The American herald of liberty — Exeter, N.H., 1793-07-16 00:00:00, page 1

tainlv never could have found a
place. I informed you that I would defend
the confticutional throne with the fame fincer
icy which I combated the ancient lyftem ;
and though the republican fadion would
have given me any terms to change my con
duct. I never wiihed to have any communi
cation with them. My ccndud iq the Af
fernbly, by uniting against the villains a ma
jority of two thirds, wjas about to Ihengthen
the political machine a little, when the hor
rid crisis of the 10th of August overturned
every thing. 1 found in the constitution as
well as in my own indignation, and the in
tereft of my country, every pofGble reason for
refilling that rebellion, contrary to all the
principles and all the laws. The depart
ment of Ardennes, in which F was, the mu
nicipality of Sedan, all the citizens of which
are excellent, and a part of my troops, were
the fird means of refinance which I employed.
Three commissioners of the Affembly,among
whom was Keriaint, have been arretted, a
midst the acclamations of all bedan, and con
fined in the cattle, from which they beheld
ths National Guard and the troops renew,
before the municipality, the civic oath to
the nation, to the law, and to the king. A
courier from M. Ciaviere, came tome with
a .palTport, from which the name of the king
had been eral'ed—l sent him to prison. Ino
longer qorretponded but with the directory of
the Department of the Ardennes.
Until liberty shall be restored to the King .
& to theNationalAflembly,whom I confider a‘s
also in a ttate of captivity, I proposed to the
other departments a coalition, and a kind of
fmall,congrefs, which ihould ad in the name
of the king, until the executive power ihould
be restored to him, so that the suspension
might be declared by a refpedable majority
of thekingdom to be a criminal ad,to which
.France, would not submit: ’ But what can the
molb energetic efforts avail when terror
reigns every wheie ? The departments were
flow in-dedaring themfeives. Befide«,the ad
xniniftrators were . expelled- Several faults
of the court —faults, against which I myfelf
often ’ exclaimed, were exposed to view
with fuccefo and the capital gave an exam
ple of timidity which was too much follow,
ed. Dillon,' with the whole left wing of
my 3tmy, from Dunkirk to Maubeuge,
yielded to the commissioners, and did not e
ven fend me the troops which 1 requeued
from him, and on whom I itioft depended.
Luckner, assisted in the fitting at Mentz, in
< which the suspension of the king was accepted
jby the municipal and administrative bodies,
| who were ready to die with fear, ; as well as
|their general. Behold then, all the civil fur
houndipg authorities, and all the troops, ex
cept the main body of the army immediate
ly with me, bend under the yoke ! Several
Lif my regiments had been seduced ; and a.
fcraong others, I shall mention only one of the
Bnffmal manoeuvres employed, which was to
l^nlift in the country, and fend mdas recruits
She ablest diforganizers.
1 The artillery of suspension, decrees of ac-
Bufatiou, and in short, every thing which
f ould destroy confidence, was about to be
fjuried against me, 1 had ftlil some good re
wiments and a great number of officers. I
ifhed to Ihut myfelf up in fomettrong place,
Bid to ereft there towards and against all,
Be canftitutiGnal standard : but it was repre-
IfhteH to me, that being surrounded at the
Bme time by the combined powers, and the
! fewer of the Jacobins, I fhould,‘by refitting,
®ly shed to no purpose the blood of my
Sends, expose myfelf, and perhaps cause the
Bng, his family, my own, as well as all the
! ,^fons known to be attached to me,, to be
ftffinated. During this time the commif.
■ Shers, who were prisoners, requested me to
। lot them a .conference, whicn, they said,
Kid fettle every thing, k was in my pow.
mt hey said, (a la Columbe) to be the firft
I1 in the world. I readily beli^ve^ that
.forgetting their crimes, by facrificing the
K, and by joining their party, I should
K become to them a chief of great im-
Mance to be trained over ; but as I was
7 Kaly certain that their proposal would
Ke reconcilable to my confciencei JI had
! Kd even to fee them. In this iituation
I Kid do nothing else than quit France, as
Kath would have been no service to it.
■from the >9^^ August that I date my
SIB
* sSfl * * k
Neville, in the Netherlands, Aug. zy 179 Z,
YOU mull be much interested with
my lingular Htuaiion, and among
the conjectures which your friend
fhip formed refpe&ing me,this cer.
