PARIS, September, 1805.
MY LORD:--Had the citizens of the United States been as submissive to the
taxation of your Government as to the vexations of our ruler, America
would, perhaps, have been less free and Europe more tranquil. After the
treaty of Amiens had Produced a general pacification, our Government was
seriously determined to reconquer from America a part of those treasures
its citizens had gained during the Revolutionary War, by a neutrality
which our policy and interest required, and which the liberality of your
Government endured. Hence the acquisition we made of New Orleans from
Spain, and hence the intrigues of our emissaries in that colony, and the
peremptory requisitions of provision for St. Domingo by our Minister and
generals. Had we been victorious in St. Domingo, most of our troops
there were destined for the American Continent, to invade, according to
circumstances, either the Spanish colonies on the terra firma or the
States of the American Commonwealth. The unforeseen rupture with your
country postponed a plan that is far from being laid aside.
You may, perhaps, think that since we sold Louisiana we have no footing
in America that can threaten the peace or independence of the United
States; but may not the same dictates that procured us at Madrid the
acquisition of New Orleans, also make us masters of Spanish Florida? And
do you believe it improbable that the present disagreement between
America and Spain is kept up by our intrigues and by our future views?
Would not a word from us settle in an instant at Madrid the differences
as well as the frontiers of the contending parties in America? And does
it not seem to be the regular and systematic plan of our Government to
provoke the retaliation of the Americans, and to show our disregard of
their privilege of neutrality and rights of independence; and that we
insult them only because we despise them, and despise them only because
we do not apprehend their resentment.
I have heard the late American Minister here assert that the American
vessels captured by our cruisers and condemned by our tribunals, only
during the last war, amounted to about five hundred; and their cargoes
(all American property) to one hundred and fifty millions of
livres--L6,000,000. Some few days ago I saw a printed list, presented by
the American consul to our Minister of the Marine Department, claiming
one hundred and twelve American ships captured in the West Indies and on
the coast of America within these last two years, the cargoes of which
have all been confiscated, and most of the crews still continue prisoners
at Martinico, Gaudeloupe, or Cayenne. Besides these, sixty-six American
ships, after being plundered in part of their cargoes at sea by our
privateers, had been released; and their claims for property thus lost,
or damage thus done, amounting to one million three hundred thousand
livres.
You must have read the proclamations of our governors in the West Indies,
and therefore remember that one dated at Guadeloupe, and another dated at
the City of San Domingo, both declare, without farther ceremony, all
American and other neutral ships and cargoes good and lawful prizes, when
coming from or destined to any port in the Island of St. Domingo, because
Bonaparte’s subjects there were in a state of rebellion. What would
these philosophers who, twelve years ago, wrote so many libels against
your Ministers for their pretended system of famine, have said, had they,
instead of prohibiting the carrying of ammunition and provisions to the
ports of France, thus extended their orders without discrimination or
distinction? How would the neutral Americans, and the neutral Danes, and
their then allies, philosophers, and Jacobins of all colours and classes,
have complained and declaimed against the tyrants of the seas; against
the enemies of humanity, liberty, and equality. Have not the negroes
now, as much as our Jacobins had in 1793, a right to call upon all those
tender-hearted schemers, dupes, or impostors, to interest humanity in
their favour? But, as far as I know, no friends of liberty have yet
written a line in favour of these oppressed and injured men, whose former
slavery was never doubtful, and who, therefore, had more reason to rise
against their tyrants, and to attempt to shake off their yoke, than our
French insurgents, who, free before, have never since they revolted
against lawful authority enjoyed an hour’s freedom. But the Emperor
Jacques the First has no propagators, no emissaries, no learned savans
and no secret agents to preach insurrection in other States, while
defending his own usurpation; besides, his treasury is not in the most
brilliant and flourishing situation, and the crew of our white
revolutionists are less attached to liberty than to cash.
Our Ambassador to the United States, General Turreaux, is far from being
contented with our friend, the President Jefferson, whose patriotic
notions have not yet soared to the level of our patriotic transactions.
He refused both to prevent the marriage of Jerome Bonaparte with a female
American citizen, and to detain her after her marriage when her husband
returned to Europe. To our continual representation against the
liberties which the American newspapers take with our Government, with
our Emperor, with our Imperial Family, and with our Imperial Ministers,
the answer has always been, “Prosecute the libeller, and as soon as he is
convicted he will be punished.” This tardy and negative justice is so
opposite to our expeditious and summary mode of proceeding, of punishing
first and trying afterwards, that it must be both humiliating and
offensive. In return, when the Americans have complained to Turreaux
against the piracy of our privateers, he has sent them here to seek
redress, where they also will, to their cost, discover that in civil
cases our justice has not the same rapid march as when it is a question
of arresting or transporting suspected persons, or of tormenting,
shooting, or guillotining a pretended spy, or supposed conspirator.
Had the peace of Europe continued, Bernadotte was the person selected by
Bonaparte and Talleyrand as our representative in America; because we
then intended to strike, and not to negotiate. But during the present
embroiled state of Europe, an intriguer was more necessary there than
either a warrior or a politician. A man who has passed through all the
mire of our own Revolution, who has been in the secrets, and an
accomplice of all our factions, is, undoubtedly, a useful instrument
where factions are to be created and directed, where wealth is designed
for pillage, and a State for overthrow. General Turreaux is, therefore,
in his place, and at his proper post, as our Ambassador in America.
