The American herald of liberty — Exeter, N.H., 1793-06-18 00:00:00, page 1

On the 281)1 of August, I took upon me,
in Champagne, the comm^d of an army of
twenty thouland men, weak, and without ei
ther difcipiine or organization. 1 arrelled the
' progress of eighty thousand Pruflians and He/-
fians, and forced them to tetreac after they had
iacrjficed the one half of their army, I was
theft the faviour of France ; and then it was
that the molt wicked of men, the opprobium
of Frenchmen—in a word, Marat, began
to calumniate me without any mercy.
With a part of the victorious army of Cham
pagne and some other troefps, I entered, on
the jth of November, the Belgic Provinces >
where I gained the forever-memorable battle
cf Jemappe ; and, after a faccefDon of ad
vantages, entered Liege, and Aix-la Chapelle,
towards the close of that month. From that
moment my deftrudion was resolved on ; and
I have been accused of aspiring, now to the
title of Duke of Brabant, now to the Stad
holderfhip, and again to the Didatorfhip. To
retard and crush my fuccefies, the Minister
Pa^he, supported by the criminal .faftion to
whom all our evils are to be ascribed, fuffer
ed the victorious army to -want every thing,
and succeeded in difbandingit by famine and
nakedness. The co.Jequence was, that more
chan fifteen thousand men were in the hospital,
more than twenty-five vhoufand deferied
through mifety and disgust, and upwards of
ten thousand horses died of hunger 11 !
I transmitted to the National Convention
very strenuous remonstrances, which I follow
ed up by repairing in person to Parts, to
engage the Legislators to apply a remedy to
the evil: They did not even condescend to
read the four memorials 1 delivered in. Dur
ing the twenty fix hours I spent at Paris, I
heard almost every night bands of pretend
ed federates demand my head ; and calumn
ies of every description, as well as menaces
and insults followed me even into the coun.
try-house, to which I retired.
Having delivered in my resignation, I was
retained in the service of my country, be
cause it was proposed to,me to negociate the
suspension of the war against England and
Holland, which I had conceived as mdifpenfi
ble to the fafety of the Netherlands. Whidt
1 negociated, and that fuccefsfuily, the Na
tional Convention i felf hastened to declare
War, without making any preparations, and
without either power or means for its sup
port.
Iwas not even advised of this Declaration,
and learned it through the medium of the
Gazettes only. I hastened to form a (mail
army of new troops, who had never fought;
and with these troops, whom confidence ren
• dered invincible, I made myfelf master of three
strong places, and was ready to penetrate into
the middle of Holland, when 1 learned the
difafterof Aix la.Chapelle, the railing of the
siege of Maejiricht, and the fad retreat of the
army. By this army I was loudly summon
ed—J abandoned my conquests to fly to its
fuccour ; and considered that we could be ex
tricated from our difficulties by a speedy fuc
cef* only. J led my companions in arms to
the enem/.j On the 16th of March, I had
• considerable advantage at lirltmont. On
the tO, I brought the enemy to a general
adion ; and the centre and right wing, un
der my charge, were viAortous. The left
wing, after having attacked imprudently,
t . L.. ... ...... ' .. Z * * 1
''-’'. ~ „ - - '
The American Herald of Liberty.
The services I rendered in the year 1792,
are the mcft memorable. hltnifter of tor-,
eign affairs during three months, I elevated
and fultained the dignity of the French name
throughout all Europe. I was calumniated by
an odious cabal, by whom I was charged with
having plundered fix millions of livres destin
ed for secret services. I have proved, that of
this sum I did not expend half a million.
Having quitted the career of politicks to
wards the close of the month of Jone I com
manded a small army in the department of the
North. This Department I was ordered to
quit with my troops, at the very time the
Auflrians entered in force that part of the Re
publick. I disobeyed the order, saved the
Department, and an attempt was made to come
on me by surprise, for the purpose of convey
ing me to the Citadel of Mentz, where Iwas
to be condemned by a council of war to fuffer
death.
Volume VII.]
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GENERAL DUMOVRIER,
TO THS
FRENCH NATION.
SINCE the commencement of the Revolu
tion, I have devoted myfelf to (be main
tenance of the liberty and honour of the na
tion.
EXETER (New-Hampjhire ) Printed and Published by Henry Ranlet, in Main-Street, at fix fbilUngs and eight pence per annum.
