The Newhampshire gazetteer — Exeter, N.H., 1791-11-04 00:00:00, page 1

Newhampfhire
RIGHTS of MAN;
Being an ANSWER to Mr;
Burke's ATTACK on the
FRENCH REVOLUTION.
By Thomas Paine,
Secretary for Foreign Affairs to Congress
in the American War, and Author of
the Work entitled Common Siftft.
BUT, to return to ray account ■■•-—■
This conduct of the Guards da
Corps, as might well be expected, alar
med and enraged the Parisians. The
colours of the cause, and the cause itfelf,
were become too united to mistake the
intention of the infolt, and the Parisians
were determined to call the Garde du
Corps to an account. There was cer
tainly nothing of the cowardice of assas
sination in marching in the face of day
to demand fatisfadion, if fuchaphrafe
may be used, of a body of armed men
who had voluntarily given defiance.
But the circumstance Which serves fd
throw this affair into embarrassment is,
that the enemies of the revolution ap
pear to have encouraged it, as well as
its friends. The one hoped to prevent
a civil war by checking it in time, and
the other to make one. The hopes of
those opposed to the revolution, relied
in making the King of their party,
arid getting him from Verfaille, to
Metz, where they expeded to colled a
force, and fa up aftandard. We have
therefore two different objects prefent
ingthemfelves at the fame time, and to
be accomplished by the fame mentis :
the one to chastise the Garde du Corps,
which was theobjeft of the Pari funs ; the
other, to render the confufion of such a
feene an inducement to the King to set
bff for Metz. • r . ;
On the ;th of OflobeQ very numer
ous body of women, arid men in the dis
guise of women, collected round the Ho
tel de Ville, or town hall at Paris; and
set off for; Versailles. Their profeffed
object was the Garde du Corps ; but prui
dent men readily recoiled that mifehiefis
easier began than ended; & thisimpref
fed itfelf with the more force, from the
suspicions already slated, and the irre
gularity of such a cavalcade. As soon
therefore as a fufficient force coa!d be
collected, M. de la Fayette, by orders
from the civil authority of Paris set off
after them at the head of twenty thou
sand of the Paris thilida. The devolu
tion could derive no benefit from confu
fon, and its oppofers might. By an a
miable and spirited manner of address,
he had hitherto been fortunate in calm
ing disquietudes, apd in this he was ex
traordinary fecceGful; to frtiftrate,
therefore, the hopes of those who might
seek to improve this feene into 1 fort
of juftifiable neqeffity for the King's
quitting Versailles and withdrawing to
Metz, and to prevent at the fame time,
the consequences that might enfae be
)tween the Garde du Corps arid this pha
lanx of men and women, he forwarded
expresses to the King, that he Was on
his march to Versailles, at the orders of
the civil authority of Paris, for the pur
pose of peace and protection, expressing
at the fame time the necessity of re
straining the Garde au Corps from firing
upon the people.
NOTE.
* lam warranted in affirii^g this, ns
I bad it feerfonall, from M. de la Fayette,
wtb TVbom I have lived in habits of
friendfeip for fourteen Years.
He arrived at Verfailes between ten
and eleven at night. The Garde du
Corps was fawn up, and the people had
FRIDAY, November 4, 1791.]
EXETER, ( New-Hamp(hire) Printed and Published by HENRY RANLET, at Nine .Shillings per annum.
[ln continuation.]
In this Rite Matters patted till the
break of day, when a frefc disturbance
arose from the cenforable condua of
force bf both parties, for : such cha
ra&ers there will be in all such feenes.
One of the Guards da Corps appeared
at one of the windows of the palace,and
the people who had remained during
the night in,the streets accosted him
with revilirig and provocative language.
Instead of retiring as in such a case
prudence would have dilated, he pre-,
fented his mufli-t, fired and killed one
of the Paris militia. The peace being
thus broken, the people rulhed into the
palace, in qued of the offender- They
attacked the quarters of the Garde du
Corps within the palace, and pursued
them throughout the avenues of if, and
to the apartments of the King. On this
tumult, not the Queen only; as Mr.
