National gazette. — Philadelphia [Pa.], 1793-04-10 00:00:00, page 4

Mr. BRISSOT's Speech in the National
Ajjehibly of France, on ~ ugujl 8, 1792.
in fupp'irt of the accusation of M. dc la
Fayette.
(Continued from our -lafl and concluded.)
DID Washington, whose example he
pretends to have continually in his
eye, amuf- himfelf in petitioning against
societies, and writing in the Gazettes }
No, gentlemen, he often fought, fometimee
triumphed, and always wrote to tht Con
gress with refpeft. I observe, gentlemen,
that no one has dared to re produce the
obje&ion made by Mr. Ramond, that Mr,
La Fayette had a right to present you a
petition in the name of his army, since yon
had received the like from the battalion oi
Paiis. But wl at comparison is there be
tween a pet i ion 1 xprefFed is the molt im
perious terms, attributed to an army aSu
ally in the field and preiei ted by it« gene
vat,-and addreflcs, almost the whole o
which contained notMng more than expref
fions of relpedt and duty, and prelentec
by citizens armed and not armed afferoblec
together without diftinftion. These pe
titions were not the requests of an armee
foice, but rather of a /eflion in which was
concluded the battalion of the feftion
In this cafe, gentlemen, there was no dan
gtr ; the principle of the conllitution wai
not violated : for what is the principle ?—
To hinder the aimed force from erecting
itfelf intoa dijhnfl power, dangerous to tlx
civil authorities. Now, in the addrefle;
ofafe&ion where its battallion is included,
the armed force is not diltin&; the citi
zens of the bittallion appear among tht
reft, and the wh le present their common
request. But, in the petition of Mr. L?
Fayette, the dangerous prine : ple whicl
the conflitution has been so careful to a
void, (hows itfelt in all its force. The fc
much dreaded influence of the army on the
del,berat ions of the lrgiflativc body anc
the adtions of the executive power, Mr
La Fayette has attempted to exercise ir
its fullcft extent.
In short, gentlemen this is th<
third cr me I alledge against Mr. La Fa
yette) has he not ordered you in the nami
of his army, to annihilate the popular soci
eties, ra'her than request their annihilati
on ? Has he not fought to intimidate you
to oblige you to enait laws of his own die
tating ; by hinting that he wa surround
ed with that hono able rampart the army
and by telling you that this irmy demand
ed both the diflbluii n of the popular so
cieties and the punilhment of the leaden
in the affair of the 20th of June? Nay
does he not yet feck to intimidate you
by publishing a coileftion of the adrirefle
which he himfelf by the means of his offi
cers, firft solicited from the troops ? Is i
not clear then that General La Fayetii
wilhed to prove o the National Aft"-' ll
bly that he had an army intirely devotee
to his will,—an army ready to march a
gainst it at the firft signal, which is tlx
lame thing, against the factious, who, a
he pretends, governed the AlTembly.
Read again these pafiages of the addref
fes, gentlemen : some of them declare
"we are all devoted to the general anc
particularly to the supreme chief of thi
army." Others fay "the general ma)
lead us with confidence againlt the enemiei
of the state oreign and domestic." Then
is not a v oid here of the requisitions o:
the civil power. As if they had said
onr greatell enemies are not in the Ironi
of us, perhaps at this moment the monster
are at our backs I let us away ! let us pre
vent the blow !—The Nationa' . 1 flembl>
has not ordered us ; but the general is
fufficient. " There," said his prompter!
to him, "the confidence you have inspired
in the army is yourfecurity that it will bt
directed by you alone." - It was thus, gen
tlemen, that the legions would
have only Cxfar for cl.ief. In a word,
their cry was : Let us exterminate the fac
tious ; order, general, and we will exe
cute
And who are these madmen ready tc
march at the signal of the general, against
they know not whom ? Let us not ca
lumniate the army, gentlemen : it is nci
the army that has repeated these seditious
and rebellious clamours; tl ey belong tc
a few squadrons, a few companies, whose
tinderftandings have been milled by en.
venomed reports or by seducing promises ;
but what can he said in defence of die ge
neral, who, in place of blaming the corps
that had manifested such culpable senti
ments, encouraged them by the vile ft
means, afterwaids published them' and
propagated them through all our armies ?
