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The Answer of the President of the United States to the
Address of the Minister Plenipotentiary of the French
Republic, on his presenting the Colors of France to the
United States:
Born, sir, 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, whensoever, in any
country, I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banner of
freedom. But, above all, the events of the French
Revolution have produced the deepest solicitude, as well as
the highest admiration. To call your nation brave, were to
pronounce but common praise. Wonderful people! Ages to come
will read with astonishment the history of your brilliant
exploits! I rejoice that the period of your toils and of
your immense sacrifices is approaching. I rejoice that the
interesting revolutionary movements of so many years have
issued in the formation of a constitution designed to give
permanency to the great object for which you have
contended. I rejoice that liberty, which you have so long
embraced with enthusiasm; liberty, of which you have been
the invincible defenders, now finds an asylum in the bosom
of a regularly organized Government; a Government, which
being formed to secure the happiness of the French people,
corresponds with the ardent wishes of my heart, while it
gratifies the pride of every citizen of the United States
by its resemblance to their own. On these glorious events,
accept, sir, my sincere congratulations.
In delivering to you these sentiments, I express not my own
feelings only, but those of my fellow-citizens, in relation
to the commencement, the progress, and the issue of the
French Revolution; and they will cordially join with me in
purest wishes to the Supreme Being, that the citizens of
our sister Republic, our magnanimous allies, may soon enjoy
in peace, that liberty which they have purchased at so
great a price, and all the happiness which liberty can
bestow.
I receive, sir, with lively sensibility, the symbol of the
triumphs and of the enfranchisement of your nation--the
Colors of France--which you have now presented to the
United States. The transaction will be announced to
Congress, and the Colors will be deposited with those
archives of the United States, which are at once the
evidences and the memorials of their freedom and
independence. May these be perpetual, and may the
friendship of the two Republics be commensurate with their
existence.