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French
Revolution
Thomas
Jefferson
May 18. The
pecuniary distresses of France produced this year a measure of which
there had been no example for near two centuries, & the consequences
of which, good and evil, are not yet calculable. For it's remote causes
we must go a little back.
Celebrated writers of France and England had already sketched good
principles on the subject of government. Yet the American Revolution
seems first to have awakened the thinking part of the French nation in
general from the sleep of despotism in which they were sunk. The officers
too who had been to America, were mostly young men, less shackled by
habit and prejudice, and more ready to assent to the suggestions of
common sense, and feeling of common rights. They came back with new ideas
& impressions. The press, notwithstanding it's shackles, began to
disseminate them. Conversation assumed new freedoms. Politics became the
theme of all societies, male and female, and a very extensive &
zealous party was formed which acquired the appellation of the Patriotic
party, who, sensible of the abusive government under which they lived,
sighed for occasions of reforming it. This party comprehended all the
honesty of the kingdom sufficiently at it's leisure to think, the men of
letters, the easy Bourgeois, the young nobility partly from reflection,
partly from mode, for these sentiments became matter of mode, and as such
united most of the young women to the party. Happily for the nation, it
happened at the same moment that the dissipations of the Queen and court,
the abuses of the pension-list, and dilapidations in the administration
of every branch of the finances, had exhausted the treasures and credit
of the nation, insomuch that it's most necessary functions were
paralyzed. To reform these abuses would have overset the minister; to
impose new taxes by the authority of the King was known to be impossible
from the determined opposition of the parliament to their enregistry. No
resource remained then but to appeal to the nation. He advised therefore
the call of an assembly of the most distinguished characters of the
nation, in the hope that by promises of various and valuable improvements
in the organization and regimen of the government, they would be induced
to authorize new taxes, to controul the opposition of the parliament, and
to raise the annual revenue to the level of expenditures. An Assembly of
Notables therefore, about 150. in number named by the King, convened on
the 22d. of Feb. The Minister (Calonne) stated to them that the annual
excess of expenses beyond the revenue, when Louis XVI. came to the
throne, was 37. millions of livres; that 440. millns. had been borrowed
to reestablish the navy; that the American war had cost them 1440. millns.
(256. mils. of Dollars) and that the interest of these sums, with other
increased expenses had added 40 millns. more to the annual deficit. (But
a subseqt. and more candid estimate made it 56. millns.) He proffered
them an universal redress of grievances, laid open those grievances
fully, pointed out sound remedies, and covering his canvas with objects
of this magnitude, the deficit dwindled to a little accessory, scarcely
attracting attention. The persons chosen were the most able &
independent characters in the kingdom, and their support, if it could be
obtained, would be enough for him. They improved the occasion for
redressing their grievances, and agreed that the public wants should be
relieved; but went into an examination of the causes of them. It was
supposed that Calonne was conscious that his accounts could not bear
examination; and it was said and believed that he asked of the King to
send 4. members to the Bastile, of whom the M. de la Fayette was one, to
banish 20. others, & 2. of his Ministers. The King found it shorter
to banish him. His successor went on in full concert with the Assembly.
The result was an augmentation of the revenue, a promise of economies in
it's expenditure, of an annual settlement of the public accounts before a
council, which the Comptroller, having been heretofore obliged to settle
only with the King in person, of course never settled at all; an
acknowledgment that the King could not lay a new tax, a reformation of
the criminal laws, abolition of torture, suppression of Corvees,
reformation of the gabelles, removal of the interior custom houses, free
commerce of grain internal & external, and the establishment of
Provincial assemblies; which alltogether constituted a great mass of
improvement in the condition of the nation. The establishment of the
Provincial assemblies was in itself a fundamental improvement. They would
be of the choice of the people, one third renewed every year, in those
provinces where there are no States, that is to say over about three
fourths of the kingdom. They would be partly an Executive themselves,
& partly an Executive council to the Intendant, to whom the Executive
power, in his province had been heretofore entirely delegated. Chosen by
the people, they would soften the execution of hard laws, & having a
right of representation to the King, they would censure bad laws, suggest
good ones, expose abuses, and their representations, when united, would
command respect. To the other advantages might be added the precedent
itself of calling the Assemblee des Notables, which would perhaps grow
into habit. The hope was that the improvements thus promised would be
carried into effect, that they would be maintained during the present
reign, & that that would be long enough for them to take some root in
the constitution, so that they might come to be considered as a part of
that, and be protected by time, and the attachment of the nation.
The Count de Vergennes had died a few days before the meeting of the
Assembly, & the Count de Montmorin had been named Minister of foreign
affairs in his place. Villedeuil succeeded Calonnes as Comptroller
general, & Lomenie de Bryenne, Archbishop of Thoulouse, afterwards of
Sens, & ultimately Cardinal Lomenie, was named Minister principal,
with whom the other ministers were to transact the business of their
departments, heretofore done with the King in person, and the Duke de
Nivernois, and M. de Malesherbes were called to the Council. On the
nomination of the Minister principal the Marshals de Segur & de
Castries retired from the departments of War & Marine, unwilling to
act subordinately, or to share the blame of proceedings taken out of
their direction. They were succeeded by the Count de Brienne, brother of
the Prime minister, and the Marquis de la Luzerne, brother to him who had
been Minister in the United States.
May 24. A dislocated wrist, unsuccessfully set, occasioned advice from my
Surgeon to try the mineral waters of Aix in Provence as a corroborant. I
left Paris for that place therefore on the 28th. of Feb. and proceeded up
the Seine, thro' Champagne & Burgundy, and down the Rhone thro' the
Beaujolais by Lyons, Avignon, Nismes to Aix, where finding on trial no
benefit from the waters, I concluded to visit the rice country of
Piedmont, to see if anything might be learned there to benefit the
rivalship of our Carolina rice with that, and thence to make a tour of
the seaport towns of France, along it's Southern and Western coast, to
inform myself if anything could be done to favor our commerce with them.
From Aix therefore I took my route by Marseilles, Toulon, Hieres, Nice,
across the Col de Tende, by Coni, Turin, Vercelli, Novara, Milan, Pavia,
Novi, Genoa. Thence returning along the coast by Savona, Noli, Albenga,
Oneglia, Monaco, Nice, Antibes, Frejus, Aix, Marseilles, Avignon, Nismes,
Montpellier, Frontignan, Cette, Agde, and along the canal of Languedoc,
by Bezieres, Narbonne, Cascassonne, Castelnaudari, thro' the Souterrain
of St. Feriol and back by Castelnaudari, to Toulouse, thence to Montauban
& down the Garonne by Langon to Bordeaux. Thence to Rochefort, la
Rochelle, Nantes, L'Orient, then back by Rennes to Nantes, and up the
Loire by Angers, Tours, Amboise, Blois to New Orleans, thence direct to
Paris where I arrived on the 10th. of June. Soon after my return from
this journey to wit, about the latter part of July, I received my younger
daughter Maria from Virginia by the way of London, the youngest having
died some time before.
The treasonable perfidy of the Prince of Orange, Stadtholder &
Captain General of the United Netherlands, in the war which England waged
against them for entering into a treaty of commerce with the U. S. is
known to all. As their Executive officer, charged with the conduct of the
war, he contrived to baffle all the measures of the States General, to
dislocate all their military plans, & played false into the hands of
England and against his own country on every possible occasion, confident
in her protection, and in that of the King of Prussia, brother to his
Princess. The States General indignant at this patricidal conduct applied
to France for aid, according to the stipulations of the treaty concluded
with her in 85. It was assured to them readily, and in cordial terms, in
a letter from the Ct. de Vergennes to the Marquis de Verac, Ambassador of
France at the Hague, of which the following is an extract.
"Extrait de la depeche de Monsr. le Comte de Vergennes a Monsr. le
Marquis de Verac, Ambassadeur de France a la Haye, du 1er Mars 1786.
"Le Roi concourrera, autant qu'il sera en son pouvoir, au succes de
la chose, et vous inviterez de sa part les patriotes de lui communiquer
leurs vues, leurs plans, et leurs envieux. Vous les assurerez que le roi
prend un interet veritable a leurs personnes comme a leur cause, et qu'
ils peuvent compter sur sa protection. Ils doivent y compter d' autant
plus, Monsieur, que nous ne dissimulons pas que si Monsr. le Stadhoulder
reprend son ancienne influence, le systeme Anglois ne tardera pas de
prevaloir, et que notre alliance deviendroit unetre de raison. Les
Patriotes sentiront facilement que cette position seroit incompatible
avec la dignite, comme avec la consideration de sa majeste. Mais dans le
cas, Monsieur, ou les chefs des Patriotes auroient a craindre une
scission, ils auroient le temps suffisant pour ramener ceux de leurs amis
que les Anglomanes ont egares, et preparer les choses de maniere que la
question de nouveau mise en deliberation soit decide selon leurs desirs.
