[_Prolonged uproar. Paine, still standing in the tribune beside his
interpreter, Deputy Bancal, declared the sentiments to be his._]
Your Executive Committee will nominate an ambassador to Philadelphia;
my sincere wish is that he may announce to America that the National
Convention of France, out of pure friendship to America, has consented
to respite Louis. That people, by my vote, ask you to delay the
execution.
Ah, citizens, give not the tyrant of England the triumph of seeing the
man perish on the scaffold who had aided my much-loved America to break
his chains!
Marat ["_launching himself into the middle of the hall_"]: Paine voted
against the punishment of death because he is a Quaker.
Paine: I voted against it from both moral motives and motives of public
policy.
1 See Guizot, "Hist, of France," vi., p. 136. "Hist.
Parliamentair," vol. ii., p. 350. Louis Blanc says that
Paine's appeal was so effective that Marat interrupted
mainly in order to destroy its effect.--"Hist, de la Rev.,"
tome vii, 396.--_Editor._