Volume III Part 19 (1/2)
MEMORIAL ADDRESSED TO JAMES MONROE,
MINISTER FROM THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.
Prison of the Luxembourg, Sept. 10th, 1794.
I address this memorial to you, in consequence of a letter I received from a friend, 18 Fructidor (September 4th,) in which he says, ”Mr.
Monroe has told me, that he has no orders [meaning from the American government] respecting you; but I am sure he will leave nothing undone to liberate you; but, from what I can learn, from all the late Americans, you are not considered either by the Government, or by the individuals, as an American citizen. You have been made a french Citizen, which you have accepted, and you have further made yourself a servant of the french Republic; and, therefore, it would be out of character for an American Minister to interfere in their internal concerns. You must therefore either be liberated out of Compliment to America, or stand your trial, which you have a right to demand.”
This information was so unexpected by me, that I am at a loss how to answer it. I know not on what principle it originates; whether from an idea that I had voluntarily abandoned my Citizens.h.i.+p of America for that of France, or from any article of the American Const.i.tution applied to me. The first is untrue with respect to any intention on my part; and the second is without foundation, as I shall shew in the course of this memorial.
The idea of conferring honor of Citizens.h.i.+p upon foreigners, who had distinguished themselves in propagating the principles of liberty and humanity, in opposition to despotism, war, and bloodshed, was first proposed by me to La Fayette, at the commencement of the french revolution, when his heart appeared to be warmed with those principles.
My motive in making this proposal, was to render the people of different nations more fraternal than they had been, or then were. I observed that almost every branch of Science had possessed itself of the exercise of this right, so far as it regarded its own inst.i.tution. Most of the Academies and Societies in Europe, and also those of America, conferred the rank of honorary member, upon foreigners eminent in knowledge, and made them, in fact, citizens of their literary or scientific republic, without affecting or anyways diminis.h.i.+ng their rights of citizens.h.i.+p in their own country or in other societies: and why the Science of Government should not have the same advantage, or why the people of one nation should not, by their representatives, exercise the right of conferring the honor of Citizens.h.i.+p upon individuals eminent in another nation, without affecting _their_ rights of citizens.h.i.+p, is a problem yet to be solved.
I now proceed to remark on that part of the letter, in which the writer says, that, _from what he can learn from all the late Americans, I am not considered in America, either by the Government or by the individuals, as an American citizen_.
In the first place I wish to ask, what is here meant by the Government of America? The members who compose the Government are only individuals, when in conversation, and who, most probably, hold very different opinions upon the subject. Have Congress as a body made any declaration respecting me, that they now no longer consider me as a citizen? If they have not, anything they otherwise say is no more than the opinion of individuals, and consequently is not legal authority, nor anyways sufficient authority to deprive any man of his Citizens.h.i.+p. Besides, whether a man has forfeited his rights of Citizens.h.i.+p, is a question not determinable by Congress, but by a Court of Judicature and a Jury; and must depend upon evidence, and the application of some law or article of the Const.i.tution to the case. No such proceeding has yet been had, and consequently I remain a Citizen until it be had, be that decision what it may; for there can be no such thing as a suspension of rights in the interim.
I am very well aware, and always was, of the article of the Const.i.tution which says, as nearly as I can recollect the words, that ”any citizen of the United States, who shall accept any t.i.tle, place, or office, from any foreign king, prince, or state, shall forfeit and lose his right of Citizens.h.i.+p of the United States.”
Had the Article said, that _any citizen of the United States, who shall be a member of any foreign convention, for the purpose of forming a free const.i.tution, shall forfeit and lose the right of citizens.h.i.+p of the United States_, the article had been directly applicable to me; but the idea of such an article never could have entered the mind of the American Convention, and the present article _is_ altogether foreign to the case with respect to me. It supposes a Government in active existence, and not a Government dissolved; and it supposes a citizen of America accepting t.i.tles and offices under that Government, and not a citizen of America who gives his a.s.sistance in a Convention chosen by the people, for the purpose of forming a Government _de nouveau_ founded on their authority.
The late Const.i.tution and Government of France was dissolved the 10th of August, 1792. The National legislative a.s.sembly then in being, supposed itself without sufficient authority to continue its sittings, and it proposed to the departments to elect not another legislative a.s.sembly, but a Convention for the express purpose of forming a new Const.i.tution.
When the a.s.sembly were discoursing on this matter, some of the members said, that they wished to gain all the a.s.sistance possible upon the subject of free const.i.tutions; and expressed a wish to elect and invite foreigners of any Nation to the Convention, who had distinguished themselves in defending, explaining, and propagating the principles of liberty. It was on this occasion that my name was mentioned in the a.s.sembly. (I was then in England.)