Dans cette hypothese, le roi vous autorise a agir de concert avec eux, de
suivre la direction qu' ils jugeront devoir vous donner, et d' employer
tous les moyens pour augmenter le nombre des partisans de la bonne cause.
Il me reste, Monsieur, il me reste Monsieur, de vous parler de la surete
personelle des patriotes. Vous les assurerez que dans tout etat de cause,
le roi les prend sous sa protection immediate, et vous ferez connoitre
partout ou vous le jugerez necessaire, que sa Majeste regarderoit comme
une offense personnelle tout ce qu' on entreprenderoit contre leur
liberte. Il est a presumer que ce langage, tenu avec energie, en imposera
a l'audace des Anglomanes et que Monsr. le Prince de Nassau croira courir
quelque risque en provoquant le ressentiment de sa Majeste."
This letter was communicated by the Patriots to me when at Amsterdam in
1788. and a copy sent by me to Mr. Jay in my letter to him of Mar. 16.
1788.
The object of the Patriots was to establish a representative and
republican government. The majority of the States general were with them,
but the majority of the populace of the towns was with the Prince of
Orange; and that populace was played off with great effect by the
triumvirate of Harris the English Ambassador afterwards Ld. Malmesbury,
the Prince of Orange a stupid man, and the Princess as much a man as
either of her colleagues, in audaciousness, in enterprise, & in the
thirst of domination. By these the mobs of the Hague were excited against
the members of the States general, their persons were insulted &
endangered in the streets, the sanctuary of their houses was violated,
and the Prince whose function & duty it was to repress and punish
these violations of order, took no steps for that purpose. The States
General, for their own protection were therefore obliged to place their
militia under the command of a Committee. The Prince filled the courts of
London and Berlin with complaints at this usurpation of his prerogatives,
and forgetting that he was but the first servant of a republic, marched
his regular troops against the city of Utrecht, where the States were in
session. They were repulsed by the militia. His interests now became
marshalled with those of the public enemy & against his own country.
The States therefore, exercising their rights of sovereignty, deprived
him of all his powers. The great Frederic had died in August 86. (* 5) He
had never intended to break with France in support of the Prince of
Orange. During the illness of which he died, he had thro' the Duke of
Brunswick, declared to the Marquis de la Fayette, who was then at Berlin,
that he meant not to support the English interest in Holland: that he
might assure the government of France his only wish was that some
honorable place in the Constitution should be reserved for the
Stadtholder and his children, and that he would take no part in the
quarrel unless an entire abolition of the Stadtholderate should be
attempted. But his place was now occupied by Frederic William, his great
nephew, a man of little understanding, much caprice, & very
inconsiderate; and the Princess his sister, altho' her husband was in
arms against the legitimate authorities of the country, attempting to go
to Amsterdam for the purpose of exciting the mobs of that place and being
refused permission to pass a military post on the way, he put the Duke of
Brunswick at the head of 20,000 men, and made demonstrations of marching
on Holland. The King of France hereupon declared, by his Charge des
Affaires in Holland that if the Prussian troops continued to menace
Holland with an invasion, his Majesty, in quality of Ally, was determined
to succor that province. (* 6) In answer to this Eden gave official
information to Count Montmorin, that England must consider as at an end,
it's convention with France relative to giving notice of it's naval
armaments and that she was arming generally. (* 7) War being now
imminent, Eden questioned me on the effect of our treaty with France in
the case of a war, & what might be our dispositions. I told him
frankly and without hesitation that our dispositions would be neutral,
and that I thought it would be the interest of both these powers that we
should be so; because it would relieve both from all anxiety as to
feeding their W. India islands. That England too, by suffering us to
remain so, would avoid a heavy land-war on our continent, which might
very much cripple her proceedings elsewhere; that our treaty indeed
obliged us to receive into our ports the armed vessels of France, with
their prizes, and to refuse admission to the prizes made on her by her
enemies: that there was a clause also by which we guaranteed to France
her American possessions, which might perhaps force us into the war, if
these were attacked. "Then it will be war, said he, for they will
assuredly be attacked." (* 8) Liston, at Madrid, about the same
time, made the same inquiries of Carmichael. The government of France
then declared a determination to form a camp of observation at Givet,
commenced arming her marine, and named the Bailli de Suffrein their
Generalissimo on the Ocean. She secretly engaged also in negotiations
with Russia, Austria, & Spain to form a quadruple alliance. The Duke
of Brunswick having advanced to the confines of Holland, sent some of his
officers to Givet to reconnoitre the state of things there, and report
them to him. He said afterwards that "if there had been only a few
tents at that place, he should not have advanced further, for that the
King would not merely for the interest of his sister, engage in a war
with France." But finding that there was not a single company there,
he boldly entered the country, took their towns as fast as he presented
himself before them, and advanced on Utrecht. The States had appointed
the Rhingrave of Salm their Commander-in-chief, a Prince without talents,
without courage, and without principle. He might have held out in Utrecht
for a considerable time, but he surrendered the place without firing a
gun, literally ran away & hid himself so that for months it was not
known what had become of him. Amsterdam was then attacked and
capitulated. In the meantime the negotiations for the quadruple alliance
were proceeding favorably. But the secrecy with which they were attempted
to be conducted, was penetrated by Fraser, Charge des affaires of England
at St. Petersburg, who instantly notified his court, and gave the alarm
to Prussia. The King saw at once what would be his situation between the
jaws of France, Austria, and Russia. In great dismay he besought the
court of London not to abandon him, sent Alvensleben to Paris to explain
and soothe, and England thro' the D. of Dorset and Eden, renewed her
conferences for accommodation. The Archbishop, who shuddered at the idea
of war, and preferred a peaceful surrender of right to an armed
vindication of it, received them with open arms, entered into cordial
conferences, and a declaration, and counter declaration were cooked up at
Versailles and sent to London for approbation. They were approved there,
reached Paris at 1 o'clock of the 27th. and were signed that night at
Versailles. It was said and believed at Paris that M. de Montmorin,
literally "pleuroit comme un enfant," when obliged to sign this
counter declaration; so distressed was he by the dishonor of sacrificing
the Patriots after assurances so solemn of protection, and absolute
encouragement to proceed. (* 9) The Prince of Orange was reinstated in
all his powers, now become regal. A great emigration of the Patriots took
place, all were deprived of office, many exiled, and their property
confiscated. They were received in France, and subsisted for some time on
her bounty. Thus fell Holland, by the treachery of her chief, from her
honorable independence to become a province of England, and so also her
Stadtholder from the high station of the first citizen of a free
republic, to be the servile Viceroy of a foreign sovereign. And this was
effected by a mere scene of bullying & demonstration, not one of the
parties, France England or Prussia having ever really meant to encounter
actual war for the interest of the Prince of Orange. But it had all the
effect of a real and decisive war.
(* 5) lre to Jay Aug. 6. 87.
(* 6) My lre Sep. 22. 87.
(* 7) My lre to J. Jay Sep.24.
(* 8) lre to Carm. Dec. 15.
(* 9) My lre to Jay Nov. 3. lre to J. Adams, Nov. 13.
Our first essay in America to establish a federative government had
fallen, on trial, very short of it's object. During the war of
Independance, while the pressure of an external enemy hooped us together,
and their enterprises kept us necessarily on the alert, the spirit of the
people, excited by danger, was a supplement to the Confederation, and
urged them to zealous exertions, whether claimed by that instrument, or
not. But when peace and safety were restored, and every man became
engaged in useful and profitable occupation, less attention was paid to
the calls of Congress. The fundamental defect of the Confederation was
that Congress was not authorized to act immediately on the people, &
by it's own officers. Their power was only requisitory, and these
requisitions were addressed to the several legislatures, to be by them
carried into execution, without other coercion than the moral principle
of duty. This allowed in fact a negative to every legislature, on every
measure proposed by Congress; a negative so frequently exercised in
practice as to benumb the action of the federal government, and to render
it inefficient in it's general objects, & more especially in
pecuniary and foreign concerns. The want too of a separation of the
legislative, executive, & judiciary functions worked
disadvantageously in practice. Yet this state of things afforded a happy
augury of the future march of our confederacy, when it was seen that the
good sense and good dispositions of the people, as soon as they perceived
the incompetence of their first compact, instead of leaving it's
correction to insurrection and civil war, agreed with one voice to elect
deputies to a general convention, who should peaceably meet and agree on
such a constitution as "would ensure peace, justice, liberty, the
common defence & general welfare."
