has pusillanimously retreated to prosecution and a
jury, and obscure addresses.
As I well know that a long letter from me will not be agreeable to you,
I will relieve your uneasiness by making it as short as I conveniently
can; and will conclude it with taking up the subject at that part where
Mr. HORNE TOOKE was interrupted from going on when at the meeting.
That gentleman was stating, that the situation you stood in rendered it
improper for you to appear _actively_ in a scene in which your private
interest was too visible: that you were a Bedchamber Lord at a thousand
a year, and a Pensioner at three thousand pounds a year more--and here
he was stopped by the little but noisy circle you had collected round.
Permit me then, Sir, to add an explanation to his words, for the benefit
of your neighbours, and with which, and a few observations, I shall
close my letter.
When it was reported in the English Newspapers, some short time since,
that the empress of RUSSIA had given to one of her minions a large tract
of country and several thousands of peasants as property, it very justly
provoked indignation and abhorrence in those who heard it. But if we
compare the mode practised in England, with that which appears to us so
abhorrent in Russia, it will be found to amount to very near the same
thing;--for example--
As the whole of the revenue in England is drawn by taxes from the
pockets of the people, those things called gifts and grants (of which
kind are all pensions and sinecure places) are paid out of that stock.
The difference, therefore, between the two modes is, that in England the
money is collected by the government, and then given to the Pensioner,
and in Russia he is left to collect it for himself. The smallest sum
which the poorest family in a county so near London as Surry, can be
supposed to pay annually, of taxes, is not less than five pounds; and as
your sinecure of one thousand, and pension of three thousand per annum,
are made up of taxes paid by eight hundred such poor families, it comes
to the same thing as if the eight hundred families had been given to
you, as in Russia, and you had collected the money on your account.
Were you to say that you are not quartered particularly on the people
of Surrey, but on the nation at large, the objection would amount to
nothing; for as there are more pensioners than counties, every one may
be considered as quartered on that in which he lives.
What honour or happiness you can derive from being the PRINCIPAL PAUPER
of the neighbourhood, and occasioning a greater expence than the poor,
the aged, and the infirm, for ten miles round you, I leave you to enjoy.
At the same time I can see that it is no wonder you should be strenuous
in suppressing a book which strikes at the root of those abuses. No
wonder that you should be against reforms, against the freedom of the
press, and the right of investigation. To you, and to others of your
description, these are dreadful things; but you should also consider,
that the motives which prompt you to _act_, ought, by reflection, to
compel you to be _silent_.
Having now returned your compliment, and sufficiently tired your
patience, I take my leave of you, with mentioning, that if you had not
prevented my former letter from being read at the meeting, you would not
have had the trouble of reading this; and also with requesting, that
the next time you call me "_a common enemy_," you would add, "_of us
sinecure placemen and pensioners_."
I am, Sir, &c. &c. &c.
Thomas Paine.
VII. TO THE SHERIFF OF THE COUNTY OF SUSSEX,
OR, THE GENTLEMAN WHO SHALL PRESIDE AT THE MEETING TO BE HELD AT LEWES,
JULY 4.
London, June 30, 1792.
Sir,
I have seen in the Lewes newspapers, of June 25, an advertisement,
signed by sundry persons, and also by the sheriff, for holding a meeting
at the Town-hall of Lewes, for the purpose, as the advertisement states,
of presenting an Address on the late Proclamation for suppressing
writings, books, &c. And as I conceive that a certain publication
of mine, entitled "Rights of Man," in which, among other things, the
enormous increase of taxes, placemen, and pensioners, is shewn to be
unnecessary and oppressive, _is the particular writing alluded to in
the said publication_; I request the Sheriff, or in his absence, whoever
shall preside at the meeting, or any other person, to read this letter
publicly to the company who shall assemble in consequence of that
advertisement.
Gentlemen--It is now upwards of eighteen years since I was a resident
inhabitant of the town of Lewes. My situation among you, as an officer
of the revenue, for more than six years, enabled me to see into the
numerous and various distresses which the weight of taxes even at that
time of day occasioned; and feeling, as I then did, and as it is natural
for me to do, for the hard condition of others, it is with pleasure I
can declare, and every person then under my survey, and now living, can
witness, the exceeding candour, and even tenderness, with which that
part of the duty that fell to my share was executed. The name of _Thomas
Paine_ is not to be found in the records of the Lewes' justices, in any
one act of contention with, or severity of any kind whatever towards,
the persons whom he surveyed, either in the town, or in the country;
of this, _Mr. Fuller_ and _Mr. Shelley_, who will probably attend the
meeting, can, if they please, give full testimony. It is, however, not
in their power to contradict it.
Having thus indulged myself in recollecting a place where I formerly
had, and even now have, many friends, rich and poor, and most probably
some enemies, I proceed to the more important purport of my letter.
Since my departure from Lewes, fortune or providence has thrown me
into a line of action, which my first setting out into life could not
possibly have suggested to me.
I have seen the fine and fertile country of America ravaged and deluged
in blood, and the taxes of England enormously increased and multiplied
in consequence thereof; and this, in a great measure, by the instigation
of the same class of placemen, pensioners, and Court dependants, who
are now promoting addresses throughout England, on the present
_unintelligible_ Proclamation.
I have also seen a system of Government rise up in that country, free
from corruption, and now administered over an extent of territory ten
times as large as England, _for less expence than the pensions alone in
England amount to_; and under which more freedom is enjoyed, and a more
happy state of society is preserved, and a more general prosperity is
promoted, than under any other system of Government now existing in the
world. Knowing, as I do, the things I now declare, I should reproach
myself with want of duty and affection to mankind, were I not in the
most undismayed manner to publish them, as it were, on the house-tops,
for the good of others.
Having thus glanced at what has passed within my knowledge, since my
leaving Lewes, I come to the subject more immediately before the meeting
now present.
Mr. Edmund Burke, who, as I shall show, in a future publication, has
lived a concealed pensioner, at the expence of the public, of fifteen
hundred pounds per annum, for about ten years last past, published a
book the winter before last, in open violation of the principles of
liberty, and for which he was applauded by that class of men _who are
now promoting addresses_. Soon after his book appeared, I published the
first part of the work, entitled "Rights of Man," as an answer thereto,
and had the happiness of receiving the public thanks of several bodies
of men, and of numerous individuals of the best character, of every
denomination in religion, and of every rank in life--placemen and
pensioners excepted.
In February last, I published the Second Part of "Rights of Man," and as
it met with still greater approbation from the true friends of national
freedom, and went deeper into the system of Government, and exposed the
abuses of it, more than had been done in the First Part, it consequently
excited an alarm among all those, who, insensible of the burthen of
taxes which the general mass of the people sustain, are living in luxury
and indolence, and hunting after Court preferments, sinecure places, and
pensions, either for themselves, or for their family connections.
I have shewn in that work, that the taxes may be reduced at least _six
millions_, and even then the expences of Government in England would be
twenty times greater than they are in the country I have already spoken
of. That taxes may be entirely taken off from the poor, by remitting to
them in money at the rate of between _three and four pounds_ per head
per annum, for the education and bringing up of the children of the poor
families, who are computed at one third of the whole nation, and _six
pounds_ per annum to all poor persons, decayed tradesmen, or others,
from the age of fifty until sixty, and _ten pounds_ per annum from after
sixty. And that in consequence of this allowance, to be paid out of the
surplus taxes, the poor-rates would become unnecessary, and that it is
better to apply the surplus taxes to these beneficent purposes, _than to
waste them on idle and profligate courtiers, placemen, and pensioners_.
These, gentlemen, are a part of the plans and principles contained in
the work, which this meeting is now called upon, in an indirect manner,
to vote an address against, and brand with the name of _wicked and
seditious_. But that the work may speak for itself, I request leave to
close this part of my letter with an extract therefrom, in the following
words: [_Quotation the same as that on p. 26_.]
Gentlemen, I have now stated to you such matters as appear necessary
to me to offer to the consideration of the meeting. I have no other
interest in what I am doing, nor in writing you this letter, than the
interest of the _heart_. I consider the proposed address as calculated
to give countenance to placemen, pensioners, enormous taxation, and
corruption. Many of you will recollect, that whilst I resided among you,
there was not a man more firm and open in supporting the principles of
liberty than myself, and I still pursue, and ever will, the same path.
I have, Gentlemen, only one request to make, which is--that those
who have called the meeting will speak _out_, and say, whether in
the address they are going to present against publications, which the
proclamation calls wicked, they mean the work entitled _Rights of Man_,
or whether they do not?
I am, Gentlemen, With sincere wishes for your happiness,
Your friend and Servant,
Thomas Paine.
VIII. TO MR. SECRETARY DUNDAS.
Calais, Sept. 15, 1792.
Sir,
I CONCEIVE it necessary to make you acquainted with the following
circumstance:--The department of Calais having elected me a member
of the National Convention of France, I set off from London the 13th
instant, in company with Mr. Frost, of Spring Garden, and Mr. Audibert,
one of the municipal officers of Calais, who brought me the certificate
of my being elected. We had not arrived more, I believe, than five
minutes at the York Hotel, at Dover, when the train of circumstances
began that I am going to relate. We had taken our baggage out of the
carriage, and put it into a room, into which we went. Mr. Frost, having
occasion to go out, was stopped in the passage by a gentleman, who told
him he must return into the room, which he did, and the gentleman came
in with him, and shut the door. I had remained in the room; Mr. Audibert
was gone to inquire when the packet was to sail. The gentleman then
said, that he was collector of the customs, and had an information
against us, and must examine our baggage for prohibited articles. He
produced his commission as Collector. Mr. Frost demanded to see the
information, which the Collector refused to shew, and continued to
refuse, on every demand that we made. The Collector then called in
several other officers, and began first to search our pockets. He took
from Mr. Audibert, who was then returned into the room, every thing
he found in his pocket, and laid it on the table. He then searched Mr.
Frost in the same manner, (who, among other things, had the keys of the
trunks in his pocket,) and then did the same by me. Mr. Frost wanting
to go out, mentioned it, and was going towards the door; on which the
Collector placed himself against the door, and said, nobody should
depart the room. After the keys had been taken from Mr. Frost, (for I
had given him the keys of my trunks beforehand, for the purpose of his
attending the baggage to the customs, if it should be necessary,) the
Collector asked us to open the trunks, presenting us the keys for
that purpose; this we declined to do, unless he would produce his
information, which he again refused. The Collector then opened the
trunks himself, and took out every paper and letter, sealed or unsealed.
On our remonstrating with him on the bad policy, as well as the
illegality, of Custom-House officers seizing papers and letters, which
were things that did not come under their cognizance, he replied, that
the _Proclamation_ gave him the authority.
Among the letters which he took out of my trunk, were two sealed
letters, given into my charge by the American Minister in London
[Pinckney], one of which was directed to the American Minister at Paris
[Gouverneur Morris], the other to a private gentleman; a letter from the
President of the United States, and a letter from the Secretary of
State in America, both directed to me, and which I had received from
the American Minister, now in London, and were private letters of
friendship; a letter from the electoral body of the Department of
Calais, containing the notification of my being elected to the National
Convention; and a letter from the President of the National Assembly,
informing me of my being also elected for the Department of the Oise.
As we found that all remonstrances with the Collector, on the bad policy
and illegality of seizing papers and letters, and retaining our persons
by force, under the pretence of searching for prohibited articles,
were vain, (for he justified himself on the Proclamation, and on the
information which he refused to shew,) we contented ourselves with
assuring him, that what he was then doing, he would afterwards have to
answer for, and left it to himself to do as he pleased.
It appeared to us that the Collector was acting under the direction of
some other person or persons, then in the hotel, but whom he did not
choose we should see, or who did not choose to be seen by us; for the
Collector went several times out of the room for a few minutes, and was
also called out several times.
When the Collector had taken what papers and letters he pleased out of
the trunks, he proceeded to read them. The first letter he took up for
this purpose was that from the President of the United States to me.
While he was doing this, I said, that it was very extraordinary that
General Washington could not write a letter of private friendship to
me, without its being subject to be read by a custom-house officer. Upon
this Mr. Frost laid his hand over the face of the letter, and told the
Collector that he should not read it, and took it from him. Mr. Frost
then, casting his eyes on the concluding paragraph of the letter, said,
I will read this part to you, which he did; of which the following is an
exact transcript--
"And as no one can feel a greater interest in the happiness of mankind
than I do, it is the first wish of my heart, that the enlightened policy
of the present age may diffuse to all men those blessings to which
they are entitled, and lay the foundation of happiness for future
generations."(1)
As all the other letters and papers lay then on the table, the Collector
took them up, and was going out of the room with them. During the
transactions already stated, I contented myself with observing what
passed, and spoke but little; but on seeing the Collector going out of
the room with the letters, I told him that the papers and letters then
in his hand were either belonging to me, or entrusted to my charge, and
that as I could not permit them to be out of my sight, I must insist on
going with him.
1 Washington's letter is dated 6 May, 1792. See my _Life of
Paine_ vol. i., p. 302.--_Editor_.
The Collector then made a list of the letters and papers, and went out
of the room, giving the letters and papers into the charge of one of
the officers. He returned in a short time, and, after some trifling
conversation, chiefly about the Proclamation, told us, that he saw _the
Proclamation was ill-founded_, and asked if we chose to put the letters
and papers into the trunks ourselves, which, as we had not taken them
out, we declined doing, and he did it himself, and returned us the keys.
In stating to you these matters, I make no complaint against the
personal conduct of the Collector, or of any of the officers. Their
manner was as civil as such an extraordinary piece of business could
admit of.
My chief motive in writing to you on this subject is, that you may take
measures for preventing the like in future, not only as it concerns
private individuals, but in order to prevent a renewal of those
unpleasant consequences that have heretofore arisen between nations from
circumstances equally as insignificant. I mention this only for myself;
but as the interruption extended to two other gentlemen, it is probable
that they, as individuals, will take some more effectual mode for
redress.
I am, Sir, yours, &c.
Thomas Paine.
P. S. Among the papers seized, was a copy of the Attorney-General's
information against me for publishing the _Rights of Man_, and a printed
proof copy of my Letter to the Addressers, which will soon be published.
IX. LETTER ADDRESSED TO THE ADDRESSERS ON THE LATE PROCLAMATION.(1)
COULD I have commanded circumstances with a wish, I know not of any that
would have more generally promoted the progress of knowledge, than
the late Proclamation, and the numerous rotten Borough and Corporation
Addresses thereon. They have not only served as advertisements, but they
have excited a spirit of enquiry into principles of government, and a
desire to read the Rights OF Man, in places where that spirit and that
work were before unknown.
The people of England, wearied and stunned with parties, and alternately
deceived by each, had almost resigned the prerogative of thinking. Even
curiosity had expired, and a universal languor had spread itself over
the land. The opposition was visibly no other than a contest for power,
whilst the mass of the nation stood torpidly by as the prize.
In this hopeless state of things, the First Part of the Rights of
Man made its appearance. It had to combat with a strange mixture
of prejudice and indifference; it stood exposed to every species of
newspaper abuse; and besides this, it had to remove the obstructions
which Mr. Burke's rude and outrageous attack on the French Revolution
had artfully raised.
1 The Royal Proclamation issued against seditious writings,
May 21st. This pamphlet, the proof of which was read in
Paris (see P. S. of preceding chapter), was published at 1s.
6d. by H. D. Symonds, Paternoster Row, and Thomas Clio
Rickman, 7 Upper Marylebone Street (where it was written),
both pub-Ushers being soon after prosecuted.--_Editor_.
But how easy does even the most illiterate reader distinguish the
spontaneous sensations of the heart, from the laboured productions of
the brain. Truth, whenever it can fully appear, is a thing so naturally
familiar to the mind, that an acquaintance commences at first sight.
No artificial light, yet discovered, can display all the properties of
daylight; so neither can the best invented fiction fill the mind with
every conviction which truth begets.
To overthrow Mr. Burke's fallacious book was scarcely the operation of a
day. Even the phalanx of Placemen and Pensioners, who had given the
tone to the multitude, by clamouring forth his political fame, became
suddenly silent; and the final event to himself has been, that as he
rose like a rocket, he fell like the stick.
It seldom happens, that the mind rests satisfied with the simple
detection of error or imposition. Once put in motion, _that_ motion soon
becomes accelerated; where it had intended to stop, it discovers new
reasons to proceed, and renews and continues the pursuit far beyond the
limits it first prescribed to itself. Thus it has happened to the people
of England. From a detection of Mr. Burke's incoherent rhapsodies, and
distorted facts, they began an enquiry into the first principles of
Government, whilst himself, like an object left far behind, became
invisible and forgotten.
Much as the First Part of RIGHTS OF Man impressed at its first
appearance, the progressive mind soon discovered that it did not go far
enough. It detected errors; it exposed absurdities; it shook the fabric
of political superstition; it generated new ideas; but it did not
produce a regular system of principles in the room of those which it
displaced. And, if I may guess at the mind of the Government-party,
they beheld it as an unexpected gale that would soon blow over, and
they forbore, like sailors in threatening weather, to whistle, lest they
should encrease(sic) the wind. Every thing, on their part, was profound
silence.
When the Second Part of _Rights of Man, combining Principle and
Practice_, was preparing to appear, they affected, for a while, to act
with the same policy as before; but finding their silence had no more
influence in stifling the progress of the work, than it would have in
stopping the progress of time, they changed their plan, and affected
to treat it with clamorous contempt. The Speech-making Placemen and
Pensioners, and Place-expectants, in both Houses of Parliament, the
_Outs_ as well as the _Ins_, represented it as a silly, insignificant
performance; as a work incapable of producing any effect; as something
which they were sure the good sense of the people would either despise
or indignantly spurn; but such was the overstrained awkwardness with
which they harangued and encouraged each other, that in the very act of
declaring their confidence they betrayed their fears.
As most of the rotten Borough Addressers are obscured in holes and
corners throughout the country, and to whom a newspaper arrives as
rarely as an almanac, they most probably have not had the opportunity of
knowing how far this part of the farce (the original prelude to all the
Addresses) has been acted. For _their_ information, I will suspend a
while the more serious purpose of my Letter, and entertain them with two
or three Speeches in the last Session of Parliament, which will serve
them for politics till Parliament meets again.
You must know, Gentlemen, that the Second Part of the Rights of Man (the
book against which you have been presenting Addresses, though it is
most probable that many of you did not know it) was to have come out
precisely at the time that Parliament last met. It happened not to be
published till a few days after. But as it was very well known that the
book would shortly appear, the parliamentary Orators entered into a very
cordial coalition to cry the book down, and they began their attack by
crying up the _blessings_ of the Constitution.
Had it been your fate to have been there, you could not but have been
moved at the heart-and-pocket-felt congratulations that passed between
all the parties on this subject of _blessings_; for the _Outs_ enjoy
places and pensions and sinecures as well as the _Ins_, and are as
devoutly attached to the firm of the house.
One of the most conspicuous of this motley groupe, is the Clerk of
the Court of King's Bench, who calls himself Lord Stormont. He is also
called Justice General of Scotland, and Keeper of Scoon, (an opposition
man,) and he draws from the public for these nominal offices, not less,
as I am informed, than six thousand pounds a-year, and he is, most
probably, at the trouble of counting the money, and signing a receipt,
to shew, perhaps, that he is qualified to be Clerk as well as Justice.
He spoke as follows.(*)
"That we shall all be unanimous in expressing our attachment to the
constitution of these realms, I am confident. It is a subject upon which
there can be no divided opinion in this house. I do not pretend to be
deep read in the knowledge of the Constitution, but I take upon me to
say, that from the extent of my knowledge [_for I have so many thousands
a year for nothing_] it appears to me, that from the period of the
Revolution, for it was by no means created then, it has been, both in
theory and practice, the wisest system that ever was formed. I never was
[he means he never was till now] a dealer in political cant. My life has
not been occupied in that way, but the speculations of late years seem
to have taken a turn, for which I cannot account. When I came into
public life, the political pamphlets of the time, however they might be
charged with the heat and violence of parties, were agreed in extolling
the radical beauties of the Constitution itself. I remember [_he means
he has forgotten_] a most captivating eulogium on its charms, by Lord
Bolingbroke, where he recommends his readers to contemplate it in all
its aspects, with the assurance that it would be found more estimable
the more it was seen, I do not recollect his precise words, but I wish
that men who write upon these subjects would take this for their
model, instead of the political pamphlets, which, I am told, are now in
circulation, [_such, I suppose, as Rights of Man,_] pamphlets which
I have not read, and whose purport I know only by report, [_he means,
perhaps, by the noise they make_.] This, however, I am sure, that
pamphlets tending to unsettle the public reverence for the constitution,
will have very little influence. They can do very little harm--for
[_by the bye, he is no dealer in political cant_] the English are a
sober-thinking people, and are more intelligent, more solid, more steady
in their opinions, than any people I ever had the fortune to see. [_This
is pretty well laid on, though, for a new beginner_.] But if there
should ever come a time when the propagation of those doctrines should
agitate the public mind, I am sure for every one of your Lordships, that
no attack will be made on the constitution, from which it is truly said
that we derive all our prosperity, without raising every one of
your Lordships to its support It will then be found that there is no
difference among us, but that we are all determined to stand or fall
together, in defence of the inestimable system "--[_of places and
pensions_].
* See his speech in the Morning Chronicle of Feb. 1.--
Author.
After Stormont, on the opposition side, sat down, up rose another noble
Lord, on the ministerial side, Grenville. This man ought to be as strong
in the back as a mule, or the sire of a mule, or it would crack with
the weight of places and offices. He rose, however, without feeling any
incumbrance, full master of his weight; and thus said this noble Lord to
t'other noble Lord!
"The patriotic and manly manner in which the noble Lord has declared
his sentiments on the subject of the constitution, demands my cordial
approbation. The noble Viscount has proved, that however we may differ
on particular measures, amidst all the jars and dissonance of parties,
we are unanimous in principle. There is a perfect and entire consent
[_between us_] in the love and maintenance of the constitution as
happily subsisting. It must undoubtedly give your Lordships concern, to
find that the time is come [heigh ho!] when there is propriety in the
expressions of regard to [o! o! o!] the constitution. And that there are
men [confound--their--po-li-tics] who disseminate doctrines hostile to
the genuine spirit of our well balanced system, [_it is certainly well
balanced when both sides hold places and pensions at once._] I agree
with the noble viscount that they have not [I hope] much success. I am
convinced that there is no danger to be apprehended from their attempts:
but it is truly important and consolatory [to us placemen, I suppose] to
know, that if ever there should arise a serious alarm, there is but one
spirit, one sense, [_and that sense I presume is not common sense_]
and one determination in this house "--which undoubtedly is to hold all
their places and pensions as long as they can.
Both those speeches (except the parts enclosed in parenthesis, which
are added for the purpose of illustration) are copied verbatim from the
Morning Chronicle of the 1st of February last; and when the situation of
the speakers is considered, the one in the opposition, and the other
in the ministry, and both of them living at the public expence, by
sinecure, or nominal places and offices, it required a very unblushing
front to be able to deliver them. Can those men seriously suppose
any nation to be so completely blind as not to see through them? Can
Stormont imagine that the political _cant_, with which he has larded his
harangue, will conceal the craft? Does he not know that there never was
a cover large enough to hide _itself_? Or can Grenvilie believe that his
credit with the public encreases with his avarice for places?
But, if these orators will accept a service from me, in return for the
allusions they have made to the _Rights of Man_, I will make a speech
for either of them to deliver, on the excellence of the constitution,
that shall be as much to the purpose as what they have spoken, or as
_Bolingbroke's captivating eulogium_. Here it is.
"That we shall all be unanimous in expressing our attachment to the
constitution, I am confident. It is, my Lords, incomprehensibly good:
but the great wonder of all is the wisdom; for it is, my lords, _the
wisest system that ever was formed_.
"With respect to us, noble Lords, though the world does not know it, it
is very well known to us, that we have more wisdom than we know what to
do with; and what is still better, my Lords, we have it all in stock. I
defy your Lordships to prove, that a tittle of it has been used yet; and
if we but go on, my Lords, with the frugality we have hitherto done, we
shall leave to our heirs and successors, when we go out of the world,
the whole stock of wisdom, _untouched_, that we brought in; and there is
no doubt but they will follow our example. This, my lords, is one of the
blessed effects of the hereditary system; for we can never be without
wisdom so long as we keep it by us, and do not use it.
"But, my Lords, as all this wisdom is hereditary property, for the sole
benefit of us and our heirs, and it is necessary that the people should
know where to get a supply for their own use, the excellence of our
constitution has provided us a King for this very purpose, and for _no
other_. But, my Lords, I perceive a defect to which the constitution
is subject, and which I propose to remedy by bringing a bill into
Parliament for that purpose.
"The constitution, my Lords, out of delicacy, I presume, has left it as
a matter of _choice_ to a King whether he will be wise or not. It has
not, I mean, my Lords, insisted upon it as a constitutional point,
which, I conceive it ought to have done; for I pledge myself to your
Lordships to prove, and that with _true patriotic boldness_, that he has
_no choice in the matter_. This bill, my Lords, which I shall bring in,
will be to declare, that the constitution, according to the true intent
and meaning thereof, does not invest the King with this choice; our
ancestors were too wise to do that; and, in order to prevent any doubts
that might otherwise arise, I shall prepare, my Lords, an enacting
clause, to fix the wisdom of Kings by act of Parliament; and then, my
Lords our Constitution will be the wonder of the world!
"Wisdom, my lords, is the one thing needful: but that there may be no
mistake in this matter, and that we may proceed consistently with the
true wisdom of the constitution, I shall propose a _certain criterion_
whereby the _exact quantity of wisdom_ necessary for a King may be
known. [Here should be a cry of, Hear him! Hear him!]
"It is recorded, my Lords, in the Statutes at Large of the Jews, 'a
book, my Lords, which I have not read, and whose purport I know only by
report,' _but perhaps the bench of Bishops can recollect something about
it_, that Saul gave the most convincing proofs of royal wisdom before
he was made a King, _for he was sent to seek his father's asses and he
could not find them_.
"Here, my Lords, we have, most happily for us, a case in point: This
precedent ought to be established by act of Parliament; and every King,
before he be crowned, should be sent to seek his father's asses, and
if he cannot find them, he shall be declared wise enough to be King,
according to the true meaning of our excellent constitution. All,
therefore, my Lords, that will be necessary to be done by the enacting
clause that I shall bring in, will be to invest the King beforehand with
the quantity of wisdom necessary for this purpose, lest he should happen
not to possess it; and this, my Lords, we can do without making use of
any of our own.
"We further read, my Lords, in the said Statutes at Large of the
Jews, that Samuel, who certainly was as mad as any Man-of-Rights-Man
now-a-days (hear him! hear him!), was highly displeased, and even
exasperated, at the proposal of the Jews to have a King, and he warned
them against it with all that assurance and impudence of which he was
master. I have been, my Lords, at the trouble of going all the way to
_Paternoster-row_, to procure an extract from the printed copy. I was
told that I should meet with it there, or in _Amen-eorner_, for I was
then going, my Lords, to rummage for it among the curiosities of the
_Antiquarian Society_. I will read the extracts to your Lordships, to
shew how little Samuel knew of the matter.
"The extract, my Lords, is from 1 Sam. chap. viii.:
"'And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked
of him a King.
"'And he said, this will be the manner of the King that shall reign
over you: he will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for
his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his
chariots.
"'And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over
fifties, and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest,
and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.
"'And he will take your daughters to be confectionnes, and to be cooks,
and to be bakers.
"'And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your
olive-yards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
"'And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and
give to his officers and to his servants.
"'And he will take your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and your
goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.
"'And he will take the tenth of your sheep, and ye shall be his
servants.
"'And ye shall cry out in that day, because of your King, which ye shall
have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day.'
"Now, my Lords, what can we think of this man Samuel? Is there a word of
truth, or any thing like truth, in all that he has said? He pretended
to be a prophet, or a wise man, but has not the event proved him to be a
fool, or an incendiary? Look around, my Lords, and see if any thing has
happened that he pretended to foretell! Has not the most profound peace
reigned throughout the world ever since Kings were in fashion? Are not,
for example, the present Kings of Europe the most peaceable of mankind,
and the Empress of Russia the very milk of human kindness? It would not
be worth having Kings, my Lords, if it were not that they never go to
war.
"If we look at home, my Lords, do we not see the same things here as are
seen every where else? Are our young men taken to be horsemen, or foot
soldiers, any more than in Germany or in Prussia, or in Hanover or in
Hesse? Are not our sailors as safe at land as at sea? Are they ever
dragged from their homes, like oxen to the slaughter-house, to serve on
board ships of war? When they return from the perils of a long voyage
with the merchandize of distant countries, does not every man sit down
under his own vine and his own fig-tree, in perfect security? Is the
tenth of our seed taken by tax-gatherers, or is any part of it given to
the King's servants? In short, _is not everything as free from taxes as
the light from Heaven!_ (1)
"Ah! my Lords, do we not see the blessed effect of having Kings in every
thing we look at? Is not the G. R., or the broad R., stampt upon every
thing? Even the shoes, the gloves, and the hats that we wear,
are enriched with the impression, and all our candles blaze a
burnt-offering.
"Besides these blessings, my Lords, that cover us from the sole of the
foot to the crown of the head, do we not see a race of youths growing
up to be Kings, who are the very paragons of virtue? There is not one of
them, my Lords, but might be trusted with untold gold, as safely as
the other. Are they not '_more sober, intelligent, more solid, more
steady_,' and withal, _more learned, more wise, more every thing, than
any youths we '_ever had the fortune to see.' Ah! my Lords, they are a
_hopeful family_.
"The blessed prospect of succession, which the nation has at this moment
before its eyes, is a most undeniable proof of the excellence of our
constitution, and of the blessed hereditary system; for nothing, my
Lords, but a constitution founded on the truest and purest wisdom
could admit such heaven-born and heaven-taught characters into the
government.--Permit me now, my Lords, to recal your attention to the
libellous chapter I have just read about Kings. I mention this, my
Lords, because it is my intention to move for a bill to be brought into
parliament to expunge that chapter from the Bible, and that the Lord
Chancellor, with the assistance of the Prince of Wales, the Duke of
York, and the Duke of Clarence, be requested to write a chapter in the
room of it; and that Mr. Burke do see that it be truly canonical, and
faithfully inserted."--Finis.
1 Allusion to the window-tax.--Editor,
If the Clerk of the Court of King's Bench should chuse to be the orator
of this luminous encomium on the constitution, I hope he will get
it well by heart before he attempts to deliver it, and not have
to apologize to Parliament, as he did in the case of Bolingbroke's
encomium, for forgetting his lesson; and, with this admonition I leave
him.
Having thus informed the Addressers of what passed at the meeting of
Parliament, I return to take up the subject at the part where I broke
off in order to introduce the preceding speeches.
I was then stating, that the first policy of the Government party was
silence, and the next, clamorous contempt; but as people generally
choose to read and judge for themselves, the work still went on, and the
affectation of contempt, like the silence that preceded it, passed for
nothing.
Thus foiled in their second scheme, their evil genius, like a
will-with-a-wisp, led them to a third; when all at once, as if it had
been unfolded to them by a fortune-teller, or Mr. Dundas had discovered
it by second sight, this once harmless, insignificant book, without
undergoing the alteration of a single letter, became a most wicked and
dangerous Libel. The whole Cabinet, like a ship's crew, became alarmed;
all hands were piped upon deck, as if a conspiracy of elements was
forming around them, and out came the Proclamation and the Prosecution;
and Addresses supplied the place of prayers.
Ye silly swains, thought I to myself, why do you torment yourselves
thus? The Rights OF Man is a book calmly and rationally written; why
then are you so disturbed? Did you see how little or how suspicious such
conduct makes you appear, even cunning alone, had you no other faculty,
would hush you into prudence. The plans, principles, and arguments,
contained in that work, are placed before the eyes of the nation, and
of the world, in a fair, open, and manly manner, and nothing more is
necessary than to refute them. Do this, and the whole is done; but if ye
cannot, so neither can ye suppress the reading, nor convict the author;
for the Law, in the opinion of all good men, would convict itself, that
should condemn what cannot be refuted.
Having now shown the Addressers the several stages of the business,
prior to their being called upon, like Cæsar in the Tyber, crying to
Cassius, "_help, Cassius, or I sink_!" I next come to remark on the
policy of the Government, in promoting Addresses; on the consequences
naturally resulting therefrom; and on the conduct of the persons
concerned.
With respect to the policy, it evidently carries with it every mark
and feature of disguised fear. And it will hereafter be placed in the
history of extraordinary things, that a pamphlet should be produced by
an individual, unconnected with any sect or party, and not seeking to
make any, and almost a stranger in the land, that should compleatly
frighten a whole Government, and that in the midst of its most
triumphant security. Such a circumstance cannot fail to prove, that
either the pamphlet has irresistible powers, or the Government very
extraordinary defects, or both. The nation exhibits no signs of fear at
the Rights of Man; why then should the Government, unless the interest
of the two are really opposite to each other, and the secret is
beginning to be known? That there are two distinct classes of men in
the nation, those who pay taxes, and those who receive and live upon
the taxes, is evident at first sight; and when taxation is carried to
excess, it cannot fail to disunite those two, and something of this kind
is now beginning to appear.
It is also curious to observe, amidst all the fume and bustle about
Proclamations and Addresses, kept up by a few noisy and interested men,
how little the mass of the nation seem to care about either. They
appear to me, by the indifference they shew, not to believe a word the
Proclamation contains; and as to the Addresses, they travel to London
with the silence of a funeral, and having announced their arrival in
the Gazette, are deposited with the ashes of their predecessors, and Mr.
Dundas writes their _hic facet_.
One of the best effects which the Proclamation, and its echo the
Addresses have had, has been that of exciting and spreading curiosity;
and it requires only a single reflection to discover, that the object
of all curiosity is knowledge. When the mass of the nation saw that
Placemen, Pensioners, and Borough-mongers, were the persons that stood
forward to promote Addresses, it could not fail to create suspicions
that the public good was not their object; that the character of the
books, or writings, to which such persons obscurely alluded, not daring
to mention them, was directly contrary to what they described them to
be, and that it was necessary that every man, for his own satisfaction,
should exercise his proper right, and read and judge for himself.
But how will the persons who have been induced to read the _Rights of
Man_, by the clamour that has been raised against it, be surprized
to find, that, instead of a wicked, inflammatory work, instead of a
licencious and profligate performance, it abounds with principles of
government that are uncontrovertible--with arguments which every reader
will feel, are unanswerable--with plans for the increase of commerce
and manufactures--for the extinction of war--for the education of
the children of the poor--for the comfortable support of the aged and
decayed persons of both sexes--for the relief of the army and navy, and,
in short, for the promotion of every thing that can benefit the moral,
civil, and political condition of Man.
Why, then, some calm observer will ask, why is the work prosecuted, if
these be the goodly matters it contains? I will tell thee, friend;
it contains also a plan for the reduction of Taxes, for lessening the
immense expences of Government, for abolishing sinecure Places and
Pensions; and it proposes applying the redundant taxes, that shall
be saved by these reforms, to the purposes mentioned in the former
paragraph, instead of applying them to the support of idle and
profligate Placemen and Pensioners.
Is it, then, any wonder that Placemen and Pensioners, and the whole
train of Court expectants, should become the promoters of Addresses,
Proclamations, and Prosecutions? or, is it any wonder that Corporations
and rotten Boroughs, which are attacked and exposed, both in the First
and Second Parts of _Rights of Man_, as unjust monopolies and public
nuisances, should join in the cavalcade? Yet these are the sources from
which Addresses have sprung. Had not such persons come forward to
oppose the _Rights of Man_, I should have doubted the efficacy of my
own writings: but those opposers have now proved to me that the blow was
well directed, and they have done it justice by confessing the smart.
The principal deception in this business of Addresses has been, that the
promoters of them have not come forward in their proper characters. They
have assumed to pass themselves upon the public as a part of the Public,
bearing a share of the burthen of Taxes, and acting for the public good;
whereas, they are in general that part of it that adds to the public
burthen, by living on the produce of the public taxes. They are to the
public what the locusts are to the tree: the burthen would be less, and
the prosperity would be greater, if they were shaken off.
"I do not come here," said Onslow, at the Surry County meeting, "as the
Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of the county, but I come here as
a plain country gentleman." The fact is, that he came there as what he
was, and as no other, and consequently he came as one of the beings I
have been describing. If it be the character of a gentleman to be fed by
the public, as a pauper is by the parish, Onslow has a fair claim to the
title; and the same description will suit the Duke of Richmond, who led
the Address at the Sussex meeting. He also may set up for a gentleman.
As to the meeting in the next adjoining county (Kent), it was a scene of
disgrace. About two hundred persons met, when a small part of them drew
privately away from the rest, and voted an Address: the consequence of
which was that they got together by the ears, and produced a riot in the
very act of producing an Address to prevent Riots.
That the Proclamation and the Addresses have failed of their intended
effect, may be collected from the silence which the Government party
itself observes. The number of addresses has been weekly retailed in the
Gazette; but the number of Addressers has been concealed. Several of the
Addresses have been voted by not more than ten or twelve persons; and a
considerable number of them by not more than thirty. The whole number of
Addresses presented at the time of writing this letter is three hundred
and twenty, (rotten Boroughs and Corporations included) and even
admitting, on an average, one hundred Addressers to each address, the
whole number of addressers would be but thirty-two thousand, and nearly
three months have been taken up in procuring this number. That the
success of the Proclamation has been less than the success of the work
it was intended to discourage, is a matter within my own knowledge; for
a greater number of the cheap edition of the First and Second Parts of
the Rights OF Man has been sold in the space only of one month, than the
whole number of Addressers (admitting them to be thirty-two thousand)
have amounted to in three months.
It is a dangerous attempt in any government to say to a Nation, "_thou
shalt not read_." This is now done in Spain, and was formerly done under
the old Government of France; but it served to procure the downfall of
the latter, and is subverting that of the former; and it will have
the same tendency in all countries; because _thought_ by some means
or other, is got abroad in the world, and cannot be restrained, though
reading may.
If _Rights of Man_ were a book that deserved the vile description which
the promoters of the Address have given of it, why did not these men
prove their charge, and satisfy the people, by producing it, and reading
it publicly? This most certainly ought to have been done, and would also
have been done, had they believed it would have answered their purpose.
But the fact is, that the book contains truths which those time-servers
dreaded to hear, and dreaded that the people should know; and it is now
following up the,
ADDRESS TO ADDRESSERS.
Addresses in every part of the nation, and convicting them of
falsehoods.
Among the unwarrantable proceedings to which the Proclamation has given
rise, the meetings of the Justices in several of the towns and counties
ought to be noticed.. Those men have assumed to re-act the farce of
General Warrants, and to suppress, by their own authority, whatever
publications they please. This is an attempt at power equalled only by
the conduct of the minor despots of the most despotic governments in
Europe, and yet those Justices affect to call England a Free Country.
But even this, perhaps, like the scheme for garrisoning the country
by building military barracks, is necessary to awaken the country to a
sense of its Rights, and, as such, it will have a good effect.
Another part of the conduct of such Justices has been, that of
threatening to take away the licences from taverns and public-houses,
where the inhabitants of the neighbourhood associated to read and
discuss the principles of Government, and to inform each other thereon.
This, again, is similar to what is doing in Spain and Russia; and the
reflection which it cannot fail to suggest is, that the principles and
conduct of any Government must be bad, when that Government dreads and
startles at discussion, and seeks security by a prevention of knowledge.
If the Government, or the Constitution, or by whatever name it be
called, be that miracle of perfection which the Proclamation and
the Addresses have trumpeted it forth to be, it ought to have defied
discussion and investigation, instead of dreading it. Whereas, every
attempt it makes, either by Proclamation, Prosecution, or Address, to
suppress investigation, is a confession that it feels itself unable to
bear it. It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from enquiry. All
the numerous pamphlets, and all the newspaper falsehood and abuse, that
have been published against the Rights of Man, have fallen before it
like pointless arrows; and, in like manner, would any work have fallen
before the Constitution, had the Constitution, as it is called, been
founded on as good political principles as those on which the Rights OF
Man is written.
It is a good Constitution for courtiers, placemen, pensioners,
borough-holders, and the leaders of Parties, and these are the men that
have been the active leaders of Addresses; but it is a bad Constitution
for at least ninety-nine parts of the nation out of an hundred, and this
truth is every day making its way.
It is bad, first, because it entails upon the nation the unnecessary
expence of supporting three forms and systems of Government at once,
namely, the monarchical, the aristocratical, and the democratical.
Secondly, because it is impossible to unite such a discordant
composition by any other means than perpetual corruption; and therefore
the corruption so loudly and so universally complained of, is no
other than the natural consequence of such an unnatural compound of
Governments; and in this consists that excellence which the numerous
herd of placemen and pensioners so loudly extol, and which at the same
time, occasions that enormous load of taxes under which the rest of the
nation groans.
Among the mass of national delusions calculated to amuse and impose upon
the multitude, the standing one has been that of flattering them into
taxes, by calling the Government (or as they please to express it,
the English Constitution) "_the envy and the admiration of the world_"
Scarcely an Address has been voted in which some of the speakers have
not uttered this hackneyed nonsensical falsehood.
Two Revolutions have taken place, those of America and France; and both
of them have rejected the unnatural compounded system of the English
government. America has declared against all hereditary Government, and
established the representative system of Government only. France has
entirely rejected the aristocratical part, and is now discovering
the absurdity of the monarchical, and is approaching fast to the
representative system. On what ground then, do these men continue a
declaration, respecting what they call the _envy and admiration of other
nations_, which the voluntary practice of such nations, as have had the
opportunity of establishing Government, contradicts and falsifies. Will
such men never confine themselves to truth? Will they be for ever the
deceivers of the people?
But I will go further, and shew, that were Government now to begin in
England, the people could not be brought to establish the same system
they now submit to.
In speaking on this subject (or on any other) _on the pure ground
of principle_, antiquity and precedent cease to be authority, and
hoary-headed error loses its effect. The reasonableness and propriety of
things must be examined abstractedly from custom and usage; and, in this
point of view, the right which grows into practice to-day is as much a
right, and as old in principle and theory, as if it had the customary
sanction of a thousand ages. Principles have no connection with time,
nor characters with names.
To say that the Government of this country is composed of King, Lords,
and Commons, is the mere phraseology of custom. It is composed of
men; and whoever the men be to whom the Government of any country is
intrusted, they ought to be the best and wisest that can be found, and
if they are not so, they are not fit for the station. A man derives
no more excellence from the change of a name, or calling him King, or
calling him Lord, than I should do by changing my name from Thomas to
George, or from Paine to Guelph. I should not be a whit more able to
write a book because my name was altered; neither would any man, now
called a King or a lord, have a whit the more sense than he now has,
were he to call himself Thomas Paine.
As to the word "Commons," applied as it is in England, it is a term
of degradation and reproach, and ought to be abolished. It is a term
unknown in free countries.
But to the point.--Let us suppose that Government was now to begin in
England, and that the plan of Government, offered to the nation for its
approbation or rejection, consisted of the following parts:
First--That some one individual should be taken from all the rest of the
nation, and to whom all the rest should swear obedience, and never be
permitted to sit down in his presence, and that they should give to him
one million sterling a year.--That the nation should never after have
power or authority to make laws but with his express consent; and that
his sons and his sons' sons, whether wise or foolish, good men or
bad, fit or unfit, should have the same power, and also the same money
annually paid to them for ever.
Secondly--That there should be two houses of Legislators to assist in
making laws, one of which should, in the first instance, be entirely
appointed by the aforesaid person, and that their sons and their sons'
sons, whether wise or foolish, good men or bad, fit or unfit, should for
ever after be hereditary Legislators.
Thirdly--That the other house should be chosen in the same manner as the
house now called the House of Commons is chosen, and should be subject
to the controul of the two aforesaid hereditary Powers in all things.
It would be impossible to cram such a farrago of imposition and
absurdity down the throat of this or any other nation that was capable
of reasoning upon its rights and its interest.
They would ask, in the first place, on what ground of right, or on what
principle, such irrational and preposterous distinctions could, or ought
to be made; and what pretensions any man could have, or what services he
could render, to entitle him to a million a year? They would go
farther, and revolt at the idea of consigning their children, and their
children's children, to the domination of persons hereafter to be born,
who might, for any thing they could foresee, turn out to be knaves or
fools; and they would finally discover, that the project of hereditary
Governors and Legislators _was a treasonable usurpation over the rights
of posterity_. Not only the calm dictates of reason, and the force of
natural affection, but the integrity of manly pride, would impel men to
spurn such proposals.
From the grosser absurdities of such a scheme, they would extend their
examination to the practical defects--They would soon see that it would
end in tyranny accomplished by fraud. That in the operation of it, it
would be two to one against them, because the two parts that were to be
made hereditary would form a common interest, and stick to each other;
and that themselves and representatives would become no better
than hewers of wood and drawers of water for the other parts of the
Government.--Yet call one of those powers King, the other Lords, and the
third the Commons, and it gives the model of what is called the English
Government.
I have asserted, and have shewn, both in the First and Second Parts
of _Rights of Man_, that there is not such a thing as an English
Constitution, and that the people have yet a Constitution to form. _A
Constitution is a thing antecedent to a Government; it is the act of a
people creating a Government and giving it powers, and defining the
limits and exercise of the powers so given_. But whenever did the people
of England, acting in their original constituent character, by a
delegation elected for that express purpose, declare and say, "We, the
people of this land, do constitute and appoint this to be our system and
form of Government." The Government has assumed to constitute itself,
but it never was constituted by the people, in whom alone the right of
constituting resides.
I will here recite the preamble to the Federal Constitution of the
United States of America. I have shewn in the Second Part of _Rights
of Man_, the manner by which the Constitution was formed and afterwards
ratified; and to which I refer the reader. The preamble is in the
following words:
"We, the people, of the United States, in order to form a more perfect
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for
common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this
constitution for the United States of America."
Then follow the several articles which appoint the manner in which the
several component parts of the Government, legislative and executive,
shall be elected, and the period of their duration, and the powers they
shall have: also, the manner by which future additions, alterations,
or amendments, shall be made to the constitution. Consequently, every
improvement that can be made in the science of government, follows in
that country as a matter of order. It is only in Governments founded on
assumption and false principles, that reasoning upon, and investigating
systems and principles of Government, and shewing their several
excellencies and defects, are termed libellous and seditious. These
terms were made part of the charge brought against Locke, Hampden, and
Sydney, and will continue to be brought against all good men, so long as
bad government shall continue.
The Government of this country has been ostentatiously giving challenges
for more than an hundred years past, upon what it called its own
excellence and perfection. Scarcely a King's Speech, or a Parliamentary
Speech, has been uttered, in which this glove has not been thrown, till
the world has been insulted with their challenges. But it now appears
that all this was vapour and vain boasting, or that it was intended to
conceal abuses and defects, and hush the people into taxes. I have taken
the challenge up, and in behalf of the public have shewn, in a fair,
open, and candid manner, both the radical and practical defects of the
system; when, lo! those champions of the Civil List have fled away,
and sent the Attorney-General to deny the challenge, by turning the
acceptance of it into an attack, and defending their Places and Pensions
by a prosecution.
I will here drop this part of the subject, and state a few particulars
respecting the prosecution now pending, by which the Addressers will
see that they have been used as tools to the prosecuting party and their
dependents. The case is as follows:
The original edition of the First and Second Parts of the Rights of
Man, having been expensively printed, (in the modern stile of printing
pamphlets, that they might be bound up with Mr. Burke's Reflections on
the French Revolution,) the high price(1) precluded the generality
of people from purchasing; and many applications were made to me from
various parts of the country to print the work in a cheaper manner. The
people of Sheffield requested leave to print two thousand copies for
themselves, with which request I immediately complied. The same request
came to me from Rotherham, from Leicester, from Chester, from several
towns in Scotland; and Mr. James Mackintosh, author of _Vindico
Gallico_, brought me a request from Warwickshire, for leave to print ten
thousand copies in that county. I had already sent a cheap edition to
Scotland; and finding the applications increase, I concluded that the
best method of complying therewith, would be to print a very numerous
edition in London, under my own direction, by which means the work would
be more perfect, and the price be reduced lower than it could be by
_printing_ small editions in the country, of only a few thousands each.
1 Half a crown.--_Editor_.
The cheap edition of the first part was begun about the first of last
April, and from that moment, and not before, I expected a prosecution,
and the event has proved that I was not mistaken. I had then occasion to
write to Mr. Thomas Walker of Manchester, and after informing him of my
intention of giving up the work for the purpose of general information,
I informed him of what I apprehended would be the consequence; that
while the work was at a price that precluded an extensive circulation,
the government party, not able to controvert the plans, arguments,
and principles it contained, had chosen to remain silent; but that I
expected they would make an attempt to deprive the mass of the nation,
and especially the poor, of the right of reading, by the pretence of
prosecuting either the Author or the Publisher, or both. They chose to
begin with the Publisher.
Nearly a month, however, passed, before I had any information given me
of their intentions. I was then at Bromley, in Kent, upon which I came
immediately to town, (May 14) and went to Mr. Jordan, the publisher of
the original edition. He had that evening been served with a summons to
appear at the Court of King's Bench, on the Monday following, but for
what purpose was not stated. Supposing it to be on account of the
work, I appointed a meeting with him on the next morning, which was
accordingly had, when I provided an attorney, and took the ex-pence of
the defence on myself. But finding afterwards that he absented himself
from the attorney employed, and had engaged another, and that he had
been closeted with the Solicitors of the Treasury, I left him to follow
his own choice, and he chose to plead Guilty. This he might do if he
pleased; and I make no objection against him for it. I believe that his
idea by the word _Guilty_, was no other than declaring himself to be the
publisher, without any regard to the merits or demerits of the work; for
were it to be construed otherwise, it would amount to the absurdity of
converting a publisher into a Jury, and his confession into a verdict
upon the work itself. This would be the highest possible refinement upon
packing of Juries.
On the 21st of May, they commenced their prosecution against me, as the
author, by leaving a summons at my lodgings in town, to appear at the
Court of King's Bench on the 8th of June following; and on the same day,
(May 21,) _they issued also their Proclamation_. Thus the Court of St.
James and the Court of King's Bench, were playing into each other's
hands at the same instant of time, and the farce of Addresses brought up
the rear; and this mode of proceeding is called by the prostituted name
of Law. Such a thundering rapidity, after a ministerial dormancy of
almost eighteen months, can be attributed to no other cause than their
having gained information of the forwardness of the cheap Edition, and
the dread they felt at the progressive increase of political knowledge.
I was strongly advised by several gentlemen, as well those in the
practice of the law, as others, to prefer a bill of indictment
against the publisher of the Proclamation, as a publication tending to
influence, or rather to dictate the verdict of a Jury on the issue of a
matter then pending; but it appeared to me much better to avail myself
of the opportunity which such a precedent justified me in using, by
meeting the Proclamation and the Addressers on their own ground, and
publicly defending the Work which had been thus unwarrantably attacked
and traduced.--And conscious as I now am, that the Work entitled
Rights OF Man so far from being, as has been maliciously or erroneously
represented, a false, wicked, and seditious libel, is a work abounding
with unanswerable truths, with principles of the purest morality and
benevolence, and with arguments not to be controverted--Conscious, I
say, of these things, and having no object in view but the happiness
of mankind, I have now put the matter to the best proof in my power, by
giving to the public a cheap edition of the First and Second Parts of
that Work. Let every man read and judge for himself, not only of the
merits and demerits of the Work, but of the matters therein contained,
which relate to his own interest and happiness.
If, to expose the fraud and imposition of monarchy, and every species
of hereditary government--to lessen the oppression of taxes--to propose
plans for the education of helpless infancy, and the comfortable support
of the aged and distressed--to endeavour to conciliate nations to each
other--to extirpate the horrid practice of war--to promote universal
peace, civilization, and commerce--and to break the chains of political
superstition, and raise degraded man to his proper rank;--if these
things be libellous, let me live the life of a Libeller, and let the
name of Libeller be engraved on my tomb.
Of all the weak and ill-judged measures which fear, ignorance,
or arrogance could suggest, the Proclamation, and the project for
Addresses, are two of the worst. They served to advertise the work which
the promoters of those measures wished to keep unknown; and in doing
this they offered violence to the judgment of the people, by calling on
them to condemn what they forbad them to know, and put the strength
of their party to that hazardous issue that prudence would have
avoided.--The County Meeting for Middlesex was attended by only
one hundred and eighteen Addressers. They, no doubt, expected, that
thousands would flock to their standard, and clamor against the _Rights
of Man_. But the case most probably is, that men in all countries, are
not so blind to their Rights and their Interest as Governments believe.
Having thus shewn the extraordinary manner in which the Government party
commenced their attack, I proceed to offer a few observations on the
prosecution, and on the mode of trial by Special Jury.
In the first place, I have written a book; and if it cannot be refuted,
it cannot be condemned. But I do not consider the prosecution as
particularly levelled against me, but against the general right, or
the right of every man, of investigating systems and principles of
government, and shewing their several excellencies or defects. If the
press be free only to flatter Government, as Mr. Burke has done, and to
cry up and extol what certain Court sycophants are pleased to call a
"glorious Constitution," and not free to examine into its errors or
abuses, or whether a Constitution really exist or not, such freedom is
no other than that of Spain, Turkey, or Russia; and a Jury in this case,
would not be a Jury to try, but an Inquisition to condemn.
I have asserted, and by fair and open argument maintained, the right
of every nation at all times to establish such a system and form of
government for itself as best accords with its disposition, interest,
and happiness; and to change and alter it as it sees occasion. Will any
Jury deny to the Nation this right? If they do, they are traitors, and
their verdict would be null and void. And if they admit the right, the
means must be admitted also; for it would be the highest absurdity to
say, that the right existed, but the means did not. The question then
is, What are the means by which the possession and exercise of
this National Right are to be secured? The answer will be, that
of maintaining, inviolably, the right of free investigation; for
investigation always serves to detect error, and to bring forth truth.
I have, as an individual, given my opinion upon what I believe to be
not only the best, but the true system of Government, which is the
representative system, and I have given reasons for that opinion.
First, Because in the representative system, no office of very
extraordinary power, or extravagant pay, is attached to any individual;
and consequently there is nothing to excite those national contentions
and civil wars with which countries under monarchical governments are
frequently convulsed, and of which the History of England exhibits such
numerous instances.
Secondly, Because the representative is a system of Government always
in maturity; whereas monarchical government fluctuates through all the
stages, from non-age to dotage.
Thirdly, Because the representative system admits of none but men
properly qualified into the Government, or removes them if they prove
to be otherwise. Whereas, in the hereditary system, a nation may be
encumbered with a knave or an ideot for a whole life-time, and not be
benefited by a successor.
Fourthly, Because there does not exist a right to establish hereditary
government, or, in other words, hereditary successors, because
hereditary government always means a government yet to come, and the
case always is, that those who are to live afterwards have the same
right to establish government for themselves, as the people had who
lived before them; and, therefore, all laws attempting to establish
hereditary government, are founded on assumption and political fiction.
If these positions be truths, and I challenge any man to prove the
contrary; if they tend to instruct and enlighten mankind, and to free
them from error, oppression, and political superstition, which are the
objects I have in view in publishing them, that Jury would commit an act
of injustice to their country, and to me, if not an act of perjury, that
should call them _false, wicked, and malicious_.
Dragonetti, in his treatise "On Virtues and Rewards," has a paragraph
worthy of being recorded in every country in the world--"The science
(says he,) of the politician, consists, in, fixing the true point of
happiness and freedom. Those men deserve the gratitude of ages who
should discover a mode of government that contained the greatest sum of
_individual happiness_ with the least _national expence_." But if Juries
are to be made use of to prohibit enquiry, to suppress truth, and
to stop the progress of knowledge, this boasted palladium of liberty
becomes the most successful instrument of tyranny.
Among the arts practised at the Bar, and from the Bench, to impose
upon the understanding of a Jury, and to obtain a Verdict where
the consciences of men could not otherwise consent, one of the most
successful has been that of calling _truth a libel_, and of insinuating
that the words "_falsely, wickedly, and maliciously_," though they
are made the formidable and high sounding part of the charge, are not
matters of consideration with a Jury. For what purpose, then, are they
retained, unless it be for that of imposition and wilful defamation?
I cannot conceive a greater violation of order, nor a more abominable
insult upon morality, and upon human understanding, than to see a man
sitting in the judgment seat, affecting by an antiquated foppery of
dress to impress the audience with awe; then causing witnesses and Jury
to be sworn to truth and justice, himself having officially sworn the
same; then causing to be read a prosecution against a man charging him
with having _wickedly and maliciously written and published a certain
false, wicked, and seditious book_; and having gone through all this
with a shew of solemnity, as if he saw the eye of the Almighty darting
through the roof of the building like a ray of light, turn, in an
instant, the whole into a farce, and, in order to obtain a verdict
that could not otherwise be obtained, tell the Jury that the charge of
_falsely, wickedly, and seditiously_, meant nothing; that _truth_ was
out of the question; and that whether the person accused spoke truth or
falsehood, or intended _virtuously or wickedly_, was the same thing;
and finally conclude the wretched inquisitorial scene, by stating
some antiquated precedent, equally as abominable as that which is then
acting, or giving some opinion of his own, and _falsely calling the one
and the other--Law_. It was, most probably, to such a Judge as this,
that the most solemn of all reproofs was given--"_The Lord will smite
thee, thou whitened wall_."
I now proceed to offer some remarks on what is called a Special Jury. As
to what is called a Special Verdict, I shall make no other remark upon
it, than that it is in reality _not_ a verdict. It is an attempt on the
part of the Jury to delegate, or of the Bench to obtain, the exercise of
that right, which is committed to the Jury only.
With respect to the Special Juries, I shall state such matters as I have
been able to collect, for I do not find any uniform opinion concerning
the mode of appointing them.
In the first place, this mode of trial is but of modern invention, and
the origin of it, as I am told, is as follows:
Formerly, when disputes arose between Merchants, and were brought before
a Court, the case was that the nature of their commerce, and the method
of keeping Merchants' accounts not being sufficiently understood by
persons out of their own line, it became necessary to depart from the
common mode of appointing Juries, and to select such persons for a Jury
whose _practical knowledge_ would enable them to decide upon the case.
From this introduction, Special Juries became more general; but some
doubts having arisen as to their legality, an act was passed in the 3d
of George II. to establish them as legal, and also to extend them to all
cases, not only between individuals, but in cases where _the Government
itself should be the prosecutor_. This most probably gave rise to the
suspicion so generally entertained of packing a Jury; because, by this
act, when the Crown, as it is called, is the Prosecutor, the Master of
the Crown-office, who holds his office under the Crown, is the person
who either wholly nominates, or has great power in nominating the Jury,
and therefore it has greatly the appearance of the prosecuting party
selecting a Jury.
The process is as follows:
On motion being made in Court, by either the Plaintiff or Defendant, for
a Special Jury, the Court grants it or not, at its own discretion.
If it be granted, the Solicitor of the party that applied for the
Special Jury, gives notice to the Solicitor of the adverse party, and a
day and hour are appointed for them to meet at the office of the Master
of the Crown-office. The Master of the Crown-office sends to the Sheriff
or his deputy, who attends with the Sheriff's book of Freeholders. From
this book, forty-eight names are taken, and a copy thereof given to each
of the parties; and, on a future day, notice is again given, and the
Solicitors meet a second time, and each strikes out twelve names. The
list being thus reduced from forty-eight to twenty-four, the first
twelve that appear in Court, and answer to their names, is the Special
Jury for that cause. The first operation, that of taking the forty-eight
names, is called nominating the Jury; and the reducing them to
twenty-four is called striking the Jury.
Having thus stated the general process, I come to particulars, and the
first question will be, how are the forty-eight names, out of which the
Jury is to be struck, obtained from the Sheriff's book? For herein lies
the principal ground of suspicion, with respect to what is understood by
packing of Juries.
Either they must be taken by some rule agreed upon between the parties,
or by some common rule known and established beforehand, or at the
discretion of some person, who in such a case, ought to be perfectly
disinterested in the issue, as well officially as otherwise.
In the case of Merchants, and in all cases between individuals,
the Master of the office, called the Crown-office, is officially an
indifferent person, and as such may be a proper person to act between
the parties, and present them with a list of forty-eight names, out of
which each party is to strike twelve. But the case assumes an entire
difference of character, when the Government itself is the Prosecutor.
The Master of the Crown-office is then an officer holding his office
under the Prosecutor; and it is therefore no wonder that the suspicion
of packing Juries should, in such cases, have been so prevalent.
This will apply with additional force, when the prosecution is commenced
against the Author or Publisher of such Works as treat of reforms, and
of the abolition of superfluous places and offices, &c, because in such
cases every person holding an office, subject to that suspicion, becomes
interested as a party; and the office, called the Crown-office, may,
upon examination, be found to be of this description.
I have heard it asserted, that the Master of the Crown-office is to open
the sheriff's book as it were per hazard, and take thereout forty-eight
_following_ names, to which the word Merchant or Esquire is affixed.
The former of these are certainly proper, when the case is between
Merchants, and it has reference to the origin of the custom, and to
nothing else. As to the word Esquire, every man is an Esquire who
pleases to call himself Esquire; and the sensible part of mankind are
leaving it off. But the matter for enquiry is, whether there be any
existing law to direct the mode by which the forty-eight names shall be
taken, or whether the mode be merely that of custom which the office has
created; or whether the selection of the forty-eight names be wholly
at the discretion and choice of the Master of the Crown-office? One or
other of the two latter appears to be the case, because the act already
mentioned, of the 3d of George II. lays down no rule or mode, nor refers
to any preceding law--but says only, that Special Juries shall hereafter
be struck, "_in such manner as Special Juries have been and are usually
struck_."
This act appears to have been what is generally understood by a "_deep
take in_." It was fitted to the spur of the moment in which it was
passed, 3d of George II. when parties ran high, and it served to throw
into the hands of Walpole, who was then Minister, the management of
Juries in Crown prosecutions, by making the nomination of the
forty-eight persons, from whom the Jury was to be struck, follow the
precedent established by custom between individuals, and by this means
slipt into practice with less suspicion. Now, the manner of obtaining
Special Juries through the medium of an officer of the Government, such,
for instance, as a Master of the Crown-office, may be impartial in the
case of Merchants or other individuals, but it becomes highly improper
and suspicious in cases where the Government itself is one of the
parties. And it must, upon the whole, appear a strange inconsistency,
that a Government should keep one officer to commence prosecutions, and
another officer to nominate the forty-eight persons from whom the Jury
is to be struck, both of whom are _officers of the Civil List_, and yet
continue to call this by the pompous name of _the glorious "Right of
trial by Jury!_"
In the case of the King against Jordan, for publishing the Rights of
Man, the Attorney-General moved for the appointment of a Special Jury,
and the Master of the Crown-office nominated the forty-eight persons
himself, and took them from such part of the Sheriff's book as he
pleased.
The trial did not come on, occasioned by Jordan withdrawing his plea;
but if it had, it might have afforded an opportunity of discussing the
subject of Special Juries; for though such discussion might have had
no effect in the Court of King's Bench, it would, in the present
disposition for enquiry, have had a considerable effect upon the
Country; and, in all national reforms, this is the proper point to begin
at. But a Country right, and it will soon put Government right. Among
the improper things acted by the Government in the case of Special
Juries, on their own motion, one has been that of treating the Jury with
a dinner, and afterwards giving each Juryman two guineas, if a verdict
be found for the prosecution, and only one if otherwise; and it has been
long observed, that, in London and Westminster, there are persons who
appear to make a trade of serving, by being so frequently seen upon
Special Juries.
Thus much for Special Juries. As to what is called a _Common Jury_, upon
any Government prosecution against the Author or Publisher of RIGHTS OF
Man, during the time of the _present Sheriffry_, I have one question
to offer, which is, _whether the present Sheriffs of London, having
publicly prejudged the case, by the part they have taken in procuring
an Address from the county of Middlesex, (however diminutive and
insignificant the number of Addressers were, being only one hundred and
eighteen,) are eligible or proper persons to be intrusted with the power
of returning a Jury to try the issue of any such prosecution_.
But the whole matter appears, at least to me, to be worthy of a more
extensive consideration than what relates to any Jury, whether Special
or Common; for the case is, whether any part of a whole nation, locally
selected as a Jury of twelve men always is, be competent to judge and
determine for the whole nation, on any matter that relates to systems
and principles of Government, and whether it be not applying the
institution of Juries to purposes for which such institutions were not
intended? For example,
I have asserted, in the Work Rights of Man, that as every man in the
nation pays taxes, so has every man a right to a share in government,
and consequently that the people of Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield,
Leeds, Halifax, &c have the same right as those of London. Shall, then,
twelve men, picked out between Temple-bar and Whitechapel, because the
book happened to be first published there, decide upon the rights of
the inhabitants of those towns, or of any other town or village in the
nation?
Having thus spoken of Juries, I come next to offer a few observations on
the matter contained in the information or prosecution.
The work, Rights of Man, consists of Part the First, and Fart the
Second. The First Part the prosecutor has thought it most proper to let
alone; and from the Second Fart he has selected a few short paragraphs,
making in the whole not quite two pages of the same printing as in the
cheap edition. Those paragraphs relate chiefly to certain facts, such
as the revolution of 1688, and the coming of George the First, commonly
called of the House of Hanover, or the House of Brunswick, or some such
House. The arguments, plans and principles contained in the work, the
prosecutor has not ventured to attack. They are beyond his reach.
The Act which the prosecutor appears to rest most upon for the support
of the prosecution, is the Act intituled, "An Act, declaring the rights
and liberties of the subject, and settling the succession of the crown,"
passed in the first year of William and Mary, and more commonly known by
the name of the "Bill of Rights."
I have called this bill "_A Bill of wrongs and of insult_." My reasons,
and also my proofs, are as follow:
The method and principle which this Bill takes for declaring rights and
liberties, are in direct contradiction to rights and liberties; it is an
assumed attempt to take them wholly from posterity--for the declaration
in the said Bill is as follows:
"The Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, do, in _the name of all
the people_, most humbly and faithfully _submit themselves, their heirs,
and posterity for ever_;" that is, to William and Mary his wife, their
heirs and successors. This is a strange way of declaring rights and
liberties. But the Parliament who made this declaration in the name, and
on the part, of the people, had no authority from them for so doing;
and with respect to _posterity for ever_, they had no right or authority
whatever in the case. It was assumption and usurpation. I have reasoned
very extensively against the principle of this Bill, in the first part
of Rights of Man; the prosecutor has silently admitted that reasoning,
and he now commences a prosecution on the authority of the Bill, after
admitting the reasoning against it.
It is also to be observed, that the declaration in this Bill, abject and
irrational as it is, had no other intentional operation than against the
family of the Stuarts, and their abettors. The idea did not then exist,
that in the space of an hundred years, posterity might discover a
different and much better system of government, and that every species
of hereditary government might fall, as Popes and Monks had fallen
before. This, I say, was not then thought of, and therefore the
application of the Bill, in the present case, is a new, erroneous, and
illegal application, and is the same as creating a new Bill _ex post
facto_.
It has ever been the craft of Courtiers, for the purpose of keeping
up an expensive and enormous Civil List, and a mummery of useless and
antiquated places and offices at the public expence, to be continually
hanging England upon some individual or other, called _King_, though
the man might not have capacity to be a parish constable. The folly and
absurdity of this, is appearing more and more every day; and still those
men continue to act as if no alteration in the public opinion had taken
place. They hear each other's nonsense, and suppose the whole nation
talks the same Gibberish.
Let such men cry up the House of Orange, or the House of Brunswick,
if they please. They would cry up any other house if it suited their
purpose, and give as good reasons for it. But what is this house, or
that house, or any other house to a nation? "_For a nation to be free,
it is sufficient that she wills it_." Her freedom depends wholly upon
herself, and not on any house, nor on any individual. I ask not in what
light this cargo of foreign houses appears to others, but I will say in
what light it appears to me--It was like the trees of the forest, saying
unto the bramble, come thou and reign over us.
Thus much for both their houses. I now come to speak of two other
houses, which are also put into the information, and those are the
House of Lords, and the House of Commons. Here, I suppose, the
Attorney-General intends to prove me guilty of speaking either truth
or falsehood; for, according to the modern interpretation of Libels, it
does not signify which, and the only improvement necessary to shew the
compleat absurdity of such doctrine, would be, to prosecute a man for
uttering a most _false and wicked truth_.
I will quote the part I am going to give, from the Office Copy, with the
Attorney General's inuendoes, enclosed in parentheses as they stand in
the information, and I hope that civil list officer will caution the
Court not to laugh when he reads them, and also to take care not to
laugh himself.
The information states, that _Thomas Paine, being a wicked, malicious,
seditious, and evil-disposed person, hath, with force and arms, and
most wicked cunning, written and published a certain false, scandalous,
malicious, and seditious libel; in one part thereof, to the tenor and
effect following, that is to say_--
"With respect to the two Houses, of which the English Parliament
(_meaning the Parliament of this Kingdom_) is composed, they appear to
be effectually influenced into one, and, as a Legislature, to have no
temper of its own. The Minister, (_meaning the Minuter employed by the
King of this Realm, in the administration of the Government thereof_)
whoever he at any time may be, touches it (_meaning the two Houses of
Parliament of this Kingdom_) as with an opium wand, and it (_meaning the
two Houses of Parliament of this Kingdom_) sleeps obedience."
As I am not malicious enough to disturb their repose, though it be time
they should awake, I leave the two Houses and the Attorney General, to
the enjoyment of their dreams, and proceed to a new subject.
The Gentlemen, to whom I shall next address myself, are those who have
stiled themselves "_Friends of the people_," holding their meeting at
the Freemasons' Tavern, London.(1)
One of the principal Members of this Society, is Mr. Grey, who, I
believe, is also one of the most independent Members in Parliament.(2)
I collect this opinion from what Mr. Burke formerly mentioned to me,
rather than from any knowledge of my own. The occasion was as follows:
I was in England at the time the bubble broke forth about Nootka Sound:
and the day after the King's Message, as it is called, was sent to
Parliament, I wrote a note to Mr. Burke, that upon the condition the
French Revolution should not be a subject (for he was then writing
the book I have since answered) I would call on him the next day, and
mention some matters I was acquainted with, respecting the affair; for
it appeared to me extraordinary that any body of men, calling themselves
Representatives, should commit themselves so precipitately, or "sleep
obedience," as Parliament was then doing, and run a nation into expence,
and perhaps a war, without so much as enquiring into the case, or the
subject, of both which I had some knowledge.
1 See in the Introduction to this volume Chauvelin's account
of this Association.--_Editor._
2 In the debate in the House of Commons, Dec. 14, 1793, Mr.
Grey is thus reported: "Mr. Grey was not a friend to
Paine's doctrines, but he was not to be deterred by a man
from acknowledging that he considered the rights of man as
the foundation of every government, and those who stood out
against those rights as conspirators against the people." He
severely denounced the Proclamation. Parl. Hist., vol.
xxvi.--_Editor._
When I saw Mr. Burke, and mentioned the circumstances to him, he
particularly spoke of Mr. Grey, as the fittest Member to bring such
matters forward; "for," said Mr. Burke, "_I am not the proper_ person to
do it, as I am in a treaty with Mr. Pitt about Mr. Hastings's trial." I
hope the Attorney General will allow, that Mr. Burke was then _sleeping
his obedience_.--But to return to the Society------
I cannot bring myself to believe, that the general motive of this
Society is any thing more than that by which every former parliamentary
opposition has been governed, and by which the present is sufficiently
known. Failing in their pursuit of power and place within doors, they
have now (and that in not a very mannerly manner) endeavoured to possess
themselves of that ground out of doors, which, had it not been made
by others, would not have been made by them. They appear to me to have
watched, with more cunning than candour, the progress of a certain
publication, and when they saw it had excited a spirit of enquiry,
and was rapidly spreading, they stepped forward to profit by the
opportunity, and Mr. Fox _then_ called it a Libel. In saying this, he
libelled himself. Politicians of this cast, such, I mean, as those who
trim between parties, and lye by for events, are to be found in every
country, and it never yet happened that they did not do more harm
than good. They embarrass business, fritter it to nothing, perplex the
people, and the event to themselves generally is, that they go just
far enough to make enemies of the few, without going far enough to make
friends of the many.
Whoever will read the declarations of this Society, of the 25th of April
and 5th of May, will find a studied reserve upon all the points that are
real abuses. They speak not once of the extravagance of Government, of
the abominable list of unnecessary and sinecure places and pensions, of
the enormity of the Civil List, of the excess of taxes, nor of any one
matter that substantially affects the nation; and from some conversation
that has passed in that Society, it does not appear to me that it is
any part of their plan to carry this class of reforms into practice. No
Opposition Party ever did, when it gained possession.
In making these free observations, I mean not to enter into contention
with this Society; their incivility towards me is what I should expect
from place-hunting reformers. They are welcome, however, to the ground
they have advanced upon, and I wish that every individual among them may
act in the same upright, uninfluenced, and public spirited manner that I
have done. Whatever reforms may be obtained, and by whatever means,
they will be for the benefit of others and not of me. I have no other
interest in the cause than the interest of my heart. The part I have
acted has been wholly that of a volunteer, unconnected with party; and
when I quit, it shall be as honourably as I began.
I consider the reform of Parliament, by an application to Parliament, as
proposed by the Society, to be a worn-out hackneyed subject, about which
the nation is tired, and the parties are deceiving each other. It is not
a subject that is cognizable before Parliament, because no Government
has a right to alter itself, either in whole or in part. The right,
and the exercise of that right, appertains to the nation only, and the
proper means is by a national convention, elected for the purpose, by
all the people. By this, the will of the nation, whether to reform or
not, or what the reform shall be, or how far it shall extend, will be
known, and it cannot be known by any other means. Partial addresses, or
separate associations, are not testimonies of the general will.
It is, however, certain, that the opinions of men, with respect
to systems and principles of government, are changing fast in all
countries. The alteration in England, within the space of a little more
than a year, is far greater than could have been believed, and it is
daily and hourly increasing. It moves along the country with the silence
of thought. The enormous expence of Government has provoked men to
think, by making them feel; and the Proclamation has served to increase
jealousy and disgust. To prevent, therefore, those commotions which too
often and too suddenly arise from suffocated discontents, it is best
that the general WILL should have the full and free opportunity of being
publicly ascertained and known.
Wretched as the state of representation is in England, it is every
day becoming worse, because the unrepresented parts of the nation are
increasing in population and property, and the represented parts are
decreasing. It is, therefore, no ill-grounded estimation to say, that
as not one person in seven is represented, at least fourteen millions of
taxes out of the seventeen millions, are paid by the unrepresented part;
for although copyholds and leaseholds are assessed to the land-tax, the
holders are unrepresented. Should then a general demur take place as to
the obligation of paying taxes, on the ground of not being represented,
it is not the Representatives of Rotten Boroughs, nor Special Juries,
that can decide the question. This is one of the possible cases that
ought to be foreseen, in order to prevent the inconveniencies that might
arise to numerous individuals, by provoking it.
I confess I have no idea of petitioning for rights. Whatever the rights
of people are, they have a right to them, and none have a right either
to withhold them, or to grant them. Government ought to be established
on such principles of justice as to exclude the occasion of all such
applications, for wherever they appear they are virtually accusations.
I wish that Mr. Grey, since he has embarked in the business, would take
the whole of it into consideration. He will then see that the right of
reforming the state of the Representation does not reside in Parliament,
and that the only motion he could consistently make would be, that
Parliament should _recommend_ the election of a convention of the
people, because all pay taxes. But whether Parliament recommended it
or not, the right of the nation would neither be lessened nor increased
thereby.
As to Petitions from the unrepresented part, they ought not to be looked
for. As well might it be expected that Manchester, Sheffield, &c.
should petition the rotten Boroughs, as that they should petition the
Representatives of those Boroughs. Those two towns alone pay far more
taxes than all the rotten Boroughs put together, and it is scarcely to
be expected they should pay their court either to the Boroughs, or the
Borough-mongers.
It ought also to be observed, that what is called Parliament, is
composed of two houses that have always declared against the right of
each other to interfere in any matter that related to the circumstances
of either, particularly that of election. A reform, therefore, in the
representation cannot, on the ground they have individually taken,
become the subject of an act of Parliament, because such a mode would
include the interference, against which the Commons on their part have
protested; but must, as well on the ground of formality, as on that of
right, proceed from a National Convention.
Let Mr. Grey, or any other man, sit down and endeavour to put his
thoughts together, for the purpose of drawing up an application to
Parliament for a reform of Parliament, and he will soon convince himself
of the folly of the attempt. He will find that he cannot get on; that
he cannot make his thoughts join, so as to produce any effect; for,
whatever formality of words he may use, they will unavoidably include
two ideas directly opposed to each other; the one in setting forth
the reasons, the other in praying for relief, and the two, when placed
together, would stand thus: "_The Representation in Parliament is so
very corrupt, that we can no longer confide in it,--and, therefore,
confiding in the justice and wisdom of Parliament, we pray_," &c, &c.
The heavy manner in which every former proposed application to
Parliament has dragged, sufficiently shews, that though the nation might
not exactly see the awkwardness of the measure, it could not clearly see
its way, by those means. To this also may be added another remark, which
is, that the worse Parliament is, the less will be the inclination to
petition it. This indifference, viewed as it ought to be, is one of the
strongest censures the public express. It is as if they were to say to
them, "Ye are not worth reforming."
Let any man examine the Court-Kalendar of Placemen in both Houses, and
the manner in which the Civil List operates, and he will be at no loss
to account for this indifference and want of confidence on one side, nor
of the opposition to reforms on the other.
Who would have supposed that Mr. Burke, holding forth as he formerly
did against secret influence, and corrupt majorities, should become
a concealed Pensioner? I will now state the case, not for the little
purpose of exposing Mr. Burke, but to shew the inconsistency of any
application to a body of men, more than half of whom, as far as the
nation can at present know, may be in the same case with himself.
Towards the end of Lord North's administration, Mr. Burke brought a bill
into Parliament, generally known by Mr. Burke's Reform Bill; in which,
among other things, it is enacted, "That no pension exceeding the sum
of three hundred pounds a year, shall be granted to any one person,
and that the whole amount of the pensions granted in one year shall not
exceed six hundred pounds; a list of which, together with the _names
of the persons_ to whom the same are granted, shall be laid before
Parliament in twenty days after the beginning of each session, until
the whole pension list shall be reduced to ninety thousand pounds." A
provisory clause is afterwards added, "That it shall be lawful for the
First Commissioner of the Treasury, to return into the Exchequer any
pension or annuity, _without a name_, on his making oath that such
pension or annuity is not directly or indirectly for the benefit, use,
or behoof of any Member of the House of Commons."
But soon after that administration ended, and the party Mr. Burke acted
with came into power, it appears from the circumstances I am going to
relate, that Mr. Burke became himself a Pensioner in disguise; in a
similar manner as if a pension had been granted in the name of John
Nokes, to be privately paid to and enjoyed by Tom Stiles. The name of
Edmund Burke does not appear in the original transaction: but after the
pension was obtained, Mr. Burke wanted to make the most of it at once,
by selling or mortgaging it; and the gentleman in whose name the pension
stands, applied to one of the public offices for that purpose. This
unfortunately brought forth the name of _Edmund Burke_, as the real
Pensioner of 1,500L. per annum.(1) When men trumpet forth what they call
the blessings of the Constitution, it ought to be known what sort of
blessings they allude to.
As to the Civil List of a million a year, it is not to be supposed that
any one man can eat, drink, or consume the whole upon himself. The case
is, that above half the sum is annually apportioned among Courtiers,
and Court Members, of both Houses, in places and offices, altogether
insignificant and perfectly useless as to every purpose of civil,
rational, and manly government. For instance,
Of what use in the science and system of Government is what is called
a Lord Chamberlain, a Master and Mistress of the Robes, a Master of the
Horse, a Master of the Hawks, and one hundred other such things? Laws
derive no additional force, nor additional excellence from such mummery.
In the disbursements of the Civil List for the year 1786, (which may be
seen in Sir John Sinclair's History of the Revenue,) are four separate
charges for this mummery office of Chamberlain:
[Illustration: table110]
From this sample the rest may be guessed at. As to the Master of the
Hawks, (there are no hawks kept, and if there were, it is no reason the
people should pay the expence of feeding them, many of whom are put to
it to get bread for their children,) his salary is 1,372L. 10s.
