The Mirrour — Concord, N.H., 1793-07-01 00:00:00, page 1

of June, I commanded a small arm,
in the Department of the North—
This Department 1 was ordered to
quit with m, troops at the ver, time
the Austrians entered in force that
pirt of the Republick. I disobeyed
the order, favai the department, and
an attempt was made to come on me
by furprize, for the purpose of con
veying me to the citadel of Mentz
where I was to be condemned b, a
Council of War to fuffer death.
On the 28th of August, I took upon)
me, in Champagne, the command of
an arm, of twenty thousand- men,
weak,and without either dijcipline or
organization. 1 arrefled the prog
ress of eight, thousand Prussians and^
Hessians and forced them to retreat!
after the, bad Sacrificed the one half,
of their army, I was then the Sav
iour of France ; and then it was
that the most wicked of men, the op
probrium of Frenchmen, in a word,
Marat began to calumniate me with
out mercy.. With a part of the vict
orious arm, of Champagne, and fame
other troops, [entered on the sth of
November, the Belgic provinces,
where I gained the forever memora
ble battle of Jemappe; and, after a
succession of advantages, entered Liege
and Ainlacbapelle, towards the clo/e
of that month. From that moment
m, destruction was resolved on; and
I bave been accused of aspiring, now
to the title of Duke of Brabant,
now to the StadtbolderShip and again
to tbe Dictatorship. To retard and;
crufo my/ucceffes, tbe Minister Pacbe,\
supported b, tbe criminal faction, to
whom all our evils are to be ascribed,
Juffered tbe victorious arm, to want
ever, thing, and Succeeded in diJband
ing it by famine and nakedness.
Tbe confluence was, that more than
fifteen tbouf and men were in the bof
pital, more than 25 thonfond deserted
through miser, and disgust, and up
wards of ten thousand borfes died of
hunger ! I!
I transmitted to tbe National Con
vention very Strenuous remon/trances,
which J fallowed up by repairing in
perlon to Paris, to engage tbe Legis
lators to apply a remedy to the evils,
fley did not even condefeend to read
the four memorials I delivered in.
During tbe twentyfix hours 1 spent at
Paris, I heard almost ever, night
charged of having plundered fix mill
ions of Livres, defined for secret
services. I have proved that of this
sum I did not expend half a million.
Having quitted the career of Pol
itics towards the close of the month
SINCE the Commencement of the
Revolution, I have devoted my
felf to the maintenance of the Liber
ty and Honour of the Nation.
The services [rendered in the year
1792, are the me, memorable. Min
ister of Foreign Affairs during three
months, I elevated and sustained the
dignity of the French name through
out all Europe. ! was calumniated
by an odious Cabal, by whom I was
.[Volume I.'
STATE PAPERS. ,
GENERAL DUMOURIER
TO THE
FRENCH NATION.
Published by ELIJAH RUSSELL, at his OFFICE, near the Meeting House, in @NCORD, Newhampshire.
^CONCORD, MONDAY, July 10793.
bands of pretended Federates demand
my head ; and calumnies of every
defeription, as well as menaces andin
fults followed me even into the coun
try house to which I retired.
Having delivered in my resigna
tion, I was retained in the service
of my country, because it was propos
ed to me to negotiate the fu/penfion of
the war again# England and Hob
land, which 1 bad conceived as in
dispensable to tbe fafety of the Neth
erlands. Whil, I negotiated and
that fuccefsfully, the National Con
vention itfelf haflened to declare war,
without making any preparations and
without either power or means for
its Support.
I was not even advised of this
Declaration, and learned it through
the medium of the Gazette, only. 1
hastened to form a /mall army of new
troops, who had never fought and
with these troops, whom confidence
rendered invincible, 1 made my/elf
ma,er of three Strong places, and
was ready to penetrate into the mid
dle of Holland, when I learned the
difaffer of Aixlacbapelle, the raiJiag
of the siege of Maeftricht, and the
fad retrear of the army. Ry this
army I was loudly summoned. 1
abandoned my conquers to fly to it,
juccour ; and confideed tbat we could
be extricated from our difficulties b,
a Speedy ftfo^r ^led my com
panions in arms to the enemy. On
the i6tb of March 1 bad 4 consider
able advantage at Tirelement. On
\tbe 18th I brought the enemy to a
general aflion ; and the centre and
right wing under my change were
victorious. The Jest wing attacked
imprudently, fled. On the 191 bwe
retreated honourably, with the brave
men that were left together, for a
par, of the army disbanded itfelf.
On the 21, and 22deye fought with
the Jame courage, and to our firmnefs
was owing the preservation of an ar
my which breathes solely for true Li
berty, for the reign of the Laws, and
for the extinction of Anarchy.
It was then that the Marats, the
Roberfpierres, and the criminal lefts
of Jacobins of Paris, plotted the fall
of the Generals, and more especially
of mine, These villains, bribed
with the gold of foreign power, to
compleat the disorganization of the
larmies, caused almoff all the generals
bo be arrested. Th, keep them in
the fails of Paris, to Septemberize
them ; for thus it is that those mon-,
fters have coined a word, to band
down to posterity the remembrance of
the horrid massacres of the fafl fix
days of September.
