As in 1792 Paine had left England with the authorities at his heels,
so in 1794 escaped Morris from France. The ex-Minister went off to
play courtier to George III. and write for Louis XVIII. the despotic
proclamation with which monarchy was to be restored in France*; Paine
sat in the house of a real American Minister, writing proclamations of
republicanism to invade the empires. So passed each to his own place.
While the American Minister in Paris and his wife were nursing their
predecessor's victim back into life, a thrill of joy was passing
through European courts, on a rumor that the dreaded author had
been guillotined. Paine had the satisfaction of reading, at Monroe's
fireside, his own last words on the scaffold,** and along with it an
invitation of the 27th of December 1792.
* Morris' royal proclamations are printed in full in his
biography by Jared Sparks.
** "The last dying words of Thomas Paine. Executed at the
Guillotine in France on the 1st of September, 1794." The
dying speech begins: "Ye numerous spectators gathered
around, pray give ear to my last words; I am determined to
speak the Truth in these my last moments, altho' I have
written and spoke nothing but lies all my life." There is
nothing in the witless leaflet worth quoting. When Paine was
burnt in effigy, in 1792, it appears to have been with
accompaniments of the same kind. Before me is a small
placard, which reads thus: "The Dying Speech and Confession
of the Arch-Traitor Thomas Paine. Who was executed at Oakham
on Thursday."
"This morning the Officers usually attending on such
occasions went in procession on Horseback to the County
Gaol, and demanded the Body of the Arch-Traitor, and from
thence proceeded with the Criminal drawn in a Cart by an Ass
to the usual place of execution with his Pamphlet called the
'Rights of Man' in his right hand."
On December 7, 1794, Thibaudeau had spoken to that assembly in the
following terms:
"It yet remains for the Convention to perform an act of justice. I
reclaim one of the most zealous defenders of liberty'--Thomas Paine.
(_Loud applause_.) My reclamation is for a man who has honored his
age by his energy in defence of the rights of humanity, and who is
so gloriously distinguished by his part in the American revolution. A
naturalized Frenchman* by a decree of the legislative assembly, he was
nominated by the people. It was only by an intrigue that he was driven
from the Convention, the pretext being a decree excluding foreigners
from representing the French people. There were only two foreigners in
the Convention; one [Anacharsis Clootz] is dead, and I speak not of him,
but of Thomas Paine, who powerfully contributed to establish liberty in
a country allied with the French Republic. I demand that he be recalled
to the bosom of the Convention." (_Applause._)
"The _Moniteur_, from which I translate, reports the unanimous adoption
of Thibaudeau's motion. But this was not enough. The Committee of Public
Instruction, empowered to award pensions for literary services, reported
(January 3, 1795) as the first name on their list, Thomas Paine.
Chenier, in reading the report, claimed the honor of having originally
suggested Paines name as an honorary citizen of France, and denounced,
amid applause, the decree against foreigners under which the great
author had suffered.
* Here Thibaudeau was inexact. In the next sentence but one
he rightly describes Paine as a foreigner. The allusion to
"an intrigue" is significant.
You have revoked that inhospitable decree, and we again see Thomas
Paine, the man of genius without fortune, our colleague, dear to all
friends of humanity,--a cosmopolitan, persecuted equally by Pitt and by
Robespierre. Notable epoch in the life of this philosopher, who opposed
the arms of Common Sense to the sword of Tyranny, the Rights of Man to
the machiavelism of English politicians; and who, by two immortal works,
has deserved well of the human race, and consecrated liberty in the two
worlds."
Poor as he was, Paine declined this literary pension. He accepted
the honors paid him by the Convention, no doubt with a sorrow at the
contrasted silence of those who ruled in America. Monroe, however,
encouraged him to believe that he was still beloved there, and, as he
got stronger, a great homesickness came upon him. The kindly host
made an effort to satisfy him. On January 4th he (Monroe) wrote to the
Committee of Public Safety:
"Citizens: The Decree just passed, bearing on the execution of Articles
23 and 24 of the Treaty of Friendship and Commerce between the two
Republics, is of such great importance to my country, that I think it
expedient to send it there officially, by some particularly confidential
hand; and no one seems to be better fitted for this errand than Thomas
Paine, Having resided a long time in France, and having a perfect
knowledge of the many vicissitudes which the Republic has passed, he
will be able to explain and compare the happy lot she now enjoys. As he
has passed the same himself, remaining faithful to his principles, his
reports will be the more trustworthy, and consequently produce a better
effect. But as Citizen Paine is a member of the Convention, I thought it
better to submit this subject to your consideration. If this affair
can be arranged, the Citizen will leave for America immediately, via
Bordeaux, on an American vessel which will be prepared for him. As he
has reason to fear the persecution of the English government, should he
be taken prisoner, he desires that his departure may be kept a secret.
