This Deputy has said in the Convention that I intrigued with an ancient
agent of the Bureau of Foreign Affairs. My examination therefore while
he is present will give him an opportunity of proving his charge or of
convincing himself of his error. If Bourdon de l'Oise is an honest man
he will examine me, but lest he should not I subjoin the following. That
which B[ourdon] calls an intrigue was at the request of a member of the
former Committee of Salut Public, last August was a twelvemonth. I met
the member on the Boulevard. He asked me something in French which I
did not understand and we went together to the Bureau of Foreign Affairs
which was near at hand. The Agent (Otto, whom you probably knew in
America) served as interpreter, The member (it was Barere) then asked
me 1st, If I could furnish him with the plan of Constitution I had
presented to the Committee of Constitution of which I was member with
himself, because, he said, it contained several things which he
wished had been adopted: 2dly, He asked me my opinion upon sending
Commissioners to the United States of America: 3dly, If fifty or an
hundred ship loads of flour could be procured from America. As verbal
interpretation was tedious, it was agreed that I should give him my
opinion in writing, and that the Agent [Otto] should translate it, which
he did. I answered the first question by sending him the plan [of
a Constitution] which he still has. To the second, I replied that
I thought it would be proper to send Commissioners, because that in
Revolutions circumstances change so fast that it was often necessary
to send a better supply of information to an Ally than could be
communicated by writing; and that Congress had done the same thing
during the American War; and I gave him some information that the
Commissioners would find useful on their arrival. I answered the third
question by sending him a list of American exports two years before,
distinguishing the several articles by which he would see that the
supply he mentioned could be obtained. I sent him also the plan of Paul
Jones, giving it as his, for procuring salt-petre, which was to send
a squadron (it did not require a large one) to take possession of the
Island of St. Helen's, to keep the English flag flying at the port,
that the English East India ships coming from the East Indies, and that
ballast with salt-petre, might be induced to enter as usual; And that it
would be a considerable time before the English Government could know
of what had happened at St. Helen's. See here what Bourdon de l'Oise has
called an intrigue.--If it was an intrigue it was between a Committee of
Salut Public and myself, for the Agent was no more than the interpreter
and translator, and the object of the intrigue was to furnish France
with flour and salt-petre."--I suppose Bourdon had heard that the agent
and I were seen together talking English, and this was enough for _him_
to found his charge upon.(1)
You next say that "I must likewise be sensible that although I am an
American citizen that it is likewise believed there [in America] that
I am become a citizen of France, and that in consequence this latter
character has so far [illegible] the former as to weaken if not destroy
any claim you might have to interpose in my behalf." I am sorry I cannot
add any new arguments to those I have already advanced on this part of
the subject. But I cannot help asking myself, and I wish you would
ask the Committee, if it could possibly be the intention of France to
_kidnap_ citizens from America under the pretence of dubbing them
with the title of French citizens, and then, after inviting or rather
enveigling them into France, make it a pretence for detaining them? If
it was, (which I am sure it was not, tho' they now act as if it was) the
insult was to America, tho' the injury was to me, and the treachery was
to both.
1 The communications of Paine to Barere are given in my
"Life of Paine," vol. ii-i PP. 73, 87. Otto was Secretary to
the Minister of Foreign Affairs when he acted as interpreter
between Paine and Barere. There was never any charge at all
made against Paine, as the Archives of France now prove,
save that he was a "foreigner." Paine was of coarse ignorant
of the conspiracy between Morris and Deforgues which had
imprisoned him. Bourdon de l'Oise, one of the most cruel
Jacobins and Terrorists, afterwards conspired with Pichegru
to overthrow the Republic, and was with him banished (1797)
to Sinamari, South America, where he died soon after his
arrival.--_Editor._.