1 See note at the end of this chapter.--_Editor._
And besides a list of items of this kind, sufficient to fill a quire of
paper, the Pension lists alone are 107,404L. 13s. 4d. which is a greater
sum than all the expences of the federal Government in America amount
to.
Among the items, there are two I had no expectation of finding, and
which, in this day of enquiry after Civil List influence, ought to be
exposed. The one is an annual payment of one thousand seven hundred
pounds to the Dissenting Ministers in England, and the other, eight
hundred pounds to those of Ireland.
This is the fact; and the distribution, as I am informed, is as follows:
The whole sum of 1,700L. is paid to one person, a Dissenting Minister
in London, who divides it among eight others, and those eight among such
others as they please. The Lay-body of the Dissenters, and many of their
principal Ministers, have long considered it as dishonourable, and have
endeavoured to prevent it, but still it continues to be secretly paid;
and as the world has sometimes seen very fulsome Addresses from parts of
that body, it may naturally be supposed that the receivers, like Bishops
and other Court-Clergy, are not idle in promoting them. How the money is
distributed in Ireland, I know not.
To recount all the secret history of the Civil List, is not the
intention of this publication. It is sufficient, in this place, to
expose its general character, and the mass of influence it keeps alive.
It will necessarily become one of the objects of reform; and therefore
enough is said to shew that, under its operation, no application to
Parliament can be expected to succeed, nor can consistently be made.
Such reforms will not be promoted by the Party that is in possession of
those places, nor by the Opposition who are waiting for them; and as
to a _mere reform_, in the state of the Representation, the idea that
another Parliament, differently elected from the present, but still a
third component part of the same system, and subject to the controul of
the other two parts, will abolish those abuses, is altogether delusion;
because it is not only impracticable on the ground of formality, but is
unwisely exposing another set of men to the same corruptions that have
tainted the present.
Were all the objects that require reform accomplishable by a mere reform
in the state of the Representation, the persons who compose the present
Parliament might, with rather more propriety, be asked to abolish all
the abuses themselves, than be applied to as the more instruments of
doing it by a future Parliament. If the virtue be wanting to abolish the
abuse, it is also wanting to act as the means, and the nation must, from
necessity, proceed by some other plan.
Having thus endeavoured to shew what the abject condition of Parliament
is, and the impropriety of going a second time over the same ground that
has before miscarried, I come to the remaining part of the subject.
There ought to be, in the constitution of every country, a mode of
referring back, on any extraordinary occasion, to the sovereign and
original constituent power, which is the nation itself. The right of
altering any part of a Government, cannot, as already observed, reside
in the Government, or that Government might make itself what it pleased.
It ought also to be taken for granted, that though a nation may feel
inconveniences, either in the excess of taxation, or in the mode of
expenditure, or in any thing else, it may not at first be sufficiently
assured in what part of its government the defect lies, or where the
evil originates. It may be supposed to be in one part, and on enquiry
be found to be in another; or partly in all. This obscurity is naturally
interwoven with what are called mixed Governments.
Be, however, the reform to be accomplished whatever it may, it can only
follow in consequence of obtaining a full knowledge of all the causes
that have rendered such reform necessary, and every thing short of this
is guess-work or frivolous cunning. In this case, it cannot be supposed
that any application to Parliament can bring forward this knowledge.
That body is itself the supposed cause, or one of the supposed causes,
of the abuses in question; and cannot be expected, and ought not to be
asked, to give evidence against itself. The enquiry, therefore, which
is of necessity the first step in the business, cannot be trusted to
Parliament, but must be undertaken by a distinct body of men, separated
from every suspicion of corruption or influence.
Instead, then, of referring to rotten Boroughs and absurd Corporations
for Addresses, or hawking them about the country to be signed by a few
dependant tenants, the real and effectual mode would be to come at once
to the point, and to ascertain the sense of the nation by electing a
National Convention. By this method, as already observed, the general
WILL, whether to reform or not, or what the reform shall be, or how
far it shall extend, will be known, and it cannot be known by any other
means. Such a body, empowered and supported by the nation, will have
authority to demand information upon all matters necessary to be
en-quired into; and no Minister, nor any person, will dare to refuse it.
It will then be seen whether seventeen millions of taxes are necessary,
and for what purposes they are expended. The concealed Pensioners will
then be obliged to unmask; and the source of influence and corruption,
if any such there be, will be laid open to the nation, not for the
purpose of revenge, but of redress.
By taking this public and national ground, all objections against
partial Addresses on the one side, or private associations on the other,
will be done away; THE NATION WILL DECLARE ITS OWN REFORMS; and the
clamour about Party and Faction, or Ins or Outs, will become ridiculous.
The plan and organization of a convention is easy in practice.
In the first place, the number of inhabitants in every county can be
sufficiently ascertained from the number of houses assessed to the
House and Window-light tax in each county. This will give the rule
for apportioning the number of Members to be elected to the National
Convention in each of the counties.
If the total number of inhabitants in England be seven millions, and the
total number of Members to be elected to the Convention be one thousand,
the number of members to be elected in a county containing one hundred
and fifty thousand inhabitants will be _twenty-one_, and in like
proportion for any other county.
As the election of a Convention must, in order to ascertain the general
sense of the nation, go on grounds different from that of Parliamentary
elections, the mode that best promises this end will have no
difficulties to combat with from absurd customs and pretended rights.
The right of every man will be the same, whether he lives in a city,
a town, or a village. The custom of attaching Rights to _place_, or
in other words, to inanimate matter, instead of to the _person_,
independently of place, is too absurd to make any part of a rational
argument.
As every man in the nation, of the age of twenty-one years, pays taxes,
either out of the property he possesses, or out of the product of his
labor, which is property to him; and is amenable in his own person to
every law of the land; so has every one the same equal right to vote,
and no one part of the nation, nor any individual, has a right to
dispute the right of another. The man who should do this ought to
forfeit the exercise of his _own_ right, for a term of years. This would
render the punishment consistent with the crime.
When a qualification to vote is regulated by years, it is placed on the
firmest possible ground; because the qualification is such, as nothing
but dying before the time can take away; and the equality of Rights, as
a principle, is recognized in the act of regulating the exercise. But
when Rights are placed upon, or made dependant upon property, they are
on the most precarious of all tenures. "Riches make themselves wings,
and fly away," and the rights fly with them; and thus they become lost
to the man when they would be of most value.
It is from a strange mixture of tyranny and cowardice, that exclusions
have been set up and continued. The boldness to do wrong at first,
changes afterwards into cowardly craft, and at last into fear. The
Representatives in England appear now to act as if they were afraid to
do right, even in part, lest it should awaken the nation to a sense of
all the wrongs it has endured. This case serves to shew, that the same
conduct that best constitutes the safety of an individual, namely,
a strict adherence to principle, constitutes also the safety of a
Government, and that without it safety is but an empty name. When the
rich plunder the poor of his rights, it becomes an example to the poor
to plunder the rich of his property; for the rights of the one are
as much property to him, as wealth is property to the other, and the
_little all_ is as dear as the _much_. It is only by setting out on just
principles that men are trained to be just to each other; and it will
always be found, that when the rich protect the rights of the poor, the
poor will protect the property of the rich. But the guarantee, to be
effectual, must be parliamentarily reciprocal.
Exclusions are not only unjust, but they frequently operate as
injuriously to the party who monopolizes, as to those who are excluded.
When men seek to exclude others from participating in the exercise of
any right, they should, at least, be assured, that they can effectually
perform the whole of the business they undertake; for, unless they do
this, themselves will be losers by the monopoly. This has been the case
with respect to the monopolized right of Election. The monopolizing
party has not been able to keep the Parliamentary Representation, to
whom the power of taxation was entrusted, in the state it ought to have
been, and have thereby multiplied taxes upon themselves equally with
those who were excluded.
A great deal has been, and will continue to be said, about
disqualifications, arising from the commission of offences; but were
this subject urged to its full extent, it would disqualify a great
number of the present Electors, together with their Representatives;
for, of all offences, none are more destructive to the morals of Society
than Bribery and Corruption. It is, therefore, civility to such persons
to pass this subject over, and to give them a fair opportunity of
recovering, or rather of creating character.
Every thing, in the present mode of electioneering in England, is the
reverse of what it ought to be, and the vulgarity that attends elections
is no other than the natural consequence of inverting the order of the
system.
In the first place, the Candidate seeks the Elector, instead of the
Elector seeking for a Representative; and the Electors are advertised as
being in the interest of the Candidate, instead of the Candidate being
in the interest of the Electors. The Candidate pays the Elector for his
vote, instead of the Nation paying the Representative for his time and
attendance on public business. The complaint for an undue election is
brought by the Candidate, as if he, and not the Electors, were the party
aggrieved; and he takes on himself, at any period of the election, to
break it up, by declining, as if the election was in his right and not
in theirs.
The compact that was entered into at the last Westminster election
between two of the candidates (Mr. Fox and Lord Hood,) was an indecent
violation of the principles of election. The Candidates assumed, in
their own persons, the rights of the Electors; for, it was only in the
body of the Electors, and not at all in the Candidates, that the
right of making any such compact, or compromise, could exist. But the
principle of Election and Representation is so completely done away,
in every stage thereof, that inconsistency has no longer the power of
surprising.
Neither from elections thus conducted, nor from rotten Borough
Addressers, nor from County-meetings, promoted by Placemen and
Pensioners, can the sense of the nation be known. It is still corruption
appealing to itself. But a Convention of a thousand persons, fairly
elected, would bring every matter to a decided issue.
As to County-meetings, it is only persons of leisure, or those who live
near to the place of meeting, that can attend, and the number on such
occasions is but like a drop in the bucket compared with the whole. The
only consistent service which such meetings could render, would be that
of apportioning the county into convenient districts, and when this is
done, each district might, according to its number of inhabitants, elect
its quota of County Members to the National Convention; and the vote of
each Elector might be taken in the parish where he resided, either by
ballot or by voice, as he should chuse to give it.
A National Convention thus formed, would bring together the sense and
opinions of every part of the nation, fairly taken. The science of
Government, and the interest of the Public, and of the several parts
thereof, would then undergo an ample and rational discussion, freed from
the language of parliamentary disguise.
But in all deliberations of this kind, though men have a right to
reason with, and endeavour to convince each other, upon any matter that
respects their common good, yet, in point of practice, the majority of
opinions, when known, forms a rule for the whole, and to this rule every
good citizen practically conforms.
Mr. Burke, as if he knew, (for every concealed Pensioner has the
opportunity of knowing,) that the abuses acted under the present system,
are too flagrant to be palliated, and that the majority of opinions,
whenever such abuses should be made public, would be for a general and
effectual reform, has endeavoured to preclude the event, by sturdily
denying the right of a majority of a nation to act as a whole. Let us
bestow a thought upon this case.
When any matter is proposed as a subject for consultation, it
necessarily implies some mode of decision. Common consent, arising from
absolute necessity, has placed this in a majority of opinions; because,
without it, there can be no decision, and consequently no order. It is,
perhaps, the only case in which mankind, however various in their ideas
upon other matters, can consistently be unanimous; because it is a mode
of decision derived from the primary original right of every individual
concerned; _that_ right being first individually exercised in giving an
opinion, and whether that opinion shall arrange with the minority or the
majority, is a subsequent accidental thing that neither increases nor
diminishes the individual original right itself. Prior to any debate,
enquiry, or investigation, it is not supposed to be known on which side
the majority of opinions will fall, and therefore, whilst this mode of
decision secures to every one the right of giving an opinion, it admits
to every one an equal chance in the ultimate event.
Among the matters that will present themselves to the consideration of
a national convention, there is one, wholly of a domestic nature, but so
marvellously loaded with con-fusion, as to appear at first sight, almost
impossible to be reformed. I mean the condition of what is called Law.
But, if we examine into the cause from whence this confusion, now so
much the subject of universal complaint, is produced, not only the
remedy will immediately present itself, but, with it, the means of
preventing the like case hereafter.
In the first place, the confusion has generated itself from the
absurdity of every Parliament assuming to be eternal in power, and
the laws partake in a similar manner, of this assumption. They have no
period of legal or natural expiration; and, however absurd in principle,
or inconsistent in practice many of them have become, they still are,
if not especially repealed, considered as making a part of the general
mass. By this means the body of what is called Law, is spread over a
space of _several hundred years_, comprehending laws obsolete, laws
repugnant, laws ridiculous, and every other kind of laws forgotten
or remembered; and what renders the case still worse, is, that the
confusion multiplies with the progress of time. (*)
To bring this misshapen monster into form, and to prevent its lapsing
again into a wilderness state, only two things, and those very simple,
are necessary.
The first is, to review the whole mass of laws, and to bring forward
such only as are worth retaining, and let all the rest drop; and to give
to the laws so brought forward a new era, commencing from the time of
such reform.
* In the time of Henry IV. a law was passed making it felony
"to multiply gold or silver, or to make use of the craft of
multiplication," and this law remained two hundred and
eighty-six years upon the statute books. It was then
repealed as being ridiculous and injurious.--_Author_.
Secondly; that at the expiration of every twenty-one years (or any other
stated period) a like review shall again be taken, and the laws, found
proper to be retained, be again carried forward, commencing with that
date, and the useless laws dropped and discontinued.
By this means there can be no obsolete laws, and scarcely such a thing
as laws standing in direct or equivocal contradiction to each other, and
every person will know the period of time to which he is to look back
for all the laws in being.
It is worth remarking, that while every other branch of science is
brought within some commodious system, and the study of it simplified by
easy methods, the laws take the contrary course, and become every year
more complicated, entangled, confused, and obscure.
Among the paragraphs which the Attorney General has taken from the
_Rights of Man_, and put into his information, one is, that where I
have said, "that with respect to regular law, there is _scarcely such a
thing_."
As I do not know whether the Attorney-General means to show this
expression to be libellous, because it is TRUE, or because it is FALSE,
I shall make no other reply to him in this place, than by remarking,
that if almanack-makers had not been more judicious than law-makers,
the study of almanacks would by this time have become as abstruse as the
study of the law, and we should hear of a library of almanacks as we
now do of statutes; but by the simple operation of letting the obsolete
matter drop, and carrying forward that only which is proper to be
retained, all that is necessary to be known is found within the space of
a year, and laws also admit of being kept within some given period.
I shall here close this letter, so far as it respects the Addresses, the
Proclamation, and the Prosecution; and shall offer a few observations to
the Society, styling itself "The Friends of the People."
That the science of government is beginning to be better understood than
in former times, and that the age of fiction and political superstition,
and of craft and mystery, is passing away, are matters which the
experience of every day-proves to be true, as well in England as in
other countries.
As therefore it is impossible to calculate the silent progress of
opinion, and also impossible to govern a nation after it has changed
its habits of thinking, by the craft or policy that it was governed
by before, the only true method to prevent popular discontents and
commotions is, to throw, by every fair and rational argument, all the
light upon the subject that can possibly be thrown; and at the same
time, to open the means of collecting the general sense of the nation;
and this cannot, as already observed, be done by any plan so effectually
as a national convention. Here individual opinion will quiet itself by
having a centre to rest upon.
The society already mentioned, (which is made up of men of various
descriptions, but chiefly of those called Foxites,) appears to me,
either to have taken wrong grounds from want of judgment, or to have
acted with cunning reserve. It is now amusing the people with a
new phrase, namely, that of "a temperate and moderate reform," the
interpretation of which is, _a continuance of the abuses as long as
possible, If we cannot hold all let us hold some_.
Who are those that are frightened at reforms? Are the public afraid that
their taxes should be lessened too much? Are they afraid that sinecure
places and pensions should be abolished too fast? Are the poor afraid
that their condition should be rendered too comfortable? Is the worn-out
mechanic, or the aged and decayed tradesman, frightened at the prospect
of receiving ten pounds a year out of the surplus taxes? Is the soldier
frightened at the thoughts of his discharge, and three shillings per
week during life? Is the sailor afraid that press-warrants will be
abolished? The Society mistakes the fears of borough-mongers, placemen,
and pensioners, for the fears of the people; and the _temperate and
moderate Reform_ it talks of, is calculated to suit the condition of the
former.
Those words, "temperate and moderate," are words either of political
cowardice, or of cunning, or seduction.--A thing, moderately good, is
not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper, is always a virtue;
but moderation in principle, is a species of vice. But who is to be the
judge of what is a temperate and moderate Reform? The Society is the
representative of nobody; neither can the unrepresented part of the
nation commit this power to those in Parliament, in whose election they
had no choice; and, therefore, even upon the ground the Society has
taken, recourse must be had to a National Convention.
The objection which Mr. Fox made to Mr. Grey's proposed Motion for a
Parliamentary Reform was, that it contained no plan.--It certainly did
not. But the plan very easily presents itself; and whilst it is fair
for all parties, it prevents the dangers that might otherwise arise from
private or popular discontent.
Thomas Paine.
Editorial Note on Burke's Alleged Secret Pension.--By
reference to Vol. II., pp. 271, 360, of this work, it will
be seen that Paine mentions a report that Burke was a
"pensioner in a fictitious name." A letter of John Hall to a
relative in Leicester, (London, May 1,1792.) says: "You will
remember that there was a vote carried, about the conclusion
of the American war, that the influence of the Crown had
increased, was increasing, and should be diminished. Burke,
poor, and like a good angler, baited a hook with a bill to
bring into Parliament, that no pensions should be given
above £300 a year, but what should be publicly granted, and
for what, (I may not be quite particular.) To stop that he
took in another person's name £1500 a year for life, and
some time past he disposed of it, or sold his life out. He
has been very still since his declension from the Whigs, and
is not concerned in the slave-trade [question?] as I hear
of." This letter, now in possession of Hall's kinsman, Dr.
Dutton Steele of Philadelphia, contains an item not in
Paine's account, which may have been derived from it. Hall
was an English scientific engineer, and acquainted with
intelligent men in London. Paine was rather eager for a
judicial encounter with Burke, and probably expected to be
sued by him for libel, as he (Burke) had once sued the
"Public Advertiser" for a personal accusation. But Burke
remained quiet under this charge, and Paine, outlawed, and
in France, had no opportunity for summoning witnesses in its
support. The biographers of Burke have silently passed over
the accusation, and this might be fair enough were this
unconfirmed charge made against a public man of stainless
reputation in such matters. But though Burke escaped
parliamentary censure for official corruption (May 16, 1783,
by only 24 majority) he has never been vindicated. It was
admitted that he had restored to office a cashier and an
accountant dismissed for dishonesty by his predecessor.
("Pari. Hist.," xxiii., pp. 801,902.) He escaped censure by
agreeing to suspend them. One was proved guilty, the
other committed suicide. It was subsequently shown that one
of the men had been an agent of the Burkes in raising India
stock. (Dilke's "Papers of a Critic," ii-, p. 333--"Dict.
Nat Biography": art Burke.) Paine, in his letter to the
Attorney-General (IV. of this volume), charged that Burke
had been a "masked pensioner" ten years. The date
corresponds with a secret arrangement made in 1782 with
Burke for a virtual pension to his son, for life, and his
mother. Under date April 34 of that year, Burke, writing to
William Burke at Madras, reports his appointment as
Paymaster: "The office is to be 4000L. certain. Young
Richard [his son] is the deputy with a salary of 500L. The
office to be reformed according to the Bill. There is enough
emoluments. In decency it could not be more. Something
considerable is also to be secured for the life of young
Richard to be a security for him and his mother."("Mem. and
Cor. of Charles James Fox," i., p. 451.) It is thus certain
that the Rockingham Ministry were doing for the Paymaster
all they could "in decency," and that while posing as a
reformer in reducing the expenses of that office, he was
arranging for secret advantages to his family. It is said
that the arrangement failed by his loss of office, but while
so many of Burke's papers are withheld from the public (if
not destroyed), it cannot be certain that something was not
done of the kind charged by Paine. That Burke was not strict
in such matters is further shown by his efforts to secure
for his son the rich sinecure of the Clerkship of the Polls,
in which he failed. Burke was again Paymaster in 1783-4, and
this time remained long enough in office to repeat more
successfully his secret attempts to secure irregular
pensions for his family. On April 7, 1894, Messrs. Sotheby,
Wilkinson, and Hodge sold in London (Lot 404) a letter of
Burke (which I have not seen in print), dated July 16, 1795.
It was written to the Chairman of the Commission on Public
Accounts, who had required him to render his accounts for
the time he was in office as Paymaster-General, 1783-4.
Burke refuses to do so in four angry and quibbling pages,
and declares he will appeal to his country against the
demand if it is pressed. Why should Burke wish to conceal
his accounts? There certainly were suspicions around Burke,
and they may have caused Pitt to renounce his intention,
conveyed to Burke, August 30, 1794, of asking Parliament to
bestow on him a pension. "It is not exactly known," says one
of Burke's editors, "what induced Mr. Pitt to decline
bringing before Parliament a measure which he had himself
proposed without any solicitation whatever on the part of
Burke." (Burke's "Works," English Ed., 1852, ii., p. 252.)
The pensions were given without consultation with
Parliament--1200L. granted him by the King from the Civil
List, and 2500L. by Pitt in West Indian 41/2 per cents.
Burke, on taking his seat beside Pitt in the great Paine
Parliament (December, 1792), had protested that he had not
abandoned his party through expectation of a pension, but
the general belief of those with whom he had formerly acted
was that he had been promised a pension. A couplet of the
time ran:
"A pension makes him change his plan,
And loudly damn the rights of man."
Writing in 1819, Cobbett says: "As my Lord Grenville
introduced the name of Burke, suffer me, my Lord, to
introduce the name of the man [Paine] who put this Burke to
shame, who drove him off the public stage to seek shelter in
the Pension List, and who is now named fifty million times
where the name of the pensioned Burke is mentioned once."--
_Editor._
X. ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF FRANCE.
Paris, Sept. 25, [1792.] First Year of the Republic.
Fellow Citizens,
I RECEIVE, with affectionate gratitude, the honour which the late
National Assembly has conferred upon me, by adopting me a Citizen of
France: and the additional honor of being elected by my fellow citizens
a Member of the National Convention.(1) Happily impressed, as I am, by
those testimonies of respect shown towards me as an individual, I feel
my felicity increased by seeing the barrier broken down that divided
patriotism by spots of earth, and limited citizenship to the soil, like
vegetation.
Had those honours been conferred in an hour of national tranquillity,
they would have afforded no other means of shewing my affection, than
to have accepted and enjoyed them; but they come accompanied with
circumstances that give me the honourable opportunity of commencing
my citizenship in the stormy hour of difficulties. I come not to enjoy
repose. Convinced that the cause of France is the cause of all mankind,
and that liberty cannot be purchased by a wish, I gladly share with you
the dangers and honours necessary to success.
1 The National Assembly (August 26, 1792) conferred the
title of "French Citizen" on "Priestley, Payne, Bentham,
Wilberforce, Clarkson, Mackintosh, Campe, Cormelle, Paw,
David Williams, Gorani, Anacharsis Clootz, Pestalozzi,
Washington, Hamilton, Madison, Klopstoc, Kosciusko,
Gilleers."--_Editor._. vol ni--7
I am well aware that the moment of any great change, such as that
accomplished on the 10th of August, is unavoidably the moment of
terror and confusion. The mind, highly agitated by hope, suspicion and
apprehension, continues without rest till the change be accomplished.
But let us now look calmly and confidently forward, and success is
certain. It is no longer the paltry cause of kings, or of this, or of
that individual, that calls France and her armies into action. It is the
great cause of all. It is the establishment of a new aera, that shall
blot despotism from the earth, and fix, on the lasting principles of
peace and citizenship, the great Republic of Man.
It has been my fate to have borne a share in the commencement and
complete establishment of one Revolution, (I mean the Revolution of
America.) The success and events of that Revolution are encouraging to
us. The prosperity and happiness that have since flowed to that country,
have amply rewarded her for all the hardships she endured and for all
the dangers she encountered.
The principles on which that Revolution began, have extended themselves
to Europe; and an over-ruling Providence is regenerating the Old World
by the principles of the New. The distance of America from all the
other parts of the globe, did not admit of her carrying those principles
beyond her own situation. It is to the peculiar honour of France, that
she now raises the standard of liberty for all nations; and in fighting
her own battles, contends for the rights of all mankind.
The same spirit of fortitude that insured success to America; will
insure it to France, for it is impossible to conquer a nation determined
to be free! The military circumstances that now unite themselves to
France, are such as the despots of the earth know nothing of, and can
form no calculation upon. They know not what it is to fight against a
nation; they have only been accustomed to make war upon each other,
and they know, from system and practice, how to calculate the probable
success of despot against despot; and here their knowledge and their
experience end.
But in a contest like the present a new and boundless variety of
circumstances arise, that deranges all such customary calculations. When
a whole nation acts as an army, the despot knows not the extent of the
power against which he contends. New armies arise against him with the
necessity of the moment. It is then that the difficulties of an invading
enemy multiply, as in the former case they diminished; and he finds them
at their height when he expected them to end.
The only war that has any similarity of circumstances with the present,
is the late revolution war in America. On her part, as it now is in
France, it was a war of the whole nation:--there it was that the enemy,
by beginning to conquer, put himself in a condition of being conquered.
His first victories prepared him for defeat. He advanced till he could
not retreat, and found himself in the midst of a nation of armies.
Were it now to be proposed to the Austrians and Prussians, to escort
them into the middle of France, and there leave them to make the most
of such a situation, they would see too much into the dangers of it to
accept the offer, and the same dangers would attend them, could they
arrive there by any other means. Where, then, is the military policy of
their attempting to obtain, by force, that which they would refuse by
choice? But to reason with despots is throwing reason away. The best of
arguments is a vigorous preparation.
Man is ever a stranger to the ways by which Providence regulates the
order of things. The interference of foreign despots may serve to
introduce into their own enslaved countries the principles they come
to oppose. Liberty and Equality are blessings too great to be the
inheritance of France alone. It is an honour to her to be their first
champion; and she may now say to her enemies, with a mighty voice, "O!
ye Austrians, ye Prussians! ye who now turn your bayonets against us,
it is for you, it is for all Europe, it is for all mankind, and not for
France alone, that she raises the standard of Liberty and Equality!"
The public cause has hitherto suffered from the contradictions contained
in the Constitution of the Constituent Assembly. Those contradictions
have served to divide the opinions of individuals at home, and to
obscure the great principles of the Revolution in other countries. But
when those contradictions shall be removed, and the Constitution be
made conformable to the declaration of Rights; when the bagatelles of
monarchy, royalty, regency, and hereditary succession, shall be exposed,
with all their absurdities, a new ray of light will be thrown over the
world, and the Revolution will derive new strength by being universally
understood.
The scene that now opens itself to France extends far beyond the
boundaries of her own dominions. Every nation is becoming her colleague,
and every court is become her enemy. It is now the cause of all nations,
against the cause of all courts. The terror that despotism felt,
clandestinely begot a confederation of despots; and their attack upon
France was produced by their fears at home.
In entering on this great scene, greater than any nation has yet been
called to act in, let us say to the agitated mind, be calm. Let us
punish by instructing, rather than by revenge. Let us begin the new
ara by a greatness of friendship, and hail the approach of union and
success.
Your Fellow-Citizen,
Thomas Paine.
XI. ANTI-MONARCHAL ESSAY. FOR THE USE OF NEW REPUBLICANS.(1)
When we reach some great good, long desired, we begin by felicitating
ourselves. We triumph, we give ourselves up to this joy without
rendering to our minds any full account of our reasons for it. Then
comes reflexion: we pass in review all the circumstances of our new
happiness; we compare it in detail with our former condition; and
each of these thoughts becomes a fresh enjoyment. This satisfaction,
elucidated and well-considered, we now desire to procure for our
readers.
In seeing Royalty abolished and the Republic established, all France
has resounded with unanimous plaudits.(2) Yet, Citizen President: In the
name of the Deputies of the Department of the Pas de Calais, I have the
honor of presenting to the Convention the felicitations of the General
Council of the Commune of Calais on the abolition of Royalty.
1 Translated for this work from Le Patriote François,
"Samedi 20 Octobre, 1793, l'an Ier de la République.
Supplement au No. 1167," in the Bibliothèque Nationale,
Paris. It is headed, "Essai anti-monarchique, à l'usage des
nouveaux républicains, tiré de la Feuille Villageoise." I
have not found this Feuille, but no doubt Brissot, in
editing the essay for his journal (Le Patriote François)
abridged it, and in one instance Paine is mentioned by name.
Although in this essay Paine occasionally repeats sentences
used elsewhere, and naturally maintains his well-known
principles, the work has a peculiar interest as indicating
the temper and visions of the opening revolution.--_Editor._
2 Royalty was abolished by the National Convention on the
first day of its meeting, September 21, 1792, the
revolutionary Calendar beginning next day. Paine was chosen
by his fellow-deputies of Calais to congratulate the
Convention, and did so in a brief address, dated October 27,
which was loaned by M. Charavay to the Historical Exposition
of the Revolution at Paris, 1889, where I made the subjoined
translation: "folly of oar ancestor», who have placed us
under the necessity of treating gravely (solennellement) the
abolition of a phantom (fantôme).--Thomas Paine, Deputy."--
_Editor._
Amid the joy inspired by this event, one cannot forbear some pain
at the some who clap their hands do not sufficiently understand the
condition they are leaving or that which they are assuming.
The perjuries of Louis, the conspiracies of his court, the wildness of
his worthy brothers, have filled every Frenchman with horror, and this
race was dethroned in their hearts before its fall by legal decree. But
it is little to throw down an idol; it is the pedestal that above all
must be broken down; it is the regal office rather than the incumbent
that is murderous. All do not realize this.
Why is Royalty an absurd and detestable government? Why is the Republic
a government accordant with nature and reason? At the present time a
Frenchman should put himself in a position to answer these two questions
clearly. For, in fine, if you are free and contented it is yet needful
that you should know why.
Let us first discuss Royalty or Monarchy. Although one often wishes to
distinguish between these names, common usage gives them the same sense.
ROYALTY.
Bands of brigands unite to subvert a country, place it under tribute,
seize its lands, enslave its inhabitants. The expedition completed, the
chieftain of the robbers adopts the title of monarch or king. Such
is the origin of Royalty among all tribes--huntsmen, agriculturists,
shepherds.
A second brigand arrives who finds it equitable to take away by force
what was conquered by violence: he dispossesses the first; he chains
him, kills him, reigns in his place. Ere long time effaces the memory
of this origin; the successors rule under a new form; they do a little
good, from policy; they corrupt all who surround them; they invent
fictitious genealogies to make their families sacred (1); the knavery
of priests comes to their aid; they take Religion for a life-guard:
thenceforth tyranny becomes immortal, the usurped power becomes an
hereditary right.
1 The Boston Investigator's compilation of Paine's Works
contains the following as supposed to be Mr. Paine's:
"Royal Pedigree.--George the Third, who was the grandson of
George the Second, who was the son of George the First, who
was the son of the Princess Sophia, who was the cousin of
Anne, who was the sister of William and Mary, who were the
daughter and son-in-law of James the Second, who was the son
of Charles the First, who was a traitor to his country and
decapitated as such, who was the son of James the First, who
was the son of Mary, who was the sister of Edward the Sixth,
who was the son of Henry the Eighth, who was the coldblooded
murderer of his wives, and the promoter of the Protestant
religion, who was the son of Henry the Seventh, who slew
Richard the Third, who smothered his nephew Edward the
Fifth, who was the son of Edward the Fourth, who with bloody
Richard slew Henry the Sixth, who succeeded Henry the Fifth,
who was the son of Henry the Fourth, who was the cousin of
Richard the Second, who was the son of Edward the Third, who
was the son of Richard the Second, who was the son of Edward
the First, who was the son of Henry the Third, who was the
son of John, who was the brother of Richard the First, who
was the son of Henry the Second, who was the son of Matilda,
who was the daughter of Henry the First, who was the brother
of William Rufus, who was the son of William the Conqueror,
who was the son of a whore."--_Editor._
The effects of Royalty have been entirely harmonious with its origin.
What scenes of horror, what refinements of iniquity, do the annals of
monarchies present! If we should paint human nature with a baseness of
heart, an hypocrisy, from which all must recoil and humanity disavow, it
would be the portraiture of kings, their ministers and courtiers.
And why should it not be so? What should such a monstrosity produce
but miseries and crimes? What is monarchy? It has been finely disguised,
and the people familiarized with the odious title: in its real sense the
word signifies _the absolute power of one single individual_, who may
with impunity be stupid, treacherous, tyrannical, etc. Is it not an
insult to nations to wish them so governed?
Government by a single individual is vicious in itself, independently of
the individual's vices. For however little a State, the prince is
nearly always too small: where is the proportion between one man and the
affairs of a whole nation?
True, some men of genius have been seen under the diadem; but the evil
is then even greater: the ambition of such a man impels him to conquest
and despotism, his subjects soon have to lament his glory, and sing
their _Te-deums_ while perishing with hunger. Such is the history of
Louis XIV. and so many others.
But if ordinary men in power repay you with incapacity or with princely
vices? But those who come to the front in monarchies are frequently
mere mean mischief-makers, commonplace knaves, petty intriguers, whose
small wits, which in courts reach large places, serve only to display
their ineptitude in public, as soon as they appear. (*) In short,
monarchs do nothing, and their ministers do evil: this is the history of
all monarchies.
But if Royalty as such is baneful, as hereditary succession it is
equally revolting and ridiculous. What! there exists among my kind a man
who pretends that he is born to govern me? Whence derived he such right?
From his and my ancestors, says he. But how could they transmit to him
a right they did not possess? Man has no authority over generations
unborn. I cannot be the slave of the dead, more than of the living.
Suppose that instead of our posterity, it was we who should succeed
ourselves: we should not to-day be able to despoil ourselves of the
rights which would belong to us in our second life: for a stronger
reason we cannot so despoil others.
An hereditary crown! A transmissible throne! What a notion! With even a
little reflexion, can any one tolerate it? Should human beings then be
the property of certain individuals, born or to be born? Are we then to
treat our descendants in advance as cattle, who shall have neither will
nor rights of their own? To inherit government is to inherit peoples,
as if they were herds. It is the basest, the most shameful fantasy that
ever degraded mankind.
It is wrong to reproach kings with their ferocity, their brutal
indifference, the oppressions of the people, and molestations of
citizens: it is hereditary succession that makes them what they are:
this breeds monsters as a marsh breeds vipers.
* J. J. Rousseau, Contrat Social.--Author.
The logic on which the hereditary prince rests is in effect this: I
derive my power from my birth; I derive my birth from God; therefore
I owe nothing to men. It is little that he has at hand a complacent
minister, he continues to indulge, conscientiously, in all the crimes of
tyranny. This has been seen in all times and countries.
Tell me, then, what is there in common between him who is master of a
people, and the people of whom he is master? Are these masters really of
their kind? It is by sympathy that we are good and human: with whom does
a monarch sympathize? When my neighbor suffers I pity, because I put
myself in his place: a monarch pities none, because he has never been,
can never be, in any other place than his own.
A monarch is an egoist by nature, the _egoist par excellence_. A
thousand traits show that this kind of men have no point of contact with
the rest of humanity. There was demanded of Charles II. the punishment
of Lauderdale, his favorite, who had infamously oppressed the Scotch.
"Yes," said Charles coolly, "this man has done much against the Scotch,
but I cannot see that he has done anything against my interests." Louis
XIV. often said: "If I follow the wishes of the people, I cannot act the
king." Even such phrases as "misfortunes of the State," "safety of the
State," filled Louis XIV. with wrath.
Could nature make a law which should assure virtue and wisdom invariably
in these privileged castes that perpetuate themselves on thrones, there
would be no objection to their hereditary succession. But let us pass
Europe in review: all of its monarchs are the meanest of men. This one
a tyrant, that one an imbecile, another a traitor, the next a debauchee,
while some muster all the vices. It looks as if fate and nature had
aimed to show our epoch, and all nations, the absurdity and enormity of
Royalty.
But I mistake: this epoch has nothing peculiar. For, such is the
essential vice of this royal succession by animal filiation, the peoples
have not even the chances of nature,--they cannot even hope for a good
prince as an alternative. All things conspire to deprive of reason
and justice an individual reared to command others. The word of young
Dionysius was very sensible: his father, reproaching him for a shameful
action, said, "Have I given thee such example?" "Ah," answered the
youth, "thy father was not a king!"
In truth, were laughter on such a subject permissible, nothing would
suggest ideas more burlesque than this fantastic institution of
hereditary kings. Would it not be believed, to look at them, that there
really exist particular lineages possessing certain qualities which
enter the blood of the embryo prince, and adapt him physically
for royalty, as a horse for the racecourse? But then, in this wild
supposition, it yet becomes necessary to assure the genuine family
descent of the heir presumptive. To perpetuate the noble race of
Andalusian chargers, the circumstances pass before witnesses, and
similar precautions seem necessary, however indecent, to make sure that
the trickeries of queens shall not supply thrones with bastards, and
that the kings, like the horses, shall always be thoroughbreds.
Whether one jests or reasons, there is found in this idea of hereditary
royalty only folly and shame. What then is this office, which may be
filled by infants or idiots? Some talent is required to be a simple
workman; to be a king there is need to have only the human shape, to be
a living automaton. We are astonished when reading that the Egyptians
placed on the throne a flint, and called it their king. We smile at
the dog Barkouf, sent by an Asiatic despot to govern one of his
provinces.(*) But mon-archs of this kind are less mischievous and less
absurd than those before whom whole peoples prostrate themselves. The
flint and the dog at least imposed on nobody. None ascribed to them
qualities or characters they did not possess. They were not styled
'Father of the People,'--though this were hardly more ridiculous than
to give that title to a rattle-head whom inheritance crowns at eighteen.
Better a mute than an animate idol. Why, there can hardly be cited an
instance of a great man having children worthy of him, yet you will have
the royal function pass from father to son! As well declare that a wise
man's son will be wise. A king is an administrator, and an hereditary
administrator is as absurd as an author by birthright.
* See the first year of La Feuille Villageoise, No. 42.--
Author. [Cf. Montaigne's Essays, chap. xii.--_Editor._]
Royalty is thus as contrary to common sense as to com-mon right. But it
would be a plague even if no more than an absurdity; for a people who
can bow down in honor of a silly thing is a debased people. Can they be
fit for great affairs who render equal homage to vice and virtue, and
yield the same submission to ignorance and wisdom? Of all institutions,
none has caused more intellectual degeneracy. This explains the
often-remarked abjectness of character under monarchies.
Such is also the effect of this contagious institution that it renders
equality impossible, and draws in its train the presumption and the
evils of "Nobility." If you admit inheritance of an office, why not that
of a distinction? The Nobility's heritage asks only homage, that of
the Crown commands submission. When a man says to me, 'I am born
illustrious,' I merely smile; when he says 'I am born your master,' I
set my foot on him.
When the Convention pronounced the abolition of Royalty none rose
for the defence that was expected. On this subject a philosopher, who
thought discussion should always precede enactment, proposed a singular
thing; he desired that the Convention should nominate an orator
commissioned to plead before it the cause of Royalty, so that the
pitiful arguments by which it has in all ages been justified might
appear in broad daylight. Judges give one accused, however certain
his guilt, an official defender. In the ancient Senate of Venice there
existed a public officer whose function was to contest all propositions,
however incontestible, or however perfect their evidence. For the rest,
pleaders for Royalty are not rare: let us open them, and see what the
most specious of royalist reasoners have said.
1. _A king is necessary to preserve a people from the tyranny of
powerful men_.
Establish the Rights of Man(1); enthrone Equality; form a good
Constitution; divide well its powers; let there be no privileges, no
distinctions of birth, no monopolies; make safe the liberty of industry
and of trade, the equal distribution of [family] inheritances, publicity
of administration, freedom of the press: these things all established,
you will be assured of good laws, and need not fear the powerful men.
Willingly or unwillingly, all citizens will be under the Law.
1 The reader should bear in mind that this phrase, now used
vaguely, had for Paine and his political school a special
significance; it implied a fundamental Declaration of
individual rights, of supreme force and authority, invasion
which, either by legislatures, law courts, majorities, or
administrators, was to be regarded as the worst treason and
despotism.--_Editor._
2. _The Legislature might usurp authority, and a king is needed to
restrain it_.
With representatives, frequently renewed, who neither administer
nor judge, whose functions are determined by the laws; with national
conventions, with primary assemblies, which can be convoked any moment;
with a people knowing how to read, and how to defend itself; with good
journals, guns, and pikes; a Legislature would have a good deal of
trouble in enjoying any months of tyranny. Let us not suppose an evil
for the sake of its remedy.
3. _A king is needed to give force to executive power_.
This might be said while there existed nobles, a priesthood,
parliaments, the privileged of every kind. But at present who can resist
the Law, which is the will of all, whose execution is the interest of
all? On the contrary the existence of an hereditary prince inspires
perpetual distrust among the friends of liberty; his authority is odious
to them; in checking despotism they constantly obstruct the action of
government. Observe how feeble the executive power was found, after our
recent pretence of marrying Royalty with Liberty.
Take note, for the rest, that those who talk in this way are men who
believe that the King and the Executive Power are only one and the same
thing: readers of _La Feuille Villageoise_ are more advanced.(*)
* See No. 50.--_Author_
Others use this bad reasoning: "Were there no hereditary chief there
would be an elective chief: the citizens would side with this man or
that, and there would be a civil war at every election." In the first
place, it is certain that hereditary succession alone has produced
the civil wars of France and England; and that beyond this are the
pre-tended rights, of royal families which have twenty times drawn on
these nations the scourge of foreign wars. It is, in fine, the heredity
of crowns that has caused the troubles of Regency, which Thomas Paine
calls Monarchy at nurse.
But above all it must be said, that if there be an elective chief, that
chief will not be a king surrounded by courtiers, burdened with pomp,
inflated by idolatries, and endowed with thirty millions of money; also,
that no citizen will be tempted to injure himself by placing another
citizen, his equal, for some years in an office without limited income
and circumscribed power.
In a word, whoever demands a king demands an aristocracy, and thirty
millions of taxes. See why Franklin described Royalism as _a crime like
poisoning_.
Royalty, its fanatical eclat, its superstitious idolatry, the delusive
assumption of its necessity, all these fictions have been invented only
to obtain from men excessive taxes and voluntary servitude. Royalty
and Popery have had the same aim, have sustained themselves by the same
artifices, and crumble under the same Light.
XII. TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, ON THE PROSECUTION AGAINST THE SECOND PART
OF RIGHTS OF MAN.(1)
Paris, 11th of November, 1st Year of the Republic. [1792.]
Mr. Attorney General:
Sir,--As there can be no personal resentment between two strangers, I
write this letter to you, as to a man against whom I have no animosity.
You have, as Attorney General, commenced a prosecution against me, as
the author of Rights of Man. Had not my duty, in consequence of my being
elected a member of the National Convention of France, called me from
England, I should have staid to have contested the injustice of
that prosecution; not upon my own account, for I cared not about the
prosecution, but to have defended the principles I had advanced in the
work.
1 Read to the Jury by the Attorney General, Sir Archibald
Macdonald, at the trial of Paine, December 18, 1792, which
resulted in his outlawry.--_Editor._
The duty I am now engaged in is of too much importance to permit me to
trouble myself about your prosecution: when I have leisure, I shall have
no objection to meet you on that ground; but, as I now stand, whether
you go on with the prosecution, or whether you do not, or whether you
obtain a verdict, or not, is a matter of the most perfect indifference
to me as an individual. If you obtain one, (which you are welcome to
if you can get it,) it cannot affect me either in person, property, or
reputation, otherwise than to increase the latter; and with respect to
yourself, it is as consistent that you obtain a verdict against the Man
in the Moon as against me; neither do I see how you can continue the
prosecution against me as you would have done against one _your own
people, who_ had absented himself because he was prosecuted; what passed
at Dover proves that my departure from England was no secret. (1)
My necessary absence from your country affords the opportunity of
knowing whether the prosecution was intended against Thomas Paine, or
against the Right of the People of England to investigate systems and
principles of government; for as I cannot now be the object of the
prosecution, the going on with the prosecution will shew that something
else was the object, and that something else can be no other than the
People of England, for it is against _their Rights_, and not against
me, that a verdict or sentence can operate, if it can operate at all.
Be then so candid as to tell the Jury, (if you choose to continue the
process,) whom it is you are prosecuting, and on whom it is that the
verdict is to fall.(2)
But I have other reasons than those I have mentioned for writing you
this letter; and, however you may choose to interpret them, they proceed
from a good heart. The time, Sir, is becoming too serious to play
with Court prosecutions, and sport with national rights. The terrible
examples that have taken place here, upon men who, less than a year ago,
thought themselves as secure as any prosecuting Judge, Jury, or Attorney
General, now can in England, ought to have some weight with men in
your situation. That the government of England is as great, if not the
greatest, perfection of fraud and corruption that ever took place since
governments began, is what you cannot be a stranger to, unless the
constant habit of seeing it has blinded your senses; but though you
may not chuse to see it, the people are seeing it very fast, and the
progress is beyond what you may chuse to believe. Is it possible that
you, or I, can believe, or that reason can make any other man believe,
that the capacity of such a man as Mr. Guelph, or any of his profligate
sons, is necessary to the government of a nation? I speak to you as one
man ought to speak to another; and I know also that I speak what other
people are beginning to think.
1 See Chapter VIII. of this volume.--_Editor._
2 In reading the letter in court the Attorney General said
at this point: "Gentlemen, I certainly will comply with
this request. I am prosecuting both him and his work; and
if I succeed in this prosecution, he shall never return to
this country otherwise than _in vintulis_, for I will outlaw
him."--_Editor._
That you cannot obtain a verdict (and if you do, it will signify
nothing) _without packing a Jury_, (and we _both_ know that such tricks
are practised,) is what I have very good reason to believe, I have gone
into coffee-houses, and places where I was unknown, on purpose to learn
the currency of opinion, and I never yet saw any company of twelve men
that condemned the book; but I have often found a greater number than
twelve approving it, and this I think is _a fair way of collecting the
natural currency of opinion_. Do not then, Sir, be the instrument of
drawing twelve men into a situation that may be _injurious_ to them
afterwards. I do not speak this from policy, but from benevolence; but
if you chuse to go on with the process, I make it my request to you that
you will read this letter in Court, after which the Judge and the Jury
may do as they please. As I do not consider myself the object of the
prosecution, neither can I be affected by the issue, one way or the
other, I shall, though a foreigner in your country, subscribe as much
money as any other man towards supporting the right of the nation
against the prosecution; and it is for this purpose only that I shall do
it.(1)
Thomas Paine.
As I have not time to copy letters, you will excuse the corrections.
1 In reading this letter at the trial the Attorney
interspersed comments. At the phrase, "Mr. Guelph and his
profligate sons," he exclaimed: "This passage is
contemptuous, scandalous, false, cruel. Why, gentlemen, is
Mr. Paine, in addition to the political doctrines he is
teaching us in this country, to teach us the morality and
religion of implacability? Is he to teach human creatures,
whose moments of existence depend upon the permission of a
Being, merciful, long-suffering, and of great goodness, that
those youthful errors from which even royalty is not
exempted, are to be treasured up in a vindictive memory, and
are to receive sentence of irremissible sin at His hands....
If giving me pain was his object he has that hellish
gratification." Erskine, Fame's counsel, protested in
advance against the reading of this letter (of which he had
heard), as containing matter likely to divert the Jury from
the subject of prosecution (the book). Lord Kenyon admitted
the letter.--_Editor._
P. S. I intended, had I staid in England, to have published the
information, with my remarks upon it, before the trial came on; but as
I am otherwise engaged, I reserve myself till the trial is over, when I
shall reply fully to every thing you shall advance.
XIII. ON THE PROPRIETY OF BRINGING LOUIS XVI. TO TRIAL.(1)
Read to the Convention, November 21, 1792.
Paris, Nov. 20, 1792.
Citizen President,
As I do not know precisely what day the Convention will resume the
discussion on the trial of Louis XVI., and, on account of my inability
to express myself in French, I cannot speak at the tribune, I request
permission to deposit in your hands the enclosed paper, which contains
my opinion on that subject. I make this demand with so much more
eagerness, because circumstances will prove how much it imports to
France, that Louis XVI. should continue to enjoy good health. I should
be happy if the Convention would have the goodness to hear this paper
read this morning, as I propose sending a copy of it to London, to be
printed in the English journals.(2)
Thomas Paine.
1 This address, which has suffered by alterations in all
editions is here revised and completed by aid of the
official document: "Opinion de Thomas Payne, Depute du
Département de la Somme [error], concernant le jugement de
Louis XVI. Précédé par sa lettre d'envoi au Président de la
Convention. Imprimé par ordre de la Convention Nationale. À
Paris. De l'Imprimerie Nationale." Lamartine has censured
Paine for this speech; but the trial of the King was a
foregone conclusion, and it will be noted that Paine was
already trying to avert popular wrath from the individual
man by directing it against the general league of monarchs,
and the monarchal system. Nor would his plea for the King's
life have been listened to but for this previous address.--
_Editor._
2 Of course no English journal could then venture to print
it.--_Editor._
A Secretary read the opinion of Thomas Paine. I think it necessary
that Louis XVI. should be tried; not that this advice is suggested by
a spirit of vengeance, but because this measure appears to me just,
lawful, and conformable to sound policy. If Louis is innocent, let us
put him to prove his innocence; if he is guilty, let the national will
determine whether he shall be pardoned or punished.
But besides the motives personal to Louis XVI., there are others which
make his trial necessary. I am about to develope these motives, in the
language which I think expresses them, and no other. I forbid myself the
use of equivocal expression or of mere ceremony. There was formed among
the crowned brigands of Europe a conspiracy which threatened not only
French liberty, but likewise that of all nations. Every thing tends
to the belief that Louis XVI. was the partner of this horde of
conspirators. You have this man in your power, and he is at present the
only one of the band of whom you can make sure. I consider Louis XVI. in
the same point of view as the two first robbers taken up in the affair
of the Store Room; their trial led to discovery of the gang to which
they belonged. We have seen the unhappy soldiers of Austria, of Prussia,
and the other powers which declared themselves our enemies, torn from
their fire-sides, and drawn to butchery like wretched animals, to
sustain, at the cost of their blood, the common cause of these crowned
brigands. They loaded the inhabitants of those regions with taxes to
support the expenses of the war. All this was not done solely for Louis
XVI. Some of the conspirators have acted openly: but there is reason
to presume that this conspiracy is composed of two classes of brigands;
those who have taken up arms, and those who have lent to their cause
secret encouragement and clandestine assistance. Now it is indispensable
to let France and the whole world know all these accomplices.
A little time after the National Convention was constituted, the
Minister for Foreign Affairs presented the picture of all the
governments of Europe,--those whose hostilities were public, and those
that acted with a mysterious circumspection. This picture supplied
grounds for just suspicions of the part the latter were disposed to
take, and since then various circumstances have occurred to confirm
those suspicions. We have already penetrated into some part of the
conduct of Mr. Guelph, Elector of Hanover, and strong presumptions
involve the same man, his court and ministers, in quality of king
of England. M. Calonne has constantly been favoured with a friendly
reception at that court.(1) The arrival of Mr. Smith, secretary to Mr.
Pitt, at Coblentz, when the emigrants were assembling there; the recall
of the English ambassador; the extravagant joy manifested by the court
of St. James' at the false report of the defeat of Dumouriez, when
it was communicated by Lord Elgin, then Minister of Great Britain at
Brussels--all these circumstances render him [George III.] extremely
suspicious; the trial of Louis XVI. will probably furnish more decisive
proofs.
The long subsisting fear of a revolution in England, would alone, I
believe, prevent that court from manifesting as much publicity in its
operations as Austria and Prussia. Another reason could be added to
this: the inevitable decrease of credit, by means of which alone all
the old governments could obtain fresh loans, in proportion as the
probability of revolutions increased. Whoever invests in the new loans
of such governments must expect to lose his stock.
Every body knows that the Landgrave of Hesse fights only as far as he is
paid. He has been for many years in the pay of the court of London. If
the trial of Louis XVI. could bring it to light, that this detestable
dealer in human flesh has been paid with the produce of the taxes
imposed on the English people, it would be justice to that nation to
disclose that fact. It would at the same time give to France an exact
knowledge of the character of that court, which has not ceased to be the
most intriguing in Europe, ever since its connexion with Germany.
1 Calonne (1734-1802), made Controller General of the
Treasury in 1783, lavished the public money on the Queen, on
courtiers, and on himself (purchasing St. Cloud and
Rambouillet), borrowing vast sums and deceiving the King as
to the emptiness of the Treasury, the annual deficit having
risen in 1787 to 115 millions of francs. He was then
banished to Lorraine, whence he proceeded to England, where
he married the wealthy widow Haveley. By his agency for the
Coblentz party he lost his fortune. In 1802 Napoleon brought
him back from London to Paris, where he died the same year.
--_Editor._
Louis XVI., considered as an individual, is an object beneath the notice
of the Republic; but when he is looked upon as a part of that band of
conspirators, as an accused man whose trial may lead all nations in
the world to know and detest the disastrous system of monarchy, and the
plots and intrigues of their own courts, he ought to be tried.
If the crimes for which Louis XVI. is arraigned were absolutely personal
to him, without reference to general conspiracies, and confined to the
affairs of France, the plea of inviolability, that folly of the moment,
might have been urged in his behalf with some appearance of reason; but
he is arraigned not only for treasons against France, but for having
conspired against all Europe, and if France is to be just to all Europe
we ought to use every means in our power to discover the whole extent
of that conspiracy. France is now a republic; she has completed her
revolution; but she cannot earn all its advantages so long as she is
surrounded with despotic governments. Their armies and their marine
oblige her also to keep troops and ships in readiness. It is therefore
her immediate interest that all nations shall be as free as herself;
that revolutions shall be universal; and since the trial of Louis XVI.
can serve to prove to the world the flagitiousness of governments in
general, and the necessity of revolutions, she ought not to let slip so
precious an opportunity.
The despots of Europe have formed alliances to preserve their respective
authority, and to perpetuate the oppression of peoples. This is the end
they proposed to themselves in their invasion of French territory. They
dread the effect of the French revolution in the bosom of their own
countries; and in hopes of preventing it, they are come to attempt
the destruction of this revolution before it should attain its perfect
maturity. Their attempt has not been attended with success. France has
already vanquished their armies; but it remains for her to sound the
particulars of the conspiracy, to discover, to expose to the eyes of
the world, those despots who had the infamy to take part in it; and the
world expects from her that act of justice.
These are my motives for demanding that Louis XVI. be judged; and it is
in this sole point of view that his trial appears to me of sufficient
importance to receive the attention of the Republic.
As to "inviolability," I would not have such a word mentioned. If,
seeing in Louis XVI. only a weak and narrow-minded man, badly reared,
like all his kind, given, as it is said, to frequent excesses of
drunkenness--a man whom the National Assembly imprudently raised again
on a throne for which he was not made--he is shown hereafter some
compassion, it shall be the result of the national magnanimity, and not
the burlesque notion of a pretended "inviolability."
Thomas Paine.
XIV. REASONS FOR PRESERVING THE LIFE OF LOUIS CAPET,
As Delivered to the National Convention, January 15, 1703.(1)
Citizen President,
My hatred and abhorrence of monarchy are sufficiently known: they
originate in principles of reason and conviction, nor, except with life,
can they ever be extirpated; but my compassion for the unfortunate,
whether friend or enemy, is equally lively and sincere.
I voted that Louis should be tried, because it was necessary to afford
proofs to the world of the perfidy, corruption, and abomination of the
monarchical system. The infinity of evidence that has been produced
exposes them in the most glaring and hideous colours; thence it results
that monarchy, whatever form it may assume, arbitrary or otherwise,
becomes necessarily a centre round which are united every species of
corruption, and the kingly trade is no less destructive of all morality
in the human breast, than the trade of an executioner is destructive
of its sensibility. I remember, during my residence in another country,
that I was exceedingly struck with a sentence of M. Autheine, at the
Jacobins [Club], which corresponds exactly with my own idea,--"Make me a
king to-day," said he, "and I shall be a robber to-morrow."
1 Printed in Paris (Hartley, Adlard & Son) and published in
London with the addition of D. I. Eaton's name, in 1796.
While Paine was in prison, he was accused in England and
America of having helped to bring Louis XVI. to the
scaffold. The English pamphlet has a brief preface in which
it is presented "as a burnt offering to Truth, in behalf of
the most zealous friend and advocate of the Rights of Man;
to protect him against the barbarous shafts of scandal and
delusion, and as a reply to all the horrors which despots of
every description have, with such unrelenting malice,
attempted to fix on his conduct. But truth in the end must
triumph: cease then such calumnies: all your efforts are
in vain --you bite a file."--_Editor._
Nevertheless, I am inclined to believe that if Louis Capet had been born
in obscure condition, had he lived within the circle of an amiable and
respectable neighbourhood, at liberty to practice the duties of domestic
life, had he been thus situated, I cannot believe that he would have
shewn himself destitute of social virtues: we are, in a moment of
fermentation like this, naturally little indulgent to his vices, or
rather to those of his government; we regard them with additional
horror and indignation; not that they are more heinous than those of
his predecessors, but because our eyes are now open, and the veil of
delusion at length withdrawn; yet the lamentable, degraded state to
which he is actually reduced, is surely far less imputable to him
than to the Constituent Assembly, which, of its own authority, without
consent or advice of the people, restored him to the throne.
I was in Paris at the time of the flight, or abdication of Louis XVI.,
and when he was taken and brought back. The proposal of restoring him to
supreme power struck me with amazement; and although at that time I was
not a French citizen, yet as a citizen of the world I employed all the
efforts that depended on me to prevent it.
A small society, composed only of five persons, two of whom are
now members of the Convention,(1) took at that time the name of the
Republican Club (Société Républicaine). This society opposed the
restoration of Louis, not so much on account of his personal offences,
as in order to overthrow the monarchy, and to erect on its ruins the
republican system and an equal representation.
With this design, I traced out in the English language certain
propositions, which were translated with some trifling alterations, and
signed by Achille Duchâtelet, now Lieutenant-General in the army of the
French republic, and at that time one of the five members which composed
our little party: the law requiring the signature of a citizen at the
bottom of each printed paper.
1 Condorect and Paine; the other members were Achille
Duchitelet, and probably Nicolas de Bonneville and
Lanthenas,--translator of Paine's "Works."--_Editor._
The paper was indignantly torn by Malouet; and brought forth in this
very room as an article of accusation against the person who had signed
it, the author and their adherents; but such is the revolution of
events, that this paper is now received and brought forth for a very
opposite purpose--to remind the nation of the errors of that unfortunate
day, that fatal error of not having then banished Louis XVI. from its
bosom, and to plead this day in favour of his exile, preferable to his
death.
The paper in question, was conceived in the following terms:
[The address constitutes the first chapter of the present volume.]
Having thus explained the principles and the exertions of the
republicans at that fatal period, when Louis was rein-stated in
full possession of the executive power which by his flight had been
suspended, I return to the subject, and to the deplorable situation in
which the man is now actually involved.
What was neglected at the time of which I have been speaking, has been
since brought about by the force of necessity. The wilful, treacherous
defects in the former constitution have been brought to light; the
continual alarm of treason and conspiracy aroused the nation, and
produced eventually a second revolution. The people have beat down
royalty, never, never to rise again; they have brought Louis Capet to
the bar, and demonstrated in the face of the whole world, the intrigues,
the cabals, the falsehood, corruption, and rooted depravity, the
inevitable effects of monarchical government. There remains then only
one question to be considered, what is to be done with this man?
For myself I seriously confess, that when I reflect on the unaccountable
folly that restored the executive power to his hands, all covered as
he was with perjuries and treason, I am far more ready to condemn the
Constituent Assembly than the unfortunate prisoner Louis Capet.
But abstracted from every other consideration, there is one circumstance
in his life which ought to cover or at least to palliate a great number
of his transgressions, and this very circumstance affords to the French
nation a blessed occasion of extricating itself from the yoke of kings,
without defiling itself in the impurities of their blood.
It is to France alone, I know, that the United States of America owe
that support which enabled them to shake off the unjust and tyrannical
yoke of Britain. The ardour and zeal which she displayed to provide both
men and money, were the natural consequence of a thirst for liberty.
But as the nation at that time, restrained by the shackles of her own
government, could only act by the means of a monarchical organ, this
organ--whatever in other respects the object might be--certainly
performed a good, a great action.
Let then those United States be the safeguard and asylum of Louis Capet.
There, hereafter, far removed from the miseries and crimes of royalty,
he may learn, from the constant aspect of public prosperity, that the
true system of government consists not in kings, but in fair, equal, and
honourable representation.
In relating this circumstance, and in submitting this proposition, I
consider myself as a citizen of both countries. I submit it as a citizen
of America, who feels the debt of gratitude which he owes to every
Frenchman. I submit it also as a man, who, although the enemy of kings,
cannot forget that they are subject to human frailties. I support my
proposition as a citizen of the French republic, because it appears to
me the best, the most politic measure that can be adopted.
As far as my experience in public life extends, I have ever observed,
that the great mass of the people are invariably just, both in their
intentions and in their objects; but the true method of accomplishing an
effect does not always shew itself in the first instance. For example:
the English nation had groaned under the despotism of the Stuarts.
Hence Charles I. lost his life; yet Charles II. was restored to all
the plenitude of power, which his father had lost. Forty years had
not expired when the same family strove to reestablish their ancient
oppression; so the nation then banished from its territories the whole
race. The remedy was effectual. The Stuart family sank into obscurity,
confounded itself with the multitude, and is at length extinct.
The French nation has carried her measures of government to a greater
length. France is not satisfied with exposing the guilt of the monarch.
She has penetrated into the vices and horrors of the monarchy. She has
shown them clear as daylight, and forever crushed that system; and he,
whoever he may be, that should ever dare to reclaim those rights would
be regarded not as a pretender, but punished as a traitor.
Two brothers of Louis Capet have banished themselves from the country;
but they are obliged to comply with the spirit and etiquette of the
courts where they reside. They can advance no pretensions on their own
account, so long as Louis Capet shall live.
Monarchy, in France, was a system pregnant with crime and murders,
cancelling all natural ties, even those by which brothers are united. We
know how often they have assassinated each other to pave a way to power.
As those hopes which the emigrants had reposed in Louis XVI. are fled,
the last that remains rests upon his death, and their situation inclines
them to desire this catastrophe, that they may once again rally around
a more active chief, and try one further effort under the fortune of
the ci-devant Monsieur and d'Artois. That such an enterprize would
precipitate them into a new abyss of calamity and disgrace, it is not
difficult to foresee; yet it might be attended with mutual loss, and it
is our duty as legislators not to spill a drop of blood when our purpose
may be effectually accomplished without it.
It has already been proposed to abolish the punishment of death, and it
is with infinite satisfaction that I recollect the humane and excellent
oration pronounced by Robespierre on that subject in the Constituent
Assembly. This cause must find its advocates in every corner where
enlightened politicians and lovers of humanity exist, and it ought above
all to find them in this assembly.
Monarchical governments have trained the human race, and inured it to
the sanguinary arts and refinements of punishment; and it is exactly the
same punishment which has so long shocked the sight and tormented
the patience of the people, that now, in their turn, they practice in
revenge upon their oppressors. But it becomes us to be strictly on our
guard against the abomination and perversity of monarchical examples:
as France has been the first of European nations to abolish royalty, let
her also be the first to abolish the punishment of death, and to find
out a milder and more effectual substitute.
In the particular case now under consideration, I submit the following
propositions: 1st, That the National Convention shall pronounce sentence
of banishment on Louis and his family. 2d, That Louis Capet shall
be detained in prison till the end of the war, and at that epoch the
sentence of banishment to be executed.
XV. SHALL LOUIS XVI. HAVE RESPITE?
SPEECH IN THE CONVENTION, JANUARY 19, 1793.(1)
(Read in French by Deputy Bancal,)
Very sincerely do I regret the Convention's vote of yesterday for death.
Marat [_interrupting_]: I submit that Thomas Paine is incompetent to
vote on this question; being a Quaker his religious principles are
opposed to capital punishment. [_Much confusion, quieted by cries for
"freedom of speech" on which Bancal proceeds with Paine's speech_.]
1 Not included in any previous edition of Paine's "Works."
It is here printed from contemporary French reports,
modified only by Paine's own quotations of a few sentences
in his Memorial to Monroe (xxi.).--_Editor._
I have the advantage of some experience; it is near twenty years that I
have been engaged in the cause of liberty, having contributed something
to it in the revolution of the United States of America, My language has
always been that of liberty _and_ humanity, and I know that nothing
so exalts a nation as the union of these two principles, under all
circumstances. I know that the public mind of France, and particularly
that of Paris, has been heated and irritated by the dangers to which
they have been exposed; but could we carry our thoughts into the future,
when the dangers are ended and the irritations forgotten, what
to-day seems an act of justice may then appear an act of vengeance.
[_Murmurs_.] My anxiety for the cause of France has become for the
moment concern for her honor. If, on my return to America, I should
employ myself on a history of the French Revolution, I had rather record
a thousand errors on the side of mercy, than be obliged to tell one act
of severe justice. I voted against an appeal to the people, because it
appeared to me that the Convention was needlessly wearied on that point;
but I so voted in the hope that this Assembly would pronounce against
death, and for the same punishment that the nation would have voted,
at least in my opinion, that is for reclusion during the war, and
banishment thereafter.(1) That is the punishment most efficacious,
because it includes the whole family at once, and none other can so
operate. I am still against the appeal to the primary assemblies,
because there is a better method. This Convention has been elected to
form a Constitution, which will be submitted to the primary assemblies.
After its acceptance a necessary consequence will be an election and
another assembly. We cannot suppose that the present Convention will
last more than five or six months. The choice of new deputies will
express the national opinion, on the propriety or impropriety of your
sentence, with as much efficacy as if those primary assemblies had been
consulted on it. As the duration of our functions here cannot be long,
it is a part of our duty to consider the interests of those who shall
replace us. If by any act of ours the number of the nation's enemies
shall be needlessly increased, and that of its friends diminished,--at a
time when the finances may be more strained than to-day,--we should
not be justifiable for having thus unnecessarily heaped obstacles in
the path of our successors. Let us therefore not be precipitate in our
decisions.
1 It is possible that the course of the debate may have
produced some reaction among the people, but when Paine
voted against submitting the king's fate to the popular vote
it was believed by the king and his friends that it would be
fatal. The American Minister, Gouverneur Morris, who had
long been acting for the king, wrote to President
Washington, Jan. 6, 1793: "The king's fate is to be decided
next Monday, the 14th. That unhappy man, conversing with one
of his Council on his own fate, calmly summed up the motives
of every kind, and concluded that a majority of the Council
would vote for referring his case to the people, and that in
consequence he should be massacred." Writing to Washington
on Dec. 28, 1792, Morris mentions having heard from Paine
that he was to move the king's banishment to America, and he
may then have informed Paine that the king believed
reference of his case to popular vote would be fatal.
Genet was to have conducted the royal family to America.--
_Editor._
France has but one ally--the United States of America. That is the only
nation that can furnish France with naval provisions, for the
kingdoms of northern Europe are, or soon will be, at war with her. It
unfortunately happens that the person now under discussion is considered
by the Americans as having been the friend of their revolution. His
execution will be an affliction to them, and it is in your power not
to wound the feelings of your ally. Could I speak the French language I
would descend to your bar, and in their name become your petitioner to
respite the execution of the sentence on Louis.
Thuriot: This is not the language of Thomas Paine.
Marat: I denounce the interpreter. I maintain that it is not Thomas
Paine's opinion. It is an untrue translation.
Garran: I have read the original, and the translation is correct.(1)
[_Prolonged uproar. Paine, still standing in the tribune beside his
interpreter, Deputy Bancal, declared the sentiments to be his._]
Your Executive Committee will nominate an ambassador to Philadelphia;
my sincere wish is that he may announce to America that the National
Convention of France, out of pure friendship to America, has consented
to respite Louis. That people, by my vote, ask you to delay the
execution.
Ah, citizens, give not the tyrant of England the triumph of seeing the
man perish on the scaffold who had aided my much-loved America to break
his chains!
Marat ["_launching himself into the middle of the hall_"]: Paine voted
against the punishment of death because he is a Quaker.
Paine: I voted against it from both moral motives and motives of public
policy.
1 See Guizot, "Hist, of France," vi., p. 136. "Hist.
Parliamentair," vol. ii., p. 350. Louis Blanc says that
Paine's appeal was so effective that Marat interrupted
mainly in order to destroy its effect.--"Hist, de la Rev.,"
tome vii, 396.--_Editor._
XVI. DECLARATION OF RIGHTS.(1)
The object of all union of men in society being maintenance of their
natural rights, civil and political, these rights are the basis of the
social pact: their recognition and their declaration ought to precede
the Constitution which assures their guarantee.
1. The natural rights of men, civil and political, are liberty,
equality, security, property, social protection, and resistance to
oppression.
2. Liberty consists in the right to do whatever is not contrary to
the rights of others: thus, exercise of the natural rights of each
individual has no limits other than those which secure to other members
of society enjoyment of the same rights.
1 In his appeal from prison to the Convention (August 7,
1794) Paine states that he had, as a member of the Committee
for framing the Constitution, prepared a Plan, which was in
the hands of Barère, also of that Committee. I have not yet
succeeded in finding Paine's Constitution, but it is certain
that the work of framing the Constitution of 1793 was mainly
entrusted to Paine and Condorcet.
Dr. John Moore, in his work on the French Revolution,
describes the two at their work; and it is asserted that he
"assisted in drawing up the French Declaration of Rights,"
by "Juvencus," author of an able "Essay on the Life and
Genius of Thomas Paine," whose information came from a
personal friend of Paine. ("Aphorisms, Opinions, and
Reflections of Thomas Paine," etc., London, 1826. Pp. 3,
14.) A translation of the Declaration and Constitution
appeared in England (Debrett, Picadilly, 1793), but with
some faults. The present translation is from "Oeuvres
Complètes de Condorcet," tome xviii. The Committee reported
their Constitution February 15th, and April 15th was set for
its discussion, Robespierre then demanded separate
discussion of the Declaration of Rights, to which he
objected that it made no mention of the Supreme Being, and
that its extreme principles of freedom would shield illicit
traffic. Paine and Jefferson were troubled that the United
States Constitution contained no Declaration of Rights, it
being a fundamental principle in Paine's theory of
government that such a Declaration was the main safeguard of
the individual against the despotism of numbers. See
supra, vol. ii.t pp. 138, 139.--_Editor._.
3. The preservation of liberty depends on submission to the Law, which
is the expression of the general will. Nothing unforbidden by law can be
hindered, and none may be forced to do what the law does not command.
4. Every man is free to make known his thoughts and opinions.
5. Freedom of the press, and every other means of publishing one's
opinion, cannot be interdicted, suspended, or limited.
6. Every citizen shall be free in the exercise of his religion
(_culte_).
7. Equality consists in the enjoyment by every one of the same rights.
8. The law should be equal for all, whether it rewards or punishes,
protects or represses.
9. All citizens are admissible to all public positions, employments, and
functions. Free nations recognize no grounds of preference save talents
and virtues.
10. Security consists in the protection accorded by society to every
citizen for the preservation of his person, property, and rights.
11. None should be sued, accused, arrested, or detained, save in cases
determined by the law, and in accordance with forms prescribed by it.
Every other act against a citizen is arbitrary and null.
12. Those who solicit, further, sign, execute, or cause to be executed,
such arbitrary acts are culpable, and should be punished.
13. Citizens against whom the execution of such acts is attempted
have the right to repel force by force; but every citizen summoned or
arrested by authority of the Law, and in the forms by it prescribed,
should instantly obey: he renders himself guilty by resistance.
14. Every man being presumed innocent until legally pronounced guilty,
should his arrest be deemed indispensable, all rigor not necessary to
secure his person should be severely represssed by law.
15. None should be punished save in virtue of a law formally enacted,
promulgated anterior to the offence, and legally applied.
16. Any law that should punish offences committed before its existence
would be an arbitrary act. Retroactive effect given to the law is a
crime.
17. The law should award only penalties strictly and evidently necessary
to the general safety. Penalties should be proportioned to offences, and
useful to society.
18. The right of property consists in every man's being master in the
disposal, at his will, of his goods, capital, income, and industry.
19. No kind of labor, commerce, or culture, can be prohibited to any
one: he may make, sell, and transport every species of production.
20. Every man may engage his services and his time; but he cannot sell
himself; his person is not an alienable property.
21. No one can be deprived of the least portion of his property without
his consent, unless evidently required by public necessity, legally
determined, and under the condition of a just indemnity in advance.
22. No tax shall be imposed except for the general welfare, and to meet
public needs. All citizens have the right to unite personally, or by
their representatives, in the fixing of imposts.
23. Instruction is the need of all, and society owes it to all its
members equally.
24. Public succours are a sacred debt of society; it is for the law to
determine their extent and application.
25. The social guarantee of the rights of man rests on the national
sovereignty.
26. This sovereignty is one, indivisible, imprescriptible, and
inalienable.
27. It resides essentially in the whole people, and every citizen has an
equal right to unite in its exercise.
28. No partial assemblage of citizens, and no individual, may attribute
to themselves sovereignty, or exercise any authority, or discharge any
public function, without formal delegation thereto by the law.
29. The social guarantee cannot exist if the limits of public
administration are not clearly determined by law, and if the
responsibility of all public functionaries is not assured.
30. All citizens are bound to unite in this guarantee, and in enforcing
the law when summoned in its name.
31. Men united in society should have legal means of resisting
oppression.
32. There is oppression when any law violates the natural rights, civil
and political, which it should guarantee.
There is oppression when the law is violated by public officials in its
application to individual cases.
There is oppression when arbitrary actions violate the rights of citizen
against the express purpose (_expression_) of the law.
In a free government the mode of resisting these different acts of
oppression should be regulated by the Constitution.
33. A people possesses always the right to reform and alter its
Constitution. A generation has no right to subject a future generation
to its laws; and all heredity in offices is absurd and tyrannical.
XVII. PRIVATE LETTERS TO JEFFERSON.
Paris, 20 April, 1793.
My dear Friend,--The gentleman (Dr. Romer) to whom I entrust this
letter is an intimate acquaintance of Lavater; but I have not had the
opportunity of seeing him, as he had set off for Havre prior to my
writing this letter, which I forward to him under cover from one of his
friends, who is also an acquaintance of mine.
We are now in an extraordinary crisis, and it is not altogether without
some considerable faults here. Dumouriez, partly from having no fixed
principles of his own, and partly from the continual persecution of the
Jacobins, who act without either prudence or morality, has gone off
to the Enemy, and taken a considerable part of the Army with him. The
expedition to Holland has totally failed, and all Brabant is again in
the hands of the Austrians.
You may suppose the consternation which such a sudden reverse of fortune
has occasioned, but it has been without commotion. Dumouriez threatened
to be in Paris in three weeks. It is now three weeks ago; he is still on
the frontier near to Mons with the Enemy, who do not make any progress.
Dumouriez has proposed to re-establish the former Constitution in
which plan the Austrians act with him. But if France and the National
Convention act prudently this project will not succeed. In the first
place there is a popular disposition against it, and there is force
sufficient to prevent it. In the next place, a great deal is to be taken
into the calculation with respect to the Enemy. There are now so many
persons accidentally jumbled together as to render it exceedingly
difficult to them to agree upon any common object.
The first object, that of restoring the old Monarchy, is evidently given
up by the proposal to re-establish the late Constitution. The object of
England and Prussia was to preserve Holland, and the object of Austria
was to recover Brabant; while those separate objects lasted, each party
having one, the Confederation could hold together, each helping the
other; but after this I see not how a common object is to be formed.
To all this is to be added the probable disputes about opportunity,
the expence, and the projects of reimbursements. The Enemy has once
adventured into France, and they had the permission or the good fortune
to get back again. On every military calculation it is a hazardous
adventure, and armies are not much disposed to try a second time the
ground upon which they have been defeated.
Had this revolution been conducted consistently with its principles,
there was once a good prospect of extending liberty through the greatest
part of Europe; but I now relinquish that hope. Should the Enemy by
venturing into France put themselves again in a condition of being
captured, the hope will revive; but this is a risk I do not wish to see
tried, lest it should fail.
As the prospect of a general freedom is now much shortened, I begin
to contemplate returning home. I shall await the event of the proposed
Constitution, and then take my final leave of Europe. I have not written
to the President, as I have nothing to communicate more than in this
letter. Please to present him my affection and compliments, and remember
me among the circle of my friends.
Your sincere and affectionate friend,
Thomas Paine.
P. S. I just now received a letter from General Lewis Morris, who tells
me that the house and Barn on my farm at New Rochelle are burnt down. I
assure you I shall not bring money enough to build another.
Paris, 20 Oct., 1793.
I wrote you by Captain Dominick who was to sail from Havre about the
20th of this month. This will probably be brought you by Mr. Barlow or
Col. Oswald. Since my letter by Dominick I am every day more convinced
and impressed with the propriety of Congress sending Commissioners to
Europe to confer with the Ministers of the Jesuitical Powers on the
means of terminating the War. The enclosed printed paper will shew there
are a variety of subjects to be taken into consideration which did not
appear at first, all of which have some tendency to put an end to the
War. I see not how this War is to terminate if some intermediate power
does not step forward. There is now no prospect that France can carry
revolutions into Europe on the one hand, or that the combined powers can
conquer France on the other hand. It is a sort of defensive War on both
sides. This being the case, how is the War to close? Neither side
will ask for peace though each may wish it. I believe that England
and Holland are tired of the War. Their Commerce and Manufactures have
suffered most exceedingly,--besides this, it is for them a War without
an object. Russia keeps herself at a distance.
I cannot help repeating my wish that Congress would send Commissioners,
and I wish also that yourself would venture once more across the ocean,
as one of them. If the Commissioners rendezvous at Holland they would
know what steps to take. They could call Mr. Pinckney [Gen. Thomas
Pinckney, American Minister in England] to their councils, and it would
be of use, on many accounts, that one of them should come over from
Holland to France. Perhaps a long truce, were it proposed by the neutral
powers, would have all the effects of a Peace, without the difficulties
attending the adjustment of all the forms of Peace.
Yours affectionately,
Thomas Paine.
XVIII. LETTER TO DANTON.(1)
Paris, May 6, 2nd year of the Republic [1793.]
Citoyen Danton: As you read English, I write this letter to you without
passing it through the hands of a translator. I am exceedingly disturbed
at the distractions, jealousies, discontents and uneasiness that reign
among us, and which, if they continue, will bring ruin and disgrace on
the Republic. When I left America in the year 1787, it was my intention
to return the year following, but the French Revolution, and the
prospect it afforded of extending the principles of liberty and
fraternity through the greater part of Europe, have induced me to
prolong my stay upwards of six years. I now despair of seeing the great
object of European liberty accomplished, and my despair arises not from
the combined foreign powers, not from the intrigues of aristocracy and
priestcraft, but from the tumultuous misconduct with which the internal
affairs of the present revolution are conducted.
All that now can be hoped for is limited to France only, and I agree
with your motion of not interfering in the government of any foreign
country, nor permitting any foreign country to interfere in the
government of France. This decree was necessary as a preliminary toward
terminating the war. But while these internal contentions continue,
while the hope remains to the enemy of seeing the Republic fall to
pieces, while not only the representatives of the departments but
representation itself is publicly insulted, as it has lately been and
now is by the people of Paris, or at least by the tribunes, the enemy
will be encouraged to hang about the frontiers and await the issue of
circumstances.
1 This admirable letter was brought to light by the late M.
Taine, and first published in full by Taine's translator,
John Durand ("New Materials for the History of the American
Revolution," 1889). The letter to Marat mentioned by Paine
has not been discovered. Danton followed Paine to prison,
and on meeting him there said: "That which you did for the
happiness and liberty of your country I tried to do for
mine. I have been less fortunate, but not less innocent.
They will send me to the scaffold; very well, my friend, I
will go gaily." M. Taine in La Révolution (vol. ii., pp.
382, 413, 414) refers to this letter of Paine, and says:
"Compared with the speeches and writings of the time, it
produces the strangest effect by its practical good sense."