Ought we not to conclude them thns,that,
in 'he firfl place, he wished to prove to the
National AfTembly, that he had an army
entirely at hisdifp. sal; and in the second,
that his aim was to dragoon them into a
compliance with his demands ? He evi
dently falls then under the 4th article of
the penal code, which I have already cited.
It is evident, gentlemen, even from the
text of those addrefles, that they were dic
tated by officers devoted to Mr. La Fay
ette, and under pretexts the inoft notori
ouflv falfe. It may not be amiss to re
mark here, that the affair of the 20th of
June has not been the pretext of all of
them ; for in reading them ovei we observe
that many of them were drawn up ante
rior to that event. They mention are
fignation of Mr. La Fayette ; his bring
persecuted ; a ruling faction that mifleade
the National AfTembly. In a word, every
little art has been employed to render po
pular a mail who is incapable of acquiring
popularity by his aflions or talents. Here
we fee a repetition of those comedies so
often played at Paris by the aids de-camp
of the general to procure him a refpeit
little short of adoration, and to erect his
reputation into a rampart against the pat
riots and the National AfTembly.
Yes, gentlemen, every thing proves that,
for a long time, Mr. La Fayette, discon
tented, because his partisans did not total
ly direst the National AfTembly, or rather,
because he himfelf could not direst it by
thei' means, has endeavoured to debase it ;
and this is the fourth crime I lay to his
ch rge. Wi'hout repeating the numerous
proofs To well unfol led b' Mr. Lafourfe,
without recalling here all the difcouries,
held openly in the camp of Mr. La Fay
ette by (lis general officers, (discourses that
tended not only to degrade, but even to
offolve the National AfTembly) is it not
evident from his own letters, that he en
deavoured to debase the legislative body in
the opinion of his army ? Did he not fay
in these letters, which he caused to be diT
tributed with a criminal profufion, that
the National AfTembly wa3 under the in
fiuence of a faction that wished to overturn
the conflitution ; that there exilled in fact
neither liberty nor conflitution, because
the Jacobin focietie* existed ? Was not
this iulinuating that the A fTembly was no
thing more than the tool of the jacobins ?
Is not this the sense of all the addrefTes,
in which, under the name of factious, are
equally deiigned the patriots and the Na
tional AfTembly? Is it not the sense of
thi fe insidious recommendations contained
in the Ie ter of the 16th of June ? Does
not he accuse you of having encroacl.ed on
the authority of th king, in recommend
ing to you to rrfpeft his independence ?
of having violated the religious liberty by
your decree against the non conforming
priests ? "f having been unconstitutional
and unjust, in recommending to you to be
constitutional andjuft ? If there were any
doubt of the meaning of these reproaches,
w< find it without disguise in his letter of
the 22J June. There the general declares
without the lead reserve, tha- the National
AfTembly is misled by a f diion, and that
it has deviated from the line of the conili
tulion What a galling reproach to yr»u,
who have ever religiously adhered to the
conllitution ! to you, who alone have
maintained it, snd who will still maintain
it, though your enemies co- tinue to draw
from thence the rrows with which they
pierce you! could any accufa, ion possibly have
borne a mo e formidable afpett, inculcated
a more dangerous principle; since its evi
dent tendency was to excite the depart
ments and the arr.iits to despise you as
perjurers, and to oppose a legal refiflance
to your dec rees ? Thus, gentlemen, from
this accusation resulted at once, contemp
for the legislative body, and revolt against
it. It was then a crime, since it might
have produced a civil war ; and this, ger.
tlemcn is the fifth crime I impute to Mr.
La Fay 1 tte. He has endeavoured to pliingt
he nation into a civil war, in exciting »hi
people and the armies against the club:
and • hose whom he calls the factious, by
railing a general clamour against them bv
spreading hi:, inflammatory letters and ad
drefles, and by fuppoliwg the National As-
Tembly devoted to a fadtion. Was it not
to llir up a civil war that he fir It caltimni
atcd theParifians to his army, in imputing
to them crimes absolutely falfe ; and th 11
Ins army to the Parisians, in imputing to
it the sanguinary request of his general of
ficers ? Was not this double calumny well
:alculated to biow the embers of diflentijn
nto a flame ?