Wbilfl I was employed in recom
posing the army, in which employ
ment I laboured night and day, on
the if of April (yesterday) four com
miffionefs reached me with a decree,
purporting that IJhould be brought
to the bar of the Convention itfelf
The War mini,er, Bournonville, my
pupil, was weak enough to accompa
n, them, to succeed me in m, com
mand. The persons who were in
fuise of these perfidious emissaries
informed me themselves, tbat differ-
The Mirrour.
My dear countrymen ! it is ex
pedient that a true and brave man
remove from you the veil which
covers all our crimes and misfor
tunes —In 178 g, we made great
efforts to obtain Liberty, Equality,
and the Sovereignty of the People
Our principles were consecrated in
the Declaration of the Rights of
Man, and there have resulted from
the labours of our Legislators; ift.
the declaration which fays that
France is and Shall remain a Mon
archy ; 2dly. a Constitution to
which we (wore fealty in 1789,
9°,9 L
This constitution might, and
indeed must have been imperfect ;
lout it ought and might have been
believed, that with time and expe
rience its errors would be rectified,
and that the necessary ftrife be
tween the Legislative & Executive
powers would eftablilh a wife equi
librium, which would prevent ei
ther of these powers from seizing
the whole of the authority, and
attaining despotism. If the despo
tism of a Single individual is dan
gerous to Liberty, how much more
odious must be that of 700 men,
many of whom are void of princi
ples, without morals, and who have
been able to reach that supremacy
by cabals or crimes alone !
Licentiousness and excels soon
render'd itimpoffible to support the
yoke of a constitution that gave
laws. The tribunes influenced the
assembly of representatives, & were
themselves awed by the dangerous
club of Jacobins of Paris. The
ftrife between the two powers be
came at length a daily combat,then
was the ' equilibrium destroyed.
France ceased to have a king, and
the victory of the 10th of August
was foiled by the atrocious crimes
of the firft days of September.
All the departments, but more
especially the wretched city of Pa
ris, were delivered up to pillage^
to denunciations, proscriptions, and
massacres. No Frenchman, the
assassins and their accomplices ex
cepted, bad either his life or his
property in fecuricy! The confter
nation of slavery was augmented
by the clamourous orgies of vil
lains. Bands of pretended feder
ices ran through and laid watte the
Departments ; and of the^oo indi
viduals who composed this despotic
and anarchial body, .44* 500
groaned and decreed, and decreed
ent groups of assassins, either fugi
tive from or driven out of my army,
were dispersed on the road to kill me
before 1 could reach Paris. 1 spent
Several hours in endeavouring to con
vince the commissioners of the impru
dence of this arrefl. Nothing could
Shake their pride, and 1 therefore ar
refled the whole of them, to serve
me as boffages again, the crimes of
Paris. I inftandy arranged with
the Imperialists a suspension of
arms, & marched towards the cap
ital, to extinguish, as soon as possi
ble, the lighted embers of civil
war.
and groaned, exposed to the exter-.
minating (words of the Marats and
Roberfpierres. It is thus that the
unfortunate Louis the 16th peril
ed, without a judicial, trial and
without a tribunal; and 'tis thus
that the the decree of the 19th
of Nov. has provoked all nations ,
by holding out to them our aid,
provided they will disorganize
themselves. 'Tis thus that the un
just and impolitic decree of the .
15th of Dec. lias alienated from us
the hearts of the Belgians, has
driven us from the Netherlands,
and would have brought about the
massacre of the whole of our army,
by this nation, provoked at our
outrages and our crimes if I had
not saved that very army by my
proclamations. 'Tis thus that a
decree eftablilhed the bloody tri.
bunal which places the lives of the .
citizens at the mercy of a small
number of iniquitous judges, with
out recourse or appeal to any oth
er tribunal. 'Tis thus that dur
ing the last month all the decrees
have been marked by the stamp of
insatiable avarice, by the bl'indeft
pride and more especially by the
desire of maintaining power, by
calling to the most important pofta
of the state no other than daring,
incapable and criminal men, by
driving away'or murdering men
enlightened and of a high charac
ter, and by supporting a phantom
of a republick which their errours
in administration and in policy, as
well as their crimes, had rendered
impracticable, These 700 individ
uals despise, detest, calumniate and
revile each other, and have alrea
dy, and that frequently, thought
of poignarding the one the other.
At this moment their blind ambi
tion has impelled them to coalesce
afrefh ; and bold criminality allies
itfelf to feeble virtue, to prefervea
power as unjust as it is unsteady.
In the mean time their Commit
tees devour every thin§ that of
the National Treasury absorbing
the publick funds, without being
able to render any account of the
expenditure.
What has this Convention done
to maintain the war it has provok
ed against all the powers of Eu
rope?
It has disorganized the armies,
instead of reinforcing and recruit
ing the troops of the line, and the
ancient battalions of national vol- -
unteers which would have formed
a refpedable army. Instead of re
compeofing these brave warriours
by promotion and praises, these
legislators have left the battalions
imcomplete, naked, disarmed and
difeontented'. In the fame way
have they treated the excellent
cavalry : and the brave French ar
tillery is in the fame manner ex
hausted, abandoned, and in want
of every necessary. '
They roi^ftssdiog create
new corps, composed of the fattel
lites of the nd of September, and-|
) .^ ESee theffflpage,]j
Number 36/