--_Editor._,
I observe that the confederated powers have not yet recognized Monsieur,
or D'Artois, as regent, nor made any proclamation in favour of any
of the Bourbons; but this negative conduct admits of two different
conclusions. The one is that of abandoning the Bourbons and the war
together; the other is that of changing the object of the war and
substituting a partition scheme in the place of their first object, as
they have done by Poland. If this should be their object, the internal
contentions that now rage will favour that object far more than it
favoured their former object. The danger every day increases of a
rupture between Paris and the departments. The departments did not send
their deputies to Paris to be insulted, and every insult shown to them
is an insult to the departments that elected and sent them. I see but
one effectual plan to prevent this rupture taking place, and that is to
fix the residence of the Convention, and of the future assemblies, at a
distance from Paris.
I saw, during the American Revolution, the exceeding inconvenience that
arose by having the government of Congress within the limits of any
Municipal Jurisdiction. Congress first resided in Philadelphia, and
after a residence of four years it found it necessary to leave it. It
then adjourned to the State of Jersey. It afterwards removed to
New York; it again removed from New York to Philadelphia, and after
experiencing in every one of these places the great inconvenience of
a government, it formed the project of building a Town, not within
the limits of any municipal jurisdiction, for the future residence of
Congress. In any one of the places where Congress resided, the municipal
authority privately or openly opposed itself to the authority of
Congress, and the people of each of these places expected more attention
from Congress than their equal share with the other States amounted to.
The same thing now takes place in France, but in a far greater excess.
I see also another embarrassing circumstance arising in Paris of which
we have had full experience in America. I mean that of fixing the price
of provisions. But if this measure is to be attempted it ought to
be done by the Municipality. The Convention has nothing to do with
regulations of this kind; neither can they be carried into practice. The
people of Paris may say they will not give more than a certain price
for provisions, but as they cannot compel the country people to bring
provisions to market the consequence will be directly contrary to their
expectations, and they will find dearness and famine instead of plenty
and cheapness. They may force the price down upon the stock in hand, but
after that the market will be empty.
I will give you an example. In Philadelphia we undertook, among other
regulations of this kind, to regulate the price of Salt; the consequence
was that no Salt was brought to market, and the price rose to thirty-six
shillings sterling per Bushel. The price before the war was only one
shilling and sixpence per Bushel; and we regulated the price of flour
(farina) till there was none in the market, and the people were glad to
procure it at any price.
There is also a circumstance to be taken into the account which is not
much attended to. The assignats are not of the same value they were a
year ago, and as the quantity increases the value of them will diminish.
This gives the appearance of things being dear when they are not so in
fact, for in the same proportion that any kind of money falls in
value articles rise in price. If it were not for this the quantity of
assignats would be too great to be circulated. Paper money in America
fell so much in value from this excessive quantity of it, that in the
year 1781 I gave three hundred paper dollars for one pair of worsted
stockings. What I write you upon this subject is experience, and not
merely opinion. I have no personal interest in any of these matters, nor
in any party disputes. I attend only to general principles.
As soon as a constitution shall be established I shall return to
America; and be the future prosperity of France ever so great, I shall
enjoy no other part of it than the happiness of knowing it. In the mean
time I am distressed to see matters so badly conducted, and so little
attention paid to moral principles. It is these things that injure the
character of the Revolution and discourage the progress of liberty all
over the world. When I began this letter I did not intend making it so
lengthy, but since I have gone thus far I will fill up the remainder of
the sheet with such matters as occur to me.
There ought to be some regulation with respect to the spirit of
denunciation that now prevails. If every individual is to indulge his
private malignancy or his private ambition, to denounce at random and
without any kind of proof, all confidence will be undermined and all
authority be destroyed. Calumny is a species of Treachery that ought to
be punished as well as any other kind of Treachery. It is a private vice
productive of public evils; because it is possible to irritate men into
disaffection by continual calumny who never intended to be disaffected.
It is therefore, equally as necessary to guard against the evils
of unfounded or malignant suspicion as against the evils of blind
confidence. It is equally as necessary to protect the characters of
public officers from calumny as it is to punish them for treachery or
misconduct. For my own part I shall hold it a matter of doubt, until
better evidence arises than is known at present, whether Dumouriez has
been a traitor from policy or resentment. There was certainly a time
when he acted well, but it is not every man whose mind is strong enough
to bear up against ingratitude, and I think he experienced a great deal
of this before he revolted. Calumny becomes harmless and defeats itself,
when it attempts to act upon too large a scale. Thus the denunciation
of the Sections [of Paris] against the twenty-two deputies [Girondists]
falls to the ground. The departments that elected them are better judges
of their moral and political characters than those who have denounced
them. This denunciation will injure Paris in the opinion of the
departments because it has the appearance of dictating to them what sort
of deputies they shall elect. Most of the acquaintances that I have in
the Convention are among those who are in that list, and I know there
are not better men nor better patriots than what they are.
I have written a letter to Marat of the same date as this but not on the
same subject. He may show it to you if he chuse.
Votre Ami,
Thomas Paine.
Citoyen Danton.
XIX. A CITIZEN OF AMERICA TO THE CITIZENS OF EUROPE (1)
18th Year of Independence.
1 State Archives, Paris: États Unis, vol. 38, fol. 90. This
pamphlet is in English, without indication of authorship or
of the place of publication. It is accompanied by a French
translation (MS.) inscribed "Par Thomas Payne." In the
printed pamphlet the date (18th Year, etc) is preceded by
the French words (printed): "Philadelphie 28 Juillet 1793."
It was no doubt the pamphlet sent by Paine to Monroe, with
various documents relating to his imprisonment, describing
it as "a Letter which I had printed here as an American
letter, some copies of which I sent to Mr. Jefferson." A
considerable portion of the pamphlet embodies, with
occasional changes of phraseology, a manuscript (États Unis,
vol. 37, Do. 39) endorsed: "January 1793. Thorn. Payne.
Copie. Observations on the situation of the Powers joined
against France." This opens with the following paragraph:
"It is always useful to know the position and the designs of
one's enemies. It is much easier to do so by combining and
comparing the events, and by examining the consequences
which result from them, than by forming one's judgment by
letters found or intercepted. These letters could be
fabricated with the intention of deceiving, but events or
circumstances have a character which is proper to them. If
in the course of our political operations we mistake the
designs of our enemy, it leads us to do precisely that which
he desires we should do, and it happens by the fact, but
against our intentions, that we work for him." That the date
written on this MS. is erroneous appears by an allusion to
the defeat of the Duke of York at Dunkirk in the closing
paragraph: "There are three distinct parties in England at
this moment: the government party, the revolutionary party,
and an intermedial party,--which is only opposed to the war
on account of the expense it entails, and the harm it does
commerce and manufactures. I am speaking of the People, and
not of the Parliament. The latter is divided into two
parties: the Ministerial, and the Anti-ministerial. The
revolutionary party, the intermedial party, and the anti-
ministerial party, will all rejoice, publicly or privately,
at the defeat of the Duke of York at Dunkirk." The two
paragraphs quoted represent the only actual additions to the
pamphlet. I have a clipping from the London Morning
Chronicle of Friday, April 25, 1794, containing the part of
the pamphlet headed "Of the present state of Europe and the
Confederacy," signed "Thomas Paine, Author of Common Sense,
etc." On February 1,1793, the Convention having declared
war, appointed Paine, Barère, Condorcet and Faber, a
Committee to draft an address to the English people. It was
never done, but these fragments may represent notes written
by Paine with reference to that task. The pamphlet
probably appeared late in September, 1793.--_Editor._,
Understanding that a proposal is intended to be made at the ensuing
meeting of the Congress of the United States of America "to send
commissioners to Europe to confer with the Ministers of all the Neutral
Powers for the purpose of negotiating preliminaries of peace," I address
this letter to you on that subject, and on the several matters connected
therewith.
In order to discuss this subject through all its circumstances, it
will be necessary to take a review of the state of Europe, prior to the
French revolution. It will from thence appear, that the powers leagued
against France are fighting to attain an object, which, were it possible
to be attained, would be injurious to themselves.
This is not an uncommon error in the history of wars and governments, of
which the conduct of the English government in the war against America
is a striking instance. She commenced that war for the avowed purpose of
subjugating America; and after wasting upwards of one hundred millions
sterling, and then abandoning the object, she discovered, in the course
of three or four years, that the prosperity of England was increased,
instead of being diminished, by the independence of America. In short,
every circumstance is pregnant with some natural effect, upon which
intentions and opinions have no influence; and the political error
lies in misjudging what the effect will be. England misjudged it in
the American war, and the reasons I shall now offer will shew, that she
misjudges it in the present war. In discussing this subject, I leave out
of the question everything respecting forms and systems of government;
for as all the governments of Europe differ from each other, there is no
reason that the government of France should not differ from the rest.
The clamours continually raised in all the countries of Europe were,
that the family of the Bourbons was become too powerful; that the
intrigues of the court of France endangered the peace of Europe. Austria
saw with a jealous eye the connection of France with Prussia; and
Prussia, in her turn became jealous of the connection of France with
Austria; England had wasted millions unsuccessfully in attempting to
prevent the family compact with Spain; Russia disliked the alliance
between France and Turkey; and Turkey became apprehensive of the
inclination of France towards an alliance with Russia. Sometimes the
quadruple alliance alarmed some of the powers, and at other times a
contrary system alarmed others, and in all those cases the charge was
always made against the intrigues of the Bourbons.
Admitting those matters to be true, the only thing that could have
quieted the apprehensions of all those powers with respect to the
interference of France, would have been her entire NEUTRALITY in Europe;
but this was impossible to be obtained, or if obtained was impossible
to be secured, because the genius of her government was repugnant to all
such restrictions.
It now happens that by entirely changing the genius of her government,
which France has done for herself, this neutrality, which neither wars
could accomplish nor treaties secure, arises naturally of itself, and
becomes the ground upon which the war should terminate. It is the
thing that approaches the nearest of all others to what ought to be the
political views of all the European powers; and there is nothing that
can so effectually secure this neutrality, as that the genius of the
French government should be different from the rest of Europe.
But if their object is to restore the Bourbons and monarchy together,
they will unavoidably restore with it all the evils of which they have
complained; and the first question of discord will be, whose ally is
that monarchy to be?
Will England agree to the restoration of the family compact against
which she has been fighting and scheming ever since it existed? Will
Prussia agree to restore the alliance between France and Austria, or
will Austria agree to restore the former connection between France and
Prussia, formed on purpose to oppose herself; or will Spain or Russia,
or any of the maritime powers, agree that France and her navy should be
allied to England? In fine, will any of the powers agree to strengthen
the hands of the other against itself? Yet all these cases involve
themselves in the original question of the restoration of the Bourbons;
and on the other hand, all of them disappear by the neutrality of
France.
If their object is not to restore the Bourbons, it must be the
impracticable project of a partition of the country. The Bourbons will
then be out of the question, or, more properly speaking, they will be
put in a worse condition; for as the preservation of the Bourbons made
a part of the first object, the extirpation of them makes a part of the
second. Their pretended friends will then become interested in their
destruction, because it is favourable to the purpose of partition that
none of the nominal claimants should be left in existence.
But however the project of a partition may at first blind the eyes of
the confederacy, or however each of them may hope to outwit the other
in the progress or in the end, the embarrassments that will arise are
insurmountable. But even were the object attainable, it would not be of
such general advantage to the parties as the neutrality of France, which
costs them nothing, and to obtain which they would formerly have gone to
war.
OF THE PRESENT STATE OF EUROPE, AND THE CONFEDERACY.
In the first place the confederacy is not of that kind that forms
itself originally by concert and consent. It has been forced together by
chance--a heterogeneous mass, held only by the accident of the moment;
and the instant that accident ceases to operate, the parties will retire
to their former rivalships.
I will now, independently of the impracticability of a partition
project, trace out some of the embarrassments which will arise among the
confederated parties; for it is contrary to the interest of a majority
of them that such a project should succeed.
To understand this part of the subject it is necessary, in the
first place, to cast an eye over the map of Europe, and observe the
geographical situation of the several parts of the confederacy; for
however strongly the passionate politics of the moment may operate, the
politics that arise from geographical situation are the most certain,
and will in all cases finally prevail.
The world has been long amused with what is called the "_balance of
power_." But it is not upon armies only that this balance depends.
Armies have but a small circle of action. Their progress is slow and
limited. But when we take maritime power into the calculation, the scale
extends universally. It comprehends all the interests connected with
commerce.
The two great maritime powers are England and France. Destroy either of
those, and the balance of naval power is destroyed. The whole world of
commerce that passes on the Ocean would then lie at the mercy of the
other, and the ports of any nation in Europe might be blocked up.
The geographical situation of those two maritime powers comes next under
consideration. Each of them occupies one entire side of the channel from
the straits of Dover and Calais to the opening into the Atlantic. The
commerce of all the northern nations, from Holland to Russia, must pass
the straits of Dover and Calais, and along the Channel, to arrive at the
Atlantic.
This being the case, the systematical politics of all the nations,
northward of the straits of Dover and Calais, can be ascertained from
their geographical situation; for it is necessary to the safety of their
commerce that the two sides of the Channel, either in whole or in part,
should not be in the possession either of England or France. While one
nation possesses the whole of one side, and the other nation the other
side, the northern nations cannot help seeing that in any situation of
things their commerce will always find protection on one side or the
other. It may sometimes be that of England and sometimes that of France.
Again, while the English navy continues in its present condition, it is
necessary that another navy should exist to controul the universal sway
the former would otherwise have over the commerce of all nations. France
is the only nation in Europe where this balance can be placed. The
navies of the North, were they sufficiently powerful, could not be
sufficiently operative. They are blocked up by the ice six months in the
year. Spain lies too remote; besides which, it is only for the sake of
her American mines that she keeps up her navy.
Applying these cases to the project of a partition of France, it will
appear, that the project involves with it a DESTRUCTION OF THE BALANCE
OF MARITIME POWER; because it is only by keeping France entire and
indivisible that the balance can be kept up. This is a case that at
first sight lies remote and almost hidden. But it interests all the
maritime and commercial nations in Europe in as great a degree as any
case that has ever come before them.--In short, it is with war as it
is with law. In law, the first merits of the case become lost in the
multitude of arguments; and in war they become lost in the variety of
events. New objects arise that take the lead of all that went before,
and everything assumes a new aspect. This was the case in the last great
confederacy in what is called the succession war, and most probably will
be the case in the present.
I have now thrown together such thoughts as occurred to me on the
several subjects connected with the confederacy against France, and
interwoven with the interest of the neutral powers. Should a conference
of the neutral powers take place, these observations will, at least,
serve to generate others. The whole matter will then undergo a more
extensive investigation than it is in my power to give; and the evils
attending upon either of the projects, that of restoring the Bourbons,
or of attempting a partition of France, will have the calm opportunity
of being fully discussed.
On the part of England, it is very extraordinary that she should have
engaged in a former confederacy, and a long expensive war, to _prevent_
the family compact, and now engage in another confederacy to _preserve_
it. And on the part of the other powers, it is as inconsistent that they
should engage in a partition project, which, could it be executed, would
immediately destroy the balance of maritime power in Europe, and would
probably produce a second war, to remedy the political errors of the
first.
A Citizen of the United States of America.
XX. APPEAL TO THE CONVENTION.(1)
Citizens Representatives: If I should not express myself with the energy
I used formerly to do, you will attribute it to the very dangerous
illness I have suffered in the prison of the Luxembourg. For several
days I was insensible of my own existence; and though I am much
recovered, it is with exceeding great difficulty that I find power to
write you this letter.
1 Written in Luxembourg prison, August 7, 1794. Robespierre
having fallen July 29th, those who had been imprisoned under
his authority were nearly all at once released, but Paine
remained. There were still three conspirators against him on
the Committee of Public Safety, and to that Committee this
appeal was unfortunately confided; consequently it never
reached the Convention. The circumstances are related at
length infra, in the introduction to the Memorial to Monroe
(XXI.). It will also be seen that Paine was mistaken in his
belief that his imprisonment was due to the enmity of
Robespierre, and this he vaguely suspected when his
imprisonment was prolonged three months after Robespierre's
death.--_Editor._.
But before I proceed further, I request the Convention to observe: that
this is the first line that has come from me, either to the Convention
or to any of the Committees, since my imprisonment,--which is
approaching to eight months. --Ah, my friends, eight months' loss of
liberty seems almost a life-time to a man who has been, as I have been,
the unceasing defender of Liberty for twenty years.
I have now to inform the Convention of the reason of my not having
written before. It is a year ago that I had strong reason to believe
that Robespierre was my inveterate enemy, as he was the enemy of every
man of virtue and humanity. The address that was sent to the Convention
some time about last August from Arras, the native town of Robespierre,
I have always been informed was the work of that hypocrite and the
partizans he had in the place. The intention of that address was to
prepare the way for destroying me, by making the people declare (though
without assigning any reason) that I had lost their confidence; the
Address, however, failed of success, as it was immediately opposed by a
counter-address from St. Omer, which declared the direct contrary. But
the strange power that Robespierre, by the most consummate hypocrisy and
the most hardened cruelties, had obtained, rendered any attempt on my
part to obtain justice not only useless but dangerous; for it is the
nature of Tyranny always to strike a deeper blow when any attempt has
been made to repel a former one. This being my situation, I submitted
with patience to the hardness of my fate and waited the event of
brighter days. I hope they are now arrived to the nation and to me.
Citizens, when I left the United States in the year 1787 I promised to
all my friends that I would return to them the next year; but the hope
of seeing a revolution happily established in France, that might serve
as a model to the rest of Europe,(1) and the earnest and disinterested
desire of rendering every service in my power to promote it, induced me
to defer my return to that country, and to the society of my friends,
for more than seven years. This long sacrifice of private tranquillity,
especially after having gone through the fatigues and dangers of the
American Revolution which continued almost eight years, deserved a
better fate than the long imprisonment I have silently suffered. But it
is not the nation but a faction that has done me this injustice. Parties
and Factions, various and numerous as they have been, I have always
avoided. My heart was devoted to all France, and the object to which I
applied myself was the Constitution. The Plan which I proposed to the
Committee, of which I was a member, is now in the hands of Barère, and
it will speak for itself.
1 Revolutions have now acquired such sanguinary associations
that it is important to bear in mind that by "revolution"
Paine always means simply a change or reformation of
government, which might be and ought to be bloodless. See
"Rights of Man" Part II., vol. ii. of this work, pp. 513,
523.--:_Editor_.
It is perhaps proper that I inform you of the cause as-assigned in the
order for my imprisonment. It is that I am 'a Foreigner'; whereas, the
_Foreigner_ thus imprisoned was invited into France by a decree of the
late National Assembly, and that in the hour of her greatest danger,
when invaded by Austrians and Prussians. He was, moreover, a citizen of
the United States of America, an ally of France, and not a subject of
any country in Europe, and consequently not within the intentions of any
decree concerning Foreigners. But any excuse can be made to serve the
purpose of malignity when in power.
I will not intrude on your time by offering any apology for the broken
and imperfect manner in which I have expressed myself. I request you to
accept it with the sincerity with which it comes from my heart; and I
conclude with wishing Fraternity and prosperity to France, and union and
happiness to her representatives.
Citizens, I have now stated to you my situation, and I can have no doubt
but your justice will restore me to the Liberty of which I have been
deprived.
Thomas Paine.
Luxembourg, Thermidor 19, 2nd Year of the French Republic, one and
indivisible.
XXI. THE MEMORIAL TO MONROE.
EDITOR'S historical introduction:
The Memorial is here printed from the manuscript of Paine now among the
Morrison Papers, in the British Museum,--no doubt the identical document
penned in Luxembourg prison. The paper in the United States State
Department (vol. vii., Monroe Papers) is accompanied by a note by
Monroe: "Mr. Paine, Luxembourg, on my arrival in France, 1794. My answer
was after the receipt of his second letter. It is thought necessary to
print only those parts of his that relate directly to his confinement,
and to omit all between the parentheses in each." The paper thus
inscribed seems to have been a wrapper for all of Paine's letters.
An examination of the MS. at Washington does not show any such
"parentheses," indicating omissions, whereas that in the British Museum
has such marks, and has evidently been prepared for the press,--being
indeed accompanied by the long title of the French pamphlet. There are
other indications that the British Museum MS. is the original Memorial
from which was printed in Paris the pamphlet entitled:
"Mémoire de Thomas Payne, autographe et signé de sa main: addressé à
M. Monroe, ministre des États-unis en france, pour réclamer sa mise en
liberté comme citoyen Américain, 10 Sept 1794. Robespierre avait fait
arrêter Th. Payne, en 1793--il fut conduit au Luxembourg où le glaive
fut longtemps suspendu sur sa tête. Après onze mois de captivité, il
recouvra la liberté, sur la réclamation du ministre Américain--c'était
après la chute de Robespierre--il reprit sa place à la convention, le 8
décembre 1794. (18 frimaire an iii.) Ce Mémoire contient des renseigne
mens curieux sur la conduite politique de Th. Payne en france, pendant
la Révolution, et à l'époque du procès de Louis XVI. Ce n'est point, dit
il, comme Quaker, qu'il ne vota pas La Mort du Roi mais par un sentiment
d'humanité, qui ne tenait point à ses principes religieux. Villenave."
No date is given, but the pamphlet probably appeared early in 1795.
Matthieu Gillaume Thérèse Villenave (b. 1762, d. 1846) was a journalist,
and it will be noticed that he, or the translator, modifies Paine's
answer to Marat about his Quakerism. There are some loose translations
in the cheap French pamphlet, but it is the only publication which
has given Paine's Memorial with any fulness. Nearly ten pages of
the manuscript were omitted from the Memorial when it appeared as
an Appendix to the pamphlet entitled "Letter to George Washington,
President of the United States of America, on Affairs public and
private." By Thomas Paine, Author of the Works entitled, Common Sense,
Rights of Man, Age of Reason, &c. Philadelphia: Printed by Benj.
Franklin Bache, No. 112 Market Street. 1796. [Entered according to
law.] This much-abridged copy of the Memorial has been followed in
all subsequent editions, so that the real document has not hitherto
appeared.(1)
In appending the Memorial to his "Letter to Washington," Paine would
naturally omit passages rendered unimportant by his release, but his
friend Bache may have suppressed others that might have embarrassed
American partisans of France, such as the scene at the king's trial.
1 Bache's pamphlet reproduces the portrait engraved in
Villenave, where it is underlined: "Peint par Ped [Peale] à
Philadelphie, Dessiné par F. Bonneville, Gravé par Sandoz."
In Bache it is: "Bolt sc. 1793 "; and beneath this the
curious inscription: "Thomas Paine. Secretair d. Americ:
Congr: 1780. Mitgl: d. fr. Nat. Convents. 1793." The
portrait is a variant of that now in Independence Hall, and
one of two painted by C. W. Peale. The other (in which the
chin is supported by the hand) was for religious reasons
refused by the Boston Museum when it purchased the
collection of "American Heroes" from Rembrandt Peale. It was
bought by John McDonough, whose brother sold it to Mr.
Joseph Jefferson, the eminent actor, and perished when his
house was burned at Buzzard's Bay. Mr. Jefferson writes me
that he meant to give the portrait to the Paine Memorial
Society, Boston; "but the cruel fire roasted the splendid
_Infidel_, so I presume the saints are satisfied."
This description, however, and a large proportion of the suppressed
pages, are historically among the most interesting parts of the
Memorial, and their restoration renders it necessary to transfer the
document from its place as an appendix to that of a preliminary to the
"Letter to Washington."
Paine's Letter to Washington burdens his reputation today more,
probably, than any other production of his pen. The traditional judgment
was formed in the absence of many materials necessary for a just
verdict. The editor feels under the necessity of introducing at this
point an historical episode; he cannot regard it as fair to the memory
of either Paine or Washington that these two chapters should be printed
without a full statement of the circumstances, the most important of
which, but recently discovered, were unknown to either of those men. In
the editor's "Life of Thomas Paine" (ii., pp. 77-180) newly discovered
facts and documents bearing on the subject are given, which may
be referred to by those who desire to investigate critically such
statements as may here appear insufficiently supported. Considerations
of space require that the history in that work should be only summarized
here, especially as important new details must be added.
Paine was imprisoned (December 28, 1793) through the hostility of
Gouverneur Morris, the American Minister in Paris. The fact that the
United States, after kindling revolution in France by its example, was
then represented in that country by a Minister of vehement royalist
opinions, and one who literally entered into the service of the King to
defeat the Republic, has been shown by that Minister's own biographers.
Some light is cast on the events that led to this strange situation by
a letter written to M. de Mont-morin, Minister of Foreign Affairs, by
a French Chargé d'Affaires, Louis Otto, dated Philadelphia, 10 March,
1792. Otto, a nobleman who married into the Livingston family, was an
astute diplomatist, and enjoyed the intimacy of the Secretary of
State, Jefferson, and of his friends. At the close of a long interview
Jefferson tells him that "The secresy with which the Senate covers its
deliberations serves to veil personal interest, which reigns therein in
all its strength." Otto explains this as referring to the speculative
operations of Senators, and to the commercial connections some of them
have with England, making them unfriendly to French interests.
"Among the latter the most remarkable is Mr. Robert Morris, of English
birth, formerly Superintendent of Finance, a man of greatest talent,
whose mercantile speculations are as unlimited as his ambition. He
directs the Senate as he once did the American finances in making it
keep step with his policy and his business.... About two years ago Mr.
Robert Morris sent to France Mr. Gouverneur Morris to negotiate a loan
in his name, and for different other personal matters.... During his
sojourn in France, Mr. Rob. Morris thought he could make him more useful
for his aims by inducing the President of the United States to entrust
him with a negotiation with England relative to the Commerce of the two
countries. M. Gouv. Morris acquitted himself in this as an adroit man,
and with his customary zeal, but despite his address (insinuation)
obtained only the vague hope of an advantageous commercial treaty on
condition of an _Alliance resembling that between France and the United
States_.... [Mr. Robert Morris] is himself English, and interested in
all the large speculations founded in this country for Great Britain....
His great services as Superintendent of Finance during the Revolution
have assured him the esteem and consideration of General Washington,
who, however, is far from adopting his views about France. The warmth
with which Mr. Rob. Morris opposed in the Senate the exemption of French
_armateurs_ from tonnage, demanded by His Majesty, undoubtedly had
for its object to induce the king, by this bad behavior, to break the
treaty, in order to facilitate hereafter the negotiations begun with
England to form an alliance. As for Mr. Gouv. Morris he is entirely
devoted to his correspondent, with whom he has been constantly connected
in business and opinion. His great talents are recognized, and his
extreme quickness in conceiving new schemes and gaining others to them.
He is perhaps the most eloquent and ingenious man of his country, but
his countrymen themselves distrust his talents. They admire but fear
him." (1)
1 Archives of the State Department, Paris, États Unis.,
vol. 35, fol. 301.
The Commission given to Gouverneur Morris by Washington, to which
Otto refers, was in his own handwriting, dated October 13, 1789, and
authorized him "in the capacity of private agent, and in the credit of
this letter, to converse with His Britannic Majesty's ministers on these
points, viz. whether there be any, and what objection to performing
those articles of the treaty which remained to be performed on his part;
and whether they incline to a treaty of commerce on any and what terms.
This communication ought regularly to be made to you by the Secretary
of State; but, that office not being at present filled, my desire of
avoiding delays induces me to make it under my own hand."(1)
The President could hardly have assumed the authority of secretly
appointing a virtual ambassador had there not been a tremendous object
in view: this, as he explains in an accompanying letter, was to
secure the evacuation by Great Britain of the frontier posts. This
all-absorbing purpose of Washington is the key to his administration.
Gouverneur Morris paved the way for Jay's treaty, and he was paid for
it with the French mission. The Senate would not have tolerated his
appointment to England, and only by a majority of four could the
President secure his confirmation as Minister to France (January 12,
1792). The President wrote Gouverneur Morris (January 28th) a friendly
lecture about the objections made to him, chiefly that he favored the
aristocracy and was unfriendly to the revolution, and expressed "the
fullest confidence" that, supposing the allegations founded, he would
"effect a change." But Gouverneur Morris remained the agent of Senator
Robert Morris, and still held Washington's mission to England, and he
knew only as "conspirators" the rulers who succeeded Louis XVI. Even
while utilizing them, he was an agent of Great Britain in its war
against the country to which he was officially commissioned.
1 Ford's "Writings of George Washington" vol. xi., p. 440.
Lafayette wrote to Washington ("Paris, March 15,1792") the following
appeal:
"Permit me, my dear General, to make an observation for yourself alone,
on the recent selection of an American ambassador. Personally I am a
friend of Gouverneur Morris, and have always been, in private, quite
content with him; but the aristocratic and really contra-revolutionary
principles which he has avowed render him little fit to represent the
only government resembling ours.... I cannot repress the desire that
American and French principles should be in the heart and on the lips of
the ambassador of the United States in France." (1)
In addition to this; two successive Ministers from France, after the
fall of the Monarchy, conveyed to the American Government the most
earnest remonstrances against the continuance of Gouverneur Morris in
their country, one of them reciting the particular offences of which
he was guilty. The President's disregard of all these protests and
entreaties, unexampled perhaps in history, had the effect of giving
Gouverneur Morris enormous power over the country against which he
was intriguing. He was recognized as the Irremovable. He represented
Washington's fixed and unalterable determination, and this at a moment
when the main purpose of the revolutionary leaders was to preserve the
alliance with America. Robespierre at that time ( 1793) had special
charge of diplomatic affairs, and it is shown by the French historian,
Frédéric Masson, that he was very anxious to recover for the republic
the initiative of the American alliance credited to the king; and
"although their Minister, Gouverneur Morris, was justly suspected,
and the American republic was at that time aiming only to utilize the
condition of its ally, the French republic cleared it at a cheap rate of
its debts contracted with the King."(2) Morris adroitly held this
doubt, whether the alliance of his government with Louis XVI. would
be continued to that King's executioners, over the head of the
revolutionists, as a suspended sword. Under that menace, and with
the authentication of being Washington's irremovable mouthpiece, this
Minister had only to speak and it was done.
1 "Mémoire», etc., du General Lafayette," Bruxelles, 1837,
tome ii., pp. 484,485.
2 "Le Département des Affaires Étrangères pendant la
Révolution," p. 395.
Meanwhile Gouverneur Morris was steadily working in France for the
aim which he held in common with Robert Morris, namely to transfer the
alliance from France to England. These two nations being at war, it was
impossible for France to fulfil all the terms of the alliance; it could
not permit English ships alone to seize American provisions on the seas,
and it was compelled to prevent American vessels from leaving French
ports with cargoes certain of capture by British cruisers. In this way
a large number of American Captains with their ships were detained in
France, to their distress, but to their Minister's satisfaction. He did
not fail to note and magnify all "infractions" of the treaty, with the
hope that they might be the means of annulling it in favor of England,
and he did nothing to mitigate sufferings which were counts in his
indictment of the Treaty.
It was at this point that Paine came in the American Minister's way. He
had been on good terms with Gouverneur Morris, who in 1790 (May 29th)
wrote from London to the President:
"On the 17th Mr. Paine called to tell me that he had conversed on the
same subject [impressment of American seamen] with Mr. Burke, who had
asked him if there was any minister, consul, or other agent of the
United States who could properly make application to the Government: to
which he had replied in the negative; but said that I was here, who had
been a member of Congress, and was therefore the fittest person to step
forward. In consequence of what passed thereupon between them he [Paine]
urged me to take the matter up, which I promised to do. On the 18th I
wrote to the Duke of Leeds requesting an interview."
1 Force's "American State Papers, For. Rel.," vol. i.
At that time (1790) Paine was as yet a lion in London, thus able to
give Morris a lift. He told Morris, in 1792 that he considered his
appointment to France a mistake. This was only on the ground of his
anti-republican opinions; he never dreamed of the secret commissions
to England. He could not have supposed that the Minister who had so
promptly presented the case of impressed seamen in England would
not equally attend to the distressed Captains in France; but these,
neglected by their Minister, appealed to Paine. Paine went to see
Morris, with whom he had an angry interview, during which he asked
Morris "if he did not feel ashamed to take the money of the country
and do nothing for it." Paine thus incurred the personal enmity of
Gouverneur Morris. By his next step he endangered this Minister's
scheme for increasing the friction between France and America; for
Paine advised the Americans to appeal directly to the Convention, and
introduced them to that body, which at once heeded their application,
Morris being left out of the matter altogether. This was August 22d, and
Morris was very angry. It is probable that the Americans in Paris
felt from that time that Paine was in danger, for on September 13th a
memorial, evidently concocted by them, was sent to the French government
proposing that they should send Commissioners to the United States to
forestall the intrigues of England, and that Paine should go with them,
and set forth their case in the journals, as he "has great influence
with the people." This looks like a design to get Paine safely out of
the country, but it probably sealed his fate. Had Paine gone to America
and reported there Morris's treacheries to France and to his own
country, and his licentiousness, notorious in Paris, which his diary has
recently revealed to the world, the career of the Minister would have
swiftly terminated. Gouverneur Morris wrote to Robert Morris that
Paine was intriguing for his removal, and intimates that he (Paine) was
ambitious of taking his place in Paris. Paine's return to America must
be prevented.
Had the American Minister not been well known as an enemy of the
republic it might have been easy to carry Paine from the Convention to
the guillotine; but under the conditions the case required all of the
ingenuity even of a diplomatist so adroit as Gouverneur Morris. But fate
had played into his hand. It so happened that Louis Otto, whose letter
from Philadelphia has been quoted, had become chief secretary to the
Minister of Foreign Affairs in Paris, M. Deforgues. This Minister and
his Secretary, apprehending the fate that presently overtook both, were
anxious to be appointed to America. No one knew better than Otto the
commanding influence of Gouverneur Morris, as Washington's "irremovable"
representative, both in France and America, and this desire of the two
frightened officials to get out of France was confided to him.(1) By
hope of his aid, and by this compromising confidence, Deforgues came
under the power of a giant who used it like a giant. Morris at
once hinted that Paine was fomenting the troubles given by Genêt to
Washington in America, and thus set in motion the procedure by which
Paine was ultimately lodged in prison.
There being no charge against Paine in France, and no ill-will felt
towards him by Robespierre, compliance with the supposed will of
Washington was in this case difficult. Six months before, a law had been
passed to imprison aliens of hostile nationality, which could not affect
Paine, he being a member of the Convention and an American. But a decree
was passed, evidently to reach Paine, "that no foreigner should be
admitted to represent the French people"; by this he was excluded from
the Convention, and the Committee of General Surety enabled to take the
final step of assuming that he was an Englishman, and thus under the
decree against aliens of hostile nations.(2)
1 Letter of Gouverneur Morris to Washington, Oct 19, 1793.
Sparks's "Life of Gouverneur Morris," vol. ii., p. 375.
2 Although, as I have said, there was no charge against
Paine in France, and none assigned in any document connected
with his arrest, some kind of insinuation had to be made in
the Convention to cover proceedings against a Deputy, and
Bourdon de l'Oise said, "I know that he has intrigued with a
former agent of the bureau of Foreign Affairs." It will be
seen by the third addendum to the Memorial to Monroe that
Paine supposed this to refer to Louis Otto, who had been his
interpreter in an interview requested by Barère, of the
Committee of Public Safety. But as Otto was then, early in
September, 1793, Secretary in the Foreign Office, and Barère
a fellow-terrorist of Bourdon, there could be no accusation
based on an interview which, had it been probed, would have
put Paine's enemies to confusion. It is doubtful, however,
if Paine was right in his conjecture. The reference of
Bourdon was probably to the collusion between Paine and
Genêt suggested by Morris.
Paine was thus lodged in prison simply to please Washington, to whom
it was left to decide whether he had been rightly represented by his
Minister in the case. When the large number of Americans in Paris
hastened in a body to the Convention to demand his release, the
President (Vadier) extolled Paine, but said his birth in England brought
him under the measures of safety, and referred them to the Committees.
There they were told that "their reclamation was only the act of
individuals, without any authority from the American Government."
Unfortunately the American petitioners, not understanding by this a
reference to the President, unsuspiciously repaired to Morris, as
also did Paine by letter. The Minister pretended compliance, thereby
preventing their direct appeal to the President. Knowing, however, that
America would never agree that nativity under the British flag made
Paine any more than other Americans a citizen of England, the American
Minister came from Sain-port, where he resided, to Paris, and secured
from the obedient Deforgues a certificate that he had reclaimed Paine
as an American citizen, but that he was held as a _French_ citizen.
This ingeniously prepared certificate which was sent to the Secretary
of State (Jefferson), and Morris's pretended "reclamation," _which was
never sent to America_, are translated in my "Life of Paine," and here
given in the original.
À Paris le 14 février 1794, 26 pluviôse.
Le Minisire plénipotentiaire des États Unis de l'Amérique près la
République française au Ministre des Affaires Étrangères.
Monsieur:
Thomas Paine vient de s'adresser à moi pour que je le réclame comme
Citoyen des États Unis. Voici (je crois) les Faits que le regardent. Il
est né en Angleterre. Devenu ensuite Citoyen des États Unis il s'y
est acquise une grande célébrité par des Écrits révolutionnaires. En
consequence il fût adopté Citoyen français et ensuite élu membre de la
Convention. Sa conduite depuis cette époque n'est pas de mon ressort.
J'ignore la cause de sa Détention actuelle dans la prison du Luxembourg,
mais je vous prie Monsieur (si des raisons que ne me sont pas connues
s'opposent à sa liberation) de vouloir bien m'en instruire pour que je
puisse les communiquer au Gouvernement des États Unis. J'ai l'honneur
d'être, Monsieur,
Votre très humble Serviteur
Gouv. Morris.
Paris, i Ventôse l'An ad. de la République une et indivisible.
Le Ministre des Affaires Étrangères au Ministre Plénipotentiaire des
États Unis de V Amérique près la République Française.
Par votre lettre du 26 du mois dernier, vous réclamez la liberté de
Thomas Faine, comme Citoyen américain. Né en Angleterre, cet ex-deputé
est devenu successivement Citoyen Américain et Citoyen français. En
acceptant ce dernier titre et en remplissant une place dans le Corps
Législatif, il est soumis aux lob de la République et il a renoncé de
fait à la protection que le droit des gens et les traités conclus avec
les États Unis auraient pu lui assurer.
J'ignore les motifs de sa détention mais je dois présumer qûils bien
fondés. Je vois néanmoins soumettre au Comité de Salut Public la démande
que vous m'avez adressée et je m'empresserai de vous faire connaître sa
décision.
Dir ORGUBS. (1)
1 Archives of the Foreign Office, Paris, "États Unis," vol.
xl. Translations:--Morris: "Sir,--Thomas Paine has just
applied to me to claim him as a citizen of the United
States. Here (I believe) are the facts relating to him. He
was born in England. Having afterwards become a citizen of
the United States, he acquired great celebrity there by his
revolutionary writings. In consequence he was adopted a
French citizen and then elected Member of the Convention.
His conduct since this epoch is out of my jurisdiction. I am
ignorant of the reason for his present detention in the
Luxembourg prison, but I beg you, sir (if reasons unknown to
me prevent his liberation), be so good as to inform me, that
I may communicate them to the government of the United
States." Deporgurs: "By your letter of the 36th of last
month you reclaim the liberty of Thomas Paine as an American
citizen. Born in England, this ex-deputy has become
successively an American and a French citizen. In accepting
this last title, and in occupying a place in the Corps
Législatif he submitted himself to the laws of the Republic,
and has certainly renounced the protection which the law of
nations, and treaties concluded with the United States,
could have assured him. I am ignorant of the motives of his
detention, but I must presume they are well founded. I shall
nevertheless submit to the Committee of Public Safety the
demand you have addressed to me, and I shall lose no time in
letting you know its decision."
It will be seen that Deforgues begins his letter with a falsehood: "You
reclaim the liberty of Paine as an American citizen." Morris's letter
had declared him a French citizen out of his (the American Minister's)
"jurisdiction." Morris states for Deforgues his case, and it is
obediently adopted, though quite discordant with the decree, which
imprisoned Paine as a foreigner. Deforgues also makes Paine a member
of a non-existent body, the "Corps Législatif," which might suggest
in Philadelphia previous connection with the defunct Assembly. No such
inquiries as Deforgues promised, nor any, were ever made, and of course
none were intended. Morris had got from Deforgues the certificate he
needed to show in Philadelphia and to Americans in Paris. His pretended
"reclamation" was of course withheld: no copy of it ever reached America
till brought from French archives by the present writer. Morris does
not appear to have ventured even to keep a copy of it himself. The draft
(presumably in English), found among his papers by Sparks, alters the
fatal sentence which deprived Paine of his American citizenship and of
protection. "Res-sort"--jurisdiction--which has a definite technical
meaning in the mouth of a Minister, is changed to "cognizance"; the
sentence is made to read, "his conduct from that time has not come under
my cognizance." (Sparks's "Life of Gouverneur Morris," i., p. 401).
Even as it stands in his book, Sparks says: "The application, it must
be confessed, was neither pressing in its terms, nor cogent in its
arguments."
The American Minister, armed with this French missive, dictated by
himself, enclosed it to the Secretary of State, whom he supposed to be
still Jefferson, with a letter stating that he had reclaimed Paine as an
American, that he (Paine) was held to answer for "crimes," and that any
further attempt to release him would probably be fatal to the prisoner.
By these falsehoods, secured from detection by the profound secrecy of
the Foreign Offices in both countries, Morris paralyzed all interference
from America, as Washington could not of course intervene in behalf of
an American charged with "crimes" committed in a foreign country, except
to demand his trial. But it was important also to paralyze further
action by Americans in Paris, and to them, too, was shown the French
certificate of a reclamation never made. A copy was also sent to Paine,
who returned to Morris an argument which he entreated him to embody in
a further appeal to the French Minister. This document was of course
buried away among the papers of Morris, who never again mentioned Paine
in any communication to the French government, but contented himself
with personal slanders of his victim in private letters to Washington's
friend, Robert Morris, and no doubt others. I quote Sparks's summary of
the argument unsuspectingly sent by Paine to Morris:
"He first proves himself to have been an American citizen, a character
of which he affirms no subsequent act had deprived him. The title of
French citizen was a mere nominal and honorary one, which the
Convention chose to confer, when they asked him to help them in making a
Constitution. But let the nature or honor of the title be what it might,
the Convention had taken it away of their own accord. 'He was
excluded from the Convention on the motion for excluding _foreigners_.
Consequently he was no longer under the law of the Republic as a
_citizen_, but under the protection of the Treaty of Alliance, as fully
and effectually as any other citizen of America. It was therefore the
duty of the American Minister to demand his release.'"
To this Sparks adds:
"Such is the drift of Paine's argument, and it would seem indeed that
he could not be a foreigner and a citizen at the same time. It was hard
that his only privilege of citizenship should be that of imprisonment.
But this logic was a little too refined for the revolutionary tribunals
of the Jacobins in Paris, and Mr. Morris well knew it was not worth
while to preach it to them. He did not believe there was any serious
design at that time against the life of the prisoner, and he considered
his best chance of safety to be in preserving silence for the present.
Here the matter rested, and Paine was left undisturbed till the arrival
of Mr. Monroe, who procured his discharge from confinement." ("Life of
Gouverneur Morris," i., p. 417.)l
Sparks takes the gracious view of the man whose Life he was writing, but
the facts now known turn his words to sarcasm. The Terror by which Paine
suffered was that of Morris, who warned him and his friends, both in
Paris and America, that if his case was stirred the knife would fall
on him. Paine declares (see xx.) that this danger kept him silent till
after the fall of Robespierre. None knew so well as Morris that
there were no charges against Paine for offences in France, and that
Robespierre was awaiting that action by Washington which he (Morris) had
rendered impossible. Having thus suspended the knife over Paine for six
months, Robespierre interpreted the President's silence, and that
of Congress, as confirmation of Morris's story, and resolved on the
execution of Paine "in the interests of America as well as of France";
in other words to conciliate Washington to the endangered alliance with
France.
Paine escaped the guillotine by the strange accident related in a
further chapter. The fall of Robespierre did not of course end his
imprisonment, for he was not Robespierre's but Washington's prisoner.
Morris remained Minister in France nearly a month after Robespierre's
death, but the word needed to open Paine's prison was not spoken.
After his recall, had Monroe been able at once to liberate Paine, an
investigation must have followed, and Morris would probably have taken
his prisoner's place in the Luxembourg. But Morris would not present his
letters of recall, and refused to present his successor, thus keeping
Monroe out of his office four weeks. In this he was aided by Bourdon
de l'Oise (afterwards banished as a royalist conspirator, but now a
commissioner to decide on prisoners); also by tools of Robespierre who
had managed to continue on the Committee of Public Safety by laying
their crimes on the dead scapegoat--Robespierre. Against Barère (who had
signed Paine's death-warrant), Billaud-Varennes, and Colloit d'Her-bois,
Paine, if liberated, would have been a terrible witness. The Committee
ruled by them had suppressed Paine's appeal to the Convention, as they
presently suppressed Monroe's first appeal. Paine, knowing that Monroe
had arrived, but never dreaming that the manoeuvres of Morris were
keeping him out of office, wrote him from prison the following letters,
hitherto unpublished.
1 There is no need to delay the reader here with any
argument about Paine's unquestionable citizenship, that
point having been settled by his release as an American, and
the sanction of Monroe's action by his government. There was
no genuineness in any challenge of Paine's citizenship, but
a mere desire to do him an injury. In this it had marvellous
success. Ten years after Paine had been reclaimed by Monroe,
with the sanction of Washington, as an American citizen, his
vote was refused at New Rochelle, New York, by the
supervisor, Elisha Ward, on the ground that Washington and
Morris had refused to Declaim him. Under his picture of the
dead Paine, Jarvis, the artist, wrote: "A man who devoted
his whole life to the attainment of two objects--rights of
man, and freedom of conscience--had his vote denied when
living, and was denied a grave when dead."--_Editor._
August 17th, 1794.
My Dear Sir: As I believe none of the public papers have announced your
name right I am unable to address you by it, but a _new_ minister from
America is joy to me and will be so to every American in France.
Eight months I have been imprisoned, and I know not for what, except
that the order says that I am a Foreigner. The Illness I have suffered
in this place (and from which I am but just recovering) had nearly put
an end to my existence. My life is but of little value to me in
this situation tho' I have borne it with a firmness of patience and
fortitude.
I enclose you a copy of a letter, (as well the translation as the
English)--which I sent to the Convention after the fall of the Monster
Robespierre--for I was determined not to write a line during the time of
his detestable influence. I sent also a copy to the Committee of public
safety--but I have not heard any thing respecting it. I have now
no expectation of delivery but by your means--_Morris has been my
inveterate enemy_ and I think he has permitted something of the national
Character of America to suffer by quietly letting a Citizen of that
Country remain almost eight months in prison without making every
official exertion to procure him justice,--for every act of violence
offered to a foreigner is offered also to the Nation to which he
belongs.
The gentleman, Mr. Beresford, who will present you this has been very
friendly to me.(1) Wishing you happiness in your appointment, I am your
affectionate friend and humble servant.
August 18th, 1794.
Dear Sir: In addition to my letter of yesterday (sent to Mr. Beresford
to be conveyed to you but which is delayed on account of his being at
St. Germain) I send the following memoranda.
I was in London at the time I was elected a member of this Convention.
I was elected a Deputé in four different departments without my knowing
any thing of the matter, or having the least idea of it. The intention
of electing the Convention before the time of the former Legislature
expired, was for the purpose of reforming the Constitution or rather for
forming a new one. As the former Legislature shewed a disposition that
I should assist in this business of the new Constitution, they prepared
the way by voting me a French Citoyen (they conferred the same title
on General Washington and certainly I had no more idea than he had of
vacating any part of my real Citizenship of America for a nominal one in
France, especially at a time when she did not know whether she would
be a Nation or not, and had it not even in her power to promise me
protection). I was elected (the second person in number of Votes, the
Abbé Sieves being first) a member for forming the Constitution, and
every American in Paris as well as my other acquaintance knew that it
was my intention to return to America as soon as the Constitution should
be established. The violence of Party soon began to shew itself in the
Convention, but it was impossible for me to see upon what principle they
differed--unless it was a contention for power. I acted however as I
did in America, I connected myself with no Party, but considered myself
altogether a National Man--but the case with Parties generally is that
when you are not with one you are supposed to be with the other.
1 A friendly lamp-lighter, alluded to in the Letter to
Washington, conveyed this letter to Mr. Beresford.--
_Editor._
I was taken out of bed between three and four in the morning on the
28 of December last, and brought to the Luxembourg--without any other
accusation inserted in the order than that I was a foreigner; a motion
having been made two days before in the Convention to expel Foreigners
therefrom. I certainly then remained, even upon their own tactics, what
I was before, a Citizen of America.
About three weeks after my imprisonment the Americans that were in Paris
went to the bar of the Convention to reclaim me, but contrary to my
advice, they made their address into a Petition, and it miscarried.
I then applied to G. Morris, to reclaim me as an official part of his
duty, which he found it necessary to do, and here the matter stopt.(1)
I have not heard a single line or word from any American since, which
is now seven months. I rested altogether on the hope that a new Minister
would arrive from America. I have escaped with life from more dangers
than one. Had it not been for the fall of Roberspierre and your timely
arrival I know not what fate might have yet attended me. There seemed to
be a determination to destroy all the Prisoners without regard to merit,
character, or any thing else. During the time I laid at the height of my
illness they took, in one night only, 169 persons out of this prison
and executed all but eight. The distress that I have suffered at being
obliged to exist in the midst of such horrors, exclusive of my own
precarious situation, suspended as it were by the single thread of
accident, is greater than it is possible you can conceive--but thank God
times are at last changed, and I hope that your Authority will release
me from this unjust imprisonment.
1 The falsehood told Paine, accompanied by an intimation of
danger in pursuing the pretended reclamation, was of course
meant to stop any farther action by Paine or his friends.--
_Editor._.
August 25, 1794.
My Dear Sir: Having nothing to do but to sit and think, I will write
to pass away time, and to say that I am still here. I have received two
notes from Mr. Beresford which are encouraging (as the generality of
notes and letters are that arrive to persons here) but they contain
nothing explicit or decisive with respect to my liberation, and _I
shall be very glad to receive a line from yourself to inform me in what
condition the matter stands_. If I only glide out of prison by a sort
of accident America gains no credit by my liberation, neither can my
attachment to her be increased by such a circumstance. She has had the
services of my best days, she has my allegiance, she receives my portion
of Taxes for my house in Borden Town and my farm at New Rochelle, and
she owes me protection both at home and thro' her Ministers abroad, yet
I remain in prison, in the face of her Minister, at the arbitrary will
of a committee.
Excluded as I am from the knowledge of everything and left to a random
of ideas, I know not what to think or how to act. Before there was
any Minister here (for I consider Morris as none) and while the
Robespierrian faction lasted, I had nothing to do but to keep my mind
tranquil and expect the fate that was every day inflicted upon my
comrades, not individually but by scores. Many a man whom I have passed
an hour with in conversation I have seen marching to his destruction the
next hour, or heard of it the next morning; for what rendered the scene
more horrible was that they were generally taken away at midnight, so
that every man went to bed with the apprehension of never seeing his
friends or the world again.
I wish to impress upon you that all the changes that have taken place in
Paris have been sudden. There is now a moment of calm, but if thro' any
over complaisance to the persons you converse with on the subject of my
liberation, you omit procuring it for me _now_, you may have to lament
the fate of your friend when its too late. The loss of a Battle to the
Northward or other possible accident may happen to bring this about. I
am not out of danger till I am out of Prison.
Yours affectionately.
P. S.--I am now entirely without money. The Convention owes me 1800
livres salary which I know not how to get while I am here, nor do I know
how to draw for money on the rent of my farm in America. It is under
the care of my good friend General Lewis Morris. I have received no rent
since I have been in Europe.
[Addressed] Minister Plenipotentiary from America, Maison des Étrangers,
Rue de la Loi, Rue Richelieu.
Such was the sufficiently cruel situation when there reached Paine in
prison, September 4th, the letter of Peter Whiteside which caused him
to write his Memorial. Whiteside was a Philadelphian whose bankruptcy in
London had swallowed up some of Paine's means. His letter, reporting to
Paine that he was not regarded by the American Government or people as
an American citizen, and that no American Minister could interfere in
his behalf, was evidently inspired by Morris who was still in Paris, the
authorities being unwilling to give him a passport to Switzerland,
as they knew he was going in that direction to join the conspirators
against France. This Whiteside letter put Paine, and through him Monroe,
on a false scent by suggesting that the difficulty of his case lay in a
_bona fide_ question of citizenship, whereas there never had been really
any such question. The knot by which Morris had bound Paine was thus
concealed, and Monroe was appealing to polite wolves in the interest of
their victim. There were thus more delays, inexplicable alike to Monroe
and to Paine, eliciting from the latter some heartbroken letters, not
hitherto printed, which I add at the end of the Memorial. To add to
the difficulties and dangers, Paris was beginning to be agitated by
well-founded rumors of Jay's injurious negotiations in England, and a
coldness towards Monroe was setting in. Had Paine's release been delayed
much longer an American Minister's friendship might even have proved
fatal. Of all this nothing could be known to Paine, who suffered agonies
he had not known during the Reign of Terror. The other prisoners of
Robespierre's time had departed; he alone paced the solitary corridors
of the Luxembourg, chilled by the autumn winds, his cell tireless, unlit
by any candle, insufficiently nourished, an abscess forming in his side;
all this still less cruel than the feeling that he was abandoned, not
only by Washington but by all America.
This is the man of whom Washington wrote to Madison nine years before:
"Must the merits and services of 'Common Sense' continue to glide down
the stream of time unrewarded by this country?" This, then, is his
reward. To his old comrade in the battle-fields of Liberty, George
Washington, Paine owed his ten months of imprisonment, at the end of
which Monroe found him a wreck, and took him (November 4) to his own
house, where he and his wife nursed him back into life. But it was not
for some months supposed that Paine could recover; it was only after
several relapses; and it was under the shadow of death that he wrote the
letter to Washington so much and so ignorantly condemned. Those who have
followed the foregoing narrative will know that Paine's grievances were
genuine, that his infamous treatment stains American history; but they
will also know that they lay chiefly at the door of a treacherous and
unscrupulous American Minister.
Yet it is difficult to find an excuse for the retention of that Minister
in France by Washington. On Monroe's return to America in 1797, he
wrote a pamphlet concerning the mission from which he had been curtly
recalled, in which he said:
"I was persuaded from Mr. Morris's known political character and
principles, that his appointment, and especially at a period when the
French nation was in a course of revolution from an arbitrary to a free
government, would tend to discountenance the republican cause there
and at home, and otherwise weaken, and greatly to our prejudice, the
connexion subsisting between the two countries."
In a copy of this pamphlet found at Mount Vernon, Washington wrote on
the margin of this sentence:
"Mr. Morris was known to be a man of first rate abilities; and his
integrity and honor had never been impeached. Besides, Mr. Morris was
sent whilst the kingly government was in existence, ye end of 91 or
beginning of 92." (1)
But this does not explain why Gouverneur Morris was persistently kept in
France after monarchy was abolished (September 21, 1792), or even after
Lafayette's request for his removal, already quoted. To that letter
of Lafayette no reply has been discovered. After the monarchy was
abolished, Ternant and Genêt successively carried to America protests
from their Foreign Office against the continuance of a Minister in
France, who was known in Paris, and is now known to all acquainted with
his published papers, to have all along made his office the headquarters
of British intrigue against France, American interests being quite
subordinated. Washington did not know this, but he might have known it,
and his disregard of French complaints can hardly be ascribed to any
other cause than his delusion that Morris was deeply occupied with
the treaty negotiations confided to him. It must be remembered that
Washington believed such a treaty with England to be the alternative of
war.(2) On that apprehension the British party in America, and British
agents, played to the utmost, and under such influences Washington
sacrificed many old friendships,--with Jefferson, Madison, Monroe,
Edmund Randolph, Paine,--and also the confidence of his own State,
Virginia.
1 Washington's marginal notes on Monroe's "View, etc.,"
were first fully given in Ford's "Writings of Washington,"
vol. xiii., p. 452, seq.
2 Ibid., p. 453.
There is a traditional impression that Paine's angry letter to
Washington was caused by the President's failure to inter-pose for
his relief from prison. But Paine believed that the American Minister
(Morris) had reclaimed him in some feeble fashion, as an American
citizen, and he knew that the President had officially approved Monroe's
action in securing his release. His grievance was that Washington, whose
letters of friendship he cherished, who had extolled his services to
America, should have manifested no concern personally, made no use of
his commanding influence to rescue him from daily impending death, sent
to his prison no word of kindness or inquiry, and sent over their mutual
friend Monroe without any instructions concerning him; and finally, that
his private letter, asking explanation, remained unanswered. No doubt
this silence of Washington concerning the fate of Paine, whom he
acknowledged to be an American citizen, was mainly due to his fear
of offending England, which had proclaimed Paine. The "outlaw's"
imprisonment in Paris caused jubilations among the English gentry,
and went on simultaneously with Jay's negotiations in London, when any
expression by Washington of sympathy with Paine (certain of publication)
might have imperilled the Treaty, regarded by the President as vital.
So anxious was the President about this, that what he supposed had been
done for Paine by Morris, and what had really been done by Monroe,
was kept in such profound secrecy, that even his Secretary of State,
Pickering, knew nothing of it. This astounding fact I recently
discovered in the manuscripts of that Secretary.(1) Colonel Pickering,
while flattering enough to the President in public, despised his
intellect, and among his papers is a memorandum concluding as follows:
"But when the hazards of the Revolutionary War had ended, by the
establishment of our Independence, why was the knowledge of General
Washington's comparatively defective mental powers not freely divulged?
Why, even by the enemies of his civil administration were his abilities
very tenderly glanced at? --Because there were few, if any men, who
did not revere him for his distinguished virtues; his modesty--his
unblemished integrity, his pure and disinterested patriotism. These
virtues, of infinitely more value than exalted abilities without them,
secured to him the veneration and love of his fellow citizens at large.
Thus immensely popular, no man was willing to publish, under his hand,
even the simple truth. The only exception, that I recollect, was the
infamous Tom Paine; and this when in France, after he had escaped the
guillotine of Robespierre; and in resentment, because, after he had
participated in the French Revolution, President Washington seemed
not to have thought him so very important a character in the world,
as officially to interpose for his relief from the fangs of the French
ephemeral Rulers. In a word, no man, however well informed, was willing
to hazard his own popularity by exhibiting the real intellectual
character of the immensely popular Washington."
1 Massachusetts Historical Society, vol. 11., p. 171.
How can this ignorance of an astute man, Secretary of State under
Washington and Adams, be explained? Had Washington hidden the letters
showing on their face that he _had_ "officially interposed" for Paine by
two Ministers?
Madison, writing to Monroe, April 7, 1796, says that Pickering had
spoken to him "in harsh terms" of a letter written by Paine to the
President. This was a private letter of September 20, 1795, afterwards
printed in Paine's public Letter to Washington. The Secretary certainly
read that letter on its arrival, January 18, 1796, and yet Washington
does not appear to have told him of what had been officially done in
Paine's case! Such being the secrecy which Washington had carried from
the camp to the cabinet, and the morbid extent of it while the British
Treaty was in negotiation and discussion, one can hardly wonder at his
silence under Paine's private appeal and public reproach.
Much as Pickering hated Paine, he declares him the only man who ever
told the simple truth about Washington. In the lapse of time historical
research, while removing the sacred halo of Washington, has revealed
beneath it a stronger brain than was then known to any one. Paine
published what many whispered, while they were fawning on Washington for
office, or utilizing his power for partisan ends. Washington, during his
second administration, when his mental decline was remarked by
himself, by Jefferson, and others, was regarded by many of his eminent
contemporaries as fallen under the sway of small partisans. Not only
was the influence of Jefferson, Madison, Randolph, Monroe, Livingston,
alienated, but the counsels of Hamilton were neutralized by Wolcott and
Pickering, who apparently agreed about the President's "mental powers."
Had not Paine previously incurred the _odium theologicum_, his pamphlet
concerning Washington would have been more damaging; even as it was, the
verdict was by no means generally favorable to the President, especially
as the replies to Paine assumed that Washington had indeed failed to
try and rescue him from impending death.(1) A pamphlet written by Bache,
printed anonymously (1797), Remarks occasioned by the late conduct of
Mr. Washington, indicates the belief of those who raised Washington to
power, that both Randolph and Paine had been sacrificed to please Great
Britain.
The _Bien-informé_ (Paris, November 12, 1797) published a letter from
Philadelphia, which may find translation here as part of the history of
the pamphlet:
"The letter of Thomas Paine to General Washington is read here with
avidity. We gather from the English papers that the Cabinet of St James
has been unable to stop the circulation of that pamphlet in England,
since it is allowable to reprint there any English work already
published elsewhere, however disagreeable to Messrs. Pitt and Dundas.
We read in the letter to Washington that Robespierre had declared to
the Committee of Public Safety that it was desirable in the interests
of both France and America that Thomas Paine, who, for seven or eight
months had been kept a prisoner in the Luxembourg, should forthwith be
brought up for judgment before the revolutionary tribunal. The proof of
this fact is found in Robespierre's papers, and gives ground for strange
suspicions."
1 The principal ones were "A Letter to Thomas Paine. By an
American Citizen. New York, 1797," and "A Letter to the
infamous Tom Paine, in answer to his Letter to General
Washington. December 1796. By Peter Porcupine" (Cobbett).
Writing to David Stuart, January 8,1797, Washington,
speaking of himself in the third person, says: "Although
he is soon to become a private citizen, his opinions are to
be knocked down, and his character traduced as low as they
are capable of sinking it, even by resorting to absolute
falsehoods. As an evidence whereof, and of the plan they are
pursuing, I send you a letter of Mr. Paine to me, printed in
this city and disseminated with great industry. Enclosed you
will receive also a production of Peter Porcupine, alias
William Cobbett. Making allowances for the asperity of an
Englishman, for some of his strong and coarse expressions,
and a want of official information as to many facts, it is
not a bad thing." The "many facts" were, of course, the
action of Monroe, and the supposed action of Morris in
Paris, but not even to one so intimate as Stuart are these
disclosed.
"It was long believed that Paine had returned to America with his friend
James Monroe, and the lovers of freedom [there] congratulated themselves
on being able to embrace that illustrious champion of the Rights of Man.
Their hopes have been frustrated. We know positively that Thomas Paine
is still living in France. The partizans of the late presidency [in
America] also know it well, yet they have spread a rumor that after
actually arriving he found his (really popular) _principles no longer
the order of the day_, and thought best to re-embark.
"The English journals, while repeating this idle rumor, observed that it
was unfounded, and that Paine had not left France. Some French journals
have copied these London paragraphs, but without comments; so that at
the very moment when Thomas Paine's Letter on the 18th. Fructidor is
published, _La Clef du Cabinet_ says that this citizen is suffering
unpleasantness in America."
Paine had intended to return with Monroe, in the spring of 1797, but,
suspecting the Captain and a British cruiser in the distance, returned
from Havre to Paris. The packet was indeed searched by the cruiser
for Paine, and, had he been captured, England would have executed the
sentence pronounced by Robespierre to please Washington.
MEMORIAL ADDRESSED TO JAMES MONROE,
MINISTER FROM THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.
Prison of the Luxembourg, Sept. 10th, 1794.
I address this memorial to you, in consequence of a letter I received
from a friend, 18 Fructidor (September 4th,) in which he says, "Mr.
Monroe has told me, that he has no orders [meaning from the American
government] respecting you; but I am sure he will leave nothing
undone to liberate you; but, from what I can learn, from all the late
Americans, you are not considered either by the Government, or by
the individuals, as an American citizen. You have been made a french
Citizen, which you have accepted, and you have further made yourself
a servant of the french Republic; and, therefore, it would be out
of character for an American Minister to interfere in their internal
concerns. You must therefore either be liberated out of Compliment to
America, or stand your trial, which you have a right to demand."
This information was so unexpected by me, that I am at a loss how to
answer it. I know not on what principle it originates; whether from an
idea that I had voluntarily abandoned my Citizenship of America for that
of France, or from any article of the American Constitution applied to
me. The first is untrue with respect to any intention on my part; and
the second is without foundation, as I shall shew in the course of this
memorial.
The idea of conferring honor of Citizenship upon foreigners, who had
distinguished themselves in propagating the principles of liberty and
humanity, in opposition to despotism, war, and bloodshed, was first
proposed by me to La Fayette, at the commencement of the french
revolution, when his heart appeared to be warmed with those principles.
My motive in making this proposal, was to render the people of different
nations more fraternal than they had been, or then were. I observed that
almost every branch of Science had possessed itself of the exercise
of this right, so far as it regarded its own institution. Most of the
Academies and Societies in Europe, and also those of America, conferred
the rank of honorary member, upon foreigners eminent in knowledge, and
made them, in fact, citizens of their literary or scientific republic,
without affecting or anyways diminishing their rights of citizenship
in their own country or in other societies: and why the Science of
Government should not have the same advantage, or why the people of
one nation should not, by their representatives, exercise the right of
conferring the honor of Citizenship upon individuals eminent in another
nation, without affecting _their_ rights of citizenship, is a problem
yet to be solved.
I now proceed to remark on that part of the letter, in which the writer
says, that, _from what he can learn from all the late Americans, I
am not considered in America, either by the Government or by the
individuals, as an American citizen_.
In the first place I wish to ask, what is here meant by the Government
of America? The members who compose the Government are only individuals,
when in conversation, and who, most probably, hold very different
opinions upon the subject. Have Congress as a body made any declaration
respecting me, that they now no longer consider me as a citizen? If they
have not, anything they otherwise say is no more than the opinion
of individuals, and consequently is not legal authority, nor anyways
sufficient authority to deprive any man of his Citizenship. Besides,
whether a man has forfeited his rights of Citizenship, is a question not
determinable by Congress, but by a Court of Judicature and a Jury; and
must depend upon evidence, and the application of some law or article of
the Constitution to the case. No such proceeding has yet been had, and
consequently I remain a Citizen until it be had, be that decision what
it may; for there can be no such thing as a suspension of rights in the
interim.
I am very well aware, and always was, of the article of the Constitution
which says, as nearly as I can recollect the words, that "any citizen
of the United States, who shall accept any title, place, or office, from
any foreign king, prince, or state, shall forfeit and lose his right of
Citizenship of the United States."
Had the Article said, that _any citizen of the United States, who shall
be a member of any foreign convention, for the purpose of forming a free
constitution, shall forfeit and lose the right of citizenship of the
United States_, the article had been directly applicable to me; but
the idea of such an article never could have entered the mind of the
American Convention, and the present article _is_ altogether foreign
to the case with respect to me. It supposes a Government in active
existence, and not a Government dissolved; and it supposes a citizen of
America accepting titles and offices under that Government, and not a
citizen of America who gives his assistance in a Convention chosen by
the people, for the purpose of forming a Government _de nouveau_ founded
on their authority.
The late Constitution and Government of France was dissolved the 10th of
August, 1792. The National legislative Assembly then in being, supposed
itself without sufficient authority to continue its sittings, and it
proposed to the departments to elect not another legislative Assembly,
but a Convention for the express purpose of forming a new Constitution.
When the Assembly were discoursing on this matter, some of the members
said, that they wished to gain all the assistance possible upon the
subject of free constitutions; and expressed a wish to elect and invite
foreigners of any Nation to the Convention, who had distinguished
themselves in defending, explaining, and propagating the principles
of liberty. It was on this occasion that my name was mentioned in the
Assembly. (I was then in England.)
1 In the American pamphlet a footnote, probably added by
Bache, here says: "Even this article does not exist in the
manner here stated." It is a pity Paine did not have in his
prison the article, which says: "No person holding any
office of profit or trust under them [the United States]
shall, without the consent of Congress, accept of any
present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever,
from any king, prince, or foreign State."--_Editor._
After this, a deputation from a body of the french people, in order
to remove any objection that might be made against my assisting at the
proposed Convention, requested the Assembly, as their representatives,
to give me the title of French Citizen; after which, I was elected a
member of the Convention, in four different departments, as is already
known.(1)
The case, therefore, is, that I accepted nothing from any king,
prince, or state, nor from any Government: for France was without any
Government, except what arose from common consent, and the necessity of
the case. Neither did I _make myself a servant of the french Republic_,
as the letter alluded to expresses; for at that time France was not a
republic, not even in name. She was altogether a people in a state of
revolution.
It was not until the Convention met that France was declared a republic,
and monarchy abolished; soon after which a committee was elected, of
which I was a member,(2) to form a Constitution, which was presented to
the Convention [and read by Condorcet, who was also a member] the
15th and 16th of February following, but was not to be taken into
consideration till after the expiration of two months,(3) and if
approved of by the Convention, was then to be referred to the people for
their acceptance, with such additions or amendments as the Convention
should make.
1 The deputation referred to was described as the
"Commission Extraordinaire," in whose name M. Guadet moved
that the title of French Citizen be conferred on Priestley,
Paine, Bentham, Wilberforce, Clarkson, Mackintosh, David
Williams, Cormelle, Paw, Pestalozzi, Washington, Madison,
Hamilton, Klopstock, Koscinsko, Gorani, Campe, Anacharsis
Clootz, Gilleers. This was on August 26, and Paine was
elected by Calais on September 6,1792; and in the same week
by Oise, Somme, and Puy-de-Dome.--_Editor._
2 Sieves, Paine, Brissot, Pétion, Vergniaud, Gensonne,
Barère, Danton, Condorcet.--_Editor._
3 The remainder of this sentence is replaced in the American
pamphlet by the following: "The disorders and the
revolutionary government that took place after this put a
stop to any further progress upon the case."--_Editor._
In thus employing myself upon the formation of a Constitution, I
certainly did nothing inconsistent with the American Constitution. I
took no oath of allegiance to France, or any other oath whatever. I
considered the Citizenship they had presented me with as an honorary
mark of respect paid to me not only as a friend to liberty, but as
an American Citizen. My acceptance of that, or of the deputyship, not
conferred on me by any king, prince, or state, but by a people in a
state of revolution and contending for liberty, required no transfer of
my allegiance or of my citizenship from America to France. There I was
a real citizen, paying Taxes; here, I was a voluntary friend, employing
myself on a temporary service. Every American in Paris knew that it was
my constant intention to return to America, as soon as a constitution
should be established, and that I anxiously waited for that event.
I know not what opinions have been circulated in America. It may have
been supposed there that I had voluntarily and intentionally abandoned
America, and that my citizenship had ceased by my own choice. I can
easily [believe] there are those in that country who would take such
a proceeding on my part somewhat in disgust. The idea of forsaking
old friendships for new acquaintances is not agreeable. I am a little
warranted in making this supposition by a letter I received some time
ago from the wife of one of the Georgia delegates in which she says
"Your friends on this side the water cannot be reconciled to the idea of
your abandoning America."
I have never abandoned her in thought, word or deed; and I feel it
incumbent upon me to give this assurance to the friends I have in that
country and with whom I have always intended and am determined, if the
possibility exists, to close the scene of my life. It is there that I
have made myself a home. It is there that I have given the services of
my best days. America never saw me flinch from her cause in the most
gloomy and perilous of her situations; and I know there are those in
that country who will not flinch from me. If I have enemies (and every
man has some) I leave them to the enjoyment of their ingratitude.*
* I subjoin in a note, for the sake of wasting the solitude
of a prison, the answer that I gave to the part of the
letter above mentioned. It is not inapplacable to the
subject of this Memorial; but it contain! somewhat of a
melancholy idea, a little predictive, that I hope is not
becoming true so soon.
It is somewhat extraordinary that the idea of my not being a citizen
of America should have arisen only at the time that I am imprisoned
in France because, or on the pretence that, I am a foreigner. The case
involves a strange contradiction of ideas. None of the Americans who
came to France whilst I was in liberty had conceived any such idea or
circulated any such opinion; and why it should arise now is a matter
yet to be explained. However discordant the late American Minister G. M.
[Gouverneur Morris] and the late French Committee of Public Safety were,
it suited the purpose of both that I should be continued in arrestation.
The former wished to prevent my return to America, that I should not
expose his misconduct; and the latter, lest I should publish to the
world the history of its wickedness. Whilst that Minister and the
Committee continued I had no expectation of liberty. I speak here of the
Committee of which Robespierre was member.(1)
"You touch me on a very tender point when you say that my
friends on your side the water cannot be reconciled to the
idea of my abandoning America. They are right. I had rather
see my horse Button eating the grass of Borden-Town or
Morrisania than see all the pomp and show of Europe.
"A thousand years hence (for I must indulge a few thoughts)
perhaps in less, America may be what Europe now is. The
innocence of her character, that won the hearts of all
nations in her favour, may sound like a romance and her
inimitable virtue as if it had never been. The ruin of that
liberty which thousands bled for or struggled to obtain may
just furnish materials for a village tale or extort a sigh
from rustic sensibility, whilst the fashionable of that day,
enveloped in dissipation, shall deride the principle and
deny the fact.
"When we contemplate the fall of Empires and the extinction
of the nations of the Ancient World, we see but little to
excite our regret than the mouldering ruins of pompous
palaces, magnificent museums, lofty pyramids and walls and
towers of the most costly workmanship; but when the Empire
of America shall fall, the subject for contemplative sorrow
will be infinitely greater than crumbling brass and marble
can inspire. It will not then be said, here stood a temple
of vast antiquity; here rose a babel of invisible height;
or there a palace of sumptuous extravagance; but here, Ah,
painful thought! the noblest work of human wisdom, the
grandest scene of human glory, the fair cause of Freedom
rose and fell. Read this, and then ask if I forget
America."--Author.
1 This letter, quoted also in Paine's Letter to Washington,
was written from London, Jan. 6, 1789, to the wife of Col.
Few, née Kate Nicholson. It is given in full in my "Life of
Paine," i., p. 247.--_Editor._
THE MEMORIAL TO MONROE.
I ever must deny, that the article of the American constitution
already mentioned, can be applied either verbally, intentionally,
or constructively, to me. It undoubtedly was the intention of the
Convention that framed it, to preserve the purity of the American
republic from being debased by foreign and foppish customs; but it never
could be its intention to act against the principles of liberty, by
forbidding its citizens to assist in promoting those principles in
foreign Countries; neither could it be its intention to act against
the principles of gratitude.(1) France had aided America in the
establishment of her revolution, when invaded and oppressed by England
and her auxiliaries. France in her turn was invaded and oppressed by a
combination of foreign despots. In this situation, I conceived it an act
of gratitude in me, as a citizen of America, to render her in return the
best services I could perform. I came to France (for I was in England
when I received the invitation) not to enjoy ease, emoluments, and
foppish honours, as the article supposes; but to encounter difficulties
and dangers in defence of liberty; and I much question whether those who
now malignantly seek (for some I believe do) to turn this to my injury,
would have had courage to have done the same thing. I am sure Gouverneur
Morris would not. He told me the second day after my arrival, (in
Paris,) that the Austrians and Prussians, who were then at Verdun,
would be in Paris in a fortnight. I have no idea, said he, that seventy
thousand disciplined troops can be stopped in their march by any power
in France.
1 This and the two preceding paragraphs, including the
footnote, are entirely omitted from the American pamphlet.
It will be seen that Paine had now a suspicion of the
conspiracy between Gouverneur Morris and those by whom he
was imprisoned. Soon after his imprisonment he had applied
to Morris, who replied that he had reclaimed him, and
enclosed the letter of Deforgues quoted in my Introduction
to this chapter, of course withholding his own letter to the
Minister. Paine answered (Feb. 14, 1793): "You must not
leave me in the situation in which this letter places me.
You know I do not deserve it, and you see the unpleasant
situation in which I am thrown. I have made an answer to the
Minister's letter, which I wish you to make ground of a
reply to him. They have nothing against me--except that they
do not choose I should lie in a state of freedom to write my
mind freely upon things I have seen. Though you and I are
not on terms of the best harmony, I apply to you as the
Minister of America, and you may add to that service
whatever you think my integrity deserves. At any rate I
expect you to make Congress acquainted with my situation,
and to send them copies of the letters that have passed on
the subject. A reply to the Minister's letter is absolutely
necessary, were it only to continue the reclamation.
Otherwise your silence will be a sort of consent to his
observations." Deforgues' "observations" having been
dictated by Morris himself, no reply was sent to him, and no
word to Congress.--_Editor_.
2 In the pamphlet this last clause of the sentence is
omitted.--_Editor._.
Besides the reasons I have already given for accepting the invitations
to the Convention, I had another that has reference particularly to
America, and which I mentioned to Mr. Pinckney the night before I left
London to come to Paris: "That it was to the interest of America that
the system of European governments should be changed and placed on the
same principle with her own." Mr. Pinckney agreed fully in the same
opinion. I have done my part towards it.(1)
It is certain that governments upon similar systems agree better
together than those that are founded on principles discordant with each
other; and the same rule holds good with respect to the people living
under them. In the latter case they offend each other by pity, or by
reproach; and the discordancy carries itself to matters of commerce. I
am not an ambitious man, but perhaps I have been an ambitious American.
I have wished to see America the _Mother Church_ of government, and I
have done my utmost to exalt her character and her condition.
1 In the American pamphlet the name of Pinckney (American
Minister in England) is left blank in this paragraph, and
the two concluding sentences are omitted from both the
French and American pamphlets.--_Editor._,
I have now stated sufficient matter, to shew that the Article in
question is not applicable to me; and that any such application to my
injury, as well in circumstances as in Rights, is contrary both to
the letter and intention of that Article, and is illegal and
unconstitutional. Neither do I believe that any Jury in America, when
they are informed of the whole of the case, would give a verdict to
deprive me of my Rights upon that Article. The citizens of America,
I believe, are not very fond of permitting forced and indirect
explanations to be put upon matters of this kind. I know not what were
the merits of the case with respect to the person who was prosecuted for
acting as prize master to a french privateer, but I know that the jury
gave a verdict against the prosecution. The Rights I have acquired
are dear to me. They have been acquired by honourable means, and by
dangerous service in the worst of times, and I cannot passively permit
them to be wrested from me. I conceive it my duty to defend them, as the
case involves a constitutional and public question, which is, how
far the power of the federal government (1) extends, in depriving any
citizen of his Rights of Citizenship, or of suspending them.
That the explanation of National Treaties belongs to Congress is
strictly constitutional; but not the explanation of the Constitution
itself, any more than the explanation of Law in the case of individual
citizens. These are altogether Judiciary questions. It is, however,
worth observing, that Congress, in explaining the Article of the Treaty
with respect to french prizes and french privateers, confined itself
strictly to the letter of the Article. Let them explain the Article
of the Constitution with respect to me in the same manner, and the
decision, did it appertain to them, could not deprive me of my Rights of
Citizenship, or suspend them, for I have accepted nothing from any king,
prince, state, or Government.
You will please to observe, that I speak as if the federal Government
had made some declaration upon the subject of my Citizenship; whereas
the fact is otherwise; and your saying that you have no order respecting
me is a proof of it. Those therefore who propagate the report of my not
being considered as a Citizen of America by Government, do it to the
prolongation of my imprisonment, and without authority; for Congress,
_as a government_, has neither decided upon it, nor yet taken the matter
into consideration; and I request you to caution such persons against
spreading such reports. But be these matters as they may, I cannot have
a doubt that you find and feel the case very different, since you have
heard what I have to say, and known what my situation is [better] than
you did before your arrival.
1 In the pamphlet occurs here a significant parenthesis by
Bache: "it should have been said in this case, how far the
Executive."--_Editor._.
But it was not the Americans only, but the Convention also, that
knew what my intentions were upon that subject. In my last discourse
delivered at the Tribune of the Convention, January 19,1793, on the
motion for suspending the execution of Louis 16th, I said (the Deputy
Bancal read the translation in French): "It unfortunately happens that
the person who is the subject of the present discussion, is considered
by the Americans as having been the friend of their revolution. His
execution will be an affliction to them, and it is in your power not
to wound the feelings of your ally. Could I speak the french language I
would descend to your bar, and in their name become your petitioner to
respite the execution of the sentence/"--"As the convention was elected
for the express purpose of forming a Constitution, its continuance
cannot be longer than four or five months more at furthest; and if,
after my _return to America_, I should employ myself in writing the
history of the french Revolution, I had rather record a thousand
errors on the side of mercy, than be obliged to tell one act of severe
Justice."--"Ah Citizens! give not the tyrant of England the triumph
of seeing the man perish on a scaffold who had aided my much-loved
America."