Besides, has not Mr. La Fayette clearly
d'fcorered his intention to excite a civil
lv ar in this sentence of his firft order ? "It
ls fufficient for the present, to fatisfy the
National Aflembly, the king and other
conllituted authorities, of the conttitution
al lentiments of the troops." That iste
fay, it is fufficic nt for the present to draw
up petitions and write letters ; but if they
be rejected we will have recourse to more
efficacious means.
Is not this sense confirmed by the pas
fge of his letter of the 16th of June, where
he boafls of ihe part he had in the dectara
tion of tights ? as if he were the invenftjr of
them j as if their principks were not
known long before he ever thought of
them ! He tells you, (and he digrefles
from his fubjedt too, on purpofc to tell it
you) that he was the firlt who declared
reftjlanee againfl opprejfton to be the molt
sacred of duties. This was plainly giving
you to underltand, that the moment of re
finance was not far off.
But, indeed, it is not the fault of Mr.
La Fayette that a civil war has not before
now drenchcd the empire in blood : at lead
if we judge from the famous declaration of
Marshal Luckner. Six of your members
heard this declaration and have attested it -
The triple negat on that has been given
to it ought to allonifh nobody. Interest
extorted the two firft, and complaisance
the turd. It iseafy to perceive here an
other hand than that of the Marshal, whose
aversion to the controversy is so well
known, and who has h mfelf dec'ared to
yout Extraordinary Commission, that he
did not trouble himfelf with writing, that
he knew how to figut only.
As the letter of Mr. La Fayette, where
he makes, according to cultom, a faftidi
ous display of principles upon wlii h he
was not queltioned ; where he vaunts o(
being the defender of rights th t he tram
pies undv r foot \ we way answer his four
words so extremely short, by three (till
shorter : that is true. There is riot a rea
sonable mm, who, in comparing the re
fpefhve affirmations, can poffiblv i elieve
that the fix deputies, (who by the bye have
all given f >me proofs of their patriotism
and veracity) have agreed together to de
ceive the Aflembly, or to be deceived
themselves ; and who can besides believe
Luckne' to have a belter memory than fix
individuals upon a fact committed to writ
ing immediately afterwards ; I may fay,
upon the spot. Now, gentlemen, thofc
inconteltible premises being granted, there
is no one who would not fooncr believe
La Fayette ambitious than Luckner a.'
impolter and consequently that the Mai
fhul has told the truth. We mull here ei
ther believe in a miracle, or believe that
the proposal uas made. Every thing cor
roborates the truth of the proposal, whilfi
the falfehood < f tie fix members, or o:
Luckner, (always upright when left tc
hin.felf) bears not the least ftiadow of pro
bability. Let every one then, in difcharg
ing the functions of a juror of accusation
descend into his conscience, and he wil
not doubt a moment; though there exilti
no legal proofs that the proposal has beer
made But should dure (till be doubts,
the avowal of Mr. La Fayette and Mr.
Bureaux Pufy mult infallibly cJidipatf
them. The latter cnnf fTcs, that one o:
th principal ohj dts of liis mefiage wastr
communicate to Luckner, that it appearec
lo Mr. La Fayette, that the moll pri-ffi t
necessity of the It te, was to put a Itop t<.
the excefies of anarchy. And Mr. La
Fayette wrote to Luckner on the 22d ol
June : " I can no longer submit in silence
to the tyranny exercised by the faftiout
aver the Ne-iional Aflembly and t : e king,
in obliging the fonier to swerve from th<
con Ititutiort which we have all sworn to
defend, and in putting the latter into im
minent danger, both as to his poiitical and
physical txiftence."
Now, gentlemen, if on the other hand
Mr. La Fayette could r.o longer submit
himfell to the National Aflembly, milled
by the factious, and if on the other it ap
pears to him, ti.at the molt pieffi- ; neces
sity of the state was to put a (top to the
excesses of those fait ions, is not the im
mediate ccnfiquence, that he wi!hed to
employ every means in his power, and
that it was to that end he made the pro
posal to Maifli I Luckner? What then
were these means ? The infurredion with
which he has menaced you; the armed
forces'; his p titioning officers and soldi
ers, wo paKted lor the glory of falling
upon their unarme i fellow citizens, whom
they had the insolence to term the fadtious.