1 In the American pamphlet a footnote, probably added by Bache, here says: ”Even this article does not exist in the manner here stated.” It is a pity Paine did not have in his prison the article, which says: ”No person holding any office of profit or trust under them [the United States]
shall, without the consent of Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or t.i.tle of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign State.”--_Editor._
After this, a deputation from a body of the french people, in order to remove any objection that might be made against my a.s.sisting at the proposed Convention, requested the a.s.sembly, as their representatives, to give me the t.i.tle of French Citizen; after which, I was elected a member of the Convention, in four different departments, as is already known.(1)
The case, therefore, is, that I accepted nothing from any king, prince, or state, nor from any Government: for France was without any Government, except what arose from common consent, and the necessity of the case. Neither did I _make myself a servant of the french Republic_, as the letter alluded to expresses; for at that time France was not a republic, not even in name. She was altogether a people in a state of revolution.
It was not until the Convention met that France was declared a republic, and monarchy abolished; soon after which a committee was elected, of which I was a member,(2) to form a Const.i.tution, which was presented to the Convention [and read by Condorcet, who was also a member] the 15th and 16th of February following, but was not to be taken into consideration till after the expiration of two months,(3) and if approved of by the Convention, was then to be referred to the people for their acceptance, with such additions or amendments as the Convention should make.
1 The deputation referred to was described as the ”Commission Extraordinaire,” in whose name M. Guadet moved that the t.i.tle of French Citizen be conferred on Priestley, Paine, Bentham, Wilberforce, Clarkson, Mackintosh, David Williams, Cormelle, Paw, Pestalozzi, Was.h.i.+ngton, Madison, Hamilton, Klopstock, Koscinsko, Gorani, Campe, Anacharsis Clootz, Gilleers. This was on August 26, and Paine was elected by Calais on September 6,1792; and in the same week by Oise, Somme, and Puy-de-Dome.--_Editor._
2 Sieves, Paine, Brissot, Petion, Vergniaud, Gensonne, Barere, Danton, Condorcet.--_Editor._
3 The remainder of this sentence is replaced in the American pamphlet by the following: ”The disorders and the revolutionary government that took place after this put a stop to any further progress upon the case.”--_Editor._
In thus employing myself upon the formation of a Const.i.tution, I certainly did nothing inconsistent with the American Const.i.tution. I took no oath of allegiance to France, or any other oath whatever. I considered the Citizens.h.i.+p they had presented me with as an honorary mark of respect paid to me not only as a friend to liberty, but as an American Citizen. My acceptance of that, or of the deputys.h.i.+p, not conferred on me by any king, prince, or state, but by a people in a state of revolution and contending for liberty, required no transfer of my allegiance or of my citizens.h.i.+p from America to France. There I was a real citizen, paying Taxes; here, I was a voluntary friend, employing myself on a temporary service. Every American in Paris knew that it was my constant intention to return to America, as soon as a const.i.tution should be established, and that I anxiously waited for that event.
I know not what opinions have been circulated in America. It may have been supposed there that I had voluntarily and intentionally abandoned America, and that my citizens.h.i.+p had ceased by my own choice. I can easily [believe] there are those in that country who would take such a proceeding on my part somewhat in disgust. The idea of forsaking old friends.h.i.+ps for new acquaintances is not agreeable. I am a little warranted in making this supposition by a letter I received some time ago from the wife of one of the Georgia delegates in which she says ”Your friends on this side the water cannot be reconciled to the idea of your abandoning America.”
I have never abandoned her in thought, word or deed; and I feel it inc.u.mbent upon me to give this a.s.surance to the friends I have in that country and with whom I have always intended and am determined, if the possibility exists, to close the scene of my life. It is there that I have made myself a home. It is there that I have given the services of my best days. America never saw me flinch from her cause in the most gloomy and perilous of her situations; and I know there are those in that country who will not flinch from me. If I have enemies (and every man has some) I leave them to the enjoyment of their ingrat.i.tude.*
* I subjoin in a note, for the sake of wasting the solitude of a prison, the answer that I gave to the part of the letter above mentioned. It is not inapplacable to the subject of this Memorial; but it contain! somewhat of a melancholy idea, a little predictive, that I hope is not becoming true so soon.
It is somewhat extraordinary that the idea of my not being a citizen of America should have arisen only at the time that I am imprisoned in France because, or on the pretence that, I am a foreigner. The case involves a strange contradiction of ideas. None of the Americans who came to France whilst I was in liberty had conceived any such idea or circulated any such opinion; and why it should arise now is a matter yet to be explained. However discordant the late American Minister G. M.