'The following litters from La Fayette, during
the fir Ji days of his captivity, are worthy of
being preferred. They are copied from the
(London) Star, of the \Lth April ; where
the authenticity of them is vouched for.
Volume VIII.]
7TZ Z
♦*',■ vm - ' A
'The American Herald of Liberty.
EXETER (New-Hampshire) Printed and Published by Henry Ranlet, in Main-Street, at fix {hillings and eight pence per annum.
Having arrived near Rochfort,in the county
of Liege,from which we expeded to proceed
toHolland andEngiand,we are informed that
there was there an Austrian poll which we
could ealily avoid, but which we had no rea
son either to seek for, or fly from. With a
view only of avoiding all mistake and all un
easiness, Bureau de Puzy quitted us to make
to the commanding officer a declaration sim
ilar to that which I fend you. We were in
vited to approach, and you will be as much
furprized as I was, when you learn that we
were there treated as prisoners of war. Be
ing conduced to Namur, and afterwards to
this place, we are so closely confined, that I
have a centinel at the door of my apartment,
and I am not allowed to walk in a small gar
den which is at the bottom of the ftair>cafe,
we walk only in the court. This conduct to
wards ue is as unjust as impolitic. You will
readily perceive that it tends to alienate tue
Conventional party,that is to fay, the grand
majority of the nation, from all confidence
in the Court of Vienna, since it is very clear
that we quitted our country for having defen
ded royalty, at the fame time as liberty, fn
short, whatever may happen to me, I shall al
ways remain such as you have known me but
if justice and policy prevail over perfpnal
malice, e exped to repair soon to England,
where I fhall,be happy to fee you.
(Signed) T/A FAYETTE.”
Second letter of ide La Fayette.
Arion, Sept. 3,
<(S I am sensible how much your attention
is engaged with my fnuadon-> lam well,
this is all the fatisfadion I can at prelent give
to my friends.
“ I wrote to you since the epoch—when
the crimes of the 10th of Auguft,the violence
offered to all the constituted powers, the lit
tle fopport I found in the bold step of arrest.
ing the commilfioners of the Assembly, and
lastly, the inutility of my death to the public
cause, were so many successive reasons for de
termining me to quit Fra,nee.
“ Had the King been able to determine to
qpit Paris,as I proposed to him, aher having
taken measures for conduding him to Cau.-
peigne,h© would have avoided great dangers
and great misfortunes. But it is ufelels to
recur to the past. ,
“I informed you how I resolved to quit
France, in which I could no longer serve the
cause of liberty, and in which I could neith
er compromise with guilt, nor bend under
the despotism of the Jacobins.
“ I informed you also how I reached Roch.,
efort, where there was a post of Austrians
whom I and my companions neither fought
for nor avoided. You must read in the'pa
pers of a declaration made by us, as well as
a lift of the companions of my journey ; the
manner in which we announced ourselves,
left us in no doubt refpedihg the right we
had to pass freely. We were however con
duded to Nivelie, and our confinement be
came closer every day. Apart of the offi
cers who had accompanied me.have at length
been released ; the rest ought to have been so.
Since Meaubourg, Alexander Lameth, Bu
reau dcPuzy,and myfelf,Were put into a car
riage,* under the escort of a major and three
officers of infantry, with p, detachment of
hussars. At every place where we arrived,
two centinels were polled at the door of
our apartment two at the bottom of the
stair-case, and two at the flreet door, bc
fides tfiole posted at the stables and under the
windows, so that we were in every refped
treated not as prisoners of war, which was
absurd, but as state prisoners, which is ex
plained by the constitution of bayonets. We
shall arrive to-morrow at Luxembergh—this
is all I know.
“ It is strange enough to fee La Rochefou
cauld and Barnave under the rod of the Ja
cobins— f and my companions in the chains
of the Austrians. The friends of liberty are
proscribed on both sides .• 1 am not therefore
in my place, but in a prison ; and 1 had ra
ther fuffer in the name of despotism, which I
have combated, than in the name of the peo
ple, whose cause is dear to my heart, and
whose name is at prefentfprofaned by the vil
lains, j.7
egira. I repaired to Bouillon, with Meau
bourg. Bureau de Puzy, and some other of
ficeru We set out under pretence of recon
noitering, leaving my escort of Huflara on
the road, I sent back all Ordnances, (soldiers
on duty, whose business it is to carry the
General’s written orders) to make thole di
visions of the army retire who were in dan
ger, and to inform Luckner, my own Gene
ral, and the Municipality JF Sedan, of my
departure. ,
Una word, instead of carrying off with
me as 1 migh f , my officers and troops, 1
did not with that the most scrupulous de
licacy ihould have any thing to reproach it
felf with. K
T U E S D AY, July 16, 1793.