Did they mean to kidnap General Washington, Mr. Madison, and several
other Americans whom they dubbed with the same title as well as me? Let
any man look at the condition of France when I arrived in it,--invaded
by Austrians and Prussians and declared to be in danger,--and then ask
if any man who had a home and a country to go to, as I had in America,
would have come amongst them from any other motive than of assisting
them. If I could possibly have supposed them capable of treachery
I certainly would not have trusted myself in their power. Instead
therefore of your being unwilling or apprehensive of meeting the
question of French citizenship, they ought to be ashamed of advancing
it, and this will be the case unless you admit their arguments or
objections too passively. It is a case on their part fit only for
the continuations of Robespierre to set up. As to the name of French
citizen, I never considered it in any other light, so far as regarded
myself, than as a token of honorary respect. I never made them any
promise nor took any oath of allegiance or of citizenship, nor bound
myself by an act or means whatever to the performance of any thing.
I acted altogether as a friend invited among them as I supposed on
honorable terms. I did not come to join myself to a Government already
formed, but to assist in forming one _de nouveau_, which was afterwards
to be submitted to the people whether they would accept it or not, and
this any foreigner might do. And strictly speaking there are no citizens
before this is a government. They are all of the People. The Americans
were not called citizens till after Government was established, and not
even then until they had taken the oath of allegiance. This was the
case in Pennsylvania. But be this French citizenship more or less, the
Convention have swept it away by declaring me to be a foreigner, and
imprisoning me as such; and this is a short answer to all those who
affect to say or to believe that I am French Citizen. A Citizen without
Citizenship is a term non-descript.
After the two preceeding paragraphs you ask--"If it be my wish that you
should embark in this controversy (meaning that of reclaiming me)
and risque the consequences with respect to myself and the good
understanding subsisting between the two countries, or, without
relinquishing any point of right, and which might be insisted on in
case of extremities, pursue according to your best judgment and with the
light before you, the object of my liberation?"
As I believe from the apparent obstinacy of the Committees that
circumstances will grow towards the extremity you mention, unless
prevented beforehand, I will endeavour to throw into your hands all the
lights I can upon the subject.
In the first place, reclamation may mean two distinct things. All the
reclamations that are made by the sections in behalf of persons detained
as _suspect_ are made on the ground that the persons so detained are
patriots, and the reclamation is good against the charge of "suspect"
because it proves the contrary. But my situation includes another
circumstance. I am imprisoned on the charge (if it can be called one)
of being a foreigner born in England. You know that foreigner to be a
citizen of the United States of America, and that he has been such since
the 4th of July 1776, the political birthday of the United States,
and of every American citizen, for before that period all were British
subjects, and the States, then provinces, were British dominions.--Your
reclamation of me therefore as a citizen of the United States (all other
considerations apart) is good against the pretence for imprisoning me,
or that pretence is equally good against every American citizen born
in England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, or Holland, and you know this
description of men compose a very great part of the population of the
three States of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and make also a
part of Congress, and of the State Legislatures.
Every politician ought to know, and every civilian does know, that the
Law of Treaty of Alliance, and also that of Amity and Commerce knows no
distinction of American Citizens on account of the place of their birth,
but recognizes all to be Citizens whom the Constitution and laws of the
United States of America recognize as such; and if I recollect rightly
there is an article in the Treaty of Commerce particular to this
point. The law therefore which they have here, to put all persons in
arrestation born in any of the Countries at war with France, is, when
applied to Citizens of America born in England, Ireland, Scotland,
Germany, or holland, a violation of the treaties of Alliance and of
Commerce, because it assumes to make a distinction of Citizens which
those Treaties and the Constitution of America know nothing of. This is
a subject that officially comes under your cognizance as Minister, and
it would be consistent that you expostulated with them upon the Case.
That foolish old man Vadier, who was president of the Convention and of
the Committee of Surety general when the Americans then in Paris went
to the Bar of the Convention to reclaim me, gave them for answer that
my being born in England was cause sufficient for imprisoning me. It
happened that at least half those who went up with that address were in
the same case with myself.
