The Georgia journal: and independent federal register. (Savannah, Ga.) 1793-179?, January 15, 1794, Image 2

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

7 he following is taken from the papers, relative to France, communicated to the houje op reprejmtatives, in a ni'U'&e from the prejident of the Unit, and States, ts December sih, 1793, and which are now printed far the uje oj the mem bers : Rew-Vbrk, September 18, 1 79 f ctnd year of the Frttich republic, cue and m 'div jible. Citizen Genet, win fter ple nipotentiary of the French republic with the United States, to rnr. Jeff erf on, jecrctaiy of fate oj the United Slates. Sir, Pcrfuaded that the sovereignty of the United States refitles eitentinlly in the people, and its representation in the cyiifnel’s : Ptriuaded that the ex ecutive'power is the only one which has been confided to the president of the United States : Periuaded that ’ this magiilrate has not the right to ’ decide queftiqns, the di feu ft on of .. which,the constitution reserves parti cularly to the congrcCs : Ptriuaded that he has not the power to bend ex it!: ng.treaties \o ciratmftanccs, and to change their, sense : P rfuaded that the league formed by ail the tyrants, to annihilate republican principles, founded on tile fights o'! man, will be the object of the molt serious deiibe. rations of congress, 1 had deferred, In the idle View of obtaining good harmony between the free people of America and France, communicating to my governiiKpt, before the epoch lat which the representatives - of the people Were to aifesuble, the original correfpqndence which has taken place, in writing, between you and my ft if, on the political rights of France in particular : on the sntereits of public liberty ; find on the a&s, proclama tions, arid deciftons ol the prthdent of the United St.ucs, relative to ob j cts which ;• quire, from their na ture, ths function of the legislative body: However, informed that the gentl men who have been painted to me so often as at ftocrats, parti fans of moi.ai ihv, par;ilk ns of England, - of her conilitutioti, and\conlequem!y enemies of the principles which ail go-od Frenchmen have era! raced with a religious enthufi f.n, alarmed at the popularity which was reflected on the trmiHler of France, by the affection of tire American people for the French republic, and for the glorious Cause w Inch it defends ; equally alarmed at mv unshaken and incorruptible at.. tach;nent to the severe maxims of dt\. v: .0. racy, were Inbourii g to ruin nse - in my cou<;try, after having reunited if jail’ th. : r efforts to calumniate me in the view el their fellow citizens, I w a ; going to begin to collect thef’e af i. *V.ng materials, and I was taking mealure 1 to tranfinit them to France with t.rv reports, when the detiuncu ti in which theic lame men have el icited the 1 rotidc.it to exhibit againlt me through rnr. Morris,* came to my ham’s, ’{strong in’ -.he principles which have directed ir*s conduct, flickered fi9m eyesy well so decl reproach, I expe-fted, uevcnhe efis, to have found. Pi; 1 it ftnne serious allegations ; but what has oven my altomihmenf, on finding that Use American people wetc n.iore outraged in it than myfelf; That is was ftippofed that l cxer•lied overthvm a j j ve •• en inliuer.ee ; that it was pretended that*] was making them frd; a put in the war cf liberty fur the defence of their brethren, of their chit y agamli the intention of their ‘govormr.birt': hint jo go\en:s favourable to cur iutrrefts, rendered, in the mitlft cf the acclamations of the citizens ot PliLddpbm, by juries .m i by independent .-.tribunal, have not ’been the e> of a lev ere j-ufthe ; -illl short, that 1 was a power within another pt*ver. Fuel) strange accu Ik tic ns, only that the Ameri can people Jove and fupporr our prin and our cauie, in spite of its * iSo letter skull appear in our thxi. numerous enemies, and that the pow er, which they do me the honour to attribute to me, is only that ol grati tude druggling againlt ingratitude ; of truth combatting error : i will lend no other juftification of my conduct; I will join only, in support of the o pinions which 1 mean to profels/lome Writings which have been publifiied litre, Inch as thole ot Veritas, and of Helvedius, See. As to the personal outrarres, as to the doubts which you insinuate of my devotion to the union of the people, I have realon to be lleve they will not make a great im preflion, when the answer shall be recurred to, which I made to thenu merous addrefles which your lellow citizens deigned to present me ; when it fliall be recoliefled, tfiat placed, at the age of twelve years, in the bu | reau cf foreign affairs, it was 1 who j had the advantage of contribut ing to penetrate the French with the spirit of 1766 and 1767, by translat ing into our tongue, under the di rection of my father, then head cf the bureau, the greater part of your laws, and of the writings of your politicians; that since that epoch, always faithful 4 to the cause of liberty, I have ren dered to the Americans, in