The American herald of liberty — Exeter, N.H., 1793-05-28 00:00:00, page 2

CITIZEN PRESIDENT,
THE fafety of the people is the supreme
law ; and co this consideration I have just facri
ficed an almost certain conquest, by quitting
the victorious part of the army ready to pene
trate into the heart of Holland, to come to the
fuccour ofthofeof the troops of the Republic,
who have just sustained a check. The check
has been owing to the physical and moral cau
ses lam about to develope to you, \Vith the
franknefs which is more necessary than ever,
and which would invariably have wrought
the fafety of the Republic,had it been employ
ed in the accounts they gave in, by all the
agents by whom she is served, and had it
always been lifteoed to with as much com
plaisance as has been bestowed on deceptions
flattery.
You know, Citizen Representatives, into
what a flateof disorganization and Suffering the
armies of Belgium have been thrown, by a
Minister, and by the Committees that have
brought France to the brink of ruin. This
Minister and these Comittees have been chang
ed ; but, very far from punishing them, Pache
unoHafenfratz have succeeded to the important
post of Mayoralty of Paris ; and hence has the
capital Witnessed the renewal, in the Rue det
Lombardi,of scenes of blood and carnage.
In the month of December, I prelented to
you, in four memorials, the grievances it was
necessary to red refs. I pointed out to you the
foie means which could put an end to the evil,
and restore to our armies all their energy, as
well as to the cause of the nation all the justice
by which it ought to be characterized. These
memorials were thrown aside ; and you are
Grangers to them. Cause them to be again
prelented to yotf, and you will find in them the
prediction of all that has befallen tn. You will
also discover in them the remedy of the other
dangers which surround us, and which threat
en our growing Republic.
The Btlgic armies united in the Territories
of Air la-Chapelle and Liege, have there fuf
fered privation? of every dekription without
murmuring ; but gradually deprived at the
fame time, by difeale, by skirmishes with the
enemy, and by the numerous desertions of offi
cers and soldiers, of more than the one half of
their strength, it was not until the entry 61 Ge
neral Raurmn^illt into the Ministry that the
recruiting of these armies/and the fopply of
their wants, were attended to. This was,
however, so (Sort a time ago, that we itill ex
perience, in its fulleft latitude, the disorgani
zing scourge of which we have been the vic
tims.
Suchwas our situation when, on the firft of
February, you thought that you owed to the
National Honor the Declaration ofWar against
England and Holland. From that moment f
Sacrificed all my chagrins, and thought no lon
ger of my resignation, which you will find an
nounced in my 4 memorials. I now made the
enormous dangers and the fafety of G»y country
my foie objefts j I fought to anticipate our OD’
arnica ; and the diftrd&d army 1 have defcri-
ing to the rules and limitations pre
scribed in the case of a bill.
AU judicial officers, the Attorney
General,Solicitors,all Sheriffs, Coron
ers, Registers otProbate, and all offi
cers of the navy,andGeneralandField
officers of the militia, shall be nom
inated and appointed by the Gover
nor and Council ; and every such
nomination shall be made at least
three days prior to such appointment;
and no appointment shall take place,
unless a majority of the Council a
gree thereto. The Governor and
Council shall have a negative on each
other, both in the nominations and
appointments. Every nomination
and appointment shall be signed by
the Governor and Council, and every
negative be also signed by the Go
vernor or Council who made the
fame.
The Captains and Subalterns in
the refpedbive regiments, shall be no
minated and recommended by the
held officers to the Governor, who is
to issue their commissions immediate
ly on receipt of such recommenda
tion. {cTo be continued.)
MR. RUSSELL,
IN reading a late London paper, I met with
the following Letter of Gen Dumourier :
At firft I had my doubts of its authenticity :
But finding its receipt acknowledged in Paris
papers which I have seen, those doubts have
ceased ; arid I fend it you, for insertion.
LETTER OF GENERAL DUMOURIER,
COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE NORTHERN
army, to the National Convention.
Louvain,March 12,1793-SecQnd year of theßepublfc.
FROM THE COLUMBIAN CENTINEL.
Political Miscellany.
