Volume III Part 1 (1/2)
The Writings Of Thomas Paine.
Volume III.
by Thomas Paine.
INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRD VOLUME.
WITH HISTORICAL NOTES AND DOc.u.mENTS.
In a letter of Lafayette to Was.h.i.+ngton (”Paris, 12 Jan., 1790”) he writes: ”_Common Sense_ is writing for you a brochure where you will see a part of my adventures.” It thus appears that the narrative embodied in the reply to Burke (”Rights of Man,” Part I.), dedicated to Was.h.i.+ngton, was begun with Lafayette's collaboration fourteen months before its publication (March 13, 1791).
In another letter of Lafayette to Was.h.i.+ngton (March 17, 1790) he writes:
”To Mr. Paine, who leaves for London, I entrust the care of sending you my news.... Permit me, my dear General, to offer you a picture representing the Bastille as it was some days after I gave the order for its demolition. I also pay you the homage of sending you the princ.i.p.al Key of that fortress of despotism. It is a tribute I owe as a son to my adoptive father, as aide-de-camp to my General, as a missionary of liberty to his Patriarch.”
The Key was entrusted to Paine, and by him to J. Rut-ledge, Jr., who sailed from London in May. I have found in the ma.n.u.script despatches of Louis Otto, Charge d' Affaires, several amusing paragraphs, addressed to his govern-ment at Paris, about this Key.
”August 4, 1790. In attending yesterday the public audience of the President, I was surprised by a question from the Chief Magistrate, 'whether I would like to see the Key of the Bastille?' One of his secretaries showed me at the same moment a large Key, which had been sent to the President by desire of the Marquis de la Fayette. I dissembled my surprise in observing to the President that 'the time had not yet come in America to do ironwork equal to that before him.'
The Americans present looked at the key with indifference, and as if wondering why it had been sent But the serene face of the President showed that he regarded it as an homage from the French nation.”
”December 13, 1790. The Key of the Bastille, regularly shown at the President's audiences, is now also on exhibition in Mrs. Was.h.i.+ngton's _salon_, where it satisfies the curiosity of the Philadelphians. I am persuaded, Monseigneur, that it is only their vanity that finds pleasure in the exhibition of this trophy, but Frenchmen here are not the less piqued, and many will not enter the President's house on this account.”
In sending the key Paine, who saw farther than these distant Frenchmen, wrote to Was.h.i.+ngton: ”That the principles of America opened the Bastille is not to be doubted, and therefore the Key comes to the right place.”
Early in May, 1791 (the exact date is not given), Lafayette writes Was.h.i.+ngton: ”I send you the rather indifferent translation of Mr. Paine as a kind of preservative and to keep me near you.” This was a hasty translation of ”Rights of Man,” Part I., by F. Soules, presently superseded by that of Lanthenas.
The first convert of Paine to pure republicanism in France was Achille Duchatelet, son of the Duke, and grandson of the auth.o.r.ess,--the friend of Voltaire. It was he and Paine who, after the flight of Louis XVI., placarded Paris with the Proclamation of a Republic, given as the first chapter of this volume. An account of this incident is here quoted from Etienne Dumont's ”Recollections of Mirabeau”:
”The celebrated Paine was at this time in Paris, and intimate in Condorcet's family. Thinking that he had effected the American Revolution, he fancied himself called upon to bring about one in France.
Duchatelet called on me, and after a little preface placed in my hand an English ma.n.u.script--a Proclamation to the French People. It was nothing less than an anti-royalist Manifesto, and summoned the nation to seize the opportunity and establish a Republic. Paine was its author.
Duchatelet had adopted and was resolved to sign, placard the walls of Paris with it, and take the consequences. He had come to request me to translate and develop it. I began discussing the strange proposal, and pointed out the danger of raising a republican standard without concurrence of the National a.s.sembly, and nothing being as yet known of the king's intentions, resources, alliances, and possibilities of support by the army, and in the provinces. I asked if he had consulted any of the most influential leaders,--Sieves, Lafayette, etc. He had not: he and Paine had acted alone. An American and an impulsive n.o.bleman had put themselves forward to change the whole governmental system of France. Resisting his entreaties, I refused to translate the Proclamation. Next day the republican Proclamation appeared on the walls in every part of Paris, and was denounced to the a.s.sembly. The idea of a Republic had previously presented itself to no one: this first intimation filled with consternation the Right and the moderates of the Left. Malouet, Cazales, and others proposed prosecution of the author, but Chapelier, and a numerous party, fearing to add fuel to the fire instead of extinguis.h.i.+ng it, prevented this. But some of the seed sown by the audacious hand of Paine were now budding in leading minds.”