Political Mifcdlany.
STATE PAPER.
fled. On the 19th, we retreated honoura
bly with the brave men that were left toge
ther, for a part of the army disbanded itfelf.
On the 2lit and 22d we fought with the fame
courage ; and to our firmnefs was owing the
preservation of the remains of an army which
breathes lolely for true liberty : For ihe
reign of the laws, and for the extinction of
anarchy.
It was then that the M?r«/r,and Roberjpitr
ret, and the criminal lefts of Jacobins of Paris,
plotted the fall of the Generals and more efpe.
cially of mine. These villains, bribed with the
gold of foreign powers, to complete the dis
organization of the armies, caused almost all
the Generals to be arretted. They keep them
in the jails of Paris to beptemberize them ;
for thus it is that these monsters have coined
a word, to hand down to posterity the remem.
brance of the horrid mafiacres of the firlt fix
days of September.
Whilst I was employed in re composing
the army, in which employment I laboured
night and day, on the firlt of Aprir(yefterday)
four Commiflioners reached me with a decree,
purporting that 1 should be brought to the bar
of the Convention itfelf. The war minister,
Bournonvi lle (my pupil) was weak enough
to accompany them, to succeed me in my
command. The persons who were in suit of
those perfidious emifiaries, informed me
themselves that different groups of affaflins,
either fugitives from or driven out of my army,
were dispersed on the road to kill me before I
could reach Paris. I spent feverai hours in
endeavouring to convince the commiflioners of
the imprudence of his arrest—Nothing could
shake their pride ; and I therefore arretted the
whole of them, to serve me as hostages against
the crimes of Paris. linftantly arranged with
the Imperialists a suspension of arms, and
marched towards the capital, to extinguish, as
1 peedily as poflible, the lighted embers of ci
vil war.
My dear countrymen ! It it expedient that a
trpe and brave man remove from you the veil
which covers all our crimesand misfortunes*
—ln 1789, we made great efforts to obtain
Liberty, Equality, and the Sovereignty of the
People. Our principles were conlecrated in
the declaration of the Rights of Man j and
there have resulted from the labours of our
Legislators, 1 ft, the declaration which fays that
France is and shall remain a monarch) —2dly,
a conftitutiou to which we (wore fealty in
1789, 90, and 91.
This conftituticn might, and indeed mull
have been imperfeft, but it might and ought
to have beer, believed, that with time and ex
perience, its errors would be reftified, and
that the necessary ftrife between the Legifla
tiveand Executive powers would establish a
wife equillibrium, which would prevent either
of these powers from seizing the whole of the
authority, and attaining despotism. If the
despotism of a single individual is dangerous
to Liberty, how much more odious mull be
that of 700 men, many of whom are void of
principles, without morals, and who have been
able to reach that fuprcmacy by cabals or
crimes alone 1
Licentiousness and excess fobn rendered it
impoifible to fopport the yoke of a constitu
tion that gave laws. The tribunes influenced
the aflemblyof representatives,and were them
selves awed by the dangerous club of the Ja
cobins of Pasis.— The ftrife between the two
powers at length became a daily combat.
Then was the equilibrium destroyed— France
chafed to have a King ; and the-victory of the
10th of Augujl was foiled by the attrocious
crimes of the firft day of September.
All the departments, but more especially
the wretched city of Paris, were delivered up
to pillage, to denunciations, and massacres.
No Frenchmen, the affaflins and their accom
plices excepted, had either his life or his pro
perty in security 1 The consternation Os
slavery was augmented by the clamorous orgies
of villains 1 Bands of pretended Federates
ran through and laid waste the depar ments;
and of the seven hundred individuals who com
poled this despotic and anarchical body, four
or five hundred groaned and decreed, and de
creed and groaned, exposed to the extermin
ating (word of the Marats and Robbrspt
erres. It is thus that the unfortunate LOU
IS the XVlth perished, without a judicial tri
al, and without a tribunal ; and it is thus that
the decree of the 19th of Novem. has provoked
all nations by holding out to them our aid, pro,
vided they will consent to disorganize them
selves It is thus that the unjust & impolitic
decree of the 15th of December, has alienated
from us the hearts of the Belgians^ has driven
us from the Netherlands, and would have
brought about the maflacre of our whole ar
my by this nation, provoked at our outrages
and our crimes, if I had not saved that very
army by my proclamations. It is thus that
a decree established the bloody tribunal
which placet the lives of the citizent at the
TUESDAY, June 18, 1793.