Does this look as if I had abandoned America? But if she abandons me
in the situation I am in, to gratify the enemies of humanity, let that
disgrace be to herself. But I know the people of America better than to
believe it,(1) tho' I undertake not to answer for every individual.
When this discourse was pronounced, Marat launched himself into the
middle of the hall and said that "I voted against the punishment of
death because I was a quaker." I replied that "I voted against it both
morally and politically."
1 In the French pamphlet: "pour jamais lui prêter du tels
sentiments."
I certainly went a great way, considering the rage of the times, in
endeavouring to prevent that execution. I had many reasons for so doing.
I judged, and events have shewn that I judged rightly, that if they once
began shedding blood, there was no knowing where it would end; and as
to what the world might call _honour_ the execution would appear like a
nation killing a mouse; and in a political view, would serve to transfer
the hereditary claim to some more formidable Enemy. The man could do no
more mischief; and that which he had done was not only from the vice of
his education, but was as much the fault of the Nation in restoring
him after he had absconded June 21st, 1791, as it was his. I made
the proposal for imprisonment until the end of the war and perpetual
banishment after the war, instead of the punishment of death. Upwards of
three hundred members voted for that proposal. The sentence for absolute
death (for some members had voted the punishment of death conditionally)
was carried by a majority of twenty-five out of more than seven hundred.
I return from this digression to the proper subject of my memorial.(1)
1 This and the preceding five paragraphs, and five following
the nest, are omitted from the American pamphlet.--
_Editor._.
Painful as the want of liberty may be, it is a consolation to me to
believe, that my imprisonment proves to the world, that I had no share
in the murderous system that then reigned. That I was an enemy to it,
both morally and politically, is known to all who had any knowledge of
me; and could I have written french as well as I can English, I would
publicly have exposed its wickedness and shewn the ruin with which it
was pregnant. They who have esteemed me on former occasions, whether in
America or in Europe will, I know, feel no cause to abate that esteem,
when they reflect, that _imprisonment with preservation of character is
preferable to liberty with disgrace_.
I here close my Memorial and proceed to offer you a proposal that
appears to me suited to all the circumstances of the case; which is,
that you reclaim me conditionally, until the opinion of Congress can be
obtained on the subject of my citizenship of America; and that I remain
in liberty under your protection during that time.
I found this proposal upon the following grounds.
First, you say you have no orders respecting me; consequently, you
have no orders _not_ to reclaim me; and in this case you are left
discretionary judge whether to reclaim or not. My proposal therefore
unites a consideration of your situation with my own.
Secondly, I am put in arrestation because I am a foreigner. It is
therefore necessary to determine to what country I belong. The right of
determining this question cannot appertain exclusively to the Committee
of Public Safety or General Surety; because I appeal to the Minister of
the United States, and show that my citizenship of that country is good
and valid, referring at the same time, thro' the agency of the Minister,
my claim of right to the opinion of Congress. It being a matter between
two Governments.
Thirdly. France does not claim me fora citizen; neither do I set up any
claim of citizenship in France. The question is simply, whether I am
or am not a citizen of America. I am imprisoned here on the decree for
imprisoning foreigners, because, say they, I was born in England. I
say in answer that, though born in England, I am not a subject of the
English Government any more than any other American who was born, as
they all were, under the same Government, or than the Citizens of France
are subjects of the French Monarchy under which they were born. I have
twice taken the oath of abjuration to the British King and Government
and of Allegiance to America,--once as a citizen of the State of
Pennsylvania in 1776, and again before Congress, administered to me by
the President, Mr. Hancock, when I was appointed Secretary in the Office
of Foreign Affairs in 1777.
The letter before quoted in the first page of this memorial, says, "It
would be out of character for an American minister to interfere in the
internal affairs of France." This goes on the idea that I am a citizen
of France, and a member of the Convention, which is not the fact. The
Convention have declared me to be a foreigner; and consequently the
citizenship and the election are null and void.(1) It also has the
appearance of a Decision, that the article of the Constitution,
respecting grants made to American Citizens by foreign kings, princes,
or states, is applicable to me; which is the very point in question,
and against the application of which I contend. I state evidence to the
Minister, to shew that I am not within the letter or meaning of that
Article; that it cannot operate against me; and I apply to him for the
protection that I conceive I have a right to ask and to receive. The
internal affairs of France are out of the question with respect to my
application or his interference. I ask it not as a citizen of France,
for I am not one: I ask it not as a member of the Convention, for I am
not one; both these, as before said, have been rendered null and void;
I ask it not as a man against whom there is any accusation, for there
is none; I ask it not as an exile from America, whose liberties I
have honourably and generously contributed to establish; I ask it as a
Citizen of America, deprived of his liberty in France, under the plea of
being a foreigner; and I ask it because I conceive I am entitled to it,
upon every principle of Constitutional Justice and National honour.(2)
1 In the pamphlet: "The Convention included me in the vote
for dismissing foreigners from the Convention, and the
Committees imprisoned me as a foreigner."--_Editor._
2 All previous editions of the pamphlet end with this
word.--_Editor._
But tho' I thus positively assert my claim because I believe I have a
right to do so, it is perhaps most eligible, in the present situation
of things, to put that claim upon the footing I have already mentioned;
that is, that the Minister reclaims me conditionally until the opinion
of Congress can be obtained on the subject of my citizenship of America,
and that I remain in liberty under the protection of the Minister during
that interval.
N. B. I should have added that as Gouverneur Morris could not inform
Congress of the cause of my arrestation, as he knew it not himself, it
is to be supposed that Congress was not enough acquainted with the case
to give any directions respecting me when you came away.
T.P.
ADDENDA.
Letters, hitherto unpublished, written by Paine to Monroe before his
release on November 4., 1794.
1. Luxembourg Mem Vendemaire, Old Style Oct 4th 1794
Dear Sir: I thank you for your very friendly and affectionate letter of
the 18th September which I did not receive till this morning.(1) It has
relieved my mind from a load of disquietude. You will easily suppose
that if the information I received had been exact, my situation was
without hope. I had in that case neither section, department nor
Country, to reclaim me; but that is not all, I felt a poignancy of
grief, in having the least reason to suppose that America had so soon
forgotten me who had never forgotten her.
Mr. Labonadaire, in a note of yesterday, directed me to write to the
Convention. As I suppose this measure has been taken in concert with
you, I have requested him to shew you the letter, of which he will make
a translation to accompany the original.
(I cannot see what motive can induce them to keep me in prison. It
will gratify the English Government and afflict the friends I have in
America. The supporters of the system of Terror might apprehend that if
I was in liberty and in America I should publish the history of their
crimes, but the present persons who have overset that immoral System
ought to have no such apprehension. On the contrary, they ought to
consider me as one of themselves, at least as one of their friends. Had
I been an insignificant character I had not been in arrestation. It was
the literary and philosophical reputation I had gained, in the world,
that made them my Enemies; and I am the victim of the principles, and
if I may be permitted to say it, of the talents, that procured me the
esteem of America. My character is the _secret_ of my arrestation.)
1 Printed in the letter to Washington, chap. XXII. The delay
of sixteen days in Monroe's letter was probably due to the
manouvres of Paine's enemies on the Committee of Public
Safety. He was released only after their removal from the
Committee, and the departure of Gouverneur Morris.--
_Editor._,
If the letter I have written be not covered by other authority than my
own it will have no effect, for they already know all that I can say. On
what ground do they pretend to deprive America of the service of any
of her citizens without assigning a cause, or only the flimsy one of
my being born in England? Gates, were he here, might be arrested on the
same pretence, and he and Burgoyne be confounded together.
It is difficult for me to give an opinion, but among other things
that occur to me, I think that if you were to say that, as it will be
necessary to you to inform the Government of America of my situation,
you require an explanation with the Committee upon that subject; that
you are induced to make this proposal not only out of esteem for the
character of the person who is the personal object of it, but because
you know that his arrestation will distress the Americans, and the more
so as it will appear to them to be contrary to their ideas of civil and
national justice, it might perhaps have some effect. If the Committee
[of Public Safety] will do nothing, it will be necessary to bring this
matter openly before the Convention, for I do most sincerely assure you,
from the observations that I hear, and I suppose the same are made in
other places, that the character of America lies under some reproach.
All the world knows that I have served her, and they see that I am still
in prison; and you know that when people can form a conclusion upon a
simple fact, they trouble not themselves about reasons. I had rather
that America cleared herself of all suspicion of ingratitude, though I
were to be the victim.
You advise me to have patience, but I am fully persuaded that the longer
I continue in prison the more difficult will be my liberation. There
are two reasons for this: the one is that the present Committee, by
continuing so long my imprisonment, will naturally suppose that my mind
will be soured against them, as it was against those who put me in, and
they will continue my imprisonment from the same apprehensions as the
former Committee did; the other reason is, that it is now about two
months since your arrival, and I am still in prison. They will explain
this into an indifference upon my fate that will encourage them to
continue my imprisonment. When I hear some people say that it is the
Government of America that now keeps me in prison by not reclaiming me,
and then pour forth a volley of execrations against her, I know not
how to answer them otherwise than by a direct denial which they do not
appear to believe. You will easily conclude that whatever relates to
imprisonments and liberations makes a topic of prison conversation;
and as I am now the oldest inhabitant within these walls, except two
or three, I am often the subject of their remarks, because from the
continuance of my imprisonment they auger ill to themselves. You see I
write you every thing that occurs to me, and I conclude with thanking
you again for your very friendly and affectionate letter, and am with
great respect,
Your's affectionately,
Thomas Paine.
(To day is the anniversary of the action at German Town. [October 4,
1777.] Your letter has enabled me to contradict the observations before
mentioned.)
2. Oct 13, 1794 Dear Sir: On the 28th of this Month (October) I shall
have suffered ten months imprisonment, to the dishonour of America as
well as of myself, and I speak to you very honestly when I say that my
patience is exhausted. It is only my actual liberation that can make me
believe it. Had any person told me that I should remain in prison two
months after the arrival of a new Minister, I should have supposed that
he meant to affront me as an American. By the friendship and sympathy
you express in your letter you seem to consider my imprisonment as
having connection only with myself, but I am certain that the inferences
that follow from it have relation also to the National character of
America, I already feel this in myself, for I no longer speak with pride
of being a citizen of that country. Is it possible Sir that I should,
when I am suffering unjust imprisonment under the very eye of her new
Minister?
While there was no Minister here (for I consider Morris as none) nobody
wondered at my imprisonment, but now everybody wonders. The continuance
of it under a change of diplomatic circumstances, subjects me to the
suspicion of having merited it, and also to the suspicion of having
forfeited my reputation with America; and it subjects her at the same
time to the suspicion of ingratitude, or to the reproach of wanting
national or diplomatic importance. The language that some Americans
have held of my not being considered as an American citizen, tho'
contradicted by yourself, proceeds, I believe, from no other motive,
than the shame and dishonour they feel at the imprisonment of a
fellow-citizen, and they adopt this apology, at my expence, to get rid
of that disgrace. Is it not enough that I suffer imprisonment, but my
mind also must be wounded and tortured with subjects of this kind? Did I
reason from personal considerations only, independent of principles and
the pride of having practiced those principles honourably, I should be
tempted to curse the day I knew America. By contributing to her liberty
I have lost my own, and yet her Government beholds my situation in
silence. Wonder not, Sir, at the ideas I express or the language in
which I express them. If I have a heart to feel for others I can feel
also for myself, and if I have anxiety for my own honour, I have it also
for a country whose suffering infancy I endeavoured to nourish and
to which I have been enthusiastically attached. As to patience I have
practiced it long--as long as it was honorable to do so, and when it
goes beyond that point it becomes meanness.
I am inclined to believe that you have attended to my imprisonment
more as a friend than as a Minister. As a friend I thank you for your
affectionate attachment. As a Minister you have to look beyond me to the
honour and reputation of your Government; and your Countrymen, who have
accustomed themselves to consider any subject in one line of thinking
only, more especially if it makes a strong [impression] upon them, as
I believe my situation has made upon you, do not immediately see the
matters that have relation to it in another line; and it is to bring
these two into one point that I offer you these observations. A citizen
and his country, in a case like mine, are so closely connected that the
case of one is the case of both.
When you first arrived the path you had to pursue with respect to my
liberation was simple. I was imprisoned as a foreigner; you knew that
foreigner to be a citizen of America, and you knew also his character,
and as such you should immediately have reclaimed him. You could lose
nothing by taking strong ground, but you might lose much by taking an
inferior one; but instead of this, which I conceive would have been the
right line of acting, you left me in their hands on the loose intimation
that my liberation would take place without your direct interference,
and you strongly recommended it to me to wait the issue. This is more
than seven weeks ago and I am still in prison. I suspect these people
are trifling with you, and if they once believe they can do that, you
will not easily get any business done except what they wish to have
done.
When I take a review of my whole situation--my circumstances ruined,
my health half destroyed, my person imprisoned, and the prospect of
imprisonment still staring me in the face, can you wonder at the
agony of my feelings? You lie down in safety and rise to plenty; it
is otherwise with me; I am deprived of more than half the common
necessaries of life; I have not a candle to burn and cannot get one.
Fuel can be procured only in small quantities and that with great
difficulty and very dear, and to add to the rest, I am fallen into a
relapse and am again on the sick list. Did you feel the whole force of
what I suffer, and the disgrace put upon America by this injustice done
to one of her best and most affectionate citizens, you would not, either
as a friend or Minister, rest a day till you had procured my liberation.
It is the work of two or three hours when you set heartily about
it, that is, when you demand me as an American citizen, or propose a
conference with the Committee upon that subject; or you may make it the
work of a twelve-month and not succeed. I know these people better than
you do.
You desire me to believe that "you are placed here on a difficult
Theatre with many important objects to attend to, and with but few to
consult with, and that it becomes you in pursuit of these to regulate
your conduct with respect to each, as to manner and time, as will in
your judgment be best calculated to accomplish the whole." As I know
not what these objects are I can say nothing to that point. But I have
always been taught to believe that the liberty of a Citizen was the
first object of all free Governments, and that it ought not to give
preference to, or be blended with, any other. It is that public object
that all the world can see, and which obtains an influence upon public
opinion more than any other. This is not the case with the objects you
allude to. But be those objects what they may, can you suppose you will
accomplish them the easier by holding me in the back-ground, or making
me only an accident in the negotiation? Those with whom you confer will
conclude from thence that you do not feel yourself very strong upon
those points, and that you politically keep me out of sight in the
meantime to make your approach the easier.
There is one part in your letter that is equally as proper should be
communicated to the Committee as to me, and which I conceive you are
under some diplomatic obligation to do. It is that part which you
conclude by saying that "_to the welfare of Thomas Paine the Americans
are not and cannot be indifferent_." As it is impossible the Americans
can preserve their esteem for me and for my oppressors at the same
time, the injustice to me strikes at the popular part of the Treaty of
Alliance. If it be the wish of the Committee to reduce the treaty to a
mere skeleton of Government forms, they are taking the right method to
do it, and it is not improbable they will blame you afterwards for not
in-forming them upon the subject. The disposition to retort has been so
notorious here, that you ought to be guarded against it at all points.
You say in your letter that you doubt whether the gentleman who informed
me of the language held by some Americans respecting my citizenship of
America conveyed even his own ideas clearly upon the subject.(1) I know
not how this may be, but I believe he told me the truth. I received a
letter a few days ago from a friend and former comrade of mine in which
he tells me, that all the Americans he converses with, say, that
I should have been in liberty long ago if the Minister could have
reclaimed me as an American citizen. When I compare this with the
counter-declarations in your letter I can explain the case no otherwise
than I have already done, that it is an apology to get rid of the shame
and dishonour they feel at the imprisonment of an American citizen,
and because they are not willing it should be supposed there is want
of influence in the American Embassy. But they ought to see that this
language is injurious to me.
On the 2d of this month Vendemaire I received a line from Mr. Beresford
in which he tells me I shall be in liberty in two or three days, and
that he has this from good authority. On the 12th I received a note from
Mr. Labonadaire, written at the Bureau of the Concierge, in which he
tells me of the interest you take in procuring my liberation, and that
after the steps that had been already taken that I ought to write to the
Convention to demand my liberty _purely and simply_ as a citizen of the
United States of America. He advised me to send the letter to him, and
he would translate it. I sent the letter inclosing at the same time
a letter to you. I have heard nothing since of the letter to the
Convention. On the 17th I received a letter from my former comrade
Vanhuele, in which he says "I am just come from Mr. Russell who had
yesterday a conversation with your Minister and your liberation is
certain--you will be in liberty to-morrow." Vanhuele also adds, "I find
the advice of Mr. Labonadaire good, for tho' you have some enemies in
the Convention, the strongest and best part are in your favour." But
the case is, and I felt it whilst I was writing the letter to the
Convention, that there is an awkwardness in my appearing, you being
present; for every foreigner should apply thro' his Minister, or rather
his Minister for him.
1 The letter of Peter Whiteside, quoted at the beginning of
the Memorial. See introduction to the Memorial. It would
seem from this whole letter that it was not known by
Americans in Paris that Monroe had been kept ont of his
office by Morris for nearly a month after his arrival in
Paris.--_Editor._
When I thus see day after day and month after month, and promise after
promise, pass away without effect, what can I conclude but that either
the Committees are secretly determined not to let me go, or that the
measures you take are not pursued with the vigor necessary to give them
effect; or that the American National character is without sufficient
importance in the French Republic? The latter will be gratifying to
the English Government. In short, Sir, the case is now arrived to that
crisis, that for the sake of your own reputation as a Minister you ought
to require a positive answer from the Committee. As to myself, it is
more agreeable to me now to contemplate an honourable destruction, and
to perish in the act of protesting against the injustice I suffer,
and to caution the people of America against confiding too much in the
Treaty of Alliance, violated as it has been in every principle, and in
my imprisonment though an American Citizen, than remain in the wretched
condition I am. I am no longer of any use to the world or to myself.
There was a time when I beheld the Revolution of the 10th. Thermidor
[the fall of Robespierre] with enthusiasm. It was the first news
my comrade Vanhuele communicated to me during my illness, and it
contributed to my recovery. But there is still something rotten at the
Center, and the Enemies that I have, though perhaps not numerous, are
more active than my friends. If I form a wrong opinion of men or things
it is to you I must look to set me right. You are in possession of the
secret. I know nothing of it. But that I may be guarded against as many
wants as possible I shall set about writing a memorial to Congress,
another to the State of Pennsylvania, and an address to the people of
America; but it will be difficult for me to finish these until I know
from yourself what applications you have made for my liberation, and
what answers you have received.
Ah, Sir, you would have gotten a load of trouble and difficulties off
your hands that I fear will multiply every day, had you made it a point
to procure my liberty when you first arrived, and not left me floating
on the promises of men whom you did not know. You were then a new
character. You had come in consequence of their own request that Morris
should be recalled; and had you then, before you opened any subject
of negociation that might arise into controversy, demanded my liberty
either as a Civility or as a Right I see not how they could have refused
it.
I have already said that after all the promises that have been made I
am still in prison. I am in the dark upon all the matters that relate
to myself. I know not if it be to the Convention, to the Committee of
Public Safety, of General Surety, or to the deputies who come
sometimes to the Luxembourg to examine and put persons in liberty, that
applications have been made for my liberation. But be it to whom it
may, my earnest and pressing request to you as Minister is that you
will bring this matter to a conclusion by reclaiming me as an American
citizen imprisoned in France under the plea of being a foreigner born in
England; that I may know the result, and how to prepare the Memorials
I have mentioned, should there be occasion for them. The right of
determining who are American citizens can belong only to America. The
Convention have declared I am not a French Citizen because she has
declared me to be a foreigner, and have by that declaration cancelled
and annulled the vote of the former assembly that conferred the Title
of Citizen upon Citizens or subjects of other Countries. I should not be
honest to you nor to myself were I not to express myself as I have done
in this letter, and I confide and request you will accept it in that
sense and in no other.
I am, with great respect, your suffering fellow-citizen,
Thomas Paine.
P. S.--If my imprisonment is to continue, and I indulge very little hope
to the contrary, I shall be under the absolute necessity of applying
to you for a supply of several articles. Every person here have their
families or friends upon the spot who make provision for them. This is
not the case with me; I have no person I can apply to but the American
Minister, and I can have no doubt that if events should prevent
my repaying the expence Congress or the State of Pennsylvania will
discharge it for me.
To day is 22 Vendemaire Monday October 13, but you will not receive this
letter till the 14th. I will send the bearer to you again on the 15th,
Wednesday, and I will be obliged to you to send me for the present,
three or four candles, a little sugar of any kind, and some soap for
shaving; and I should be glad at the same time to receive a line from
you and a memorandum of the articles. Were I in your place I would order
a Hogshead of Sugar, some boxes of Candles and Soap from America, for
they will become still more scarce. Perhaps the best method for you
to procure them at present is by applying to the American Consuls at
Bordeaux and Havre, and have them up by the diligence.
3. [Undated.]
Dear Sir: As I have not yet received any answer to my last, I have
amused myself with writing you the inclosed memoranda. Though
you recommend patience to me I cannot but feel very pointedly the
uncomfortableness of my situation, and among other reflections that
occur to me I cannot think that America receives any credit from the
long imprisonment that I suffer. It has the appearance of neglecting
her citizens and her friends and of encouraging the insults of foreign
nations upon them, and upon her commerce. My imprisonment is as well
and perhaps more known in England than in France, and they (the English)
will not be intimidated from molesting an American ship when they see
that one of her best citizens (for I have a right to call myself so) can
be imprisoned in another country at the mere discretion of a Committee,
because he is a foreigner.
When you first arrived every body congratulated me that I should soon,
if not immediately, be in liberty. Since that time about two hundred
have been set free from this prison on the applications of their
sections or of individuals--and I am continually hurt by the
observations that are made--"that a section in Paris has more influence
than America."
It is right that I furnish you with these circumstances. It is the
effect of my anxiety that the character of America suffer no reproach;
for the world knows that I have acted a generous duty by her. I am the
third American that has been imprisoned. Griffiths nine weeks, Haskins
about five, and myself eight [months] and yet in prison. With respect
to the two former there was then no Minister, for I consider Morris as
none; and they were liberated on the applications of the Americans in
Paris. As to myself I had rather be publicly and honorably reclaimed,
tho' the reclamation was refused, than remain in the uncertain situation
that I am. Though my health has suffered my spirits are not broken. I
have nothing to fear unless innocence and fortitude be crimes. America,
whatever may be my fate, will have no cause to blush for me as a
citizen; I hope I shall have none to blush for her as a country. If, my
dear Sir, there is any-thing in the perplexity of ideas I have mistaken,
only suppose yourself in my situation, and you will easily find an
excuse for it. I need not say how much I shall rejoice to pay my
respects to you without-side the walls of this prison, and to enquire
after my American friends. But I know that nothing can be
accomplished here but by unceasing perseverance and application. Yours
affectionately.
4. October 20, 1794.
Dear Sir: I recd. your friendly letter of the 26 Vendemaire on the day
it was written, and I thank you for communicating to me your opinion
upon my case. Ideas serve to beget ideas, and as it is from a review of
every thing that can be said upon a subject, or is any ways connected
with it, that the best judgment can be formed how to proceed, I present
you with such ideas as occur to me. I am sure of one thing, which is
that you will give them a patient and attentive perusal.
You say in your letter that "I must be sensible that although I am an
American citizen, yet if you interfere in my behalf as the Minister of
my country you must demand my liberation only in case there be no charge
against me; and that if there is I must be brought to trial previously,
since no person in a _private_ character can be exempt from the laws of
the country in which he resides."--This is what I have twice attempted
to do. I wrote a letter on the 3d Sans Culottodi(1) to the Deputies,
members of the Committee of Surety General, who came to the Luxembourg
to examine the persons detained. The letter was as follows:--"Citizens
Representatives: I offer myself for examination. Justice is due to every
Man. It is Justice only that I ask.--Thomas Paine."
As I was not called for examination, nor heard anything in consequence
of my letter the first time of sending it, I sent a duplicate of it a
few days after. It was carried to them by my good friend and comrade
Vanhuele, who was then going in liberty, having been examined the day
before. Vanhuele wrote me on the next day and said: "Bourdon de l'Oise
[who was one of the examining Deputies] is the most inveterate enemy you
can have. The answer he gave me when I presented your letter put me in
such a passion with him that I expected I should be sent back again
to prison." I then wrote a third letter but had not an opportunity of
sending it, as Bourdon did not come any more till after I received Mr.
Labonadaire's letter advising me to write to the Convention. The letter
was as follows:--"Citizens, I have twice offered myself for examination,
and I chose to do this while Bourdon de l'Oise was one of the
Commissioners.
1 Festival of Labour, September 19, 1794.--_Editor._.
This Deputy has said in the Convention that I intrigued with an ancient
agent of the Bureau of Foreign Affairs. My examination therefore while
he is present will give him an opportunity of proving his charge or of
convincing himself of his error. If Bourdon de l'Oise is an honest man
he will examine me, but lest he should not I subjoin the following. That
which B[ourdon] calls an intrigue was at the request of a member of the
former Committee of Salut Public, last August was a twelvemonth. I met
the member on the Boulevard. He asked me something in French which I
did not understand and we went together to the Bureau of Foreign Affairs
which was near at hand. The Agent (Otto, whom you probably knew in
America) served as interpreter, The member (it was Barère) then asked
me 1st, If I could furnish him with the plan of Constitution I had
presented to the Committee of Constitution of which I was member with
himself, because, he said, it contained several things which he
wished had been adopted: 2dly, He asked me my opinion upon sending
Commissioners to the United States of America: 3dly, If fifty or an
hundred ship loads of flour could be procured from America. As verbal
interpretation was tedious, it was agreed that I should give him my
opinion in writing, and that the Agent [Otto] should translate it, which
he did. I answered the first question by sending him the plan [of
a Constitution] which he still has. To the second, I replied that
I thought it would be proper to send Commissioners, because that in
Revolutions circumstances change so fast that it was often necessary
to send a better supply of information to an Ally than could be
communicated by writing; and that Congress had done the same thing
during the American War; and I gave him some information that the
Commissioners would find useful on their arrival. I answered the third
question by sending him a list of American exports two years before,
distinguishing the several articles by which he would see that the
supply he mentioned could be obtained. I sent him also the plan of Paul
Jones, giving it as his, for procuring salt-petre, which was to send
a squadron (it did not require a large one) to take possession of the
Island of St. Helen's, to keep the English flag flying at the port,
that the English East India ships coming from the East Indies, and that
ballast with salt-petre, might be induced to enter as usual; And that it
would be a considerable time before the English Government could know
of what had happened at St. Helen's. See here what Bourdon de l'Oise has
called an intrigue.--If it was an intrigue it was between a Committee of
Salut Public and myself, for the Agent was no more than the interpreter
and translator, and the object of the intrigue was to furnish France
with flour and salt-petre."--I suppose Bourdon had heard that the agent
and I were seen together talking English, and this was enough for _him_
to found his charge upon.(1)
You next say that "I must likewise be sensible that although I am an
American citizen that it is likewise believed there [in America] that
I am become a citizen of France, and that in consequence this latter
character has so far [illegible] the former as to weaken if not destroy
any claim you might have to interpose in my behalf." I am sorry I cannot
add any new arguments to those I have already advanced on this part of
the subject. But I cannot help asking myself, and I wish you would
ask the Committee, if it could possibly be the intention of France to
_kidnap_ citizens from America under the pretence of dubbing them
with the title of French citizens, and then, after inviting or rather
enveigling them into France, make it a pretence for detaining them? If
it was, (which I am sure it was not, tho' they now act as if it was) the
insult was to America, tho' the injury was to me, and the treachery was
to both.
1 The communications of Paine to Barère are given in my
"Life of Paine," vol. ii-i PP. 73, 87. Otto was Secretary to
the Minister of Foreign Affairs when he acted as interpreter
between Paine and Barère. There was never any charge at all
made against Paine, as the Archives of France now prove,
save that he was a "foreigner." Paine was of coarse ignorant
of the conspiracy between Morris and Deforgues which had
imprisoned him. Bourdon de l'Oise, one of the most cruel
Jacobins and Terrorists, afterwards conspired with Pichegru
to overthrow the Republic, and was with him banished (1797)
to Sinamari, South America, where he died soon after his
arrival.--_Editor._.
Did they mean to kidnap General Washington, Mr. Madison, and several
other Americans whom they dubbed with the same title as well as me? Let
any man look at the condition of France when I arrived in it,--invaded
by Austrians and Prussians and declared to be in danger,--and then ask
if any man who had a home and a country to go to, as I had in America,
would have come amongst them from any other motive than of assisting
them. If I could possibly have supposed them capable of treachery
I certainly would not have trusted myself in their power. Instead
therefore of your being unwilling or apprehensive of meeting the
question of French citizenship, they ought to be ashamed of advancing
it, and this will be the case unless you admit their arguments or
objections too passively. It is a case on their part fit only for
the continuations of Robespierre to set up. As to the name of French
citizen, I never considered it in any other light, so far as regarded
myself, than as a token of honorary respect. I never made them any
promise nor took any oath of allegiance or of citizenship, nor bound
myself by an act or means whatever to the performance of any thing.
I acted altogether as a friend invited among them as I supposed on
honorable terms. I did not come to join myself to a Government already
formed, but to assist in forming one _de nouveau_, which was afterwards
to be submitted to the people whether they would accept it or not, and
this any foreigner might do. And strictly speaking there are no citizens
before this is a government. They are all of the People. The Americans
were not called citizens till after Government was established, and not
even then until they had taken the oath of allegiance. This was the
case in Pennsylvania. But be this French citizenship more or less, the
Convention have swept it away by declaring me to be a foreigner, and
imprisoning me as such; and this is a short answer to all those who
affect to say or to believe that I am French Citizen. A Citizen without
Citizenship is a term non-descript.
After the two preceeding paragraphs you ask--"If it be my wish that you
should embark in this controversy (meaning that of reclaiming me)
and risque the consequences with respect to myself and the good
understanding subsisting between the two countries, or, without
relinquishing any point of right, and which might be insisted on in
case of extremities, pursue according to your best judgment and with the
light before you, the object of my liberation?"
As I believe from the apparent obstinacy of the Committees that
circumstances will grow towards the extremity you mention, unless
prevented beforehand, I will endeavour to throw into your hands all the
lights I can upon the subject.
In the first place, reclamation may mean two distinct things. All the
reclamations that are made by the sections in behalf of persons detained
as _suspect_ are made on the ground that the persons so detained are
patriots, and the reclamation is good against the charge of "suspect"
because it proves the contrary. But my situation includes another
circumstance. I am imprisoned on the charge (if it can be called one)
of being a foreigner born in England. You know that foreigner to be a
citizen of the United States of America, and that he has been such since
the 4th of July 1776, the political birthday of the United States,
and of every American citizen, for before that period all were British
subjects, and the States, then provinces, were British dominions.--Your
reclamation of me therefore as a citizen of the United States (all other
considerations apart) is good against the pretence for imprisoning me,
or that pretence is equally good against every American citizen born
in England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, or Holland, and you know this
description of men compose a very great part of the population of the
three States of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and make also a
part of Congress, and of the State Legislatures.
Every politician ought to know, and every civilian does know, that the
Law of Treaty of Alliance, and also that of Amity and Commerce knows no
distinction of American Citizens on account of the place of their birth,
but recognizes all to be Citizens whom the Constitution and laws of the
United States of America recognize as such; and if I recollect rightly
there is an article in the Treaty of Commerce particular to this
point. The law therefore which they have here, to put all persons in
arrestation born in any of the Countries at war with France, is, when
applied to Citizens of America born in England, Ireland, Scotland,
Germany, or holland, a violation of the treaties of Alliance and of
Commerce, because it assumes to make a distinction of Citizens which
those Treaties and the Constitution of America know nothing of. This is
a subject that officially comes under your cognizance as Minister, and
it would be consistent that you expostulated with them upon the Case.
That foolish old man Vadier, who was president of the Convention and of
the Committee of Surety general when the Americans then in Paris went
to the Bar of the Convention to reclaim me, gave them for answer that
my being born in England was cause sufficient for imprisoning me. It
happened that at least half those who went up with that address were in
the same case with myself.
As to reclamations on the ground of Patriotism it is difficult to know
what is to be understood by Patriotism here. There is not a vice, and
scarcely a virtue, that has not as the fashion of the moment suited
been called by the name of Patriotism. The wretches who composed the
revolutionary tribunal of Nantz were the Patriots of that day and the
criminals of this. The Jacobins called themselves Patriots of the first
order, men up to the height of the circumstances, and they are now
considered as an antidote to Patriotism. But if we give to Patriotism a
fixed idea consistent with that of a Republic, it would signify a strict
adherence to the principles of Moral Justice, to the equality of civil
and political Rights, to the System of representative Government, and an
opposition to every hereditary claim to govern; and of this species
of Patriotism you know my character. But, Sir, there are men on the
Committee who have changed their Party but not their principles. Their
aim is to hold power as long as possible by preventing the establishment
of a Constitution, and these men are and will be my Enemies, and seek to
hold me in prison as long as they can. I am too good a Patriot for them.
It is not improbable that they have heard of the strange language held
by some Americans that I am not considered in America as an American
citizen, and they may also have heard say, that you had no orders
respecting me, and it is not improbable that they interpret that
language and that silence into a connivance at my imprisonment. If they
had not some ideas of this kind would they resist so long the civil
efforts you make for my liberation, or would they attach so much
importance to the imprisonment of an Individual as _to risque_ (as
you say to me) _the good understanding that exists between the two
Countries?_You also say that _it is impossible for any person to do more
than you have done without adopting the other means_, meaning that of
reclaiming me. How then can you account for the want of success after so
many efforts, and such a length of time, upwards of ten weeks, without
supposing that they fortify themselves in the interpretation I have just
mentioned? I can admit that it was not necessary to give orders, and
that it was difficult to give direct orders, for I much question if
Morris had informed Congress or the President of the whole of the case,
or had sent copies of my letters to him as I had desired him to do.
You would find the case here when you came, and you could not fully
understand it till you did come, and as Minister you would have
authority to act upon it. But as you inform me that you know what the
wishes of the President are, you will see also that his reputation is
exposed to some risque, admitting there to be ground for the supposition
I have made. It will not add to his popularity to have it believed in
America, as I am inclined to think the Committee believe here, that he
connives at my imprisonment. You say also that _it is known to everybody
that you wish my liberation_. It is, Sir, because they know your wishes
that they misinterpret the means you use. They suppose that those mild
means arise from a restriction that you cannot use others, or from a
consciousness of some defect on my part of which you are unwilling to
provoke the enquiry.
But as you ask me if it be my wish that you should embark in this
controversy and risque the consequences with respect to myself, I will
answer this part of the question by marking out precisely the part I
wish you to take. What I mean is a sort of middle line above what you
have yet gone, and not up to the full extremity of the case, which will
still lie in reserve. It is to write a letter to the Committee that
shall in the first place defeat by anticipation all the objections they
might make to a simple reclamation, and at the same time make the ground
good for that object. But, instead of sending the letter immediately, to
invite some of the Committee to your house and to make that invitation
the opportunity of shewing them the letter, expressing at the same time
a wish that you had done this, from a hope that the business might be
settled in an amicable manner without your being forced into an official
interference, that would excite the observations of the Enemies of both
Countries, and probably interrupt the harmony that subsisted between the
two republics. But as I can not convey the ideas I wish you to use by
any means so concisely or so well as to suppose myself the writer of the
letter I shall adopt this method and you will make use of such parts or
such ideas of it as you please if you approve the plan. Here follows the
supposed letter:
Citizens: When I first arrived amongst you as Minister from the United
States of America I was given to understand that the liberation of
Thomas Paine would take place without any official interference on my
part. This was the more agreeable to me as it would not only supercede
the necessity of that interference, but would leave to yourselves the
whole opportunity of doing justice to a man who as far as I have been
able to learn has suffered much cruel treatment under what you have
denominated the system of Terror. But as I find my expectations have not
been fulfilled I am under the official necessity of being more explicit
upon the subject than I have hitherto been.
Permit me, in the first place, to observe that as it is impossible for
me to suppose that it could have been the intention of France to seduce
any citizens of America from their allegiance to their proper country
by offering them the title of French citizen, so must I be compelled to
believe, that the title of French citizen conferred on Thomas Paine was
intended only as a mark of honorary respect towards a man who had
so eminently distinguished himself in defence of liberty, and on no
occasion more so than in promoting and defending your own revolution.
For a proof of this I refer you to his two works entitled _Rights of
Man_. Those works have procured to him an addition of esteem in America,
and I am sorry they have been so ill rewarded in France. But be this
title of French Citizen more or less, it is now entirely swept away by
the vote of the Convention which declares him to be a foreigner, and
which supercedes the vote of the Assembly that conferred that title upon
him, consequently upon the case superceded with it.
In consequence of this vote of the Convention declaring him to be a
foreigner the former Committees have imprisoned him. It is therefore
become my official duty to declare to you that the foreigner thus
imprisoned is a citizen of the United States of America as fully, as
legally, as constitutionally as myself, and that he is moreover one of
the principal founders of the American Republic.
I have been informed of a law or decree of the Convention which
subjects foreigners born in any of the countries at war with France
to arrestation and imprisonment. This law when applied to citizens of
America born in England is an infraction of the Treaty of Alliance and
of Amity and Commerce, which knows no distinction of American citizens
on account of the place of their birth, but recognizes all to be
citizens whom the Constitution and laws of America recognize as such.
The circumstances under which America has been peopled requires this
guard on her Treaties, because the mass of her citizens are composed not
of natives only but also of the natives of almost all the countries
of Europe who have sought an asylum there from the persecutions they
experienced in their own countries. After this intimation you will
without doubt see the propriety of modelling that law to the principles
of the Treaty, because the law of Treaty in cases where it applies is
the governing law to both parties alike, and it cannot be infracted
without hazarding the existence of the Treaty.
Of the Patriotism of Thomas Paine I can speak fully, if we agree to give
to patriotism a fixed idea consistent with that of a republic. It would
then signify a strict adherence to Moral Justice, to the equality of
civil and political rights, to the system of representative government,
and an opposition to all hereditary claims to govern. Admitting
patriotism to consist in these principles, I know of no man who has gone
beyond Thomas Paine in promulgating and defending them, and that for
almost twenty years past.
I have now spoken to you on the principal matters concerned in the case
of Thomas Paine. The title of French citizen which you had enforced upon
him, you have since taken away by declaring him to be a foreigner, and
consequently this part of the subject ceases of itself. I have declared
to you that this foreigner is a citizen of the United States of America,
and have assured you of his patriotism.
I cannot help at the same time repeating to you my wish that his
liberation had taken place without my being obliged to go thus far into
the subject, because it is the mutual interest of both republics to
avoid as much as possible all subjects of controversy, especially those
from which no possible good can flow. I still hope that you will save me
the unpleasant task of proceeding any farther by sending me an order
for his liberation, which the injured state of his health absolutely
requires. I shall be happy to receive such an order from you and
happy in presenting it to him, for to the welfare of Thomas Paine the
Americans are not and cannot be indifferent.
This is the sort of letter I wish you to write, for I have no idea that
you will succeed by any measures that can, by any kind of construction,
be interpreted into a want of confidence or an apprehension of
consequences. It is themselves that ought to be apprehensive of
consequences if any are to be apprehended. They, I mean the Committees,
are not certain that the Convention or the nation would support them
in forcing any question to extremity that might interrupt the good
understanding subsisting between the two countries; and I know of no
question [so likely] to do this as that which involves the rights and
liberty of a citizen.
You will please to observe that I have put the case of French
citizenship in a point of view that ought not only to preclude, but to
make them ashamed to advance any thing upon this subject; and this is
better than to have to answer their counter-reclamation afterwards.
Either the Citizenship was intended as a token of honorary respect, or
it was in-tended to deprive America of a citizen or to seduce him from
his allegiance to his proper country. If it was intended as an honour
they must act consistently with the principle of honour. But if they
make a pretence for detaining me, they convict themselves of the act
of seduction. Had America singled out any particular French citizen,
complimented him with the title of Citizen of America, which he without
suspecting any fraudulent intention might accept, and then after having
invited or rather inveigled him into America made his acceptance of
that Title a pretence for seducing or forcing him from his allegiance to
France, would not France have just cause to be offended at America? And
ought not America to have the same right to be offended at France? And
will the Committees take upon themselves to answer for the dishonour
they bring upon the National Character of their Country? If these
arguments are stated beforehand they will prevent the Committees going
into the subject of French Citizenship. They must be ashamed of it.
But after all the case comes to this, that this French Citizenship
appertains no longer to me because the Convention, as I have already
said, have swept it away by declaring me to be foreigner, and it is not
in the power of the Committees to reverse it. But if I am to be citizen
and foreigner, and citizen again, just when and how and for any purpose
they please, they take the Government of America into their own hands
and make her only a Cypher in their system.
Though these ideas have been long with me they have been more
particularly matured by reading your last Communication, and I have
many reasons to wish you had opened that Communication sooner. I am best
acquainted with the persons you have to deal with and the circumstances
of my own case. If you chuse to adopt the letter as it is, I send you a
translation for the sake of expediting the business. I have endeavoured
to conceive your own manner of expression as well as I could, and the
civility of language you would use, but the matter of the letter is
essential to me.
If you chuse to confer with some of the members of the Committee at
your own house on the subject of the letter it may render the sending it
unnecessary; but in either case I must request and press you not to give
away to evasion and delay, and that you will fix positively with them
that they shall give you an answer in three or four days whether they
will liberate me on the representation you have made in the letter, or
whether you must be forced to go further into the subject. The state of
my health will not admit of delay, and besides the tortured state of
my mind wears me down. If they talk of bringing me to trial (and I well
know there is no accusation against me and that they can bring none)
I certainly summons you as an Evidence to my Character. This you may
mention to them either as what I intend to do or what you intend to do
voluntarily for me.
I am anxious that you undertake this business without losing time,
because if I am not liberated in the course of this decade, I intend, if
in case the seventy-one detained deputies are liberated, to follow the
same track that they have done, and publish my own case myself.(1)
I cannot rest any longer in this state of miserable suspense, be the
consequences what they may.
Thomas Paine.
1 Those deputies, imprisoned for having protested against
the overthrow of the Girondin government, May 31,1793, when
the Convention was invaded and overawed by the armed
communes of Paris. These deputies were liberated and
recalled to the Convention, December 8, 1794. Paine was
invited to resume his seat the day before, by a special act
of the Convention, after an eloquent speech by Thibaudeau.--
_Editor._.
Dear Sir: I need not mention to you the happiness I received from the
information you sent me by Mr. Beresford. I easily guess the persons
you have conversed with on the subject of my liberation--but matters
and even promises that pass in conversation are not quite so strictly
attended to here as in the Country you come from. I am not, my Dear Sir,
impatient from any thing in my disposition, but the state of my health
requires liberty and a better air; and besides this, the rules of the
prison do not permit me, though I have all the indulgences the Concierge
can give, to procure the things necessary to my recovery, which is
slow as to strength. I have a tolerable appetite but the allowance of
provision is scanty. We are not allowed a knife to cut our victuals
with, nor a razor to shave; but they have lately allowed some barbers
that are here to shave. The room where I am lodged is a ground floor
level with the earth in the garden and floored with brick, and is so
wet after every rain that I cannot guard against taking colds that
continually cheat my recovery. If you could, without interfering with or
deranging the mode proposed for my liberation, inform the Committee that
the state of my health requires liberty and air, it would be good ground
to hasten my liberation. The length of my imprisonment is also a reason,
for I am now almost the oldest inhabitant of this uncomfortable mansion,
and I see twenty, thirty and sometimes forty persons a day put in
liberty who have not been so long confined as myself. Their liberation
is a happiness to me; but I feel sometimes, a little mortification
that I am thus left behind. I leave it entirely to you to arrange this
matter. The messenger waits. Your's affectionately,
T. P.
I hope and wish much to see you. I have much to say. I have had the
attendance of Dr. Graham (Physician to Genl. O'Hara, who is prisoner
here) and of Dr. Makouski, house physician, who has been most
exceedingly kind to me. After I am at liberty I shall be glad to
introduce him to you.
1 This letter, written in a feeble handwriting, is not
dated, but Monroe's endorsement, "2d. Luxembourg,"
indicates November 2, two days before Paine's liberation.--
_Editor._.
XXII. LETTER TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.
Paris, July 30, 1796.
As censure is but awkwardly softened by apology. I shall offer you
no apology for this letter. The eventful crisis to which your double
politics have conducted the affairs of your country, requires an
investigation uncramped by ceremony.
There was a time when the fame of America, moral and political, stood
fair and high in the world. The lustre of her revolution extended itself
to every individual; and to be a citizen of America gave a title to
respect in Europe. Neither meanness nor ingratitude had been mingled
in the composition of her character. Her resistance to the attempted
tyranny of England left her unsuspected of the one, and her open
acknowledgment of the aid she received from France precluded all
suspicion of the other. The Washington of politics had not then
appeared.
At the time I left America (April 1787) the Continental Convention, that
formed the federal Constitution was on the point of meeting. Since that
time new schemes of politics, and new distinctions of parties, have
arisen. The term _Antifederalist_ has been applied to all those who
combated the defects of that constitution, or opposed the measures
of your administration. It was only to the absolute necessity of
establishing some federal authority, extending equally over all the
States, that an instrument so inconsistent as the present federal
Constitution is, obtained a suffrage. I would have voted for it myself,
had I been in America, or even for a worse, rather than have had none,
provided it contained the means of remedying its defects by the same
appeal to the people by which it was to be established. It is always
better policy to leave removeable errors to expose themselves, than
to hazard too much in contending against them theoretically. I have
introduced these observations, not only to mark the general difference
between Antifederalist and Anti-constitutionalist, but to preclude
the effect, and even the application, of the former of these terms to
myself. I declare myself opposed to several matters in the Constitution,
particularly to the manner in which what is called the Executive is
formed, and to the long duration of the Senate; and if I live to return
to America, I will use all my endeavours to have them altered.(*) I also
declare myself opposed to almost the whole of your administration; for
I know it to have been deceitful, if not perfidious, as I shall shew
in the course of this letter. But as to the point of consolidating the
States into a Federal Government, it so happens, that the proposition
for that purpose came originally from myself. I proposed it in a letter
to Chancellor Livingston in the spring of 1782, while that gentleman
was Minister for Foreign Affairs. The five per cent, duty recommended
by Congress had then fallen through, having been adopted by some of the
States, altered by others, rejected by Rhode Island, and repealed by
Virginia after it had been consented to. The proposal in the letter I
allude to, was to get over the whole difficulty at once, by annexing a
continental legislative body to Congress; for in order to have any law
of the Union uniform, the case could only be, that either Congress, as
it then stood, must frame the law, and the States severally adopt it
without alteration, or the States must erect a Continental Legislature
for the purpose. Chancellor Livingston, Robert Morris, Gouverneur
Morris, and myself, had a meeting at the house of Robert Morris on
the subject of that letter. There was no diversity of opinion on the
proposition for a Continental Legislature: the only difficulty was on
the manner of bringing the proposition forward. For my own part, as I
considered it as a remedy in reserve, that could be applied at any time
_when the States saw themselves wrong enough to be put right_, (which
did not appear to be the case at that time) I did not see the propriety
of urging it precipitately, and declined being the publisher of it
myself. After this account of a fact, the leaders of your party will
scarcely have the hardiness to apply to me the term of Antifederalist.
But I can go to a date and to a fact beyond this; for the proposition
for electing a continental convention to form the Continental Government
is one of the subjects treated of in the pamphlet _Common Sense_.(1)
* I have always been opposed to the mode of refining
Government up to an individual, or what is called a single
Executive. Such a man will always be the chief of a party. A
plurality is far better: It combines the mass of a nation
better together: And besides this, it is necessary to the
manly mind of a republic that it loses the debasing idea of
obeying an individual.--_Author_.
1 See vol. i. of this work, pp. 97, 98, 109, no.--_Editor._.
Having thus cleared away a little of the rubbish that might otherwise
have lain in my way, I return to the point of time at which the present
Federal Constitution and your administration began. It was very well
said by an anonymous writer in Philadelphia, about a year before that
period, that "_thirteen staves and ne'er a hoop will not make a barrel_"
and as any kind of hooping the barrel, however defectively executed,
would be better than none, it was scarcely possible but that
considerable advantages must arise from the federal hooping of the
States. It was with pleasure that every sincere friend of America
beheld, as the natural effect of union, her rising prosperity; and it
was with grief they saw that prosperity mixed, even in the blossom,
with the germ of corruption. Monopolies of every kind marked your
administration almost in the moment of its commencement. The lands
obtained by the revolution were lavished upon partisans; the interest
of the disbanded soldier was sold to the speculator; injustice was acted
under the pretence of faith; and the chief of the army became the patron
of the fraud.(2) From such a beginning what else could be expected, than
what has happened? A mean and servile submission to the insults of one
nation; treachery and ingratitude to another.
2 The history of the Scioto Company, by which so many
Frenchmen as well as Americans were ruined, warranted an
even stronger statement. Though Washington did not know what
was going on, he cannot be acquitted of a lack of due
precaution in patronizing leading agents of these
speculations, and introducing them in France.--_Editor._
Some vices make their approach with such a splendid appearance, that we
scarcely know to what class of moral distinctions they belong. They
are rather virtues corrupted than vices, originally. But meanness and
ingratitude have nothing equivocal in their character. There is not a
trait in them that renders them doubtful. They are so originally vice,
that they are generated in the dung of other vices, and crawl into
existence with the filth upon their back. The fugitives have found
protection in you, and the levee-room is their place of rendezvous.
As the Federal Constitution is a copy, though not quite so base as the
original, of the form of the British Government, an imitation of its
vices was naturally to be expected. So intimate is the connection
between _form and practice_, that to adopt the one is to invite the
other. Imitation is naturally progressive, and is rapidly so in matters
that are vicious.
Soon after the Federal Constitution arrived in England, I received a
letter from a female literary correspondent (a native of New York) very
well mixed with friendship, sentiment, and politics. In my answer
to that letter, I permitted myself to ramble into the wilderness of
imagination, and to anticipate what might hereafter be the condition
of America. I had no idea that the picture I then drew was realizing
so fast, and still less that Mr. Washington was hurrying it on. As the
extract I allude to is congenial with the subject I am upon, I here
transcribe it:
[_The extract is the same as that given in a footnote, in
the Memorial to Monroe, p. 180_.]
Impressed, as I was, with apprehensions of this kind, I had America
constantly in my mind in all the publications I afterwards made. The
First, and still more the Second, Part of the Rights of Man, bear
evident marks of this watchfulness; and the Dissertation on First
Principles of Government [XXIV.] goes more directly to the point than
either of the former. I now pass on to other subjects.
It will be supposed by those into whose hands this letter may fall, that
I have some personal resentment against you; I will therefore settle
this point before I proceed further.
If I have any resentment, you must acknowledge that I have not been
hasty in declaring it; neither would it now be declared (for what are
private resentments to the public) if the cause of it did not unite
itself as well with your public as with your private character, and with
the motives of your political conduct.
The part I acted in the American revolution is well known; I shall not
here repeat it. I know also that had it not been for the aid received
from France, in men, money and ships, that your cold and unmilitary
conduct (as I shall shew in the course of this letter) would in all
probability have lost America; at least she would not have been the
independent nation she now is. You slept away your time in the field,
till the finances of the country were completely exhausted, and you have
but little share in the glory of the final event. It is time, sir, to
speak the undisguised language of historical truth.
Elevated to the chair of the Presidency, you assumed the merit of every
thing to yourself, and the natural ingratitude of your constitution
began to appear. You commenced your Presidential career by encouraging
and swallowing the grossest adulation, and you travelled America from
one end to the other to put yourself in the way of receiving it. You
have as many addresses in your chest as James the II. As to what were
your views, for if you are not great enough to have ambition you are
little enough to have vanity, they cannot be directly inferred from
expressions of your own; but the partizans of your politics have
divulged the secret.
John Adams has said, (and John it is known was always a speller after
places and offices, and never thought his little services were highly
enough paid,)--John has said, that as Mr. Washington had no child, the
Presidency should be made hereditary in the family of Lund Washington.
John might then have counted upon some sinecure himself, and a provision
for his descendants. He did not go so far as to say, also, that the
Vice-Presidency should be hereditary in the family of John Adams. He
prudently left that to stand on the ground that one good turn deserves
another.(*)
John Adams is one of those men who never contemplated the origin of
government, or comprehended any thing of first principles. If he had,
he might have seen, that the right to set up and establish hereditary
government, never did, and never can, exist in any generation at any
time whatever; that it is of the nature of treason; because it is an
attempt to take away the rights of all the minors living at that time,
and of all succeeding generations. It is of a degree beyond common
treason. It is a sin against nature. The equal right of every generation
is a right fixed in the nature of things. It belongs to the son when of
age, as it belonged to the father before him. John Adams would himself
deny the right that any former deceased generation could have to
decree authoritatively a succession of governors over him, or over his
children; and yet he assumes the pretended right, treasonable as it is,
of acting it himself. His ignorance is his best excuse.
John Jay has said,(**) (and this John was always the sycophant of
every thing in power, from Mr. Girard in America, to Grenville in
England,)--John Jay has said, that the Senate should have been appointed
for life. He would then have been sure of never wanting a lucrative
appointment for himself, and have had no fears about impeachment. These
are the disguised traitors that call themselves Federalists.(**)
Could I have known to what degree of corruption and perfidy the
administrative part of the government of America had descended, I
could have been at no loss to have understood the reservedness of Mr.
Washington towards me, during my imprisonment in the Luxembourg. There
are cases in which silence is a loud language. I will here explain the
cause of that imprisonment, and return to Mr. Washington afterwards.
* Two persons to whom John Adams said this, told me of it.
The secretary of Mr. Jay was present when it was told to
me.--_Author_.
** If Mr. John Jay desires to know on what authority I say
this, I will give that authority publicly when he chooses to
call for it--_Author_.
In the course of that rage, terror and suspicion, which the brutal
letter of the Duke of Brunswick first started into existence in France,
it happened that almost every man who was opposed to violence, or who
was not violent himself, became suspected. I had constantly been opposed
to every thing which was of the nature or of the appearance of violence;
but as I had always done it in a manner that shewed it to be a principle
founded in my heart, and not a political manouvre, it precluded the
pretence of accusing me. I was reached, however, under another pretence.
A decree was passed to imprison all persons born in England; but as
I was a member of the Convention, and had been complimented with the
honorary style of Citizen of France, as Mr. Washington and some other
Americans had been, this decree fell short of reaching me. A motion was
afterwards made and carried, supported chiefly by Bourdon de l'Oise,
for expelling foreigners from the Convention. My expulsion being thus
effected, the two committees of Public Safety and of General Surety,
of which Robespierre was the dictator, put me in arrestation under the
former decree for imprisoning persons born in England. Having thus shewn
under what pretence the imprisonment was effected, I come to speak of
such parts of the case as apply between me and Mr. Washington, either as
a President or as an individual.
I have always considered that a foreigner, such as I was in fact, with
respect to France, might be a member of a Convention for framing a
Constitution, without affecting his right of citizenship in the
country to which he belongs, but not a member of a government after
a Constitution is formed; and I have uniformly acted upon this
distinction» To be a member of a government requires that a person be
in allegiance to that government and to the country locally. But a
Constitution, being a thing of principle, and not of action, and
which, after it is formed, is to be referred to the people for their
approbation or rejection, does not require allegiance in the persons
forming and proposing it; and besides this, it is only to the thing
after it be formed and established, and to the country after its
governmental character is fixed by the adoption of a constitution, that
the allegiance can be given. No oath of allegiance or of citizenship was
required of the members who composed the Convention: there was nothing
existing in form to swear allegiance to. If any such condition had been
required, I could not, as Citizen of America in fact, though Citizen of
France by compliment, have accepted a seat in the Convention.
As my citizenship in America was not altered or diminished by any thing
I had done in Europe, (on the contrary, it ought to be considered as
strengthened, for it was the American principle of government that I
was endeavouring to spread in Europe,) and as it is the duty of every
govern-ment to charge itself with the care of any of its citizens who
may happen to fall under an arbitrary persecution abroad, and is also
one of the reasons for which ambassadors or ministers are appointed,--it
was the duty of the Executive department in America, to have made (at
least) some enquiries about me, as soon as it heard of my imprisonment.
But if this had not been the case, that government owed it to me on
every ground and principle of honour and gratitude. Mr. Washington owed
it to me on every score of private acquaintance, I will not now say,
friendship; for it has some time been known by those who know him, that
he has no friendships; that he is incapable of forming any; he can serve
or desert a man, or a cause, with constitutional indifference; and it is
this cold hermaphrodite faculty that imposed itself upon the world,
and was credited for a while by enemies as by friends, for prudence,
moderation and impartiality.(1)
1 "L'on pent dire qu'il [Washington] jouit de tous les
avantages possibles a l'exception des douceurs de
l'amitié."--Louis Otto, Chargé d'Affaires (at New York) to
his government, 13 June, 1790. French Archives, vol. 35, No.
32.--Editor.
Soon after I was put into arrestation, and imprisoned in the Luxembourg,
the Americans who were then in Paris went in a body to the bar of the
Convention to reclaim me. They were answered by the then President
Vadier, who has since absconded, that _I was born in England_, and it
was signified to them, by some of the Committee of _General Surety_, to
whom they were referred (I have been told it was Billaud Varennes,) that
their reclamation of me was only the act of individuals, without any
authority from the American government.
A few days after this, all communications from persons imprisoned to
any person without the prison was cut off by an order of the Police. I
neither saw, nor heard from, any body for six months; and the only hope
that remained to me was, that a new Minister would arrive from America
to supercede Morris, and that he would be authorized to enquire into
the cause of my imprisonment. But even this hope, in the state to which
matters were daily arriving, was too remote to have any consolatory
effect, and I contented myself with the thought, that I might be
remembered when it would be too late. There is perhaps no condition from
which a man conscious of his own uprightness cannot derive consolation;
for it is in itself a consolation for him to find, that he can bear that
condition with calmness and fortitude.
From about the middle of March (1794) to the fall of Robespierre
July 29, (9th of Thermidor,) the state of things in the prisons was a
continued scene of horror. No man could count upon life for twenty-four
hours. To such a pitch of rage and suspicion were Robespierre and his
Committee arrived, that it seemed as if they feared to leave a man
living. Scarcely a night passed in which ten, twenty, thirty, forty,
fifty, or more, were not taken out of the prison, carried before a
pretended tribunal in the morning, and guillotined before night. One
hundred and sixty-nine were taken out of the Luxembourg one night, in
the month of July, and one hundred and sixty of them guillotined. A
list of two hundred more, according to the report in the prison, was
preparing a few days before Robespierre fell. In this last list I have
good reason to believe I was included. A memorandum in the hand-writing
of Robespierre was afterwards produced in the Convention, by the
committee to whom the papers of Robespierre were referred, in these
words:
"Demander que Thomas "I Demand that Thomas Paine
"Payne soit décrété d'ac- be decreed of accusation
"cusation pour les inté- for the interests of America
"rôtsde l'Amérique,autant as well as of France."
"que de la France."
1 In reading this the Committee added, "Why Thomas Payne
more than another? Because He helped to establish the
liberty of both worlds."--_Editor_.
I had then been imprisoned seven months, and the silence of the
Executive part of the government of America (Mr. Washington) upon the
case, and upon every thing respecting me, was explanation enough to
Robespierre that he might proceed to extremities.
A violent fever which had nearly terminated my existence, was, I
believe, the circumstance that preserved it. I was not in a condition to
be removed, or to know of what was passing, or of what had passed, for
more than a month. It makes a blank in my remembrance of life. The first
thing I was informed of was the fall of Robespierre.
About a week after this, Mr. Monroe arrived to supercede Gouverneur
Morris, and as soon as I was able to write a note legible enough to be
read, I found a way to convey one to him by means of the man who lighted
the lamps in the prison; and whose unabated friendship to me, from whom
he had never received any service, and with difficulty accepted any
recompense, puts the character of Mr. Washington to shame.
In a few days I received a message from Mr. Monroe, conveyed to me in a
note from an intermediate person, with assurance of his friendship, and
expressing a desire that I would rest the case in his hands. After a
fortnight or more had passed, and hearing nothing farther, I wrote to a
friend who was then in Paris, a citizen of Philadelphia, requesting him
to inform me what was the true situation of things with respect to me. I
was sure that something was the matter; I began to have hard thoughts of
Mr. Washington, but I was unwilling to encourage them.
In about ten days, I received an answer to my letter, in which the
writer says, "Mr. Monroe has told me that he has no order [meaning from
the President, Mr. Washington] respecting you, but that he (Mr. Monroe)
will do every thing in his power to liberate you; but, from what I learn
from the Americans lately arrived in Paris, you are not considered,
either by the American government, or by the individuals, as an American
citizen."
I was now at no loss to understand Mr. Washington and his new fangled
faction, and that their policy was silently to leave me to fall in
France. They were rushing as fast as they could venture, without
awakening the jealousy of America, into all the vices and corruptions of
the British government; and it was no more consistent with the policy
of Mr. Washington, and those who immediately surrounded him, than it was
with that of Robespierre or of Pitt, that I should survive. They have,
however, missed the mark, and the reaction is upon themselves.
Upon the receipt of the letter just alluded to, I sent a memorial to Mr.
Monroe, which the reader will find in the appendix, and I received from
him the following answer.(1) It is dated the 18th of September, but did
not come to hand till about the 4th of October. I was then failing into
a relapse, the weather was becoming damp and cold, fuel was not to be
had, and the abscess in my side, the consequence of these things, and
of the want of air and exercise, was beginning to form, and which has
continued immoveable ever since. Here follows Mr. Monroe's letter.
1 The appendix consisted of an abridgment of the Memorial,
which forms the preceding chapter (XXI.) in this volume.--
_Editor._.
Paris, September 18th, 1794. "Dear Sir,
"I was favoured soon after my arrival here with several letters from
you, and more latterly with one in the character of memorial upon the
subject of your confinement; and should have answered them at the
times they were respectively written had I not concluded you would have
calculated with certainty upon the deep interest I take in your welfare,
and the pleasure with which I shall embrace every opportunity in my
power to serve you. I should still pursue the same course, and for
reasons which must obviously occur, if I did not find that you are
disquieted with apprehensions upon interesting points, and which justice
to you and our country equally forbid you should entertain. You mention
that you have been informed you are not considered as an American
citizen by the Americans, and that you have likewise heard that I had
no instructions respecting you by the government. I doubt not the person
who gave you the information meant well, but I suspect he did not even
convey accurately his own ideas on the first point: for I presume the
most he could say is, that you had likewise become a French citizen,
and which by no means deprived you of being an American one. Even
this, however, may be doubted, I mean the acquisition of citizenship in
France, and I confess you have said much to show that it has not been
made. I really suspect that this was all that the gentleman who wrote
to you, and those Americans he heard speak upon the subject meant. It
becomes my duty, however, to declare to you, that I consider you as
an American citizen, and that you are considered universally in that
character by the people of America. As such you are entitled to my
attention; and so far as it can be given consistently with those
obligations which are mutual between every government and even a
transient passenger, you shall receive it.
"The Congress have never decided upon the subject of citizenship in
a manner to regard the present case. By being with us through the
revolution you are of our country as absolutely as if you had been born
there, and you are no more of England, than every native American is.
This is the true doctrine in the present case, so far as it becomes
complicated with any other consideration. I have mentioned it to make
you easy upon the only point which could give you any disquietude.
"Is it necessary for me to tell you how much all your countrymen, I
speak of the great mass of the people, are interested in your welfare?
They have not forgotten the history of their own revolution and the
difficult scenes through which they passed; nor do they review its
several stages without reviving in their bosoms a due sensibility of the
merits of those who served them in that great and arduous conflict. The
crime of ingratitude has not yet stained, and I trust never will stain,
our national character. You are considered by them as not only having
rendered important service in our own revolution, but as being, on a
more extensive scale, the friend of human rights, and a distinguished
and able advocate in favour of public liberty. To the welfare of Thomas
Paine, the Americans are not, nor can they be, indifferent.
"Of the sense which the President has always entertained of your merits,
and of his friendly disposition towards you, you are too well assured
to require any declaration of it from me. That I forward his wishes
in seeking your safety is what I well know, and this will form an
additional obligation on me to perform what I should otherwise consider
as a duty.
"You are, in my opinion, at present menaced by no kind of danger.
To liberate you, will be an object of my endeavours, and as soon as
possible. But you must, until that event shall be accomplished, bear
your situation with patience and fortitude. You will likewise have the
justice to recollect, that I am placed here upon a difficult theatre*
many important objects to attend to, with few to consult It becomes me
in pursuit of those to regulate my conduct in respect to each, as to
the manner and the time, as will, in my judgment, be best calculated to
accomplish the whole.
"With great esteem and respect consider me personally your friend,
"James Monroe."
The part in Mr. Monroe's letter, in which he speaks of the President,
(Mr. Washington,) is put in soft language. Mr. Monroe knew what Mr.
Washington had said formerly, and he was willing to keep that in view.
But the fact is, not only that Mr. Washington had given no orders to Mr.
Monroe, as the letter [of Whiteside] stated, but he did not so much as
say to him, enquire if Mr. Paine be dead or alive, in prison or out, or
see if there be any assistance we can give him.
This I presume alludes to the embarrassments which the
strange conduct of Gouverneur Morris had occasioned, and
which, I well know, had created suspicions of the sincerity
of Mr. Washington.--_Author_. voi. m--ij
While these matters were passing, the liberations from the prisons were
numerous; from twenty to forty in the course of almost every twenty-four
hours. The continuance of my imprisonment after a new Minister had
arrived immediately from America, which was now more than two months,
was a matter so obviously strange, that I found the character of the
American government spoken of in very unqualified terms of reproach;
not only by those who still remained in prison, but by those who were
liberated, and by persons who had access to the prison from without.
Under these circumstances I wrote again to Mr. Monroe, and found
occasion, among other things, to say: "It will not add to the popularity
of Mr. Washington to have it believed in America, as it is believed
here, that he connives at my imprisonment."
The case, so far as it respected Mr. Monroe, was, that having to get
over the difficulties, which the strange conduct of Gouverneur Morris
had thrown in the way of a successor, and having no authority from the
American government to speak officially upon any thing relating to me,
he found himself obliged to proceed by unofficial means with individual
members; for though Robespierre was overthrown, the Robespierrian
members of the Committee of Public Safety still remained in considerable
force, and had they found out that Mr. Monroe had no official authority
upon the case, they would have paid little or no regard to his
reclamation of me. In the mean time my health was suffering exceedingly,
the dreary prospect of winter was coming on, and imprisonment was still
a thing of danger. After the Robespierrian members of the Committee were
removed by the expiration of their time of serving, Mr. Monroe reclaimed
me, and I was liberated the 4th of November. Mr. Monroe arrived in Paris
the beginning of August before. All that period of my imprisonment,
at least, I owe not to Robespierre, but to his colleague in projects,
George Washington. Immediately upon my liberation, Mr. Monroe invited me
to his house, where I remained more than a year and a half; and I speak
of his aid and friendship, as an open-hearted man will always do in such
a case, with respect and gratitude.
Soon after my liberation, the Convention passed an unanimous vote,
to invite me to return to my seat among them. The times were still
unsettled and dangerous, as well from without as within, for the
coalition was unbroken, and the constitution not settled. I chose,
however, to accept the invitation: for as I undertake nothing but what
I believe to be right, I abandon nothing that I undertake; and I
was willing also to shew, that, as I was not of a cast of mind to be
deterred by prospects or retrospects of danger, so neither were my
principles to be weakened by misfortune or perverted by disgust.
Being now once more abroad in the world, I began to find that I was
not the only one who had conceived an unfavourable opinion of Mr.
Washington; it was evident that his character was on the decline as well
among Americans as among foreigners of different nations. From being the
chief of the government, he had made himself the chief of a party;
and his integrity was questioned, for his politics had a doubtful
appearance. The mission of Mr. Jay to London, notwithstanding there
was an American Minister there already, had then taken place, and was
beginning to be talked of. It appeared to others, as it did to me, to
be enveloped in mystery, which every day served either to increase or to
explain into matter of suspicion.
In the year 1790, or about that time, Mr. Washington, as President,
had sent Gouverneur Morris to London, as his secret agent to have some
communication with the British Ministry. To cover the agency of Morris
it was given out, I know not by whom, that he went as an agent from
Robert Morris to borrow money in Europe, and the report was permitted
to pass uncontradicted. The event of Morris's negociation was, that Mr.
Hammond was sent Minister from England to America, Pinckney from
America to England, and himself Minister to France. If, while Morris was
Minister in France, he was not a emissary of the British Ministry and
the coalesced powers, he gave strong reasons to suspect him of it. No
one who saw his conduct, and heard his conversation, could doubt his
being in their interest; and had he not got off the time he did, after
his recall, he would have been in arrestation. Some letters of his had
fallen into the hands of the Committee of Public Safety, and enquiry was
making after him.
A great bustle had been made by Mr. Washington about the conduct of
Genet in America, while that of his own Minister, Morris, in France, was
infinitely more reproachable. If Genet was imprudent or rash, he was not
treacherous; but Morris was all three. He was the enemy of the French
revolution, in every stage of it. But notwithstanding this conduct
on the part of Morris, and the known profligacy of his character, Mr.
Washington in a letter he wrote to him at the time of recalling him on
the complaint and request of the Committee of Public Safety, assures
him, that though he had complied with that request, he still retained
the same esteem and friendship for him as before. This letter Morris was
foolish enough to tell of; and, as his own char-acter and conduct were
notorious, the telling of it could have but one effect, which was that
of implicating the character of the writer.(1) Morris still loiters
in Europe, chiefly in England; and Mr. Washington is still in
correspondence with him. Mr. Washington ought, therefore, to expect,
especially since his conduct in the affairs of Jay's treaty, that France
must consider Morris and Washington as men of the same description. The
chief difference, however, between the two is, (for in politics there
is none,) that the one is profligate enough to profess an indifference
about _moral_ principles, and the other is prudent enough to conceal the
want of them.
1 Washington wrote to Morris, June 19,1794, "my confidence
in and friendship for you remain undiminished." It was not
"foolish" but sagacious to show this one sentence, without
which Morris might not have escaped out of France. The
letter reveals Washington's mental decline. He says "until
then [Fauchet's demand for recall of Morris, early 1794] I
had supposed you stood well with the powers that were."
Lafayette had pleaded for Morris's removal, and two French
Ministers before Fauchet, Ternant and Genet, had expressed
their Government's dissatisfaction with him. See Ford's
Writings of Washington, vii., p. 453; also Editor's
Introduction to XXI.--_Editor._
About three months after I was at liberty, the official note of Jay
to Grenville on the subject of the capture of American vessels by the
British cruisers, appeared in the American papers that arrived at Paris.
Every thing was of a-piece. Every thing was mean. The same kind of
character went to all circumstances public or private. Disgusted at
this national degradation, as well as at the particular conduct of Mr.
Washington to me, I wrote to him (Mr. Washington) on the 22d of February
(1795) under cover to the then Secretary of State, (Mr. Randolph,) and
entrusted the letter to Mr. Le-tombe, who was appointed French consul
to Philadelphia, and was on the point of taking his departure. When I
supposed Mr. Letombe had sailed, I mentioned the letter to Mr. Monroe,
and as I was then in his house, I shewed it to him. He expressed a
wish that I would recall it, which he supposed might be done, as he had
learnt that Mr. Letombe had not then sailed. I agreed to do so, and it
was returned by Mr. Letombe under cover to Mr. Monroe.
The letter, however, will now reach Mr. Washington publicly in the
course of this work.
About the month of September following, I had a severe relapse which
gave occasion to the report of my death. I had felt it coming on a
considerable time before, which occasioned me to hasten the work I
had then in hand, the _Second part of the Age of Reason_. When I had
finished that work, I bestowed another letter on Mr. Washington, which I
sent under cover to Mr. Benj. Franklin Bache of Philadelphia. The letter
is as follows:
"Paris, September 20th, 1795.
"Sir,
"I had written you a letter by Mr. Letombe, French consul, but, at the
request of Mr. Monroe, I withdrew it, and the letter is still by me.
I was the more easily prevailed upon to do this, as it was then my
intention to have returned to America the latter end of the present
year, 1795; but the illness I now suffer prevents me. In case I had
come, I should have applied to you for such parts of your official
letters (and of your private ones, if you had chosen to give them) as
contained any instructions or directions either to Mr. Monroe, or to
Mr. Morris, or to any other person respecting me; for after you were
informed of my imprisonment in France, it was incumbent on you to have
made some enquiry into the cause, as you might very well conclude that I
had not the opportunity of informing you of it. I cannot understand your
silence upon this subject upon any other ground, than as _connivance_ at
my imprisonment; and this is the manner it is understood here, and will
be understood in America, unless you give me authority for contradicting
it. I therefore write you this letter, to propose to you to send me
copies of any letters you have written, that may remove that suspicion.
In the preface to the second part of the Age of Reason, I have given a
memorandum from the hand-writing of Robespierre, in which he proposed a
decree of accusation against me, '_for the interests of America as well
as of France!_' He could have no cause for putting America in the
case, but by interpreting the silence of the American government into
connivance and consent. I was imprisoned on the ground of being born
in England; and your silence in not enquiring into the cause of that
imprisonment, and reclaiming me against it, was tacitly giving me up. I
ought not to have suspected you of treachery; but whether I recover
from the illness I now suffer or not, I shall continue to think you
treacherous, till you give me cause to think otherwise. I am sure you
would have found yourself more at your ease, had you acted by me as
you ought; for whether your desertion of me was intended to gratify the
English Government, or to let me fall into destruction in France that
you might exclaim the louder against the French Revolution, or whether
you hoped by my extinction to meet with less opposition in mounting up
the American government--either of these will involve you in reproach
you will not easily shake off.
"THOMAS Paine."
1 Washington Papers in State Department. Endorsed by Bache:
"Jan. 18, 1796. Enclosed to Benj. Franklin Bache, and by him
forwarded immediately upon receipt."--_Editor._.
Here follows the letter above alluded to, which I had stopped in
complaisance to Mr. Monroe.
"Paris, February aad, 1795.
"Sir,
"As it is always painful to reproach those one would wish to respect, it
is not without some difficulty that I have taken the resolution to
write to you. The dangers to which I have been exposed cannot have been
unknown to you, and the guarded silence you have observed upon that
circumstance is what I ought not to have expected from you, either as a
friend or as President of the United States.
"You knew enough of my character to be assured that I could not have
deserved imprisonment in France; and, without knowing any thing more
than this, you had sufficient ground to have taken some interest for my
safety. Every motive arising from recollection of times past, ought to
have suggested to you the propriety of such a measure. But I cannot find
that you have so much as directed any enquiry to be made whether I
was in prison or at liberty, dead or alive; what the cause of that
imprisonment was, or whether there was any service or assistance you
could render. Is this what I ought to have expected from America, after
the part I had acted towards her, or will it redound to her honour or
to yours, that I tell the story? I do not hesitate to say, that you have
not served America with more disinterestedness, or greater zeal, or more
fidelity, than myself, and I know not if with better effect. After the
revolution of America was established I ventured into new scenes
of difficulties to extend the principles which that revolution had
produced, and you rested at home to partake of the advantages. In the
progress of events, you beheld yourself a President in America, and me a
prisoner in France. You folded your arms, forgot your friend, and became
silent.
"As every thing I have been doing in Europe was connected with my wishes
for the prosperity of America, I ought to be the more surprised at this
conduct on the part of her government. It leaves me but one mode of
explanation, which is, _that every thing is not as it ought to be
amongst you_, and that the presence of a man who might disapprove, and
who had credit enough with the country to be heard and believed, was not
wished for. This was the operating motive with the despotic faction
that imprisoned me in France, (though the pretence was, that I was a
foreigner,) and those that have been silent and inactive towards me
in America, appear to me to have acted from the same motive. It is
impossible for me to discover any other.(1)
"After the part I have taken in the revolution of America, it is
natural that I feel interested in whatever relates to her character
and prosperity. Though I am not on the spot to see what is immediately
acting there, I see some part of what she is acting in Europe. For
your own sake, as well as for that of America, I was both surprised
and concerned at the appointment of Gouverneur Morris to be Minister
to France. His conduct has proved that the opinion I had formed of that
appointment was well founded. I wrote that opinion to Mr. Jefferson at
the time, and I was frank enough to say the same thing to Morris--_that
it was an unfortunate appointment?_ His prating, insignificant
pomposity, rendered him at once offensive, suspected, and ridiculous;
and his total neglect of all business had so disgusted the Americans,
that they proposed drawing up a protest against him. He carried this
neglect to such an extreme, that it was necessary to inform him of it;
and I asked him one day, if he did not feel himself ashamed to take the
money of the country, and do nothing for it?' But Morris is so fond of
profit and voluptousness, that he cares nothing about character. Had
he not been removed at the time he was, I think his conduct would have
precipitated the two countries into a rupture; and in this case,
hated _systematically_ as America is and ever will be by the British
government, and at the same time suspected by France, the commerce of
America would have fallen a prey to both countries.
1 This paragraph of the original letter was omitted from the
American pamphlet, probably by the prudence of Mr. Bache.--
_Editor._
2 "I have just heard of Gouverneur Morris's appointment. It
is a most unfortunate one; and, as I shall mention the same
thing to him when I see him, I do not express it to you with
the injunction of confidence."--Paine to Jefferson, Feb.
13,1792.--_Editor._
3 Paine could not of course know that Morris was willing
that the Americans, to whom he alludes, captains of captured
vessels, should suffer, in order that there might be a case
against France of violation of treaty, which would leave the
United States free to transfer the alliance to England. See
Introduction to XXI.. also my "Life of Paine," ii., p.
83.--_Editor._.
"If the inconsistent conduct of Morris exposed the interest of America
to some hazard in France, the pusillanimous conduct of Mr. Jay in
England has rendered the American government contemptible in Europe.
Is it possible that any man who has contributed to the independence of
Amer-ica, and to free her from the tyranny and injustice of the British
government, can read without shame and indignation the note of Jay to
Grenville? It is a satire upon the declaration of Independence, and an
encouragement to the British government to treat America with contempt.
At the time this Minister of Petitions was acting this miserable part,
he had every means in his hands to enable him to have done his business
as he ought. The success or failure of his mission depended upon the
success or failure of the French arms. Had France failed, Mr. Jay might
have put his humble petition in his pocket, and gone home. The case
happened to be otherwise, and he has sacrificed the honour and perhaps
all the advantages of it, by turning petitioner. I take it for granted,
that he was sent over to demand indemnification for the captured
property; and, in this case, if he thought he wanted a preamble to his
demand, he might have said,
'That, tho' the government of England might suppose itself under
the necessity of seizing American property bound to France, yet
that supposed necessity could not preclude indemnification to the
proprietors, who, acting under the authority of their own government,
were not accountable to any other.'
"But Mr. Jay sets out with an implied recognition of the right of the
British government to seize and condemn: for he enters his complaint
against the _irregularity_ of the seizures and the condemnation, as if
they were reprehensible only by not being _conformable_ to the _terms_
of the proclamation under which they were seized. Instead of being the
Envoy of a government, he goes over like a lawyer to demand a new trial.
I can hardly help thinking that Grenville wrote that note himself and
Jay signed it; for the style of it is domestic and not diplomatic.
The term, _His_ Majesty, used without any descriptive epithet, always
signifies the King whom the Minister that speaks represents. If this
sinking of the demand into a petition was a juggle between Grenville
and Jay, to cover the indemnification, I think it will end in another
juggle, that of never paying the money, and be made use of afterwards to
preclude the right of demanding it: for Mr. Jay has virtually disowned
the right _by appealing to the magnanimity of his Majesty against the
capturers_. He has made this magnanimous Majesty the umpire in the case,
and the government of the United States must abide by the decision. If,
Sir, I turn some part of this business into ridicule, it is to avoid the
unpleasant sensation of serious indignation.