A Lover of Truth.
bed td you forgot all its fufferings to attack
Holland. Whilst aided by new fop plies of
troops from France, I took Breda,Klundert and
Gertruydenburg ; preparing to push these cbn
quefts dill further, the Belgian army under the
command of Generals filled with courage and
civifm, undertook the bombardment of Maef
trichr. In this expedition every thing was
needed ; the new administration was not yet
established ; and the did one was both criminal
and vicious. Money was in abundance ; but
the new forms bftablifhed at the Royal Trea
sury prevented cash being forwarded to any de
partment of the service. 1 cannot as yet enter
on a detail of the causes of the check our armies
have received, since 1 am but just arrived; the
hope, however, of obtaining pofleflion of Ma
eftricht has not only been abandoned, but the
armies have retired with lots and corifufion:—
The Magazines of every description, which
we had begun to colled at Liege, as wall as a
part of the old army and some hew battalions,
have fallen into the hand of the enemy. This
retreat has drawn upon ui new enemies ; and
it is expedient in this place that I should de*
velope to yod the moral causes of our evils.
In human events there exifls at all timd, a
recompence for virtues, and a punishment for
vices—lndividuals may elcape this providence,
which you may term what you please, because
such points are too delicate for our perceptions.
Whilst our cause was just we have vanquished
our enemies I As soon as avarice and injustice
guided our steps, we dedroyed ourselves, and
our enemies took the advantage of us.
You are flattered ; you are deceived ; and I
will now remove the veil. We have oppressed
the Belgians by every species of vexation ;
have vio ated the sacred rights of their Liberty ;
and have impudently intuited their religious
opinions. By a robbery, but little lucrative,
the instruments of their sacred worship have
been profaned ; and their charade' and in
tentions have been mifieprefented to you. The
Union of Hainault to the Republic was effect
ed by fabres and mufquets; and that of Bruf-
Jeli, by an handful of mtn who could exist in
trouble only and by a few sanguinary men as
sembled to intimidate the titizens. Attend to
the hiftory of the Netherlands ; you will there
find that the Belgians are /pod, frank, brave,
and impatient under any yake. The Duke
of Alva, the most cruel of the satellites of
Philip the Second, caused ts,ooo of them to
perish by the hands of hangmen. The BeL
gians revenged their cause by 30 years fpen< in
civil wars; and their attachment to the religion
of their ancestors could alone fubjed them once
more to the yoke of Spain.
“ Your finances were exhausted when we
entered Belgium. Your specie had either dis
appeared, or was purchased by its weight in
gold. Cam bon, who perhaps is an honest
citizen, but who certainly is in talents beneath
the confidence you have placed in him in the
Department of the finances, saw to other re
medy than the pofleflion of the riches of this
fertile country. He proposed to you the fatal
decree of the 15 th of December ; you accepted
it unanimously ; notwithstanding each among
you to whom I have spoken on thefubjed, has
told me that he disapproved of it, and that the
decree was unjust. One of my soar memor
ials was directed against this decree, it was not
read in the Convention ; and the fame Cam.
bon endeavoured to render my remonstrances
odious and criminal, by observing at the tri
bunal, that I opposed a teto to the detree of
the Convention. This decree you confirmed
by that of the 30th of December, and charged
your commiflioners to fee it ftridly executed.
Conformably to your prders, the Executive
Power lent at least thirty commiflioners—the
choice was bad, if we except a few honest
men, whose civifm is perhaps doubted, because
they seek to leflen the odiousness of their
fundions. The greater part are either rash,
tyrannical, or men without refledion, whom a
brutal and insolent zeal has constantly led be
yond their fundions. Agents of tyranny
have been spread over the whole furface of
Belgium— The MilitaryCommanders,in obedi
ence to the decree, have been obliged to em
ploy, at their request, the forces entrusted to
them ; and these exadions exafpersed to the
Belgians. Hence terror, and perhaps hatred,
were substituted to z that mild fraternity by
which our firft steps sn Belgium were accom
panied ; and at the moment of our ill-successes
our agents were most violent and unjust.
“ You have been milled with refped to the
union of several parts of Belgium to France-.
you deemed it voluntary, becaufeyour inform
ation was un<rue : Hence you thought you
could carry off the fuperfluous church plate,
without doubt, to defray the expences of the
war. You regarded the Belgians from the
time as Frenchmen , but had they been even
so, it would still have beeri neceflary to wait,
until the abandonment of this plate should be
a voluntary fecrifice ; without which, to carry
it off by force, because in their eyes a sacri
lege. This is just what has happened L—The
priests and monks'have profited by this aft of
imprudence, and we have been regarded as
robbers flying from our foes, insomuch that
the commonaltfes of the villages are every
where yrming against us: This is not a war
us aristocracy, for our revolution favours the
peafahts, and still the peasants are arming a
gainst us, and the tocfih founds in every direc
tion j*to them it is a sacred war,—to us a cri
minal one. We afa, at this moment, fut
rounded by enemies, as you will fee by niy
reports to the War MTiniftei; You will at the
ADDRESS
From the National Contention, to the French
Nation.