mercy of a small number of iniquitous judg
es, without recourse or appeal to any other
tribunal. It is thus that during the last
month all the decrees have been marked by
the stamp of insatiable avarice, by the blind
est pride, and more especially by the desire
Os maintaining power, by calling to the
,most important posts of the itete no other
than daring, incapable and criminal men,
by driving away or murdering men enligh
tened and of a high charafter, and by fup
perting a phantom ofa republic which their
errors in administration and in policy, as
veil as their crimes, had rendered impracti
cable, These seven hundred individuals def
deteft, calumniate, and revile each o
ther ; and have already, and that frequent
ly, thought of poignarding the one the other.
At this moment their blind ambition has im
pelled them to coalesce afrelh ; and bold
criminality allies Mell to feeble virtue, to
preserve a mean time, their committees de
vour every power as unjust as it is unftea.
dy. In the thing,that of the National Trea.
fury absorbing the public funds, without be
ing able to render any account of the expen,
diture.
What has this Convention done to main
tain the war it has provoked against all the
powers of Europe ?
It has disorganized the armies, inflead of
reinforcing and recruiting the troops of the
lise, and the ancient battalions of National
Volunteers, which would have formed a re
fpeftable army, Instead of recompensing
these brave warriors by promotion and prai.
fes, these legislators have left the battalions
incomplete, naked, disarmed and difeon
tenred. In the fame way have they treated
theexcellent cavalry ; and the brave French
artillery is in the fame manner exhausted,
abandoned, and in want of every necessary.
They notwithstanding, create new corps,
composed of the fateJlites of the 2d of Sep.
timber, and commanded by men who have
never served, and who are no other way to
be dreaded unless by the armies they sur
charge and disorganize. The Convention
facrifices every thing to these satellites of ty
ranny, to these cowardly head-loppers. The
choice of officers, and that of administrators,
ere iu cvciy pat deda. the fame i We fee
throughout, the tyranny which flatters the
wicked, because the wicked alone can fop
port tyranny. And, in its pride and its
ignorance, this Conftituiion orders thecon
queft and diferganizarion of the whole Uni
verse : It fays to one of its Generals, Go and
take Some —and to another, Sally forth and
Jubdue Spain-— to the end that despoiling
commifficners, similar to those horrid Roman
Proconsuls, against whom Cicero declaim
ed, may be sent thither. In the worst season
of the vear. it fends the only fleet it possesses
into the Mediterranean, to [pht and founder
on the rocks of Sardinia ; whilst it exposes
the fleet of Breji to the fury of the storms, by
fending them in queftof an Er.glifh fleet that
has not yet left its port.
I the mean time, a civil war spreads thro*
all the departments. Some of the insurgents
are excited by fanaticifm, the necessary ef
feft of persecution ; others, by an indigna
tion at the tragical and fruitlefs end of
LOUIS XVlth ; and others: finally, by the
natural principle of refilling persecution.
Arms are every where taken up ; murders
every where committed ; and every where
are pecuniary supplies and provisions inter
cepted. The Eng'.ifh foment these troubles;
and will, by the fuccours, supply fuel to them
at their p'reafure. Soon will every one of
our Corsairs difappgar on the ocean ; soon
will thefouthern department cease to receive
supplies of corn from Italy and Africa ; and
already have those from the North and from
America been intercepted by the squadrons
of the euemies. Famine will annex itfelf to
all our othertfeourges ; and the ferocity of
our Canibals will but increase with our cala
mities. _ '
Frenchmen I we have a rallying point,
which can ftifle the monster of anarchy ; *tis
the conftituticn we swore to maintain in
1789, 90, and 91 : \is the work of a free
people ; and we shall remain free and shall
recover our glory, by resuming our constitu
tion.
Let us display our virtues, more especial
ly that of mildness. Too much blood has
already been spilled. If the monsters by
whom we have been disorganized chufe to
fly, let us leave them to meet their ponifh
ment elsewhere, if they do not find it in their
own corrupted hearts ; but if they with to
iupport anarchy by new crimes/ then shall
the army punish them.