"Among other things which I confess I do not understand, is the
proclamation of neutrality. This has always appeared to me as
an assumption on the part of the executive not warranted by the
Constitution. But passing this over, as a disputable case, and
considering it only as political, the consequence has been that of
sustaining the losses of war, without the balance of reprisals. When
the profession of neutrality, on the part of America, was answered by
hostilities on the part of Britain, the object and intention of that
neutrality existed no longer; and to maintain it after this, was not
only to encourage farther insults and depredations, but was an informal
breach of neutrality towards France, by passively contributing to the
aid of her enemy. That the government of England considered the American
government as pusillanimous, is evident from the encreasing insolence of
the conduct of the former towards the latter, till the affair of General
Wayne. She then saw that it might be possible to kick a government into
some degree of spirit.(1) So far as the proclamation of neutrality was
intended to prevent a dissolute spirit of privateering in America under
foreign colors, it was undoubtedly laudable; but to continue it as a
government neutrality, after the commerce of America was made war upon,
was submission and not neutrality. I have heard so much about this thing
called neutrality, that I know not if the ungenerous and dishonorable
silence (for I must call it such,) that has been observed by your part
of the government towards me, during my imprisonment, has not in some
measure arisen from that policy.
1 Wayne's success against the Indians of the Six Nations,
1794, was regarded by Washington also as a check on England.
Writing to Pendleton, Jan. 22, 1795, he says: "There is
reason to believe that the Indians...._together with their
abettors_; begin to see things in a different point of
view." (Italics mine).--_Editor._
"Tho' I have written you this letter, you ought not to suppose it has
been an agreeable undertaking to me. On the contrary, I assure you, it
has caused me some disquietude. I am sorry you have given me cause to
do it; for, as I have always remembered your former friendship with
pleasure, I suffer a loss by your depriving me of that sentiment.
"Thomas Paine."
That this letter was not written in very good temper, is very evident;
but it was just such a letter as his conduct appeared to me to merit,
and every thing on his part since has served to confirm that
opinion. Had I wanted a commentary on his silence, with respect to my
imprisonment in France, some of his faction have furnished me with it.
What I here allude to, is a publication in a Philadelphia paper, copied
afterwards into a New York paper, both under the patronage of the
Washington faction, in which the writer, still supposing me in prison
in France, wonders at my lengthy respite from the scaffold; and he marks
his politics still farther, by saying:
"It appears, moreover, that the people of England did not relish his
(Thomas Paine's) opinions quite so well as he expected, and that for one
of his last pieces, as destructive to the peace and happiness of their
country, (meaning, I suppose, the _Rights of Man_,) they threatened
our knight-errant with such serious vengeance, that, to avoid a trip to
Botany Bay, he fled over to France, as a less dangerous voyage."
I am not refuting or contradicting the falsehood of this publication,
for it is sufficiently notorious; neither am I censuring the writer: on
the contrary, I thank him for the explanation he has incautiously given
of the principles of the Washington faction. Insignificant, however, as
the piece is, it was capable of having some ill effects, had it arrived
in France during my imprisonment, and in the time of Robespierre; and I
am not uncharitable in supposing that this was one of the intentions of
the writer.(*)
* I know not who the writer of the piece is, but some of the
Americans say it is Phineas Bond, an American refugee, but
now a British consul; and that he writes under the
signature of Peter Skunk or Peter Porcupine, or some such
signature.--Author.
This footnote probably added to the gall of Porcupine's
(Cobbett's) "Letter to the Infamous Tom Paine, in Answer to
his Letter to General Washington" (Polit. Censor, Dec.,
1796), of which he (Cobbett) afterwards repented. Phineas
Bond had nothing to do with it.--Editor.
I have now done with Mr. Washington on the score of private affairs. It
would have been far more agreeable to me, had his conduct been such as
not to have merited these reproaches. Errors or caprices of the temper
can be pardoned and forgotten; but a cold deliberate crime of the heart,
such as Mr. Washington is capable of acting, is not to be washed away. I
now proceed to other matter.
After Jay's note to Grenville arrived in Paris from America, the
character of every thing that was to follow might be easily foreseen;
and it was upon this anticipation that _my_ letter of February the 22d
was founded. The event has proved that I was not mistaken, except that
it has been much worse than I expected.
It would naturally occur to Mr. Washington, that the secrecy of Jay's
mission to England, where there was already an American Minister, could
not but create some suspicion in the French government; especially
as the conduct of Morris had been notorious, and the intimacy of Mr.
Washington with Morris was known.
The character which Mr. Washington has attempted to act in the world, is
a sort of non-describable, camelion-colored thing, called _prudence_. It
is, in many cases, a substitute for principle, and is so nearly allied
to hypocrisy that it easily slides into it. His genius for prudence
furnished him in this instance with an expedient that served, as is
the natural and general character of all expedients, to diminish the
embarrassments of the moment and multiply them afterwards; for
he authorized it to be made known to the French government, as a
confidential matter, (Mr. Washington should recollect that I was a
member of the Convention, and had the means of knowing what I here
state) he authorized it, I say, to be announced, and that for the
purpose of preventing any uneasiness to France on the score of Mr. Jay's
mission to England, that the object of that mission, and of Mr. Jay's
authority, was restricted to that of demanding the surrender of the
western posts, and indemnification for the cargoes captured in American
vessels. Mr. Washington knows that this was untrue; and knowing this,
he had good reason to himself for refusing to furnish the House of
Representatives with copies of the instructions given to Jay, as he
might suspect, among other things, that he should also be called upon
for copies of instructions given to other Ministers, and that, in
the contradiction of instructions, his want of integrity would be
detected.(1) Mr. Washington may now, perhaps, learn, when it is too late
to be of any use to him, that a man will pass better through the world
with a thousand open errors upon his back, than in being detected in
_one_ sly falsehood. When one is detected, a thousand are suspected.
The first account that arrived in Paris of a treaty being negotiated by
Mr. Jay, (for nobody suspected any,) came in an English newspaper, which
announced that a treaty _offensive and defensive_ had been concluded
between the United States of America and England. This was immediately
denied by every American in Paris, as an impossible thing; and though
it was disbelieved by the French, it imprinted a suspicion that some
underhand business was going forward.(*) At length the treaty itself
arrived, and every well-affected American blushed with shame.
1 When the British treaty had been ratified by the Senate
(with one stipulation) and signed by the President, the
House of Representatives, required to supply the means for
carrying into effect, believed that its power over the
supplies authorized it to check what a large majority
considered an outrage on the country and on France. This was
the opinion of Edmund Randolph (the first Attorney General),
of Jefferson, Madison, and other eminent men. The House
having respectfully requested the President to send them
such papers on the treaty as would not affect any existing
negotiations, he refused in a message (March 30, 1796),
whose tenor Madison described as "improper and indelicate."
He said "the assent of the House of Representatives is not
necessary to the validity of a treaty." The House regarded
the message as menacing a serious conflict, and receded.--
_Editor._
* It was the embarrassment into which the affairs and credit
of America were thrown at this instant by the report above
alluded to, that made it necessary to contradict it, and
that by every means arising from opinion or founded upon
authority. The Committee of Public Safety, existing at that
time, had agreed to the full execution, on their part, of
the treaty between America and France, notwithstanding some
equivocal conduct on the part of the American government,
not very consistent with the good faith of an ally; but they
were not in a disposition to be imposed upon by a counter-
treaty. That Jay had no instructions beyond the points above
stated, or none that could possibly be construed to extend
to the length the British treaty goes, was a matter believed
in America, in England, and in France; and without going to
any other source it followed naturally from the message of
the President to Congress, when he nominated Jay upon that
mission. The secretary of Mr. Jay came to Paris soon after
the treaty with England had been concluded, and brought with
him a copy of Mr. Jay's instructions, which he offered to
shew to me as _justification of Jay_. I advised him, as a
friend, not to shew them to anybody, and did not permit him
to shew them to me. "Who is it," said I to him, "that you
intend to implicate as censureable by shewing those
instructions? Perhaps that implication may fall upon your
own government." Though I did not see the instructions, I
could not be at a loss to understand that the American
administration had been playing a double game.--Author.
That there was a "double game" in this business, from first
to last, is now a fact of history. Jay was confirmed by the
Senate on a declaration of the President in which no
faintest hint of a treaty was given, but only the
"adjustment of our complaints," "vindication of our rights,"
and cultivation of "peace." Only after the Envoy's
confirmation did the Cabinet add the main thing, his
authority to negotiate a commercial treaty. This was done
against the protest of the only lawyer among them, Edmund
Randolph, Secretary of State, who said the exercise of such
a power by Jay would be an abridgment of the rights of the
Senate and of the nation. See my "Life of Randolph," p. 220.
For Jay's Instructions, etc., see I. Am. State Papers,
Foreign Relations.--Editor.
It is curious to observe, how the appearance of characters will change,
whilst the root that produces them remains the same. The Washington
faction having waded through the slough of negociation, and whilst it
amused France with professions of friendship contrived to injure her,
immediately throws off the hypocrite, and assumes the swaggering air of
a bravado. The party papers of that imbecile administration were on
this occasion filled with paragraphs about _Sovereignty_. A paltroon may
boast of his sovereign right to let another kick him, and this is the
only kind of sovereignty shewn in the treaty with England. But those
daring paragraphs, as Timothy Pickering(1) well knows, were intended
for France; without whose assistance, in men, money, and ships, Mr.
Washington would have cut but a poor figure in the American war. But of
his military talents I shall speak hereafter.
I mean not to enter into any discussion of any article of Jay's treaty;
I shall speak only upon the whole of it. It is attempted to be justified
on the ground of its not being a violation of any article or articles
of the treaty pre-existing with France. But the sovereign right of
explanation does not lie with George Washington and his man Timothy;
France, on her part, has, at least, an equal right: and when nations
dispute, it is not so much about words as about things.
A man, such as the world calls a sharper, and versed as Jay must be
supposed to be in the quibbles of the law, may find a way to enter into
engagements, and make bargains, in such a manner as to cheat some other
party, without that party being able, as the phrase is, _to take the law
of him_. This often happens in the cabalistical circle of what is called
law. But when this is attempted to be acted on the national scale of
treaties, it is too despicable to be defended, or to be permitted to
exist. Yet this is the trick upon which Jay's treaty is founded, so
far as it has relation to the treaty pre-existing with France. It is a
counter-treaty to that treaty, and perverts all the great articles of
that treaty to the injury of France, and makes them operate as a bounty
to England, with whom France is at war.
1 Secretary of State.--_Editor._.
The Washington administration shews great desire that the treaty between
France and the United States be preserved. Nobody can doubt their
sincerity upon this matter. There is not a British Minister, a British
merchant, or a British agent or sailor in America, that does not
anxiously wish the same thing. The treaty with France serves now as
a passport to supply England with naval stores and other articles of
American produce, whilst the same articles, when coming to France, are
made contraband or seizable by Jay's treaty with England. The treaty
with France says, that neutral ships make neutral property, and thereby
gives protection to English property on board American ships; and Jay's
treaty delivers up French property on board American ships to be seized
by the English. It is too paltry to talk of faith, of national honour,
and of the preservation of treaties, whilst such a bare-faced treachery
as this stares the world in the face.
The Washington administration may save itself the trouble of proving to
the French government its _most faithful_ intentions of preserving
the treaty with France; for France has now no desire that it should be
preserved. She had nominated an Envoy extraordinary to America, to make
Mr. Washington and his government a present of the treaty, and to
have no more to do with _that_, or with _him_. It was at the same time
officially declared to the American Minister at Paris, _that the French
Republic had rather have the American government for an open enemy
than a treacherous friend_. This, sir, together with the internal
distractions caused in America, and the loss of character in the world,
is the _eventful crisis_, alluded to in the beginning of this letter, to
which your double politics have brought the affairs of your country. It
is time that the eyes of America be opened upon you.
How France would have conducted herself towards America and American
commerce, after all treaty stipulations had ceased, and under the sense
of services rendered and injuries received, I know not. It is, however,
an unpleasant reflection, that in all national quarrels, the innocent,
and even the friendly part of the community, become involved with the
culpable and the unfriendly; and as the accounts that arrived from
America continued to manifest an invariable attachment in the general
mass of the people to their original ally, in opposition to the
new-fangled Washington faction,--the resolutions that had been taken
in France were suspended. It happened also, fortunately enough, that
Gouverneur Morris was not Minister at this time.
There is, however, one point that still remains in embryo, and
which, among other things, serves to shew the ignorance of Washington
treaty-makers, and their inattention to preexisting treaties, when they
were employing themselves in framing or ratifying the new treaty with
England.
The second article of the treaty of commerce between the United States
and France says:
"The most christian king and the United States engage mutually, not to
grant any particular favour to other nations in respect of commerce and
navigation that shall not immediately become common to the other party,
who shall enjoy the same favour freely, if the concession was freely
made, or on allowing the same compensation if the concession was
conditional."
All the concessions, therefore, made to England by Jay's treaty are,
through the medium of this second article in the pre-existing treaty,
made to France, and become engrafted into the treaty with France, and
can be exercised by her as a matter of right, the same as by England.
Jay's treaty makes a concession to England, and that unconditionally,
of seizing naval stores in American ships, and condemning them as
contraband. It makes also a concession to England to seize provisions
and _other articles_ in American ships. _Other articles are all other
articles_, and none but an ignoramus, or something worse, would have put
such a phrase into a treaty. The condition annexed in this case is, that
the provisions and other articles so seized, are to be paid for at a
price to be agreed upon. Mr. Washington, as President, ratified
this treaty after he knew the British Government had recommended an
indiscriminate seizure of provisions and all other articles in American
ships; and it is now known that those seizures were made to fit out the
expedition going to Quiberon Bay, and it was known before hand that they
would be made. The evidence goes also a good way to prove that Jay and
Grenville understood each other upon that subject. Mr. Pinckney,(1)
when he passed through France on his way to Spain, spoke of the
recommencement of the seizures as a thing that would take place.
1 Gen. Thomas Pinckney, U. S. Minister to England.--
_Editor._
The French government had by some means received information from London
to the same purpose, with the addition, that the recommencement of
the seizures would cause no misunderstanding between the British and
American governments. Grenville, in defending himself against the
opposition in Parliament, on account of the scarcity of corn, said (see
his speech at the opening of the Parliament that met October 29, 1795)
that _the supplies for the Quiberon expedition were furnished out of the
American ships_, and all the accounts received at that time from
England stated that those seizures were made under the treaty. After the
supplies for the Quiberon expedition had been procured, and the expected
success had failed, the seizures were countermanded; and had the French
seized provision vessels going to England, it is probable that the
Quiberon expedition could not have been attempted.
In one point of view, the treaty with England operates as a loan to
the English government. It gives permission to that government to take
American property at sea, to any amount, and pay for it when it suits
her; and besides this, the treaty is in every point of view a surrender
of the rights of American commerce and navigation, and a refusal to
France of the rights of neutrality. The American flag is not now a
neutral flag to France; Jay's treaty of surrender gives a monopoly of it
to England.
On the contrary, the treaty of commerce between America and France
was formed on the most liberal principles, and calculated to give the
greatest encouragement to the infant commerce of America. France was
neither a carrier nor an exporter of naval stores or of provisions.
Those articles belonged wholly to America, and they had all the
protection in that treaty which a treaty could give. But so much has
that treaty been perverted, that the liberality of it on the part
of France, has served to encourage Jay to form a counter-treaty with
England; for he must have supposed the hands of France tied up by her
treaty with America, when he was making such large concessions in favour
of England. The injury which Mr. Washington's administration has done to
the character as well as to the commerce of America, is too great to be
repaired by him. Foreign nations will be shy of making treaties with
a government that has given the faithless example of perverting the
liberality of a former treaty to the injury of the party with whom it
was made.(1)
1 For an analysis of the British Treaty see Wharton's
"Digest of the International Law of the United States," vol.
it, § 150 a. Paine's analysis is perfectly correct.--
_Editor._.
In what a fraudulent light must Mr. Washington's character appear in the
world, when his declarations and his conduct are compared together! Here
follows the letter he wrote to the Committee of Public Safety, while Jay
was negotiating in profound secrecy this treacherous treaty:
"George Washington, President of the United States of America, to the
Representatives of the French people, members of the Committee of Public
Safety of the French Republic, the great and good friend and ally of the
United States.
"On the intimation of the wish of the French republic that à new
Minister should be sent from the United States, I resolved to manifest
my sense of the readiness with which _my_ request was fulfilled, [that
of recalling Genet,] by immediately fulfilling the request of your
government, [that of recalling Morris].
"It was some time before a character could be obtained, worthy of the
high office of expressing the attachment of the United States to
the happiness of our allies, _and drawing closer the bonds of our
friendship_. I have now made choice of James Monroe, one of our
distinguished citizens, to reside near the French republic, in quality
of Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America. He is
instructed to bear to you our _sincere solicitude for your welfare, and
to cultivate with teal the cordiality so happily subsisting between
us_. From a knowledge of his fidelity, probity, and good conduct, I have
entire confidence that he will render himself acceptable to you,
and give effect to your desire of preserving and _advancing, on all
occasions, the interest and connection of the two nations_. I beseech
you, therefore, to give full credence to whatever he shall say to you
on the part of the United States, and _most of all, when he shall assure
you that your prosperity is an object of our affection_.
"And I pray God to have the French Republic in his holy keeping.
"G. Washington."
Was it by entering into a treaty with England to surrender French
property on board American ships to be seized by the English, while
English property on board American ships was declared by the French
treaty not to be seizable, _that the bonds of friendship between America
and France were to be drawn the closer?_ Was it by declaring naval
stores contraband when coming to France, whilst by the French treaty
they were not contraband when going to England, that the _connection
between France and America was to be advanced?_ Was it by opening the
American ports to the British navy in the present war, from which ports
the same navy had been expelled by the aid solicited from France in the
American war (and that aid gratuitously given) (2) that the gratitude
of America was to be shewn, and the _solicitude_ spoken of in the letter
demonstrated?
1 The italics are Paine's. Paine's free use of this document
suggests that he possessed the confidence of the French
Directory.--_Editor._
2 It is notable that Paine adheres to his old contention in
his controversy with Deane. See vol. i., ch. aa of this work;
and vol. i., ch. 9 of my "Life of Paine."--_Editor._.
As the letter was addressed to the Committee of Public Safety, Mr.
Washington did not expect it would get abroad in the world, or be seen
by any other eye than that of Robespierre, or be heard by any other ear
than that of the Committee; that it would pass as a whisper across the
Atlantic, from one dark chamber to the other, and there terminate. It
was calculated to remove from the mind of the Committee all suspicion
upon Jay's mission to England, and, in this point of view, it was suited
to the circumstances of the movement then passing; but as the event
of that mission has proved the letter to be hypocritical, it serves no
other purpose of the present moment than to shew that the writer is
not to be credited. Two circumstances serve to make the reading of the
letter necessary in the Convention. The one was, that they who succeeded
on the fall of Robespierre, found it most proper to act with publicity;
the other, to extinguish the suspicions which the strange conduct of
Morris had occasioned in France.
When the British treaty, and the ratification of it by Mr. Washington,
was known in France, all further declarations from him of his good
disposition as an ally and friend, passed for so many cyphers; but still
it appeared necessary to him to keep up the farce of declarations. It
is stipulated in the British treaty, that commissioners are to report
at the end of two years, on the case of _neutral ships making neutral
property_. In the mean time, neutral ships do _not_ make neutral
property, according to the British treaty, and they _do_ according to
the French treaty. The preservation, therefore, of the French treaty
became of great importance to England, as by that means she can employ
American ships as carriers, whilst the same advantage is denied to
France. Whether the French treaty could exist as a matter of right after
this clandestine perversion of it, could not but give some apprehensions
to the partizans of the British treaty, and it became necessary to them
to make up, by fine words, what was wanting in good actions.
An opportunity offered to that purpose. The Convention, on the public
reception of Mr. Monroe, ordered the American flag and the French flags
to be displayed unitedly in the hall of the Convention. Mr. Monroe made
a present of an American flag for the purpose. The Convention returned
this compliment by sending a French flag to America, to be presented by
their Minister, Mr. Adet, to the American government. This resolution
passed long before Jay's treaty was known or suspected: it passed in
the days of confidence; but the flag was not presented by Mr. Adet till
several months after the treaty had been ratified. Mr. Washington made
this the occasion of saying some fine things to the French Minister; and
the better to get himself into tune to do this, he began by saying the
finest things of himself.
"Born, sir (said he) in a land of liberty; _having_ early learned its
value; _having_ engaged in a perilous conflict to defend it; _having_,
in a word, devoted the best years of my life to secure its permanent
establishment in my own country; _my_ anxious recollections, my
sympathetic feelings, and _my_ best wishes are irresistibly excited,
whenever, in any country, I see an oppressed people unfurl the banner of
freedom."
Mr. Washington, having expended so many fine phrases upon himself, was
obliged to invent a new one for the French, and he calls them "wonderful
people!" The coalesced powers acknowledged as much.
It is laughable to hear Mr. Washington talk of his _sympathetic
feelings_, who has always been remarked, even among his friends, for
not having any. He has, however, given no proofs of any to me. As to the
pompous encomiums he so liberally pays to himself, on the score of the
American revolution, the reality of them may be questioned; and since
he has forced them so much into notice, it is fair to examine his
pretensions.
A stranger might be led to suppose, from the egotism with which Mr.
Washington speaks, that himself, and himself only, had generated,
conducted, compleated, and established the revolution: In fine, that it
was all his own doing.
In the first place, as to the political part, he had no share in it;
and, therefore, the whole of _that_ is out of the question with respect
to him. There remains, then, only the military part; and it would have
been prudent in Mr. Washington not to have awakened enquiry upon that
subject. Fame then was cheap; he enjoyed it cheaply; and nobody was
disposed to take away the laurels that, whether they were _acquired_ or
not, had been _given_.
Mr. Washington's merit consisted in constancy. But constancy was the
common virtue of the revolution. Who was there that was inconstant? I
know but of one military defection, that of Arnold; and I know of no
political defection, among those who made themselves eminent when the
revolution was formed by the declaration of independence. Even Silas
Deane, though he attempted to defraud, did not betray.(1)
1 This generous judgment by Deane's old adversary has become
questionable under recent investigations.--_Editor._.
But when we speak of military character, something more is to be
understood than constancy; and something more _ought_ to be understood
than the Fabian system of _doing nothing_. The _nothing_ part can be
done by any body. Old Mrs. Thompson, the housekeeper of head quarters,
(who threatened to make the sun and the wind shine through Rivington of
New York,) 'could have done it as well as Mr. Washington. Deborah would
have been as good as Barak.
Mr. Washington had the nominal rank of Commander in Chief, but he was
not so in fact. He had, in reality, only a separate command. He had no
controul over, or direction of, the army to the northward under Gates,
that captured Burgoyne; nor of that to the south under [Nathaniel]
Greene, that recovered the southern States.(2) The nominal rank,
however, of Commander in Chief, served to throw upon him the lustre
of those actions, and to make him appear as the soul and centre of all
military operations in America.
1 The Tory publisher of New York City, whose press was
destroyed in 1775 by a mob of Connecticut soldiers.--
_Editor._
2 See Mr. Winterbotham's valuable History of America, lately
published.--Author. [The "History of the Establishment of
Independence" is contained in the first of Mr.
Winterbotham's four volumes (London, 1795).--_Editor._.]
He commenced his command June, 1775, during the time the Massachusetts
army lay before Boston, and after the affair of Bunker-hill. The
commencement of his command was the commencement of inactivity. Nothing
was afterwards done, or attempted to be done, during the nine months
he remained before Boston. If we may judge from the resistance made at
Concord, and afterwards at Bunker-hill, there was a spirit of enterprise
at that time, which the presence of Mr. Washington chilled into cold
defence. By the advantage of a good exterior he attracts respect, which
his habitual silence tends to preserve; but he has not the talent of
inspiring ardour in an army. The enemy removed from Boston in March
1776, to wait for reinforcements from Europe, and to take a more
advantageous position at New York.
The inactivity of the campaign of 1775, on the part of General
Washington, when the enemy had a less force than in any other future
period of the war, and the injudicious choice of positions taken by
him in the campaign of 1776, when the enemy had its greatest force,
necessarily produced the losses and misfortunes that marked that gloomy
campaign. The positions taken were either islands or necks of land.
In the former, the enemy, by the aid of their ships, could bring their
whole force against apart of General Washington's, as in the affair
of Long Island; and in the latter, he might be shut up as in the bottom
of a bag. This had nearly been the case at New York, and it was so in
part; it was actually the case at Fort Washington; and it would have
been the case at Fort Lee, if General Greene had not moved precipitately
off, leaving every thing behind, and by gaining Hackinsack bridge, got
out of the bag of Bergen Neck. How far Mr. Washington, as General, is
blameable for these matters, I am not undertaking to determine; but they
are evidently defects in military geography. The successful skirmishes
at the close of that campaign, (matters that would scarcely be noticed
in a better state of things,) make the brilliant exploits of General
Washington's seven campaigns. No wonder we see so much pusillanimity in
the President, when we see so little enterprise in the General!
The campaign of 1777 became famous, not by anything on the part of
General Washington, but by the capture of General Burgoyne, and the
army under his command, by the Northern army at Saratoga, under General
Gates. So totally distinct and unconnected were the two armies of
Washington and Gates, and so independent was the latter of the authority
of the nominal Commander in Chief, that the two Generals did not so much
as correspond, and it was only by a letter of General (since Governor)
Clinton, that General Washington was informed of that event. The British
took possession of Philadelphia this year, which they evacuated
the next, just time enough to save their heavy baggage and fleet of
transports from capture by the French Admiral d'Estaing, who arrived at
the mouth of the Delaware soon after.
The capture of Burgoyne gave an eclat in Europe to the American arms,
and facilitated the alliance with France. The eclat, however, was
not kept up by any thing on the part of General Washington. The same
unfortunate languor that marked his entrance into the field, continued
always. Discontent began to prevail strongly against him, and a party
was formed in Congress, whilst sitting at York-town, in Pennsylvania,
for removing him from the command of the army. The hope, however,
of better times, the news of the alliance with France, and the
unwillingness of shewing discontent, dissipated the matter.
Nothing was done in the campaigns of 1778, 1779, 1780, in the part
where General Washington commanded, except the taking of Stony Point by
General Wayne. The Southern States in the mean time were over-run by the
enemy. They were afterwards recovered by General Greene, who had in a
very great measure created the army that accomplished that recovery.
In all this General Washington had no share. The Fabian system of war,
followed by him, began now to unfold itself with all its evils; but
what is Fabian war without Fabian means to support it? The finances of
Congress depending wholly on emissions of paper money, were exhausted.
Its credit was gone. The continental treasury was not able to pay the
expense of a brigade of waggons to transport the necessary stores to the
army, and yet the sole object, the establishment of the revolution,
was a thing of remote distance. The time I am now speaking of is in the
latter end of the year 1780.
In this situation of things it was found not only expedient, but
absolutely necessary, for Congress to state the whole case to its ally.
I knew more of this matter, (before it came into Congress or was known
to General Washington) of its progress, and its issue, than I chuse
to state in this letter. Colonel John Laurens was sent to France as an
Envoy Extraordinary on this occasion, and by a private agreement between
him and me I accompanied him. We sailed from Boston in the Alliance
frigate, February 11th, 1781. France had already done much in accepting
and paying bills drawn by Congress. She was now called upon to do more.
The event of Colonel Laurens's mission, with the aid of the venerable
Minister, Franklin, was, that France gave in money, as a present, six
millions of livres, and ten millions more as a loan, and agreed to send
a fleet of not less than thirty sail of the line, at her own expense,
as an aid to America. Colonel Laurens and myself returned from Brest the
1st of June following, taking with us two millions and a half of livres
(upwards of one hundred thousand pounds sterling) of the money given,
and convoying two ships with stores.
We arrived at Boston the 25th of August following. De Grasse arrived
with the French fleet in the Chesapeak at the same time, and was
afterwards joined by that of Barras, making 31 sail of the line.
The money was transported in waggons from Boston to the Bank at
Philadelphia, of which Mr. Thomas Willing, who has since put himself at
the head of the list of petitioners in favour of the British treaty, was
then President. And it was by the aid of this money, and this fleet, and
of Rochambeau's army, that Cornwallis was taken; the laurels of which
have been unjustly given to Mr. Washington. His merit in that affair was
no more than that of any other American officer.
I have had, and still have, as much pride in the American revolution as
any man, or as Mr. Washington has a right to have; but that pride has
never made me forgetful whence the great aid came that compleated
the business. Foreign aid (that of France) was calculated upon at the
commencement of the revolution. It is one of the subjects treated of
in the pamphlet _Common Sense_, but as a matter that could not be hoped
for, unless independence was declared.1 The aid, however, was greater
than could have been expected.
It is as well the ingratitude as the pusillanimity of Mr. Washington,
and the Washington faction, that has brought upon America the loss
of character she now suffers in the world, and the numerous evils her
commerce has undergone, and to which it is yet exposed. The British
Ministry soon found out what sort of men they had to deal with, and they
dealt with them accordingly; and if further explanation was wanting, it
has been fully given since, in the snivelling address of the New York
Chamber of Commerce to the President, and in that of sundry merchants of
Philadelphia, which was not much better.
1 See vol. i. of this work, p. ixx. Paine was sharply taken
to task on this point by "Cato." Ib.% pp. 145-147.--
_Editor._.
When the revolution of America was finally established by the
termination of the war, the world gave her credit for great character;
and she had nothing to do but to stand firm upon that ground. The
British ministry had their hands too full of trouble to have provoked
a rupture with her, had she shown a proper resolution to defend her
rights. But encouraged as they were by the submissive character of the
American administration, they proceeded from insult to insult, till none
more were left to be offered. The proposals made by Sweden and Denmark
to the American administration were disregarded. I know not if so much
as an answer has been returned to them. The minister penitentiary,
(as some of the British prints called him,) Mr. Jay, was sent on a
pilgrimage to London, to make up all by penance and petition. In the
mean time the lengthy and drowsy writer of the pieces signed _Camillas_
held himself in reserve to vindicate every thing; and to sound in
America the tocsin of terror upon the inexhaustible resources of
England. Her resources, says he, are greater than those of all the other
powers. This man is so intoxicated with fear and finance, that he knows
not the difference between _plus_ and _minus_--between a hundred pounds
in hand, and a hundred pounds worse than nothing.
The commerce of America, so far as it had been established by all the
treaties that had been formed prior to that by Jay, was free, and the
principles upon which it was established were good. That ground ought
never to have been departed from. It was the justifiable ground
of right, and no temporary difficulties ought to have induced an
abandonment of it. The case is now otherwise. The ground, the scene, the
pretensions, the everything, are changed. The commerce of America is, by
Jay's treaty, put under foreign dominion. The sea is not free for her.
Her right to navigate it is reduced to the right of escaping; that is,
until some ship of England or France stops her vessels, and carries them
into port. Every article of American produce, whether from the sea or
the sand, fish, flesh, vegetable, or manufacture, is, by Jay's treaty,
made either contraband or seizable. Nothing is exempt. In all other
treaties of commerce, the article which enumerates the contraband
articles, such as fire arms, gunpowder, &c, is followed by another
article which enumerates the articles not contraband: but it is not so
in Jay's treaty. There is no exempting article. Its place is supplied by
the article for seizing and carrying into port; and the sweeping phrase
of "provisions and _other articles _" includes every thing. There never
was such a base and servile treaty of surrender since treaties began to
exist.
This is the ground upon which America now stands. All her rights
of commerce and navigation are to begin anew, and that with loss of
character to begin with. If there is sense enough left in the heart
to call a blush into the cheek, the Washington administration must
be ashamed to appear.--And as to you, Sir, treacherous in private
friendship (for so you have been to me, and that in the day of danger)
and a hypocrite in public life, the world will be puzzled to decide
whether you are an apostate or an impostor; whether you have abandoned
good principles, or whether you ever had any.
Thomas Paine.
XXIII. OBSERVATIONS.(1)
1 State Archives, Paris, États Unis, vol. 43, fol. 100.
Undated, but evidently written early in the year 1795, when
Jay's Treaty was as yet unknown. Paine was then staying in
the house of the American Minister, Monroe.--' Editor,
The United States of America are negociating with Spain respecting the
free Navigation of the Mississippi, and the territorial limits of this
large river, in conformity with the Treaty of Peace with England dated
30th November, 1782. As the brilliant successes of the French Republic
have forced England to grant us, what was in all justice our due, so the
continuation of the prosperity of the Republic, will force Spain to make
a Treaty with us on the points in controversy.
Since it is certain that all that we shall obtain from Spain will be due
to the victories of France, and as the inhabitants of the western part
of the United States (which part contains or covers more than half
the United States), have decided to claim their rights to the free
navigation of the Mississippi, would it not be a wiser policy for the
Republican Government (who have only to command to obtain) to arrogate
all the merit, by making our demands to Spain, one of the conditions, of
France, to consent to restore peace to the Castilians. They have only
to declare, they will not make Peace, or that they will support with
all their might, the just reclamations of their allies against these
Powers,--against England for the surrender of the frontier posts, and
for the indemnities due through their depredations on our Trade, and
against Spain for our territorial limits, and the free navigation of
the Mississippi. This declaration would certainly not prolong the War a
single day more, nor cost the Republic an obole, whilst it would assure
all the merit of success to France, and besides produce all the good
effects mentioned above.
It may perhaps be observed that the Negociation is already finished
with England, and perhaps in a manner which will not be approved of by
France. That may be, (though the terms of this arrangement may not be
known); but as to Spain, the negociation is still pending, and it is
evident that if France makes the above _Declaration_ as to this Power
(which declaration would be a demonstrative proof of what she would
have done in the other case if circumstances had required it), she would
receive the same credit as if the Declaration had been made relatively
to the two Powers. In fact the Decree or resolution (and perhaps this
last would be preferable) can be worded in terms which would declare
that in case the arrangement with England were not satisfactory, France
will nevertheless, maintain the just demands of America against
that Power. A like Declaration, in case Mr. Jay should do anything
reprehensible, and which might even be approved of in America, would
certainly raise the reputation of the French Republic to the most
eminent degree of splendour, and lower in proportion that of her
enemies.
It is very certain that France cannot better favour the views of the
British party in America, and wound in a most sensible manner the
Republican Government of this country, than by adopting a strict and
oppressive policy with regard to us. Every one knows that the injustices
committed by the privateers and other ships belonging to the French
Republic against our navigation, were causes of exultation and joy
to this party, even when their own properties were subjected to these
depredations, whilst the friends of France and the Revolution were vexed
and most confused about it. It follows then, that a generous policy
would produce quite opposite effects--it would acquire for France the
merit that is her due; it would discourage the hopes of her adversaries,
and furnish the friends of humanity and liberty with the means of acting
against the intrigues of England, and cement the Union, and contribute
towards the true interests of the two republics.
So sublime and generous a manner of acting, which would not cost
anything to France, would cement in a stronger way the ties between
the two republics. The effect of such an event, would confound and
annihilate in an irrevocable manner all the partisans for the British
in America. There are nineteen twentieths of our nation attached through
inclination and gratitude to France, and the small number who seek
uselessly all sorts of pretexts to magnify the small occasions of
complaint which might have subsisted previously will find itself reduced
to silence, or have to join their expressions of gratitude to ours.--The
results of this event cannot be doubted, though not reckoned on: all the
American hearts will be French, and England will be afflicted.
An American.
XXIV. DISSERTATION ON FIRST PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT. (1)
1 Printed from the first edition, whose title is as above,
with the addition: "By Thomas Paine, Author of Common Sense;
Rights of Man; Age of Reason. Paris, Printed at the
English Press, me de Vaugerard, No. 970. Third year of the
French Republic." The pamphlet seems to have appeared early
in July (perhaps the Fourth), 1795, and was meant to
influence the decision of the National Convention on the
Constitution then under discussion. This Constitution,
adopted September 23d, presently swept away by Napoleon,
contained some features which appeared to Paine reactionary.
Those to which he most objected are quoted by him in his
speech in the Convention, which is bound up in the same
pamphlet, and follows this "Dissertation" in the present
volume. In the Constitution as adopted Paine's preference
for a plural Executive was established, and though the
bicameral organization (the Council of Five Hundred and the
Council of Ancients) was not such as he desired, his chief
objection was based on his principle of manhood suffrage.
But in regard to this see Paine's "Dissertations on
Government," written nine years before (vol. ii., ch. vi. of
this work), and especially p. 138 seq. of that volume, where
he indicates the method of restraining the despotism of
numbers.--_Editor._,
There is no subject more interesting to every man than the subject of
government. His security, be he rich or poor, and in a great measure
his prosperity, are connected therewith; it is therefore his interest
as well as his duty to make himself acquainted with its principles, and
what the practice ought to be.
Every art and science, however imperfectly known at first, has been
studied, improved, and brought to what we call perfection by the
progressive labours of succeeding generations; but the science of
government has stood still. No improvement has been made in the
principle and scarcely any in the practice till the American revolution
began. In all the countries of Europe (except in France) the same forms
and systems that were erected in the remote ages of ignorance still
continue, and their antiquity is put in the place of principle; it is
forbidden to investigate their origin, or by what right they exist.
If it be asked how has this happened, the answer is easy: they are
established on a principle that is false, and they employ their power to
prevent detection.
Notwithstanding the mystery with which the science of government has
been enveloped, for the purpose of enslaving, plundering, and imposing
upon mankind, it is of all things the least mysterious and the most easy
to be understood. The meanest capacity cannot be at a loss, if it begins
its enquiries at the right point. Every art and science has some point,
or alphabet, at which the study of that art or science begins, and by
the assistance of which the progress is facilitated. The same method
ought to be observed with respect to the science of government.
Instead then of embarrassing the subject in the outset with the numerous
subdivisions under which different forms of government have been
classed, such as aristocracy, democracy, oligarchy, monarchy, &c.
the better method will be to begin with what may be called primary
divisions, or those under which all the several subdivisions will be
comprehended.
The primary divisions are but two:
First, government by election and representation.
Secondly, government by hereditary succession.
All the several forms and systems of government, however numerous
or diversified, class themselves under one or other of those primary
divisions; for either they are on the system of representation, or on
that of hereditary succession. As to that equivocal thing called mixed
government, such as the late government of Holland, and the present
government of England, it does not make an exception to the general
rule, because the parts separately considered are either representative
or hereditary.
Beginning then our enquiries at this point, we have first to examine
into the nature of those two primary divisions.
If they are equally right in principle, it is mere matter of opinion
which we prefer. If the one be demonstratively better than the other,
that difference directs our choice; but if one of them should be so
absolutely false as not to have a right to existence, the matter settles
itself at once; because a negative proved on one thing, where two only
are offered, and one must be accepted, amounts to an affirmative on the
other.
The revolutions that are now spreading themselves in the world have
their origin in this state of the case, and the present war is a
conflict between the representative system founded on the rights of the
people, and the hereditary system founded in usurpation. As to what are
called Monarchy, Royalty, and Aristocracy, they do not, either as things
or as terms, sufficiently describe the hereditary system; they are but
secondary things or signs of the hereditary system, and which fall of
themselves if that system has not a right to exist. Were there no
such terms as Monarchy, Royalty, and Aristocracy, or were other terms
substituted in their place, the hereditary system, if it continued,
would not be altered thereby. It would be the same system under any
other titulary name as it is now.
The character therefore of the revolutions of the present day
distinguishes itself most definitively by grounding itself on the system
of representative government, in opposition to the hereditary. No other
distinction reaches the whole of the principle.
Having thus opened the case generally, I proceed, in the first place, to
examine the hereditary system, because it has the priority in point of
time. The representative system is the invention of the modern world;
and, that no doubt may arise as to my own opinion, I declare it
before hand, which is, _that there is not a problem in Euclid more
mathematically true, than that hereditary government has not a right to
exist. When therefore we take from any man the exercise of hereditary
power, we take away that which he never had the right to possess, and
which no law or custom could, or ever can, give him a title to_.
The arguments that have hitherto been employed against the hereditary
system have been chiefly founded upon the absurdity of it, and its
incompetency to the purpose of good government. Nothing can present to
our judgment, or to our imagination, a figure of greater absurdity, than
that of seeing the government of a nation fall, as it frequently does,
into the hands of a lad necessarily destitute of experience, and often
little better than a fool. It is an insult to every man of years, of
character, and of talents, in a country. The moment we begin to reason
upon the hereditary system, it falls into derision; let but a single
idea begin, and a thousand will soon follow. Insignificance, imbecility,
childhood, dotage, want of moral character; in fine, every defect
serious or laughable unite to hold up the hereditary system as a figure
of ridicule. Leaving, however, the ridiculousness of the thing to the
reflections of the reader, I proceed to the more important part of the
question, namely, whether such a system has a right to exist.
To be satisfied of the right of a thing to exist, we must be satisfied
that it had a right to begin. If it had not a right to begin, it has not
a right to continue. By what right then did the hereditary system begin?
Let a man but ask himself this question, and he will find that he cannot
satisfy himself with an answer.
The right which any man or any family had to set itself up at first to
govern a nation, and to establish itself hereditarily, was no other than
the right which Robespierre had to do the same thing in France. If he
had none, they had none. If they had any, he had as much; for it is
impossible to discover superiority of right in any family, by virtue of
which hereditary government could begin. The Capets, the Guelphs,
the Robespierres, the Marats, are all on the same standing as to the
question of right. It belongs exclusively to none.
It is one step towards liberty, to perceive that hereditary government
could not begin as an exclusive right in any family. The next point
will be, whether, having once begun, it could grow into a right by the
influence of time.
This would be supposing an absurdity; for either it is putting time in
the place of principle, or making it superior to principle; whereas time
has no more connection with, or influence upon principle, than principle
has upon time. The wrong which began a thousand years ago, is as much a
wrong as if it began to-day; and the right which originates to-day, is
as much a right as if it had the sanction of a thousand years. Time with
respect to principles is an eternal now: it has no operation upon them:
it changes nothing of their nature and qualities. But what have we to
do with a thousand years? Our life-time is but a short portion of that
period, and if we find the wrong in existence as soon as we begin to
live, that is the point of time at which it begins to us; and our right
to resist it is the same as if it never existed before.
As hereditary government could not begin as a natural right in any
family, nor derive after its commencement any right from time, we have
only to examine whether there exist in a nation a right to set it up,
and establish it by what is called law, as has been done in England. I
answer NO; and that any law or any constitution made for that purpose is
an act of treason against the right of every minor in the nation, at the
time it is made, and against the rights of all succeeding generations.
I shall speak upon each of those cases. First, of the minor at the time
such law is made. Secondly, of the generations that are to follow.
A nation, in a collective sense, comprehends all the individuals of
whatever age, from just born to just dying. Of these, one part will be
minors, and the other aged. The average of life is not exactly the same
in every climate and country, but in general, the minority in years are
the majority in numbers; that is, the number of persons under twenty-one
years, is greater than the number of persons above that age. This
difference in number is not necessary to the establishment of the
principle I mean to lay down, but it serves to shew the justice of it
more strongly. The principle would be equally as good, if the majority
in years were also the majority in numbers.
The rights of minors are as sacred as the rights of the aged. The
difference is altogether in the different age of the two parties, and
nothing in the nature of the rights; the rights are the same rights;
and are to be preserved inviolate for the inheritance of the minors when
they shall come of age. During the minority of minors their rights are
under the sacred guardianship of the aged. The minor cannot surrender
them; the guardian cannot dispossess him; consequently, the aged part
of a nation, who are the law-makers for the time being, and who, in the
march of life are but a few years ahead of those who are yet minors, and
to whom they must shortly give place, have not and cannot have the right
to make a law to set up and establish hereditary government, or, to
speak more distinctly, _an hereditary succession of governors_; because
it is an attempt to deprive every minor in the nation, at the time such
a law is made, of his inheritance of rights when he shall come of age,
and to subjugate him to a system of government to which, during his
minority, he could neither consent nor object.
If a person who is a minor at the time such a law is proposed, had
happened to have been born a few years sooner, so as to be of the age of
twenty-one years at the time of proposing it, his right to have objected
against it, to have exposed the injustice and tyrannical principles of
it, and to have voted against it, will be admitted on all sides. If,
therefore, the law operates to prevent his exercising the same rights
after he comes of age as he would have had a right to exercise had he
been of age at the time, it is undeniably a law to take away and annul
the rights of every person in the nation who shall be a minor at the
time of making such a law, and consequently the right to make it cannot
exist.
I come now to speak of government by hereditary succession, as it
applies to succeeding generations; and to shew that in this case, as in
the case of minors, there does not exist in a nation a right to set it
up.
A nation, though continually existing, is continually in a state of
renewal and succession. It is never stationary.
Every day produces new births, carries minors forward to maturity, and
old persons from the stage. In this ever running flood of generations
there is no part superior in authority to another. Could we conceive an
idea of superiority in any, at what point of time, or in what century of
the world, are we to fix it? To what cause are we to ascribe it? By
what evidence are we to prove it? By what criterion are we to know it? A
single reflection will teach us that our ancestors, like ourselves, were
but tenants for life in the great freehold of rights. The fee-absolute
was not in them, it is not in us, it belongs to the whole family of
man, thro* all ages. If we think otherwise than this, we think either as
slaves or as tyrants. As slaves, if we think that any former generation
had a right to bind us; as tyrants, if we think that we have authority
to bind the generations that are to follow.
It may not be inapplicable to the subject, to endeavour to define what
is to be understood by a generation, in the sense the word is here used.
As a natural term its meaning is sufficiently clear. The father, the
son, the grandson, are so many distinct generations. But when we speak
of a generation as describing the persons in whom legal authority
resides, as distinct from another generation of the same description who
are to succeed them, it comprehends all those who are above the age of
twenty-one years, at the time that we count from; and a generation of
this kind will continue in authority between fourteen and twenty-one
years, that is, until the number of minors, who shall have arrived at
age, shall be greater than the number of persons remaining of the former
stock.
For example: if France, at this or any other moment, contains
twenty-four millions of souls, twelve millions will be males, and twelve
females. Of the twelve millions of males, six millions will be of the
age of twenty-one years, and six will be under, and the authority
to govern will reside in the first six. But every day will make some
alteration, and in twenty-one years every one of those minors who
survives will have arrived at age, and the greater part of the former
stock will be gone: the majority of persons then living, in whom the
legal authority resides, will be composed of those who, twenty-one years
before, had no legal existence. Those will be fathers and grandfathers
in their turn, and, in the next twenty-one years, (or less) another race
of minors, arrived at age, will succeed them, and so on.
As this is ever the case, and as every generation is equal in rights to
another, it consequently follows, that there cannot be a right in any
to establish government by hereditary succession, because it would be
supposing itself possessed of a right superior to the rest, namely,
that of commanding by its own authority how the world shall be hereafter
governed and who shall govern it. Every age and generation is, and must
be, (as a matter of right,) as free to act for itself in all cases, as
the age and generation that preceded it. The vanity and presumption of
governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all
tyrannies. Man has no property in man, neither has one generation a
property in the generations that are to follow.
In the first part of the Rights of Man I have spoken of government by
hereditary succession; and I will here close the subject with an extract
from that work, which states it under the two following heads. (1)
1 The quotation, here omitted, will be found in vol. ii. of
this work, beginning with p. 364, and continuing, with a few
omissions, to the 15th line of p. 366. This "Dissertation"
was originally written for circulation in Holland, where
Paine's "Rights of Man" was not well known.--_Editor._
*****
The history of the English parliament furnishes an example of this kind;
and which merits to be recorded, as being the greatest instance of
legislative ignorance and want of principle that is to be found in any
country. The case is as follows:
The English parliament of 1688, imported a man and his wife from
Holland, _William and Mary_, and made them king and queen of England.
(2) Having done this, the said parliament made a law to convey the
government of the country to the heirs of William and Mary, in the
following words: "We, the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, do,
in the name of the people of England, most humbly and faithfully submit
_ourselves, our heirs, and posterities_, to William and Mary, _their
heirs and posterities_, for ever." And in a subsequent law, as quoted by
Edmund Burke, the said parliament, in the name of the people of England
then living, _binds the said people, their heirs and posterities, to
William and Mary, their heirs and posterities, to the end of time_.
2 "The Bill of Rights (temp. William III.) shows that the
Lords and Commons met not in Parliament but in convention,
that they declared against James II., and in favour of
William III. The latter was accepted as sovereign, and, when
monarch. Acta of Parliament were passed confirming what had
been done."--Joseph Fisher in Notes and Queries (London),
May 2,1874. This does not affect Paine's argument, as a
Convention could have no more right to bind the future than
a Parliament.--_Editor._.
It is not sufficient that we laugh at the ignorance of such law-makers;
it is necessary that we reprobate their want of principle. The
constituent assembly of France, 1789, fell into the same vice as the
parliament of England had done, and assumed to establish an hereditary
succession in the family of the Capets, as an act of the constitution
of that year. That every nation, _for the time being_, has a right to
govern itself as it pleases, must always be admitted; but government by
hereditary succession is government for another race of people, and
not for itself; and as those on whom it is to operate are not yet in
existence, or are minors, so neither is the right in existence to set it
up for them, and to assume such a right is treason against the right of
posterity.
I here close the arguments on the first head, that of government by
hereditary succession; and proceed to the second, that of government
by election and representation; or, as it may be concisely expressed,
_representative government_, in contra-distinction to _hereditary
government_.
Reasoning by exclusion, if _hereditary government_ has not a right to
exist, and that it has not is proveable, _representative government_ is
admitted of course.
In contemplating government by election and representation, we amuse
not ourselves in enquiring when or how, or by what right, it began. Its
origin is ever in view. Man is himself the origin and the evidence
of the right. It appertains to him in right of his existence, and his
person is the title deed.(1)
The true and only true basis of representative government is equality of
Rights. Every man has a right to one vote, and no more, in the choice
of representatives. The rich have no more right to exclude the poor from
the right of voting, or of electing and being elected, than the poor
have to exclude the rich; and wherever it is attempted, or proposed, on
either side, it is a question of force and not of right. Who is he that
would exclude another? That other has a right to exclude him.
That which is now called aristocracy implies an inequality of rights;
but who are the persons that have a right to establish this inequality?
Will the rich exclude themselves? No. Will the poor exclude themselves?
No. By what right then can any be excluded? It would be a question, if
any man or class of men have a right to exclude themselves; but, be this
as it may, they cannot have the right to exclude another. The poor will
not delegate such a right to the rich, nor the rich to the poor, and to
assume it is not only to assume arbitrary power, but to assume a right
to commit robbery. Personal rights, of which the right of voting for
representatives is one, are a species of property of the most sacred
kind: and he that would employ his pecuniary property, or presume upon
the influence it gives him, to dispossess or rob another of his property
of rights, uses that pecuniary property as he would use fire-arms, and
merits to have it taken from him.
1 "The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for
among old parchments or musty records. They are written as
with a sunbeam in the whole volume of human nature by the
hand of Divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured
by mortal power."--Alexander Hamilton, 1775. (Cf. Rights of
Man, Toi. ii., p. 304): "Portions of antiquity by proving
everything establish nothing. It is authority against
authority all the way, till we come to the divine origin of
the rights of man at the creation."--_Editor._.
Inequality of rights is created by a combination in one part of the
community to exclude another part from its rights. Whenever it be made
an article of a constitution, or a law, that the right of voting, or
of electing and being elected, shall appertain exclusively to persons
possessing a certain quantity of property, be it little or much, it is a
combination of the persons possessing that quantity to exclude those who
do not possess the same quantity. It is investing themselves with powers
as a self-created part of society, to the exclusion of the rest.
It is always to be taken for granted, that those who oppose an equality
of rights never mean the exclusion should take place on themselves; and
in this view of the case, pardoning the vanity of the thing, aristocracy
is a subject of laughter. This self-soothing vanity is encouraged by
another idea not less selfish, which is, that the opposers conceive they
are playing a safe game, in which there is a chance to gain and none
to lose; that at any rate the doctrine of equality includes _them_,
and that if they cannot get more rights than those whom they oppose and
would exclude, they shall not have less. This opinion has already been
fatal to thousands, who, not contented with _equal rights_, have sought
more till they lost all, and experienced in themselves the degrading
_inequality_ they endeavoured to fix upon others.
In any view of the case it is dangerous and impolitic, sometimes
ridiculous, and always unjust, to make property the criterion of the
right of voting. If the sum or value of the property upon which the
right is to take place be considerable, it will exclude a majority of
the people, and unite them in a common interest against the government
and against those who support it; and as the power is always with
the majority, they can overturn such a government and its supporters
whenever they please.
If, in order to avoid this danger, a small quantity of property be
fixed, as the criterion of the right, it exhibits liberty in disgrace,
by putting it in competition with accident and insignificance. When a
brood-mare shall fortunately produce a foal or a mule that, by being
worth the sum in question, shall convey to its owner the right of
voting, or by its death take it from him, in whom does the origin of
such a right exist? Is it in the man, or in the mule? When we consider
how many ways property may be acquired without merit, and lost without a
crime, we ought to spurn the idea of making it a criterion of rights.
But the offensive part of the case is, that this exclusion from the
right of voting implies a stigma on the moral char* acter of the persons
excluded; and this is what no part of the community has a right to
pronounce upon another part. No external circumstance can justify it:
wealth is no proof of moral character; nor poverty of the want of it.
On the contrary, wealth is often the presumptive evidence of dishonesty;
and poverty the negative evidence of innocence. If therefore property,
whether little or much, be made a criterion, the means by which that
property has been acquired ought to be made a criterion also.
The only ground upon which exclusion from the right of voting is
consistent with justice, would be to inflict it as a punishment for a
certain time upon those who should propose to take away that right from
others. The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by
which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce
a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of
another, and he that has not a vote in the election of representatives
is in this case. The proposal therefore to disfranchise any class of men
is as criminal as the proposal to take away property. When we speak
of right, we ought always to unite with it the idea of duties: rights
become duties by reciprocity. The right which I enjoy becomes my duty
to guarantee it to another, and he to me; and those who violate the duty
justly incur a forfeiture of the right.
In a political view of the case, the strength and permanent security
of government is in proportion to the number of people interested in
supporting it. The true policy therefore is to interest the whole by
an equality of rights, for the danger arises from exclusions. It is
possible to exclude men from the right of voting, but it is impossible
to exclude them from the right of rebelling against that exclusion; and
when all other rights are taken away, the right of rebellion is made
perfect.
While men could be persuaded they had no rights, or that rights
appertained only to a certain class of men, or that government was a
thing existing in right of itself, it was not difficult to govern
them authoritatively. The ignorance in which they were held, and the
superstition in which they were instructed, furnished the means of doing
it. But when the ignorance is gone, and the superstition with it; when
they perceive the imposition that has been acted upon them; when they
reflect that the cultivator and the manufacturer are the primary
means of all the wealth that exists in the world, beyond what nature
spontaneously produces; when they begin to feel their consequence by
their usefulness, and their right as members of society, it is then no
longer possible to govern them as before. The fraud once detected
cannot be re-acted. To attempt it is to provoke derision, or invite
destruction.
That property will ever be unequal is certain. Industry, superiority
of talents, dexterity of management, extreme frugality, fortunate
opportunities, or the opposite, or the means of those things, will ever
produce that effect, without having recourse to the harsh, ill sounding
names of avarice and oppression; and besides this, there are some men
who, though they do not despise wealth, will not stoop to the drudgery
or the means of acquiring it, nor will be troubled with it beyond their
wants or their independence; whilst in others there is an avidity to
obtain it by every means not punishable; it makes the sole business of
their lives, and they follow it as a religion. All that is required
with respect to property is to obtain it honestly, and not employ it
criminally; but it is always criminally employed when it is made a
criterion for exclusive rights.
In institutions that are purely pecuniary, such as that of a bank or a
commercial company, the rights of the members composing that company are
wholly created by the property they invest therein; and no other rights
are represented in the government of that company, than what arise out
of that property; neither has that government cognizance of _any thing
but property_.
But the case is totally different with respect to the institution of
civil government, organized on the system of representation. Such a
government has cognizance of every thing, and of _every man_ as a member
of the national society, whether he has property or not; and, therefore,
the principle requires that _every man_, and _every kind of right_, be
represented, of which the right to acquire and to hold property is but
one, and that not of the most essential kind. The protection of a man's
person is more sacred than the protection of property; and besides
this, the faculty of performing any kind of work or services by which
he acquires a livelihood, or maintaining his family, is of the nature of
property. It is property to him; he has acquired it; and it is as much
the object of his protection as exterior property, possessed without
that faculty, can be the object of protection in another person.
I have always believed that the best security for property, be it much
or little, is to remove from every part of the community, as far as
can possibly be done, every cause of complaint, and every motive to
violence; and this can only be done by an equality of rights. When
rights are secure, property is secure in consequence. But when property
is made a pretence for unequal or exclusive rights, it weakens the right
to hold the property, and provokes indignation and tumult; for it is
unnatural to believe that property can be secure under the guarantee of
a society injured in its rights by the influence of that property.
Next to the injustice and ill-policy of making property a pretence
for exclusive rights, is the unaccountable absurdity of giving to mere
_sound_ the idea of property, and annexing to it certain rights; for
what else is a _title_ but sound? Nature is often giving to the world
some extraordinary men who arrive at fame by merit and universal
consent, such as Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, &c. They were truly great
or noble.
But when government sets up a manufactory of nobles, it is as absurd
as if she undertook to manufacture wise men. Her nobles are all
counterfeits.
This wax-work order has assumed the name of aristocracy; and the
disgrace of it would be lessened if it could be considered only as
childish imbecility. We pardon foppery because of its insignificance»
and on the same ground we might pardon the foppery of Titles. But the
origin of aristocracy was worse than foppery. It was robbery. The
first aristocrats in all countries were brigands. Those of later times,
sycophants.
It is very well known that in England, (and the same will be found
in other countries) the great landed estates now held in descent were
plundered from the quiet inhabitants at the conquest. The possibility
did not exist of acquiring such estates honestly. If it be asked how
they could have been acquired, no answer but that of robbery can
be given. That they were not acquired by trade, by commerce, by
manufactures, by agriculture, or by any reputable employment, is
certain. How then were they acquired? Blush, aristocracy, to hear your
origin, for your progenitors were Thieves. They were the Robespierres
and the Jacobins of that day. When they had committed the robbery, they
endeavoured to lose the disgrace of it by sinking their real names under
fictitious ones, which they called Titles. It is ever the practice of
Felons to act in this manner. They never pass by their real names.(1)
1 This and the preceding paragraph have been omitted from
some editions.--Editor.
As property, honestly obtained, is best secured by an equality of
Rights, so ill-gotten property depends for protection on a monopoly of
rights. He who has robbed another of his property, will next endeavour
to disarm him of his rights, to secure that property; for when the
robber becomes the legislator he believes himself secure. That part
of the government of England that is called the house of lords, was
originally composed of persons who had committed the robberies of which
I have been speaking. It was an association for the protection of the
property they had stolen.
But besides the criminality of the origin of aristocracy, it has an
injurious effect on the moral and physical character of man. Like
slavery it debilitates the human faculties; for as the mind bowed down
by slavery loses in silence its elastic powers, so, in the contrary
extreme, when it is buoyed up by folly, it becomes incapable of exerting
them, and dwindles into imbecility. It is impossible that a mind
employed upon ribbands and titles can ever be great. The childishness of
the objects consumes the man.
It is at all times necessary, and more particularly so during the
progress of a revolution, and until right ideas confirm themselves by
habit, that we frequently refresh our patriotism by reference to first
principles. It is by tracing things to their origin that we learn to
understand them: and it is by keeping that line and that origin always
in view that we never forget them.
An enquiry into the origin of Rights will demonstrate to us that
_rights_ are not _gifts_ from one man to another, nor from one class of
men to another; for who is he who could be the first giver, or by what
principle, or on what authority, could he possess the right of giving? A
declaration of rights is not a creation of them, nor a donation of them.
It is a manifest of the principle by which they exist, followed by a
detail of what the rights are; for every civil right has a natural
right for its foundation, and it includes the principle of a reciprocal
guarantee of those rights from man to man. As, therefore, it is
impossible to discover any origin of rights otherwise than in the origin
of man, it consequently follows, that rights appertain to man in right
of his existence only, and must therefore be equal to every man. The
principle of an _equality of rights_ is clear and simple. Every man can
understand it, and it is by understanding his rights that he learns his
duties; for where the rights of men are equal, every man must finally
see the necessity of protecting the rights of others as the most
effectual security for his own. But if, in the formation of a
constitution, we depart from the principle of equal rights, or attempt
any modification of it, we plunge into a labyrinth of difficulties from
which there is no way out but by retreating. Where are we to stop? Or
by what principle are we to find out the point to stop at, that shall
discriminate between men of the same country, part of whom shall be
free, and the rest not? If property is to be made the criterion, it is
a total departure from every moral principle of liberty, because it
is attaching rights to mere matter, and making man the agent of that
matter. It is, moreover, holding up property as an apple of discord,
and not only exciting but justifying war against it; for I maintain the
principle, that when property is used as an instrument to take away the
rights of those who may happen not to possess property, it is used to an
unlawful purpose, as fire-arms would be in a similar case.
In a state of nature all men are equal in rights, but they are not equal
in power; the weak cannot protect themselves against the strong. This
being the case, the institution of civil society is for the purpose
of making an equalization of powers that shall be parallel to, and
a guarantee of, the equality of rights. The laws of a country, when
properly constructed, apply to this purpose. Every man takes the arm of
the law for his protection as more effectual than his own; and therefore
every man has an equal right in the formation of the government, and
of the laws by which he is to be governed and judged. In extensive
countries and societies, such as America and France, this right in the
individual can only be exercised by delegation, that is, by election and
representation; and hence it is that the institution of representative
government arises.
Hitherto, I have confined myself to matters of principle only. First,
that hereditary government has not a right to exist; that it cannot be
established on any principle of right; and that it is a violation of all
principle. Secondly, that government by election and representation has
its origin in the natural and eternal rights of man; for whether a man
be his own lawgiver, as he would be in a state of nature; or whether he
exercises his portion of legislative sovereignty in his own person, as
might be the case in small democracies where all could assemble for the
formation of the laws by which they were to be governed; or whether he
exercises it in the choice of persons to represent him in a national
assembly of representatives, the origin of the right is the same in
all cases. The first, as is before observed, is defective in power; the
second, is practicable only in democracies of small extent; the third,
is the greatest scale upon which human government can be instituted.
Next to matters of _principle_ are matters of _opinion_, and it is
necessary to distinguish between the two. Whether the rights of men
shall be equal is not a matter of opinion but of right, and consequently
of principle; for men do not hold their rights as grants from each
other, but each one in right of himself. Society is the guardian but not
the giver. And as in extensive societies, such as America and France,
the right of the individual in matters of government cannot be exercised
but by election and representation, it consequently follows that the
only system of government consistent with principle, where simple
democracy is impracticable, is the representative system. But as to the
organical part, or the manner in which the several parts of government
shall be arranged and composed, it is altogether _matter of opinion_,
It is necessary that all the parts be conformable with the _principle of
equal rights_; and so long as this principle be religiously adhered to,
no very material error can take place, neither can any error continue
long in that part which falls within the province of opinion.
In all matters of opinion, the social compact, or the principle by which
society is held together, requires that the majority of opinions becomes
the rule for the whole, and that the minority yields practical obedience
thereto. This is perfectly conformable to the principle of equal rights:
for, in the first place, every man has a _right to give an opinion_ but
no man has a right that his opinion should _govern the rest_. In the
second place, it is not supposed to be known beforehand on which side
of any question, whether for or against, any man's opinion will fall.
He may happen to be in a majority upon some questions, and in a minority
upon others; and by the same rule that he expects obedience in the one
case, he must yield it in the other. All the disorders that have arisen
in France, during the progress of the revolution, have had their origin,
not in the _principle of equal rights_, but in the violation of that
principle. The principle of equal rights has been repeatedly violated,
and that not by the majority but by the minority, and _that minority
has been composed of men possessing property as well as of men without
property; property, therefore, even upon the experience already had,
is no more a criterion of character than it is of rights_. It will
sometimes happen that the minority are right, and the majority are
wrong, but as soon as experience proves this to be the case, the
minority will increase to a majority, and the error will reform itself
by the tranquil operation of freedom of opinion and equality of rights.
Nothing, therefore, can justify an insurrection, neither can it ever be
necessary where rights are equal and opinions free.
Taking then the principle of equal rights as the foundation of the
revolution, and consequently of the constitution, the organical part,
or the manner in which the several parts of the government shall be
arranged in the constitution, will, as is already said, fall within the
province of opinion.
Various methods will present themselves upon a question of this kind,
and tho' experience is yet wanting to determine which is the best,
it has, I think, sufficiently decided which is the worst. That is
the worst, which in its deliberations and decisions is subject to
the precipitancy and passion of an individual; and when the whole
legislature is crowded into one body it is an individual in mass. In all
cases of deliberation it is necessary to have a corps of reserve, and it
would be better to divide the representation by lot into two parts, and
let them revise and correct each other, than that the whole should sit
together, and debate at once.
Representative government is not necessarily confined to any one
particular form. The principle is the same in all the forms under which
it can be arranged. The equal rights of the people is the root from
which the whole springs, and the branches may be arranged as present
opinion or future experience shall best direct. As to that _hospital of
incurables_ (as Chesterfield calls it), the British house of peers,
it is an excrescence growing out of corruption; and there is no more
affinity or resemblance between any of the branches of a legislative
body originating from the right of the people, and the aforesaid
house of peers, than between a regular member of the human body and an
ulcerated wen.
As to that part of government that is called the _executive_, it is
necessary in the first place to fix a precise meaning to the word.
There are but two divisions into which power can be arranged. First,
that of willing or decreeing the laws; secondly, that of executing or
putting them in practice. The former corresponds to the intellectual
faculties of the human mind, which reasons and determines what shall be
done; the second, to the mechanical powers of the human body, that puts
that determination into practice.(1) If the former decides, and the
latter does not perform, it is a state of imbecility; and if the latter
acts without the predetermination of the former, it is a state
of lunacy. The executive department therefore is official, and is
subordinate to the legislative, as the body is to the mind, in a
state of health; for it is impossible to conceive the idea of two
sovereignties, a sovereignty to _will_, and a sovereignty to _act_.
The executive is not invested with the power of deliberating whether it
shall act or not; it has no discretionary authority in the case; for it
can _act no other thing_ than what the laws decree, and it is _obliged_
to act conformably thereto; and in this view of the case, the executive
is made up of all the official departments that execute the laws, of
which that which is called the judiciary is the chief.
1 Paine may have had in mind the five senses, with reference
to the proposed five members of the Directory.--_Editor._.
But mankind have conceived an idea that _some kind of authority_ is
necessary to _superintend_ the execution of the laws and to see
that they are faithfully performed; and it is by confounding this
superintending authority with the official execution that we get
embarrassed about the term _executive power_. All the parts in the
governments of the United States of America that are called THE
EXECUTIVE, are no other than authorities to superintend the execution of
the laws; and they are so far independent of the legislative, that they
know the legislative only thro' the laws, and cannot be controuled or
directed by it through any other medium.
In what manner this superintending authority shall be appointed, or
composed, is a matter that falls within the province of opinion. Some
may prefer one method and some another; and in all cases, where opinion
only and not principle is concerned, the majority of opinions forms the
rule for all. There are however some things deducible from reason, and
evidenced by experience, that serve to guide our decision upon the case.
The one is, never to invest any individual with extraordinary power; for
besides his being tempted to misuse it, it will excite contention and
commotion in the nation for the office. Secondly, never to invest power
long in the hands of any number of individuals. The inconveniences that
may be supposed to accompany frequent changes are less to be feared than
the danger that arises from long continuance.
I shall conclude this discourse with offering some observations on the
means of _preserving liberty_; for it is not only necessary that we
establish it, but that we preserve it.
It is, in the first place, necessary that we distinguish between the
means made use of to overthrow despotism, in order to prepare the way
for the establishment of liberty, and the means to be used after the
despotism is overthrown.
The means made use of in the first case are justified by necessity.
Those means are, in general, insurrections; for whilst the established
government of despotism continues in any country it is scarcely possible
that any other means can be used. It is also certain that in the
commencement of a revolution, the revolutionary party permit to
themselves a _discretionary exercise of power_ regulated more by
circumstances than by principle, which, were the practice to continue,
liberty would never be established, or if established would soon be
overthrown. It is never to be expected in a revolution that every man is
to change his opinion at the same moment. There never yet was any truth
or any principle so irresistibly obvious, that all men believed it
at once. Time and reason must co-operate with each other to the final
establishment of any principle; and therefore those who may happen to be
first convinced have not a right to persecute others, on whom conviction
operates more slowly. The moral principle of revolutions is to instruct,
not to destroy.
Had a constitution been established two years ago, (as ought to have
been done,) the violences that have since desolated France and injured
the character of the revolution, would, in my opinion, have been
prevented.(1) The nation would then have had a bond of union, and every
individual would have known the line of conduct he was to follow. But,
instead of this, a revolutionary government, a thing without either
principle or authority, was substituted in its place; virtue and crime
depended upon accident; and that which was patriotism one day, became
treason the next. All these things have followed from the want of a
constitution; for it is the nature and intention of a constitution to
_prevent governing by party_, by establishing a common principle that
shall limit and control the power and impulse of party, and that says to
all parties, _thus far shalt thou go and no further_. But in the absence
of a constitution, men look entirely to party; and instead of principle
governing party, party governs principle.
1 The Constitution adopted August 10, 1793, was by the
determination of "The Mountain," suspended during the war
against France. The revolutionary government was thus made
chronic--_Editor._
An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to
stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He
that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from
oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent
that will reach to himself. Thomas Paine.
Paris, July, 1795.
XXV. THE CONSTITUTION OF 1795.
SPEECH IN THE FRENCH NATIONAL CONVENTION, JULY 7, 1795.
On the motion of Lanthenas, "That permission be granted to Thomas
Paine, to deliver his sentiments on the declaration of rights and the
constitution," Thomas Paine ascended the Tribune; and no opposition
being made to the motion, one of the Secretaries, who stood by Mr.
Paine, read his speech, of which the following is a literal translation:
Citizens:
The effects of a malignant fever, with which I was afflicted during a
rigorous confinement in the Luxembourg, have thus long prevented me from
attending at my post in the bosom of the Convention, and the magnitude
of the subject under discussion, and no other consideration on earth,
could induce me now to repair to my station.
A recurrence to the vicissitudes I have experienced, and the critical
situations in which I have been placed in consequence of the French
Revolution, will throw upon what I now propose to submit to the
Convention the most unequivocal proofs of my integrity, and the
rectitude of those principles which have uniformly influenced my
conduct.
In England I was proscribed for having vindicated the French Revolution,
and I have suffered a rigorous imprisonment in France for having pursued
a similar mode of conduct. During the reign of terrorism, I was a close
prisoner for eight long months, and remained so above three months after
the era of the 10th Thermidor.(1) I ought, however, to state, that I
was not persecuted by the _people_ either of England or France. The
proceedings in both countries were the effects of the despotism existing
in their respective governments. But, even if my persecution had
originated in the people at large, my principles and conduct would still
have remained the same. Principles which are influenced and subject to
the controul of tyranny, have not their foundation in the heart.
1 By the French republican calendar this was nearly the
time. Paine's imprisonment lasted from December 28, 1793, to
November 4, 1794. He was by a unanimous vote recalled to the
Convention, Dec 7, 1794, but his first appearance there was
on July 7, 1795.--_Editor._,
A few days ago, I transmitted to you by the ordinary mode of
distribution, a short Treatise, entitled "Dissertation on the First
Principles of Government." This little work I did intend to have
dedicated to the people of Holland, who, about the time I began to write
it, were determined to accomplish a Revolution in their Government,
rather than to the people of France, who had long before effected that
glorious object. But there are, in the Constitution which is about to
be ratified by the Convention certain articles, and in the report which
preceded it certain points, so repugnant to reason, and incompatible
with the true principles of liberty, as to render this Treatise, drawn
up for another purpose, applicable to the present occasion, and under
this impression I presumed to submit it to your consideration.
If there be faults in the Constitution, it were better to expunge them
now, than to abide the event of their mischievous tendency; for certain
it is, that the plan of the Constitution which has been presented to you
is not consistent with the grand object of the Revolution, nor congenial
to the sentiments of the individuals who accomplished it.
To deprive half the people in a nation of their rights as citizens,
is an easy matter in theory or on paper: but it is a most dangerous
experiment, and rarely practicable in the execution.
I shall now proceed to the observations I have to offer on this
important subject; and I pledge myself that they shall be neither
numerous nor diffusive.
In my apprehension, a constitution embraces two distinct parts or
objects, the _Principle_ and the _Practice_; and it is not only an
essential but an indispensable provision that the practice should
emanate from, and accord with, the principle. Now I maintain, that the
reverse of this proposition is the case in the plan of the Constitution
under discussion. The first article, for instance, of the _political
state_ of citizens, (v. Title ii. of the Constitution,) says:
"Every man born and resident in France, who, being twenty-one years of
age, has inscribed his name on the Civic Register of his Canton, and who
has lived afterwards one year on the territory of the Republic, and who
pays any direct contribution whatever, real or personal, is a French
citizen." (1)
1 The article as ultimately adopted substituted "person" for
"man," and for "has inscribed his name" (a slight
educational test) inserted "whose name is inscribed."--
_Editor._
I might here ask, if those only who come under the above description are
to be considered as citizens, what designation do you mean to give the
rest of the people? I allude to that portion of the people on whom the
principal part of the labour falls, and on whom the weight of indirect
taxation will in the event chiefly press. In the structure of the social
fabric, this class of people are infinitely superior to that privileged
order whose only qualification is their wealth or territorial
possessions. For what is trade without merchants? What is land without
cultivation? And what is the produce of the land without manufactures?
But to return to the subject.
In the first place, this article is incompatible with the three first
articles of the Declaration of Rights, which precede the Constitutional
Act.
The first article of the Declaration of Rights says:
"The end of society is the public good; and the institution of
government is to secure to every individual the enjoyment of his
rights."
But the article of the Constitution to which I have just adverted
proposes as the object of society, not the public good, or in other
words, the good of _all_, but a partial good; or the good only of a
_few_; and the Constitution provides solely for the rights of this few,
to the exclusion of the many.
The second article of the Declaration of Rights says:
"The Rights of Man in society are Liberty, Equality, Security of his
person and property."
But the article alluded to in the Constitution has a direct tendency to
establish the reverse of this position, inasmuch as the persons excluded
by this _inequality_ can neither be said to possess liberty, nor
security against oppression. They are consigned totally to the caprice
and tyranny of the rest.
The third article of the Declaration of Rights says:
"Liberty consists in such acts of volition as are not injurious to
others."
But the article of the Constitution, on which I have observed, breaks
down this barrier. It enables the liberty of one part of society to
destroy the freedom of the other.
Having thus pointed out the inconsistency of this article to the
Declaration of Rights, I shall proceed to comment on that of the same
article which makes a direct contribution a necessary qualification to
the right of citizenship.
A modern refinement on the object of public revenue has divided the
taxes, or contributions, into two classes, the _direct_ and the_
indirect_, without being able to define precisely the distinction or
difference between them, because the effect of both is the same.
Those are designated indirect taxes which fall upon the consumers of
certain articles, on which the tax is imposed, because, the tax being
included in the price, the consumer pays it without taking notice of it.
The same observation is applicable to the territorial tax. The land
proprietors, in order to reimburse themselves, will rack-rent their
tenants: the farmer, of course, will transfer the obligation to the
miller, by enhancing the price of grain; the miller to the baker, by
increasing the price of flour; and the baker to the consumer, by raising
the price of bread. The territorial tax, therefore, though called
_direct_, is, in its consequences, _indirect_.
To this tax the land proprietor contributes only in proportion to the
quantity of bread and other provisions that are consumed in his own
family. The deficit is furnished by the great mass of the community,
which comprehends every individual of the nation.
From the logical distinction between the direct and in-direct taxation,
some emolument may result, I allow, to auditors of public accounts, &c.,
but to the people at large I deny that such a distinction (which by the
by is without a difference) can be productive of any practical
benefit. It ought not, therefore, to be admitted as a principle in the
constitution.
Besides this objection, the provision in question does not affect to
define, secure, or establish the right of citizenship. It consigns to
the caprice or discretion of the legislature the power of pronouncing
who shall, or shall not, exercise the functions of a citizen; and
this may be done effectually, either by the imposition of a _direct or
indirect_ tax, according to the selfish views of the legislators, or by
the mode of collecting the taxes so imposed.
Neither a tenant who occupies an extensive farm, nor a merchant or
manufacturer who may have embarked a large capital in their respective
pursuits, can ever, according to this system, attain the preemption
of a citizen. On the other hand, any upstart, who has, by succession
or management, got possession of a few acres of land or a miserable
tenement, may exultingly exercise the functions of a citizen, although
perhaps neither possesses a hundredth part of the worth or property of a
simple mechanic, nor contributes in any proportion to the exigencies of
the State.
The contempt in which the old government held mercantile pursuits, and
the obloquy that attached on merchants and manufacturers, contributed
not a little to its embarrassments, and its eventual subversion; and,
strange to tell, though the mischiefs arising from this mode of conduct
are so obvious, yet an article is proposed for your adoption which has a
manifest tendency to restore a defect inherent in the monarchy.
I shall now proceed to the second article of the same Title, with which
I shall conclude my remarks.
The second article says, "Every French soldier, who shall have served
one or more campaigns in the cause of liberty, is deemed a citizen
of the republic, without any respect or reference to other
qualifications."(1)
It would seem, that in this Article the Committee were desirous of
extricating themselves from a dilemma into which they had been plunged
by the preceding article. When men depart from an established principle
they are compelled to resort to trick and subterfuge, always shifting
their means to preserve the unity of their objects; and as it rarely
happens that the first expedient makes amends for the prostitution of
principle, they must call in aid a second, of a more flagrant nature,
to supply the deficiency of the former. In this manner legislators go
on accumulating error upon error, and artifice upon artifice, until
the mass becomes so bulky and incongruous, and their embarrassment so
desperate, that they are compelled, as their last expedient, to resort
to the very principle they had violated. The Committee were precisely
in this predicament when they framed this article; and to me, I confess,
their conduct appears specious rather than efficacious.(2)
1 This article eventually stood: "All Frenchmen who shall
have made one or more campaigns for the establishment of the
Republic, are citizens, without condition as to taxes."--
_Editor._
2 The head of the Committee (eleven) was the Abbé Sieves,
whose political treachery was well known to Paine before it
became known to the world by his services to Napoleon in
overthrowing the Republic.--_Editor._
It was not for himself alone, but for his family, that the French
citizen, at the dawn of the revolution, (for then indeed every man
was considered a citizen) marched soldier-like to the frontiers, and
repelled a foreign invasion. He had it not in his contemplation, that he
should enjoy liberty for the residue of his earthly career, and by his
own act preclude his offspring from that inestimable blessing. No! He
wished to leave it as an inheritance to his children, and that they
might hand it down to their latest posterity. If a Frenchman, who united
in his person the character of a Soldier and a Citizen, was now to
return from the army to his peaceful habitation, he must address his
small family in this manner: "Sorry I am, that I cannot leave to you
a small portion of what I have acquired by exposing my person to
the ferocity of our enemies and defeating their machinations. I have
established the republic, and, painful the reflection, all the laurels
which I have won in the field are blasted, and all the privileges to
which my exertions have entitled me extend not beyond the period of
my own existence!" Thus the measure that has been adopted by way of
subterfuge falls short of what the framers of it speculated upon; for
in conciliating the affections of the _Soldier_, they have subjected
the _Father_ to the most pungent sensations, by obliging him to adopt a
generation of Slaves.
Citizens, a great deal has been urged respecting insurrections. I am
confident that no man has a greater abhorrence of them than myself, and
I am sorry that any insinuations should have been thrown out upon me
as a promoter of violence of any kind. The whole tenor of my life and
conversation gives the lie to those calumnies, and proves me to be a
friend to order, truth and justice.
I hope you will attribute this effusion of my sentiments to my anxiety
for the honor and success of the revolution. I have no interest distinct
from that which has a tendency to meliorate the situation of mankind.