Proposed byISNARD, and adopted by the
Aflembly, on the present crisis of their situ
ation.
Franke,
SUCH is the inevitable lot of nations who
have giyen to themselves kings, that they
never can (hake off their yoke without aftrug
gle with every neighboring tyrant.
Scarce had you proclaimed your own sover
eignty when the Emparor and King of Pruffa
took up arms against you, but now that you
have proclaimed your conftitucion to be re
publican, there is no one despot who has not
resolved upon your utter ruin. Those who
have not already forced you into open war,
are probably temporifing, that they may /he
more easily deceive you ; and, it is but too true,
that the projected struggle is between the en
franchifed France and enslaved Europe.
Be that so, France must triumph, if its
will is firm and constant; for nations are strong.
er than armies. Those who have fought for
independence were ever viftors. Let Holland,
Switzerland, and the United States, be proofs
of this assertion.
Free nations find resources in their utmost
extremities and distress. Rome, reduced to
the circumference of the capita], arose from
defeat more formidable than from Viftory.
Remember, Franks, your own exploits,
when the Pruflians dared to pollute your ter
ritory. Ever did the enthusiasm of liberty
triumph over numbers; ever did fortune smile
on the valorous enterprise, and viftory on true
courage !
Heroes of Marathon, Salamis, & Jemappe,
we invoke your testimony. Infant republic,
such are thy models, such are the prelages of
thy success. Surely thou waft reserved to
give the universe a display of a feene hitherto
unimagined in the mind of man; never did such
a cause occupy the foul of mankind, never was
such a cause referred to the ultimate decision
of a tribunal of war. Not the interest or
concerns of the day is the theme, posterity
and ages to come are the fubjeft ; not the li
berty of one nation—no, the enfranchifement
of the human species.
Franks, may the sublimity of these ideas in
flame thy valour, crush every tyrant, rather
than thyfelf become a slave—a Have ! What
shall then new kings feed on thy gold, on the
sweat of thy brow, on the profufion of they
blood ? shall again unfeeling parliament, at
their capaice, dispose of thy fortune, of thy
life ?——Shall again a fanatic priesthood, deci
mate thy industry and thy harvests ? Shall a
gain a faftidious nobility tread thee under the
loot of insolent contempt ? Shall holy equalify,
shall sacred liberty, the produce of thy unpar
ralleled exertions, again be ravished from thee ?
— Shall that noble empire, the inheritance of
thy ancestors, be dismembered ?—Shall there
be for us no longer the word country.no long
er the npme of a Frank ?—Shall this genera
tion be destined to this accumulation of infa
my ?—Shall it bear the scorn of all Europe,
and the contempt of posterity t No ; we will
disappear from the furface of the earth, or we
will remain upon it independant Franks I
Let every true republican arm for his coun
try, let our iron and brass transform themselves
into the thunders of war ; let our forefts be
come vessels; let France become one camp ;
let the nation become one army ; let the artist
quit his art, and the fpectilator his fpeculatibn.
It is more urgent to acquire liberty than ridh
es ; let cultivation retain but the arms that are
necessary for it ; before we ameliorate our
foil, let us enfranchife it ; let those veterans
who have deferred their standards, blush to feie
their laurels fading before the viftories of in
experienced but valorous youth. Above all
let the young and vigorous citizen fly to the
defence of (he republic, h is just that he fliould
be exposed to the combat, over the father of a
family shall rifque his more (acred person.
And you, tender mothers, wives, replete
with love and feniibility, instead of attracting
and holding back in your arms those citizens
who are dear to you, excite them rather to fly
to viftory !
It is not in the cause of a despot that they
are to combat, it is for you, for your children,
for your homes. Instead of weeping for their
departure, repeat, like Spartan women, enthu
siastic and martial fangs; and let your hands,
ere their return, weave them cloth for their
bodies, and crowns for their viftbrious heads.
Abd thou, ^atribtifm, and thou, paflkn of
liberty^ and of glory, who art the preservative
e&nce of reoublic«ns, thß source of heroism &
of virtue, enflame these fouls F Let us all fwcar
fame time fee the firft steps necessity has oblig
ed me to take, to save the French army, the
national honour, the Republic itfelf!
“ Representatives of the nation, I invoke
your duty and your probity—l invoke the sa
cred principles explained in the declaration of
the Rights of Man, and impatiently wait your
decision. At this moment you hold in your
hands the lot of the empire, and I am persuad
ed that truth and virtue will guide your deci
sions, and that you will not fuffer your armies
to be tarnished by crimes, of which they must
become the viftims.