'ln the generosity of-the enemies we have
oft grievously outraged, I have found the se
curity of external peace. Not only do* they x
treat humanely and attentively our wounded,
sick, and prifonert who fall into their hands
To the Editor of the Morning Chronicle.
s 1 R,
TAKING it for granted that your account
of Mr. Burke’s speech, in the debateon
Mr. Sheridan’s late motion, may be depended
upon,l beg leave, through the channel of your
paper, to ask him, what authority he had for
aflerting, as he did, that “ I gave my name to
the femiments, in the correspondence of the re
volution society in England, with the Jacobin
focteties in France ; fentitnents adverle to our
constitution?” That correfpondencel havefeen,
but have not yet read. lam not, nor ever
was, a member of any political society whate
ver ; nor did I ever sign any papers originating
with them. This Ido not fay because I have
any objection to'fuch societies, but my Audies
and pursuits have been of a very different
kind.
I allo wish to ask Mr. Burke what authority
he has for aflerting that “ 1 was made a citizen
of France, becauie I had declared hostility to
the constitution of England ?” This assertion,
like the preceding, is nothing else than a mal
ignant calumny ; bejpg an untruth, which, in
the present Rate of things, is calculated to do
me the greatest injury. I was made a citizen
of France at the fame time with Mr, Wilber
force, and leveral others ; and I had no more
previous knowledge of the measure than be
had ; and will he fay Mr. W. was made a
citizen of France “ because he had declared
hostility to the constitution of this country ?”
Though few of my publications relate to
politics, I have more than once expressed my
felf in favour of our constitution, and I call up
on Mr. Burke to (hew that I have ever writ
ten any thing that can,by any fairconftruftion,
be said to be against it. I conceive myfelf to
be a much better friend to the true principles
of it than he now is. When Mr. Burke and
1 were acquainted, and we used to converse 011
the fubjeft of politics (for we had hardly any
other common topic) our sentiments refpefting
the constitution, and the principles of liberty
in general, were, as I then conceived, the
fame. Had 1 been in his present iituation
with relped to the favours of government, my
opinions might have changed as his have done ;
but continuing in the fame situation in that
refpea, my views of things have continued the
- fame.
1 would ©bferve on thisoccafion, that I can
not fee the wisdom of making persons ene
mies of the Constitution whether they will or
not. If the time fhonld come that this Con
stitution may want the aid of its friends, those
who are now the molt forward to declare their
attachment to it may not be the moil to be
depended upon. If we learn any thing from
hiitory or observation, it is that boasting and
infoience is generally followed by cowardice,
and that patient fuffering is“the mark of truest
courage. '
Mr. Burke’s sneering at mefor “ not having
been fufficiently rewarded for <ty great ser
vices in Philojopb^ fylitice and Religion ”’ s ®
mean insult, in one balking in thefun shine of
power, on one whois under its frowns. What
does Mr. Burke know of my ferviceain philo.
fophy, or religion ; when ths probability »’>
•* ' ■
/ J
and all this in despite of the calumnies
spread by oar agitators to render us fero
cious—but they engage to suspend their
Inarch, not to psfs our frontiers, and to leave
to our brave army the Termination of ail our
internal diffentions.
Let the sacred torch of the love of our
country awaken io us our virtue and our
courage ! At the brave name of Constitution,
civil war will cease, or can no longer exist
unless against certain malevolent men who
will no longer be fopported by foreign pow
ers. These have no hatred to any others a
mong us except our faftious criminals, and
desire nothing more fervently than to restore
their esteem and friendfhip to a Nation,
whefe errors andaaareny diitutbax;d trouble
all Europe. Peace will be the fruit of this
refolucion, and the troops of the line, as well
as the brave national volunteers,who for the
{pace of a year have offered themselves as
willing facrifices to liberty, and who abhor
anarchy, will repose in the bosom of their
families, after having accomplished this noble
work.
As to myfelf, I have already made an
oath, and I repeat it before the whole na
tion, and in the presence of all Europe, that
immediately after having effefted the fafety
of my country by the re-eftablifhent of the
constitution of peace and good order, I shall
abandon every public funftion.and shall feck
in solitude the enjoyment of the happiness
of my fellow citizens.
DUMOURIER,
Bahs of St. Amand, April z, 17^3.
The Generals in Chief of the French Army.
from a London paper.
[Numb. 50
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