This Convention met at Philadelphia on the 25th. of May '87. It sate with
closed doors and kept all it's proceedings secret, until it's dissolution
on the 17th. of September, when the results of their labors were
published all together. I received a copy early in November, and read and
contemplated it's provisions with great satisfaction. As not a member of
the Convention however, nor probably a single citizen of the Union, had
approved it in all it's parts, so I too found articles which I thought
objectionable. The absence of express declarations ensuring freedom of
religion, freedom of the press, freedom of the person under the
uninterrupted protection of the Habeas corpus, & trial by jury in
civil as well as in criminal cases excited my jealousy; and the
re-eligibility of the President for life, I quite disapproved. I
expressed freely in letters to my friends, and most particularly to Mr.
Madison & General Washington, my approbations and objections. How the
good should be secured, and the ill brought to rights was the difficulty.
To refer it back to a new Convention might endanger the loss of the
whole. My first idea was that the 9. states first acting should accept it
unconditionally, and thus secure what in it was good, and that the 4.
last should accept on the previous condition that certain amendments
should be agreed to, but a better course was devised of accepting the
whole and trusting that the good sense & honest intentions of our
citizens would make the alterations which should be deemed necessary.
Accordingly all accepted, 6. without objection, and 7. with
recommendations of specified amendments. Those respecting the press,
religion, & juries, with several others, of great value, were
accordingly made; but the Habeas corpus was left to the discretion of
Congress, and the amendment against the reeligibility of the President
was not proposed by that body. My fears of that feature were founded on
the importance of the office, on the fierce contentions it might excite
among ourselves, if continuable for life, and the dangers of interference
either with money or arms, by foreign nations, to whom the choice of an
American President might become interesting. Examples of this abounded in
history; in the case of the Roman emperors for instance, of the Popes
while of any significance, of the German emperors, the Kings of Poland,
& the Deys of Barbary. I had observed too in the feudal History, and
in the recent instance particularly of the Stadtholder of Holland, how
easily offices or tenures for life slide into inheritances. My wish
therefore was that the President should be elected for 7. years & be
ineligible afterwards. This term I thought sufficient to enable him, with
the concurrence of the legislature, to carry thro' & establish any
system of improvement he should propose for the general good. But the
practice adopted I think is better allowing his continuance for 8. years
with a liability to be dropped at half way of the term, making that a
period of probation. That his continuance should be restrained to 7.
years was the opinion of the Convention at an early stage of it's
session, when it voted that term by a majority of 8. against 2. and by a
simple majority that he should be ineligible a second time. This opinion
&c. was confirmed by the house so late as July 26. referred to the
committee of detail, reported favorably by them, and changed to the
present form by final vote on the last day but one only of their session.
Of this change three states expressed their disapprobation, N. York by
recommending an amendment that the President should not be eligible a
third time, and Virginia and N. Carolina that he should not be capable of
serving more than 8. in any term of 16. years. And altho' this amendment
has not been made in form, yet practice seems to have established it. The
example of 4 Presidents voluntarily retiring at the end of their 8th
year, & the progress of public opinion that the principle is
salutary, have given it in practice the force of precedent & usage;
insomuch that should a President consent to be a candidate for a 3d.
election, I trust he would be rejected on this demonstration of ambitious
views.
But there was another amendment of which none of us thought at the time
and in the omission of which lurks the germ that is to destroy this happy
combination of National powers in the General government for matters of
National concern, and independent powers in the states for what concerns
the states severally. In England it was a great point gained at the
Revolution, that the commissions of the judges, which had hitherto been
during pleasure, should thenceforth be made during good behavior. A
Judiciary dependent on the will of the King had proved itself the most
oppressive of all tools in the hands of that Magistrate. Nothing then
could be more salutary than a change there to the tenure of good
behavior; and the question of good behavior left to the vote of a simple
majority in the two houses of parliament. Before the revolution we were
all good English Whigs, cordial in their free principles, and in their
jealousies of their executive Magistrate. These jealousies are very
apparent in all our state constitutions; and, in the general government
in this instance, we have gone even beyond the English caution, by
requiring a vote of two thirds in one of the Houses for removing a judge;
a vote so impossible where (* 10) any defence is made, before men of
ordinary prejudices & passions, that our judges are effectually
independent of the nation. But this ought not to be. I would not indeed
make them dependant on the Executive authority, as they formerly were in
England; but I deem it indispensable to the continuance of this
government that they should be submitted to some practical &
impartial controul: and that this, to be imparted, must be compounded of
a mixture of state and federal authorities. It is not enough that honest
men are appointed judges. All know the influence of interest on the mind
of man, and how unconsciously his judgment is warped by that influence.
To this bias add that of the esprit de corps, of their peculiar maxim and
creed that "it is the office of a good judge to enlarge his
jurisdiction," and the absence of responsibility, and how can we
expect impartial decision between the General government, of which they
are themselves so eminent a part, and an individual state from which they
have nothing to hope or fear. We have seen too that, contrary to all
correct example, they are in the habit of going out of the question
before them, to throw an anchor ahead and grapple further hold for future
advances of power. They are then in fact the corps of sappers &
miners, steadily working to undermine the independant rights of the
States, & to consolidate all power in the hands of that government in
which they have so important a freehold estate. But it is not by the
consolidation, or concentration of powers, but by their distribution,
that good government is effected. Were not this great country already
divided into states, that division must be made, that each might do for
itself what concerns itself directly, and what it can so much better do
than a distant authority. Every state again is divided into counties,
each to take care of what lies within it's local bounds; each county
again into townships or wards, to manage minuter details; and every ward
into farms, to be governed each by it's individual proprietor. Were we
directed from Washington when to sow, & when to reap, we should soon
want bread. It is by this partition of cares, descending in gradation
from general to particular, that the mass of human affairs may be best
managed for the good and prosperity of all. I repeat that I do not charge
the judges with wilful and ill-intentioned error; but honest error must
be arrested where it's toleration leads to public ruin. As, for the
safety of society, we commit honest maniacs to Bedlam, so judges should
be withdrawn from their bench, whose erroneous biases are leading us to
dissolution. It may indeed injure them in fame or in fortune; but it
saves the republic, which is the first and supreme law.
(* 10) In the impeachment of judge Pickering of New Hampsire, a habitual
& maniac drunkard, no defence was made. Had there been, the party
vote of more than one third of the Senate would have acquitted him.
Among the debilities of the government of the Confederation, no one was
more distinguished or more distressing than the utter impossibility of
obtaining, from the states, the monies necessary for the payment of
debts, or even for the ordinary expenses of the government. Some
contributed a little, some less, & some nothing, and the last
furnished at length an excuse for the first to do nothing also. Mr.
Adams, while residing at the Hague, had a general authority to borrow
what sums might be requisite for ordinary & necessary expenses.
Interest on the public debt, and the maintenance of the diplomatic
establishment in Europe, had been habitually provided in this way. He was
now elected Vice President of the U. S. was soon to return to America,
and had referred our bankers to me for future councel on our affairs in
their hands. But I had no powers, no instructions, no means, and no
familiarity with the subject. It had always been exclusively under his
management, except as to occasional and partial deposits in the hands of
Mr. Grand, banker in Paris, for special and local purposes. These last
had been exhausted for some time, and I had fervently pressed the
Treasury board to replenish this particular deposit; as Mr. Grand now
refused to make further advances. They answered candidly that no funds
could be obtained until the new government should get into action, and
have time to make it's arrangements. Mr. Adams had received his
appointment to the court of London while engaged at Paris, with Dr.
Franklin and myself, in the negotiations under our joint commissions. He
had repaired thence to London, without returning to the Hague to take
leave of that government. He thought it necessary however to do so now,
before he should leave Europe, and accordingly went there. I learned his
departure from London by a letter from Mrs. Adams received on the very
day on which he would arrive at the Hague. A consultation with him, &
some provision for the future was indispensable, while we could yet avail
ourselves of his powers. For when they would be gone, we should be
without resource. I was daily dunned by a company who had formerly made a
small loan to the U S. the principal of which was now become due; and our
bankers in Amsterdam had notified me that the interest on our general
debt would be expected in June; that if we failed to pay it, it would be
deemed an act of bankruptcy and would effectually destroy the credit of
the U S. and all future prospect of obtaining money there; that the loan
they had been authorized to open, of which a third only was filled, and
now ceased to get forward, and rendered desperate that hope of resource.