As to reclamations on the ground of Patriotism it is difficult to know
what is to be understood by Patriotism here. There is not a vice, and
scarcely a virtue, that has not as the fashion of the moment suited
been called by the name of Patriotism. The wretches who composed the
revolutionary tribunal of Nantz were the Patriots of that day and the
criminals of this. The Jacobins called themselves Patriots of the first
order, men up to the height of the circumstances, and they are now
considered as an antidote to Patriotism. But if we give to Patriotism a
fixed idea consistent with that of a Republic, it would signify a strict
adherence to the principles of Moral Justice, to the equality of civil
and political Rights, to the System of representative Government, and an
opposition to every hereditary claim to govern; and of this species
of Patriotism you know my character. But, Sir, there are men on the
Committee who have changed their Party but not their principles. Their
aim is to hold power as long as possible by preventing the establishment
of a Constitution, and these men are and will be my Enemies, and seek to
hold me in prison as long as they can. I am too good a Patriot for them.
It is not improbable that they have heard of the strange language held
by some Americans that I am not considered in America as an American
citizen, and they may also have heard say, that you had no orders
respecting me, and it is not improbable that they interpret that
language and that silence into a connivance at my imprisonment. If they
had not some ideas of this kind would they resist so long the civil
efforts you make for my liberation, or would they attach so much
importance to the imprisonment of an Individual as _to risque_ (as
you say to me) _the good understanding that exists between the two
Countries?_You also say that _it is impossible for any person to do more
than you have done without adopting the other means_, meaning that of
reclaiming me. How then can you account for the want of success after so
many efforts, and such a length of time, upwards of ten weeks, without
supposing that they fortify themselves in the interpretation I have just
mentioned? I can admit that it was not necessary to give orders, and
that it was difficult to give direct orders, for I much question if
Morris had informed Congress or the President of the whole of the case,
or had sent copies of my letters to him as I had desired him to do.
You would find the case here when you came, and you could not fully
understand it till you did come, and as Minister you would have
authority to act upon it. But as you inform me that you know what the
wishes of the President are, you will see also that his reputation is
exposed to some risque, admitting there to be ground for the supposition
I have made. It will not add to his popularity to have it believed in
America, as I am inclined to think the Committee believe here, that he
connives at my imprisonment. You say also that _it is known to everybody
that you wish my liberation_. It is, Sir, because they know your wishes
that they misinterpret the means you use. They suppose that those mild
means arise from a restriction that you cannot use others, or from a
consciousness of some defect on my part of which you are unwilling to
provoke the enquiry.
But as you ask me if it be my wish that you should embark in this
controversy and risque the consequences with respect to myself, I will
answer this part of the question by marking out precisely the part I
wish you to take. What I mean is a sort of middle line above what you
have yet gone, and not up to the full extremity of the case, which will
still lie in reserve. It is to write a letter to the Committee that
shall in the first place defeat by anticipation all the objections they
might make to a simple reclamation, and at the same time make the ground
good for that object. But, instead of sending the letter immediately, to
invite some of the Committee to your house and to make that invitation
the opportunity of shewing them the letter, expressing at the same time
a wish that you had done this, from a hope that the business might be
settled in an amicable manner without your being forced into an official
interference, that would excite the observations of the Enemies of both
Countries, and probably interrupt the harmony that subsisted between the
two republics. But as I can not convey the ideas I wish you to use by
any means so concisely or so well as to suppose myself the writer of the
letter I shall adopt this method and you will make use of such parts or
such ideas of it as you please if you approve the plan. Here follows the
supposed letter:
Citizens: When I first arrived amongst you as Minister from the United
States of America I was given to understand that the liberation of
Thomas Paine would take place without any official interference on my
part. This was the more agreeable to me as it would not only supercede
the necessity of that interference, but would leave to yourselves the
whole opportunity of doing justice to a man who as far as I have been
able to learn has suffered much cruel treatment under what you have
denominated the system of Terror. But as I find my expectations have not
been fulfilled I am under the official necessity of being more explicit
upon the subject than I have hitherto been.