The revolution, as far as it respects myself, has been productive of
more loss and persecution than it is possible for me to describe, or for
you to indemnify. But with respect to the subject under consideration, I
could not refrain from declaring my sentiments.
In my opinion, if you subvert the basis of the revolution, if you
dispense with principles, and substitute expedients, you will extinguish
that enthusiasm and energy which have hitherto been the life and soul of
the revolution; and you will substitute in its place nothing but a
cold indifference and self-interest, which will again degenerate into
intrigue, cunning, and effeminacy.
But to discard all considerations of a personal and subordinate nature,
it is essential to the well-being of the republic that the practical or
organic part of the constitution should correspond with its principles;
and as this does not appear to be the case in the plan that has been
presented to you, it is absolutely necessary that it should be submitted
to the revision of a committee, who should be instructed to compare it
with the Declaration of Rights, in order to ascertain the difference
between the two, and to make such alterations as shall render them
perfectly consistent and compatible with each other.
XXVI. THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ENGLISH SYSTEM OF FINANCE.(1)
"On the verge, nay even in the gulph of bankruptcy."
1 This pamphlet, as Paine predicts at its close (no doubt on
good grounds), was translated into all languages of Europe,
and probably hastened the gold suspension of the Bank of
England (1797), which it predicted. The British Government
entrusted its reply to Ralph Broome and George Chalmers, who
wrote pamphlets. There is in the French Archives an order
for 1000 copies, April 27, 1796, nineteen days after Paine's
pamphlet appeared. "Mr. Cobbett has made this little
pamphlet a text-book for most of his elaborate treatises on
our finances.... On the authority of a late Register of Mr.
Cobbett's I learn that the profits arising from the sale of
this pamphlet were devoted [by Paine] to the relief of the
prisoners confined in Newgate for debt."--"Life of Paine,"
by Richard Carlile, 1819.--_Editor._.
Debates in Parliament.
Nothing, they say, is more certain than death, and nothing more
uncertain than the time of dying; yet we can always fix a period beyond
which man cannot live, and within some moment of which he will die. We
are enabled to do this, not by any spirit of prophecy, or foresight into
the event, but by observation of what has happened in all cases of human
or animal existence. If then any other subject, such, for instance, as
a system of finance, exhibits in its progress a series of symptoms
indicating decay, its final dissolution is certain, and the period of it
can be calculated from the symptoms it exhibits.
Those who have hitherto written on the English system of finance, (the
funding system,) have been uniformly impressed with the idea that its
downfall would happen _some time or other_. They took, however, no data
for their opinion, but expressed it predictively,--or merely as opinion,
from a conviction that the perpetual duration of such a system was a
natural impossibility. It is in this manner that Dr. Price has spoken of
it; and Smith, in his Wealth of Nations, has spoken in the same manner;
that is, merely as opinion without data. "The progress," says Smith,
"of the enormous debts, which at present oppress, and will in the long
run _most probably ruin_, all the great nations of Europe [he should
have said _governments_] has been pretty uniform." But this general
manner of speaking, though it might make some impression, carried with
it no conviction.
It is not my intention to predict any thing; but I will show from data
already known, from symptoms and facts which the English funding system
has already exhibited publicly, that it will not continue to the end of
Mr. Pitt's life, supposing him to live the usual age of a man. How much
sooner it may fall, I leave to others to predict.
Let financiers diversify systems of credit as they will, it _is_
nevertheless true, that every system of credit is a system of paper
money. Two experiments have already been had upon paper money; the one
in America, the other in France. In both those cases the whole capital
was emitted, and that whole capital, which in America was called
continental money, and in France assignats, appeared in circulation; the
consequence of which was, that the quantity became so enormous, and so
disproportioned to the quantity of population, and to the quantity' of
objects upon which it could be employed, that the market, if I may so
express it, was glutted with it, and the value of it fell. Between five
and six years determined the fate of those experiments. The same fate
would have happened to gold and silver, could gold and silver have been
issued in the same abundant manner that paper had been, and confined
within the country as paper money always is, by having no circulation
out of it; or, to speak on a larger scale, the same thing would happen
in the world, could the world be glutted with gold and silver, as
America and France have been with paper.
The English system differs from that of America and France in this one
particular, that its capital is kept out of sight; that is, it does
not appear in circulation. Were the whole capital of the national debt,
which at the time I write this is almost one hundred million pounds
sterling, to be emitted in assignats or bills, and that whole quantity
put into circulation, as was done in America and in France, those
English assignats, or bills, would soon sink in value as those of
America and France have done; and that in a greater degree, because
the quantity of them would be more disproportioned to the quantity
of population in England, than was the case in either of the other two
countries. A nominal pound sterling in such bills would not be worth one
penny.
But though the English system, by thus keeping the capital out of sight,
is preserved from hasty destruction, as in the case of America and
France, it nevertheless approaches the same fate, and will arrive at it
with the same certainty, though by a slower progress. The difference
is altogether in the degree of speed by which the two systems approach
their fate, which, to speak in round numbers, is as twenty is to one;
that is, the English system, that of funding the capital instead of
issuing it, contained within itself a capacity of enduring twenty times
longer than the systems adopted by America and France; and at the end of
that time it would arrive at the same common grave, the Potter's Field
of paper money.
The datum, I take for this proportion of twenty to one, is the
difference between a capital and the interest at five per cent. Twenty
times the interest is equal to the capital. The accumulation of paper
money in England is in proportion to the accumulation of the interest
upon every new loan; and therefore the progress to the dissolution is
twenty times slower than if the capital were to be emitted and put into
circulation immediately. Every twenty years in the English system is
equal to one year in the French and American systems.
Having thus stated the duration of the two systems, that of funding upon
interest, and that of emitting the whole capital without funding, to be
as twenty to one, I come to examine the symptoms of decay, approaching
to dissolution, that the English system has already exhibited, and to
compare them with similar systems in the French and American systems.
The English funding system began one hundred years ago; in which time
there have been six wars, including the war that ended in 1697.
1. The war that ended, as I have just said, in 1697.
2. The war that began in 1702.
3. The war that began in 1739.
4. The war that began in 1756.
5. The American war, that began in 1775.
6. The present war, that began in 1793.
The national debt, at the conclusion of the war which ended in 1697, was
twenty-one millions and an half. (See Smith's Wealth of Nations,
chapter on Public Debts.) We now see it approaching fast to four hundred
millions. If between these two extremes of twenty-one millions and four
hundred millions, embracing the several expenses of all the including
wars, there exist some common ratio that will ascertain arithmetically
the amount of the debts at the end of each war, as certainly as the fact
is known to be, that ratio will in like manner determine what the amount
of the debt will be in all future wars, and will ascertain the period
within which the funding system will expire in a bankruptcy of the
government; for the ratio I allude to, is the ratio which the nature of
the thing has established for itself.
Hitherto no idea has been entertained that any such ratio existed, or
could exist, that would determine a problem of this kind; that is, that
would ascertain, without having any knowledge of the fact, what the
expense of any former war had been, or what the expense of any future
war would be; but it is nevertheless true that such a ratio does exist,
as I shall show, and also the mode of applying it.
The ratio I allude to is not in arithmetical progression like the
numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9; nor yet in geometrical progression, like
the numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256; but it is in the series of
one half upon each preceding number; like the numbers 8, 12, 18, 27, 40,
60, 90, 135.
Any person can perceive that the second number, 12, is produced by the
preceding number, 8, and half 8; and that the third number, 18, is in
like manner produced by the preceding number, 12, and half 12; and so
on for the rest. They can also see how rapidly the sums increase as
the ratio proceeds. The difference between the two first numbers is but
four; but the difference between the two last is forty-five; and from
thence they may see with what immense rapidity the national debt has
increased, and will continue to increase, till it exceeds the ordinary
powers of calculation, and loses itself in ciphers.
I come now to apply the ratio as a rule to determine in all cases.
I began with the war that ended in 1697, which was the war in which the
funding system began. The expense of that war was twenty-one millions
and an half. In order to ascertain the expense of the next war, I add
to twenty-one millions and an half, the half thereof (ten millions and
three quarters) which makes thirty-two millions and a quarter for the
expense of that war. This thirty-two millions and a quarter, added to
the former debt of twenty-one millions and an half, carries the national
debt to fifty-three millions and three quarters. Smith, in his
chapter on Public Debts, says, that the national debt was at this time
fifty-three millions.
I proceed to ascertain the expense of the next war, that of 1739, by
adding, as in the former case, one half to the expense of the preceding
war. The expense of the preceding war was thirty-two millions and a
quarter; for the sake of even numbers, say, thirty-two millions; the
half of which (16) makes forty-eight millions for the expense of that
war.
I proceed to ascertain the expense of the war of 1756, by adding,
according to the ratio, one half to the expense of the preceding war.
The expense of the preceding was taken at 48 millions, the half of which
(24) makes 72 millions for the expense of that war. Smith, (chapter on
Public Debts,) says, the expense of the war of 1756, was 72 millions and
a quarter.
I proceed to ascertain the expense of the American war, of 1775, by
adding, as in the former cases, one half to the expense of the preceding
war. The expense of the preceding war was 72 millions, the half of which
(36) makes 108 millions for the expense of that war. In the last
edition of Smith, (chapter on Public Debts,) he says, the expense of the
American war was _more than an hundred millions_.
I come now to ascertain the expense of the present war, supposing it to
continue as long as former wars have done, and the funding system not
to break up before that period. The expense of the preceding war was 108
millions, the half of which (54) makes 162 millions for the expense of
the present war. It gives symptoms of going beyond this sum, supposing
the funding system not to break up; for the loans of the last year and
of the present year are twenty-two millions each, which exceeds the
ratio compared with the loans of the preceding war. It will not be from
the inability of procuring loans that the system will break up. On
the contrary, it is the facility with which loans can be procured that
hastens that event. The loans are altogether paper transactions; and
it is the excess of them that brings on, with accelerating speed, that
progressive depreciation of funded paper money that will dissolve the
funding system.
I proceed to ascertain the expense of future wars, and I do this merely
to show the impossibility of the continuance of the funding system, and
the certainty of its dissolution.
The expense of the next war after the present war, according to the
ratio that has ascertained the preceding cases, will be 243 millions.
Expense of the second war 364
---------------- third war 546
---------------- fourth war 819
-------- fifth war 1228
3200 millions;
which, at only four per cent. will require taxes to the nominal amount
of one hundred and twenty-eight millions to pay the annual interest,
besides the interest of the present debt, and the expenses of
government, which are not included in this account. Is there a man so
mad, so stupid, as to sup-pose this system can continue?
When I first conceived the idea of seeking for some common ratio that
should apply as a rule of measurement to all the cases of the funding
system, so far as to ascertain the several stages of its approach to
dissolution, I had no expectation that any ratio could be found that
would apply with so much exactness as this does. I was led to the idea
merely by observing that the funding system was a thing in continual
progression, and that whatever was in a state of progression might be
supposed to admit of, at least, some general ratio of measurement,
that would apply without any very great variation. But who could have
supposed that falling systems, or falling opinions, admitted of a ratio
apparently as true as the descent of falling bodies? I have not made the
ratio any more than Newton made the ratio of gravitation. I have only
discovered it, and explained the mode of applying it.
To shew at one view the rapid progression of the funding system to
destruction, and to expose the folly of those who blindly believe in
its continuance, and who artfully endeavour to impose that belief upon
others, I exhibit in the annexed table, the expense of each of the six
wars since the funding system began, as ascertained by ratio, and the
expense of the six wars yet to come, ascertained by the same ratio.
[Illustration: Table318]
* The actual expense of the war of 1739 did not come up to
the sum ascertained by the ratio. But as that which is the
natural disposition of a thing, as it is the natural
disposition of a stream of water to descend, will, if
impeded in its course, overcome by a new effort what it had
lost by that impediment, so it was with respect to this war
and the next (1756) taken collectively; for the expense of
the war of 1756 restored the equilibrium of the ratio, as
fully as if it had not been impeded. A circumstance that
serves to prove the truth of the ratio more folly than if
the interruption had not taken place. The war of 1739 ***
languid; the efforts were below the value of money et that
time; for the ratio is the measure of the depreciation of
money in consequence of the funding system; or what comes
to the same end, it is the measure of the increase of paper.
Every additional quantity of it, whether in bank notes or
otherwise, diminishes the real, though not the nominal value
of the former quantity.--_Author_
Those who are acquainted with the power with which even a small ratio,
acting in progression, multiplies in a long series, will see nothing to
wonder at in this table. Those who are not acquainted with that subject,
and not knowing what else to say, may be inclined to deny it. But it is
not their opinion one way, nor mine the other, that can influence the
event. The table exhibits the natural march of the funding system to its
irredeemable dissolution. Supposing the present government of England to
continue, and to go on as it has gone on since the funding system began,
I would not give twenty shillings for one hundred pounds in the funds to
be paid twenty years hence. I do not speak this predictively; I produce
the data upon which that belief is founded; and which data it is every
body's interest to know, who have any thing to do with the funds, or
who are going to bequeath property to their descendants to be paid at a
future day.
Perhaps it may be asked, that as governments or ministers proceeded by
no ratio in making loans or incurring debts, and nobody intended any
ratio, or thought of any, how does it happen that there is one? I
answer, that the ratio is founded in necessity; and I now go to explain
what that necessity is.
It will always happen, that the price of labour, or of the produce
of labour, be that produce what it may, will be in proportion to the
quantity of money in a country, admitting things to take their natural
course. Before the invention of the funding system, there was no other
money than gold and silver; and as nature gives out those metals with
a sparing hand, and in regular annual quantities from the mines, the
several prices of things were proportioned to the quantity of money at
that time, and so nearly stationary as to vary but little in any fifty
or sixty years of that period.
When the funding system began, a substitute for gold and silver began
also. That substitute was paper; and the quantity increased as the
quantity of interest increased upon accumulated loans. This appearance
of a new and additional species of money in the nation soon began to
break the relative value which money and the things it will purchase
bore to each other before. Every thing rose in price; but the rise at
first was little and slow, like the difference in units between two
first numbers, 8 and 12, compared with the two last numbers 90 and 135,
in the table. It was however sufficient to make itself considerably felt
in a large transaction. When therefore government, by engaging in a new
war, required a new loan, it was obliged to make a higher loan than the
former loan, to balance the increased price to which things had risen;
and as that new loan increased the quantity of paper in proportion
to the new quantity of interest, it carried the price of things still
higher than before. The next loan was again higher, to balance that
further increased price; and all this in the same manner, though not
in the same degree, that every new emission of continental money in
America, or of assignats in France, was greater than the preceding
emission, to make head against the advance of prices, till the combat
could be maintained no longer. Herein is founded the necessity of which
I have just spoken. That necessity proceeds with accelerating velocity,
and the ratio I have laid down is the measure of that acceleration; or,
to speak the technical language of the subject, it is the measure of the
increasing depreciation of funded paper money, which it is impossible to
prevent while the quantity of that money and of bank notes continues to
multiply. What else but this can account for the difference between one
war costing 21 millions, and another war costing 160 millions?
The difference cannot be accounted for on the score of extraordinary
efforts or extraordinary achievements. The war that cost twenty-one
millions was the war of the con-federates, historically called the grand
alliance, consisting of England, Austria, and Holland in the time of
William III. against Louis XIV. and in which the confederates were
victorious. The present is a war of a much greater confederacy--a
confederacy of England, Austria, Prussia, the German Empire, Spain,
Holland, Naples, and Sardinia, eight powers, against the French Republic
singly, and the Republic has beaten the whole confederacy.--But to
return to my subject.
It is said in England, that the value of paper keeps equal with the
value of gold and silver. But the case is not rightly stated; for the
fact is, that the paper has _pulled down_ the value of gold and silver
to a level with itself. Gold and silver will not purchase so much of any
purchasable article at this day as if no paper had appeared, nor so much
as it will in any country in Europe where there is no paper. How long
this hanging together of money and paper will continue, makes a new
case; because it daily exposes the system to sudden death, independent
of the natural death it would otherwise suffer.
I consider the funding system as being now advanced into the last twenty
years of its existence. The single circumstance, were there no other,
that a war should now cost nominally one hundred and sixty millions,
which when the system began cost but twenty-one millions, or that the
loan for one year only (including the loan to the Emperor) should now be
nominally greater than the whole expense of that war, shows the state of
depreciation to which the funding system has arrived. Its depreciation
is in the proportion of eight for one, compared with the value of its
money when the system began; which is the state the French assignats
stood a year ago (March 1795) compared with gold and silver. It is
therefore that I say, that the English funding system has entered on the
last twenty years of its existence, comparing each twenty years of
the English system with every single year of the American and French
systems, as before stated.
Again, supposing the present war to close as former wars have done, and
without producing either revolution or reform in England, another war at
least must be looked for in the space of the twenty years I allude to;
for it has never yet happened that twenty years have passed off without
a war, and that more especially since the English government has dabbled
in German politics, and shown a disposition to insult the world, and the
world of commerce, with her navy. The next war will carry the national
debt to very nearly seven hundred millions, the interest of which, at
four per cent, will be twenty-eight millions besides the taxes for
the (then) expenses of government, which will increase in the same
proportion, and which will carry the taxes to at least forty millions;
and if another war only begins, it will quickly carry them to above
fifty; for it is in the last twenty years of the funding system, as in
the last year of the American and French systems without funding, that
all the great shocks begin to operate.
I have just mentioned that, paper in England has _pulled down_ the value
of gold and silver to a level with itself; and that _this pulling dawn_
of gold and silver money has created the appearance of paper money
keeping up. The same thing, and the same mistake, took place in
America and in France, and continued for a considerable time after the
commencement of their system of paper; and the actual depreciation of
money was hidden under that mistake.
It was said in America, at that time, that everything was becoming
_dear_; but gold and silver could then buy those dear articles no
cheaper than paper could; and therefore it was not called depreciation.
The idea of _dearness_ established itself for the idea of depreciation.
The same was the case in France. Though every thing rose in price soon
after assignats appeared, yet those dear articles could be purchased no
cheaper with gold and silver, than with paper, and it was only said that
things were _dear_. The same is still the language in England. They
call it _deariness_. But they will soon find that it is an actual
depreciation, and that this depreciation is the effect of the funding
system; which, by crowding such a continually increasing mass of paper
into circulation, carries down the value of gold and silver with it. But
gold and silver, will, in the long run, revolt against depreciation, and
separate from the value of paper; for the progress of all such systems
appears to be, that the paper will take the command in the beginning,
and gold and silver in the end.
But this succession in the command of gold and silver over paper, makes
a crisis far more eventful to the funding system than to any other
system upon which paper can be issued; for, strictly speaking, it is not
a crisis of danger but a symptom of death. It is a death-stroke to the
funding system. It is a revolution in the whole of its affairs.
If paper be issued without being funded upon interest, emissions of it
can be continued after the value of it separates from gold and silver,
as we have seen in the two cases of America and France. But the funding
system rests altogether upon the value of paper being equal to gold and
silver; which will be as long as the paper can continue carrying down
the value of gold and silver to the same level to which itself descends,
and no longer. But even in this state, that of descending equally
together, the minister, whoever he may be, will find himself beset with
accumulating difficulties; because the loans and taxes voted for the
service of each ensuing year will wither in his hands before the year
expires, or before they can be applied. This will force him to have
recourse to emissions of what are called exchequer and navy bills,
which, by still increasing the mass of paper in circulation, will drive
on the depreciation still more rapidly.
It ought to be known that taxes in England are not paid in gold
and silver, but in paper (bank notes). Every person who pays any
considerable quantity of taxes, such as maltsters, brewers, distillers,
(I appeal for the truth of it, to any of the collectors of excise in
England, or to Mr. White-bread,)(1) knows this to be the case. There is
not gold and silver enough in the nation to pay the taxes in coin, as
I shall show; and consequently there is not money enough in the bank to
pay the notes. The interest of the national funded debt is paid at the
bank in the same kind of paper in which the taxes are collected. When
people find, as they will find, a reservedness among each other in
giving gold and silver for bank notes, or the least preference for the
former over the latter, they will go for payment to the bank, where they
have a right to go. They will do this as a measure of prudence, each one
for himself, and the truth or delusion of the funding system will then
be proved.
1 An eminent Member of Parliament.--_Editor._.
I have said in the foregoing paragraph that there is not gold and silver
enough in the nation to pay the taxes in coin, and consequently that
there cannot be enough in the bank to pay the notes. As I do not choose
to rest anything upon assertion, I appeal for the truth of this to the
publications of Mr. Eden (now called Lord Auckland) and George Chalmers,
Secretary to the Board of Trade and Plantation, of which Jenkinson (now
Lord Hawkesbury) is president.(1) (These sort of folks change their
names so often that it is as difficult to know them as it is to know
a thief.) Chalmers gives the quantity of gold and silver coin from the
returns of coinage at the Mint; and after deducting for the light gold
recoined, says that the amount of gold and silver coined is about twenty
millions. He had better not have proved this, especially if he had
reflected that _public credit is suspicion asleep_. The quantity is much
too little.
1 Concerning Chalmers and Hawkesbury see vol. ii., p. 533.
Also, preface to my "Life of Paine", xvi., and other
passages.---_Editor._.
Of this twenty millions (which is not a fourth part of the quantity of
gold and silver there is in France, as is shown in Mr. Neckar's Treatise
on the Administration of the Finances) three millions at least must be
supposed to be in Ireland, some in Scotland, and in the West Indies,
Newfoundland, &c. The quantity therefore in England cannot be more than
sixteen millions, which is four millions less than the amount of the
taxes. But admitting that there are sixteen millions, not more than
a fourth part thereof (four millions) can be in London, when it is
considered that every city, town, village, and farm-house in the nation
must have a part of it, and that all the great manufactories, which most
require cash, are out of London. Of this four millions in London, every
banker, merchant, tradesman, in short every individual, must have some.
He must be a poor shopkeeper indeed, who has not a few guineas in his
till. The quantity of cash therefore in the bank can never, on the
evidence of circumstances, be so much as two millions; most probably
not more than one million; and on this slender twig, always liable to be
broken, hangs the whole funding system of four hundred millions, besides
many millions in bank notes. The sum in the bank is not sufficient to
pay one-fourth of only one year's interest of the national debt, were
the creditors to demand payment in cash, or demand cash for the bank
notes in which the interest is paid, a circumstance always liable to
happen.
One of the amusements that has kept up the farce of the funding system
is, that the interest is regularly paid. But as the interest is always
paid in bank notes, and as bank notes can always be coined for the
purpose, this mode of payment proves nothing. The point of proof is, can
the bank give cash for the bank notes with which the interest is paid?
If it cannot, and it is evident it cannot, some millions of bank notes
must go without payment, and those holders of bank notes who apply last
will be worst off. When the present quantity of cash in the bank is paid
away, it is next to impossible to see how any new quantity is to arrive.
None will arrive from taxes, for the taxes will all be paid in bank
notes; and should the government refuse bank notes in payment of taxes,
the credit of bank notes will be gone at once. No cash will arise from
the business of discounting merchants' bills; for every merchant will
pay off those bills in bank notes, and not in cash. There is therefore
no means left for the bank to obtain a new supply of cash, after the
present quantity is paid away. But besides the impossibility of paying
the interest of the funded debt in cash, there are many thousand
persons, in London and in the country, who are holders of bank notes
that came into their hands in the fair way of trade, and who are not
stockholders in the funds; and as such persons have had no hand in
increasing the demand upon the bank, as those have had who for their own
private interest, like Boyd and others, are contracting or pretending to
contract for new loans, they will conceive they have a just right that
their bank notes should be paid first. Boyd has been very sly in France,
in changing his paper into cash. He will be just as sly in doing the
same thing in London, for he has learned to calculate; and then it is
probable he will set off for America.
A stoppage of payment at the bank is not a new thing. Smith in his
Wealth of Nations, book ii. chap. 2, says, that in the year 1696,
exchequer bills fell forty, fifty, and sixty per cent; bank notes twenty
per cent; and the bank stopped payment. That which happened in 1696 may
happen again in 1796. The period in which it happened was the last year
of the war of King William. It necessarily put a stop to the further
emissions of exchequer and navy bills, and to the raising of new loans;
and the peace which took place the next year was probably hurried on by
this circumstance, and saved the bank from bankruptcy. Smith in speaking
from the circumstances of the bank, upon another occasion, says (book
ii. chap. 2.) "This great company had been reduced to the necessity
of paying in sixpences." When a bank adopts the expedient of paying in
sixpences, it is a confession of insolvency.
It is worthy of observation, that every case of failure in finances,
since the system of paper began, has produced a revolution in
governments, either total or partial. A failure in the finances of
France produced the French revolution. A failure in the finance of
the assignats broke up the revolutionary government, and produced
the present French Constitution. A failure in the finances of the Old
Congress of America, and the embarrassments it brought upon commerce,
broke up the system of the old confederation, and produced the federal
Constitution. If, then, we admit of reasoning by comparison of causes
and events, the failure of the English finances will produce some change
in the government of that country.
As to Mr. Pitt's project of paying off the national debt by applying
a million a-year for that purpose, while he continues adding more than
twenty millions a-year to it, it is like setting a man with a wooden leg
to run after a hare. The longer he runs the farther he is off.
When I said that the funding system had entered the last twenty years
of its existence, I certainly did not mean that it would continue twenty
years, and then expire as a lease would do. I meant to describe that
age of decrepitude in which death is every day to be expected, and life
cannot continue long. But the death of credit, or that state that is
called bankruptcy, is not always marked by those progressive stages
of visible decline that marked the decline of natural life. In the
progression of natural life age cannot counterfeit youth, nor conceal
the departure of juvenile abilities. But it is otherwise with respect
to the death of credit; for though all the approaches to bankruptcy
may actually exist in circumstances, they admit of being concealed by
appearances. Nothing is more common than to see the bankrupt of to-day a
man in credit but the day before; yet no sooner is the real state of
his affairs known, than every body can see he had been insolvent long
before. In London, the greatest theatre of bankruptcy in Europe, this
part of the subject will be well and feelingly understood.
Mr. Pitt continually talks of credit, and the national resources. These
are two of the feigned appearances by which the approaches to bankruptcy
are concealed. That which he calls credit may exist, as I have just
shown, in a state of insolvency, and is always what I have before
described it to be, _suspicion asleep_.
As to national resources, Mr. Pitt, like all English financiers that
preceded him since the funding system began, has uniformly mistaken the
nature of a resource; that is, they have mistaken it consistently with
the delusion of the funding system; but time is explaining the delusion.
That which he calls, and which they call, a resource, is not a resource,
but is the _anticipation_ of a resource. They have anticipated what
_would have been_ a resource in another generation, had not the use of
it been so anticipated. The funding system is a system of anticipation.
Those who established it an hundred years ago anticipated the resources
of those who were to live an hundred years after; for the people of the
present day have to pay the interest of the debts contracted at that
time, and all debts contracted since. But it is the last feather that
breaks the horse's back. Had the system begun an hundred years before,
the amount of taxes at this time to pay the annual interest at four per
cent. (could we suppose such a system of insanity could have continued)
would be two hundred and twenty millions annually: for the capital of
the debt would be 5486 millions, according to the ratio that ascertains
the expense of the wars for the hundred years that are past. But long
before it could have reached this period, the value of bank notes,
from the immense quantity of them, (for it is in paper only that such
a nominal revenue could be collected,) would have been as low or lower
than continental paper has been in America, or assignats in France; and
as to the idea of exchanging them for gold and silver, it is too absurd
to be contradicted.
Do we not see that nature, in all her operations, disowns the visionary
basis upon which the funding system is built? She acts always by
renewed successions, and never by accumulating additions perpetually
progressing. Animals and vegetables, men and trees, have existed since
the world began: but that existence has been carried on by succession
of generations, and not by continuing the same men and the same trees in
existence that existed first; and to make room for the new she removes
the old. Every natural idiot can see this; it is the stock-jobbing idiot
only that mistakes. He has conceived that art can do what nature cannot.
He is teaching her a new system--that there is no occasion for man to
die--that the scheme of creation can be carried on upon the plan of
the funding system--that it can proceed by continual additions of new
beings, like new loans, and all live together in eternal youth. Go,
count the graves, thou idiot, and learn the folly of thy arithmetic!
But besides these things, there is something visibly farcical in the
whole operation of loaning. It is scarcely more than four years ago
that such a rot of bankruptcy spread itself over London, that the whole
commercial fabric tottered; trade and credit were at a stand; and
such was the state of things that, to prevent or suspend a general
bankruptcy, the government lent the merchants six millions in
_government_ paper, and now the merchants lend the government twenty-two
millions in _their_ paper; and two parties, Boyd and Morgan, men but
little known, contend who shall be the lenders. What a farce is this!
It reduces the operation of loaning to accommodation paper, in which
the competitors contend, not who shall lend, but who shall sign, because
there is something to be got for signing.
Every English stock-jobber and minister boasts of the credit of England.
Its credit, say they, is greater than that of any country in Europe.
There is a good reason for this: for there is not another country in
Europe that could be made the dupe of such a delusion. The English
funding system will remain a monument of wonder, not so much on account
of the extent to which it has been carried, as of the folly of believing
in it.
Those who had formerly predicted that the funding system would break
up when the debt should amount to one hundred or one hundred and fifty
millions, erred only in not distinguishing between insolvency and actual
bankruptcy; for the insolvency commenced as soon as the government
became unable to pay the interest in cash, or to give cash for the bank
notes in which the interest was paid, whether that inability was known
or not, or whether it was suspected or not. Insolvency always takes
place before bankruptcy; for bankruptcy is nothing more than the
publication of that insolvency. In the affairs of an individual, it
often happens that insolvency exists several years before bankruptcy,
and that the insolvency is concealed and carried on till the individual
is not able to pay one shilling in the pound. A government can ward off
bankruptcy longer than an individual: but insolvency will inevitably
produce bankruptcy, whether in an individual or in a government. If then
the quantity of bank notes payable on demand, which the bank has issued,
are greater than the bank can pay off, the bank is insolvent: and when
that insolvency is declared, it is bankruptcy.(*)
* Among the delusions that have been imposed upon the
nation by ministers to give a false colouring to its
affairs, and by none more than by Mr. Pitt, is a motley,
amphibious-charactered thing called the _balance of trade_.
This balance of trade, as it is called, is taken from the
custom-house books, in which entries are made of all cargoes
exported, and also of all cargoes imported, in each year;
and when the value of the exports, according to the price
set upon them by the exporter or by the custom-house, is
greater than the value of the imports, estimated in the same
manner, they say the balance of trade is much in their
favour.
The custom-house books prove regularly enough that so many
cargoes have been exported, and so many imported; but this
is all that they prove, or were intended to prove. They have
nothing to do with the balance of profit or loss; and it is
ignorance to appeal to them upon that account: for the case
is, that the greater the loss is in any one year, the higher
will this thing called the balance of trade appear to be
according to the custom-house books. For example, nearly the
whole of the Mediterranean convoy has been taken by the
French this year; consequently those cargoes will not
appear as imports on the custom-house books, and therefore
the balance of trade, by which they mean the profits of it,
will appear to be so much the greater as the loss amounts to;
and, on the other hand, had the loss not happened, the
profits would have appeared to have been so much the less.
All the losses happening at sea to returning cargoes, by
accidents, by the elements, or by capture, make the balance
appear the higher on the side of the exports; and were they
all lost at sea, it would appear to be all profit on the
custom-house books. Also every cargo of exports that is lost
that occasions another to be sent, adds in like manner to
the side of the exports, and appears as profit. This year
the balance of trade will appear high, because the losses
have been great by capture and by storms. The ignorance of
the British Parliament in listening to this hackneyed
imposition of ministers about the balance of trade is
astonishing. It shows how little they know of national
affairs--and Mr. Grey may as well talk Greek to them, as to
make motions about the state of the nation. They understand
only fox-hunting and the game laws,--_Author_.
I come now to show the several ways by which bank notes get into
circulation: I shall afterwards offer an estimate on the total quantity
or amount of bank notes existing at this moment.
The bank acts in three capacities. As a bank of discount; as a bank of
deposit; and as a banker for the government.
First, as a bank of discount. The bank discounts merchants' bills of
exchange for two months. When a merchant has a bill that will become due
at the end of two months, and wants payment before that time, the bank
advances that payment to him, deducting therefrom at the rate of five
per cent, per annum. The bill of exchange remains at the bank as a
pledge or pawn, and at the end of two months it must be redeemed. This
transaction is done altogether in paper; for the profits of the bank,
as a bank of discount, arise entirely from its making use of paper as
money. The bank gives bank notes to the merchant in discounting the bill
of exchange, and the redeemer of the bill pays bank notes to the bank in
redeeming it. It very seldom happens that any real money passes between
them.
If the profits of a bank be, for example, two hundred thousand pounds a
year (a great sum to be made merely by exchanging one sort of paper
for another, and which shows also that the merchants of that place are
pressed for money for payments, instead of having money to spare to lend
to government,) it proves that the bank discounts to the amount of four
millions annually, or 666,666L. every two months; and as there never
remain in the bank more than two months' pledges, of the value of
666,666L., at any one time, the amount of bank notes in circulation at
any one time should not be more than to that amount. This is sufficient
to show that the present immense quantity of bank notes, which are
distributed through every city, town, village, and farm-house in
England, cannot be accounted for on the score of discounting.
Secondly, as a bank of deposit. To deposit money at the bank means to
lodge it there for the sake of convenience, and to be drawn out at any
moment the depositor pleases, or to be paid away to his order. When
the business of discounting is great, that of depositing is necessarily
small. No man deposits and applies for discounts at the same time;
for it would be like paying interest for lending money, instead of for
borrowing it. The deposits that are now made at the bank are almost
entirely in bank notes, and consequently they add nothing to the ability
of the bank to pay off the bank notes that may be presented for payment;
and besides this, the deposits are no more the property of the bank than
the cash or bank notes in a merchant's counting-house are the property
of his book-keeper. No great increase therefore of bank notes, beyond
what the discounting business admits, can be accounted for on the score
of deposits.
Thirdly, the bank acts as banker for the government. This is the
connection that threatens to ruin every public bank. It is through this
connection that the credit of a bank is forced far beyond what it ought
to be, and still further beyond its ability to pay. It is through this
connection, that such an immense redundant quantity of bank notes, have
gotten into circulation; and which, instead of being issued because
there was property in the bank, have been issued because there was none.
When the treasury is empty, which happens in almost every year of every
war, its coffers at the bank are empty also. It is in this condition of
emptiness that the minister has recourse to emissions of what are called
exchequer and navy bills, which continually generates a new increase of
bank notes, and which are sported upon the public, without there being
property in the bank to pay them. These exchequer and navy bills (being,
as I have said, emitted because the treasury and its coffers at the bank
are empty, and cannot pay the demands that come in) are no other than
an acknowledgment that the bearer is entitled to receive so much money.
They may be compared to the settlement of an account, in which the
debtor acknowledges the balance he owes, and for which he gives a note
of hand; or to a note of hand given to raise money upon it.
Sometimes the bank discounts those bills as it would discount merchants'
bills of exchange; sometimes it purchases them of the holders at the
current price; and sometimes it agrees with the ministers to pay an
interest upon them to the holders, and keep them in circulation. In
every one of these cases an additional quantity of bank notes gets into
circulation, and are sported, as I have said, upon the public, without
there being property in the bank, as banker for the government, to pay
them; and besides this, the bank has now no money of its own; for the
money that was originally subscribed to begin the credit of the bank
with, at its first establishment, has been lent to government and wasted
long ago.
"The bank" (says Smith, book ii. chap. 2.) "acts not only as an ordinary
bank, but as a great engine of State; it receives and pays a greater
part of the annuities which are due to the creditors of the _public_."
(It is worth observing, that the _public_, or the _nation_, is always
put for the government, in speaking of debts.) "It circulates" (says
Smith) "exchequer bills, and it advances to government the annual amount
of the land and malt taxes, which are frequently not paid till several
years afterwards." (This advancement is also done in bank notes,
for which there is not property in the bank.) "In those different
operations" (says Smith) "_its duty to the public_ may sometimes have
obliged it, without any fault of its directors, _to overstock the
circulation with paper money_."--bank notes. How its _duty_ to _the
public_ can induce it _to overstock that public_ with promissory bank
notes which it _cannot pay_, and thereby expose the individuals of that
public to ruin, is too paradoxical to be explained; for it is on
the credit which individuals _give to the bank_, by receiving and
circulating its notes, and not upon its _own_ credit or its _own_
property, for it has none, that the bank sports. If, however, it be the
duty of the bank to expose the public to this hazard, it is at least
equally the duty of the individuals of that public to get their money
and take care of themselves; and leave it to placemen, pensioners,
government contractors, Reeves' association, and the members of both
houses of Parliament, who have voted away the money at the nod of
the minister, to continue the credit if they can, and for which their
estates individually and collectively ought to answer, as far as they
will go.
There has always existed, and still exists, a mysterious, suspicious
connection, between the minister and the directors of the bank, and
which explains itself no otherways than by a continual increase in bank
notes. Without, therefore, entering into any further details of the
various contrivances by which bank notes are issued, and thrown upon the
public, I proceed, as I before mentioned, to offer an estimate on the
total quantity of bank notes in circulation.
However disposed governments may be to wring money by taxes from the
people, there is a limit to the practice established by the nature of
things. That limit is the proportion between the quantity of money in a
nation, be that quantity what it may, and the greatest quantity of taxes
that can be raised upon it. People have other uses for money besides
paying taxes; and it is only a proportional part of the money they can
spare for taxes, as it is only a proportional part they can spare
for house-rent, for clothing, or for any other particular use. These
proportions find out and establish themselves; and that with such
exactness, that if any one part exceeds its proportion, all the other
parts feel it.
Before the invention of paper money (bank notes,) there was no other
money in the nation than gold and silver, and the greatest quantity of
money that was ever raised in taxes during that period never exceeded a
fourth part of the quantity of money in the nation. It was high taxing
when it came to this point. The taxes in the time of William III. never
reached to four millions before the invention of paper, and the quantity
of money in the nation at that time was estimated to be about sixteen
millions. The same proportions established themselves in France. There
was no paper money in France before the present revolution, and the
taxes were collected in gold and silver money. The highest quantity of
taxes never exceeded twenty-two millions sterling; and the quantity of
gold and silver money in the nation at the same time, as stated by M.
Neckar, from returns of coinage at the Mint, in his Treatise on the
Administration of the Finances, was about ninety millions sterling. To
go beyond this limit of a fourth part, in England, they were obliged to
introduce paper money; and the attempt to go beyond it in France, where
paper could not be introduced, broke up the government. This proportion,
therefore, of a fourth part, is the limit which the thing establishes
for itself, be the quantity of money in a nation more or less.
The amount of taxes in England at this time is full twenty millions;
and therefore the quantity of gold and silver, and of bank notes, taken
together, amounts to eighty millions. The quantity of gold and silver,
as stated by Lord Hawkes-bury's Secretary, George Chalmers, as I have
before shown, is twenty millions; and, therefore, the total amount
of bank notes in circulation, all made payable on demand, is sixty
millions. This enormous sum will astonish the most stupid stock-jobber,
and overpower the credulity of the most thoughtless Englishman: but were
it only a third part of that sum, the bank cannot pay half a crown in
the pound.
There is something curious in the movements of this modern complicated
machine, the funding system; and it is only now that it is beginning
to unfold the full extent of its movements. In the first part of its
movements it gives great powers into the hands of government, and in the
last part it takes them completely away.
The funding system set out with raising revenues under the name of
loans, by means of which government became both prodigal and powerful.
The loaners assumed the name of creditors, and though it was soon
discovered that loaning was government-jobbing, those pretended loaners,
or the persons who purchased into the funds afterwards, conceived
themselves not only to be creditors, but to be the _only_ creditors.
But such has been the operation of this complicated machine, the funding
system, that it has produced, unperceived, a second generation of
creditors, more numerous and far more formidable and withal more
real than the first generation; for every holder of a bank note is a
creditor, and a real creditor, and the debt due to him is made payable
on demand. The debt therefore which the government owes to individuals
is composed of two parts; the one about four hundred millions bearing
interest, the other about sixty millions payable on demand. The one is
called the funded debt, the other is the debt due in bank notes.
The second debt (that contained in the bank notes) has, in a great
measure, been incurred to pay the interest of the first debt; so that in
fact little or no real interest has been paid by government. The whole
has been delusion and fraud. Government first contracted a debt, in the
form of loans, with one class of people, and then run clandestinely into
debt with another class, by means of bank notes, to pay the interest.
Government acted of itself in contracting the first debt, and made a
machine of the bank to contract the second. It is this second debt that
changes the seat of power and the order of things; for it puts it in
the power of even a small part of the holders of bank notes (had they no
other motives than disgust at Pitt and Grenville's sedition bills,) to
control any measure of government they found to be injurious to their
interest; and that not by popular meetings, or popular societies, but
by the simple and easy opera-tion of withholding their credit from that
government; that is, by individually demanding payment at the bank
for every bank note that comes into their hands. Why should Pitt and
Grenville expect that the very men whom they insult and injure,
should, at the same time, continue to support the measures of Pitt and
Grenville, by giving credit to their promissory notes of payment? No new
emissions of bank notes could go on while payment was demanding on the
old, and the cash in the bank wasting daily away; nor any new advances
be made to government, or to the emperor, to carry on the war; nor any
new emission be made on exchequer bills.
"_The bank_" says Smith, (book ii. chap. 2) "_is a great engine of
state_." And in the same paragraph he says, "_The stability of the bank
is equal to that of the British government_;" which is the same as to
say that the stability of the government is equal to that of the bank,
and no more. If then the bank cannot pay, the _arch-treasurer_ of the
holy Roman empire (S. R. I. A.*) is a bankrupt. When Folly invented
titles, she did not attend to their application; forever since the
government of England has been in the hands of _arch-treasurers_, it has
been running into bankruptcy; and as to the arch-treasurer _apparent_,
he has been a bankrupt long ago. What a miserable prospect has England
before its eyes!
* Put of the inscription on an English guinea.--_Author_.
Before the war of 1755 there were no bank notes lower than twenty
pounds. During that war, bank notes of fifteen pounds and of ten pounds
were coined; and now, since the commencement of the present war, they
are coined as low as five pounds. These five-pound notes will circulate
chiefly among little shop-keepers, butchers, bakers, market-people,
renters of small houses, lodgers, &c. All the high departments of
commerce and the affluent stations of life were already _overstocked_,
as Smith expresses it, with the bank notes. No place remained open
wherein to crowd an additional quantity of bank notes but among the
class of people I have just mentioned, and the means of doing this
could be best effected by coining five-pound notes. This conduct has the
appearance of that of an unprincipled insolvent, who, when on the verge
of bankruptcy to the amount of many thousands, will borrow as low as
five pounds of the servants in his house, and break the next day.
But whatever momentary relief or aid the minister and his bank might
expect from this low contrivance of five-pound notes, it will increase
the inability of the bank to pay the higher notes, and hasten the
destruction of all; for even the small taxes that used to be paid in
money will now be paid in those notes, and the bank will soon find
itself with scarcely any other money than what the hair-powder
guinea-tax brings in.
The bank notes make the most serious part of the business of finance:
what is called the national funded debt is but a trifle when put in
comparison with it; yet the case of the bank notes has never been
touched upon. But it certainly ought to be known upon what authority,
whether that of the minister or of the directors, and upon what
foundation, such immense quantities are issued. I have stated the amount
of them at sixty millions; I have produced data for that estimation; and
besides this, the apparent quantity of them, far beyond that of gold and
silver in the nation, corroborates the statement. But were there but a
third part of sixty millions, the bank cannot pay half a crown in the
pound; for no new supply of money, as before said, can arrive at the
bank, as all the taxes will be paid in paper.
When the funding system began, it was not doubted that the loans that
had been borrowed would be repaid. Government not only propagated that
belief, but it began paying them off. In time this profession came to be
abandoned: and it is not difficult to see that bank notes will march
the same way; for the amount of them is only another debt under another
name; and the probability is that Mr. Pitt will at last propose
funding them. In that case bank notes will not be so valuable as French
assignats. The assignats have a solid property in reserve, in the
national domains; bank notes have none; and, besides this, the English
revenue must then sink down to what the amount of it was before the
funding system began--between three and four millions; one of which
the _arch-treasurer_ would require for himself, and the arch-treasurer
_apparent_ would require three-quarters of a million more to pay his
debts. "_In France_," says Sterne, "_they order these things better_."
I have now exposed the English system of finance to the eyes of all
nations; for this work will be published in all languages. In doing
this, I have done an act of justice to those numerous citizens of
neutral nations who have been imposed upon by that fraudulent system,
and who have property at stake upon the event.
As an individual citizen of America, and as far as an individual can
go, I have revenged (if I may use the expression without any immoral
meaning) the piratical depredations committed on the American commerce
by the English government. I have retaliated for France on the subject
of finance: and I conclude with retorting on Mr. Pitt the expression he
used against France, and say, that the English system of finance "is on
the verge, nay even in the
GULPH OF BANKRUPTCY."
Thomas Paine.
PARIS, 19th Germinal. 4th year of the Republic, April 8, 1796.
XXVII. FORGETFULNESS.(1)
1 This undated composition, of much biographical interest,
was shown by Paine to Henry Redhead Yorke, who visited him
in Paris (1802), and was allowed to copy the only portions
now preserved. In the last of Yorke's Letters from France
(Lond., 1814), thirty-three pages are given to Paine. Under
the name "Little Corner of the World," Lady Smyth wrote
cheering letters to Paine in his prison, and he replied to
his then unknown correspondent under the name of "The Castle
in die Air." After his release he discovered in his
correspondent a lady who had appealed to him for assistance,
no doubt for her husband. With Sir Robert (an English banker
in Paris) and Lady Smyth, Paine formed a fast friendship
which continued through life. Sir Robert was born in 1744,
and married (1776) a Miss Blake of Hanover Square, London.
He died in 1802 of illness brought on by his imprisonment
under Napoleon. Several of Paine's poems were addressed to
Lady Smyth.--_Editor._
FROM "THE CASTLE IN THE AIR," TO THE "LITTLE CORNER OF THE WORLD."
Memory, like a beauty that is always present to hear her-self
flattered, is flattered by every one. But the absent and silent goddess,
Forgetfulness, has no votaries, and is never thought of: yet we owe her
much. She is the goddess of ease, though not of pleasure.
When the mind is like a room hung with black, and every corner of it
crowded with the most horrid images imagination can create, this kind
speechless goddess of a maid, Forgetfulness, is following us night
and day with her opium wand, and gently touching first one, and then
another, benumbs them into rest, and at last glides them away with the
silence of a departing shadow. It is thus the tortured mind is restored
to the calm condition of ease, and fitted for happiness.
How dismal must the picture of life appear to the mind in that dreadful
moment when it resolves on darkness, and to die! One can scarcely
believe such a choice was possible. Yet how many of the young and
beautiful, timid in every thing else, and formed for delight, have shut
their eyes upon the world, and made the waters their sepulchral bed! Ah,
would they in that crisis, when life and death are before them, and
each within their reach, would they but think, or try to think, that
Forgetfulness will come to their relief, and lull them into ease, they
could stay their hand, and lay hold of life. But there is a necromancy
in wretchedness that entombs the mind, and increases the misery, by
shutting out every ray of light and hope. It makes the wretched
falsely believe they will be wretched ever. It is the most fatal of all
dangerous delusions; and it is only when this necromantic night-mare of
the mind begins to vanish, by being resisted, that it is discovered to
be but a tyrannic spectre. All grief, like all things else, will yield
to the obliterating power of time. While despair is preying on the mind,
time and its effects are preying on despair; and certain it is, the
dismal vision will fade away, and Forgetfulness, with her sister Ease,
will change the scene. Then let not the wretched be rash, but wait,
painful as the struggle may be, the arrival of Forgetfulness; for it
will certainly arrive.
I have twice been present at the scene of attempted suicide. The one
a love-distracted girl in England, the other of a patriotic friend in
France; and as the circumstances of each are strongly pictured in my
memory, I will relate them to you. They will in some measure corroborate
what I have said of Forgetfulness.
About the year 1766, I was in Lincolnshire, in England, and on a visit
at the house of a widow lady, Mrs. E____, at a small village in the fens
of that county. It was in summer; and one evening after supper, Mrs.
E____ and myself went to take a turn in the garden. It was about eleven
o'clock, and to avoid the night air of the fens, we were walking in a
bower, shaded over with hazel bushes. On a sudden, she screamed out,
and cried "Lord, look, look!" I cast my eyes through the openings of the
hazel bushes in the direction she was looking, and saw a white shapeless
figure, without head or arms, moving along one of the walks at some
distance from us. I quitted Mrs. E______, and went after it. When I got
into the walk where the figure was, and was following it, it took up
another walk. There was a holly bush in the corner of the two walks,
which, it being night, I did not observe; and as I continued to step
forward, the holly bush came in a straight line between me and the
figure, and I lost sight of it; and as I passed along one walk, and the
figure the other, the holly bush still continued to intercept the view,
so as to give the appearance that the figure had vanished. When I came
to the corner of the two walks, I caught sight of it again, and coming
up with it, I reached out my hand to touch it; and in the act of doing
this, the idea struck me, will my hand pass through the air, or shall I
feel any thing? Less than a moment would decide this, and my hand rested
on the shoulder of a human figure. I spoke, but do not recollect what I
said. It answered in a low voice, "Pray let me alone." I then knew who
it was. It was a young lady who was on a visit to Mrs. E------, and who,
when we sat down to supper, said she found herself extremely ill, and
would go to bed. I called to Mrs. E------, who came, and I said to her,
"It is Miss N------." Mrs. E------ said, "My God, I hope you are not
going to do yourself any hurt;" for Mrs. E------ suspected something.
She replied with pathetic melancholy, "Life has not one pleasure for
me." We got her into the house, and Mrs. E------ took her to sleep with
her.
The case was, the man to whom she expected to be married had forsaken
her, and when she heard he was to be married to another the shock
appeared to her to be too great to be borne. She had retired, as I have
said, to her room, and when she supposed all the family were gone to
bed, (which would have been the case if Mrs. E------ and I had not
walked into the garden,) she undressed herself, and tied her apron over
her head; which, descending below her waist, gave her the shapeless
figure I have spoken of. With this and a white under petticoat and
slippers, for she had taken out her buckles and put them at the servant
maid's door, I suppose as a keepsake, and aided by the obscurity of
almost midnight, she came down stairs, and was going to drown her-self
in a pond at the bottom of the garden, towards which she was going when
Mrs. E------screamed out. We found afterwards that she had heard the
scream, and that was the cause of her changing her walk.
By gentle usage, and leading her into subjects that might, without
doing violence to her feelings, and without letting her see the direct
intention of it, steal her as it were from the horror she was in, (and
I felt a compassionate, earnest disposition to do it, for she was a good
girl,) she recovered her former cheerfulness, and was afterwards a happy
wife, and the mother of a family.
The other case, and the conclusion in my next: In Paris, in 1793, had
lodgings in the Rue Fauxbourg, St. Denis, No. 63.(1) They were the most
agreeable, for situation, of any I ever had in Paris, except that they
were too remote from the Convention, of which I was then a member. But
this was recompensed by their being also remote from the alarms and
confusion into which the interior of Paris was then often thrown. The
news of those things used to arrive to us, as if we were in a state of
tranquility in the country. The house, which was enclosed by a wall and
gateway from the street, was a good deal like an old mansion farm house,
and the court yard was like a farm-yard, stocked with fowls, ducks,
turkies, and geese; which, for amusement, we used to feed out of the
parlour window on the ground floor. There were some hutches for rabbits,
and a sty with two pigs. Beyond, was a garden of more than an acre
of ground, well laid out, and stocked with excellent fruit trees. The
orange, apricot, and green-gage plum, were the best I ever tasted;
and it is the only place where I saw the wild cucumber. The place had
formerly been occupied by some curious person.(2)
1 This ancient mansion is still standing (1895).--_Editor._
2 Madame de Pompadour, among others.--_Editor._»
My apartments consisted of three rooms; the first for wood, water, etc.,
with an old fashioned closet chest, high enough to hang up clothes in;
the next was the bed room; and beyond it the sitting room, which looked
into the garden through a glass door; and on the outside there was a
small landing place railed in, and a flight of narrow stairs almost
hidden by the vines that grew over it, by which I could descend into
the garden, without going down stairs through the house. I am trying
by description to make you see the place in your mind, because it will
assist the story I have to tell; and which I think you can do, because
you once called upon me there on account of Sir [Robert Smyth], who was
then, as I was soon afterwards, in arrestation. But it was winter when
you came, and it is a summer scene I am describing.
*****
I went into my chambers to write and sign a certificate for them, which
I intended to take to the guard house to obtain their release. Just as I
had finished it a man came into my room dressed in the Parisian uniform
of a captain, and spoke to me in good English, and with a good address.
He told me that two young men, Englishmen, were arrested and detained
in the guard house, and that the section, (meaning those who represented
and acted for the section,) had sent him to ask me if I knew them,
in which case they would be liberated. This matter being soon settled
between us, he talked to me about the Revolution, and something about
the "Rights of Man," which he had read in English; and at parting
offered me in a polite and civil manner, his services. And who do you
think the man was that offered me his services? It was no other than the
public executioner Samson, who guillotined the king, and all who were
guillotined in Paris; and who lived in the same section, and in the same
street with me.
*****
As to myself, I used to find some relief by walking alone in the garden
after dark, and cursing with hearty good will the authors of that
terrible system that had turned the character of the Revolution I had
been proud to defend.
I went but little to the Convention, and then only to make my
appearance; because I found it impossible to join in their tremendous
decrees, and useless and dangerous to oppose them. My having voted and
spoken extensively, more so than any other member, against the execution
of the king, had already fixed a mark upon me: neither dared any of my
associates in the Convention to translate and speak in French for me
anything I might have dared to have written.
*****
Pen and ink were then of no use to me: no good could be done by writing,
and no printer dared to print; and whatever I might have written for
my private amusement, as anecdotes of the times, would have been
continually exposed to be examined, and tortured into any meaning that
the rage of party might fix upon it; and as to softer subjects, my heart
was in distress at the fate of my friends, and my harp hung upon the
weeping willows.(1)
As it was summer we spent most of our time in the garden, and passed it
away in those childish amusements that serve to keep reflection from the
mind, such as marbles, scotch-hops, battledores, etc., at which we were
all pretty expert.
In this retired manner we remained about six or seven weeks, and our
landlord went every evening into the city to bring us the news of the
day and the evening journal.
I have now, my "Little Corner of the World," led you on, step by step,
to the scene that makes the sequel to this narrative, and I will put
that scene before your eyes. You shall see it in description as I saw it
in fact.
1 This allusion is to the Girondins.--_Editor._,
2 Yorke omits the description "from motives of personal
delicacy." The case was that of young Johnson, a wealthy
devotee of Paine in London, who had followed him to Paris
and lived in the same house with him. Hearing that Marat had
resolved on Paine's death, Johnson wrote a will bequeathing
his property to Paine, then stabbed himself, but recovered.
Paine was examined about this incident at Marat's trial.
(Moniteur, April 24, 1793.) See my "Life of Paine," vol.
ii., p. 48 seq.--_Editor._.
*****
He recovered, and being anxious to get out of France, a passage was
obtained for him and Mr. Choppin: they received it late in the evening,
and set off the next morning for Basle before four, from which place I
had a letter from them, highly pleased with their escape from France,
into which they had entered with an enthusiasm of patriotic devotion.
Ah, France! thou hast ruined the character of a Revolution virtuously
begun, and destroyed those who produced it. I might almost say like
Job's servant, "and I only am escaped."
Two days after they were gone I heard a rapping at the gate, and looking
out of the window of the bed room I saw the landlord going with the
candle to the gate, which he opened, and a guard with musquets and fixed
bayonets entered. I went to bed again, and made up my mind for prison,
for I was then the only lodger. It was a guard to take up [Johnson and
Choppin], but, I thank God, they were out of their reach.
The guard came about a month after in the night, and took away the
landlord Georgeit; and the scene in the house finished with the
arrestation of myself. This was soon after you called on me, and sorry
I was it was not in my power to render to [Sir Robert Smyth] the service
that you asked.
I have now fulfilled my engagement, and I hope your expectation, in
relating the case of [Johnson], landed back on the shore of life, by
the mistake of the pilot who was conducting him out; and preserved
afterwards from prison, perhaps a worse fate, without knowing it
himself.
You say a story cannot be too melancholy for you. This is interesting
and affecting, but not melancholy. It may raise in your mind a
sympathetic sentiment in reading it; and though it may start a tear of
pity, you will not have a tear of sorrow to drop on the page.
*****
Here, my contemplative correspondent, let us stop and look back upon the
scene. The matters here related being all facts, are strongly pictured
in my mind, and in this sense Forgetfulness does not apply. But facts
and feelings are distinct things, and it is against feelings that the
opium wand of Forgetfulness draws us into ease. Look back on any scene
or subject that once gave you distress, for all of us have felt some,
and you will find, that though the remembrance of the fact is not
extinct in your memory, the feeling is extinct in your mind. You can
remember when you had felt distress, but you cannot feel that distress
again, and perhaps will wonder you felt it then. It is like a shadow
that loses itself by light.
It is often difficult to know what is a misfortune: that which we feel
as a great one today, may be the means of turning aside our steps into
some new path that leads to happiness yet unknown. In tracing the scenes
of my own life, I can discover that the condition I now enjoy, which is
sweet to me, and will be more so when I get to America, except by the
loss of your society, has been produced, in the first instance, in my
being disappointed in former projects. Under that impenetrable veil,
futurity, we know not what is concealed, and the day to arrive is hidden
from us. Turning then our thoughts to those cases of despair that lead
to suicide, when, "the mind," as you say, "neither sees nor hears, and
holds counsel only with itself; when the very idea of consolation would
add to the torture, and self-destruction is its only aim," what, it may
be asked, is the best advice, what the best relief? I answer, seek it
not in reason, for the mind is at war with reason, and to reason against
feelings is as vain as to reason against fire: it serves only to torture
the torture, by adding reproach to horror. All reasoning with ourselves
in such cases acts upon us like the reason of another person, which,
however kindly done, serves but to insult the misery we suffer. If
reason could remove the pain, reason would have prevented it. If she
could not do the one, how is she to perform the other? In all such cases
we must look upon Reason as dispossessed of her empire, by a revolt
of the mind. She retires herself to a distance to weep, and the ebony
sceptre of Despair rules alone. All that Reason can do is to suggest,
to hint a thought, to signify a wish, to cast now and then a kind
of bewailing look, to hold up, when she can catch the eye, the
miniature-shaded portrait of Hope; and though dethroned, and can dictate
no more, to wait upon us in the humble station of a handmaid.
XXVIII. AGRARIAN JUSTICE.
Editor's introduction:
This pamphlet appeared first in Paris, 1797, with the title: "Thomas
Payne à La Législature et au Directoire. Ou la Justice Agraire opposée à
la Loi Agraire, et aux privilèges agraires. Prix 15 sols. À Paris, chez
la citoyenne Ragouleau, près le Théâtre de la République, No. 229. Et
chez les Marchands de Nouveautés." A prefatory note says (translated):
"The sudden departure of Thomas Paine has pre-vented his supervising the
translation of this work, to which he attached great value. He entrusted
it to a friend. It is for the reader to decide whether the scheme here
set forth is worthy of the publicity given it." (Paine had gone to Havre
early in May with the Monroes, intending to accompany them to America,
but, rightly suspecting plans for his capture by an English cruiser,
returned to Paris.) In the same year the pamphlet was printed in
English, by W. Adlard in Paris, and in London for "T. Williams, No.
8 Little Turnstile, Holborn." Paine's preface to the London edition
contained some sentences which the publishers, as will be seen,
suppressed under asterisks, and two sentences were omitted from the
pamphlet which I have supplied from the French. The English title adds a
brief resume of Paine's scheme to the caption--"Agrarian Justice opposed
to Agrarian Law, and to Agrarian Monopoly." The work was written in the
winter of 1795-6, when Paine was still an invalid in Monroe's house,
though not published until 1797.
The prefatory Letter to the Legislature and the Directory, now for the
first time printed in English, is of much historical interest, and shows
the title of the pamphlet related to the rise of Socialism in France.
The leader of that move-ment, François Noel Babeuf, a frantic and
pathetic figure of the time, had just been executed. He had named
himself "Gracchus," and called his journal "Tribune du Peuple," in
homage to the Roman Tribune, Caius Gracchus, the original socialist and
agrarian, whose fate (suicide of himself and his servant) Babeuf and his
disciple Darthé invoked in prison, whence they were carried bleeding to
the guillotine. This, however, was on account of the conspiracy they had
formed, with the remains of the Robespierrian party and some disguised
royalists, to overthrow the government. The socialistic propaganda of
Babeuf, however, prevailed over all other elements of the conspiracy:
the reactionary features of the Constitution, especially the property
qualification of suffrage of whose effects Paine had warned the
Convention in the speech printed in this volume, (chapter xxv.) and the
poverty which survived a revolution that promised its abolition, had
excited wide discontent. The "Babouvists" numbered as many as 17,000 in
Paris. Babeuf and Lepelletier were appointed by the secret council of
this fraternity (which took the name of "Equals") a "Directory of Public
Safety." May 11, 1796, was fixed for seizing on the government, and
Babeuf had prepared his Proclamation of the socialistic millennium. But
the plot was discovered, May 10th, the leaders arrested, and, after
a year's delay, two of them executed,--the best-hearted men in the
movement, Babeuf and Darthé. Paine too had been moved by the cry for
"Bread, and the Constitution of '93 "; and it is a notable coincidence
that in that winter of 1795-6, while the socialists were secretly
plotting to seize the kingdom of heaven by violence, Paine was devising
his plan of relief by taxing inheritances of land, anticipating by a
hundred years the English budget of Sir William Harcourt. Babeuf having
failed in his socialist, and Pichegru in his royalist, plot, their blows
were yet fatal: there still remained in the hearts of millions a Babeuf
or a Pichegru awaiting the chieftain strong enough to combine them,
as Napoleon presently did, making all the nation "Égaux" as parts of a
mighty military engine, and satisfying the royalist triflers with the
pomp and glory of war.
AUTHOR'S INSCRIPTION.
To the Legislature and the Executive Directory of the French Republic.
The plan contained in this work is not adapted for any particular
country alone: the principle on which it is based is general. But as the
rights of man are a new study in this world, and one needing protection
from priestly imposture, and the insolence of oppressions too long
established, I have thought it right to place this little work under
your safeguard. When we reflect on the long and dense night in which
France and all Europe have remained plunged by their governments and
their priests, we must feel less surprise than grief at the bewilderment
caused by the first burst of light that dispels the darkness. The eye
accustomed to darkness can hardly bear at first the broad daylight. It
is by usage the eye learns to see, and it is the same in passing from
any situation to its opposite.
As we have not at one instant renounced all our errors, we cannot at one
stroke acquire knowledge of all our rights. France has had the honour of
adding to the word _Liberty_ that of _Equality_; and this word signifies
essentially a principal that admits of no gradation in the things to
which it applies. But equality is often misunderstood, often misapplied,
and often violated.
_Liberty_ and _Property_ are words expressing all those of our
possessions which are not of an intellectual nature. There are two kinds
of property. Firstly, natural property, or that which comes to us from
the Creator of the universe,--such as the earth, air, water. Secondly,
artificial or acquired property,--the invention of men. In the latter
equality is impossible; for to distribute it equally it would be
necessary that all should have contributed in the same proportion, which
can never be the case; and this being the case, every individual would
hold on to his own property, as his right share. Equality of natural
property is the subject of this little essay. Every individual in
the world is born therein with legitimate claims on a certain kind of
property, or its equivalent.
The right of voting for persons charged with the execution of the laws
that govern society is inherent in the word Liberty, and constitutes
the equality of personal rights. But even if that right (of voting) were
inherent in property, which I deny, the right of suffrage would still
belong to all equally, because, as I have said, all individuals have
legitimate birthrights in a certain species of property.
I have always considered the present Constitution of the French Republic
the _best organized system_ the human mind has yet produced. But I hope
my former colleagues will not be offended if I warn them of an error
which has slipped into its principle. Equality of the right of suffrage
is not maintained. This right is in it connected with a condition on
which it ought not to depend; that is, with a proportion of a certain
tax called "direct." The dignity of suffrage is thus lowered; and, in
placing it in the scale with an inferior thing, the enthusiasm that
right is capable of inspiring is diminished. It is impossible to find
any equivalent counterpoise for the right of suffrage, because it is
alone worthy to be its own basis, and cannot thrive as a graft, or an
appendage.
Since the Constitution was established we have seen two conspiracies
stranded,--that of Babeuf, and that of some obscure personages who
decorate themselves with the despicable name of "royalists." The defect
in principle of the Constitution was the origin of Babeuf's conspiracy.
He availed himself of the resentment caused by this flaw, and instead
of seeking a remedy by legitimate and constitutional means, or proposing
some measure useful to society, the conspirators did their best to renew
disorder and confusion, and constituted themselves personally into a
Directory, which is formally destructive of election and representation.
They were, in fine, extravagant enough to suppose that society, occupied
with its domestic affairs, would blindly yield to them a directorship
usurped by violence.
The conspiracy of Babeuf was followed in a few months by that of the
royalists, who foolishly flattered themselves with the notion of
doing great things by feeble or foul means. They counted on all the
discontented, from whatever cause, and tried to rouse, in their turn,
the class of people who had been following the others. But these new
chiefs acted as if they thought society had nothing more at heart
than to maintain courtiers, pensioners, and all their train, under the
contemptible title of royalty. My little essay will disabuse them, by
showing that society is aiming at a very different end,--maintaining
itself.
We all know or should know, that the time during which a revolution is
proceeding is not the time when its resulting advantages can be
enjoyed. But had Babeuf and his accomplices taken into consideration the
condition of France under this constitution, and compared it with what
it was under the tragical revolutionary government, and during the
execrable reign of Terror, the rapidity of the alteration must have
appeared to them very striking and astonishing. Famine has been replaced
by abundance, and by the well-founded hope of a near and increasing
prosperity.
As for the defect in the Constitution, I am fully convinced that it will
be rectified constitutionally, and that this step is indispensable; for
so long as it continues it will inspire the hopes and furnish the means
of conspirators; and for the rest, it is regrettable that a Constitution
so wisely organized should err so much in its principle. This fault
exposes it to other dangers which will make themselves felt. Intriguing
candidates will go about among those who have not the means to pay the
direct tax and pay it for them, on condition of receiving their votes.
Let us maintain inviolably equality in the sacred right of suffrage:
public security can never have a basis more solid. Salut et Fraternité.
Your former colleague,
Thomas Paine.
AUTHOR'S ENGLISH PREFACE.
The following little Piece was written in the winter of 1795 and 96;
and, as I had not determined whether to publish it during the present
war, or to wait till the commencement of a peace, it has lain by me,
without alteration or addition, from the time it was written.
What has determined me to publish it now is, a sermon preached by
Watson, _Bishop of Llandaff_. Some of my Readers will recollect, that
this Bishop wrote a Book entitled _An Apology for the Bible_ in answer
to my _Second Part of the Age of Reason_. I procured a copy of his Book,
and he may depend upon hearing from me on that subject.
At the end of the Bishop's Book is a List of the Works he has written.
Among which is the sermon alluded to; it is entitled: "The Wisdom and
Goodness of God, in having made both Rich and Poor; with an Appendix,
containing Reflections on the Present State of England and France."
The error contained in this sermon determined me to publish my Agrarian
Justice. It is wrong to say God made _rich and poor_; he made only _male
and female_; and he gave them the earth for their inheritance. '...
Instead of preaching to encourage one part of mankind in insolence... it
would be better that Priests employed their time to render the general
condition of man less miserable than it is. Practical religion consists
in doing good: and the only way of serving God is, that of endeavouring
to make his creation happy. All preaching that has not this for its
object is nonsense and hypocracy.
1 The omissions are noted in the English edition of 1797.--
_Editor._.
To preserve the benefits of what is called civilized life, and to remedy
at the same time the evil which it has produced, ought to be considered
as one of the first objects of reformed legislation.
Whether that state that is proudly, perhaps erroneously, called
civilization, has most promoted or most injured the general happiness
of man, is a question that may be strongly contested. On one side,
the spectator is dazzled by splendid appearances; on the other, he is
shocked by extremes of wretchedness; both of which it has erected. The
most affluent and the most miserable of the human race are to be found
in the countries that are called civilized.
To understand what the state of society ought to be, it is necessary to
have some idea of the natural and primitive state of man; such as it is
at this day among the Indians of North America. There is not, in that
state, any of those spectacles of human misery which poverty and want
present to our eyes in all the towns and streets in Europe. Poverty,
therefore, is a thing created by that which is called civilized life. It
exists not in the natural state. On the other hand, the natural state is
without those advantages which flow from agriculture, arts, science, and
manufactures.
The life of an Indian is a continual holiday, compared with the poor of
Europe; and, on the other hand it appears to be abject when compared
to the rich. Civilization, therefore, or that which is so called, has
operated two ways: to make one part of society more affluent, and the
other more wretched, than would have been the lot of either in a natural
state.
It is always possible to go from the natural to the civilized state, but
it is never possible to go from the civilized to the natural state. The
reason is, that man in a natural state, subsisting by hunting, requires
ten times the quantity of land to range over to procure himself
sustenance, than would support him in a civilized state, where the
earth is cultivated. When, therefore, a country becomes populous by the
additional aids of cultivation, art, and science, there is a necessity
of preserving things in that state; because without it there cannot be
sustenance for more, perhaps, than a tenth part of its inhabitants. The
thing, therefore, now to be done is to remedy the evils and preserve the
benefits that have arisen to society by passing from the natural to that
which is called the civilized state.
In taking the matter upon this ground, the first principle of
civilization ought to have been, and ought still to be, that the
condition of every person born into the world, after a state of
civilization commences, ought not to be worse than if he had been born
before that period. But the fact is, that the condition of millions, in
every country in Europe, is far worse than if they had been born before
civilization began, or had been born among the Indians of North America
at the present day. I will shew how this fact has happened.
It is a position not to be controverted that the earth, in its natural
uncultivated state was, and ever would have continued to be, _the common
property of the human race_. In that state every man would have been
born to property. He would have been a joint life proprietor with the
rest in the property of the soil, and in all its natural productions,
vegetable and animal.
But the earth in its natural state, as before said, is capable of
supporting but a small number of inhabitants compared with what it
is capable of doing in a cultivated state. And as it is impossible to
separate the improvement made by cultivation from the earth itself, upon
which that improvement is made, the idea of landed property arose from
that inseparable connection; but it is nevertheless true, that it is
the value of the improvement only, and not the earth itself, that is
individual property. Every proprietor, therefore, of cultivated land,
owes to the community a _ground-rent_ (for I know of no better term
to express the idea) for the land which he holds; and it is from this
ground-rent that the fund proposed in this plan is to issue.
It is deducible, as well from the nature of the thing as from all the
histories transmitted to us, that the idea of landed property commenced
with cultivation, and that there was no such thing as landed property
before that time. It could not exist in the first state of man, that
of hunters. It did not exist in the second state, that of shepherds:
neither Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, nor Job, so far as the history of the
Bible may be credited in probable things, were owners of land. Their
property consisted, as is always enumerated, in flocks and herds, and
they travelled with them from place to place. The frequent contentions
at that time, about the use of a well in the dry country of Arabia,
where those people lived, also shew that there was no landed property.
It was not admitted that land could be claimed as property.
There could be no such thing as landed property originally. Man did not
make the earth, and, though he had a natural right to occupy it, he had
no right to locate as his property in perpetuity any part of it; neither
did the creator of the earth open a land-office, from whence the
first title-deeds should issue. Whence then, arose the idea of landed
property? I answer as before, that when cultivation began the idea of
landed property began with it, from the impossibility of separating the
improvement made by cultivation from the earth itself, upon which that
improvement was made. The value of the improvement so far exceeded the
value of the natural earth, at that time, as to absorb it; till, in the
end, the common right of all became confounded into the cultivated right
of the individual. But there are, nevertheless, distinct species of
rights, and will continue to be so long as the earth endures.
It is only by tracing things to their origin that we can gain rightful
ideas of them, and it is by gaining such ideas that we discover the
boundary that divides right from wrong, and teaches every man to know
his own. I have entitled this tract Agrarian Justice, to distinguish it
from Agrarian Law. Nothing could be more unjust than Agrarian Law in a
country improved by cultivation; for though every man, as an inhabitant
of the earth, is a joint proprietor of it in its natural state, it
does not follow that he is a joint proprietor of cultivated earth. The
additional value made by cultivation, after the system was admitted,
became the property of those who did it, or who inherited it from them,
or who purchased it. It had originally no owner. Whilst, therefore, I
advocate the right, and interest myself in the hard case of all
those who have been thrown out of their natural inheritance by the
introduction of the system of landed property, I equally defend the
right of the possessor to the part which is his.
Cultivation is at least one of the greatest natural improvements ever
made by human invention. It has given to created earth a tenfold value.
But the landed monopoly that began with it has produced the greatest
evil. It has dispossessed more than half the inhabitants of every nation
of their natural inheritance, without providing for them, as ought
to have been done, an indemnification for that loss, and has thereby
created a species of poverty and wretchedness that did not exist before.
In advocating the case of the persons thus dispossessed, it is a right,
and not a charity, that I am pleading for. But it is that kind of right
which, being neglected at first, could not be brought forward afterwards
till heaven had opened the way by a revolution in the system of
government. Let us then do honour to revolutions by justice, and give
currency to their principles by blessings.
Having thus in a few words, opened the merits of the case, I shall now
proceed to the plan I have to propose, which is,
To create a National Fund, out of which there shall be paid to every
person, when arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the sum of fifteen
pounds sterling, as a compensation in part, for the loss of his or
her natural inheritance, by the introduction of the system of landed
property:
And also, the sum of ten pounds per annum, during life, to every person
now living, of the age of fifty years, and to all others as they shall
arrive at that age.
MEANS BY WHICH THE FUND IS TO BE CREATED.
I have already established the principle, namely, that the earth, in its
natural uncultivated state was, and ever would have continued to be, the
_common property of the human race_; that in that state, every person
would have been born to property; and that the system of landed
property, by its inseparable connection with cultivation, and with what
is called civilized life, has absorbed the property of all those whom
it dispossessed, without providing, as ought to have been done, an
indemnification for that loss.
The fault, however, is not in the present possessors. No complaint is
intended, or ought to be alleged against them, unless they adopt the
crime by opposing justice. The fault is in the system, and it has stolen
imperceptibly upon the world, aided afterwards by the agrarian law of
the sword. But the fault can be made to reform itself by successive
generations; and without diminishing or deranging the property of any of
the present possessors, the operation of the fund can yet commence, and
be in full activity, the first year of its establishment, or soon after,
as I shall shew.
It is proposed that the payments, as already stated, be made to every
person, rich or poor. It is best to make it so, to prevent invidious
distinctions. It is also right it should be so, because it is in lieu of
the natural inheritance, which, as a right, belongs to every man, over
and above the property he may have created, or inherited from those who
did. Such persons as do not choose to receive it can throw it into the
common fund.
Taking it then for granted that no person ought to be in a worse
condition when born under what is called a state of civilization, than
he would have been had he been born in a state of nature, and that
civilization ought to have made, and ought still to make, provision for
that purpose, it can only be done by subtracting from property a portion
equal in value to the natural inheritance it has absorbed.
Various methods may be proposed for this purpose, but that which appears
to be the best (not only because it will operate without deranging any
present possessors, or without interfering with the collection of taxes
or emprunts necessary for the purposes of government and the revolution,
but because it will be the least troublesome and the most effectual, and
also because the subtraction will be made at a time that best admits it)
is at the moment that.. property is passing by the death of one person
to the possession of another. In this case, the bequeather gives
nothing: the receiver pays nothing. The only matter to him is, that
the monopoly of natural inheritance, to which there never was a right,
begins to cease in his person. A generous man would not wish it to
continue, and a just man will rejoice to see it abolished.
My state of health prevents my making sufficient inquiries with respect
to the doctrine of probabilities, whereon to found calculations with
such degrees of certainty as they are capable of. What, therefore, I
offer on this head is more the result of observation and reflection
than of received information; but I believe it will be found to agree
sufficiently with fact.
In the first place, taking twenty-one years as the epoch of maturity,
all the property of a nation, real and personal, is always in the
possession of persons above that age. It is then necessary to know, as a
datum of calculation, the average of years which persons above that age
will live. I take this average to be about thirty years, for though
many persons will live forty, fifty, or sixty years after the age of
twenty-one years, others will die much sooner, and some in every year of
that time.
Taking, then, thirty years as the average of time, it will give, without
any material variation one way or other, the average of time in which
the whole property or capital of a nation, or a sum equal thereto, will
have passed through one entire revolution in descent, that is, will have
gone by deaths to new possessors; for though, in many instances, some
parts of this capital will remain forty, fifty, or sixty years in the
possession of one person, other parts will have revolved two or three
times before those thirty years expire, which will bring it to that
average; for were one half the capital of a nation to revolve twice in
thirty years, it would produce the same fund as if the whole revolved
once.
Taking, then, thirty years as the average of time in which the whole
capital of a nation, or a sum equal thereto, will revolve once, the
thirtieth part thereof will be the sum that will revolve every year,
that is, will go by deaths to new possessors; and this last sum being
thus known, and the ratio per cent, to be subtracted from it determined,
it will give the annual amount or income of the proposed fund, to be
applied as already mentioned.
In looking over the discourse of the English minister, Pitt, in his
opening of what is called in England the budget, (the scheme of finance
for the year 1796,) I find an estimate of the national capital of that
country. As this estimate of a national capital is prepared ready to my
hand, I take it as a datum to act upon. When a calculation is made upon
the known capital of any nation, combined with its population, it will
serve as a scale for any other nation, in proportion as its capital and
population be more or less. I am the more disposed to take this estimate
of Mr. Pitt, for the purpose of showing to that minister, upon his own
calculation, how much better money may be employed than in wasting it,
as he has done, on the wild project of setting up Bourbon kings. What,
in the name of heaven, are Bourbon kings to the people of England? It is
better that the people have bread.
Mr. Pitt states the national capital of England, real and personal,
to be one thousand three hundred millions sterling, which is about
one-fourth part of the national capital of France, including Belgia. The
event of the last harvest in each country proves that the soil of France
is more productive than that of England, and that it can better support
twenty-four or twenty-five millions of inhabitants than that of England
can seven or seven and a half millions.
The thirtieth part of this capital of 1,300,000,000L. is 43,333,333L.
which is the part that will revolve every year by deaths in that country
to new possessors; and the sum that will annually revolve in France
in the proportion of four to one, will be about one hundred and
seventy-three millions sterling. From this sum of 43,333,333L. annually
revolving, is to be subtracted the value of the natural inheritance
absorbed in it, which, perhaps, in fair justice, cannot be taken at
less, and ought not to be taken for more, than a tenth part.
It will always happen, that of the property thus revolving by deaths
every year a part will descend in a direct line to sons and daughters,
and the other part collaterally, and the proportion will be found to be
about three to one; that is, about thirty millions of the above sum will
descend to direct heirs, and the remaining sum of 13,333,333L. to more
distant relations, and in part to strangers.
Considering, then, that man is always related to society, that
relationship will become comparatively greater in proportion as the next
of kin is more distant, it is therefore consistent with civilization to
say that where there are no direct heirs society shall be heir to a part
over and above the tenth part due to society. If this additional part be
from five to ten or twelve per cent., in proportion as the next of kin
be nearer or more remote, so as to average with the escheats that may
fall, which ought always to go to society and not to the government
(an addition of ten per cent, more), the produce from the annual sum of
43,333,333L. will be:
[Illustration: table361]
Having thus arrived at the annual amount of the proposed fund, I come,
in the next place, to speak of the population proportioned to this fund,
and to compare it with the uses to which the fund is to be applied.
The population (I mean that of England) does not exceed seven millions
and a half, and the number of persons above the age of fifty will in
that case be about four hundred thousand. There would not, however, be
more than that number that would accept the proposed ten pounds sterling
per annum, though they would be entitled to it. I have no idea it would
be accepted by many persons who had a yearly income of two or three
hundred pounds sterling. But as we often see instances of rich people
falling into sudden poverty, even at the age of sixty, they would always
have the right of drawing all the arrears due to them. Four millions,
therefore, of the above annual sum of 5,666,6667L. will be required for
four hundred thousand aged persons, at ten pounds sterling each.