I saw that there was not a moment to lose, and set out for the Hague on
the 2d. morning after receiving the information of Mr. Adams's journey. I
went the direct road by Louvres, Senlis, Roye, Pont St. Maxence, Bois le
duc, Gournay, Peronne, Cambray, Bouchain, Valenciennes, Mons, Bruxelles,
Malines, Antwerp, Mordick, and Rotterdam, to the Hague, where I happily
found Mr. Adams. He concurred with me at once in opinion that something
must be done, and that we ought to risk ourselves on doing it without
instructions, to save the credit of the U S. We foresaw that before the
new government could be adopted, assembled, establish it's financial
system, get the money into the treasury, and place it in Europe,
considerable time would elapse; that therefore we had better provide at
once for the years 88. 89. & 90. in order to place our government at
it's ease, and our credit in security, during that trying interval. We
set out therefore by the way of Leyden for Amsterdam, where we arrived on
the 10th. I had prepared an estimate showing that
Florins.
there would be necessary for the year 88 -- 531,937 -- 10
89 -- 538,540
90 -- 473,540
--------------------
Total, 1,544,017 -- 10
Flor.
to meet this the bankers had in hand 79,268 -- 2 -- 8
& the unsold bonds would yield 542,800 622,068 -- 2 -- 8
-------- -----------------
we proposed then to borrow a million yielding. . . 900,000
-----------------
which would leave a small deficiency of. . . . . . 1,949 -- 7 -- 4
Mr. Adams accordingly executed 1000. bonds, for 1000. florins each, and
deposited them in the hands of our bankers, with instructions however not
to issue them until Congress should ratify the measure. This done, he
returned to London, and I set out for Paris; and as nothing urgent
forbade it, I determined to return along the banks of the Rhine to
Strasburg, and thence strike off to Paris. I accordingly left Amsterdam
on the 30th of March, and proceeded by Utrecht, Nimeguen, Cleves,
Duysberg, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Bonne, Coblentz, Nassau, Hocheim,
Frankfort, & made an excursion to Hanau, thence to Mayence and
another excursion to Rude-sheim, & Johansberg; then by Oppenheim,
Worms, and Manheim, and an excursion to Heidelberg, then by Spire,
Carlsruh, Rastadt & Kelh, to Strasburg, where I arrived Apr. 16th,
and proceeded again on the 18th, by Phalsbourg, Fenestrange, Dieuze,
Moyenvie, Nancy, Toul, Ligny, Barleduc, St. Diziers, Vitry, Chalons sur
Marne, Epernay, Chateau Thierri, Meaux, to Paris where I arrived on the
23d. of April; and I had the satisfaction to reflect that by this journey
our credit was secured, the new government was placed at ease for two
years to come, and that as well as myself were relieved from the torment
of incessant duns, whose just complaints could not be silenced by any
means within our power.
A Consular Convention had been agreed on in 84. between Dr. Franklin and
the French government containing several articles so entirely
inconsistent with the laws of the several states, and the general spirit
of our citizens, that Congress withheld their ratification, and sent it
back to me with instructions to get those articles expunged or modified
so as to render them compatible with our laws. The minister retired
unwillingly from these concessions, which indeed authorized the exercise
of powers very offensive in a free state. After much discussion it was
reformed in a considerable degree, and the Convention was signed by the
Count Montmorin and myself, on the 14th. of Nov. 88 not indeed such as I
would have wished; but such as could be obtained with good humor &
friendship.
On my return from Holland, I had found Paris still in high fermentation
as I had left it. Had the Archbishop, on the close of the assembly of
Notables, immediately carried into operation the measures contemplated,
it was believed they would all have been registered by the parliament,
but he was slow, presented his edicts, one after another, & at
considerable intervals of time, which gave time for the feelings excited
by the proceedings of the Notables to cool off, new claims to be
advanced, and a pressure to arise for a fixed constitution, not subject
to changes at the will of the King. Nor should we wonder at this pressure
when we consider the monstrous abuses of power under which this people
were ground to powder, when we pass in review the weight of their taxes,
and inequality of their distribution; the oppressions of the tythes, of
the tailles, the corvees, the gabelles, the farms & barriers; the
shackles on Commerce by monopolies; on Industry by gilds &
corporations; on the freedom of conscience, of thought, and of speech; on
the Press by the Censure; and of person by lettres de Cachet; the cruelty
of the criminal code generally, the atrocities of the Rack, the venality
of judges, and their partialities to the rich; the Monopoly of Military
honors by the Noblesse; the enormous expenses of the Queen, the princes
& the Court; the prodigalities of pensions; & the riches, luxury,
indolence & immorality of the clergy. Surely under such a mass of
misrule and oppression, a people might justly press for a thoro'
reformation, and might even dismount their rough-shod riders, & leave
them to walk on their own legs. The edicts relative to the corvees &
free circulation of grain, were first presented to the parliament and
registered. But those for the impot territorial, & stamp tax, offered
some time after, were refused by the parliament, which proposed a call of
the States General as alone competent to their authorization. Their
refusal produced a Bed of justice, and their exile to Troyes. The
advocates however refusing to attend them, a suspension in the
administration of justice took place. The Parliament held out for awhile,
but the ennui of their exile and absence from Paris begun at length to be
felt, and some dispositions for compromise to appear. On their consent
therefore to prolong some of the former taxes, they were recalled from
exile, the King met them in session Nov. 19. 87. promised to call the
States General in the year 92. and a majority expressed their assent to
register an edict for successive and annual loans from 1788. to 92. But a
protest being entered by the Duke of Orleans and this encouraging others
in a disposition to retract, the King ordered peremptorily the registry
of the edict, and left the assembly abruptly. The parliament immediately
protested that the votes for the enregistry had not been legally taken,
and that they gave no sanction to the loans proposed. This was enough to
discredit and defeat them. Hereupon issued another edict for the
establishment of a cour pleniere, and the suspension of all the
parliaments in the kingdom. This being opposed as might be expected by
reclamations from all the parliaments & provinces, the King gave way
and by an edict of July 5. 88 renounced his cour pleniere, & promised
the States General for the 1st. of May of the ensuing year: and the
Archbishop finding the times beyond his faculties, accepted the promise
of a Cardinal's hat, was removed [Sep. 88] from the ministry, and Mr.
Necker was called to the department of finance. The innocent rejoicings
of the people of Paris on this change provoked the interference of an
officer of the city guards, whose order for their dispersion not being
obeyed, he charged them with fixed bayonets, killed two or three, and
wounded many. This dispersed them for the moment; but they collected the
next day in great numbers, burnt 10. or 12. guard houses, killed two or
three of the guards, & lost 6. or 8. more of their own number. The
city was hereupon put under martial law, and after awhile the tumult
subsided. The effect of this change of ministers, and the promise of the
States General at an early day, tranquillized the nation. But two great
questions now occurred. 1. What proportion shall the number of deputies
of the tiers etat bear to those of the Nobles and Clergy? And 2. shall
they sit in the same, or in distinct apartments? Mr. Necker, desirous of
avoiding himself these knotty questions, proposed a second call of the
same Notables, and that their advice should be asked on the subject. They
met Nov. 9. 88. and, by five bureaux against one, they recommended the
forms of the States General of 1614. wherein the houses were separate,
and voted by orders, not by persons. But the whole nation declaring at
once against this, and that the tiers etat should be, in numbers, equal
to both the other orders, and the Parliament deciding for the same
proportion, it was determined so to be, by a declaration of Dec. 27. 88.
