1 In a letter to Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury
(Oct 14, 1804), John Randolph of Roanoke proposed "the
printing of -- thousand copies of Tom Paine's answer to
their remonstrance, and transmitting them by as many
thousand troops, who can speak a language perfectly
intelligible to the people of Louisiana, whatever that of
their government may be," The purchase of Louisiana was
announced to the Senate by President Jefferson, October 17,
1803.--Editor.
A publication having the appearance of a memorial and remonstrance, to
be presented to Congress at the ensuing session, has appeared in several
papers. It is therefore open to examination, and I offer you my remarks
upon it. The title and introductory paragraph are as follows:
"_To the Congress of the United States in the Senate and House of
Representatives convened_: We the subscribers, planters, merchants, and
other inhabitants of Louisiana, respectfully approach the legislature
of the United States with a memorial of _our rights_, a remonstrance
against certain laws which contravene them, and a petition for
that redress to which the laws of nature, sanctioned by positive
stipulations, have entitled us."
It often happens that when one party, or one that thinks itself a party,
talks much about its rights, it puts those of the other party upon
examining into their own, and such is the effect produced by your
memorial.
A single reading of that memorial will show it is the work of some
person who is not of your people. His acquaintance with the cause,
commencement, progress, and termination of the American revolution,
decides this point; and his making our merits in that revolution the
ground of your claims, as if our merits could become yours, show she
does not understand your situation.
We obtained our rights by calmly understanding principles, and by the
successful event of a long, obstinate, and expensive war. But it is
not incumbent on us to fight the battles of the world for the world's
profit. You are already participating, without any merit or expense in
obtaining it, the blessings of freedom acquired by ourselves; and in
proportion as you become initiated into the principles and practice of
the representative system of government, of which you have yet had no
experience, you will participate more, and finally be partakers of the
whole. You see what mischief ensued in France by the possession of power
before they understood principles. They earned liberty in words, but
not in fact. The writer of this was in France through the whole of
the revolution, and knows the truth of what he speaks; for after
endeavouring to give it principle, he had nearly fallen a victim to its
rage.
There is a great want of judgment in the person who drew up your
memorial. He has mistaken your case, and forgotten his own; and by
trying to court your applause has injured your pretensions. He has
written like a lawyer, straining every point that would please his
client, without studying his advantage. I find no fault with the
composition of the memorial, for it is well written; nor with the
principles of liberty it contains, considered in the abstract. The error
lies in the misapplication of them, and in assuming a ground they have
not a right to stand upon. Instead of their serving you as a ground of
reclamation against us, they change into a satire on yourselves. Why
did you not speak thus when you ought to have spoken it? We fought for
liberty when you stood quiet in slavery.
The author of the memorial injudiciously confounding two distinct
cases together, has spoken as if he was the memorialist of a body of
Americans, who, after sharing equally with us in all the dangers and
hardships of the revolutionary war, had retired to a distance and made
a settlement for themselves. If, in such a situation, Congress had
established a temporary government over them, in which they were not
personally consulted, they would have had a right to speak as the
memorial speaks. But your situation is different from what the situation
of such persons would be, and therefore their ground of reclamation
cannot of right become yours. You are arriving at freedom by the easiest
means that any people ever enjoyed it; without contest, without expense,
and even without any contrivance of your own. And you already so far
mistake principles, that under the name of _rights_ you ask for _powers;
power to import and enslave Africans_; and _to govern_ a territory that
_we have purchased_.
To give colour to your memorial, you refer to the treaty of cession, (in
which _you were not_ one of the contracting parties,) concluded at Paris
between the governments of the United States and France.
"The third article" you say "of the treaty lately concluded at
Paris declares, that the inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be
incorporated in the union of the United States, and admitted _as soon as
possible, according to the principles_ of the Federal Constitution, to
the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens
of the United States; and _in the mean time_, they shall be protected
in the enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the exercise of the
religion they profess."
As from your former condition, you cannot be much acquainted with
diplomatic policy, and I am convinced that even the gentleman who
drew up the memorial is not, I will explain to you the grounds of this
article. It may prevent your running into further errors.
The territory of Louisiana had been so often ceded to different European
powers, that it became a necessary article on the part of France,
and for the security of Spain, the ally of France, and which accorded
perfectly with our own principles and intentions, that it should be
_ceded no more_; and this article, stipulating for the incorporation of
Louisiana into the union of the United States, stands as a bar against
all future cession, and at the same time, as well as "_in the mean
time_" secures to you a civil and political permanency, personal
security and liberty which you never enjoyed before.
France and Spain might suspect, (and the suspicion would not have been
ill-founded had the cession been treated for in the administration of
John Adams, or when Washington was president, and Alexander Hamilton
president over him,) that we _bought_ Louisiana for the British
government, or with a view of selling it to her; and though such
suspicion had no just ground to stand upon with respect to our present
president, Thomas Jefferson, who is not only not a man of intrigue but
who possesses that honest pride of principle that cannot be intrigued
with, and which keeps intriguers at a distance, the article was
nevertheless necessary as a precaution against future contingencies.