"Jas. Monroe."
The Convention alone could give a passport to one of its members, and
as an application to it would make Paine's mission known, the Committee
returned next day a negative answer.
"Citizen: We see with satisfaction and without surprise, that you attach
some interest to sending officially to the United States the Decree
which the National Convention has just made, in which are recalled and
confirmed the reports of Friendship and Commerce existing between the
two Republics.
"As to the design you express of confiding this errand to Citizen Thomas
Paine, we must observe to you that the position he holds will not permit
him to accept it. Salutation and Friendship.
"Cambaceres."*
Liberty's great defender gets least of it! The large seal of the
Committee--mottoed "Activity, Purity, Attention"--looks like a wheel of
fortune; but one year before it had borne from the Convention to prison
the man it now cannot do without. France now especially needs the
counsel of shrewd and friendly American heads. There are indications
that Jay in London is carrying the United States into Pitt's combination
against the Republic, just as it is breaking up on the Continent.
Monroe's magnanimity towards Paine found its reward. He brought to his
house, and back into life, just the one man in France competent to
give him the assistance he needed. Comprehending the history of the
Revolution, knowing the record of every actor in it, Paine was able to
revise Monroe's impressions, and enable him to check calumnies
circulated in America. The despatches of Monroe are of high historic
value, largely through knowledge derived from Paine.
* State Archives of France. Etats Unis, vol. xliii. Monroe
dates his letter, "19th year of the American Republic."
Nor was this all. In Monroe's instructions emphasis was laid on
the importance to the United States of the free navigation of the
Mississippi and its ultimate control.* Paine's former enthusiasm in this
matter had possibly been utilized by Gouverneur Morris to connect him,
as we have seen, with Genet's proceedings. The Kentuckians consulted
Paine at a time when expulsion of the Spaniard was a patriotic American
scheme. This is shown in a letter written by the Secretary of State
(Randolph) to the President, February 27, 1794.
"Mr. Brown [Senator of Kentucky] has shown me a letter from the famous
Dr. O'Fallon to Captain Herron, dated Oct 18, 1793. It was intercepted,
and he has permitted me to take the following extract:--'This plan
(an attack on Louisiana) was digested between Gen. Clarke and me last
Christmas. I framed the whole of the correspondence in the General's
name, and corroborated it by a private letter of my own to Mr. Thomas
Paine, of the National Assembly, with whom during the late war I was
very intimate. His reply reached me but a few days since, enclosed in
the General's despatches from the Ambassador."**
* "The conduct of Spain towards us is unaccountable and
injurious. Mr. Pinckney is by this time gone over to Madrid
as our envoy extraordinary to bring matters to a conclusion
some way or other. But you will seize any favorable moment
to execute what has been entrusted to you respecting the
Mississippi."--Randolph to Monroe, February 15, 1795.
** Two important historical works have recently appeared
relating to the famous Senator Brown. The first is a
publication of the Filson Club: "The Political Beginnings of
Kentucky," by John Mason Brown. The second is: "The Spanish
Conspiracy," by Thomas Marshall Green (Cincinnati, Robert
Clarke & Co., 1891). The intercepted letter quoted above has
some bearing on the controversy between these authors.
Apparently, Senator Brown, like many other good patriots,
favored independent action in Kentucky when that seemed for
the welfare of the United States, but, when the situation
had changed, Brown is found co-operating with Washington and
Randolph.
That such letters (freely written as they were at the beginning of 1793)
were now intercepted indicates the seriousness of the situation time had
brought on. The administration had soothed the Kentuckians by pledges
of pressing the matter by negotiations. Hence Monroe's instructions, in
carrying out which Paine was able to lend a hand.