A Report of Mr. Necker to the King, of about the same date, contained
other very important concessions. 1. That the King could neither lay a
new tax, nor prolong an old one. 2. It expressed a readiness to agree on
the periodical meeting of the States. 3. To consult on the necessary
restriction on lettres de Cachet. And 4. how far the Press might be made
free. 5. It admits that the States are to appropriate the public money;
and 6. that Ministers shall be responsible for public expenditures. And
these concessions came from the very heart of the King. He had not a wish
but for the good of the nation, and for that object no personal sacrifice
would ever have cost him a moment's regret. But his mind was weakness
itself, his constitution timid, his judgment null, and without sufficient
firmness even to stand by the faith of his word. His Queen too, haughty
and bearing no contradiction, had an absolute ascendency over him; and
around her were rallied the King's brother d'Artois, the court generally,
and the aristocratic part of his ministers, particularly Breteuil,
Broglio, Vauguyon, Foulon, Luzerne, men whose principles of government
were those of the age of Louis XIV. Against this host the good counsels
of Necker, Montmorin, St. Priest, altho' in unison with the wishes of the
King himself, were of little avail. The resolutions of the morning formed
under their advice, would be reversed in the evening by the influence of
the Queen & court. But the hand of heaven weighed heavily indeed on
the machinations of this junto; producing collateral incidents, not
arising out of the case, yet powerfully co-exciting the nation to force a
regeneration of it's government, and overwhelming with accumulated
difficulties this liberticide resistance. For, while laboring under the
want of money for even ordinary purposes, in a government which required
a million of livres a day, and driven to the last ditch by the universal
call for liberty, there came on a winter of such severe cold, as was
without example in the memory of man, or in the written records of
history. The Mercury was at times 50;dg below the freezing point of
Fahrenheit and 22;dg below that of Reaumur. All out-door labor was
suspended, and the poor, without the wages of labor, were of course
without either bread or fuel. The government found it's necessities
aggravated by that of procuring immense quantities of fire-wood, and of
keeping great fires at all the cross-streets, around which the people
gathered in crowds to avoid perishing with cold. Bread too was to be
bought, and distributed daily gratis, until a relax-ation of the season
should enable the people to work: and the slender stock of bread-stuff
had for some time threatened famine, and had raised that article to an
enormous price. So great indeed was the scarcity of bread that from the
highest to the lowest citizen, the bakers were permitted to deal but a
scanty allowance per head, even to those who paid for it; and in cards of
invitation to dine in the richest houses, the guest was notified to bring
his own bread. To eke out the existence of the people, every person who
had the means, was called on for a weekly subscription, which the Cures
collected and employed in providing messes for the nourishment of the
poor, and vied with each other in devising such economical compositions
of food as would subsist the greatest number with the smallest means.
This want of bread had been foreseen for some time past and M. de
Montmorin had desired me to notify it in America, and that, in addition
to the market price, a premium should be given on what should be brought
from the U S. Notice was accordingly given and produced considerable
supplies. Subsequent information made the importations from America,
during the months of March, April & May, into the Atlantic ports of
France, amount to about 21,000 barrels of flour, besides what went to
other ports, and in other months, while our supplies to their West-Indian
islands relieved them also from that drain. This distress for bread
continued till July.
Hitherto no acts of popular violence had been produced by the struggle
for political reformation. Little riots, on ordinary incidents, had taken
place, as at other times, in different parts of the kingdom, in which
some lives, perhaps a dozen or twenty, had been lost, but in the month of
April a more serious one occurred in Paris, unconnected indeed with the
revolutionary principle, but making part of the history of the day. The
Fauxbourg St. Antoine is a quarter of the city inhabited entirely by the
class of day-laborers and journeymen in every line. A rumor was spread
among them that a great paper manufacturer, of the name of Reveillon, had
proposed, on some occasion, that their wages should be lowered to 15 sous
a day. Inflamed at once into rage, & without inquiring into it's
truth, they flew to his house in vast numbers, destroyed everything in
it, and in his magazines & work shops, without secreting however a
pin's worth to themselves, and were continuing this work of devastation
when the regular troops were called in. Admonitions being disregarded,
they were of necessity fired on, and a regular action ensued, in which
about 100. of them were killed, before the rest would disperse. There had
rarely passed a year without such a riot in some part or other of the
Kingdom; and this is distinguished only as cotemporary with the
revolution, altho' not produced by it.
The States General were opened on the 5th. of May 89. by speeches from
the King, the Garde des Sceaux Lamoignon, and Mr. Necker. The last was
thought to trip too lightly over the constitutional reformations which
were expected. His notices of them in this speech were not as full as in
his previous `Rapport au Roi.' This was observed to his disadvantage. But
much allowance should have been made for the situation in which he was
placed between his own counsels, and those of the ministers and party of
the court. Overruled in his own opinions, compelled to deliver, and to
gloss over those of his opponents, and even to keep their secrets, he
could not come forward in his own attitude.
The composition of the assembly, altho' equivalent on the whole to what
had been expected, was something different in it's elements. It has been
supposed that a superior education would carry into the scale of the
Commons a respectable portion of the Noblesse. It did so as to those of
Paris, of it's vicinity and of the other considerable cities, whose
greater intercourse with enlightened society had liberalized their minds,
and prepared them to advance up to the measure of the times. But the
Noblesse of the country, which constituted two thirds of that body, were
far in their rear. Residing constantly on their patrimonial feuds, and
familiarized by daily habit with Seigneurial powers and practices, they
had not yet learned to suspect their inconsistence with reason and right.
They were willing to submit to equality of taxation, but not to descend
from their rank and prerogatives to be incorporated in session with the
tiers etat. Among the clergy, on the other hand, it had been apprehended
that the higher orders of the hierarchy, by their wealth and connections,
would have carried the elections generally. But it proved that in most
cases the lower clergy had obtained the popular majorities. These
consisted of the Cures, sons of the peasantry who had been employed to do
all the drudgery of parochial services for 10. 20. or 30 Louis a year;
while their superiors were consuming their princely revenues in palaces
of luxury & indolence.
The objects for which this body was convened being of the first order of
importance, I felt it very interesting to understand the views of the
parties of which it was composed, and especially the ideas prevalent as
to the organization contemplated for their government. I went therefore
daily from Paris to Versailles, and attended their debates, generally
till the hour of adjournment. Those of the Noblesse were impassioned and
tempestuous. They had some able men on both sides, and actuated by equal
zeal. The debates of the Commons were temperate, rational and inflexibly
firm. As preliminary to all other business, the awful questions came on,
Shall the States sit in one, or in distinct apartments? And shall they
vote by heads or houses? The opposition was soon found to consist of the
Episcopal order among the clergy, and two thirds of the Noblesse; while
the tiers etat were, to a man, united and determined. After various
propositions of compromise had failed, the Commons undertook to cut the
Gordian knot. The Abbe Sieyes, the most logical head of the nation,
(author of the pamphlet Qu'est ce que le tiers etat? which had
electrified that country, as Paine's Common sense did us) after an
impressive speech on the 10th of June, moved that a last invitation
should be sent to the Nobles and Clergy, to attend in the Hall of the
States, collectively or individually for the verification of powers, to
which the commons would proceed immediately, either in their presence or
absence. This verification being finished, a motion was made, on the
15th. that they should constitute themselves a National assembly; which
was decided on the 17th. by a majority of four fifths. During the debates
on this question, about twenty of the Cures had joined them, and a
proposition was made in the chamber of the clergy that their whole body
should join them. This was rejected at first by a small majority only;
but, being afterwards somewhat modified, it was decided affirmatively, by
a majority of eleven. While this was under debate and unknown to the
court, to wit, on the 19th. a council was held in the afternoon at Marly,
wherein it was proposed that the King should interpose by a declaration
of his sentiments, in a seance royale. A form of declaration was proposed
by Necker, which, while it censured in general the proceedings both of
the Nobles and Commons, announced the King's views, such as substantially
to coincide with the Commons. It was agreed to in council, the seance was
fixed for the 22d. the meetings of the States were till then to be
suspended, and everything, in the meantime, kept secret. The members the
next morning (20th.) repairing to their house as usual, found the doors
shut and guarded, a proclamation posted up for a seance royale on the
22d. and a suspension of their meetings in the meantime. Concluding that
their dissolution was now to take place, they repaired to a building
called the "Jeu de paume" (or Tennis court) and there bound
themselves by oath to each other, never to separate of their own accord,
till they had settled a constitution for the nation, on a solid basis,
and if separated by force, that they would reassemble in some other
place. The next day they met in the church of St. Louis, and were joined
by a majority of the clergy. The heads of the Aristocracy saw that all
was lost without some bold exertion. The King was still at Marly. Nobody
was permitted to approach him but their friends. He was assailed by
falsehoods in all shapes. He was made to believe that the Commons were
about to absolve the army from their oath of fidelity to him, and to
raise their pay. The court party were now all rage and desperate. They
procured a committee to be held consisting of the King and his ministers,
to which Monsieur & the Count d'Artois should be admitted. At this
committee the latter attacked Mr. Necker personally, arraigned his
declaration, and proposed one which some of his prompters had put into
his hands. Mr. Necker was brow-beaten and intimidated, and the King
shaken. He determined that the two plans should be deliberated on the
next day and the seance royale put off a day longer. This encouraged a
fiercer attack on Mr. Necker the next day. His draught of a declaration
was entirely broken up, & that of the Count d'Artois inserted into
it. Himself and Montmorin offered their resignation, which was refused,
the Count d'Artois saying to Mr. Necker "No sir, you must be kept as
the hostage; we hold you responsible for all the ill which shall
happen." This change of plan was immediately whispered without
doors. The Noblesse were in triumph; the people in consternation. I was
quite alarmed at this state of things. The soldiery had not yet indicated
which side they should take, and that which they should support would be
sure to prevail. I considered a successful reformation of government in
France, as ensuring a general reformation thro Europe, and the
resurrection, to a new life, of their people, now ground to dust by the
abuses of the governing powers. I was much acquainted with the leading
patriots of the assembly. Being from a country which had successfully
passed thro' a similar reformation, they were disposed to my
acquaintance, and had some confidence in me. I urged most strenuously an
immediate compromise; to secure what the government was now ready to
yield, and trust to future occasions for what might still be wanting. It
was well understood that the King would grant at this time 1. Freedom of
the person by Habeas corpus. 2. Freedom of conscience. 3. Freedom of the
press. 4. Trial by jury. 5. A representative legislature. 6. Annual
meetings. 7. The origination of laws. 8. The exclusive right of taxation
and appropriation. And 9. The responsibility of ministers; and with the
exercise of these powers they would obtain in future whatever might be
further necessary to improve and preserve their constitution. They
thought otherwise however, and events have proved their lamentable error.
