Volume II Part 6 (2/2)
Denis By this ingenious phrase Morris already disclailishh Genet This was a clever hint in another way Genet, now recalled, evidently for the guillotine, had been introduced to Morris by Paine, who no doubt had given him letters to eminent Americans Paine had sympathized warmly with the project of the Kentuckians to expel the Spanish from the Mississippi, and this was patriotic American doctrine even after Kentucky was admitted into the Union (June 1, 1792) He had corresponded with Dr O'Fallon, a leading Kentuckian on the subject But things had changed, and when Genet went out with his blank commissions he found himself confronted with a proclamation of neutrality which turned his use of them to sedition Paine's acquaintance with Genet, and his introductions, could now be plausibly used by Morris to involve hi his country fro it on the deputy from ”the other side of the channel”
”This declaration produced the effect I intended,” wrote Morris The effect was indeed swift On October 3d, Amar, after the doors of the Convention were locked, read the ainst the Girondins, four weeks before their execution In that paper he denounced Brissot for his effort to save the King, for his inti the colonies by his labors for negro emancipation!
In this denunciation Paine had the honor to be included
”At that salishman Thomas Paine, called by the faction [Girondin] to the honor of representing the French nation, dishonored hi us in his fable the dissatisfaction of the United States of America, our natural allies, which he did not blush to depict for us as full of veneration and gratitude for the tyrant of France”
On October 19th the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Deforgues, writes to Morris:
”I shall give the Council an account of the punishable conduct of their agent in the United States [Genet], and I can assure you beforehand that they will regard the strange abuse of their confidence by this agent, as I do, with the liveliest indignation The President of the United States has done justice to our senti the deviations of the citizen Genet to causes entirely foreign to his instructions, and we hope that the measures to be taken will more and more convince the head andauthorized the proceedings and man?uvres of Citizen Genet our only aim has been to maintain between the two nations the most perfect harmony”
One of ”the measures to be taken” was the imprisonment of Paine, for which Amar's denunciation had prepared the way But this was not so easy For Robespierre had successfully attacked A its accusations beyond the Girondins How then could an accusation be ht, except that he had introduced a French minister to his friends in America! A deputy must be formally accused by the Convention before he could be tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal An indirect route must be taken to reach the deputy secretly accused by the American Minister, and the latter had pointed it out by alluding to Paine as an influence ”from across the channel” There was a law passed in June for the i to countries at ith France
This was administered by the Co a deputy, and never suspected of citizenshi+p in the country which had outlawed hiot out of the Convention the lawany public accusation and trial, or anything more than an announcement to the Deputies
Such was the course pursued Christmas day was celebrated by the terrorist Bourdon de l'Oise with a denunciation of Paine: ”They have boasted the patriotism of Thomas Paine _Eh bien!_ Since the Brissotins disappeared from the bosom of this Convention he has not set foot in it
And I know that he has intrigued with a forn Affairs” This accusation could only have con Affairs--froent of Deforgues' office hom Paine could possibly have been connected; and what that connection was the reader knows That accusation is associated with the terrorist's charge that Paine had declined to unite with the murderous decrees of the Convention
After the speech of Bourdon de l'Oise, Bentabole ners fro the war” Bentabole was a leading member of the Committee of General Surety ”The assener should be admitted to represent the French people” The Coard Paine as an Englishman; and as such out of the Convention, and consequently under the law of June against aliens of hostile nations He was arrested next day, and on Dece prison
CHAPTER VI A TESTIMONY UNDER THE GUILLOTINE
While Paine was in prison the English gentry were gladdened by a ruuillotined, and a libellous leaflet of ”The Last Dying Words of Thomas Paine” appeared in London Paine was no less confident than his enemies that his execution was certain--after the denunciation in Aarded as his dying words--”The Age of Reason” This was the task which he had from year to year adjourned to his maturest powers, and to it he dedicates what brief remnant of life may await him That completed, it will be time to die with his comrades, awakened by his pen to a da red with their blood
The last letter I find written from the old Pompadour mansion is to Jefferson, under date of October 20th:
”Dear Sir,--I wrote you by Captain Dominick as to sail from Havre about the 20th of this ht you by Mr
Barlow or Col Oswald Since my letter by Dominick I am every day ress sending Commissioners to Europe to confer with the Ministers of the Jesuitical Powers on thethe war The enclosed printed paper will shew there are a variety of subjects to be taken into consideration which did not appear at first, all of which have some tendency to put an end to the war I see not how this war is to terminate if some intermediate power does not step forward There is now no prospect that France can carry revolutions thro' Europe on the one hand, or that the combined powers can conquer France on the other hand It is a sort of defensive War on both sides This being the case how is the War to close? Neither side will ask for peace though each land and Holland are tired of the war Their Coly--and besides this it is to them a ithout an object Russia keeps her-self at a distance
I cannot help repeating ress would send Commissioners, and I wish also that yourself would venture once more across the Ocean as one of them If the Commissioners rendezvous at Holland they would then knohat steps to take They could call Mr Pinckney to their Councils, and it would be of use, on many accounts, that one of the truce, were it proposed by the neutral Powers, would have all the effects of a Peace, without the difficulties attending the adjustment of all the forms of Peace--Yours affectionately Thomas Paine”
I a, of Boston The letter is endorsed by Jefferson, ”Rec'd Mar
3” (1794)
Thus has finally faded the dream of Paine's life--an international republic
It is notable that in this letter Paine er He may have done so in the previous letter, unfound, to which he alludes Why he made no attempt to escape after A others to leave the country Two of his friends, Johnson and Choppin--the last to part froarden,--escaped to Switzerland Johnson will be re of Marat'sto Lady Smith of these two friends, he says:
”He [Johnson] recovered, and being anxious to get out of France, a passport was obtained for hi, and set off the nextfor Basle, before four, frohly pleased with their escape from France, into which they had entered with an enthusiasm of patriotic devotion Ah, France! thou hast ruined the character of a revolution virtuously begun, and destroyed those who produced it I ht also say like Job's servant, 'and I only aone I heard a rapping at the gate, and looking out of theof the bedrooate, which he opened; and a guard with ain and er It was a guard to take up Johnson and Choppin, but, I thank God, they were out of their reach
”The guard caht, and took away the landlord, George And the scene in the house finished with the arrestation of myself This was soon after you called on me, and sorry I was that it was not in my power to render to Sir [Robert Smith] the service that you asked”
All then had fled Even the old landlord had been arrested In the wintry garden this lone ion of hureat littered aathered the Round Table of great-hearted gentleh the watches of the night at his devout task
”My friends were falling as fast as the guillotine could cut their heads off, and as I expected, every day, the sain my work I appeared to myself to be on my death bed, for death was on every side ofat the time I did, and so nicely did the time and intention meet, that I had not finished the first part of the work more than six hours before I was arrested and taken to prison The people of France were running headlong into atheise, to stop them in that career, and fix them to the first article of every man's creed, who has any creed at all--_I believe in God_”