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 Abbe
(July 8) elicited by Paine's letter to "Le Republicain"
(II.). The Abbe 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.