For after 30. years of war, foreign and domestic, the loss of millions of
lives, the prostration of private happiness, and foreign subjugation of
their own country for a time, they have obtained no more, nor even that
securely. They were unconscious of (for who could foresee?) the
melancholy sequel of their well-meant perseverance; that their physical
force would be usurped by a first tyrant to trample on the independance,
and even the existence, of other nations: that this would afford fatal
example for the atrocious conspiracy of Kings against their people; would
generate their unholy and homicide alliance to make common cause among
themselves, and to crush, by the power of the whole, the efforts of any
part, to moderate their abuses and oppressions.
When the King passed, the next day, thro' the lane formed from the
Chateau to the Hotel des etats, there was a dead silence. He was about an
hour in the House delivering his speech & declaration. On his coming
out a feeble cry of "Vive le Roy" was raised by some children,
but the people remained silent & sullen. In the close of his speech
he had ordered that the members should follow him, & resume their
deliberations the next day. The Noblesse followed him, and so did the
clergy, except about thirty, who, with the tiers, remained in the room,
and entered into deliberation. They protested against what the King had
done, adhered to all their former proceedings, and resolved the
inviolability of their own persons. An officer came to order them out of
the room in the King's name. "Tell those who sent you, said Mirabeau,
that we shall not move hence but at our own will, or the point of the
bayonet." In the afternoon the people, uneasy, began to assemble in
great numbers in the courts, and vicinities of the palace. This produced
alarm. The Queen sent for Mr. Necker. He was conducted amidst the shouts
and acclamations of the multitude who filled all the apartments of the
palace. He was a few minutes only with the queen, and what passed between
them did not transpire. The King went out to ride. He passed thro' the
crowd to his carriage and into it, without being in the least noticed. As
Mr. Neckar followed him universal acclamations were raised of "vive
Monsr. Neckar, vive le sauveur de la France opprimee." He was
conducted back to his house with the same demonstrations of affection and
anxiety. About 200. deputies of the Tiers, catching the enthusiasm of the
moment, went to his house, and extorted from him a promise that he would
not resign. On the 25th. 48. of the Nobles joined the tiers, & among
them the D. of Orleans. There were then with them 164 members of the
Clergy, altho' the minority of that body still sat apart & called
themselves the chamber of the clergy. On the 26th. the Archbp. of Paris
joined the tiers, as did some others of the clergy and of the Noblesse.
These proceedings had thrown the people into violent ferment. It gained
the souldiery, first of the French guards, extended to those of every
other denomination, except the Swiss, and even to the body guards of the
King. They began to quit their barracks, to assemble in squads, to
declare they would defend the life of the King, but would not be the
murderers of their fellow-citizens. They called themselves the souldiers
of the nation, and left now no doubt on which side they would be, in case
of rupture. Similar accounts came in from the troops in other parts of
the kingdom, giving good reason to believe they would side with their
fathers and brothers rather than with their officers. The operation of
this medicine at Versailles was as sudden as it was powerful. The alarm
there was so compleat that in the afternoon of the 27th. the King wrote
with his own hand letters to the Presidents of the clergy and Nobles,
engaging them immediately to join the Tiers. These two bodies were
debating & hesitating when notes from the Ct. d'Artois decided their
compliance. They went in a body and took their seats with the tiers, and
thus rendered the union of the orders in one chamber compleat.
The Assembly now entered on the business of their mission, and first
proceeded to arrange the order in which they would take up the heads of
their constitution, as follows:
First, and as Preliminary to the whole a general Declaration of the
Rights of Man. Then specifically the Principles of the Monarchy; rights
of the Nation; rights of the King; rights of the citizens; organization
& rights of the National assembly; forms necessary for the enactment
of laws; organization & functions of the provincial & municipal
assemblies; duties and limits of the Judiciary power; functions &
duties of the military power.
A declaration of the rights of man, as the preliminary of their work, was
accordingly prepared and proposed by the Marquis de la Fayette.
But the quiet of their march was soon disturbed by information that
troops, and particularly the foreign troops, were advancing on Paris from
various quarters. The King had been probably advised to this on the
pretext of preserving peace in Paris. But his advisers were believed to
have other things in contemplation. The Marshal de Broglio was appointed
to their command, a high flying aristocrat, cool and capable of
everything. Some of the French guards were soon arrested, under other
pretexts, but really on account of their dispositions in favor of the
National cause. The people of Paris forced their prison, liberated them,
and sent a deputation to the Assembly to solicit a pardon. The Assembly
recommended peace and order to the people of Paris, the prisoners to the
king, and asked from him the removal of the troops. His answer was
negative and dry, saying they might remove themselves, if they pleased,
to Noyons or Soissons. In the meantime these troops, to the number of
twenty or thirty thousand, had arrived and were posted in, and between
Paris and Versailles. The bridges and passes were guarded. At three
o'clock in the afternoon of the 11th July the Count de la Luzerne was
sent to notify Mr. Neckar of his dismission, and to enjoin him to retire
instantly without saying a word of it to anybody. He went home, dined,
and proposed to his wife a visit to a friend, but went in fact to his
country house at St. Ouen, and at midnight set out for Brussels. This was
not known until the next day, 12th when the whole ministry was changed,
except Villedeuil, of the Domestic department, and Barenton, Garde des
sceaux. The changes were as follows.
The Baron de Breteuil, president of the council of finance; de la
Galaisiere, Comptroller general in the room of Mr. Neckar; the Marshal de
Broglio, minister of War, & Foulon under him in the room of Puy-Segur;
the Duke de la Vauguyon, minister of foreign affairs instead of the Ct.
de Montmorin; de La Porte, minister of Marine, in place of the Ct. de la
Luzerne; St. Priest was also removed from the council. Luzerne and
Puy-Segur had been strongly of the Aristocratic party in the Council, but
they were not considered as equal to the work now to be done. The King
was now compleatly in the hands of men, the principal among whom had been
noted thro' their lives for the Turkish despotism of their characters,
and who were associated around the King as proper instruments for what
was to be executed. The news of this change began to be known at Paris
about 1. or 2. o'clock. In the afternoon a body of about 100 German
cavalry were advanced and drawn up in the Place Louis XV. and about 200.
Swiss posted at a little distance in their rear. This drew people to the
spot, who thus accidentally found themselves in front of the troops,
merely at first as spectators; but as their numbers increased, their
indignation rose. They retired a few steps, and posted themselves on and
behind large piles of stones, large and small, collected in that Place
for a bridge which was to be built adjacent to it. In this position,
happening to be in my carriage on a visit, I passed thro' the lane they
had formed, without interruption. But the moment after I had passed, the
people attacked the cavalry with stones. They charged, but the
advantageous position of the people, and the showers of stones obliged
the horse to retire, and quit the field altogether, leaving one of their
number on the ground, & the Swiss in their rear not moving to their
aid. This was the signal for universal insurrection, and this body of
cavalry, to avoid being massacred, retired towards Versailles. The people
now armed themselves with such weapons as they could find in armorer's
shops and private houses, and with bludgeons, and were roaming all night
thro' all parts of the city, without any decided object. The next day
(13th.) the assembly pressed on the king to send away the troops, to
permit the Bourgeoisie of Paris to arm for the preservation of order in
the city, and offer to send a deputation from their body to tranquillize
them; but their propositions were refused. A committee of magistrates and
electors of the city are appointed by those bodies to take upon them it's
government. The people, now openly joined by the French guards, force the
prison of St. Lazare, release all the prisoners, and take a great store
of corn, which they carry to the Corn-market. Here they get some arms,
and the French guards begin to form & train them. The City-committee
determined to raise 48.000. Bourgeoise, or rather to restrain their
numbers to 48.000. On the 14th. they send one of their members (Mons. de
Corny) to the Hotel des Invalides, to ask arms for their Garde-Bourgeoise.