We mult believe that Mr. La Fayette fe
rionfly intended to make war upon these
fadlious, or we mull believe him to bt a
downright idect, for diking permission to
comcto Pa-is merely to fvrmon the J co
bins which would be more worthy a school
boy than a general But, once more, it is
with this key we come at the bottom us
:ne conduct of Mr. La Fayette : thisex
a'ains why, in changing frontiers, he
would not change armies ; why lie chose
0 expose his own to useless fatigues ra
her than be separated from it. He
would have an army devoted to his will,
necaufe he would be the head of a partv ;
>eeaufe he would crush the opposite party.
Fhefe were exadly the politics of Crom
vell, and I fay with Mr. Lafource, tha if
La Fayette does not come up to hischa
adter, it is not his villainy that he wants
>ut his courage and his talents. How
ler, it would be decfliult to find a man of
vhom Cromwell could be more ji'ftly cited
is a model, if we copy his portrait after a
celebrated Englilh historian. I invite
Mr. Dumolard to confnlt the original En
;lilh, which I tranfiate literally.
'• Cromwell, a vain-glorious man, who
ought to di Itroy the authority of par
ament by ali the artifices of hypocrisy j
vho in order to ingratiate him elf with
he loya ifts, obtained an amnesty for
hem in !en:ent terms ; who favoured on
)ne fide those who were of no religion
it all, and on the other the bigots who
joifoned the min's of the troops against
he parliamentby inflammatory pamphlets;
vho frequently I eld military councils at
lis own house, wliere the quellion on the
nffoi uiiofl of the patliament was firll agi
ated ; Cromwell, at la'l, presented, in the
lames of his army a petition, in which he
lemanded, w th uncommon insolence, a
eform of abuses."
H ere it may not be amiss to observe to
Vlr. Dumolard, that an hoficlt fanatic of
hose times, in a panegyrick on the Englfh
1 fur per, called him the ettlejl Jon of liberty.
Flic parliament thanked Cromwell, who
n a few days after turned out the par
.anient.
Give me leave to quote another example.
General Lambert in 1659, p efented to
he parliament an address, in the name of
lis army ; ' e demanded, l.ke ourge eral,
.e prompt chadifement of the leaders in
in inlurredtion, the abolition of <tll parti
cular societies, and the appointment of ge
leral officers to his fancy. A mot on was
tiacie to fend him to the tower; gentler
lieans were, however, preferred, and in a
month after th t the p rli .ment was dif.
ulved by General Lambert. I have no
tpprehenfions that you will experience a
ike tate , for there is no Cromwell in
France ; nor, above all, are there any fol
iiers of Cromwell. But, Gentlemen, the
najeltv of the people infuked, the eonfti
lution violated, the fafcty of the Hate ex
posed, our liberty menaced ; all demand an
rxemplary vengeance ; a decree that may
prove to the nation, that all are truly equal
in the eye of the lawx and that no one has
the privilege of b ing criminal with impu
nity. Either this decree or your ignomi
ny ; this decree or the abasement of the
:oniiitution.
Mr Dumolard, who felt the weakness
jf his cause w th regard to the law, has
very ab y expatiated on the services of the
15 neral: he, knows to interpose his power
.etween the conHituted authorities; in a
word, it he has a used the public force
:ommitte;i to his chargc, in order to create
limftlf a party, is it not evident that he
s criminal in the highetl degree ? o fay
hat there 13 not ground of impeachment,
jr limply toceniure him, is it not faying
0 him openlv, General continue your
nlots, but manage them v ith moredifcre
ion ; continue to influei.ee men's minds
tgainft Ihe factious, to keep alive our 1111-
iappv diffenflons: time may bring you to
1 more favourable opporturi ty, and then
>■011 may llrike with luccefs ; for,fince you
ire acquitted, it is evident your party is
:!>e strongest. In finort, ge".tle:nen,
icquit Mr. La Fayette is not only to give
aim a general brevet of impunity, but it
s to prepare him a throne on the ruins of
:he law and the constitution : and it is
not I who pronounce this sentence it is a
L-elcbrated man whom we all revere; it is
Rovjfciiu. "Whatever," fays he, "be the
conitkut'en of a government, if there be a
(ingle man who >s exempt from the law,
all the red ar necessarily at his discretion "
1 I A*rAvtl General La Fayette the
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