the differ ent employments I have had, all the fer-vices which depended on me ; and that, we find, charged to represent the French people, with the firft peo ple who have proclaimed the rights of man, knowing how far our ancient government had put iiberticide (hack les on the commerce and on the inti macy of the two nations, I have ne glected nothing to obtain, on the one hand, the liberal basis on which tin# new bands which the French p ople ] delire to contract with the United i States, V*ere to be negotiated, in or- j e’er that, on the other, the federal \ government might be feniible how urgent it was to occupy tin mft Ives on the conclusion of thi true family corupaft, which was for ever to usutc the political and commercial interell j of two* people, equally objefis of the ■ hatred of all tyrants. * Besides, fir, whatever may be the result of the achievements of which you have rendered yourfelf the ge nerotis instrument, after having made me believe that you were my Inend'; after having initiated me into myl teries, which have inflamed my hatred again ft all thole who aspire to •an absolute power, there is an act cf justice which the American people, which the French people, which all free people, are interested to reclaim ; that is, that there be made a particu lar inquiry, in the next congress, of the motives on which the head of the executive power of the United States has taken on himfelf to demand the recal of a public minister, whom the lovereign people of the United States had received fraternally, and recop-- nixed, before the diplomatic forms had been fulfilled, with refpett to him, at Philadelphia. It is in the name of the French peo ple, that 1 am sent to their brethren —to free and sovereign men ; it is, then, for the representatives of the American people, and not for a'fingie man, to exhibit againlt me an act of accusation, if I have merited it. A despot may finely permit himfelf to demand, from another delpot, the re cal of his representative, and to order hi j cxpuiiioa-in case of refufal. ‘lips j is what .the empress cf Russia did, j vah respect to my elf, from 1 AVI. but in a free Rate, it cannot be | - 3unlef of-d or b..-‘entirely subverted; 1 xnlds r c t.ecple, in a moment of p Inefs, choofs to rivet ther fetters, in r.iak ;'g, to a isngle individual, the | ‘ ‘ ..ent ot their moft precious rights., r-r y u, tlien, (Tr,‘to place under the eyes of the president cf the United Mates, the demand which I make in the name of equity, to lay before congress for their difeuffion, at the epoch when they shall be alfembled by the law, if the great events which occupy the univerle do not appear yet {Efficient to hasten their convocation jft. all the questions relative to the political rights of France and the United States, 2d. the different cases resulting from our state of war w ith the powers, of vhofe acts of aggreflion I have informed you, 3d- heads of accufatson, which the nnuifter or the United States, with the French re public, is charged to exhibit against me, and against the consul whole charasfier is compromitted and out raged in the molt scandalous manner, for having -obeyed superior orders, which it was neither in his nor in mine to revoke. In this ex pectation, fir, I do not confider the dignity of the French nation as com promitted by the extraordinary poll- ( tion in which I find mylelf, as well as j the confui ; and I have to complain 1 only of the forms you have employed. | The executive council of the French republic had also complaints, of a very different nature from thole alleged against me, to exhibit against mr. Morris, your ambaflador at Pa ris ; but penetrated with a just fenti meist of reipect for the sovereignty of the American people, it recommended to me only to make confidential obier ! vations to you on the necellity of re \ calling this minister plenipotentiary, | accu led, by the public voice, of facts j eftablilhed, but not by the reprefenta ; tires of the people after a regular in quiry, of having favoured, as much as he could, rhe- counter-revolutionary projects of Louis XVl—of commu nicating to him memoirs, in which he ; ad ii’ed him not to accept the cbnifi- I tutbn—of having had no connexions I but with suspected perfons—of hav ingafie£ted the greatest contempt for all thole who served faithfully the cause of the people—of having been the ch.annel of the councils which con cluded La Fayette into the prisons of Pro: r :t—of having abided the refpeef of rite Frcnc 1 people for the eu. ay of the A aericau people, to facilitate more Tufety tie correiporidenee and the cor.fpiracies of all their enemies of havin r {hewn nothing but ill hu mour in his relations with tne tmujl •tersof the French republic—of hav. ing n'TI ded. in writing to them, to employ, in ffcaking of the executive of the United States, only the words, ‘ in the name of my court,’ so ihock. ing to republican ears—of having fie. manded a palfport the 10th of Au guli, 1792, to go into England, with the ambalfadcr cf George lll.