He was followed by, and he found there a great collection of people. The
Governor of the Invalids came out and represented the impossibility of
his delivering arms without the orders of those from whom he received
them. De Corny advised the people then to retire, and retired himself;
but the people took possession of the arms. It was remarkable that not
only the Invalids themselves made no opposition, but that a body of 5000.
foreign troops, within 400. yards, never stirred. M. de Corny and five
others were then sent to ask arms of M. de Launay, governor of the
Bastile. They found a great collection of people already before the
place, and they immediately planted a flag of truce, which was answered
by a like flag hoisted on the Parapet. The deputation prevailed on the
people to fall back a little, advanced themselves to make their demand of
the Governor, and in that instant a discharge from the Bastile killed
four persons, of those nearest to the deputies. The deputies retired. I
happened to be at the house of M. de Corny when he returned to it, and
received from him a narrative of these transactions. On the retirement of
the deputies, the people rushed forward & almost in an instant were
in possession of a fortification defended by 100. men, of infinite
strength, which in other times had stood several regular sieges, and had
never been taken. How they forced their entrance has never been
explained. They took all the arms, discharged the prisoners, and such of
the garrison as were not killed in the first moment of fury, carried the
Governor and Lt. Governor to the Place de Greve (the place of public
execution) cut off their heads, and sent them thro' the city in triumph
to the Palais royal. About the same instant a treacherous correspondence
having been discovered in M. de Flesselles, prevot des marchands, they
seized him in the Hotel de Ville where he was in the execution of his
office, and cut off his head. These events carried imperfectly to
Versailles were the subject of two successive deputations from the
assembly to the king, to both of which he gave dry and hard answers for
nobody had as yet been permitted to inform him truly and fully of what
had passed at Paris. But at night the Duke de Liancourt forced his way
into the king's bed chamber, and obliged him to hear a full and animated
detail of the disasters of the day in Paris. He went to bed fearfully
impressed. The decapitation of de Launai worked powerfully thro' the
night on the whole aristocratic party, insomuch that, in the morning,
those of the greatest influence on the Count d'Artois represented to him
the absolute necessity that the king should give up everything to the
Assembly. This according with the dispositions of the king, he went about
11. o'clock, accompanied only by his brothers, to the Assembly, &
there read to them a speech, in which he asked their interposition to
re-establish order. Altho' couched in terms of some caution, yet the
manner in which it was delivered made it evident that it was meant as a
surrender at discretion. He returned to the Chateau afoot, accompanied by
the assembly. They sent off a deputation to quiet Paris, at the head of
which was the Marquis de la Fayette who had, the same morning, been named
Commandant en chef of the Milice Bourgeoise, and Mons Bailly, former
President of the States General, was called for as Prevot des marchands.
The demolition of the Bastile was now ordered and begun. A body of the
Swiss guards of the regiment of Ventimille, and the city horse guards
joined the people. The alarm at Versailles increased. The foreign troops
were ordered off instantly. Every minister resigned. The king confirmed
Bailly as Prevot des Marchands, wrote to Mr. Neckar to recall him, sent
his letter open to the assembly, to be forwarded by them, and invited
them to go with him to Paris the next day, to satisfy the city of his
dispositions; and that night, and the next morning the Count D'Artois and
M. de Montesson a deputy connected with him, Madame de Polignac, Madame
de Guiche, and the Count de Vaudreuil, favorites of the queen, the Abbe
de Vermont her confessor, the Prince of Conde and Duke of Bourbon fled.
The king came to Paris, leaving the queen in consternation for his
return. Omitting the less important figures of the procession, the king's
carriage was in the center, on each side of it the assembly, in two ranks
afoot, at their head the M. de la Fayette, as Commander-in-chief, on
horseback, and Bourgeois guards before and behind. About 60.000 citizens
of all forms and conditions, armed with the muskets of the Bastile and
Invalids, as far as they would go, the rest with pistols, swords, pikes,
pruning hooks, scythes &c. lined all the streets thro' which the
procession passed, and with the crowds of people in the streets, doors
& windows, saluted them everywhere with cries of "vive la
nation," but not a single "vive le roy" was heard. The
King landed at the Hotel de Ville. There M. Bailly presented and put into
his hat the popular cockade, and addressed him. The King being
unprepared, and unable to answer, Bailly went to him, gathered from him
some scraps of sentences, and made out an answer, which he delivered to
the audience as from the king. On their return the popular cries were
"vive le roy et la nation." He was conducted by a garde
bourgeoise to his palace at Versailles, & thus concluded an amende
honorable as no sovereign ever made, and no people ever received.
And here again was lost another precious occasion of sparing to France
the crimes and cruelties thro' which she has since passed, and to Europe,
& finally America the evils which flowed on them also from this
mortal source. The king was now become a passive machine in the hands of
the National assembly, and had he been left to himself, he would have
willingly acquiesced in whatever they should devise as best for the
nation. A wise constitution would have been formed, hereditary in his
line, himself placed at it's head, with powers so large as to enable him
to do all the good of his station, and so limited as to restrain him from
it's abuse. This he would have faithfully administered, and more than
this I do not believe he ever wished. But he had a Queen of absolute sway
over his weak mind, and timid virtue; and of a character the reverse of
his in all points. This angel, as gaudily painted in the rhapsodies of
the Rhetor Burke, with some smartness of fancy, but no sound sense was
proud, disdainful of restraint, indignant at all obstacles to her will,
eager in the pursuit of pleasure, and firm enough to hold to her desires,
or perish in their wreck. Her inordinate gambling and dissipations, with
those of the Count d'Artois and others of her clique, had been a sensible
item in the exhaustion of the treasury, which called into action the
reforming hand of the nation; and her opposition to it her inflexible
perverseness, and dauntless spirit, led herself to the Guillotine, &
drew the king on with her, and plunged the world into crimes &
calamities which will forever stain the pages of modern history. I have
ever believed that had there been no queen, there would have been no
revolution. No force would have been provoked nor exercised. The king
would have gone hand in hand with the wisdom of his sounder counsellors,
who, guided by the increased lights of the age, wished only, with the
same pace, to advance the principles of their social institution. The
deed which closed the mortal course of these sovereigns, I shall neither
approve nor condemn. I am not prepared to say that the first magistrate
of a nation cannot commit treason against his country, or is unamenable
to it's punishment: nor yet that where there is no written law, no
regulated tribunal, there is not a law in our hearts, and a power in our
hands, given for righteous employment in maintaining right, and
redressing wrong. Of those who judged the king, many thought him wilfully
criminal, many that his existence would keep the nation in perpetual
conflict with the horde of kings, who would war against a regeneration
which might come home to themselves, and that it were better that one
should die than all. I should not have voted with this portion of the
legislature. I should have shut up the Queen in a Convent, putting harm
out of her power, and placed the king in his station, investing him with
limited powers, which I verily believe he would have honestly exercised,
according to the measure of his understanding. In this way no void would
have been created, courting the usurpation of a military adventurer, nor
occasion given for those enormities which demoralized the nations of the
world, and destroyed, and is yet to destroy millions and millions of it's
inhabitants. There are three epochs in history signalized by the total
extinction of national morality. The first was of the successors of
Alexander, not omitting himself. The next the successors of the first
Caesar, the third our own age. This was begun by the partition of Poland,
followed by that of the treaty of Pilnitz; next the conflagration of
Copenhagen; then the enormities of Bonaparte partitioning the earth at
his will, and devastating it with fire and sword; now the conspiracy of
kings, the successors of Bonaparte, blasphemously calling themselves the
Holy Alliance, and treading in the footsteps of their incarcerated
leader, not yet indeed usurping the government of other nations avowedly
and in detail, but controuling by their armies the forms in which they
will permit them to be governed; and reserving in petto the order and
extent of the usurpations further meditated. But I will return from a
digression, anticipated too in time, into which I have been led by
reflection on the criminal passions which refused to the world a
favorable occasion of saving it from the afflictions it has since
suffered.