{1795}
In the State Archives at Paris (Etats Unis, vol. xliii.) there are two
papers marked "Thomas Payne." The first urges the French Ministry to
seize the occasion of a treaty with Spain to do a service to the United
States: let the free navigation of the Mississippi be made by France a
condition of peace. The second paper (endorsed "3 Ventose, February 21,
1795") proposes that, in addition to the condition made to Spain, an
effort should be made to include American interests in the negotiation
with England, if not too late. The negotiation with England was
then finished, but the terms unpublished. Paine recommended that the
Convention should pass a resolution that freedom of the Mississippi
should be a condition of peace with Spain, which would necessarily
accept it; and that, in case the arrangement with England should
prove unsatisfactory, any renewed negotiations should support the just
reclamations of their American ally for the surrender of the frontier
posts and for depredations on their trade. Paine points out that such a
declaration could not prolong the war a day, nor cost France an obole;
whereas it might have a decisive effect in the United States, especially
if Jay's treaty with England should be reprehensible, and should be
approved in America.
That generosity "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 would undo the bad effects of the
depredations of French privateers on American vessels, which rejoiced
the British party in the United States and discouraged the friends of
liberty and humanity there. It would acquire for France the merit
which is her due, supply her American friends with strength against the
intrigues of England, and cement the alliance of the Republics.
This able paper might have been acted on, but for the anger in France at
the Jay treaty.
While writing in Monroe's house, the invalid, with an abscess in his
side and a more painful sore in his heart--for he could not forget that
Washington had forgotten him,--receives tidings of new events through
cries in the street. In the month of his release they had been resonant
with yells as the Jacobins were driven away and their rooms turned to
a Normal School. Then came shouts, when, after trial, the murderous
committeemen were led to execution or exile. In the early weeks of 1795
the dread sounds of retribution subside, and there is a cry from the
street that comes nearer to Paine's heart--"Bread and the Constitution
of Ninety-three!" He knows that it is his Constitution for which
they are really calling, for they cannot understand the Robespierrian
adulteration of it given out, as one said, as an opiate to keep the
country asleep. The people are sick of revolutionary rule. These are the
people in whom Paine has ever believed,--the honest hearts that summoned
him, as author of "The Rights of Man," to help form their Constitution.
They, he knows, had to be deceived when cruel deeds were done, and
heard of such deeds with as much horror as distant peoples. Over that
Constitution for which they were clamoring he and his lost friend
Condorcet had spent many a day of honest toil. Of the original Committee
of Nine appointed for the work, six had perished by the revolution,
one was banished, and two remained--Sieyes and Paine. That original
Committee had gradually left the task to Paine and Condorcet,--Sieyes,
because he had no real sympathy with republicanism, though he honored
Paine.* When afterwards asked how he had survived the Terror, Sieyes
answered, "I lived." He lived by bending, and now leads a Committee of
Eleven on the Constitution, while Paine, who did not bend, is
disabled. Paine knows Sieyes well. The people will vainly try for the
"Constitution of Ninety-three." They shall have no Constitution but
of Sieyes' making, and in it will be some element of monarchy. Sieyes
presently seemed to retire from the Committee, but old republicans did
not doubt that he was all the more swaying it.
* "Mr. Thomas Paine is one of those men who have contributed
the most to establish the liberty of America. His ardent
love of humanity, and his hatred of every sort of tyranny,
have induced him to take up in England the defence of the
French revolution, against the amphigorical declamation of
Mr. Burke. His work has been translated into our language,
and is universally known. What French patriot is there who
has not already, from the bottom of his heart, thanked this
foreigner for having strengthened our cause by all the
powers of his reason and reputation? It is with pleasure
that I observe an opportunity of offering him the tribute of
my gratitude and my esteem for the truly philosophical
application of talents so distinguished as his own."--Sieyes
in the Moniteur, July 6, 1791.
So once more Paine seizes his pen; his hand is feeble, but His intellect
has lost no fibre of force, nor his heart its old faith. His trust in
man has passed through the ordeal of seeing his friends--friends of
man--murdered by the people's Convention, himself saved by accident; it
has survived the apparent relapse of Washington into the arms of
George the Third. The ingratitude of his faithfully-served America
is represented by an abscess in his side, which may strike into his
heart--in a sense has done so--but will never reach his faith in
liberty, equality, and humanity.
Early in July the Convention is reading Paine's "Dissertation on First
Principles of Government" His old arguments against hereditary right,
or investing even an elective individual with extraordinary power, are
repeated with illustrations from the passing Revolution.
"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. The nation would 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 or 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 or 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 farther_. But in the
absence of a Constitution men look entirely to party; and instead of
principle governing party, party governs principle.
"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 himself."