A Republican Club was formed in July, consisting of five members, the others who joined themselves to Paine and Duchatelet being Condorcet, and probably Lanthenas (translator of Paine's works), and Nicolas de Bonneville. They advanced so far as to print ”Le Republicain,” of which, however, only one number ever appeared. From it is taken the second piece in this volume.
Early in the year 1792 Paine lodged in the house and book-shop of Thomas ”Clio” Rickman, now as then 7 Upper Marylebone Street. Among his friends was the mystical artist and poet, William Blake. Paine had become to him a transcendental type; he is one of the Seven who appear in Blake's ”Prophecy” concerning America (1793):
”The Guardian Prince of Albion burns in his nightly tent Sullen fires across the Atlantic glow to America's sh.o.r.e; Piercing the souls of warlike men, who rise in silent night:-- Was.h.i.+ngton, Franklin, Paine, and Warren, Gates, Hanc.o.c.k, and Greene, Meet on the coast glowing with blood from Albion's fiery Prince.”
The Seven are wrapt in the flames of their enthusiasm. Albion's Prince sends to America his thirteen Angels, who, however, there become Governors of the thirteen States. It is difficult to discover from Blake's mystical visions how much political radicalism was in him, but he certainly saved Paine from the scaffold by forewarning him (September 13, 1792) that an order had been issued for his arrest. Without repeating the story told in Gilchrist's ”Life of Blake,” and in my ”Life of Paine,” I may add here my belief that Paine also appears in one of Blake's pictures. The picture is in the National Gallery (London), and called ”The spiritual form of Pitt guiding Behemoth.” The monster jaws of Behemoth are full of struggling men, some of whom stretch imploring hands to another spiritual form, who reaches down from a crescent moon in the sky, as if to rescue them. This face and form appear to me certainly meant for Paine.
Acting on Blake's warning Paine's friends got him off to Dover, where, after some trouble, related in a letter to Dundas (see p. 41 of this volume), he reached Calais. He had been elected by four departments to the National Convention, and selected Calais, where he was welcomed with grand civic parades. On September 19, 1792, he arrived in Paris, stopping at ”White's Hotel,” 7 Pa.s.sage des Pet.i.ts Peres, about five minutes' walk from the Salle de Manege, where, on September 21st, the National Convention opened its sessions. The spot is now indicated by a tablet on the wall of the Tuileries Garden, Rue de Rivoli. On that day Paine was introduced to the Convention by the Abbe Gregoire, and received with acclamation.
The French Minister in London, Chauvelin, had sent to his government (still royalist) a despatch unfavorable to Paine's work in England, part of which I translate:
”May 23, 1792. An a.s.sociation [for Parliamentary Reform, see pp. 78, 93, of this volume] has been formed to seek the means of forwarding the demand. It includes some distinguished members of the Commons, and a few peers. The writings of M. Payne which preceded this a.s.sociation by a few days have done it infinite harm. People suspect under the veil of a reform long demanded by justice and reason an intention to destroy a const.i.tution equally dear to the peers whose privileges it consecrates, to the wealthy whom it protects, and to the entire nation, to which it a.s.sures all the liberty desired by a people methodical and slow in character, and who, absorbed in their commercial interests, do not like being perpetually worried about the imbecile George III. or public affairs. Vainly have the friends of reform protested their attachment to the Const.i.tution. Vainly they declare that they desire to demand nothing, to obtain nothing, save in lawful ways. They are persistently disbelieved. Payne alone is seen in all their movements; and this author has not, like Mackintosh, rendered imposing his refutation of Burke. The members of the a.s.sociation, although very different in principles, find themselves involved in the now almost general disgrace of Payne.”
M. Noel writes from London, November 2, 1792, to the republican Minister, Le Brun, concerning the approaching trial of Paine, which had been fixed for December 18th.
”This matter above all excites the liveliest interest. People desire to know whether they live in a free country, where criticism even of government is a right of every citizen. Whatever may be the decision in this interesting trial, the result can only be fortunate for the cause of liberty. But the government cannot conceal from itself that it is suspended over a volcano. The wild dissipations of the King's sons add to the discontent, and if something is overlooked in the Prince of Wales, who is loved enough, it is not so with the Duke of York, who has few friends. The latter has so many debts that at this moment the receivers are in his house, and the creditors wish even his bed to be seized. You perceive, Citizen, what a text fruitful in reflexions this conduct presents to a people groaning under the weight of taxes for the support of such whelps (_louvetaux_).”
Under date of December 22, 1792, M. Noel writes: