Volume III Part 41 (1/2)
The law, called the Sedition Law, enacted, that if any person should write or publish, or cause to be written or published, any libel [without defining what a libel is] against the Government of the United States, or either house of congress, or against the President, he should be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years.
But it is a much greater crime for a president to plot against a Const.i.tution and the liberties of the people, than for an individual to plot against a President; and consequently, John Adams is accountable to the public for his conduct, as the individuals under his administration were to the sedition law.
The object, however, of an enquiry, in this case, is not to punish, but to satisfy; and to shew, by example, to future administrations, that an abuse of power and trust, however disguised by appearances, or rendered plausible by pretence, is one time or other to be accounted for.
Thomas Paine.
BORDENTOWN, ON THE DELAWARE,
New Jersey, March 12, 1803. vol. III--27
LETTER VII.
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
This letter was printed in _The True American_, Trenton, New Jersey, soon after Paine's return to his old home at Bordenton. It is here printed from the original ma.n.u.script, for which I am indebted to Mr. W. F. Havemeyer of New York.
Although the Editor has concluded to present Paine's ”Maritime Compact” in the form he finally gave it, the articles were printed in French in 1800, and by S. H. Smith, Was.h.i.+ngton, at the close of the same year. There is an interesting history connected with it. John Hall, in his diary (”Trenton, 20 April, 1787”) relates that Paine told him of Dr. Franklin, whom he (Paine) had just visited in Philadelphia, and the Treaty he, the Doctor, made with the late King of Prussia by adding an article that, should war ever break out, Commerce should be free. The Doctor said he showed it to Vergennes, who said it met his idea, and was such as he would make even with England. In his Address to the People of France, 1797 (see p. 366), Paine closes with a suggestion on the subject, and a year later (September 30, 1798), when events were in a critical condition, he sent nine articles of his proposed _Pacte Maritime_ to Talleyrand, newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. The letters that pa.s.sed are here taken from the originals (State Archives, Paris, etats Unis, vol. 48).
”Rue Theatre francaise, No. 4, 9 Vendemaire, 6 year.
”Citizen Minister: I promised you some observations on the state of things between France and America. I divide the case into two parts.
First, with respect to some Method that shall effectually put an end to all interruptions of the American Commerce. Secondly, with respect to the settlement for the captures that have been made on that Commerce.
”As to the first case (the interruption of the American Commerce by France) it has foundation in the British Treaty, and it is the continuance of that treaty that renders the remedy difficult. Besides, the American administration has blundered so much in the business of treaty-making, that it is probable it will blunder again in making another with France. There is, however, one method left, and there is but one that I can see, that will be effectual. It is a _non-importation Convention; that America agrees not to import from any Nation in Europe who shall interrupt her Commerce on the seas, any goods, wares, or merchandize whatever, and that all her ports shall be shut against the Nation that gives the offence_. This will draw America out of her difficulties with respect to her treaty with England.
”But it will be far better if this non-importation convention were to be a general convention of Nations acting as a Whole. It would give a better protection to Neutral Commerce than the armed neutrality could do. I would rather be a Neutral Nation under the protection of such a Convention, which costs nothing to make it, than be under the protection of a navy equal to that of Great Britain. France should be the patron of such a Convention and sign it. It would be giving both her consent and her protection to the Rights of Neutral Nations. If England refuse to sign it she will nevertheless be obliged to respect it, or lose all her Commerce.
”I enclose you a plan I drew up about four months ago, when there was expectation that Mr. Madison would come to France. It has lain by me ever since.
”The second part, that of settlement for the captures, I will make the subject of a future correspondence. Salut et respect.”
Talleyrand's Reply (”Foreign Relations, 15 Vendemaire An. 6,” Oct.
6, 1797): ”I have the honor to return you, Citizen, with very sincere thanks, your Letter to General Was.h.i.+ngton which you have had the goodness to show me.
”I have received the letter which you have taken the trouble to write me, the 9th of this month. I need not a.s.sure you of the appreciation with which I shall receive the further indications you promise on the means of terminating in a durable manner the differences which must excite your interest as a patriot and as a Republican. Animated by such a principle your ideas cannot fail to throw valuable light on the discussion you open, and which should have for its object to reunite the two Republics in whose alienation the enemies of liberty triumph.”
Paine's plan made a good impression in France--He writes to Jefferson, October 6, 1800, that the Consul Le Brun, at an entertainment given to the American envoys, gave for his toast: ”a l'union de 1' Amerique avec les Puissances du Nord pour faire respecter la liberte des mers.”
The malignant mind, like the jaundiced eye, sees everything through a false medium of its own creating. The light of heaven appears stained with yellow to the distempered sight of the one, and the fairest actions have the form of crimes in the venomed imagination of the other.
For seven months, both before and after my return to America in October last, the apostate papers styling themselves ”Federal” were filled with paragraphs and Essays respecting a letter from Mr. Jefferson to me at Paris; and though none of them knew the contents of the letter, nor the occasion of writing it, malignity taught them to suppose it, and the lying tongue of injustice lent them its aid.
That the public may no longer be imposed upon by Federal apostacy, I will now publish the Letter, and the occasion of its being written.