** I wish that the Dutch of Brunswick may
march speedily to Paris, in order that honest
men may escape the dagger of assassins, and
quit France in fafety.. But I am filled with
indignation at the cowardice with which
both towns and troops surrender.
“ I know well that the crime? of the 10th
of August contribuie greatly to this, but,it is
neceflary that the French nation should have
at the fame time energy fufficient to punish
them, and to defend itfelf from fuffering en
emies ; —my countrymen have had neither
the one nor the other.
** In short, though my present fitvation is
difagreeable.it is not difgracefol for a friend
of liberty,.and it is not what it would have
been at the head of an army, under the mon
strous government which the Jacobins have
substituted for the constitution.
You will perhaps ask, what are they go
ing to do with you at Luxembourg ? 1 reali
ly do not know ; but they will not make a
man iuconfiftent in principles, nor pliable
by the situation in which I now am.
(Signed) “ LA FAYETTE.”
[‘Fhe general opinion has famped the Virginia
character as exuberantly democratic—and
the bigheft pitch o/French leveh/m has been
thought barely congenial with the politicks of
the citizens of the ancientDomimon ‘I but even
among theje high mobocratet there are some
who dart to satirize the proceedings of the
Jacobins of France and who have through
the medium of their Gazettes given publicity
to the following :
: INTELLIGENCE EXTRA,
w E hear from Paris that the Conven
tion, taking into particular consideration the
great ravage already made in their fleet, and
the still greater, daily apprehended, has es
tablished a FLEET OF BALLOONS, in
which are to be observed, all the different
rates which at present take place in their navy,.
So that the astonished world now behold
hundred gun balloons, balloon frigates, &c.
Mr. Blanchard is to return to France imme
diately, in order to sCI as Admiral in Chief
of his extraordinary fleet. What wonders
will not the Patriots now perform.: By one
of these asrial paquets, which left Paris only
fifteen days ago,we have received the follow
ing important decrees, viz-
M. Chabot aroie : There exists an old fa
fhioned prayer, which from its general use a
mong the people, may have the most perni
cious effeCls on our republican principles—
It is commonly called the Lord's prayer. I
move that the ariliocratic petition, thy King
dom come, be changed into, thy Republic come.
—Decreed. •
Marat said ; As on one hand the English
appear prepared to block up our ports, and
by ifiis means prevent the entry of all grain ;
and as on the other, we are threatened with a
failure of our crops,let us therefore announce
to the Grand Prefrdent of the Universal Re.
public, our omnipotent will, that the earth
bring forth this feaforf the double of her ordi
nary produce.-—Decreed. And it was enjoin
ed on the Episcopal committee, to declare
the positive intention of the Convention on
the fubje&.
Kerfaint arose and said : Gentlemen, we
have declared ourselves the Deliverers of all
the oppressed throughout the globe. We are
absolutely invincible, and at present have not
enemies enough to keep our people in adion.
I therefore propose that an army of iocoo
men be immediately dispatched to over-run..
Germany, Pruffia,'Poland and Ruflia, and
that on. the confines of the last mentioned
kingdom, a fufficient number of Balloons be
held 5n readiness to tranlpod the whole army
into Pekin, the capital of China, in order »o
plant the tree of liberty in that place, and
guillotine the Emperor, thegreatett aristocrat
of a’l theEaft.— Decreed. And referred to
the war and balloon-commhie.es fora prompt
execution.
Reherfpierre proposed that no privateer of
whatever size, should receive a commiffiou,
unless the Captain cculp obtain two relpun.
Able persons as securities for bringing in an
English ship of.the line, or at least, a forty
gun frigate.-—pecreed unanimously. Andfo
great the enthusiastic contempt for the En
gliftr prevailing in France, that above one
hundred captains had found men w»Hing to
bind themjelves in large sums on their account.
