of Pennsylvania voted him £500 for this production. He was secretary to the committee of foreign affairs; but was dismissed for misconduct. In 1787 he went to France, and thence to England, where he wrote "The Rights of Man," in answer to Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution; for which he was indicted, but escaped to France. He was a member of the convention, and voted for the death of the king. In 1793 he wrote "The Age of Reason," in derision of Christianity; and in the same year, having fallen under the displeasure of the rulers in France, he was imprisoned; and so continued to be, till the fall of Robespierre, in 1795. He returned to the United States, and died near Baltimore, in 1809, at the age of seventy-three. His true character may be inferred from his writings. Among the pieces of defamation circulated in 1797, was a letter of Paine, addressed to General Washington, though not intended for his eye, but through the press. It is dated at Paris, July 30, 1796. This letter Benjamin Franklin Bache, editor of the "Aurora," considered sufficiently valuable to be protected by a certificate of copy-right. From this letter one may learn what sort of opinions some of our countrymen, and especially Mr. Jefferson, then considered it proper to circulate. In relation to the funding system, Paine says -"The "Chief of the army became the patron of fraud.” "vated 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 travelled America, from one "end to the other, to put yourself in the way of receiving "it." Speaking of John Adams and John Jay, (pages 11 and 12,) Paine says, "these are the disguised traitors, who call "themselves federalists. John Adams is one of those men "who never contemplated the origin of government, or com"prehended any thing of the nature of first principles." In "Ele page 15: "Mr. Washington is known to have no friendships, "and to be incapable of forming any he can serve or desert a cause, or a man, with constitutional indifference." In page 63:-"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 im"postor; whether you have abandoned good principles, or "whether you ever had any." It is not to be supposed that Mr. Jefferson, (who was one of Bache's patrons, as appears from his recommendation to Mr. Madison, to have Bache's paper supported, see vol. iii. p. 387,) was ignorant of this national insult offered to Washington by Thomas Paine. Yet among the earliest acts of power, after Mr. Jefferson arrived at the presidency, was to invite this unworthy person to take passage in a national ship to the United States. Within a fortnight after Mr. Jefferson had taken his oath of office, he wrote to Paine, (vol. iii. 459) : — "The return of our citizens from the phrenzy into which they had been wrought, partly by ill conduct in France, "partly by artifices practised on them, is almost entire, and "will, I believe, become quite so. But these details, too "long and minute for a letter, will be better developed by "Mr. Dawson, the bearer of this, a member of the late Con 66 gress, to whom I refer you for them. He goes in the 'Maryland, a 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 ac * Paine applied to Washington to aid him to get out of Robespierre's dungeon; which was declined on the ground that Paine had made himself a French citizen. That he might be protected from British capture and carried to England, where he knew public punishment awaited him. 44 commodate you with a passage back, if you can be ready to "depart at such short warning. I am in hopes you will find "us returned, generally, to sentiments worthy of former "times. In these, it will be your GLORY steadily to have "labored, and with as much effect as any man living. That 'you may long live to continue your useful labors, and to "reap their reward in the thankfulness of nations, is my "sincere prayer." Among other things, Washington was charged with committing murder in the French war, in 1757; the circumstance alluded to, justified the accusation no more, than if he had been so charged for what he did at the battle of Monmouth in the revolutionary war. The forged letters, which had been circulated during the war, (purporting to have been written to family friends by Washington,) to make him suspected by his countrymen of being favorably disposed to the British, were revived, and circulated. The National Gazette, before mentioned as having been edited by Freneau, a clerk in Mr. Jefferson's office, but more especially the Aurora, edited by Bache, daily came forth teeming with abuse and invective. The French minister seems to have thought it his official duty to write a letter to the Secretary of State, under date of the 27th October, 1796, containing the most explicit charges of breach of neutrality; and adds, at the close-"that he "will cause this note to be printed, in order to make pub"licly known the motives which, at the present juncture, "influenced the French Republic." This note was accordingly printed in a Philadelphia paper, and came forth as soon as the Secretary could have read the original. LETTER XX. MARCH 25, 1833. ON the 15th of November, 1796, the French minister wrote another letter, which, though in diplomatic form, and addressed to the Secretary, he caused to be published at the same time, that it might have the effect intended on the public mind; and which might, also, be an impressive monition to the successor of the President. Mr. Adet calls the wise measure of the administration in 1793 " the insidious proclamation" (of neutrality). This letter of the 15th of November is so descriptive of the fraternization of Republican France, of which Europe was destined to feel the full effect, while the Republic continued, and while the Emperor reigned, that some extracts from it may be acceptable: "The undersigned minister plenipotentiary, 66 moreover declares, that the Executive Directory regards the treaty of commerce, concluded with Great Britain, as a "violation of the treaty made with France in 1778, and equivalent to a treaty of alliance with Great Britain; and "that, justly offended, at the conduct which the American "government has held in this case, they have given him. "orders to suspend, from this moment, his ministerial func"tions with the Federal Government." "What joy did not the American flag inspire when it "waved unfurled in the French Senate. Tender tears "trickled from each eye; every one looked at it with amaze"ment. There, said they, is the symbol of the independence of our American brethren! Behold there, the pledge "of their liberty. May victory always attend it. May it "lead to glory none but a free and happy people! These "words, which escaped from a thousand mouths, were the expression of the sentiments of the whole nation. Was "not an American to each Frenchman, another French"man? He was more - he was a friend; and that sacred name, amidst civil dissensions, was equally respected by "all. "Alas! time has not yet demolished the fortifications "with which the English roughened this country; nor "those the Americans raised for their defence; their half "rounded summits still appear in every quarter, amidst 66 plains, on the tops of mountains. The traveller need not "search for the ditch, which served to encompass them; "it is still open under his feet. Scattered ruins of houses "laid waste, which the fire had partly respected, in order "to leave monuments of British fury, are still to be found. "Men still exist, who can say, here a ferocious Englishman slaughtered my father; there my wife tore her bleed"ing daughter from the hands of an unbridled English66 man. Alas! the soldiers who fell under the sword of "the Britons, are not yet reduced to dust: the laborer, in turning up his field, still draws from the bosom of the "earth their whitened bones; while the ploughman, with "tears and gratitude, still recollects that his fields, now "covered with rich harvests, have been moistened with "French blood, while every thing around the inhabitants of "this country animates them to speak of the tyranny of "Great Britain and of the generosity of Frenchmen; when England has declared a war of death to that nation, to "avenge herself for its having cemented, with its blood, "the independence of the United States. It was at this moment, their government made a treaty of amity with "their ancient tyrant, the implacable enemy of their "ancient ally. O! Americans, covered with noble scars! "O! you who have so often flown to death, and to victory, with French soldiers! You, who know those generous sentiments which distinguish the true warrior: whose "hearts have always vibrated with those of your compan"ions in arms! Consult them to-day to know what they 66 |