Burke has represented it, bat every per
son in the palace, was awakened and a
larmed ; and M de la Fayette had a se
cond time to interpose between the par
ties, the event of which was, that the,
Garde du Corps put on the national
cockade,and the matter ended as by ob
livion, after the loss of two or three
lives.
arrived' some time before, but cterv
thinghad remained fofpended. }Vif
domand policy now confined in.chan
ging a feene of danger into, a ha^
py event,.. M. de la Fayette became
the modioter . Between the enraged par
ties ; and,he Kty® f 4 Remove the un
easiness Which hadarifefy from the de
lay already fa^d/cM son the ?r,fident
of the National Assembly, andfig^fd
the Declaration of the Rights cf Man,
and such other parts of the confutation
as were in feadinefs.
It was about one in the morning.
Every thing appeared to be composed,
and a general congratulation took place.
At the beat of drum a proclamation was
made, that the citizens of Versailles
would give the hospitality cf their hou
ses to their fellow citizens of Paris.
Those who couldnot be accommodated in
this manner, remained in the (tree,;s, or
took up their quarters in the churches ;
and it two o'clock the King and Queen
retired. —
During the latter part of the time
in which this confufion was a&ing, the
King and Qjeen were in publick at the
balcony, and neither of them concealed
for fafcy's fake, as Mr. Burke insinuates.
Matters being thus appealed, and tran
quility refored, a general acclamation
broke forth, of Le Roi a Paris—Le Roi
a Paris —TheKing to Paris. It was the
foout of peace, and immediately accept
ed on the part of the King. By this
meaGire, all future projects of trappan
ning the King to Metz, and fating up
the ilandard of oppofirion to the confti
turion, were prevented,.and th; fufpici
oris egtinguifad. The King and his fa
mily reached Paris in the evening, had
were congratulated on their/ arrival by
M. Bailey. the Mayor of Parisjin the
name of the citizens. Mr. Burke, who
throughout his book confounds things^
persons, and principles, has in his re
mark on M. Bailey's, address, con
founded time also. He cenfor.es M.
Bailey for calling it^ " union jour,"
a good day. Mr. Burke mould have
informed himfelf, that this feene
too± 'bp the space of two days, the.
day on which it began with every ap
pe,fee,of dagger and mifehief, that
threatened ; and that it is to this peace
fui d,ter'minatic, that M&iley alludes,
and to the ,(rival of th, King at Paris.
Not!rfs than three hundred thousand
pes, arranged themfeta in the prb
cefop from Vergil!,, to Paris', and not
an aft of molestation was, committed
during the whole march.
Mf.Rurke, on the authority of M.
Lally Toliehdal, a deserter ftom the
THE
National AffembTy fays, that on enters
ing Paris the people shouted, " Tous
les avenues ala lanterne." All bifhdps to
be hanged at the lanthorn, or lamp
pofo. It is surprising that nobody Ihould
hear this but Lally Tollendal, and that
nobody ffiould believe it but Mr. Burke.
It has not the least connedian with
any part of the tranfaaion, and is total
ly foreign to every circumflance of it.
The biihops have never been introdu
ced before into any scene of Mr. Burke's
drima :; Why then are they; all at onpe,
and altogether, tout a coup er tous enfeih
hie, introduced now ? Mr. Burke brings|
forward his bishops and his lanthorn
like figures ina magic lanthorn^ and
raise; bis fcene;,by contrail infield of
connection. But it serves to (hew, with
the rest ofhis book, what little credit
ought to be given, where even probabi
lity is set at defiance for the purpose
of defaming ; aqd with this reflection,
instead of a fotiloquy in praise of chil
valry, as Mr. Burke has d3oe, I dole
the account of the expedition of Ver
sailles."
I have now to follow Mr. Burke
through a pathlcfs wilderness of rhapso
dies,, and a fort of descant upon go
vernments, in which he asserts whate
ver he pleates on the prefamption of
its being believed, without, offering
either evidence or rfafops for, so doing.
Before any thing, can be reasoned
upon to a cor.clafion, certain fads, prin
ciples, or,data to reason from, matt be
eftablilhed, admitted, or denied. Mr.
Burke, with hi> usual oatragh abuses the
Declaration of the Rights of M^*,publifh
ed by the National Afombly of France
as the balls on which the constitution rtf
France is bpilt. This ,he calls "pal
try and blurred (heets of paper about
the rights of man." Does Mr. Burke
mean to deny thqt man has any rights ?
If he does, them he mull mean there
are no such things as rights arty where,
and that he has none himfelf, for who
is there in the world but man ? But if
Mr. Burke means to admit that man
has rights, the question then will b^,
what are those rights, and how came
man by them originally?