It is also added, that the greater part of the
cruisers had already brought in their (hips
and were adually preparing for the second
departure, whfen the express came away. The
Courier further. Relates, that what is here
mentioned, himfelf knows to be true in parr,
as with his own corporal eyes he saw at one
of the wharves of Paris, an hundred gtah ship
./'■. : . A z
VIVE LA BAGATELLE.
* ADDRESS’
Os the Baltimore Meeh anical Society, itr^
GEORGE WASHINGTON, Frefdent of
the United States.
SIR,
XTAVING our hopes and expe&ations
principally fixed on the national government
for protection an^encouragcmenc in our va
rious purfuiis ; and being sensible that ou
happiness and proiperity in a great meafurc
depend on the continuance of peace, and our
being in a state of amity with the European
nations now engaged in a war : We beg leave
in addition to what others or.our fellow-citi
zens of this town have predated to cxprels
the high leofe we entertain of the wildom and
goodness which dictated your late declaration
of the difpoiition of government, to observe
a ftridl neutrality towards the belligerent pow
ers, who are now delolating the fineft coun
tries of Europe : Otir country lately experi
enced all the miseries 'of a delolating an 4
cruel war ; but by the interposition of a kind
providence, the Americans wereenabled, un
der your wife direction and patriotic exertions
during their arduous draggle to secure the
invaluable blessings they nowenjoy. Being
thus exalted to the possession of civil and re
ligious liberty, ano enjoying the benefits of a
fr^e & equal government,wc cannot divaft our
selves of sympathy for all whottruggle for the
fame blessing ; but the miseries of war depre
cate, and, ci rcu In ft a need as our country and
gove nment are, the generous French will
acquiesce with American citizens in the ac
knowledgement of that political truth, which
you have wifely enjoined, “that the duty and
in ereft of the United States require that we
fhouid, with sincerity and good faith, adopt
and pursue a conduCl friendly and. impartial
towards the belligerent powers this conduct
we do, for ourselves adopt, and mean to pur
sue, and we are persuaded it will be the con*
duCt of all ocr good and virtuous citizens.-—•
Peace will thus be preserved, the true inter
est of our country promoted, Fapninefs ex
tended, and an asylum secured to tat opprcfT
ed ui every nation and country.
HE- language of your address shews that
you have rightly sHimaetd the purposes for
which cur general government was eilablilh
ed, and so evident are the benefits resulting
to the induftrioos citizens, of every defcriptfon
throughout rhe United Stares, from the ope
ration of equal Jaws, and from the security
and tranquility with which they have puHued
their various avocations, unde^ a govern
rnent of their own choice, that it Jbecomes ths
duty of thole who are intrufted with the ma
nagement of their public affairs, to endea
vour, by al? proper means, to continue and
promote thole invaluable bleifings—and that
the happiness and true interest of a people
are best feCnred by observing such a line of
conduct as will,while they discharge their po
litical obligations, preserve to their country
peace with other nations, and cultivate the
good will of mankind towards them, 1 trust
no one will deny.—l f the citizens of the U
nited States have obtained the. character of
an enlighted and liberal people, they wiil
prove that they deserve it, by shewing them
selves to be the true friends of mankinc, and
making their country not only an alylum for
the opprefled of every.nation, but adefirable
relidence for the virtuous and industrious of
every country. •'
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
~By GEORGE J. OSBORNE,
IN NEWBURYPORT,
JUST published, and now ready for the
fubfeyibers, and others—The
CHRISTIAN’S LOOKING-GLASS:
OR THE
TIMEROUS SOUL's GUIDE:
Being a description,of ’he work of the Hol y .
Spirit upon the heart—intended for the
relief of the diiconiolate—
by the Rsv. T. PRIESTLY,
Pallor of a church in London. >
Sobfcribers are requcllca to call for their
Books.
June 2S, 1793.
■ _ .1. . . .. / iiSL
which had been captured by a small sloop
carrying only twofwivels. As fcon aiT the
French-man came up with the English-man,
it seems they all with one voice exclaimed
LIBERTY and EQU ALITY, which so con
founded the Engliih,that without firing a gun
she inftanrlv ftrcck.
the Baltimore Mechanical Society.
Gentlemen,
5 - [Numb. 2