—and of having Laid publicly, with a con fidence which the present event jufti fies, that if the embafly of the re public fkould be received at Philadel phia, it's extftence, and that of the re publican consuls, in America, would not be of long duration there* I have already mentioned to you, fir, l'ome of these imputations : but, as I have already toid you, out of relpedl for the sovereignty of the U nited States, I thought I fiiould leave to their wisdom the care of taking me fures the rnoft l'uitable, to recon cile their dignity with what their pru dencegnight require. Not doubting, fir, that the justice which I require will be done me, as well as my co-operators, I ought to inform you, that I api about to have printed all my correfpondenee, in or der that the American people, whose elleein is dearer to me than life, may judge whether I have been worthy or not of the fraternal reception which they deigned to give me ; if’ in all my olficial papers I have not ex pre (fed my ref'ped for that virtuous nation, and my confidence in the pu. ritv of their fentimenrs ; if I have infilled on a tingle principle which has not been iupported, since, by decisi ons of the juries or tribunals of the country ; if, in acting and exprailing .nylelf with the franknels and energy ol a republican, I hare attacked the j constitution ; if I have refufed refped to a fing’e law ; in fine, if, i n re. claiming with all the firmnefs that was preferibed to me, the faithful execution cf our treaties, I have not endeavoured to encourage the federal government to employ the only means, worthy of a great people, to preserve peace and to enjoy the advantages o£ neutrality ; an ufeful objrcl, not to be o!mjained by timid and uncertain measures, by premature proclamations which seem extorted by fear, by a partial impartiality, which fours yc; friends without fatisfying ycur ene mies, but by an attitude firm and pronounced, which apprizes all the powers that ths very legitimate desire of enjoying the sweets of peace, hai not made you forget what is due to justice, to gratitude, and that, with-, out ceasing to be neutral, you may fulfil public engagements, contracted \vith your friends, in a moment when you were yourfelvesin danger. I will answer more in detail, fir, he a proper time, to your violent diatribe. But it contains one fad, on which I must how give you explanations.— You are made to reproach me with having indilereetly given to my offi cial proceedings a tone of colour, which has induced a belief, that they did not know, in France, either my character or iny manners.- I will tell you the reafo.n, fir; it is, that a pure and warm blood runs with ra pidity in my veins; that I love, pisf fionately, my country ; that 1 adore the cause of-liberty ; that I am always ready to facrifice my life to it ; that to me, it appears inconceivable, that all the enemies of tyranny, that ail virtuous men, do not march wish us to the combat ; and that, when I find an injustice is done to my fellow, citizens, that their interelis are not espoused with the zeal which they merit, no cOnfideration in the w ork! would hinder either my pen or try tongue from tracing, from exprefling my pain. I will tell you then, with out ceremony, that I have been ex tremely wounded, iir. 1 ft. That the prendent nf the United vi,.!y C. a hurry, before knowing what 1 liacj to transmit to him on the part of the French republic, to proclaim senti ments, on which decency and friend ihip should at least have drawn a veil. 2d. That he did not (peak to me at my firft audience, but of the friend ihip of the United States towards France, without faying a word to me, without announcing a tingle tenti neut on our revolution ; while ail the towns from Charleston to Philadelphia, had made the air relound wi h their moft ardent willies for the French re public. 3d. That he had received ami admitted to a private audience, before rny arrival, Noailles and Ta lon, known agents of the French counter revolutionists, who have since had intimate relations with two members of the federal government. 4th. That this firft magistrate of a free people, decorated his parlour with certain medallions of Capet and of his family, which served at Paris a fignals of rallying. sth. That the firft complaints which were made to my predecelFor on the armaments and prizes which took place at Charleston on my arrival, were in faft but a pa raphrase of the notes of the Engl id minister. 6th. That the secretary of war, to whom I communicated the wifli of oils* government of the Wind ward Islands, to receive promptly foine nre arms and fome cannon, which might put into a state of de fence poflefiions guaranteed by the United States, had the front, to an fvver me with an ironical careiefsn ! c , that the principles eftablilhed by the president, did not permit him to lend us lb much as a pistol. 7th. That tfs e secretary of the treasury, with whom I had a conversation on the proposi tion which I had made to convert ai inoll the whole American debt, by means of an operation ot finance u ---thoriicd by the lawq into flour, ricA