I come now to speak of the persons annually arriving at twenty-one years
of age. If all the persons who died were above the age of twenty-one
years, the number of persons annually arriving at that age, must be
equal to the annual number of deaths, to keep the population stationary.
But the greater part die under the age of twenty-one, and therefore the
number of persons annually arriving at twenty-one will be less than half
the number of deaths. The whole number of deaths upon a population of
seven millions and an half will be about 220,000 annually. The number
arriving at twenty-one years of age will be about 100,000. The whole
number of these will not receive the proposed fifteen pounds, for the
reasons already mentioned, though, as in the former case, they would be
entitled to it. Admitting then that a tenth part declined receiving it,
the amount would stand thus:
[Illustration: table362]
There are, in every country, a number of blind and lame persons, totally
incapable of earning a livelihood. But as it will always happen that the
greater number of blind persons will be among those who are above
the age of fifty years, they will be provided for in that class. The
remaining sum of 316,666L. will provide for the lame and blind under
that age, at the same rate of 10L. annually for each person.
Having now gone through all the necessary calculations, and stated the
particulars of the plan, I shall conclude with some observations.
It is not charity but a right, not bounty but justice, that I am
pleading for. The present state of civilization is as odious as it is
unjust. It is absolutely the opposite of what it should be, and it is
necessary that a revolution should be made in it.(1) The contrast of
affluence and wretchedness continually meeting and offending the eye,
is like dead and living bodies chained together. Though I care as little
about riches, as any man, I am a friend to riches because they are
capable of good. I care not how affluent some may be, provided that
none be miserable in consequence of it. But it is impossible to enjoy
affluence with the felicity it is capable of being enjoyed, whilst so
much misery is mingled in the scene. The sight of the misery, and the
unpleasant sensations it suggests, which, though they may be suffocated
cannot be extinguished, are a greater drawback upon the felicity of
affluence than the proposed 10 per cent, upon property is worth. He that
would not give the one to get rid of the other has no charity, even for
himself.
1 This and the preceding sentence axe omitted in all
previous English and American editions.--_Editor._.
There are, in every country, some magnificent charities established by
individuals. It is, however, but little that any individual can do,
when the whole extent of the misery to be relieved is considered. He may
satisfy his conscience, but not his heart. He may give all that he
has, and that all will relieve but little. It is only by organizing
civilization upon such principles as to act like a system of pullies,
that the whole weight of misery can be removed.
The plan here proposed will reach the whole. It will immediately relieve
and take out of view three classes of wretchedness--the blind, the lame,
and the aged poor; and it will furnish the rising generation with means
to prevent their becoming poor; and it will do this without deranging
or interfering with any national measures. To shew that this will be the
case, it is sufficient to observe that the operation and effect of
the plan will, in all cases, be the same as if every individual were
_voluntarily_ to make his will and dispose of his property in the manner
here proposed.
But it is justice, and not charity, that is the principle of the plan.
In all great cases it is necessary to have a principle more universally
active than charity; and, with respect to justice, it ought not to be
left to the choice of detached individuals whether they will do justice
or not. Considering then, the plan on the ground of justice, it ought to
be the act of the whole, growing spontaneously out of the principles of
the revolution, and the reputation of it ought to be national and not
individual.
A plan upon this principle would benefit the revolution by the energy
that springs from the consciousness of justice. It would multiply also
the national resources; for property, like vegetation, increases
by offsets. When a young couple begin the world, the difference is
exceedingly great whether they begin with nothing or with fifteen pounds
apiece. With this aid they could buy a cow, and implements to cultivate
a few acres of land; and instead of becoming burdens upon society, which
is always the case where children are produced faster than they can be
fed, would be put in the way of becoming useful and profitable citizens.
The national domains also would sell the better if pecuniary aids were
provided to cultivate them in small lots.
It is the practice of what has unjustly obtained the name of
civilization (and the practice merits not to be called either charity
or policy) to make some provision for persons becoming poor and wretched
only at the time they become so. Would it not, even as a matter of
economy, be far better to adopt means to prevent their becoming poor?
This can best be done by making every person when arrived at the age
of twenty-one years an inheritor of something to begin with. The rugged
face of society, chequered with the extremes of affluence and want,
proves that some extraordinary violence has been committed upon it,
and calls on justice for redress. The great mass of the poor in all
countries are become an hereditary race, and it is next to impossible
for them to get cut of that state of themselves. It ought also to be
observed that this mass increases in all countries that are called
civilized. More persons fall annually into it than get out of it.
Though in a plan of which justice and humanity are the
foundation-principles, interest ought not to be admitted into the
calculation, yet it is always of advantage to the establishment of any
plan to shew that it is beneficial as a matter of interest. The success
of any proposed plan submitted to public consideration must finally
depend on the numbers interested in supporting it, united with the
justice of its principles.
The plan here proposed will benefit all, without injuring any. It will
consolidate the interest of the Republic with that of the individual.
To the numerous class dispossessed of their natural inheritance by the
system of landed property it will be an act of national justice. To
persons dying possessed of moderate fortunes it will operate as a
tontine to their children, more beneficial than the sum of money paid
into the fund: and it will give to the accumulation of riches a degree
of security that none of the old governments of Europe, now tottering on
their foundations, can give.
I do not suppose that more than one family in ten, in any of the
countries of Europe, has, when the head of the family dies, a clear
property left of five hundred pounds sterling. To all such the plan is
advantageous. That property would pay fifty pounds into the fund, and if
there were only two children under age they would receive fifteen pounds
each, (thirty pounds,) on coming of age, and be entitled to ten pounds
a-year after fifty. It is from the overgrown acquisition of property
that the fund will support itself; and I know that the possessors of
such property in England, though they would eventually be benefited by
the protection of nine-tenths of it, will exclaim against the plan. But
without entering into any inquiry how they came by that property, let
them recollect that they have been the advocates of this war, and that
Mr. Pitt has already laid on more new taxes to be raised annually upon
the people of England, and that for supporting the despotism of Austria
and the Bourbons against the liberties of France, than would pay
annually all the sums proposed in this plan.
I have made the calculations stated in this plan, upon what is called
personal, as well as upon landed property. The reason for making it upon
land is already explained; and the reason for taking personal property
into the calculation is equally well founded though on a different
principle. Land, as before said, is the free gift of the Creator in
common to the human race. Personal property is the effect of society;
and it is as impossible for an individual to acquire personal property
without the aid of society, as it is for him to make land originally.
Separate an individual from society, and give him an island or a
continent to possess, and he cannot acquire personal property. He cannot
be rich. So inseparably are the means connected with the end, in all
cases, that where the former do not exist the latter cannot be obtained.
All accumulation, therefore, of personal property, beyond what a man's
own hands produce, is derived to him by living in society; and he owes
on every principle of justice, of gratitude, and of civilization, a part
of that accumulation back again to society from whence the whole came.
This is putting the matter on a general principle, and perhaps it is
best to do so; for if we examine the case minutely it will be found that
the accumulation of personal property is, in many instances, the effect
of paying too little for the labour that produced it; the consequence
of which is, that the working hand perishes in old age, and the employer
abounds in affluence. It is, perhaps, impossible to proportion exactly
the price of labour to the profits it produces; and it will also be
said, as an apology for the injustice, that were a workman to receive
an increase of wages daily he would not save it against old age, nor be
much bet-ter for it in the interim. Make, then, society the treasurer to
guard it for him in a common fund; for it is no reason, that because he
might not make a good use of it for himself, another should take it.
The state of civilization that has prevailed throughout Europe, is as
unjust in its principle, as it is horrid in its effects; and it is the
consciousness of this, and the apprehension that such a state cannot
continue when once investigation begins in any country, that makes
the possessors of property dread every idea of a revolution. It is the
hazard and not the principle of revolutions that retards their progress.
This being the case, it is necessary as well for the protection of
property, as for the sake of justice and humanity, to form a system
that, whilst it preserves one part of society from wretchedness, shall
secure the other from depredation.
The superstitious awe, the enslaving reverence, that formerly surrounded
affluence, is passing away in all countries, and leaving the possessor
of property to the convulsion of accidents. When wealth and splendour,
instead of fascinating the multitude, excite emotions of disgust; when,
instead of drawing forth admiration, it is beheld as an insult upon
wretchedness; when the ostentatious appearance it makes serves to call
the right of it in question, the case of property becomes critical, and
it is only in a system of justice that the possessor can contemplate
security.
To remove the danger, it is necessary to remove the antipathies, and
this can only be done by making property productive of a national
blessing, extending to every individual. When the riches of one man
above another shall increase the national fund in the same proportion;
when it shall be seen that the prosperity of that fund depends on the
prosperity of individuals; when the more riches a man acquires, the
better it shall be for the general mass; it is then that antipathies
will cease, and property be placed on the permanent basis of national
interest and protection.
I have no property in France to become subject to the plan I propose.
What I have which is not much, is in the United States of America. But
I will pay one hundred pounds sterling towards this fund in rance, the
instant it shall be established; and I will pay the same sum in England
whenever a similar establishment shall take place in that country.
A revolution in the state of civilization is the necessary companion of
revolutions in the system of government. If a revolution in any country
be from bad to good, or from good to bad, the state of what is called
civilization in that country, must be made conformable thereto, to give
that revolution effect. Despotic government supports itself by abject
civilization, in which debasement of the human mind, and wretchedness
in the mass of the people, are the chief enterions. Such governments
consider man merely as an animal; that the exercise of intellectual
faculty is not his privilege; _that he has nothing to do with the laws
but to obey them _; (*) and they politically depend more upon breaking
the spirit of the people by poverty, than they fear enraging it by
desperation.
* Expression of Horsley, an English bishop, in the English
parliament.--Author.
It is a revolution in the state of civilization that will give
perfection to the revolution of France. Already the conviction that
government by representation is the true system of government is
spreading itself fast in the world. The reasonableness of it can be seen
by all. The justness of it makes itself felt even by its opposers. But
when a system of civilization, growing out of that system of government,
shall be so organized that not a man or woman born in the Republic but
shall inherit some means of beginning the world, and see before them
the certainty of escaping the miseries that under other governments
accompany old age, the revolution of France will have an advocate and an
ally in the heart of all nations.
An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot;
it will succeed where diplomatic management would fail: it is neither
the Rhine, the Channel, nor the Ocean that can arrest its progress: it
will march on the horizon of the world, and it will conquer.
MEANS FOR CARRYING THE PROPOSED PLAN INTO EXECUTION,
AND TO RENDER IT AT THE SAME TIME CONDUCIVE TO THE PUBLIC INTEREST.
I. Each canton shall elect in its primary assemblies, three persons,
as commissioners for that canton, who shall take cognizance, and keep
a register of all matters happening in that canton, conformable to the
charter that shall be established by law for carrying this plan into
execution.
II. The law shall fix the manner in which the property of deceased
persons shall be ascertained.
III. When the amount of the property of any deceased person shall be
ascertained, the principal heir to that property, or the eldest of the
co-heirs, if of lawful age, or if under age the person authorized by the
will of the deceased to represent him or them, shall give bond to the
commissioners of the canton to pay the said tenth part thereof in four
equal quarterly payments, within the space of one year or sooner, at the
choice of the payers. One half of the whole property shall remain as a
security until the bond be paid off.
IV. The bond shall be registered in the office of the commissioners of
the canton, and the original bonds shall be deposited in the national
bank at Paris. The bank shall publish every quarter of a year the amount
of the bonds in its possession, and also the bonds that shall have been
paid off, or what parts thereof, since the last quarterly publication.
V. The national bank shall issue bank notes upon the security of the
bonds in its possession. The notes so issued, shall be applied to pay
the pensions of aged persons, and the compensations to persons arriving
at twenty-one years of age. It is both reasonable and generous to
suppose, that persons not under immediate necessity, will suspend their
right of drawing on the fund, until it acquire, as it will do, a greater
degree of ability. In this case, it is proposed, that an honorary
register be kept, in each canton, of the names of the persons thus
suspending that right, at least during the present war.
VI. As the inheritors of property must always take up their bonds in
four quarterly payments, or sooner if they choose, there will always
be _numéraire_ [cash] arriving at the bank after the expiration of the
first quarter, to exchange for the bank notes that shall be brought in.
VII. The bank notes being thus put in circulation, upon the best of all
possible security, that of actual property, to more than four times
the amount of the bonds upon which the notes are issued, and with
_numéraire_ continually arriving at the bank to exchange or pay them off
whenever they shall be presented for that purpose, they will acquire
a permanent value in all parts of the Republic. They can therefore be
received in payment of taxes, or emprunts equal to numéraire, because
the government can always receive numéraire for them at the bank.
VIII. It will be necessary that the payments of the ten per cent, be
made in numeraire for the first year from the establishment of the plan.
But after the expiration of the first year, the inheritors of property
may pay ten per cent either in bank notes issued upon the fund, or in
numeraire, If the payments be in numeraire, it will lie as a deposit at
the bank, to be exchanged for a quantity of notes equal to that amount;
and if in notes issued upon the fund, it will cause a demand upon the
fund, equal thereto; and thus the operation of the plan will create
means to carry itself into execution.
Thomas Paine.
XXIX. THE EIGHTEENTH FRUCTIDOR.
To the People of France and the French Armies (1)
1 This pamphlet was written between the defeat of Pichegru's
attempt, September 4, 1794, and November 12, of the same
year, the date of the Bien-informé in which the publication
is noticed. General Pichegra (Charles), (1761-1804) having
joined a royalist conspiracy against the Republic, was
banished to Cayenne (1797), whence he escaped to England;
having returned to Paris (1804) he was imprisoned in the
Temple, and there found strangled by a silk handkerchief,
whether by his own or another's act remaining doubtful.
--Editor.
When an extraordinary measure, not warranted by established
constitutional rules, and justifiable only on the supreme law of
absolute necessity, bursts suddenly upon us, we must, in order to form
a true judgment thereon, carry our researches back to the times that
preceded and occasioned it. Taking up then the subject with respect to
the event of the Eighteenth of Fructidor on this ground, I go to examine
the state of things prior to that period. I begin with the establishment
of the constitution of the year 3 of the French Republic.
A better _organized_ constitution has never yet been devised by human
wisdom. It is, in its organization, free from all the vices and defects
to which other forms of government are more or less subject. I will
speak first of the legislative body, because the Legislature is, in the
natural order of things, the first power; the Executive is the first
magistrate.
By arranging the legislative body into two divisions, as is done in the
French Constitution, the one, (the Council of Five Hundred,) whose part
it is to conceive and propose laws; the other, a Council of Ancients, to
review, approve, or reject the laws proposed; all the security is given
that can arise from coolness of reflection acting upon, or correcting
the precipitancy or enthusiasm of conception and imagination. It is
seldom that our first thought, even upon any subject, is sufficiently
just.(1)
1 For Paine's ideas on the right division of representatives
into two chambers, which differ essentially from any
bicameral system ever adopted, see vol. ii., p. 444 of this
work; also, in the present volume, Chapter XXXIV.--
_Editor._.
The policy of renewing the Legislature by a third part each year, though
not entirely new, either in theory or in practice, is nevertheless one
of the modern improvements in the science of government. It prevents,
on the one hand, that convulsion and precipitate change of measures
into which a nation might be surprised by the going out of the whole
Legislature at the same time, and the instantaneous election of a new
one; on the other hand, it excludes that common interest from taking
place that might tempt a whole Legislature, whose term of duration
expired at once, to usurp the right of continuance. I go now to speak of
the Executive.
It is a principle uncontrovertible by reason, that each of the parts
by which government is composed, should be so constructed as to be in
perpetual maturity. We should laugh at the idea of a Council of Five
Hundred, or a Council of Ancients, or a Parliament, or any national
assembly, who should be all children in leading strings and in the
cradle, or be all sick, insane, deaf, dumb, lame or blind, at the same
time, or be all upon crutches, tottering with age or infirmities. Any
form of government that was so constructed as to admit the possibility
of such cases happening to a whole Legislature would justly be the
ridicule of the world; and on a parity of reasoning, it is equally as
ridiculous that the same cases should happen in that part of government
which is called the Executive; yet this is the contemptible condition to
which an Executive is always subject, and which is often happening,
when it is placed in an hereditary individual called a king. When
that individual is in either of the cases before mentioned, the whole
Executive is in the same case; for himself is the whole. He is then (as
an Executive) the ridiculous picture of what a Legislature would be if
all its members were in the same case. The one is a whole made up of
parts, the other a whole without parts; and anything happening to the
one, (as a part or sec-tion of the government,) is parallel to the same
thing happening to the other.
As, therefore, an hereditary executive called a king is a perfect
absurdity in itself, any attachment to it is equally as absurd. It is
neither instinct or reason; and if this attachment is what is called
royalism in France, then is a royalist inferior in character to every
species of the animal world; for what can that being be who acts neither
by instinct nor by reason? Such a being merits rather our derision
than our pity; and it is only when it assumes to act its folly that it
becomes capable of provoking republican indignation. In every other
case it is too contemptible to excite anger. For my own part, when I
contemplate the self-evident absurdity of the thing, I can scarcely
permit myself to believe that there exists in the high-minded nation of
France such a mean and silly animal as a royalist.
As it requires but a single glance of thought to see (as is before said)
that all the parts of which government is composed must be at all times
in a state of full maturity, it was not possible that men acting under
the influence of reason, could, in forming a Constitution, admit an
hereditary Executive, any more than an hereditary Legislature. I go
therefore to examine the other cases.
In the first place, (rejecting the hereditary system,) shall the
Executive by election be an _individual or a plurality_.
An individual by election is almost as bad as the hereditary system,
except that there is always a better chance of not having an idiot. But
he will never be any thing more than a chief of a party, and none but
those of that party will have access to him. He will have no person
to consult with of a standing equal with himself, and consequently be
deprived of the advantages arising from equal discussion.
Those whom he admits in consultation will be ministers of his own
appointment, who, if they displease by their advice, must expect to
be dismissed. The authority also is too great, and the business too
complicated, to be intrusted to the ambition or the judgment of an
individual; and besides these cases, the sudden change of measures
that might follow by the going out of an individual Executive, and the
election of a new one, would hold the affairs of a nation in a state of
perpetual uncertainty. We come then to the case of a plural Executive.
It must be sufficiently plural, to give opportunity to discuss all the
various subjects that in the course of national business may come before
it; and yet not so numerous as to endanger the necessary secrecy that
certain cases, such as those of war, require.
Establishing, then, plurality as a principle, the only question is, What
shall be the number of that plurality?
Three are too few either for the variety or the quantity of business.
The Constitution has adopted five; and experience has shewn, from the
commencement of the Constitution to the time of the election of the new
legislative third, that this number of Directors, when well chosen, is
sufficient for all national executive purposes; and therefore a greater
number would be only an unnecessary expence. That the measures of the
Directory during that period were well concerted is proved by their
success; and their being well concerted shews they were well discussed;
and, therefore, that five is a sufficient number with respect to
discussion; and, on the other hand, the secret, whenever there was
one, (as in the case of the expedition to Ireland,) was well kept, and
therefore the number is not too great to endanger the necessary secrecy.
The reason why the two Councils are numerous is not from the necessity
of their being so, on account of business, but because that every
part of the republic shall find and feel itself in the national
representation.
Next to the general principle of government by representation, the
excellence of the French Constitution consists in providing means to
prevent that abuse of power that might arise by letting it remain too
long in the same hands. This wise precaution pervades every part of the
Constitution. Not only the legislature is renewable by a third every
year, but the president of each of the Councils is renewable every
month; and of the Directory, one member each year, and its president
every three months. Those who formed the Constitution cannot be accused
of having contrived for themselves. The Constitution, in this respect,
is as impartially constructed as if those who framed it were to die as
soon as they had finished their work.
The only defect in the Constitution is that of having narrowed the right
of suffrage; and it is in a great measure due to this narrowing the
right, that the last elections have not generally been good. My former
colleagues will, I presume, pardon my saying this to day, when they
recollect my arguments against this defect, at the time the Constitution
was discussed in the Convention.(1)
1 See Chapters XXIV. and XXV., also the letter prefaced to
XXVIII., in this volume.--_Editor._,
I will close this part of the subject by remarking on one of the most
vulgar and absurd sayings or dogmas that ever yet imposed itself upon
the world, which is, "_that a Republic is fit only for a small country,
and a Monarchy for a large one_." Ask those who say this their reasons
why it is so, and they can give none.
Let us then examine the case. If the quantity of knowledge in a
government ought to be proportioned to the extent of a country, and
the magnitude and variety of its affairs, it follows, as an undeniable
result, that this absurd dogma is false, and that the reverse of it is
true. As to what is called Monarchy, if it be adaptable to any country
it can only be so to a small one, whose concerns are few, little
complicated, and all within the comprehension of an individual. But when
we come to a country of large extent, vast population, and whose affairs
are great, numerous, and various, it is the representative republican
system only, that can collect into the government the quantity
of knowledge necessary to govern to the best national advantage.
Montesquieu, who was strongly inclined to republican government,
sheltered himself under this absurd dogma; for he had always the
Bastile before his eyes when he was speaking of Republics, and therefore
_pretended_ not to write for France. Condorcet governed himself by
the same caution, but it was caution only, for no sooner had he the
opportunity of speaking fully out than he did it. When I say this of
Condorcet, I know it as a fact. In a paper published in Paris, July,
1791, entitled, "_The Republican, or the Defender of Representative
Government?_" is a piece signed _Thomas Paine_.(1) That piece was
concerted between Condorcet and myself. I wrote the original in
English, and Condorcet translated it. The object of it was to expose the
absurdity and falsehood of the above mentioned dogma.
1 Chapter II. of this volume. See also my "Life of Paine,"
vol. i., p. 311.--Editor.
Having thus concisely glanced at the excellencies of the Constitution,
and the superiority of the representative system of government over
every other system, (if any other can be called a system,) I come to
speak of the circumstances that have intervened between the time the
Constitution was established and the event that took place on the 18th
of Fructidor of the present year.
Almost as suddenly as the morning light dissipates darkness, did the
establishment of the Constitution change the face of affairs in France.
Security succeeded to terror, prosperity to distress, plenty to famine,
and confidence increased as the days multiplied, until the coming of the
new third. A series of victories unequalled in the world, followed
each other, almost too rapidly to be counted, and too numerous to be
remembered. The Coalition, every where defeated and confounded, crumbled
away like a ball of dust in the hand of a giant. Every thing, during
that period, was acted on such a mighty scale that reality appeared a
dream, and truth outstript romance. It may figuratively be said, that
the Rhine and the Rubicon (Germany and Italy) replied in triumphs to
each other, and the echoing Alps prolonged the shout. I will not
here dishonour a great description by noticing too much the English
government. It is sufficient to say paradoxically, that in the magnitude
of its littleness it cringed, it intrigued, and sought protection in
corruption.
Though the achievements of these days might give trophies to a nation
and laurels to its heroes, they derive their full radiance of glory
from the principle they inspired and the object they accomplished.
Desolation, chains, and slavery had marked the progress of former wars,
but to conquer for Liberty had never been thought of. To receive
the degrading submission of a distressed and subjugated people, and
insultingly permit them to live, made the chief triumph of former
conquerors; but to receive them with fraternity, to break their chains,
to tell them they are free, and teach them to be so, make a new volume
in the history of man.
Amidst those national honours, and when only two enemies remained, both
of whom had solicited peace, and one of them had signed preliminaries,
the election of the new third commenced. Every thing was made easy to
them. All difficulties had been conquered before they arrived at the
government. They came in the olive days of the revolution, and all they
had to do was not to do mischief.
It was, however, not difficult to foresee, that the elections would not
be generally good. The horrid days of Robespierre were still remembered,
and the gratitude due to those who had put an end to them was forgotten.
Thousands who, by passive approbation during that tremendous scene, had
experienced no suffering, assumed the merit of being the loudest against
it. Their cowardice in not opposing it, became courage when it was over.
They exclaimed against Terrorism as if they had been the heroes that
overthrew it, and rendered themselves ridiculous by fantastically
overacting moderation. The most noisy of this class, that I have met
with, are those who suffered nothing. They became all things, at all
times, to all men; till at last they laughed at principle. It was the
real republicans who suffered most during the time of Robespierre. The
persecution began upon them on the 31st of May, 1793, and ceased only
by the exertions of the remnant that survived.
In such a confused state of things as preceded the late elections the
public mind was put into a condition of being easily deceived; and it
was almost natural that the hypocrite would stand the best chance of
being elected into the new third. Had those who, since their election,
have thrown the public affairs into confusion by counter-revolutionary
measures, declared themselves beforehand, they would have been denounced
instead of being chosen. Deception was necessary to their success.
The Constitution obtained a full establishment; the revolution was
considered as complete; and the war on the eve of termination. In such a
situation, the mass of the people, fatigued by a long revolution, sought
repose; and in their elections they looked out for quiet men. They
unfortunately found hypocrites. Would any of the primary assemblies
have voted for a civil war? Certainly they would not. But the electoral
assemblies of some departments have chosen men whose measures, since
their election, tended to no other end but to provoke it. Either those
electors have deceived their constituents of the primary assemblies, or
they have been themselves deceived in the choice they made of deputies.
That there were some direct but secret conspirators in the new third can
scarcely admit of a doubt; but it is most reasonable to suppose that a
great part were seduced by the vanity of thinking they could do better
than those whom they succeeded. Instead of trusting to experience, they
attempted experiments. This counter-disposition prepared them to fall in
with any measures contrary to former measures, and that without seeing,
and probably without suspecting, the end to which they led.
No sooner were the members of the new third arrived at the seat of
government, than expectation was excited to see how they would act.
Their motions were watched by all parties, and it was impossible for
them to steal a march unobserved. They had it in their power to do great
good, or great mischief. A firm and manly conduct on their part, uniting
with that of the Directory and their colleagues, would have terminated
the war. But the moment before them was not the moment of hesitation. He
that hesitates in such situation is lost.
The first public act of the Council of Five Hundred was the election of
Pichegru to the presidency of that Council. He arrived at it by a very
large majority, and the public voice was in his favour. I among the rest
was one who rejoiced at it. But if the defection of Pichegru was at that
time known to Condé, and consequently to Pitt, it unveils the cause that
retarded all negotiations for peace.(1) They interpreted that election
into a signal of a counter-revolution, and were waiting for it; and they
mistook the respect shown to Pichegru, founded on the supposition of his
integrity, as a symptom of national revolt. Judging of things by their
own foolish ideas of government, they ascribed appearances to causes
between which there was no connection. Every thing on their part has
been a comedy of errors, and the actors have been chased from the stage.
1 Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Prince de Condé (1736-1818),
organized the French emigrants on the Rhine into an army
which was incorporated with that of Austria but paid by
England. He converted Pichegru into a secret partisan of the
Bourbons. He ultimately returned to France with Louis
XVIII., who made him colonel of infantry and master of the
royal household.--_Editor._,
Two or three decades of the new sessions passed away without any
thing very material taking place; but matters soon began to explain
themselves. The first thing that struck the public mind was, that no
more was heard of negotiations for peace, and that public business stood
still. It was not the object of the conspirators that there should be
peace; but as it was necessary to conceal their object, the Constitution
was ransacked to find pretences for delays. In vain did the Directory
explain to them the state of the finances and the wants of the army. The
committee, charged with that business, trifled away its time by a series
of unproductive reports, and continued to sit only to produce more.
Every thing necessary to be done was neglected, and every thing improper
was attempted. Pichegru occupied himself about forming a national guard
for the Councils--the suspicious signal of war,--Camille Jordan about
priests and bells, and the emigrants, with whom he had associated
during the two years he was in England.1 Willot and Delarue attacked the
Directory: their object was to displace some one of the directors, to
get in another of their own. Their motives with respect to the age of
Barras (who is as old as he wishes to be, and has been a little too old
for them) were too obvious not to be seen through.(2)
1 Paine's pamphlet, addressed to Jordan, deals mainly with
religions matters, and is reserved for oar fourth volume.--
_Editor._.
2 Paul François Jean Nicolas Barras (1755-1899) was
President of the Directory at this time, 1797.--_Editor._.
In this suspensive state of things, the public mind, filled with
apprehensions, became agitated, and without knowing what it might be,
looked for some extraordinary event. It saw, for it could not avoid
seeing, that things could not remain long in the state they were in,
but it dreaded a convulsion. That spirit of triflingness which it
had indulged too freely when in a state of security, and which it is
probable the new agents had interpreted into indifference about the
success of the Republic, assumed a serious aspect that afforded to
conspiracy no hope of aid; but still it went on. It plunged itself into
new measures with the same ill success, and the further it went the
further the public mind retired. The conspiracy saw nothing around it to
give it encouragement.
The obstinacy, however, with which it persevered in its repeated
attacks upon the Directory, in framing laws in favour of emigrants and
refractory priests, and in every thing inconsistent with the immediate
safety of the Republic, and which served to encourage the enemy to
prolong the war, admitted of no other direct interpretation than that
something was rotten in the Council of Five Hundred. The evidence of
circumstances became every day too visible not to be seen, and too
strong to be explained away. Even as errors, (to say no worse of
them,) they are not entitled to apology; for where knowledge is a duty,
ignorance is a crime.
The more serious republicans, who had better opportunities than the
generality had, of knowing the state of politics, began to take
the alarm, and formed themselves into a Society, by the name of the
Constitutional Club. It is the only Society of which I have been a
member in France; and I went to this because it was become necessary
that the friends of the Republic should rally round the standard of
the constitution. I met there several of the original patriots of the
revolution; I do not mean of the last order of Jacobins, but of the
first of that name. The faction in the Council of Five Hundred,
who, finding no counsel from the public, began to be frightened at
appearances, fortified itself against the dread of this Society, by
passing a law to dissolve it. The constitutionality of the law was at
least doubtful: but the Society, that it might not give the example of
exasperating matters already too much inflamed, suspended its meetings.
A matter, however, of much greater moment soon after presented itself.
It was the march of four regiments, some of whom, in the line of their
route, had to pass within about twelve leagues of Paris, which is the
boundary the Constitution had fixed as the distance of any armed
force from the legislative body. In another state of things, such a
circumstance would not have been noticed. But conspiracy is quick of
suspicion, and the fear which the faction in the Council of Five
Hundred manifested upon this occasion could not have suggested itself
to innocent men; neither would innocent men have expostulated with the
Directory upon the case, in the manner these men did. The question they
urged went to extort from the Directory, and to make known to the enemy,
what the destination of the troops was. The leaders of the faction
conceived that the troops were marching against them; and the conduct
they adopted in consequence of it was sufficient to justify the measure,
even if it had been so. From what other motive than the consciousness of
their own designs could they have fear? The troops, in every instance,
had been the gallant defenders of the Republic, and the openly declared
friends of the Constitution; the Directory had been the same, and if the
faction were not of a different description neither fear nor suspicion
could have had place among them.
All those manouvres in the Council were acted under the most
professional attachment to the Constitution; and this as necessarily
served to enfeeble their projects. It is exceedingly difficult, and next
to impossible, to conduct a conspiracy, and still more so to give it
success, in a popular government. The disguised and feigned pretences
which men in such cases are obliged to act in the face of the public,
suppress the action of the faculties, and give even to natural courage
the features of timidity. They are not half the men they would be where
no disguise is necessary. It is impossible to be a hypocrite and to be
brave at the same instant.
The faction, by the imprudence of its measures, upon the march of
the troops, and upon the declarations of the officers and soldiers to
support the Republic and the Constitution against all open or concealed
attempts to overturn them, had gotten itself involved with the army, and
in effect declared itself a party against it. On the one hand, laws were
proposed to admit emigrants and refractory priests as free citizens; and
on the other hand to exclude the troops from Paris, and to punish the
soldiers who had declared to support the Republic In the mean time all
negociations for peace went backward; and the enemy, still recruiting
its forces, rested to take advantage of circumstances. Excepting the
absence of hostilities, it was a state worse than war.
If all this was not a conspiracy, it had at least the features of one,
and was pregnant with the same mischiefs. The eyes of the faction could
not avoid being open to the dangers to which it obstinately exposed
the Republic; yet still it persisted. During this scene, the journals
devoted to the faction were repeatedly announcing the near approach of
peace with Austria and with England, and often asserting that it was
concluded. This falsehood could be intended for no other purpose than to
keep the eyes of the people shut against the dangers to which they were
exposed.
Taking all circumstances together, it was impossible that such a state
of things could continue long; and at length it was resolved to bring it
to an issue. There is good reason to believe that the affair of the
18th Fructidor (September 4) was intended to have taken place two days
before; but on recollecting that it was the 2d of September, a day
mournful in the annals of the revolution, it was postponed. When the
issue arrived, the faction found to its cost it had no party among the
public. It had sought its own disasters, and was left to suffer the
consequences. Foreign enemies, as well as those of the interior, if
any such there be, ought to see in the event of this day that all
expectation of aid from any part of the public in support of a counter
revolution is delusion. In a state of security the thoughtless, who
trembled at terror, may laugh at principles of Liberty (for they have
laughed) but it is one thing to indulge a foolish laugh, quite another
thing to surrender Liberty.
Considering the event of the 18th Fructidor in a political light, it is
one of those that are justifiable only on the supreme law of absolute
necessity, and it is the necessity abstracted from the event that is to
be deplored. The event itself is matter of joy. Whether the manouvres in
the Council of Five Hundred were the conspiracy of a few, aided l>y the
perverseness of many, or whether it had a deeper root, the dangers were
the same. It was impossible to go on. Every thing was at stake, and
all national business at a stand. The case reduced itself to a simple
alternative--shall the Republic be destroyed by the darksome manouvres
-of a faction, or shall it be preserved by an exceptional act?
During the American Revolution, and that after the State constitutions
were established, particular cases arose that rendered it necessary to
act in a manner that would have been treasonable in a state of peace. At
one time Congress invested General Washington with dictatorial power.
At another time the Government of Pennsylvania suspended itself and
declared martial law. It was the necessity of the times only that
made the apology of those extraordinary measures. But who was it that
produced the necessity of an extraordinary measure in France? A faction,
and that in the face of prosperity and success. Its conduct is without
apology; and it is on the faction only that the exceptional measure has
fallen. The public has suffered no inconvenience. If there are some men
more disposed than others not to act severely, I have a right to place
myself in that class; the whole of my political life invariably proves
it; yet I cannot see, taking all parts of the case together, what else,
or what better, could have been done, than has been done. It was a
great stroke, applied in a great crisis, that crushed in an instant,
and without the loss of a life, all the hopes of the enemy, and restored
tranquillity to the interior.
The event was ushered in by the discharge of two cannon at four in the
morning, and was the only noise that was heard throughout the day. It
naturally excited a movement among the Parisians to enquire the cause.
They soon learned it, and the countenance they carried was easy to be
interpreted. It was that of a people who, for some time past, had
been oppressed with apprehensions of some direful event, and who felt
themselves suddenly relieved, by finding what it was. Every one went
about his business, or followed his curiosity in quietude. It resembled
the cheerful tranquillity of the day when Louis XVI. absconded in 1791,
and like that day it served to open the eyes of the nation.
If we take a review of the various events, as well conspiracies as
commotions, that have succeeded each other in this revolution, we shall
see how the former have wasted consumptively away, and the consequences
of the latter have softened. The 31st May and its consequences were
terrible. That of the 9th and 10th Thermidor, though glorious for the
republic, as it overthrew one of the most horrid and cruel despotisms
that ever raged, was nevertheless marked with many circumstances
of severe and continued retaliation. The commotions of Germinal and
Prairial of the year 3, and of Vendemaire of the year 4, were many
degrees below those that preceded them, and affected but a small part of
the public. This of Pichegru and his associates has been crushed in an
instant, without the stain of blood, and without involving the public in
the least inconvenience.
These events taken in a series, mark the progress of the Republic from
disorder to stability. The contrary of this is the case in all parts
of the British dominions. There, commotions are on an ascending scale;
every one is higher than the former. That of the sailors had nearly
been the overthrow of the government. But the most potent of all is the
invisible commotion in the Bank. It works with the silence of time, and
the certainty of death. Every thing happening in France is curable; but
this is beyond the reach of nature or invention.
Leaving the event of the 18th Fructidor to justify itself by the
necessity that occasioned it, and glorify itself by the happiness of
its consequences, I come to cast a coup-d'oil on the present state of
affairs.
We have seen by the lingering condition of the negociations for peace,
that nothing was to be expected from them, in the situation that things
stood prior to the 18th Fructidor. The armies had done wonders, but
those wonders were rendered unproductive by the wretched manouvres of a
faction. New exertions are now necessary to repair the mischiefs which
that faction has done. The electoral bodies, in some Departments, who
by an injudicious choice, or a corrupt influence, have sent improper
deputies to the Legislature, have some atonement to make to their
country. The evil originated with them, and the least they can do is to
be among the foremost to repair it.
It is, however, in vain to lament an evil that is past. There is neither
manhood nor policy in grief; and it often happens that an error in
politics, like an error in war, admits of being turned to greater
advantage than if it had not occurred. The enemy, encouraged by that
error, presumes too much, and becomes doubly foiled by the re-action.
England, unable to conquer, has stooped to corrupt; and defeated in
the last, as in the first, she is in a worse condition than before.
Continually increasing her crimes, she increases the measure of her
atonement, and multiplies the sacrifices she must make to obtain peace.
Nothing but the most obstinate stupidity could have induced her to let
slip the opportunity when it was within her reach. In addition to the
prospect of new expenses, she is now, to use Mr. Pitt's own figurative
expression against France, _not only on the brink, but in the gulph
of bankruptcy_. There is no longer any mystery in paper money. Call
it assignats, mandats, exchequer bills, or bank notes, it is still the
same. Time has solved the problem, and experience has fixed its fate.(1)
1 See Chapter XXVI. of this volume.--_Editor._.
The government of that unfortunate country discovers its faithlessness
so much, that peace on any terms with her is scarcely worth obtaining.
Of what use is peace with a government that will employ that peace for
no other purpose than to repair, as far as it is possible, her shattered
finances and broken credit, and then go to war again? Four times within
the last ten years, from the time the American war closed, has the
Anglo-germanic government of England been meditating fresh war. First
with France on account of Holland, in 1787; afterwards with Russia;
then with Spain, on account of Nootka Sound; and a second time against
France, to overthrow her revolution. Sometimes that government employs
Prussia against Austria; at another time Austria against Prussia; and
always one or the other, or both against France. Peace with such a
government is only a treacherous cessation of hostilities.
The frequency of wars on the part of England, within the last century,
more than before, must have had some cause that did not exist prior to
that epoch. It is not difficult to discover what that cause is. It is
the mischievous compound of an Elector of the Germanic body and a King
of England; and which necessarily must, at some day or other, become
an object of attention to France. That one nation has not a right to
interfere in the internal government of another nation, is admitted; and
in this point of view, France has no right to dictate to England what
its form of government shall be. If it choose to have a thing called a
King, or whether that King shall be a man or an ass, is a matter with
which France has no business. But whether an Elector of the Germanic
body shall be King of England, is an _external_ case, with which
France and every other nation, who suffers inconvenience and injury in
consequence of it, has a right to interfere.
It is from this mischievous compound of Elector and King, that
originates a great part of the troubles that vex the continent of
Europe; and with respect to England, it has been the cause of her
immense national debt, the ruin of her finances, and the insolvency of
her bank. All intrigues on the continent, in which England is a party,
or becomes involved, are generated by, and act through, the medium of
this Anglo-germanic compound. It will be necessary to dissolve it. Let
the Elector retire to his Electorate, and the world will have peace.
England herself has given examples of interference in matters of this
kind, and that in cases where injury was only apprehended. She engaged
in a long and expensive war against France (called the succession war)
to prevent a grandson of Louis the Fourteenth being king of Spain;
because, said she, _it will be injurious_ to me; and she has been
fighting and intriguing against what was called the family-compact ever
since. In 1787 she threatened France with war to prevent a connection
between France and Hoi-land; and in all her propositions of peace to-day
she is dictating separations. But if she look at the Anglo-germanic
compact at home, called the Hanover succession, she cannot avoid seeing
that France necessarily must, some day or other, take up that subject,
and make the return of the Elector to his Electorate one of the
conditions of peace. There will be no lasting peace between the two
countries till this be done, and the sooner it be done the better will
it be for both.
I have not been in any company where this matter aas been a topic, that
did not see it in the light it is here stated. Even Barthélémy,(1) when
he first came to the Directory (and Barthélémy was never famous for
patriotism) acknowledged in my hearing, and in company with Derché,
Secretary to the Legation at Lille, the connection of an Elector of
Germany and a King of England to be injurious to France. I do not,
however, mention it from a wish to embarrass the negociation for peace.
The Directory has fixed its _ultimatum_; but if that ultimatum be
rejected, the obligation to adhere to it is discharged, and a new one
may be assumed. So wretchedly has Pitt managed his opportunities» that
every succeeding negociation has ended in terms more against him than
the former. If the Directory had bribed him, he could not serve his
interest better than he does. He serves it as Lord North served that of
America, which finished in the discharge of his master.*
1 Marquis de Barthélémy (François) (1750-1830) entered the
Directory in June, 1796, through royalist influence. He
shared Pichegru's banishment, and subsequently became an
agent of Louis XVIII.--_Editor._
* The father of Pitt, when a member of the House of Commons,
exclaiming one day, during a former war, against the
enormous and ruinous expense of German connections, as the
offspring of the Hanover succession, and borrowing a
metaphor from the story of Prometheus, cried out: "Thus,
Hie Prometheus, is Britain chained to the barren rock of
Hanover; whilst the imperial eagle preys upon her vitals."--
Author.
Thus far I had written when the negociation at Lille became suspended,
in consequence of which I delayed the publication, that the ideas
suggested in this letter might not intrude themselves during the
interval. The _ultimatum_ offered by the Directory, as the terms of
peace, was more moderate than the government of England had a right to
expect. That government, though the provoker of the war, and the first
that committed hostilities by sending away the ambassador Chauvelin,(**)
had formerly talked of demanding from France, _indemnification for
the past and security for the future_. France, in her turn, might have
retorted, and demanded the same from England; but she did not. As it was
England that, in consequence of her bankruptcy, solicited peace, France
offered it to her on the simple condition of her restoring the islands
she had taken. The ultimatum has been rejected, and the negociation
broken off. The spirited part of France will say, _tant mieux_, so much
the better.
** It was stipulated in the treaty of commerce between
France and England, concluded at Paris, that the sending
away an ambassador by either party, should be taken as an
act of hostility by the other party. The declaration of war
(Feb. M *793) by the Convention, of which I was then a
member and know well the case, was made in exact conformity
to this article in the treaty; for it was not a declaration
of war against England, but a declaration that the French
Republic is in war with England; the first act of hostility
having been committed by England. The declaration was made
immediately on Chauvelin's return to France, and in
consequence of it. Mr. Pitt should inform himself of things
better than he does, before he prates so much about them, or
of the sending away of Malmesbury, who was only on a visit
of permission.--Author.
How the people of England feel on the breaking up of the negociation,
which was entirely the act of their own Government, is best known to
themselves; but from what I know of the two nations, France ought to
hold herself perfectly indifferent about a peace with the Government of
England. Every day adds new strength to France and new embarrassments
to her enemy. The resources of the one increase, as those of the other
become exhausted. England is now reduced to the same system of paper
money from which France has emerged, and we all know the inevitable fate
of that system. It is not a victory over a few ships, like that on the
coast of Holland, that gives the least support or relief to a paper
system. On the news of this victory arriving in England, the funds did
not rise a farthing. The Government rejoiced, but its creditors were
silent.
It is difficult to find a motive, except in folly and madness, for the
conduct of the English government. Every calculation and prediction of
Mr. Pitt has turned out directly the contrary; yet still he predicts.
He predicted, with all the solemn assurance of a magician, that France
would be bankrupt in a few months. He was right as to the thing, but
wrong as to the place, for the bankruptcy happened in England whilst the
words were yet warm upon his lips. To find out what will happen, it is
only necessary to know what Mr. Pitt predicts. He is a true prophet if
taken in the reverse.
Such is the ruinous condition that England is now in, that great as
the difficulties of war are to the people, the difficulties that would
accompany peace are equally as great to the Government. Whilst the war
continues, Mr. Pitt has a pretence for shutting up the bank. But as that
pretence could last no longer than the war lasted, he dreads the peace
that would expose the absolute bankruptcy of the government, and unveil
to a deceived nation the ruinous effect of his measures. Peace would be
a day of accounts to him, and he shuns it as an insolvent debtor shuns
a meeting of his creditors. War furnishes him with many pretences; peace
would furnish him with none, and he stands alarmed at its consequences.
His conduct in the negociation at Lille can be easily interpreted. It is
not for the sake of the nation that he asks to retain some of the taken
islands; for what are islands to a nation that has already too many for
her own good, or what are they in comparison to the expense of another
campaign in the present depreciating state of the English funds? (And
even then those islands must be restored.)
No, it is not for the sake of the nation that he asks. It is for the
sake of himself. It is as if he said to France, Give me some pretence,
cover me from disgrace when my day of reckoning comes!
Any person acquainted with the English Government knows that every
Minister has some dread of what is called in England the winding up
of accounts at the end of a war; that is, the final settlement of all
expenses incurred by the war; and no Minister had ever so great cause of
dread as Mr. Pitt. A burnt child dreads the fire, and Pitt has had some
experience upon this case. The winding up of accounts at the end of the
American war was so great, that, though he was not the cause of it,
and came into the Ministry with great popularity, he lost it all by
undertaking, what was impossible for him to avoid, the voluminous
business of the winding up. If such was the case in settling the
accounts of his predecessor, how much more has he to apprehend when the
accounts to be settled are his own? All men in bad circumstances
hate the settlement of accounts, and Pitt, as a Minister, is of that
description.
But let us take a view of things on a larger ground than the case of
a Minister. It will then be found, that England, on a comparison of
strength with France, when both nations are disposed to exert their
utmost, has no possible chance of success. The efforts that England made
within the last century were not generated on the ground of _natural
ability_, but of _artificial anticipations_. She ran posterity into
debt, and swallowed up in one generation the resources of several
generations yet to come, till the project can be pursued no longer. It
is otherwise in France. The vastness of her territory and her population
render the burden easy that would make a bankrupt of a country like
England.
It is not the weight of a thing, but the numbers who are to bear that
weight, that makes it feel light or heavy to the shoulders of those who
bear it. A land-tax of half as much in the pound as the land-tax is in
England, will raise nearly four times as much revenue in France as is
raised in England. This is a scale easily understood, by which all the
other sections of productive revenue can be measured. Judge then of the
difference of natural ability.
England is strong in a navy; but that navy costs about eight millions
sterling a-year, and is one of the causes that has hastened her
bankruptcy. The history of navy bills sufficiently proves this. But
strong as England is in this case, the fate of navies must finally be
decided by the natural ability of each country to carry its navy to the
greatest extent; and France is able to support a navy twice as large as
that of England, with less than half the expense per head on the people,
which the present navy of England costs.
We all know that a navy cannot be raised as expeditiously as an army.
But as the average duration of a navy, taking the decay of time, storms,
and all circumstances and accidents together, is less than twenty years,
every navy must be renewed within that time; and France at the end of a
few years, can create and support a navy of double the extent of that of
England; and the conduct of the English government will provoke her to
it.
But of what use are navies otherwise than to make or prevent invasions?
Commercially considered, they are losses. They scarcely give any
protection to the commerce of the countries which have them, compared
with the expense of maintaining them, and they insult the commerce of
the nations that are neutral.
During the American war, the plan of the armed neutrality was formed and
put in execution: but it was inconvenient, expensive, and ineffectual.
This being the case, the problem is, does not commerce contain within
itself, the means of its own protection? It certainly does, if the
neutral nations will employ that means properly.
Instead then of an _armed neutrality_, the plan should be directly the
contrary. It should be an _unarmed neutrality_. In the first place,
the rights of neutral nations are easily defined. They are such as are
exercised by nations in their intercourse with each other in time of
peace, and which ought not, and cannot of right, be interrupted in
consequence of war breaking out between any two or more of them.
Taking this as a principle, the next thing is to give it effect. The
plan of the armed neutrality was to effect it by threatening war; but an
unarmed neutrality can effect it by much easier and more powerful means.
Were the neutral nations to associate, under an honourable injunction of
fidelity to each other, and publicly declare to the world, that if any
belligerent power shall seize or molest any ship or vessel belonging
to the citizens or subjects of any of the powers composing that
Association, that the whole Association will shut its ports against the
flag of the offending nation, and will not permit any goods, wares,
or merchandise, produced or manufactured in the offending nation, or
appertaining thereto, to be imported into any of the ports included in
the Association, until reparation be made to the injured party,--the
reparation to be three times the value of the vessel and cargo,--and
moreover that all remittances on money, goods, and bills of exchange, do
cease to be made to the offending nation, until the said reparation be
made: were the neutral nations only to do this, which it is their
direct interest to do, England, as a nation depending on the commerce of
neutral nations in time of war, dare not molest them, and France would
not. But whilst, from the want of a common system, they individually
permit England to do it, because individually they cannot resist it,
they put France under the necessity of doing the same thing. The supreme
of all laws, in all cases, is that of self-preservation.
As the commerce of neutral nations would thus be protected by the means
that commerce naturally contains within itself, all the naval operations
of France and England would be confined within the circle of acting
against each other: and in that case it needs no spirit of prophecy to
discover that France must finally prevail. The sooner this be done, the
better will it be for both nations, and for all the world.
Thomas Paine.(1)
1 Paine had already prepared his "Maritime Compact," and
devised the Rainbow Flag, which was to protect commerce, the
substance and history of which constitutes his Seventh
Letter to the People of the United States, Chapter XXXIII.
of the present volume. He sent the articles of his proposed
international Association to the Minister of Foreign
Relations, Talleyrand, who responded with a cordial letter.
The articles of "Maritime Compact," translated into French
by Nicolas Bouneville, were, in 1800, sent to all the
Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Europe, and to the
ambassadors in Paris.--_Editor._,
XXX. THE RECALL OF MONROE. (1)
1 Monroe, like Edmund Randolph and Thomas Paine, was
sacrificed to the new commercial alliance with Great
Britain. The Cabinet of Washington were entirely hostile to
France, and in their determination to replace Monroe were
assisted by Gouverneur Morris, still in Europe, who wrote to
President Washington calumnies against that Minister. In a
letter of December 19, 1795, Morris tells Washington that he
had heard from a trusted informant that Monroe had said to
several Frenchmen that "he had no doubt but that, if they
would do what was proper here, he and his friends would turn
out Washington." On July 2, 1796, the Cabinet ministers,
Pickering, Wolcott, and Mo-Henry, wrote to the President
their joint opinion that the interests of the United States
required Monroe's recall, and slanderously connected him
with anonymous letters from France written by M.
Montflorence. The recall, dated August 22, 1796, reached
Monroe early in November. It alluded to certain "concurring
circumstances," which induced his removal, and these "hidden
causes" (in Paine's phrase) Monroe vainly demanded on his
return to America early in 1797. The Directory, on
notification of Monroe's recall, resolved not to recognize
his successor, and the only approach to an American Minister
in Paris for the remainder of the century was Thomas Paine,
who was consulted by the Foreign Ministers, De la Croix and
Talleyrand, and by Napoleon. On the approach of C. C.
Pinckney, as successor to Monroe, Paine feared that his
dismissal might entail war, and urged the Minister (De la
Croix) to regard Pinckney,--nominated in a recess of the
Senate,--as in "suspension" until confirmed by that body.
There might be unofficial "pourparlers," with him. This
letter (State Archives, Paris, États Unis, vol. 46, fol. 425)
was considered for several days before Pinckney reached
Paris (December 5, 1796), but the Directory considered that
it was not a "dignified" course, and Pinckney was ordered to
leave French territory, under the existing decree against
foreigners who had no permit to remain.--_Editor._.
Paris, Sept. 27, 1797. Editors of the Bien-in formé.
Citizens: in your 19th number of the complementary 5th, you gave an
analysis of the letters of James Monroe to Timothy Pickering. The
newspapers of Paris and the departments have copied this correspondence
between the ambassador of the United States and the Secretary of State.
I notice, however, that a few of them have omitted some important facts,
whilst indulging in comments of such an extraordinary nature that it is
clear they know neither Monroe's integrity nor the intrigues of Pitt in
this affair.
The recall of Monroe is connected with circumstances so important to the
interests of France and the United States, that we must be careful not
to confound it with the recall of an ordinary individual. The Washington
faction had affected to spread it abroad that James Monroe was the cause
of rupture between the two Republics. This accusation is a perfidious
and calumnious one; since the main point in this affair is not so much
the recall of a worthy, enlightened and republican minister, as
the ingratitude and clandestine manoeuvering of the government of
Washington, who caused the misunderstanding by signing a treaty
injurious to the French Republic.
James Monroe, in his letters, does not deny the right of government to
withdraw its confidence from any one of its delegates, representatives,
or agents. He has hinted, it is true, that caprice and temper are not
in accordance with the spirit of paternal rule, and that whenever a
representative government punishes or rewards, good faith, integrity and
justice should replace _the good pleasure of Kings_.
In the present case, they have done more than recall an agent. Had they
confined themselves to depriving him of his appointment, James Monroe
would have kept silence; but he has been accused of lighting the torch
of discord in both Republics. The refutation of this absurd and infamous
reproach is the chief object of his correspondence. If he did not
immediately complain of these slanders in his letters of the 6th and
8th [July], it is because he wished to use at first a certain degree of
caution, and, if it were possible, to stifle intestine troubles at
their birth. He wished to reopen the way to peaceful negotiations to be
conducted with good faith and justice.
The arguments of the Secretary of State on the rights of the supreme
administration of the United States are peremptory; but the observations
of Monroe on the hidden causes of his recall are touching; they come
from the heart; they are characteristic of an excellent citizen. If he
does more than complain of his unjust recall as a man of feeling would;
if he proudly asks for proofs of a grave accusation, it is after he has
tried in vain every honest and straightforward means. He will not suffer
that a government, sold to the enemies of freedom, should discharge upon
him its shame, its crimes, its ingratitude, and all the odium of its
unjust dealings.
Were Monroe to find himself an object of public hatred, the Republican
party in the United States, that party which is the sincere ally
of France, would be annihilated, and this is the aim of the English
government.
Imagine the triumph of Pitt, if Monroe and the other friends of freedom
in America, should be unjustly attacked in France!
Monroe does not lay his cause before the Senate since the Senate
itself ratified the unconstitutional treaty; he appeals to the house of
Representatives, and at the same time lays his cause before the upright
tribunal of the American nation.
XXXI. PRIVATE LETTER TO PRESIDENT JEFFERSON.
Paris, October 1, 1800.
Dear Sir,--I wrote to you from Havre by the ship Dublin Packet in the
year 1797. It was then my intention to return to America; but there were
so many British frigates cruising in sight of the port, and which after
a few days knew that I was at Havre waiting to go to America, that I did
not think it best to trust myself to their discretion, and the more so,
as I had no confidence in the captain of the Dublin Packet (Clay).(1) I
mentioned to you in that letter, which I believe you received thro'
the hands of Colonel [Aaron] Burr, that I was glad since you were not
President that you had accepted the nomination of Vice President.
The Commissioners Ellsworth & Co.(2) have been here about eight months,
and three more useless mortals never came upon public business. Their
presence appears to me to have been rather an injury than a benefit.
They set themselves up for a faction as soon as they arrived. I was then
in Belgia.(3) Upon my return to Paris I learnt they had made a point of
not returning the visits of Mr. Skipwith and Barlow, because, they said,
they had not the confidence of the executive. Every known republican was
treated in the same manner. I learned from Mr. Miller of Philadelphia,
who had occasion to see them upon business, that they did not intend
to return my visit, if I made one. This, I supposed, it was intended I
should know, that I might not make one. It had the contrary effect. I
went to see Mr. Ellsworth. I told him, I did not come to see him as a
commissioner, nor to congratulate him upon his mission; that I came to
see him because I had formerly known him in Congress. "I mean not,"
said I, "to press you with any questions, or to engage you in
any conversation upon the business you are come upon, but I will
nevertheless candidly say that I know not what expectations the
Government or the people of America may have of your mission, or what
expectations you may have yourselves, but I believe you will find you
can do but little. The treaty with England lies at the threshold of all
your business. The American Government never did two more foolish things
than when it signed that Treaty and recalled Mr. Monroe, who was the
only man could do them any service." Mr. Ellsworth put on the dull
gravity of a Judge, and was silent. I added, "You may perhaps make a
treaty like that you have made with England, which is a surrender of the
rights of the American flag; for the principle that neutral ships make
neutral property must be general or not at all." I then changed the
subject, for I had all the talk to myself upon this topic, and enquired
after Samuel Adams, (I asked nothing about John,) Mr. Jefferson, Mr.
Monroe, and others of my friends; and the melancholy case of the yellow
fever,--of which he gave me as circumstantial an account as if he had
been summing up a case to a Jury. Here my visit ended, and had Mr.
Ellsworth been as cunning as a statesman, or as wise as a Judge, he
would have returned my visit that he might appear insensible of the
intention of mine.
1 The packet was indeed searched for Paine by a British
cruiser.--_Editor._
2 Oliver Ellsworth (Chief Justice), W. V. Murray, and W. R.
Davie, were sent by President Adams to France to negotiate a
treaty. In this they failed, but a convention was signed
September 30, 1800, which terminated the treaty of 1778,
which had become a source of discord, and prepared the way
for the negotiations of Livingston and Monroe in 1803.--
_Editor._
3 Paine had visited his room-mate in Luxembourg prison,
Vanhuele, who was now Mayor of Bruges.--_Editor._.
I now come to the affairs of this country and of Europe. You will, I
suppose, have heard before this arrives to you, of the battle of
Marengo in Italy, where the Austrians were defeated--of the armistice
in consequence thereof, and the surrender of Milan, Genoa etc. to
the french--of the successes of the french Army in Germany--and the
extension of the armistice in that quarter--of the preliminaries of
Peace signed at Paris--of the refusal of the Emperor [of Austria] to
ratify these preliminaries--of the breaking of the armistice by the
french Government in consequence of that refusal--of the "gallant"
expedition of the Emperor to put himself at the head of his Army--of his
pompous arrival there--of his having made his will--of prayers being put
in all his churches for the preservation of the life of this Hero--of
General Moreau announcing to him, immediately on his arrival at the
Army, that hostilities would commence the day after the next at sunrise
unless he signed the treaty or gave security that he would sign within
45 days--of his surrendering up three of the principal keys of Germany
(Ulm, Philipsbourg, and Ingolstadt) as security that he would sign them.
This is the state things are now in, at the time of writing this letter;
but it is proper to add that the refusal of the Emperor to sign the
preliminaries was motived upon a note from the King of England to be
admitted to the Congress for negociating Peace, which was consented to
by the french upon the condition of an armistice at Sea, which England,
before knowing of the surrender the Emperor had made, had refused. From
all which it appears to me, judging from circumstances, that the Emperor
is now so compleatly in the hands of the french, that he has no way of
getting out but by a peace. The Congress for the peace is to be held
at Lunéville, a town in France. Since the affair of Rastadt the French
commissioners will not trust themselves within the Emperor's territory.
I now come to domestic Affairs. I know not what the Commissioners have
done, but from a paper I enclose to you, which appears to have
some authority, it is not much. The paper as you will perceive is
considerably prior to this letter. I know that the Commissioners before
this piece appeared intended setting off. It is therefore probable that
what they have done is conformable to what this paper mentions, which
certainly will not atone for the expence their mission has incurred,
neither are they, by all the accounts I hear of them, men fitted for the
business.
But independently of these matters there appears to be a state of
circumstances rising, which if it goes on, will render all partial
treaties unnecessary. In the first place I doubt if any peace will be
made with England; and in the second place, I should not wonder to see a
coalition formed against her, to compel her to abandon her insolence on
the seas. This brings me to speak of the manuscripts I send you.
The piece No. I, without any title, was written in consequence of a
question put to me by Bonaparte. As he supposed I knew England and
English Politics he sent a person to me to ask, that in case of
negociating a Peace with Austria, whether it would be proper to include
England. This was when Count St. Julian was in Paris, on the part of the
Emperor negociating the preliminaries:--which as I have before said the
Emperor refused to sign on the pretence of admitting England.
The piece No. 2, entitled _On the Jacobinism of the English at sea_, was
written when the English made their insolent and impolitic expedition to
Denmark, and is also an auxiliary to the politic of No. I. I shewed it
to a friend [Bonneville] who had it translated into french, and printed
in the form of a Pamphlet, and distributed gratis among the foreign
Ministers, and persons in the Government. It was immediately copied
into several of the french Journals, and into the official Paper, the
Moniteur. It appeared in this paper one day before the last dispatch
arrived from Egypt; which agreed perfectly with what I had said
respecting Egypt. It hit the two cases of Denmark and Egypt in the exact
proper moment.
The Piece No. 3, entitled _Compact Maritime_, is the sequel of No. 2,
digested in form. It is translating at the time I write this letter,
and I am to have a meeting with the Senator Garat upon the subject.
The pieces 2 and 3 go off in manuscript to England, by a confidential
person, where they will be published.(1)
1 The substance of most of these "pieces" are embodied in
Paine's Seventh Letter to the People of the United States
(infra p. 420).--_Editor._
By all the news we get from the North there appears to be something
meditating against England. It is now given for certain that Paul has
embargoed all the English vessels and English property in Russia till
some principle be established for protecting the Rights of neutral
Nations, and securing the liberty of the Seas. The preparations in
Denmark continue, notwithstanding the convention that she has made with
England, which leaves the question with respect to the right set up by
England to stop and search Neutral vessels undecided. I send you the
paragraphs upon the subject.
The tumults are great in all parts of England on account of the
excessive price of corn and bread, which has risen since the harvest.
I attribute it more to the abundant increase of paper, and the
non-circulation of cash, than to any other cause. People in trade
can push the paper off as fast as they receive it, as they did by
continental money in America; but as farmers have not this opportunity,
they endeavor to secure themselves by going considerably in advance.
I have now given you all the great articles of intelligence, for I
trouble not myself with little ones, and consequently not with the
Commissioners, nor any thing they are about, nor with John Adams,
otherwise than to wish him safe home, and a better and wiser man in his
place.
In the present state of circumstances and the prospects arising from
them, it may be proper for America to consider whether it is worth her
while to enter into any treaty at this moment, or to wait the event of
those circumstances which if they go on will render partial treaties
useless by deranging them. But if, in the mean time, she enters into
any treaty it ought to be with a condition to the following purpose:
Reserving to herself the right of joining in an Association of Nations
for the protection of the Rights of Neutral Commerce and the security of
the liberty of the Seas.
The pieces 2, 3, may go to the press. They will make a small pamphlet
and the printers are welcome to put my name to it. (It is best it should
be put.) From thence they will get into the newspapers. I know that the
faction of John Adams abuses me pretty heartily. They are welcome.
It does not disturb me, and they lose their labour; and in return for
it I am doing America more service, as a neutral Nation, than their
expensive Commissioners can do, and she has that service from me for
nothing. The piece No. 1 is only for your own amusement and that of your
friends.
I come now to speak confidentially to you on a private subject. When Mr.
Ellsworth and Davie return to America, Murray will return to Holland,
and in that case there will be nobody in Paris but Mr. Skipwith that
has been in the habit of transacting business with the french Government
since the revolution began. He is on a good standing with them, and if
the chance of the day should place you in the presidency you cannot do
better than appoint him for any purpose you may have occasion for in
France. He is an honest man and will do his country justice, and that
with civility and good manners to the government he is commissioned to
act with; a faculty which that Northern Bear Timothy Pickering wanted,
and which the Bear of that Bear, John Adams, never possessed.
I know not much of Mr. Murray, otherwise than of his unfriendliness to
every American who is not of his faction, but I am sure that Joel Barlow
is a much fitter man to be in Holland than Mr. Murray. It is upon
the fitness of the man to the place that I speak, for I have not
communicated a thought upon the subject to Barlow, neither does he
know, at the time of my writing this (for he is at Havre), that I have
intention to do it.
I will now, by way of relief, amuse you with some account of the
progress of iron bridges.
[Here follows an account of the building of the iron bridge at
Sunderland, England, and some correspondence with Mr. Milbanke, M. P.,
which will be given more fully and precisely in a chapter of vol. IV.
(Appendix), on Iron Bridges, and is therefore omitted here.]
I have now made two other Models [of bridges]. One is pasteboard, five
feet span and five inches of height from the cords. It is in the opinion
of every person who has seen it one of the most beautiful objects the
eye can behold. I then cast a model in metal following the construction
of that in paste-board and of the same dimensions. The whole was
executed in my own Chamber. It is far superior in strength, elegance,
and readiness in execution to the model I made in America, and which you
saw in Paris.(1) I shall bring those models with me when I come
home, which will be as soon as I can pass the seas in safety from the
piratical John Bulls. I suppose you have seen, or have heard of the
Bishop of Landaff's answer to my second part of the Age of Reason. As
soon as I got a copy of it I began a third part, which served also as an
answer to the Bishop; but as soon as the clerical society for promoting
_Christian Knowledge_ knew of my intention to answer the Bishop, they
prosecuted, as a Society, the printer of the first and second parts, to
prevent that answer appearing. No other reason than this can be assigned
for their prosecuting at the time they did, because the first part had
been in circulation above three years and the second part more than one,
and they prosecuted immediately on knowing that I was taking up their
Champion. The Bishop's answer, like Mr. Burke's attack on the french
revolution, served me as a back-ground to bring forward other subjects
upon, with more advantage than if the background was not there. This is
the motive that induced me to answer him, otherwise I should have gone
on without taking any notice of him. I have made and am still making
additions to the manuscript, and shall continue to do so till an
opportunity arrive for publishing it.
1 "These models exhibit an extraordinary degree not only of
skill, but of taste, and are wrought with extreme delicacy
entirely by his own hands. The largest is nearly four feet
in length; the iron-works, the chains, and every other
article belonging to it, were forged and manufactured by
himself. It is intended as the model of a bridge which is to
be constructed across the Delaware, extending 480 feet, with
only one arch. The other is to be erected over a lesser
river, whose name I forget, and is likewise a single arch,
and of his own workmanship, excepting the chains, which,
instead of iron, are cut out of paste-hoard by the fair hand
of his correspondent, the 'Little Corner of the World' (Lady
Smyth), whose indefatigable perseverance is extraordinary.
He was offered £3000 for these models and refused it."--
Yorke's _Letters from France_, These models excited much
admiration in Washington and Philadelphia. They remained for
a long time in Peale's Museum at Philadelphia, but no trace
is left of them.--_Editor._
If any American frigate should come to france, and the direction of
it fall to you, I will be glad you would give me the opportunity of
returning. The abscess under which I suffered almost two years is
entirely healed of itself, and I enjoy exceeding good health. This is
the first of October, and Mr. Skipwith has just called to tell me the
Commissioners set off for Havre to-morrow. This will go by the frigate
but not with the knowledge of the Commissioners. Remember me with much
affection to my friends and accept the same to yourself.
Thomas Paine.
XXXII. PROPOSAL THAT LOUISIANA BE PURCHASED.(1)
(SENT TO THE PRESIDENT, CHRISTMAS DAY, 1802.)
1 Paine, being at Lovell's Hotel, Washington, suggested the
purchase of Louisiana to Dr. Michael Leib, representative
from Pennsylvania, who, being pleased with the idea,
suggested that he should write it to Jefferson. On the day
after its reception the President told Paine that "measures
were already taken in that business."--_Editor._.
Spain has ceded Louisiana to France, and France has excluded Americans
from New Orleans, and the navigation of the Mississippi. The people of
the Western Territory have complained of it to their Government, and the
Government is of consequence involved and interested in the affair. The
question then is--What is the best step to be taken?
The one is to begin by memorial and remonstrance against an infraction
of a right. The other is by accommodation,--still keeping the right in
view, but not making it a groundwork.
Suppose then the Government begin by making a proposal to France to
re-purchase the cession made to her by Spain, of Louisiana, provided it
be with the consent of the people of Louisiana, or a majority thereof.
By beginning on this ground any thing can be said without carrying the
appearance of a threat. The growing power of the Western Territory can
be stated as a matter of information, and also the impossibility
of restraining them from seizing upon New Orleans, and the equal
impossibility of France to prevent it.
Suppose the proposal attended to, the sum to be given comes next on
the carpet. This, on the part of America, will be estimated between the
value of the commerce and the quantity of revenue that Louisiana will
produce.
The French Treasury is not only empty, but the Government has consumed
by anticipation a great part of the next year's revenue. A monied
proposal will, I believe, be attended to; if it should, the claims upon
France can be stipulated as part of the payment, and that sum can be
paid here to the claimants.
----I congratulate you on _The Birthday of the New Sun_,
now called Christmas Day; and I make you a present of a thought on
Louisiana.
T.P.
XXXIII. THOMAS PAINE TO THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES,
And particularly to the Leaders of the Federal Faction, LETTER I.(1)
1 The National Intelligencer, November 15th. The venerable
Mr. Gales, so long associated with this paper, had been in
youth a prosecuted adherent of Paine in Sheffield, England.
The paper distinguished itself by the kindly welcome it gave
Paine on his return to America. (See issues of Nov. 3 and
10, 1802.) Paine landed at Baltimore, Oct. 30th.--_Editor._,
After an absence of almost fifteen years, I am again returned to the
country in whose dangers I bore my share, and to whose greatness I
contributed my part.
When I sailed for Europe, in the spring of 1787, it was my intention to
return to America the next year, and enjoy in retirement the esteem of
my friends, and the repose I was entitled to. I had stood out the storm
of one revolution, and had no wish to embark in another. But other
scenes and other circumstances than those of contemplated ease were
allotted to me. The French revolution was beginning to germinate when I
arrived in France. The principles of it were good, they were copied
from America, and the men who conducted it were honest. But the fury of
faction soon extinguished the one, and sent the other to the scaffold.
Of those who began that revolution, I am almost the only survivor,
and that through a thousand dangers. I owe this not to the prayers of
priests, nor to the piety of hypocrites, but to the continued protection
of Providence.
But while I beheld with pleasure the dawn of liberty rising in Europe,
I saw with regret the lustre of it fading in America. In less than two
years from the time of my departure some distant symptoms painfully
suggested the idea that the principles of the revolution were expiring
on the soil that produced them. I received at that time a letter from a
female literary correspondent, and in my answer to her, I expressed my
fears on that head.(1)
I now know from the information I obtain upon the spot, that the
impressions that then distressed me, for I was proud of America, were
but too well founded. She was turning her back on her own glory, and
making hasty strides in the retrograde path of oblivion. But a spark
from the altar of _Seventy-six_, unextinguished and unextinguishable
through the long night of error, is again lighting up, in every part of
the Union, the genuine name of rational liberty.
As the French revolution advanced, it fixed the attention of the world,
and drew from the pensioned pen (2) of Edmund Burke a furious attack.
This brought me once more on the public theatre of politics, and
occasioned the pamphlet _Rights of Man_. It had the greatest run of
any work ever published in the English language. The number of copies
circulated in England, Scotland, and Ireland, besides translations
into foreign languages, was between four and five hundred thousand. The
principles of that work were the same as those in _Common Sense_, and
the effects would have been the same in England as that had produced in
America, could the vote of the nation been quietly taken, or had equal
opportunities of consulting or acting existed. The only difference
between the two works was, that the one was adapted to the local
circumstances of England, and the other to those of America. As to
myself, I acted in both cases alike; I relinquished to the people of
England, as I had done to those of America, all profits from the work.
My reward existed in the ambition to do good, and the independent
happiness of my own mind.
1 Paine here quotes a passage from his letter to Mrs. Few,
already given in the Memorial to Monroe (XXI.). The entire
letter to Mrs. Few will be printed in the Appendix to Vol.
IV. of this work.--_Editor._
2 See editorial note p. 95 in this volume.--_Editor._
But a faction, acting in disguise, was rising in America; they had lost
sight of first principles. They were beginning to contemplate government
as a profitable monopoly, and the people as hereditary property. It
is, therefore, no wonder that the _Rights of Man_ was attacked by that
faction, and its author continually abused. But let them go on; give
them rope enough and they will put an end to their own insignificance.
There is too much common sense and independence in America to be long
the dupe of any faction, foreign or domestic.
But, in the midst of the freedom we enjoy, the licentiousness of the
papers called Federal, (and I know not why they are called so, for they
are in their principles anti-federal and despotic,) is a dishonour
to the character of the country, and an injury to its reputation
and importance abroad. They represent the whole people of America as
destitute of public principle and private manners. As to any injury they
can do at home to those whom they abuse, or service they can render
to those who employ them, it is to be set down to the account of
noisy nothingness. It is on themselves the disgrace recoils, for the
reflection easily presents itself to every thinking mind, that _those
who abuse liberty when they possess it would abuse power could they
obtain it_; and, therefore, they may as well take as a general motto,
for all such papers, _We and our patrons are not fit to be trusted with
power_.
There is in America, more than in any other country, a large body
of people who attend quietly to their farms, or follow their several
occupations; who pay no regard to the clamours of anonymous scribblers,
who think for themselves, and judge of government, not by the fury of
newspaper writers, but by the prudent frugality of its measures, and the
encouragement it gives to the improvement and prosperity of the country;
and who, acting on their own judgment, never come forward in an election
but on some important occasion. When this body moves, all the little
barkings of scribbling and witless curs pass for nothing. To say to this
independent description of men, "You must turn out such and such persons
at the next election, for they have taken off a great many taxes, and
lessened the expenses of government, they have dismissed my son, or my
brother, or myself, from a lucrative office, in which there was nothing
to do"--is to show the cloven foot of faction, and preach the language
of ill-disguised mortification. In every part of the Union, this faction
is in the agonies of death, and in proportion as its fate approaches,
gnashes its teeth and struggles. My arrival has struck it as with an
hydrophobia, it is like the sight of water to canine madness.
As this letter is intended to announce my arrival to my friends, and to
my enemies if I have any, for I ought to have none in America, and as
introductory to others that will occasionally follow, I shall close it
by detailing the line of conduct I shall pursue.
I have no occasion to ask, and do not intend to accept, any place or
office in the government.(1) There is none it could give me that would
be any ways equal to the profits I could make as an author, for I have
an established fame in the literary world, could I reconcile it to my
principles to make money by my politics or religion. I must be in every
thing what I have ever been, a disinterested volunteer; my proper sphere
of action is on the common floor of citizenship, and to honest men I
give my hand and my heart freely.
1 The President (Jefferson) being an intimate friend of
Paine, and suspected, despite his reticence, of sympathizing
with Paine's religions views, was included in the
denunciations of Paine ("The Two Toms" they were called),
and Paine here goes out of his way to soften matters for
Jefferson.--_Editor._.
I have some manuscript works to publish, of which I shall give proper
notice, and some mechanical affairs to bring forward, that will employ
all my leisure time. I shall continue these letters as I see occasion,
and as to the low party prints that choose to abuse me, they are
welcome; I shall not descend to answer them. I have been too much used
to such common stuff to take any notice of it. The government of England
honoured me with a thousand martyrdoms, by burning me in effigy in every
town in that country, and their hirelings in America may do the same.
City of Washington.
THOMAS PAINE.
LETTER II(1)
As the affairs of the country to which I am returned are of more
importance to the world, and to me, than of that I have lately left,
(for it is through the new world the old must be regenerated, if
regenerated at all,) I shall not take up the time of the reader with an
account of scenes that have passed in France, many of which are painful
to remember and horrid to relate, but come at once to the circumstances
in which I find America on my arrival.
Fourteen years, and something more, have produced a change, at least
among a part of the people, and I ask my-self what it is? I meet or hear
of thousands of my former connexions, who are men of the same principles
and friendships as when I left them. But a non-descript race, and of
equivocal generation, assuming the name of _Federalist_,--a name that
describes no character of principle good or bad, and may equally
be applied to either,--has since started up with the rapidity of a
mushroom, and like a mushroom is withering on its rootless stalk. Are
those men _federalized_ to support the liberties of their country or to
overturn them? To add to its fair fame or riot on its spoils? The
name contains no defined idea. It is like John Adams's definition of a
Republic, in his letter to Mr. Wythe of Virginia.(2) _It is_, says he,
_an empire of laws and not of men_. But as laws may be bad as well as
good, an empire of laws may be the best of all governments or the worst
of all tyrannies. But John Adams is a man of paradoxical heresies, and
consequently of a bewildered mind. He wrote a book entitled, "_A Defence
of the American Constitutions_," and the principles of it are an attack
upon them. But the book is descended to the tomb of forgetfulness, and
the best fortune that can attend its author is quietly to follow its
fate. John was not born for immortality. But, to return to Federalism.
1 National Intelligencer, Nov. 23d, 1802.--_Editor._
2 Chancellor Wythe, 1728-1806.--_Editor._ vol m--«5
In the history of parties and the names they assume, it often happens
that they finish by the direct contrary principles with which they
profess to begin, and thus it has happened with Federalism.
During the time of the old Congress, and prior to the establishment of
the federal government, the continental belt was too loosely buckled.
The several states were united in name but not in fact, and that nominal
union had neither centre nor circle. The laws of one state frequently
interferred with, and sometimes opposed, those of another. Commerce
between state and state was without protection, and confidence without
a point to rest on. The condition the country was then in, was aptly
described by Pelatiah Webster, when he said, "_thirteen staves and ne'er
a hoop will not make a barrel_."(1)
If, then, by _Federalist_ is to be understood one who was for cementing
the Union by a general government operating equally over all the States,
in all matters that embraced the common interest, and to which the
authority of the States severally was not adequate, for no one State
can make laws to bind another; if, I say, by a _Federalist_ is meant
a person of this description, (and this is the origin of the name,) _I
ought to stand first on the list of Federalists_, for the proposition
for establishing a general government over the Union, came originally
from me in 1783, in a written Memorial to Chancellor Livingston, then
Secretary for Foreign Affairs to Congress, Robert Morris, Minister
of Finance, and his associate, Gouverneur Morris, all of whom are now
living; and we had a dinner and conference at Robert Morris's on the
subject. The occasion was as follows:
Congress had proposed a duty of five per cent, on imported articles, the
money to be applied as a fund towards paying the interest of loans to
be borrowed in Holland. The resolve was sent to the several States to
be enacted into a law. Rhode Island absolutely refused. I was at
the trouble of a journey to Rhode Island to reason with them on the
subject.(2) Some other of the States enacted it with alterations, each
one as it pleased. Virginia adopted it, and afterwards repealed it, and
the affair came to nothing.
1 "Like a stare in a cask well bound with hoops, it [the
individual State] stands firmer, is not so easily shaken,
bent, or broken, as it would be were it set up by itself
alone."--Pelatiah Webster, 1788. See Paul L. Ford's
Pamphlets cm the Constitution, etc., p. 128.--Editor
2 See my "Life of Paine." vol i., p. 103.--Editor,
It was then visible, at least to me, that either Congress must frame the
laws necessary for the Union, and send them to the several States to be
enregistered without any alteration, which would in itself appear like
usurpation on one part and passive obedience on the other, or some
method must be devised to accomplish the same end by constitutional
principles; and the proposition I made in the memorial was, to _add
a continental legislature to Congress, to be elected by the several
States_. The proposition met the full approbation of the gentlemen to
whom it was addressed, and the conversation turned on the manner of
bringing it forward. Gouverneur Morris, in walking with me after dinner,
wished me to throw out the idea in the newspaper; I replied, that I did
not like to be always the proposer of new things, that it would have too
assuming an appearance; and besides, that _I did not think the country
was quite wrong enough to be put right_. I remember giving the same
reason to Dr. Rush, at Philadelphia, and to General Gates, at whose
quarters I spent a day on my return from Rhode Island; and I suppose
they will remember it, because the observation seemed to strike them.(1)
1 The Letter Books of Robert Morris (16 folio volumes, which
should be in our national Archives) contain many entries
relating to Paine's activity in the public service. Under
date Aug. 21, 1783, about the time referred to by Paine in
this letter, Robert Morris mentions a conversation with him
on public affairs. I am indebted to General Meredith Read,
owner of these Morris papers, for permission to examine
them.--_Editor._.