Few of Paine's pamphlets better deserve study than this. In writing it,
he tells us, he utilized the fragment of a work begun at some time
not stated, which he meant to dedicate to the people of Holland,
then contemplating a revolution. It is a condensed statement of the
principles underlying the Constitution written by himself and Condorcet,
now included among Condorcet's works. They who imagine that Paine's
political system was that of the democratic demagogues may undeceive
themselves by pondering this pamphlet. It has been pointed out, on a
previous page of this work, that Paine held the representative to be
not the voter's mouthpiece, but his delegated sovereignty. The
representatives of a people are therefore its supreme power. The
executive, the ministers, are merely as chiefs of the national police
engaged in enforcing the laws. They are mere employes, without any
authority at all, except of superintendence. "The executive department
is official, and is subordinate to the legislative as the body is to
the mind." The chief of these official departments is the judicial. In
appointing officials the most important rule is, "never to invest any
individual with extraordinary power; for besides being tempted to
misuse it, it will excite contention and commotion in the nation for
the office." All of this is in logical conformity with the same author's
"Rights of Man," which James Madison declared to be an exposition of the
principles on which the United States government is based. It would be
entertaining to observe the countenance of a President should our House
of Representatives address him as a chief of national police.
Soon after the publication of Paine's "Dissertation" a new French
Constitution was textually submitted for popular consideration. Although
in many respects it accorded fairly well with Paine's principles, it
contained one provision which he believed would prove fatal to the
Republic. This was the limitation of citizenship to payers of direct
taxes, except soldiers who had fought in one or more campaigns for the
Republic, this being a sufficient qualification. This revolutionary
disfranchisement of near half the nation brought Paine to the Convention
(July 7th) for the first time since the fall of the Brissotins, two
years before. The scene at his return was impressive. A special motion
was made by Lan-thenas and unanimously adopted, "that permission be
granted Thomas Paine to deliver his sentiments on the declaration of
rights and the Constitution." With feeble step he ascended the tribune,
and stood while a secretary read his speech. Of all present this man had
suffered most by the confusion of the mob with the people, which caused
the reaction on which was floated the device he now challenged. It is
an instance of idealism rare in political history. The speech opens with
words that caused emotion.
"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 line of conduct. During the reign of terrorism
I was a prisoner for eight long months, and remained so above three
months after the era of the 10th Thermidor. 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 control of tyranny have not their foundation in the
heart."
Though they slay him Paine will trust in the people. There seems a
slight slip of memory; his imprisonment, by revolutionary calendar,
lasted ten and a half months, or 315 days; but there is no failure
of conviction or of thought. He points out the inconsistency of the
disfranchisement of indirect tax-payers with the Declaration of Rights,
and the opportunity afforded partisan majorities to influence
suffrage by legislation on the mode of collecting taxes. The soldier,
enfranchised without other qualification, would find his children
slaves.
"If you subvert the basis of the Revolution, if you dispense with
principles and substitute expedients, you will extinguish that
enthusiasm which has 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."
There was an educational test of suffrage to which he did not object.
"Where knowledge is a duty, ignorance is a crime." But in his appeal to
pure principle simple-hearted Paine knew nothing of the real test of the
Convention's votes. This white-haired man was the only eminent member
of the Convention with nothing in his record to cause shame or fear. He
almost alone among them had the honor of having risked his head rather
than execute Louis, on whom he had looked as one man upon another. He
alone had refused to enter the Convention when it abandoned the work for
which it was elected and became a usurping tribunal. During two fearful
years the true Republic had been in Paine's house and garden, where he
conversed with his disciples; or in Luxembourg prison, where he won all
hearts, as did imprisoned George Fox, who reappeared in him, and where,
beneath the knife whose fall seemed certain, he criticised consecrated
dogmas. With this record Paine spoke that day to men who feared to face
the honest sentiment of the harried peasantry. Some of the members had
indeed been terrorized, but a majority shared the disgrace of the old
Convention. They were jeered at on the streets. The heart of France was
throbbing again, and what would become of these "Conventionnels," when
their assembly should die in giving birth to a government? They must
from potentates become pariahs. Their aim now was to prolong their
political existence. The constitutional narrowing of the suffrage was
in anticipation of the decree presently appended, that two thirds of the
new legislature should be chosen from the Convention. Paine's speech was
delivered against a foregone conclusion. This was his last appearance
in the Convention. Out of it he naturally dropped when it ended (October
26, 1795), with the organization of the Directory. Being an American he
would not accept candidature in a foreign government.