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
Departement de la Somme [error], concernant le jugement de
Louis XVI. Precede par sa lettre d'envoi au President de la
Convention. Imprime par ordre de la Convention Nationale. A
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.