But you, from not knowing the political ground of the article, apply
to yourselves _personally_ and _exclusively_, what had reference to the
_territory_, to prevent its falling into the hands of any foreign
power that might endanger the [establishment of] _Spanish_ dominion in
America, or those of the _French_ in the West India Islands.
You claim, (you say), to be incorporated into the union of the United
States, and your remonstrances on this subject are unjust and without
cause.
You are already _incorporated_ into it as fully and effectually as the
Americans themselves are, who are settled in Louisiana. You enjoy the
same rights, privileges, advantages, and immunities, which they
enjoy; and when Louisiana, or some part of it, shall be erected into a
constitutional State, you also will be citizens equal with them.
You speak in your memorial, as if you were the only people who were
to live in Louisiana, and as if the territory was purchased that
you exclusively might govern it. In both these cases you are greatly
mistaken. The emigrations from the United States into the purchased
territory, and the population arising therefrom, will, in a few years,
exceed you in numbers. It is but twenty-six years since Kentucky
began to be settled, and it already contains more than _double_ your
population.
In a candid view of the case, you ask for what would be injurious to
yourselves to receive, and unjust in us to grant. _Injurious_, because
the settlement of Louisiana will go on much faster under the government
and guardianship of Congress, then if the government of it were
committed to _your_ hands; and consequently, the landed property
you possessed as individuals when the treaty was concluded, or have
purchased since, will increase so much faster in value.--_Unjust to
ourselves_, because as the reimbursements of the purchase money must
come out of the sale of the lands to new settlers, the government of it
cannot suddenly go out of the hands of Congress. They are guardians of
that property for _all the people of the United States_. And besides
this, as the new settlers will be chiefly from the United States, it
would be unjust and ill policy to put them and their property under the
jurisdiction of a people whose freedom they had contributed to purchase.
You ought also to recollect, that the French Revolution has not
exhibited to the world that grand display of principles and rights, that
would induce settlers from other countries to put themselves under a
French jurisdiction in Louisiana. Beware of intriguers who may push you
on from private motives of their own.
You complain of two cases, one of which you have _no right_, no concern
with; and the other is founded in direct injustice.
You complain that Congress has passed a law to divide the country
into two territories. It is not improper to inform you, that after the
revolutionary war ended, Congress divided the territory acquired by
that war into ten territories; each of which was to be erected into a
constitutional State, when it arrived at a certain population mentioned
in the Act; and, in the mean time, an officer appointed by the
President, as the Governor of Louisiana now is, presided, as Governor
of the Western Territory, over all such parts as have not arrived at
the maturity of _statehood_. Louisiana will require to be divided
into twelve States or more; but this is a matter that belongs to _the
purchaser_ of the territory of Louisiana, and with which the inhabitants
of the town of New-Orleans have no right to interfere; and beside this,
it is probable that the inhabitants of the other territory would choose
to be independent of New-Orleans. They might apprehend, that on some
speculating pretence, their produce might be put in requisition, and a
maximum price put on it--a thing not uncommon in a French government.
As a general rule, without refining upon sentiment, one may put
confidence in the justice of those who have no inducement to do us
injustice; and this is the case Congress stands in with respect to both
territories, and to all other divisions that may be laid out, and to all
inhabitants and settlers, of whatever nation they may be.
There can be no such thing as what the memorial speaks of, that is, _of
a Governor appointed by the President who may have no interest in the
welfare of Louisiana_. He must, from the nature of the case, have more
interest in it than any other person can have. He is entrusted with the
care of an extensive tract of country, now the property of the United
States by purchase. The value of those lands will depend on the
increasing prosperity of Louisiana, its agriculture, commerce, and
population. You have only a local and partial interest in the town of
New-Orleans, or its vicinity; and if, in consequence of exploring the
country, new seats of commerce should offer, his general interest would
lead him to open them, and your partial interest to shut them up.
There is probably some justice in your remark, as it applies to the
governments under which you _formerly_ lived. Such governments
always look with jealousy, and an apprehension of revolt, on colonies
increasing in prosperity and population, and they send governors to
_keep them down_. But when you argue from the conduct of governments
_distant and despotic_, to that of _domestic_ and _free_ government, it
shows you do not understand the principles and interest of a Republic,
and to put you right is friendship. We have had experience, and you have
not.
The other case to which I alluded, as being founded in direct injustice,
is that in which you petition for _power_, under the name of _rights_,
to import and enslave Africans!
_Dare you put up a petition to Heaven for such a power, without fearing
to be struck from the earth by its justice?_
_Why, then, do you ask it of man against man?_
_Do you want to renew in Louisiana the horrors of Domingo?_
Common Sense.
Sept 22, 1804.