Permit me, in the first place, to observe that as it is impossible for
me to suppose that it could have been the intention of France to seduce
any citizens of America from their allegiance to their proper country
by offering them the title of French citizen, so must I be compelled to
believe, that the title of French citizen conferred on Thomas Paine was
intended only as a mark of honorary respect towards a man who had
so eminently distinguished himself in defence of liberty, and on no
occasion more so than in promoting and defending your own revolution.
For a proof of this I refer you to his two works entitled _Rights of
Man_. Those works have procured to him an addition of esteem in America,
and I am sorry they have been so ill rewarded in France. But be this
title of French Citizen more or less, it is now entirely swept away by
the vote of the Convention which declares him to be a foreigner, and
which supercedes the vote of the Assembly that conferred that title upon
him, consequently upon the case superceded with it.
In consequence of this vote of the Convention declaring him to be a
foreigner the former Committees have imprisoned him. It is therefore
become my official duty to declare to you that the foreigner thus
imprisoned is a citizen of the United States of America as fully, as
legally, as constitutionally as myself, and that he is moreover one of
the principal founders of the American Republic.
I have been informed of a law or decree of the Convention which
subjects foreigners born in any of the countries at war with France
to arrestation and imprisonment. This law when applied to citizens of
America born in England is an infraction of the Treaty of Alliance and
of Amity and Commerce, which knows no distinction of American citizens
on account of the place of their birth, but recognizes all to be
citizens whom the Constitution and laws of America recognize as such.
The circumstances under which America has been peopled requires this
guard on her Treaties, because the mass of her citizens are composed not
of natives only but also of the natives of almost all the countries
of Europe who have sought an asylum there from the persecutions they
experienced in their own countries. After this intimation you will
without doubt see the propriety of modelling that law to the principles
of the Treaty, because the law of Treaty in cases where it applies is
the governing law to both parties alike, and it cannot be infracted
without hazarding the existence of the Treaty.
Of the Patriotism of Thomas Paine I can speak fully, if we agree to give
to patriotism a fixed idea consistent with that of a republic. It would
then signify a strict adherence to Moral Justice, to the equality of
civil and political rights, to the system of representative government,
and an opposition to all hereditary claims to govern. Admitting
patriotism to consist in these principles, I know of no man who has gone
beyond Thomas Paine in promulgating and defending them, and that for
almost twenty years past.
I have now spoken to you on the principal matters concerned in the case
of Thomas Paine. The title of French citizen which you had enforced upon
him, you have since taken away by declaring him to be a foreigner, and
consequently this part of the subject ceases of itself. I have declared
to you that this foreigner is a citizen of the United States of America,
and have assured you of his patriotism.
I cannot help at the same time repeating to you my wish that his
liberation had taken place without my being obliged to go thus far into
the subject, because it is the mutual interest of both republics to
avoid as much as possible all subjects of controversy, especially those
from which no possible good can flow. I still hope that you will save me
the unpleasant task of proceeding any farther by sending me an order
for his liberation, which the injured state of his health absolutely
requires. I shall be happy to receive such an order from you and
happy in presenting it to him, for to the welfare of Thomas Paine the
Americans are not and cannot be indifferent.
This is the sort of letter I wish you to write, for I have no idea that
you will succeed by any measures that can, by any kind of construction,
be interpreted into a want of confidence or an apprehension of
consequences. It is themselves that ought to be apprehensive of
consequences if any are to be apprehended. They, I mean the Committees,
are not certain that the Convention or the nation would support them
in forcing any question to extremity that might interrupt the good
understanding subsisting between the two countries; and I know of no
question [so likely] to do this as that which involves the rights and
liberty of a citizen.
You will please to observe that I have put the case of French
citizenship in a point of view that ought not only to preclude, but to
make them ashamed to advance any thing upon this subject; and this is
better than to have to answer their counter-reclamation afterwards.