But the embarrassments increasing, as they necessarily must from the
want of a better cemented union, the State of Virginia proposed holding
a commercial convention, and that convention, which was not sufficiently
numerous, proposed that another convention, with more extensive and
better defined powers, should be held at Philadelphia, May 10, 1787.
When the plan of the Federal Government, formed by this Convention, was
proposed and submitted to the consideration of the several States, it
was strongly objected to in each of them. But the objections were not on
anti-federal grounds, but on constitutional points. Many were shocked
at the idea of placing what is called Executive Power in the hands of a
single individual. To them it had too much the form and appearance of a
military government, or a despotic one. Others objected that the
powers given to a president were too great, and that in the hands of
an ambitious and designing man it might grow into tyranny, as it did
in England under Oliver Cromwell, and as it has since done in France.
A Republic must not only be so in its principles, but in its forms. The
Executive part of the Federal government was made for a man, and those
who consented, against their judgment, to place Executive Power in the
hands of a single individual, reposed more on the supposed moderation of
the person they had in view, than on the wisdom of the measure itself.
Two considerations, however, overcame all objections. The one was, the
absolute necessity of a Federal Government. The other, the rational
reflection, that as government in America is founded on the
representative system any error in the first essay could be reformed
by the same quiet and rational process by which the Constitution was
formed, and that either by the generation then living, or by those who
were to succeed. If ever America lose sight of this principle, she will
no longer be the _land of liberty_. The father will become the assassin
of the rights of the son, and his descendants be a race of slaves.
As many thousands who were minors are grown up to manhood since the name
of _Federalist_ began, it became necessary, for their information, to
go back and show the origin of the name, which is now no longer what it
originally was; but it was the more necessary to do this, in order to
bring forward, in the open face of day, the apostacy of those who first
called themselves Federalists.
To them it served as a cloak for treason, a mask for tyranny. Scarcely
were they placed in the seat of power and office, than Federalism was to
be destroyed, and the representative system of government, the pride
and glory of America, and the palladium of her liberties, was to be
overthrown and abolished. The next generation was not to be free. The
son was to bend his neck beneath the father's foot, and live, deprived
of his rights, under hereditary control. Among the men of this apostate
description, is to be ranked the ex-president _John Adams_. It has been
the political career of this man to begin with hypocrisy, proceed with
arrogance, and finish in contempt. May such be the fate of all such
characters.
I have had doubts of John Adams ever since the year 1776. In a
conversation with me at that time, concerning the pamphlet _Common
Sense_, he censured it because it attacked the English form of
government. John was for independence because he expected to be made
great by it; but it was not difficult to perceive, for the surliness of
his temper makes him an awkward hypocrite, that his head was as full of
kings, queens, and knaves, as a pack of cards. But John has lost deal.
When a man has a concealed project in his brain that he wants to bring
forward, and fears will not succeed, he begins with it as physicians
do by suspected poison, try it first on an animal; if it agree with the
stomach of the animal, he makes further experiments, and this was the
way John took. His brain was teeming with projects to overturn the
liberties of America, and the representative system of government, and
he began by hinting it in little companies. The secretary of John Jay,
an excellent painter and a poor politician, told me, in presence of
another American, Daniel Parker, that in a company where himself was
present, John Adams talked of making the government hereditary, and that
as Mr. Washington had no children, it should be made hereditary in the
family of Lund Washington.(1) John had not impudence enough to propose
himself in the first instance, as the old French Normandy baron did,
who offered to come over to be king of America, and if Congress did not
accept his offer, that they would give him thirty thousand pounds for
the generosity of it(2); but John, like a mole, was grubbing his way to
it under ground. He knew that Lund Washington was unknown, for nobody
had heard of him, and that as the president had no children to succeed
him, the vice-president had, and if the treason had succeeded, and the
hint with it, the goldsmith might be sent for to take measure of the
head of John or of his son for a golden wig. In this case, the good
people of Boston might have for a king the man they have rejected as a
delegate. The representative system is fatal to ambition.
1 See supra footnote on p. 288.--_Editor._
2 See vol. ii. p. 318 of this work.--_Editor._
Knowing, as I do, the consummate vanity of John Adams, and the
shallowness of his judgment, I can easily picture to myself that when
he arrived at the Federal City he was strutting in the pomp of his
imagination before the presidential house, or in the audience hall, and
exulting in the language of Nebuchadnezzar, "Is not this great Babylon,
that I have built for the honour of my Majesty!" But in that unfortunate
hour, or soon after, John, like Nebuchadnezzar, was driven from among
men, and fled with the speed of a post-horse.
Some of John Adams's loyal subjects, I see, have been to present him
with an address on his birthday; but the language they use is too tame
for the occasion. Birthday addresses, like birthday odes, should not
creep along like mildrops down a cabbage leaf, but roll in a torrent of
poetical metaphor. I will give them a specimen for the next year. Here
it is--
When an Ant, in travelling over the globe, lift up its foot, and put it
again on the ground, it shakes the earth to its centre: but when YOU,
the mighty Ant of the East, was born, &c. &c. &c, the centre jumped upon
the surface.
This, gentlemen, is the proper style of addresses from _well-bred_ ants
to the monarch of the ant hills; and as I never take pay for preaching,
praying, politics, or poetry, I make you a present of it. Some people
talk of impeaching John Adams; but I am for softer measures. I would
keep him to make fun of. He will then answer one of the ends for which
he was born, and he ought to be thankful that I am arrived to take his
part. I voted in earnest to save the life of one unfortunate king, and
I now vote in jest to save another. It is my fate to be always plagued
with fools. But to return to Federalism and apostacy.
The plan of the leaders of the faction was to overthrow the liberties
of the new world, and place government on the corrupt system of the old.
They wanted to hold their power by a more lasting tenure than the choice
of their constituents. It is impossible to account for their conduct and
the measures they adopted on any other ground. But to accomplish that
object, a standing army and a prodigal revenue must be raised; and to
obtain these, pretences must be invented to deceive. Alarms of dangers
that did not exist even in imagination, but in the direct spirit of
lying, were spread abroad. Apostacy stalked through the land in the garb
of patriotism, and the torch of treason blinded for a while the flame of
liberty.
For what purpose could an army of twenty-five thousand men be wanted?
A single reflection might have taught the most credulous that while
the war raged between France and England, neither could spare a man to
invade America. For what purpose, then, could it be wanted? The case
carries its own explanation. It was wanted for the purpose of destroying
the representative system, for it could be employed for no other. Are
these men Federalists? If they are, they are federalized to deceive and
to destroy.
The rage against Dr. Logan's patriotic and voluntary mission to France
was excited by the shame they felt at the detection of the false alarms
they had circulated. As to the opposition given by the remnant of
the faction to the repeal of the taxes laid on during the former
administration, it is easily accounted for. The repeal of those taxes
was a sentence of condemnation on those who laid them on, and in the
opposition they gave in that repeal, they are to be considered in the
light of criminals standing on their defence, and the country has passed
judgment upon them.
Thomas Paine.
City of Washington, Lovett's Hotel, Nov. 19, 1802.
LETTER III.(1)
1 The National Intelligencer, Dec. 29th, 1802.--_Editor._.
To ELECT, and to REJECT, is the prerogative of a free people.
Since the establishment of Independence, no period has arrived that
so decidedly proves the excellence of the representative system of
government, and its superiority over every other, as the time we now
live in. Had America been cursed with John Adams's _hereditary Monarchy_
or Alexander Hamilton's _Senate for life_ she must have sought, in the
doubtful contest of civil war, what she now obtains by the expression of
public will. An appeal to elections decides better than an appeal to the
sword.
The Reign of Terror that raged in America during the latter end of the
Washington administration, and the whole of that of Adams, is enveloped
in mystery to me. That there were men in the government hostile to the
representative system, was once their boast, though it is now their
overthrow, and therefore the fact is established against them. But that
so large a mass of the people should become the dupes of those who were
loading them with taxes in order to load them with chains, and deprive
them of the right of election, can be ascribed only to that species
of wildfire rage, lighted up by falsehood, that not only acts without
reflection, but is too impetuous to make any.
There is a general and striking difference between the genuine effects
of truth itself, and the effects of falsehood believed to be truth.
Truth is naturally benign; but falsehood believed to be truth is always
furious. The former delights in serenity, is mild and persuasive, and
seeks not the auxiliary aid of invention. The latter sticks at nothing.
It has naturally no morals. Every lie is welcome that suits its purpose.
It is the innate character of the thing to act in this manner, and the
criterion by which it may be known, whether in politics or religion.
When any thing is attempted to be supported by lying, it is presumptive
evidence that the thing so supported is a lie also. The stock on which a
lie can be grafted must be of the same species as the graft.
What is become of the mighty clamour of French invasion, and the cry
that our country is in danger, and taxes and armies must be raised to
defend it? The danger is fled with the faction that created it, and what
is worst of all, the money is fled too. It is I only that have committed
the hostility of invasion, and all the artillery of popguns are prepared
for action. Poor fellows, how they foam! They set half their own
partisans in laughter; for among ridiculous things nothing is more
ridiculous than ridiculous rage. But I hope they will not leave off. I
shall lose half my greatness when they cease to lie.
So far as respects myself, I have reason to believe, and a right to say,
that the leaders of the Reign of Terror in America and the leaders of
the Reign of Terror in France, during the time of Robespierre, were in
character the same sort of men; or how is it to be accounted for, that
I was persecuted by both at the same time? When I was voted out of
the French Convention, the reason assigned for it was, that I was a
foreigner. When Robespierre had me seized in the night, and imprisoned
in the Luxembourg, (where I remained eleven months,) he assigned no
reason for it. But when he proposed bringing me to the tribunal, which
was like sending me at once to the scaffold, he then assigned a reason,
and the reason was, _for the interests of America as well as of France,
"Pour les intérêts de l'Amérique autant que de la France_" The words are
in his own hand-writing, and reported to the Convention by the committee
appointed to examine his papers, and are printed in their report, with
this reflection added to them, "_Why Thomas Paine more than another?
Because he contributed to the liberty of both worlds_."(1)
1 See my "Life of Paine," vol. ii., pp. 79, 81. Also, the
historical introduction to XXI., p. 330, of this volume.
Robespierre never wrote an idle word. This Paine well knew,
as Mirabeau, who said of Robespierre: "That man will go far
he believes every word he says."--_Editor._
There must have been a coalition in sentiment, if not in fact, between
the Terrorists of America and the Terrorists of France, and Robespierre
must have known it, or he could not have had the idea of putting America
into the bill of accusation against me. Yet these men, these Terrorists
of the new world, who were waiting in the devotion of their hearts for
the joyful news of my destruction, are the same banditti who are now
bellowing in all the hacknied language of hacknied hypocrisy, about
humanity, and piety, and often about something they call infidelity, and
they finish with the chorus of _Crucify him, crucify him_. I am become
so famous among them, they cannot eat or drink without me. I serve them
as a standing dish, and they cannot make up a bill of fare if I am not
in it.
But there is one dish, and that the choicest of all, that they have not
presented on the table, and it is time they should. They have not yet
_accused Providence of Infidelity_. Yet according to their outrageous
piety, she(1) must be as bad as Thomas Paine; she has protected him in
all his dangers, patronized him in all his undertakings, encouraged him
in all his ways, and rewarded him at last by bringing him in safety and
in health to the Promised Land. This is more than she did by the Jews,
the chosen people, that they tell us she brought out of the land
of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage; for they all died in the
wilderness, and Moses too.
I was one of the nine members that composed the first Committee of
Constitution. Six of them have been destroyed. Sièyes and myself have
survived--he by bending with the times, and I by not bending. The other
survivor joined Robespierre, he was seized and imprisoned in his turn,
and sentenced to transportation. He has since apologized to me for
having signed the warrant, by saying he felt himself in danger and was
obliged to do it.(2)
1 Is this a "survival" of the goddess Fortuna?--_Editor._
2 Barère. His apology to Paine proves that a death-
warrant had been issued, for Barère did not sign the order
for Paine's arrest or imprisonment.--_Editor._
Hérault Sechelles, an acquaintance of Mr. Jefferson, and a good patriot,
was my _suppléant_ as member of the Committee of Constitution, that is,
he was to supply my place, if I had not accepted or had resigned, being
next in number of votes to me. He was imprisoned in the Luxembourg with
me, was taken to the tribunal and the guillotine, and I, his principal,
was left.
There were two foreigners in the Convention, Anarcharsis Clootz and
myself. We were both put out of the Convention by the same vote,
arrested by the same order, and carried to prison together the same
night. He was taken to the guillotine, and I was again left. Joel Barlow
was with us when we went to prison.
Joseph Lebon, one of the vilest characters that ever existed, and who
made the streets of Arras run with blood, was my _suppléant_, as member
of the Convention for the department of the Pas de Calais. When I
was put out of the Convention he came and took my place. When I was
liberated from prison and voted again into the Convention, he was sent
to the same prison and took my place there, and he was sent to the
guillotine instead of me. He supplied my place all the way through.
One hundred and sixty-eight persons were taken out of the Luxembourg
in one night, and a hundred and sixty of them guillotined next day, of
which I now know I was to have been one; and the manner I escaped that
fate is curious, and has all the appearance of accident.
The room in which I was lodged was on the ground floor, and one of a
long range of rooms under a gallery, and the door of it opened outward
and flat against the wall; so that when it was open the inside of the
door appeared outward, and the contrary when it was shut. I had three
comrades, fellow prisoners with me, Joseph Vanhuele, of Bruges, since
President of the Municipality of that town, Michael Rubyns, and Charles
Bastini of Louvain.
When persons by scores and by hundreds were to be taken out of the
prison for the guillotine it was always done in the night, and those who
performed that office had a private mark or signal, by which they knew
what rooms to go to, and what number to take. We, as I have stated, were
four, and the door of our room was marked, unobserved by us, with that
number in chalk; but it happened, if happening is a proper word, that
the mark was put on when the door was open, and flat against the
wall, and thereby came on the inside when we shut it at night, and the
destroying angel passed by it.(1) A few days after this, Robespierre
fell, and Mr. Monroe arrived and reclaimed me, and invited me to his
house.
1 Painefs preface to the "Age of Reason" Part IL, and his
Letter to Washington (p. 222.) show that for some time after
his release from prison he had attributed his escape from
the guillotine to a fever which rendered him unconscious at
the time when his accusation was demanded by Robespierre;
but it will be seen (XXXI.) that he subsequently visited his
prison room-mate Vanhuele, who had become Mayor of Bruges,
and he may have learned from him the particulars of their
marvellous escape. Carlyle having been criticised by John G.
Alger for crediting this story of the chalk mark, an
exhaustive discussion of the facts took place in the London
Athenoum, July 7, 21, August 25, September 1, 1894, in which
it was conclusively proved, I think, that there is no reason
to doubt the truth of the incident See also my article on
Paine's escape, in The Open Court (Chicago), July 26,1894.
The discussion in the Athenoum elicited the fact that a
tradition had long existed in the family of Sampson Perry
that he had shared Paine's cell and been saved by the
curious mistake. Such is not the fact. Perry, in his book on
the French Revolution, and in his "Argus," told the story of
Paine's escape by his illness, as Paine first told it; and
he also relates an anecdote which may find place here:
"Mr. Paine speaks gratefully of the kindness shown him by his
fellow-prisoners of the same chamber during his severe
malady, and especially of the skilful and voluntary
assistance lent him by General O'Hara's surgeon. He relates
an anecdote of himself which may not be unworthy of
repeating. An arrêt of the Committee of Public Welfare had
given directions to the administrators of the palace
[Luxembourg] to enter all the prisons with additional guards
and dispossess every prisoner of his knives, forks, and
every other sharp instrument; and also to take their money
from them. This happened a short time before Mr. Paine's
illness, and as this ceremony was represented to him as an
atrocious plunder in the dregs of municipality, he
determined to avert its effect so far as it concerned
himself. He had an English bank note of some value and gold
coin in his pocket, and as he conceived the visitors would
rifle them, as well as his trunks (though they did not do so
by any one) he took off the lock from his door, and hid the
whole of what he had about him in its inside. He recovered
his health, he found his money, but missed about three
hundred of his associated prisoners, who had been sent in
crowds to the murderous tribunal, while he had been
insensible of their or his own danger." This was probably
the money (£200) loaned by Paine to General O'Hara (who
figured at the Yorktown surrender) in prison.--_Editor._
During the whole of my imprisonment, prior to the fall of Robespierre,
there was no time when I could think my life worth twenty-four hours,
and my mind was made up to meet its fate. The Americans in Paris went in
a body to the Convention to reclaim me, but without success. There was
no party among them with respect to me. My only hope then rested on the
government of America, that it would _remember me_. But the icy heart of
ingratitude, in whatever man it be placed, has neither feeling nor
sense of honour. The letter of Mr. Jefferson has served to wipe away the
reproach, and done justice to the mass of the people of America.(1)
1 Printed in the seventh of this series of Letters.--
_Editor._.
When a party was forming, in the latter end of 1777, and beginning of
1778, of which John Adams was one, to remove Mr. Washington from the
command of the army on the complaint that _he did nothing_, I wrote the
fifth number of the Crisis, and published it at Lancaster, (Congress
then being at Yorktown, in Pennsylvania,) to ward off that meditated
blow; for though I well knew that the black times of '76 were the
natural consequence of his want of military judgment in the choice of
positions into which the army was put about New York and New Jersey, I
could see no possible advantage, and nothing but mischief, that could
arise by distracting the army into parties, which would have been the
case had the intended motion gone on.
General [Charles] Lee, who with a sarcastic genius joined a great fund
of military knowledge, was perfectly right when he said "_We have no
business on islands, and in the bottom of bogs, where the enemy, by the
aid of its ships, can bring its whole force against apart of ours and
shut it up_." This had like to have been the case at New York, and it
was the case at Fort Washington, and would have been the case at Fort
Lee if General [Nathaniel] Greene had not moved instantly off on the
first news of the enemy's approach. I was with Greene through the whole
of that affair, and know it perfectly.
But though I came forward in defence of Mr. Washington when he was
attacked, and made the best that could be made of a series of blunders
that had nearly ruined the country, he left me to perish when I was in
prison. But as I told him of it in his life-time, I should not now bring
it up if the ignorant impertinence of some of the Federal papers, who
are pushing Mr. Washington forward as their stalking horse, did not make
it necessary.
That gentleman did not perform his part in the Revolution better, nor
with more honour, than I did mine, and the one part was as necessary
as the other. He accepted as a present, (though he was already rich,)
a hundred thousand acres of land in America, and left me to occupy six
foot of earth in France.(1) I wish, for his own reputation, he had acted
with more justice. But it was always known of Mr. Washington, by
those who best knew him, that he was of such an icy and death-like
constitution, that he neither loved his friends nor hated his enemies.
But, be this as it may, I see no reason that a difference between Mr.
Washington and me should be made a theme of discord with other people.
There are those who may see merit in both, without making themselves
partisans of either, and with this reflection I close the subject.
1 Paine was mistaken, as many others were, about the gifts
of Virginia (1785) to Washington. They were 100 shares, of
$100 each, in the James River Company, and 50 shares, of
£100 each, in the Potomac Company. Washington, accepted on
condition that he might appropriate them _to public uses_
which was done in his Will.--_Editor._
As to the hypocritical abuse thrown out by the Federalists on other
subjects, I recommend to them the observance of a commandment that
existed before either Christian or Jew existed:
Thou shalt make a covenant with thy senses:
With thine eye that it behold no evil,
With thine ear, that it hear no evil,
With thy tongue, that it speak no evil,
With thy hands, that they commit no evil.
If the Federalists will follow this commandment, they will leave off
lying.
Thomas Paine.
Federal City, Lovett's Hotel, Nov. 26,1802.
LETTER IV.(1)
1 The National Intelligencer, Dec. 6th. 1802.--_Editor._.
As Congress is on the point of meeting, the public papers will
necessarily be occupied with the debates of the ensuing session, and
as, in consequence of my long absence from America, my private affairs
require my attendance, (for it is necessary I do this, or I could not
preserve, as I do, my independence,) I shall close my address to the
public with this letter.
I congratulate them on the success of the late elections, and _that_
with the additional confidence, that while honest men are chosen and
wise measures pursued, neither the treason of apostacy, masked under the
name of Federalism, of which I have spoken in my second letter, nor the
intrigues of foreign emissaries, acting in concert with that mask, can
prevail.
As to the licentiousness of the papers calling themselves _Federal_, a
name that apostacy has taken, it can hurt nobody but the party or the
persons who support such papers. There is naturally a wholesome pride
in the public mind that revolts at open vulgarity. It feels itself
dishonoured even by hearing it, as a chaste woman feels dishonour by
hearing obscenity she cannot avoid. It can smile at wit, or be diverted
with strokes of satirical humour, but it detests the _blackguard_. The
same sense of propriety that governs in private companies, governs in
public life. If a man in company runs his wit upon another, it may draw
a smile from some persons present, but as soon as he turns a blackguard
in his language the company gives him up; and it is the same in public
life. The event of the late election shows this to be true; for in
proportion as those papers have become more and more vulgar and abusive,
the elections have gone more and more against the party they support,
or that supports them. Their predecessor, _Porcupine_ [Cobbett] had
wit--these scribblers have none. But as soon as his _blackguardism_ (for
it is the proper name of it) outran his wit, he was abandoned by every
body but the English Minister who protected him.
The Spanish proverb says, "_there never was a cover large enough to hide
itself_"; and the proverb applies to the case of those papers and the
shattered remnant of the faction that supports them. The falsehoods they
fabricate, and the abuse they circulate, is a cover to hide something
from being seen, but it is not large enough to hide itself. It is as
a tub thrown out to the whale to prevent its attacking and sinking the
vessel. They want to draw the attention of the public from thinking
about, or inquiring into, the measures of the late administration, and
the reason why so much public money was raised and expended; and so far
as a lie today, and a new one tomorrow, will answer this purpose, it
answers theirs. It is nothing to them whether they be believed or not,
for if the negative purpose be answered the main point is answered, to
them.
He that picks your pocket always tries to make you look another way.
"Look," says he, "at yon man t'other side the street--what a nose he has
got?--Lord, yonder is a chimney on fire!--Do you see yon man going along
in the salamander great coat? That is the very man that stole one of
Jupiter's satellites, and sold it to a countryman for a gold watch,
and it set his breeches on fire!" Now the man that has his hand in your
pocket, does not care a farthing whether you believe what he says or
not. All his aim is to prevent your looking at _him_; and this is the
case with the remnant of the Federal faction. The leaders of it have
imposed upon the country, and they want to turn the attention of it from
the subject.
In taking up any public matter, I have never made it a consideration,
and never will, whether it be popular or unpopular; but whether it be
_right_ or _wrong_. The right will always become the popular, if it has
courage to show itself, and the shortest way is always a straight line.
I despise expedients, they are the gutter-hole of politics, and the sink
where reputation dies. In the present case, as in every other, I
cannot be accused of using any; and I have no doubt but thousands will
hereafter be ready to say, as Gouverneur Morris said to me, after having
abused me pretty handsomely in Congress for the opposition I gave
the fraudulent demand of Silas Deane of two thousand pounds sterling:
"_Well, we were all duped, and I among the rest!_"(1)
1 See vol. I., chapters xxii., xxiii., xxiv., of this work.
Also my "Life of Paine," vol. I., ch. ix., x.--_Editor._
Were the late administration to be called upon to give reasons for
the expence it put the country to, it can give none. The danger of an
invasion was a bubble that served as a cover to raise taxes and armies
to be employed on some other purpose. But if the people of America
believed it true, the cheerfulness with which they supported those
measures and paid those taxes is an evidence of their patriotism; and
if they supposed me their enemy, though in that supposition they did me
injustice, it was not injustice in them. He that acts as he believes,
though he may act wrong, is not conscious of wrong.
But though there was no danger, no thanks are due to the late
administration for it. They sought to blow up a flame between the two
countries; and so intent were they upon this, that they went out of
their way to accomplish it. In a letter which the Secretary of State,
Timothy Pickering, wrote to Mr. Skipwith, the American Consul at Paris,
he broke off from the official subject of his letter, to _thank God_ in
very exulting language, _that the Russians had cut the French army
to pieces_. Mr. Skipwith, after showing me the letter, very prudently
concealed it.
It was the injudicious and wicked acrimony of this letter, and some
other like conduct of the then Secretary of State, that occasioned me,
in a letter to a friend in the government, to say, that if there was any
official business to be done in France, till a regular Minister could
be appointed, it could not be trusted to a more proper person than Mr.
Skipwith. "_He is_," said I, "_an honest man, and will do business, and
that with good manners to the government he is commissioned to act with.
A faculty which that BEAR, Timothy Pickering, wanted, and which the BEAR
of that bear, John Adams, never possessed_."(2)
2 By reference to the letter itself (p. 376 of this volume)
it will be seen that Paine here quotes it from memory.--
_Editor._ vol III--
In another letter to the same friend, in 1797, and which was put
unsealed under cover to Colonel Burr, I expressed a satisfaction
that Mr. Jefferson, since he was not president, had accepted the
vice presidency; "_for_," said I, "_John Adams has such a talent for
blundering and offending, it will be necessary to keep an eye over
him_." He has now sufficiently proved, that though I have not the spirit
of prophecy, I have the gift of _judging right_. And all the world
knows, for it cannot help knowing, that to judge _rightly_ and to write
_clearly_, and that upon all sorts of subjects, to be able to command
thought and as it were to play with it at pleasure, and be always master
of one's temper in writing, is the faculty only of a serene mind, and
the attribute of a happy and philosophical temperament. The scribblers,
who know me not, and who fill their papers with paragraphs about me,
besides their want of talents, drink too many slings and drams in a
morning to have any chance with me. But, poor fellows, they must do
something for the little pittance they get from their employers. This is
my apology for them.
My anxiety to get back to America was great for many years. It is the
country of my heart, and the place of my political and literary birth.
It was the American revolution that made me an author, and forced into
action the mind that had been dormant, and had no wish for public life,
nor has it now. By the accounts I received, she appeared to me to be
going wrong, and that some meditated treason against her liberties
lurked at the bottom of her government. I heard that my friends were
oppressed, and I longed to take my stand among them, and if other times
to _try mens souls_ were to arrive, that I might bear my share. But my
efforts to return were ineffectual.
As soon as Mr. Monroe had made a good standing with the French
government, for the conduct of his predecessor [Morris] had made his
reception as Minister difficult, he wanted to send despatches to his own
government by a person to whom he could confide a verbal communication,
and he fixed his choice on me. He then applied to the Committee of
Public Safety for a passport; but as I had been voted again into the
Convention, it was only the Convention that could give the passport;
and as an application to them for that purpose, would have made my going
publicly known, I was obliged to sustain the disappointment, and Mr.
Monroe to lose the opportunity.(1)
When that gentleman left France to return to America, I was to have
gone with him. It was fortunate I did not. The vessel he sailed in was
visited by a British frigate, that searched every part of it, and down
to the hold, for Thomas Paine.(2) I then went, the same year, to embark
at Havre. But several British frigates were cruizing in sight of the
port who knew I was there, and I had to return again to Paris. Seeing
myself thus cut off from every opportunity that was in my power to
command, I wrote to Mr. Jefferson, that, if the fate of the election
should put him in the chair of the presidency, and he should have
occasion to send a frigate to France, he would give me the opportunity
of returning by it, which he did. But I declined coming by the
_Maryland_, the vessel that was offered me, and waited for the frigate
that was to bring the new Minister, Mr. Chancellor Livingston, to
France. But that frigate was ordered round to the Mediterranean; and
as at that time the war was over, and the British cruisers called in,
I could come any way. I then agreed to come with Commodore Barney in a
vessel he had engaged. It was again fortunate I did not, for the vessel
sank at sea, and the people were preserved in the boat.
1 The correspondence is in my "Life of Paine," vol. ii.,
pp. 154-5.--_Editor._
2 The "Dublin Packet," Captain Clay, in whom Paine, as he
wrote to Jefferson, "had no confidence."--_Editor._
Had half the number of evils befallen me that the number of dangers
amount to through which I have been pre-served, there are those who
would ascribe it to the wrath of heaven; why then do they not ascribe
my preservation to the protecting favour of heaven? Even in my worldly
concerns I have been blessed. The little property I left in America,
and which I cared nothing about, not even to receive the rent of it,
has been increasing in the value of its capital more than eight hundred
dollars every year, for the fourteen years and more that I have been
absent from it. I am now in my circumstances independent; and my economy
makes me rich. As to my health, it is perfectly good, and I leave the
world to judge of the stature of my mind. I am in every instance a
living contradiction to the mortified Federalists.
In my publications, I follow the rule I began with in _Common Sense_,
that is, to consult nobody, nor to let any body see what I write till
it appears publicly. Were I to do otherwise, the case would be, that
between the timidity of some, who are so afraid of doing wrong that they
never do right, the puny judgment of others, and the despicable craft of
preferring _expedient to right_, as if the world was a world of babies
in leading strings, I should get forward with nothing. My path is a
right line, as straight and clear to me as a ray of light. The boldness
(if they will have it to be so) with which I speak on any subject, is a
compliment to the judgment of the reader. It is like saying to him,
_I treat you as a man and not as a child_. With respect to any worldly
object, as it is impossible to discover any in me, therefore what I do,
and my manner of doing it, ought to be ascribed to a good motive.
In a great affair, where the happiness of man is at stake, I love
to work for nothing; and so fully am I under the influence of this
principle, that I should lose the spirit, the pleasure, and the pride
of it, were I conscious that I looked for reward; and with this
declaration, I take my leave for the present.(1)
1 The self-assertion of this and other letters about this
time was really self-defence, the invective against him, and
the calumnies, being such as can hardly be credited by those
not familiar with the publications of that time.--_Editor._
Thomas Paine.
Federal City, Lovett's Hotel, Dec. 3, 1802.
LETTER V.(1)
1 The National Intelligencer, Feb., 1803. In the Tarions
collections of these Letters there appears at this point a
correspondence between Paine and Samuel Adams of Boston, but
as it relates to religious matters I reserve it for the
fourth volume.--_Editor._.
It is always the interest of a far greater part of the nation to have
a thing right than to have it wrong; and therefore, in a country whose
government is founded on the system of election and representation, the
fate of every party is decided by its principles.
As this system is the only form and principle of government by which
liberty can be preserved, and the only one that can embrace all the
varieties of a great extent of country, it necessarily follows, that to
have the representation real, the election must be real; and that where
the election is a fiction, the representation is a fiction also. _Like
will always produce like_.
A great deal has been said and written concerning the conduct of Mr.
Burr, during the late contest, in the federal legislature, whether Mr.
Jefferson or Mr. Burr should be declared President of the United States.
Mr. Burr has been accused of intriguing to obtain the Presidency.
Whether this charge be substantiated or not makes little or no part of
the purport of this letter. There is a point of much higher importance
to attend to than any thing that relates to the individual Mr. Burr: for
the great point is not whether Mr. Burr has intrigued, but whether the
legislature has intrigued with _him_.
Mr. Ogden, a relation of one of the senators of New Jersey of the same
name, and of the party assuming the style of Federalists, has written
a letter published in the New York papers, signed with his name, the
purport of which is to exculpate Mr. Burr from the charges brought
against him. In this letter he says:
"When about to return from Washington, two or three _members of
Congress_ of the federal party spoke to me of _their views_, as to the
election of a president, desiring me to converse with Colonel Burr on
the subject, and to ascertain _whether he would enter into terms_. On my
return to New York I called on Colonel Burr, and communicated the above
to him. He explicitly declined the explanation, and _did neither propose
nor agree to any terms_."
How nearly is human cunning allied to folly! The animals to whom nature
has given the faculty we call _cunning_, know always when to use it,
and use it wisely; but when man descends to cunning, he blunders and
betrays.
Mr. Ogden's letter is intended to exculpate Mr. Burr from the charge
of intriguing to obtain the presidency; and the letter that he (Ogden)
writes for this purpose is direct evidence against his party in
Congress, that they intrigued with Burr to obtain him for President,
and employed him (Ogden) for the purpose. To save _Aaron_, he betrays
_Moses_, and then turns informer against the _Golden Calf_.
It is but of little importance to the world to know if Mr. Burr
_listened_ to an intriguing proposal, but it is of great importance to
the constituents to know if their representatives in Congress made one.
The ear can commit no crime, but the tongue may; and therefore the right
policy is to drop Mr. Burr, as being only the hearer, and direct the
whole charge against the Federal faction in Congress as the active
original culprit, or, if the priests will have scripture for it, as the
serpent that beguiled Eve.
1 In the presidential canvas of 1800, the votes in the
electoral college being equally divided between Burr and
Jefferson, the election was thrown into the House of
Representatives. Jefferson was elected on the 36th ballot,
but he never forgave Burr, and between these two old friends
Paine had to write this letter under some embarrassment. The
last paragraph of this Letter shows Paine's desire for a
reconciliation between Burr and Jefferson. Aaron Burr is one
of the traditionally slandered figures of American history.
--_Editor._
The plot of the intrigue was to make Mr. Burr President, on the private
condition of his agreeing to, and entering into, terms with them, that
is, with the proposers. Had then the election been made, the country,
knowing nothing of this private and illegal transaction, would have
supposed, for who could have supposed otherwise, that it had a President
according to the forms, principles, and intention of the constitution.
No such thing. Every form, principle, and intention of the constitution
would have been violated; and instead of a President, it would have had
a mute, a sort of image, hand-bound and tongue-tied, the dupe and slave
of a party, placed on the theatre of the United States, and acting the
farce of President.
It is of little importance, in a constitutional sense, to know what the
terms to be proposed might be, because any terms other than those which
the constitution prescribes to a President are criminal. Neither do I
see how Mr. Burr, or any other person put in the same condition, could
have taken the oath prescribed by the constitution to a President, which
is, "_I do solemnly swear (or affirm,) that I will faithfully execute
the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of
my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United
States_."
How, I ask, could such a person have taken such an oath, knowing at the
same time that he had entered into the Presidency on terms unknown
in the Constitution, and private, and which would deprive him of the
freedom and power of acting as President of the United States, agreeably
to his constitutional oath?
Mr. Burr, by not agreeing to terms, has escaped the danger to which
they exposed him, and the perjury that would have followed, and also
the punishment annexed thereto. Had he accepted the Presidency on
terms unknown in the constitution, and private, and had the transaction
afterwards transpired, (which it most probably would, for roguery is a
thing difficult to conceal,) it would have produced a sensation in the
country too violent to be quieted, and too just to be resisted; and in
any case the election must have been void.
But what are we to think of those members of Congress, who having taken
an oath of the same constitutional import as the oath of the President,
violate that oath by tampering to obtain a President on private
conditions. If this is not sedition against the constitution and the
country, it is difficult to define what sedition in a representative can
be.
Say not that this statement of the case is the effect of personal or
party resentment. No. It is the effect of _sincere concern_ that such
corruption, of which this is but a sample, should, in the space of a few
years, have crept into a country that had the fairest opportunity that
Providence ever gave, within the knowledge of history, of making itself
an illustrious example to the world.
What the terms were, or were to be, it is probable we never shall know;
or what is more probable, that feigned ones, if any, will be given. But
from the conduct of the party since that time we may conclude, that no
taxes would have been taken off, that the clamour for war would have
been kept up, new expences incurred, and taxes and offices increased
in consequence; and, among the articles of a private nature, that
the leaders in this seditious traffic were to stipulate with the mock
President for lucrative appointments for themselves.
But if these plotters against the Constitution understood their
business, and they had been plotting long enough to be masters of it, a
single article would have comprehended every thing, which is, _That the
President (thus made) should be governed in all cases whatsoever by a
private junto appointed by themselves_. They could then, through the
medium of a mock President, have negatived all bills which their
party in Congress could not have opposed with success, and reduced
representation to a nullity.
The country has been imposed upon, and the real culprits are but few;
and as it is necessary for the peace, harmony, and honour of the Union,
to separate the deceiver from the deceived, the betrayer from the
betrayed, that men who once were friends, and that in the worst of
times, should be friends again, it is necessary, as a beginning, that
this dark business be brought to full investigation. Ogden's letter
is direct evidence of the fact of tampering to obtain a conditional
President. He knows the two or three members of Congress that
commissioned him, and they know who commissioned them.
Thomas Paine.
Federal City, Lovett's Hotel, Jan. 29th, 1803.
LETTER VI.(1)
1 The Aurora (Philadelphia).--_Editor._.
Religion and War is the cry of the Federalists; Morality and Peace the
voice of Republicans. The union of Morality and Peace is congenial;
but that of Religion and War is a paradox, and the solution of it is
hypocrisy.
The leaders of the Federalists have no judgment; their plans no
consistency of parts; and want of consistency is the natural consequence
of want of principle.
They exhibit to the world the curious spectacle of an _Opposition_
without a _cause_, and conduct without system. Were they, as doctors,
to prescribe medicine as they practise politics, they would poison their
patients with destructive compounds.
There are not two things more opposed to each other than War and
Religion; and yet, in the double game those leaders have to play, the
one is necessarily the theme of their politics, and the other the text
of their sermons. The week-day orator of Mars, and the Sunday preacher
of Federal Grace, play like gamblers into each other's hands, and this
they call Religion.
Though hypocrisy can counterfeit every virtue, and become the associate
of every vice, it requires a great dexterity of craft to give it the
power of deceiving. A painted sun may glisten, but it cannot warm. For
hypocrisy to personate virtue successfully it must know and feel what
virtue is, and as it cannot long do this, it cannot long deceive.
When an orator foaming for War breathes forth in another sentence a
_plaintive piety of words_, he may as well write hypocrisy on his front.
The late attempt of the Federal leaders in Congress (for they acted
without the knowledge of their constituents) to plunge the country into
War, merits not only reproach but indignation. It was madness, conceived
in ignorance and acted in wickedness. The head and the heart went
partners in the crime.
A neglect of punctuality in the performance of a treaty is made
a _cause_ of war by the _Barbary powers_, and of remonstrance and
explanation by _civilised powers_. The Mahometans of Barbary negociate
by the sword--they seize first, and ex-postulate afterwards; and the
federal leaders have been labouring to _barbarize_ the United States by
adopting the practice of the Barbary States, and this they call honour.
Let their honour and their hypocrisy go weep together, for both are
defeated. Their present Administration is too moral for hypocrites, and
too economical for public spendthrifts.
A man the least acquainted with diplomatic affairs must know that a
neglect in punctuality is not one of the legal causes of war, unless
that neglect be confirmed by a refusal to perform; and even then it
depends upon circumstances connected with it. The world would be in
continual quarrels and war, and commerce be annihilated, if Algerine
policy was the law of nations. And were America, instead of becoming an
example to the old world of good and moral government and civil manners,
or, if they like it better, of gentlemanly conduct towards other
nations, to set up the character of ruffian, that of _word and blow, and
the blow first_, and thereby give the example of pulling down the little
that civilization has gained upon barbarism, her Independence, instead
of being an honour and a blessing, would become a curse upon the world
and upon herself.
The conduct of the Barbary powers, though unjust in principle, is suited
to their prejudices, situation, and circumstances. The crusades of the
church to exterminate them fixed in their minds the unobliterated belief
that every Christian power was their mortal enemy. Their religious
prejudices, therefore, suggest the policy, which their situation and
circumstances protect them in. As a people, they are neither commercial
nor agricultural, they neither import nor export, have no property
floating on the seas, nor ships and cargoes in the ports of foreign
nations. No retaliation, therefore, can be acted upon them, and they sin
secure from punishment.
But this is not the case with the United States. If she sins as a
Barbary power, she must answer for it as a Civilized one. Her commerce
is continually passing on the seas exposed to capture, and her ships
and cargoes in foreign ports to detention and reprisal. An act of War
committed by her in the Mississippi would produce a War against the
commerce of the Atlantic States, and the latter would have to curse the
policy that provoked the former. In every point, therefore, in which the
character and interest of the United States be considered, it would
ill become her to set an example contrary to the policy and custom of
Civilized powers, and practised only by the Barbary powers, that of
striking before she expostulates.
But can any man, calling himself a Legislator, and supposed by his
constituents to know something of his duty, be so ignorant as to imagine
that seizing on New Orleans would finish the affair or even contribute
towards it? On the contrary it would have made it worse. The treaty
right of deposite at New Orleans, and the right of the navigation of the
Mississippi into the Gulph of Mexico, are distant things. New Orleans is
more than an hundred miles in the country from the mouth of the river,
and, as a place of deposite, is of no value if the mouth of the river be
shut, which either France or Spain could do, and which our possession
of New Orleans could neither prevent or remove. New Orleans in our
possession, by an act of hostility, would have become a blockaded
port, and consequently of no value to the western people as a place of
deposite. Since, therefore, an interruption had arisen to the commerce
of the western states, and until the matter could be brought to a fair
explanation, it was of less injury to have the port shut and the river
open, than to have the river shut and the port in our possession.
That New Orleans could be taken required no stretch of policy to plan,
nor spirit of enterprize to effect. It was like marching behind a man to
knock him down: and the dastardly slyness of such an attack would have
stained the fame of the United States. Where there is no danger cowards
are bold, and Captain Bobadils are to be found in the Senate as well
as on the stage. Even _Gouverneur_, on such a march, dare have shown a
leg.(1)
1 Gouverneur Morris being now leader of the belligerent
faction in Congress, Paine could not resist the temptation
to allude to a well-known incident (related in his Diary and
Letters, i., p. 14). A mob in Paris having surrounded his
fine carriage, crying "Aristocrat!" Morris showed his
wooden leg, declaring he had lost his leg in the cause of
American liberty. Morris was never in any fight, his leg
being lost by a commonplace accident while driving in
Philadelphia. Although Paine's allusion may appear in bad
taste, even with this reference, it was politeness itself
compared with the brutal abuse which Morris (not content
with imprisoning Paine in Paris) and his adherents were
heaping on the author on his return to America; also on
Monroe, whom Jefferson had returned to France to negotiate
for the purchase of Louisiana.--_Editor._,
The people of the western country to whom the Mississippi serves as
an inland sea to their commerce, must be supposed to understand the
circumstances of that commerce better than a man who is a stranger to
it; and as they have shown no approbation of the war-whoop measures of
the Federal senators, it becomes presumptive evidence they disapprove
them. This is a new mortification for those war-whoop politicians; for
the case is, that finding themselves losing ground and withering away in
the Atlantic States, they laid hold of the affair of New Orleans in the
vain hope of rooting and reinforcing themselves in the western States;
and they did this without perceiving that it was one of those ill judged
hypocritical expedients in politics, that whether it succeeded or failed
the event would be the same. Had their motion [that of Ross and Morris]
succeeded, it would have endangered the commerce of the Atlantic States
and ruined their reputation there; and on the other hand the attempt
to make a tool of the western people was so badly concealed as to
extinguish all credit with them.
But hypocrisy is a vice of sanguine constitution. It flatters and
promises itself every thing; and it has yet to learn, with respect to
moral and political reputation, it is less dangerous to offend than to
deceive.
To the measures of administration, supported by the firmness and
integrity of the majority in Congress, the United States owe, as far as
human means are concerned, the preservation of peace, and of national
honour. The confidence which the western people reposed in the
government and their representatives is rewarded with success. They are
reinstated in their rights with the least possible loss of time; and
their harmony with the people of New Orleans, so necessary to the
prosperity of the United States, which would have been broken, and the
seeds of discord sown in its place, had hostilities been preferred to
accommodation, remains unimpaired. Have the Federal ministers of the
church meditated on these matters? and laying aside, as they ought to
do, their electioneering and vindictive prayers and sermons, returned
thanks that peace is preserved, and commerce, without the stain of
blood?
In the pleasing contemplation of this state of things the mind, by
comparison, carries itself back to those days of uproar and extravagance
that marked the career of the former administration, and decides, by
the unstudied impulse of its own feelings, that something must then have
been wrong. Why was it, that America, formed for happiness, and remote
by situation and circumstances from the troubles and tumults of the
European world, became plunged into its vortex and contaminated with its
crimes? The answer is easy. Those who were then at the head of affairs
were apostates from the principles of the revolution. Raised to an
elevation they had not a right to expect, nor judgment to conduct,
they became like feathers in the air, and blown about by every puff of
passion or conceit.
Candour would find some apology for their conduct if want of judgment
was their only defect. But error and crime, though often alike in their
features, are distant in their characters and in their origin. The one
has its source in the weakness of the head, the other in the hardness
of the heart, and the coalition of the two, describes the former
Administration.(1)
1 That of John Adams.--_Editor._
Had no injurious consequences arisen from the conduct of that
Administration, it might have passed for error or imbecility, and
been permitted to die and be forgotten. The grave is kind to innocent
offence. But even innocence, when it is a cause of injury, ought to
undergo an enquiry.
The country, during the time of the former Administration, was kept in
continual agitation and alarm; and that no investigation might be made
into its conduct, it entrenched itself within a magic circle of terror,
and called it a SEDITION LAW.(1) Violent and mysterious in its measures
and arrogant in its manners, it affected to disdain information, and
insulted the principles that raised it from obscurity. John Adams and
Timothy Pickering were men whom nothing but the accidents of the times
rendered visible on the political horizon. Elevation turned their heads,
and public indignation hath cast them to the ground. But an inquiry
into the conduct and measures of that Administration is nevertheless
necessary.
The country was put to great expense. Loans, taxes, and standing armies
became the standing order of the day. The militia, said Secretary
Pickering, are not to be depended upon, and fifty thousand men must be
raised. For what? No cause to justify such measures has yet appeared. No
discovery of such a cause has yet been made. The pretended Sedition Law
shut up the sources of investigation, and the precipitate flight of John
Adams closed the scene. But the matter ought not to sleep here.
It is not to gratify resentment, or encourage it in others, that I enter
upon this subject. It is not in the power of man to accuse me of a
persecuting spirit. But some explanation ought to be had. The motives
and objects respecting the extraordinary and expensive measures of the
former Administration ought to be known. The Sedition Law, that shield
of the moment, prevented it then, and justice demands it now. If the
public have been imposed upon, it is proper they should know it; for
where judgment is to act, or a choice is to be made, knowledge is first
necessary. The conciliation of parties, if it does not grow out of
explanation, partakes of the character of collusion or indifference.
1 Passed July 14, 1798, to continue until March 3, 1801.
This Act, described near the close of this Letter, and one
passed June 35th, giving the President despotic powers over
aliens in the United States, constituted the famous "Alien
and Sedition Laws." Hamilton opposed them, and rightly saw
in them the suicide of the Federal party.--_Editor._,
There has been guilt somewhere; and it is better to fix it where
it belongs, and separate the deceiver from the deceived, than that
suspicion, the bane of society, should range at large, and sour the
public mind. The military measures that were proposed and carrying on
during the former administration, could not have for their object the
defence of the country against invasion. This is a case that decides
itself; for it is self evident, that while the war raged in Europe,
neither France nor England could spare a man to send to America. The
object, therefore, must be something at home, and that something was the
overthrow of the representative system of government, for it could be
nothing else. But the plotters got into confusion and became enemies to
each other. Adams hated and was jealous of Hamilton, and Hamilton hated
and despised both Adams and Washington.(1) Surly Timothy stood aloof, as
he did at the affair of Lexington, and the part that fell to the public
was to pay the expense.(2)
1 Hamilton's bitter pamphlet against Adams appeared in 1800,
but his old quarrel with Washington (1781) had apparently
healed. Yet, despite the favors lavished by Washington on
Hamilton, there is no certainty that the latter ever changed
his unfavorable opinion of the former, as expressed in a
letter to General Schuylor, Feb. 18, 1781 (Lodge's
"Hamilton's Works," vol. viii., p. 35).--_Editor._
2 Colonel Pickering's failure, in 1775, to march his Salem
troops in time to intercept the British retreat from
Lexington was attributed to his half-heartedness
in the patriotic cause.--_Editor._
But ought a people who, but a few years ago, were fighting the battles
of the world, for liberty had no home but here, ought such a people
to stand quietly by and see that liberty undermined by apostacy
and overthrown by intrigue? Let the tombs of the slain recall their
recollection, and the forethought of what their children are to be
revive and fix in their hearts the love of liberty.
If the former administration can justify its conduct, give it the
opportunity. The manner in which John Adams disappeared from the
government renders an inquiry the more necessary. He gave some account
of himself, lame and confused as it was, to certain _eastern wise men_
who came to pay homage to him on his birthday. But if he thought it
necessary to do this, ought he not to have rendered an account to
the public. They had a right to expect it of him. In that tête-à-tête
account, he says, "Some measures were the effect of imperious necessity,
much against my inclination." What measures does Mr. Adams mean, and
what is the imperious necessity to which he alludes? "Others (says he)
were measures of the Legislature, which, although approved when passed,
were never previously proposed or recommended by me." What measures,
it may be asked, were those, for the public have a right to know the
conduct of their representatives? "Some (says he) left to my discretion
were never executed, because no necessity for them, in my judgment, ever
occurred."
What does this dark apology, mixed with accusation, amount to, but
to increase and confirm the suspicion that something was wrong?
Administration only was possessed of foreign official information,
and it was only upon that information communicated by him publicly or
privately, or to Congress, that Congress could act; and it is not in
the power of Mr. Adams to show, from the condition of the belligerent
powers, that any imperious necessity called for the warlike and
expensive measures of his Administration.
What the correspondence between Administration and Rufus King in London,
or Quincy Adams in Holland, or Berlin, might be, is but little known.
The public papers have told us that the former became cup-bearer from
the London underwriters to Captain Truxtun,(1) for which, as Minister
from a neutral nation, he ought to have been censured. It is, however,
a feature that marks the politics of the Minister, and hints at the
character of the correspondence.
1 Thomas Truxtun (1755-1822), for having captured the French
frigate "L'Insurgente," off Hen's Island, 1799, was
presented at Lloyd's coffee-house with plate to the value of
600 guineas. Rufus King (1755-1827), made Minister to England
in 1796, continued under Adams, and for two years under
Jefferson's administration.--_Editor._
I know that it is the opinion of several members of both houses of
Congress, that an enquiry, with respect to the conduct of the late
Administration, ought to be gone into. The convulsed state into which
the country has been thrown will be best settled by a full and fair
exposition of the conduct of that Administration, and the causes and
object of that conduct. To be deceived, or to remain deceived, can be
the interest of no man who seeks the public good; and it is the deceiver
only, or one interested in the deception, that can wish to preclude
enquiry.
The suspicion against the late Administration is, that it was plotting
to overturn the representative system of government, and that it spread
alarms of invasions that had no foundation, as a pretence for raising
and establishing a military force as the means of accomplishing that
object.
The law, called the Sedition Law, enacted, that if any person should
write or publish, or cause to be written or published, any libel
[without defining what a libel is] against the Government of the United
States, or either house of congress, or against the President, he
should be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by
imprisonment not exceeding two years.
But it is a much greater crime for a president to plot against a
Constitution and the liberties of the people, than for an individual to
plot against a President; and consequently, John Adams is accountable to
the public for his conduct, as the individuals under his administration
were to the sedition law.
The object, however, of an enquiry, in this case, is not to punish, but
to satisfy; and to shew, by example, to future administrations, that an
abuse of power and trust, however disguised by appearances, or rendered
plausible by pretence, is one time or other to be accounted for.
Thomas Paine.
BORDENTOWN, ON THE DELAWARE,
New Jersey, March 12, 1803. vol. III--27
LETTER VII.
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
This letter was printed in _The True American_, Trenton, New
Jersey, soon after Paine's return to his old home at
Bordenton. It is here printed from the original manuscript,
for which I am indebted to Mr. W. F. Havemeyer of New York.
Although the Editor has concluded to present Paine's
"Maritime Compact" in the form he finally gave it, the
articles were printed in French in 1800, and by S. H. Smith,
Washington, at the close of the same year. There is an
interesting history connected with it. John Hall, in his
diary ("Trenton, 20 April, 1787") relates that Paine told
him of Dr. Franklin, whom he (Paine) had just visited in
Philadelphia, and the Treaty he, the Doctor, made with the
late King of Prussia by adding an article that, should war
ever break out, Commerce should be free. The Doctor said he
showed it to Vergennes, who said it met his idea, and was
such as he would make even with England. In his Address to
the People of France, 1797 (see p. 366), Paine closes with a
suggestion on the subject, and a year later (September 30,
1798), when events were in a critical condition, he sent
nine articles of his proposed _Pacte Maritime_ to
Talleyrand, newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. The
letters that passed are here taken from the originals (State
Archives, Paris, États Unis, vol. 48).
"Rue Theatre française, No. 4, 9 Vendemaire, 6 year.
"Citizen Minister: I promised you some observations on the state of
things between France and America. I divide the case into two parts.
First, with respect to some Method that shall effectually put an end to
all interruptions of the American Commerce. Secondly, with respect to
the settlement for the captures that have been made on that Commerce.
"As to the first case (the interruption of the American Commerce
by France) it has foundation in the British Treaty, and it is the
continuance of that treaty that renders the remedy difficult. Besides,
the American administration has blundered so much in the business of
treaty-making, that it is probable it will blunder again in making
another with France. There is, however, one method left, and there is
but one that I can see, that will be effectual. It is a _non-importation
Convention; that America agrees not to import from any Nation in Europe
who shall interrupt her Commerce on the seas, any goods, wares, or
merchandize whatever, and that all her ports shall be shut against
the Nation that gives the offence_. This will draw America out of her
difficulties with respect to her treaty with England.
"But it will be far better if this non-importation convention were to
be a general convention of Nations acting as a Whole. It would give a
better protection to Neutral Commerce than the armed neutrality could
do. I would rather be a Neutral Nation under the protection of such a
Convention, which costs nothing to make it, than be under the protection
of a navy equal to that of Great Britain. France should be the patron of
such a Convention and sign it. It would be giving both her consent and
her protection to the Rights of Neutral Nations. If England refuse to
sign it she will nevertheless be obliged to respect it, or lose all her
Commerce.
"I enclose you a plan I drew up about four months ago, when there was
expectation that Mr. Madison would come to France. It has lain by me
ever since.
"The second part, that of settlement for the captures, I will make the
subject of a future correspondence. Salut et respect."
Talleyrand's Reply ("Foreign Relations, 15 Vendemaire An. 6," Oct.
6, 1797): "I have the honor to return you, Citizen, with very sincere
thanks, your Letter to General Washington which you have had the
goodness to show me.
"I have received the letter which you have taken the trouble to write
me, the 9th of this month. I need not assure you of the appreciation
with which I shall receive the further indications you promise on the
means of terminating in a durable manner the differences which must
excite your interest as a patriot and as a Republican. Animated by
such a principle your ideas cannot fail to throw valuable light on the
discussion you open, and which should have for its object to reunite the
two Republics in whose alienation the enemies of liberty triumph."
Paine's plan made a good impression in France--He writes to Jefferson,
October 6, 1800, that the Consul Le Brun, at an entertainment given to
the American envoys, gave for his toast: "À l'union de 1' Amérique avec
les Puissances du Nord pour faire respecter la liberté des mers."
The malignant mind, like the jaundiced eye, sees everything through a
false medium of its own creating. The light of heaven appears stained
with yellow to the distempered sight of the one, and the fairest actions
have the form of crimes in the venomed imagination of the other.
For seven months, both before and after my return to America in October
last, the apostate papers styling themselves "Federal" were filled with
paragraphs and Essays respecting a letter from Mr. Jefferson to me at
Paris; and though none of them knew the contents of the letter, nor the
occasion of writing it, malignity taught them to suppose it, and the
lying tongue of injustice lent them its aid.
That the public may no longer be imposed upon by Federal apostacy, I
will now publish the Letter, and the occasion of its being written.
The Treaty negociated in England by John Jay, and ratified by the
Washington Administration, had so disgracefully surrendered the right
and freedom of the American flag, that all the Commerce of the
United States on the Ocean became exposed to capture, and suffered in
consequence of it. The duration of the Treaty was limited to two years
after the war; and consequently America could not, during that period,
relieve herself from the Chains which the Treaty had fixed upon her.
This being the case, the only relief that could come must arise out of
something originating in Europe, that would, in its consequences, extend
to America. It had long been my opinion that Commerce contained within
itself the means of its own protection; but as the time for bringing
forward any new system is not always happening, it is necessary to watch
its approach, and lay hold of it before it passes away.
As soon as the late Emperor Paul of Russia abandoned his coalition with
England and become a Neutral Power, this Crisis of time, and also of
circumstances, was then arriving; and I employed it in arranging a plan
for the protection of the Commerce of Neutral Nations during War,
that might, in its operation and consequences, relieve the Commerce of
America. The Plan, with the pieces accompanying it, consisted of
about forty pages. The Citizen Bonneville, with whom I lived in Paris,
translated it into French; Mr. Skipwith, the American Consul, Joel
Barlow, and myself, had the translation printed and distributed as
a present to the Foreign Ministers of all the Neutral Nations then
resident in Paris. This was in the summer of 1800.
It was entitled Maritime Compact (in French _Pacte Maritime_), The plan,
exclusive of the pieces that accompanied it, consisted of the following
Preamble and Articles.
MARITIME COMPACT.
Being an Unarmed Association of Nations for the protection of the Rights
and Commerce of Nations that shall be neutral in time of War.
Whereas, the Vexations and Injuries to which the Rights and Commerce of
Neutral Nations have been, and continue to be, exposed during the time
of maritime War, render it necessary to establish a law of Nations for
the purpose of putting an end to such vexations and Injuries, and to
guarantee to the Neutral Nations the exercise of their just Rights,
We, therefore, the undersigned Powers, form ourselves into an
Association, and establish the following as a Law of Nations on the
Seas.
ARTICLE THE FIRST. Definition of the Rights of neutral Nations.
The Rights of Nations, such as are exercised by them in their
intercourse with each other in time of Peace, are, and of right ought to
be, the Rights of Neutral Nations at all times; because,
First, those Rights not having been abandoned by them, remain with them.
Secondly, because those Rights cannot become forfeited or void, in
consequence of War breaking out between two or more other Nations.
A War of Nation against Nation being exclusively the act of the Nations
that make the War, and not the act of the Neutral Nations, cannot,
whether considered in itself or in its consequences, destroy or diminish
the Rights of the Nations remaining in Peace.
ARTICLE THE SECOND.
The Ships and Vessels of Nations that rest neuter and at Peace with the
World during a War with other Nations, have a Right to navigate freely
on the Seas as they navigated before that War broke out, and to proceed
to and enter the Port or Ports of any of the Belligerent Powers, _with
the consent of that Power_, without being seized, searched, visited, or
any ways interrupted, by the Nation or Nations with which that Nation is
at War.
ARTICLE THE THIRD.
For the Conservation of the aforesaid Rights, We, the undersigned
Powers, engaging to each other our Sacred Faith and Honour, declare,
That if any Belligerent Power shall seize, search, visit, or any ways
interrupt any Ship or Vessel belonging to the Citizens or Subjects of
any of the Powers composing this Association, then each and all of the
said undersigned Powers will cease to import, and will not permit to
be imported into the Ports or Dominions of any of the said undersigned
Powers, in any Ship or Vessel whatever, any Goods, wares, or
Merchandize, produced or manufactured in, or exported from, the
Dominions of the Power so offending against the Association hereby
established and Proclaimed.
ARTICLE THE FOURTH.
That all the Ports appertaining to any and all of the Powers composing
this Association shall be shut against the Flag of the offending Nation.
ARTICLE THE FIFTH.
That no remittance or payment in Money, Merchandize, or Bills of
Exchange, shall be made by any of the Citizens, or Subjects, of any of
the Powers composing this Association, to the Citizens or Subjects of
the offending Nation, for the Term of one year, or until reparation
be made. The reparation to be ---- times the amount of the damages
sustained.
ARTICLE THE SIXTH.
If any Ship or Vessel appertaining to any of the Citizens or Subjects of
any of the Powers composing this Association shall be seized, searched,
visited, or interrupted, by any Belligerent Nation, or be forcibly
prevented entering the Port of her destination, or be seized, searched,
visited, or interrupted, in coming out of such Port, or be forcibly
prevented from proceeding to any new destination, or be insulted or
visited by any Agent from on board any Vessel of any Belligerent Power,
the Government or Executive Power of the Nation to which the Ship or
Vessel so seized, searched, visited, or interrupted belongs, shall, on
evidence of the fact, make public Proclamation of the same, and send
a Copy thereof to the Government, or Executive, of each of the Powers
composing this Association, who shall publish the same in all the extent
of his Dominions, together with a Declaration, that at the expiration
of ---- days after publication, the penal articles of this Association
shall be put in execution against the offending Nation.
ARTICLE THE SEVENTH.
If reparation be not made within the space of one year, the said
Proclamation shall be renewed for one year more, and so on.
ARTICLE THE EIGHTH.
The Association chooses for itself a Flag to be carried at the Mast-head
conjointly with the National Flag of each Nation composing this
Association.
The Flag of the Association shall be composed of the same colors as
compose the Rainbow, and arranged in the same order as they appear in
that Phenomenon.
ARTICLE THE NINTH.
And whereas, it may happen that one or more of the Nations composing
this Association may be, at the time of forming it, engaged in War or
become so in future, in that case, the Ships and Vessels of such Nation
shall carry the Flag of the Association bound round the Mast, to denote
that the Nation to which she belongs is a Member of the Association and
a respecter of its Laws.
N. B. This distinction in the manner of carrying the Flag is mearly for
the purpose, that Neutral Vessels having the Flag at the Mast-head, may
be known at first sight.
ARTICLE THE TENTH.
And whereas, it is contrary to the moral principles of Neutrality and
Peace, that any Neutral Nation should furnish to the Belligerent Powers,
or any of them, the means of carrying on War against each other, We,
therefore, the Powers composing this Association, Declare, that we
will each one for itself, prohibit in our Dominions the exportation or
transportation of military stores, comprehending gunpowder, cannon, and
cannon-balls, fire arms of all kinds, and all kinds of iron and steel
weapons used in War. Excluding therefrom all kinds of Utensils and
Instruments used in civil or domestic life, and every other article that
cannot, in its immediate state, be employed in War.
Having thus declared the moral Motives of the foregoing Article, We
declare also the civil and political Intention thereof, to wit,
That as Belligerent Nations have no right to visit or search any Ship or
Vessel belonging to a Nation at Peace, and under the protection of
the Laws and Government thereof, and as all such visit or search is an
insult to the Nation to which such Ship or Vessel belongs and to
the Government of the same, We, therefore, the Powers composing this
Association, will take the right of prohibition on ourselves to whom it
properly belongs, and by whom only it can be legally exercised, and
not permit foreign Nations, in a state of War, to usurp the right of
legislating by Proclamation for any of the Citizens or Subjects of the
Powers composing this Association.
It is, therefore, in order to take away all pretence of search or visit,
which by being offensive might become a new cause of War, that we will
provide Laws and publish them by Proclamation, each in his own Dominion,
to prohibit the supplying, or carrying to, the Belligerent Powers,
or either of them, the military stores or articles before mentioned,
annexing thereto a penalty to be levied or inflicted upon any persons
within our several Dominions transgressing the same. And we invite all
Persons, as well of the Belligerent Nations as of our own, or of
any other, to give information of any knowledge they may have of
any transgressions against the said Law, that the offenders may be
prosecuted.
By this conduct we restore the word Contraband (_contra_ and _ban_) to
its true and original signification, which means against Law, edict, or
Proclamation; and none but the Government of a Nation can have, or can
exercise, the right of making Laws, edicts, or Proclamations, for the
conduct of its Citizens or Subjects.
Now We, the undersigned Powers, declare the aforesaid Articles to be a
Law of Nations at all times, or until a Congress of Nations shall meet
to form some Law more effectual.
And we do recommend that immediately on the breaking out of War between
any two or more Nations, that Deputies be appointed by all Neutral
Nations, whether members of this Association or not, to meet in Congress
in some central place to take cognizance of any violations of the Rights
of Neutral Nations.
Signed, &c.
For the purpose of giving operation to the aforesaid plan of an _unarmed
Association_, the following Paragraph was subjoined:
It may be judged proper for the order of Business, that the Association
of Nations have a President for a term of years, and the Presidency to
pass by rotation, to each of the parties composing the Association.
In that case, and for the sake of regularity, the first President to
be the Executive power of the most northerly Nation composing the
Association, and his deputy or Minister at the Congress to be President
of the Congress,--and the next most northerly to be Vice-president, who
shall succeed to the Presidency, and so on. The line determining the
Geographical situation of each, to be the latitude of the Capital of
each Nation.
If this method be adopted it will be proper that the first President
be nominally constituted in order to give rotation to the rest. In that
case the following Article might be added to the foregoing, viz't. The
Constitution of the Association nominates the Emperor Paul to be _first
President_ of the Association of Nations for the protection of Neutral
Commerce, and securing the freedom of the Seas.
The foregoing plan, as I have before mentioned, was presented to the
Ministers of all the Neutral Nations then in Paris, in the summer of
1800. Six Copies were given to the Russian General Springporten; and a
Russian Gentleman who was going to Petersburgh took two expressly for
the purpose of putting them into the hands of Paul I sent the original
manuscript, in my own handwriting, to Mr. Jefferson, and also wrote him
four Letters, dated the 1st, 4th, 6th, 16th of October, 1800, giving
him an account of what was then going on in Europe respecting Neutral
Commerce.
The Case was, that in order to compel the English Government to
acknowledge the rights of Neutral Commerce, and that free Ships make
free Goods, the _Emperor Paul_, in the month of September following the
publication of the plan, shut all the Ports of Russia against England.
Sweden and Denmark did the same by their Ports, and Denmark shut up
Hamburgh. Prussia shut up the Elbe and the Weser. The ports of Spain,
Portugal, and Naples were shut up, and, in general, all the ports of
Italy, except Venice, which the Emperor of Germany held; and had it not
been for the untimely death of Paul, a _Law of Nations_, founded on the
authority of Nations, for establishing the rights of Neutral Commerce
and the freedom of the Seas, would have been proclaimed, and the
Government of England must have consented to that Law, or the Nation
must have lost its Commerce; and the consequence to America would have
been, that such a Law would, in a great measure if not entirely, have
released her from the injuries of Jay's Treaty.
Of all these matters I informed Mr. Jefferson. This was before he was
President, and the Letter he wrote me after he was President was in
answer to those I had written to him and the manuscript Copy of the plan
I had sent here. Here follows the Letter:
Washington, March 18, 1801. Dear Sir:
Your letters of Oct. 1st, 4th, 6th, 16th, came duly to hand, and the
papers which they covered were, according to your permission, published
in the Newspapers, and in a Pamphlet, and under your own name. These
papers contain precisely our principles, and I hope they will be
generally recognized here. _Determined as we are to avoid, if possible,
wasting the energies of our People in war and destruction, we shall
avoid implicating ourselves with the Powers of Europe, even in support
of principles which we mean to pursue. They have so many other Interests
different from ours that we must avoid being entangled in them. We
believe we can enforce those principles as to ourselves by Peaceable
means, now that we are likely to have our Public Councils detached from
foreign views. The return of our citizens from the phrenzy into which
they had been wrought, partly by ill conduct in France, partly by
artifices practiced upon them, is almost extinct, and will, I believe,
become quite so_, But these details, too minute and long for a Letter,
will be better developed by Mr. Dawson, the Bearer of this, a Member of
the late Congress, to whom I refer you for them. He goes in the Maryland
Sloop of War, which will wait a few days at Havre to receive his Letters
to be written on his arrival at Paris. You expressed a wish to get a
passage to this Country in a Public Vessel. Mr. Dawson is charged with
orders to the Captain of the Maryland to receive and accommodate you
back if you can be ready to depart at such a short warning. Rob't R.
Livingston is appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to the Republic of
France, but will not leave this, till we receive the ratification of
the Convention by Mr. Dawson. I am in hopes you will find us returned
generally to sentiments worthy of former times. In these it will be
your glory to have steadily laboured and with as much effect as any man
living. That you may long live to continue your useful Labours and to
reap the reward in the thankfulness of Nations is my sincere prayer.
Accept assurances of my high esteem and affectionate attachment.
Thomas Jefferson.
This, Citizens of the United States, is the Letter about which the
leaders and tools of the Federal faction, without knowing its contents
or the occasion of writing it, have wasted so many malignant falsehoods.
It is a Letter which, on account of its wise economy and peaceable
principles, and its forbearance to reproach, will be read by every good
Man and every good Citizen with pleasure; and the faction, mortified at
its appearance, will have to regret they forced it into publication. The
least atonement they can now offer is to make the Letter as public as
they have made their own infamy, and learn to lie no more.
The same injustice they shewed to Mr. Jefferson they shewed to me. I
had employed myself in Europe, and at my own expense, in forming and
promoting a plan that would, in its operation, have benefited the
Commerce of America; and the faction here invented and circulated an
account in the papers they employ, that I had given a plan to the French
for burning all the towns on the Coast from Savannah to Baltimore. Were
I to prosecute them for this (and I do not promise that I will not, for
the Liberty of the Press is not the liberty of lying,) there is not a
federal judge, not even one of Midnight appointment, but must, from the
nature of the case, be obliged to condemn them. The faction, however,
cannot complain they have been restrained in any thing. They have had
their full swing of lying uncontradicted; they have availed themselves,
unopposed, of all the arts Hypocrisy could devise; and the event has
been, what in all such cases it ever will and ought to be, _the ruin of
themselves_.
The Characters of the late and of the present Administrations are now
sufficiently marked, and the adherents of each keep up the distinction.
The former Administration rendered itself notorious by outrage,
coxcombical parade, false alarms, a continued increase of taxes, and an
unceasing clamor for War; and as every vice has a virtue opposed to
it, the present Administration moves on the direct contrary line.
The question, therefore, at elections is not properly a question upon
Persons, but upon principles. Those who are for Peace, moderate taxes,
and mild Government, will vote for the Administration that conducts
itself by those principles, in whatever hands that Administration may
be.
There are in the United States, and particularly in the middle States,
several religious Sects, whose leading moral principle is PEACE. It is,
therefore, impossible that such Persons, consistently with the dictates
of that principle, can vote for an Administration that is clamorous
for War. When moral principles, rather than Persons, are candidates for
Power, to vote is to perform a moral duty, and not to vote is to neglect
a duty.
That persons who are hunting after places, offices, and contracts,
should be advocates for War, taxes, and extravagance, is not to be
wondered at; but that so large a portion of the People who had nothing
to depend upon but their Industry, and no other public prospect but that
of paying taxes, and bearing the burden, should be advocates for the
same measures, is a thoughtlessness not easily accounted for. But reason
is recovering her empire, and the fog of delusion is clearing away.
Thomas Paine.
BORDENTOWN, ON THE DELAWARE,
New Jersey, April 21, 1803.(1)
1 Endorsed: "Sent by Gen. Bloomfield per Mr. Wilson for Mr.
Duane." And, in a later hand: "Paine Letter 6. Found among
the Bartram Papers sent by Col. Carr."--Editor.
XXXIV. TO THE FRENCH INHABITANTS OF LOUISIANA.(1)
1 In a letter to Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury
(Oct 14, 1804), John Randolph of Roanoke proposed "the
printing of -- thousand copies of Tom Paine's answer to
their remonstrance, and transmitting them by as many
thousand troops, who can speak a language perfectly
intelligible to the people of Louisiana, whatever that of
their government may be," The purchase of Louisiana was
announced to the Senate by President Jefferson, October 17,
1803.--Editor.
A publication having the appearance of a memorial and remonstrance, to
be presented to Congress at the ensuing session, has appeared in several
papers. It is therefore open to examination, and I offer you my remarks
upon it. The title and introductory paragraph are as follows:
"_To the Congress of the United States in the Senate and House of
Representatives convened_: We the subscribers, planters, merchants, and
other inhabitants of Louisiana, respectfully approach the legislature
of the United States with a memorial of _our rights_, a remonstrance
against certain laws which contravene them, and a petition for
that redress to which the laws of nature, sanctioned by positive
stipulations, have entitled us."
It often happens that when one party, or one that thinks itself a party,
talks much about its rights, it puts those of the other party upon
examining into their own, and such is the effect produced by your
memorial.
A single reading of that memorial will show it is the work of some
person who is not of your people. His acquaintance with the cause,
commencement, progress, and termination of the American revolution,
decides this point; and his making our merits in that revolution the
ground of your claims, as if our merits could become yours, show she
does not understand your situation.
We obtained our rights by calmly understanding principles, and by the
successful event of a long, obstinate, and expensive war. But it is
not incumbent on us to fight the battles of the world for the world's
profit. You are already participating, without any merit or expense in
obtaining it, the blessings of freedom acquired by ourselves; and in
proportion as you become initiated into the principles and practice of
the representative system of government, of which you have yet had no
experience, you will participate more, and finally be partakers of the
whole. You see what mischief ensued in France by the possession of power
before they understood principles. They earned liberty in words, but
not in fact. The writer of this was in France through the whole of
the revolution, and knows the truth of what he speaks; for after
endeavouring to give it principle, he had nearly fallen a victim to its
rage.
There is a great want of judgment in the person who drew up your
memorial. He has mistaken your case, and forgotten his own; and by
trying to court your applause has injured your pretensions. He has
written like a lawyer, straining every point that would please his
client, without studying his advantage. I find no fault with the
composition of the memorial, for it is well written; nor with the
principles of liberty it contains, considered in the abstract. The error
lies in the misapplication of them, and in assuming a ground they have
not a right to stand upon. Instead of their serving you as a ground of
reclamation against us, they change into a satire on yourselves. Why
did you not speak thus when you ought to have spoken it? We fought for
liberty when you stood quiet in slavery.
The author of the memorial injudiciously confounding two distinct
cases together, has spoken as if he was the memorialist of a body of
Americans, who, after sharing equally with us in all the dangers and
hardships of the revolutionary war, had retired to a distance and made
a settlement for themselves. If, in such a situation, Congress had
established a temporary government over them, in which they were not
personally consulted, they would have had a right to speak as the
memorial speaks. But your situation is different from what the situation
of such persons would be, and therefore their ground of reclamation
cannot of right become yours. You are arriving at freedom by the easiest
means that any people ever enjoyed it; without contest, without expense,
and even without any contrivance of your own. And you already so far
mistake principles, that under the name of _rights_ you ask for _powers;
power to import and enslave Africans_; and _to govern_ a territory that
_we have purchased_.
To give colour to your memorial, you refer to the treaty of cession, (in
which _you were not_ one of the contracting parties,) concluded at Paris
between the governments of the United States and France.
"The third article" you say "of the treaty lately concluded at
Paris declares, that the inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be
incorporated in the union of the United States, and admitted _as soon as
possible, according to the principles_ of the Federal Constitution, to
the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens
of the United States; and _in the mean time_, they shall be protected
in the enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the exercise of the
religion they profess."
As from your former condition, you cannot be much acquainted with
diplomatic policy, and I am convinced that even the gentleman who
drew up the memorial is not, I will explain to you the grounds of this
article. It may prevent your running into further errors.
The territory of Louisiana had been so often ceded to different European
powers, that it became a necessary article on the part of France,
and for the security of Spain, the ally of France, and which accorded
perfectly with our own principles and intentions, that it should be
_ceded no more_; and this article, stipulating for the incorporation of
Louisiana into the union of the United States, stands as a bar against
all future cession, and at the same time, as well as "_in the mean
time_" secures to you a civil and political permanency, personal
security and liberty which you never enjoyed before.
France and Spain might suspect, (and the suspicion would not have been
ill-founded had the cession been treated for in the administration of
John Adams, or when Washington was president, and Alexander Hamilton
president over him,) that we _bought_ Louisiana for the British
government, or with a view of selling it to her; and though such
suspicion had no just ground to stand upon with respect to our present
president, Thomas Jefferson, who is not only not a man of intrigue but
who possesses that honest pride of principle that cannot be intrigued
with, and which keeps intriguers at a distance, the article was
nevertheless necessary as a precaution against future contingencies.
But you, from not knowing the political ground of the article, apply
to yourselves _personally_ and _exclusively_, what had reference to the
_territory_, to prevent its falling into the hands of any foreign
power that might endanger the [establishment of] _Spanish_ dominion in
America, or those of the _French_ in the West India Islands.
You claim, (you say), to be incorporated into the union of the United
States, and your remonstrances on this subject are unjust and without
cause.
You are already _incorporated_ into it as fully and effectually as the
Americans themselves are, who are settled in Louisiana. You enjoy the
same rights, privileges, advantages, and immunities, which they
enjoy; and when Louisiana, or some part of it, shall be erected into a
constitutional State, you also will be citizens equal with them.
You speak in your memorial, as if you were the only people who were
to live in Louisiana, and as if the territory was purchased that
you exclusively might govern it. In both these cases you are greatly
mistaken. The emigrations from the United States into the purchased
territory, and the population arising therefrom, will, in a few years,
exceed you in numbers. It is but twenty-six years since Kentucky
began to be settled, and it already contains more than _double_ your
population.
In a candid view of the case, you ask for what would be injurious to
yourselves to receive, and unjust in us to grant. _Injurious_, because
the settlement of Louisiana will go on much faster under the government
and guardianship of Congress, then if the government of it were
committed to _your_ hands; and consequently, the landed property
you possessed as individuals when the treaty was concluded, or have
purchased since, will increase so much faster in value.--_Unjust to
ourselves_, because as the reimbursements of the purchase money must
come out of the sale of the lands to new settlers, the government of it
cannot suddenly go out of the hands of Congress. They are guardians of
that property for _all the people of the United States_. And besides
this, as the new settlers will be chiefly from the United States, it
would be unjust and ill policy to put them and their property under the
jurisdiction of a people whose freedom they had contributed to purchase.
You ought also to recollect, that the French Revolution has not
exhibited to the world that grand display of principles and rights, that
would induce settlers from other countries to put themselves under a
French jurisdiction in Louisiana. Beware of intriguers who may push you
on from private motives of their own.
You complain of two cases, one of which you have _no right_, no concern
with; and the other is founded in direct injustice.
You complain that Congress has passed a law to divide the country
into two territories. It is not improper to inform you, that after the
revolutionary war ended, Congress divided the territory acquired by
that war into ten territories; each of which was to be erected into a
constitutional State, when it arrived at a certain population mentioned
in the Act; and, in the mean time, an officer appointed by the
President, as the Governor of Louisiana now is, presided, as Governor
of the Western Territory, over all such parts as have not arrived at
the maturity of _statehood_. Louisiana will require to be divided
into twelve States or more; but this is a matter that belongs to _the
purchaser_ of the territory of Louisiana, and with which the inhabitants
of the town of New-Orleans have no right to interfere; and beside this,
it is probable that the inhabitants of the other territory would choose
to be independent of New-Orleans. They might apprehend, that on some
speculating pretence, their produce might be put in requisition, and a
maximum price put on it--a thing not uncommon in a French government.
As a general rule, without refining upon sentiment, one may put
confidence in the justice of those who have no inducement to do us
injustice; and this is the case Congress stands in with respect to both
territories, and to all other divisions that may be laid out, and to all
inhabitants and settlers, of whatever nation they may be.
There can be no such thing as what the memorial speaks of, that is, _of
a Governor appointed by the President who may have no interest in the
welfare of Louisiana_. He must, from the nature of the case, have more
interest in it than any other person can have. He is entrusted with the
care of an extensive tract of country, now the property of the United
States by purchase. The value of those lands will depend on the
increasing prosperity of Louisiana, its agriculture, commerce, and
population. You have only a local and partial interest in the town of
New-Orleans, or its vicinity; and if, in consequence of exploring the
country, new seats of commerce should offer, his general interest would
lead him to open them, and your partial interest to shut them up.
There is probably some justice in your remark, as it applies to the
governments under which you _formerly_ lived. Such governments
always look with jealousy, and an apprehension of revolt, on colonies
increasing in prosperity and population, and they send governors to
_keep them down_. But when you argue from the conduct of governments
_distant and despotic_, to that of _domestic_ and _free_ government, it
shows you do not understand the principles and interest of a Republic,
and to put you right is friendship. We have had experience, and you have
not.
The other case to which I alluded, as being founded in direct injustice,
is that in which you petition for _power_, under the name of _rights_,
to import and enslave Africans!
_Dare you put up a petition to Heaven for such a power, without fearing
to be struck from the earth by its justice?_
_Why, then, do you ask it of man against man?_
_Do you want to renew in Louisiana the horrors of Domingo?_
Common Sense.
Sept 22, 1804.
END OF VOLUME III.
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