M. Necker had reached Basle before he was overtaken by the letter of the
king, inviting him back to resume the office he had recently left. He
returned immediately, and all the other ministers having resigned, a new
administration was named, to wit St. Priest & Montmorin were
restored; the Archbishop of Bordeaux was appointed Garde des sceaux; La
Tour du Pin Minister of War; La Luzerne Minister of Marine. This last was
believed to have been effected by the friendship of Montmorin; for altho'
differing in politics, they continued firm in friendship, & Luzerne,
altho' not an able man was thought an honest one. And the Prince of
Bauvau was taken into the Council.
Seven princes of the blood royal, six ex-ministers, and many of the high
Noblesse having fled, and the present ministers, except Luzerne, being
all of the popular party, all the functionaries of government moved for
the present in perfect harmony.
In the evening of Aug. 4. and on the motion of the Viscount de Noailles
brother in law of La Fayette, the assembly abolished all titles of rank,
all the abusive privileges of feudalism, the tythes and casuals of the
clergy, all provincial privileges, and, in fine, the Feudal regimen
generally. To the suppression of tythes the Abbe Sieyes was vehemently
opposed; but his learned and logical arguments were unheeded, and his
estimation lessened by a contrast of his egoism (for he was beneficed on
them) with the generous abandonment of rights by the other members of the
assembly. Many days were employed in putting into the form of laws the
numerous demolitions of ancient abuses; which done, they proceeded to the
preliminary work of a Declaration of rights. There being much concord of
sentiment on the elements of this instrument, it was liberally framed,
and passed with a very general approbation. They then appointed a
Committee for the reduction of a projet of a Constitution, at the head of
which was the Archbishop of Bordeaux. I received from him, as Chairman of
the Committee a letter of July 20. requesting me to attend and assist at
their deliberations; but I excused myself on the obvious considerations
that my mission was to the king as Chief Magistrate of the nation, that
my duties were limited to the concerns of my own country, and forbade me
to intermeddle with the internal transactions of that in which I had been
received under a specific character only. Their plan of a constitution
was discussed in sections, and so reported from time to time, as agreed
to by the Committee. The first respected the general frame of the
government; and that this should be formed into three departments,
Executive, Legislative and Judiciary was generally agreed. But when they
proceeded to subordinate developments, many and various shades of opinion
came into conflict, and schism, strongly marked, broke the Patriots into
fragments of very discordant principles. The first question Whether there
should be a king, met with no open opposition, and it was readily agreed
that the government of France should be monarchical & hereditary.
Shall the king have a negative on the laws? shall that negative be
absolute, or suspensive only? Shall there be two chambers of legislation?
or one only? If two, shall one of them be hereditary? or for life? or for
a fixed term? and named by the king? or elected by the people? These
questions found strong differences of opinion, and produced repulsive
combinations among the Patriots. The Aristocracy was cemented by a common
principle of preserving the ancient regime, or whatever should be nearest
to it. Making this their Polar star, they moved in phalanx, gave
preponderance on every question to the minorities of the Patriots, and
always to those who advocated the least change. The features of the new
constitution were thus assuming a fearful aspect, and great alarm was
produced among the honest patriots by these dissensions in their ranks.
In this uneasy state of things, I received one day a note from the
Marquis de la Fayette, informing me that he should bring a party of six
or eight friends to ask a dinner of me the next day. I assured him of
their welcome. When they arrived, they were La Fayette himself, Duport,
Barnave, Alexander La Meth, Blacon, Mounier, Maubourg, and Dagout. These
were leading patriots, of honest but differing opinions sensible of the
necessity of effecting a coalition by mutual sacrifices, knowing each
other, and not afraid therefore to unbosom themselves mutually. This last
was a material principle in the selection. With this view the Marquis had
invited the conference and had fixed the time & place inadvertently
as to the embarrassment under which it might place me. The cloth being
removed and wine set on the table, after the American manner, the Marquis
introduced the objects of the conference by summarily reminding them of
the state of things in the Assembly, the course which the principles of
the constitution were taking, and the inevitable result, unless checked
by more concord among the Patriots themselves. He observed that altho' he
also had his opinion, he was ready to sacrifice it to that of his
brethren of the same cause: but that a common opinion must now be formed,
or the Aristocracy would carry everything, and that whatever they should
now agree on, he, at the head of the National force, would maintain. The
discussions began at the hour of four, and were continued till ten
o'clock in the evening; during which time I was a silent witness to a
coolness and candor of argument unusual in the conflicts of political
opinion; to a logical reasoning, and chaste eloquence, disfigured by no
gaudy tinsel of rhetoric or declamation, and truly worthy of being placed
in parallel with the finest dialogues of antiquity, as handed to us by
Xenophon, by Plato and Cicero. The result was an agreement that the king
should have a suspensive veto on the laws, that the legislature should be
composed of a single body only, & that to be chosen by the people.
This Concordate decided the fate of the constitution. The Patriots all
rallied to the principles thus settled, carried every question agreeably
to them, and reduced the Aristocracy to insignificance and impotence. But
duties of exculpation were now incumbent on me. I waited on Count
Montmorin the next morning, and explained to him with truth and candor
how it had happened that my house had been made the scene of conferences
of such a character. He told me he already knew everything which had
passed, that, so far from taking umbrage at the use made of my house on
that occasion, he earnestly wished I would habitually assist at such
conferences, being sure I should be useful in moderating the warmer
spirits, and promoting a wholesome and practicable reformation only. I
told him I knew too well the duties I owed to the king, to the nation,
and to my own country to take any part in councils concerning their
internal government, and that I should persevere with care in the
character of a neutral and passive spectator, with wishes only and very
sincere ones, that those measures might prevail which would be for the
greatest good of the nation. I have no doubt indeed that this conference
was previously known and approved by this honest minister, who was in
confidence and communication with the patriots, and wished for a
reasonable reform of the Constitution.
Here I discontinue my relation of the French revolution. The minuteness
with which I have so far given it's details is disproportioned to the
general scale of my narrative. But I have thought it justified by the
interest which the whole world must take in this revolution. As yet we
are but in the first chapter of it's history. The appeal to the rights of
man, which had been made in the U S. was taken up by France, first of the
European nations. From her the spirit has spread over those of the South.
The tyrants of the North have allied indeed against it, but it is
irresistible. Their opposition will only multiply it's millions of human
victims; their own satellites will catch it, and the condition of man
thro' the civilized world will be finally and greatly ameliorated. This
is a wonderful instance of great events from small causes. So inscrutable
is the arrangement of causes & consequences in this world that a
two-penny duty on tea, unjustly imposed in a sequestered part of it,
changes the condition of all it's inhabitants. I have been more minute in
relating the early transactions of this regeneration because I was in
circumstances peculiarly favorable for a knowledge of the truth.
Possessing the confidence and intimacy of the leading patriots, &
more than all of the Marquis Fayette, their head and Atlas, who had no
secrets from me, I learnt with correctness the views & proceedings of
that party; while my intercourse with the diplomatic missionaries of
Europe at Paris, all of them with the court, and eager in prying into
it's councils and proceedings, gave me a knolege of these also. My
information was always and immediately committed to writing, in letters
to Mr. Jay, and often to my friends, and a recurrence to these letters
now insures me against errors of memory.
These opportunities of information ceased at this period, with my
retirement from this interesting scene of action. I had been more than a
year soliciting leave to go home with a view to place my daughters in the
society & care of their friends, and to return for a short time to my
station at Paris. But the metamorphosis thro' which our government was
then passing from it's Chrysalid to it's Organic form suspended it's
action in a great degree; and it was not till the last of August that I
received the permission I had asked. -- And here I cannot leave this
great and good country without expressing my sense of it's preeminence of
character among the nations of the earth. A more benevolent people, I
have never known, nor greater warmth & devotedness in their select
friendships. Their kindness and accommodation to strangers is
unparalleled, and the hospitality of Paris is beyond anything I had
conceived to be practicable in a large city. Their eminence too in
science, the communicative dispositions of their scientific men, the
politeness of the general manners, the ease and vivacity of their
conversation, give a charm to their society to be found nowhere else. In
a comparison of this with other countries we have the proof of primacy,
which was given to Themistocles after the battle of Salamis. Every
general voted to himself the first reward of valor, and the second to
Themistocles. So ask the travelled inhabitant of any nation, In what
country on earth would you rather live? -- Certainly in my own, where are
all my friends, my relations, and the earliest & sweetest affections
and recollections of my life. Which would be your second choice? France.
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