Either the Citizenship was intended as a token of honorary respect, or
it was in-tended to deprive America of a citizen or to seduce him from
his allegiance to his proper country. If it was intended as an honour
they must act consistently with the principle of honour. But if they
make a pretence for detaining me, they convict themselves of the act
of seduction. Had America singled out any particular French citizen,
complimented him with the title of Citizen of America, which he without
suspecting any fraudulent intention might accept, and then after having
invited or rather inveigled him into America made his acceptance of
that Title a pretence for seducing or forcing him from his allegiance to
France, would not France have just cause to be offended at America? And
ought not America to have the same right to be offended at France? And
will the Committees take upon themselves to answer for the dishonour
they bring upon the National Character of their Country? If these
arguments are stated beforehand they will prevent the Committees going
into the subject of French Citizenship. They must be ashamed of it.
But after all the case comes to this, that this French Citizenship
appertains no longer to me because the Convention, as I have already
said, have swept it away by declaring me to be foreigner, and it is not
in the power of the Committees to reverse it. But if I am to be citizen
and foreigner, and citizen again, just when and how and for any purpose
they please, they take the Government of America into their own hands
and make her only a Cypher in their system.
Though these ideas have been long with me they have been more
particularly matured by reading your last Communication, and I have
many reasons to wish you had opened that Communication sooner. I am best
acquainted with the persons you have to deal with and the circumstances
of my own case. If you chuse to adopt the letter as it is, I send you a
translation for the sake of expediting the business. I have endeavoured
to conceive your own manner of expression as well as I could, and the
civility of language you would use, but the matter of the letter is
essential to me.
If you chuse to confer with some of the members of the Committee at
your own house on the subject of the letter it may render the sending it
unnecessary; but in either case I must request and press you not to give
away to evasion and delay, and that you will fix positively with them
that they shall give you an answer in three or four days whether they
will liberate me on the representation you have made in the letter, or
whether you must be forced to go further into the subject. The state of
my health will not admit of delay, and besides the tortured state of
my mind wears me down. If they talk of bringing me to trial (and I well
know there is no accusation against me and that they can bring none)
I certainly summons you as an Evidence to my Character. This you may
mention to them either as what I intend to do or what you intend to do
voluntarily for me.
I am anxious that you undertake this business without losing time,
because if I am not liberated in the course of this decade, I intend, if
in case the seventy-one detained deputies are liberated, to follow the
same track that they have done, and publish my own case myself.(1)
I cannot rest any longer in this state of miserable suspense, be the
consequences what they may.
Thomas Paine.
1 Those deputies, imprisoned for having protested against
the overthrow of the Girondin government, May 31,1793, when
the Convention was invaded and overawed by the armed
communes of Paris. These deputies were liberated and
recalled to the Convention, December 8, 1794. Paine was
invited to resume his seat the day before, by a special act
of the Convention, after an eloquent speech by Thibaudeau.--
_Editor._.
Dear Sir: I need not mention to you the happiness I received from the
information you sent me by Mr. Beresford. I easily guess the persons
you have conversed with on the subject of my liberation--but matters
and even promises that pass in conversation are not quite so strictly
attended to here as in the Country you come from. I am not, my Dear Sir,
impatient from any thing in my disposition, but the state of my health
requires liberty and a better air; and besides this, the rules of the
prison do not permit me, though I have all the indulgences the Concierge
can give, to procure the things necessary to my recovery, which is
slow as to strength. I have a tolerable appetite but the allowance of
provision is scanty. We are not allowed a knife to cut our victuals
with, nor a razor to shave; but they have lately allowed some barbers
that are here to shave. The room where I am lodged is a ground floor
level with the earth in the garden and floored with brick, and is so
wet after every rain that I cannot guard against taking colds that
continually cheat my recovery. If you could, without interfering with or
deranging the mode proposed for my liberation, inform the Committee that
the state of my health requires liberty and air, it would be good ground
to hasten my liberation. The length of my imprisonment is also a reason,
for I am now almost the oldest inhabitant of this uncomfortable mansion,
and I see twenty, thirty and sometimes forty persons a day put in
liberty who have not been so long confined as myself. Their liberation
is a happiness to me; but I feel sometimes, a little mortification
that I am thus left behind. I leave it entirely to you to arrange this
matter. The messenger waits. Your's affectionately,