The error of those who reason by
precedents drawn from antiquity, re
seeding the rights of man, is, they do
not go the whole way. They stop in
force of the intermediate stages of an
Hundred or a thousand years,& produce
what was then done as a rule for the
present day. This is no authority at
all. If we travel flill farther into
antiquity, we shall find a direct contra
ry opinion and practice prevailing; and
if antiquity is to be authority,a thousand
fach authorities may be produced, fyc„
' ceffively contradicting each ether: but if
we proceed on we (hall at lag come bat
right ; we o,^l come to. the time when
man came from the hand of his Ma
ker. What was he then ? Man. Man
was his high and only title, and a
higher cannot be given him. But of
titles I shall fpealt hereafter.
We are now got to the origin of man,
end at the origin of his rights. As to'
the manner in which the world has
been governed from that day to this,
it is ng farther any concern of ours than
to make a proper use of the errors or
the improvements which the hiftory of
it prefects. Those who lived a hun
dred or a thousand years agg, were then
moderns, as we are now. They had
their ancients, and those ancients had
others, and we also shall be ancients in
our turn. If the, mere name of antiqui.
ty is to govern in the affair, of life, the
people wh^ are to live an hundred or a
note;.
• Aa account of the expedition of Ver
sailles may befan in No. Ifo of the Revo
lution de Paris, containing the evert, , from
the 3dto the loth of Ohober, 1789-
Gazetteer.
~ [Numb. 18 of Volume 6—
Though F mean not , to touch upon
any feearian principles of religion, yet
iemay be worth observing, that the
genealogy of Chrii is traced to Adam-
Why,then not trace the rights of man
to the creation of man ? I will answer
the queßion., Because there have been
in upstart of governments, thrulling
themselves between, and prefumtuoufly
working to unmake man.-
If any generation of men ever posses
sed the right of dilating the mode by
which the world ffi >uld be governed for
ever, it was the firft generation that
existed ; and if that generation did not
do it, no facceeding generation cart
ihew any authority for doing it, nor fee
any up. The illuminating and divine
principle of the equal rights of man,(for
it has its origin from the maker of man)
relates, not only to the living individu
als, but to the generations of men suc
ceeding each other. Every generation
is equal in rights to the generations
which proceeded it, by the fame rule
that every individual is born equal in
rights with his cotemporary.
Every higery of the creation, and
every traditionary account, whether
from the lettered or unlettered world,
however they may vary in their opini
on or belief of certain particulars, all
agree in eftabljfhing one point, the 'unity
of may ;by which I mean that man is
all of one degree, and confeq neatly that
all men are born equal, and with equal
natural rights in the fame manner as
if posterity had been continued by crea
tion instead of generation,the latter being
only the mode by which the former is
carried forward ; confequenlv,„ever,
child born into the world must be con
sidered as deriving its exigence from
God. The world is as new to him as it
was to the firft man tha* exifted,and his
natural right in it is of the fame kind.
The Mosaic account of the creation,
whether taken as divine authority or
merely historical, is fully op to ths
point the unit, or equality of man. The
expte flions admit of no controversy.
" And God said, Let us make man in
our own image. In the image of God
created he him, male and female crea
ted he them." The diftinftion of sex
es is pointed out, but no other distinc
tion is even implied. <f this be not
divine authority, it is at leadhistorical
authority, and lews that the equality
of man, so far from being modern doc
trine, is the oldest upon record.
It is also to be observed, that all the
religions known in the world are foun
ded, so far as they relate to man, o,
the unity of man as being all of one de
gree; Whether in heaven or in hell,
or in whatever Rate man may be suppo
sed to exijl hereafter, the good and the
bad are the paly diftinaions. Nay,
even the laws of governments are obliged
to Hide into this principle, by making
degrees to confit! in crimes, and not in
persons.
It is one of the greatest of truths, and.
of the highest advantage to cultivate.
By considering man in this light,
and by intruding him to confide, him
felf in this light, it places him 4 * a
thousand years hence, may as well take
us for a precedent, as we made a prece
dent of those who lived an hundred or a
thousand years ago. . The fa& is, that
portions of antiquity, by proving every
thing,eftabliih nothing. It is authority a
gainst authority all the way,ill we come
to the divine origin of the rights of man
at the creation. Here our inquiries find
a refljng place, and our reason finds a
home. If a difpote about the rights of
man had arose at the dißance of an hun
dred years from the creation, it is to
the fame source of authority they mull
have referred, and it is to the fame
source of authority that we.muft now re
fer, ~ •