The son of a valet of the late Duc de Bouillon, Turreaux called himself
before the Revolution Chevalier de Grambonville, and was, in fact, a
‘chevalier d’industrie’ (a swindler), who supported himself by gambling
and cheating. An associate of Beurnonville, Barras, and other vile
characters, he with them joined the colours of rebellion, and served
under the former in 1792, in the army of the Moselle, first as a
volunteer, and afterwards as an aide-de-camp. In a speech at the Jacobin
Club at Quesnoy, on the 20th of November, 1792, he made a motion--“That,
throughout the whole republican army, all hats should be prohibited, and
red caps substituted in their place; and that, not only portable
guillotines, but portable Jacobin clubs, should accompany the soldiers of
Liberty and Equality.”
A cousin of his was a member of the National Convention, and one of those
called Mountaineers, or sturdy partisans of Marat and Robespierre. It
was to the influence of this cousin, that he was indebted, first for a
commission as an adjutant-general, and afterwards for his promotion to a
general of brigade. In 1793, he was ordered to march, under the command
of Santerre, to La Vendee, where he shared in the defeat of the
republicans at Vihiers. At the engagement near Roches d’Erigne he
commanded, for the first time, a separate column, and the capacity and
abilities which he displayed on that occasion were such as might have
been expected from a man who had passed the first thirty years of his
life in brothels and gambling-houses. So pleasant were his dispositions,
that almost the whole army narrowly escaped having been thrown and pushed
into the River Loire. The battle of Doux was the only one in which he
had a share where the republicans were not routed; but some few days
afterwards, near Coron, all the troops under him were cut to pieces, and
he was himself wounded.
The confidence of his friends, the Jacobins, increased, however, in
proportion to his disasters, and he was, in 1794, after the superior
number of the republican soldiers had forced the remnants of the
Royalists to evacuate what was properly called La Vendee, appointed a
commander-in-chief. He had now an opportunity to display his infamy and
barbarity. Having established his headquarters at Mantes, where he was
safe, amidst the massacres of women and children ordered by his friend
Carriere, he commanded the republican army to enter La Vendee in twelve
columns, preceded by fire and sword; and within four weeks, one of the
most populous departments of France, to the extent and circumference of
sixty leagues, was laid waste-not a house, not a cottage, not a tree was
spared, all was reduced to ashes; and the unfortunate inhabitants, who
had not perished amid the ruin of their dwellings, were shot or stabbed;
while attempting to save themselves from the common conflagration. On
the 22d of January, 1794, he wrote to the Committee of Public Safety of
the National Convention: “Citizen Representatives!--A country of sixty
leagues extent, I have the happiness to inform you, is now a perfect
desert; not a dwelling, not a bush, but is reduced to ashes; and of one
hundred and eighty thousand worthless inhabitants, not a soul breathes
any longer. Men and women, old men and children, have all experienced
the national vengeance, and are no more. It was a pleasure to a true
republican to see upon the bayonets of each of our brave republicans the
children of traitors, or their, heads. According to the lowest
calculation, I have despatched, within three months, two hundred thousand
individuals of both sexes, and of all ages. Vive la Republique!!!” In
the works of Prudhomme and our republican writers, are inserted hundreds
of letters, still more cruelly extravagant, from this ci-devant friend of
Liberty and Equality, and at present faithful subject, and grand officer
of the Legion of Honour, of His Imperial Majesty Napoleon the First.
After the death of Robespierre, Turreaux, then a governor at Belleisle,
was arrested as a terrorist, and shut up at Du Plessis until the general
amnesty released him in 1795. During his imprisonment he amused himself
with writing memoirs of the war of La Vendee, in which he tried to prove
that all his barbarities had been perpetrated for the sake of humanity,
and to save the lives of republicans. He had also the modesty to
announce that, as a military work, his production would be equally
interesting as those of a Folard and Guibert. These memoirs, however,
proved nothing but that he was equally ignorant and wicked, presumptuous
and ferocious.
During the reign of the Directory he was rather discarded, or only
employed as a kind of recruiting officer to hunt young conscripts, but in
1800 Bonaparte gave him a command in the army of reserve; and in 1802,
another in the army of the interior. He then became one of the most
assiduous and cringing courtiers at the Emperor’s levies; while in the
Empress’s drawing-room he assumed his former air and ton of a chevalier,
in hopes of imposing upon those who did not remember the nickname which
his soldiers gave him ten years before, of Chevalier of the Guillotine.
At a ball of the Bonaparte family to which he was invited, the Emperor
took the fancy to dance with his stepdaughter, Madame Louis. He,
therefore, unhooked his sword, which he handed to a young colonel, D’
Avry, standing by his side. This colonel, who had been a page at the
Court of Louis XVI., knew that it would have been against etiquette, and
even unbecoming of him, to act as a valet to Napoleon while there were
valets in the room; he therefore retreated, looking round for a servant.
“Oh!” said the Emperor, “I see that I am mistaken; here, generals,”
continued he (addressing himself to half a dozen, with whose independent
principles and good breeding he was acquainted), “take this sword during
my dance.” They all pushed forward, but Turreaux and La Grange, another
general and intriguer, were foremost; the latter, however, received the
preference. On the next day, D’ Avry was ordered upon service to
Cayenne.
Turreaux has acquired, by his patriotic deeds in La Vendee, a fortune of
seven millions of livres. He has the highest opinion of his own
capacity, while a moment’s conversation will inform a man of sense that
he is only a conceited fool. As to his political transactions, he has by
his side, as a secretary, a man of the name of Petry, who has received a
diplomatic education, and does not want either subtlety or parts; and on
him, no doubt, is thrown the drudgery of business. During a European
war, Turreaux’s post is of little relative consequence; but should
Napoleon live to dictate another general pacification, the United States
will be exposed, on their frontiers, or in their interior, to the same
outrages their commercial navy now experiences on the main.