“ The General in Chief of the Northern
Army. “ DUMOURIER V
From the Connecticut Courant.
diers have themselves dismounted batteries with
their bayonets. Our hussars have charged orr
horieback from the ramparts. Do you in your
turn attempt their decks. There let these?
proud islanders—these despots of the lea, fall
under the stroke of your hatchet.
Sailors, Soldieis, may a salutary emulation
animate you ! may an equal success crown
your endeavors ’—Are you conquered ? France
become the feoff of nations, and the prey of
tyrants ; already fee your savage conquerors
dart upon her, fee them insult, ravage, and las
her waste 1 fee themata loss for victims to glut
themfelves with, to appease the manes of Ca
per ! bee, illuminated by the flames of Paris,
whether they carry their vengence,whether the
hangman drags your friends add your brothers;
your defeat covers the earth with mourning
and with tears, liberty shuns these desolate re
gions, and with her vanishes the happiness of
the human race ; long after you shall be no
more, the unhappy will clank their chains over
your tombs, and insult your ashes. You van.
quifli, and there is an end to tyrants; mankind
embrace each other, and, afhamedbf their long
error, extinguifli the torch of w^r ; they pro
claim you the faviour of your country ; the
founders of the republic, the restorers of the
universe; and the nation will crown jou with
the laurels you have earned for it.
For you who may fall in the field of honbr,
what can equal your glory ? Your grateful
country will provide tor your families, will en
grave your names on marble,and on brafs> or
rather they shall dwell for ever on the trontif
piece of the great temple of universal liberty,
and future generations, when they read them
shall fay, these are the French heroes who
broke the chains.of the human race, who in
terested themselves in our happiness when we
did not even exist.
upon the grave of our fathers, and upon the,
cradle of our children—let Us swear by the
viftims of the io:hof August, by the bones of
our brethren yet scattered over the fields, that
we will revenge them, or die like them.
As for you, opulent, and more favored men,
^ho are rather egotists than republicans, who
indigence, and buy defenders, who may sap.
ply your place.
Whilst your brethren triumphed in Belgia,
and upon the Alps, whilst they bid defiance to
cold, to hunger, and to death ; whilst they
climbed up mountains and scaled ramparts,
you were reposing in the arms of luxurj, and
can you rifufe even pecuniary faccors! is then
gold more precious than blood ! If on one
opinions be what they will, your cause is com
mon ; all are but paflengers in the veflel of
the revolution, she is launched, (he must come
into harbour, or she must go to pieces, and
none Will find a plank in the universal wreck.
There is only one means to save us all, the
whole mass of citizens must form a powerful
coloflus, who, (landing upright before the na
tions, must hold with one hand the extermin
ating sword of the nation, and waving it over
Happy France ! such is'the exalted destiny
that is prepared for you. Lose not yourselves
in its vastness ; perform it with heroism, that
hiftory may not furnifh, from its annals, any
triumphs to compare with yours. Efface at
onc^chc glories of the Republics of Greedy
sigh for nothing but for rest—aid us to con
quer, and soon you will have peace.
If relaxed by indolence, you canftot fuftaih
the fatigues of die war—open your treasures to
hand the love of your country perfaades you
to make fucrifices, let at least on the o^her, in
terest impel you to it; refleft that bo;h your
Uy ’ . . . . ■ ‘
Rich citizens, if you W’fh your country to
be generous towards you, fulfil your duties
towards her ; too often man becomes h viftim,
because he has refufed to do jufticet Let your
prosperity, and ycur iecurity depend uj.on 'be
success of this war ; liberty will not per sh
before public fortune is also annihilated, and
France dismembered. If the enemies triumph,
woe to them who have wronged our coun-
the earth, and over the seas shall overthrow
armies and fleets. Popular societies, ye ram
parts of the revolution—ye who gave birth to
liberty, and who watch over its cradle j create
defenders to it by your examples ; imprint a
great motion, and elevate your louis to the
highest degree of enthusiasm.
Warriors, who at the voice of your cour.tr/
fly to the field of combat, we do not endea
vour to exci e your courage. Frenchmen and
republican?, you are full of honor and bravery ;
but we recommend to you, in the name of the
Republic, obedience to your chiefs, and Arid:
discipline ; without discipline there can be no
armies, no fucce^ ; without discipline, courage
is useless, and number is impotent : discipline
supplies every thing, and nothing supplies its a
place.
Conquerors of Spires, and Argonne, will
you fuffer to perish what you have now saved ?
No, you will also vanquilh these new phalan
xes the North is vomiting forth ; you will de- |
feat England on that element at present the
theatre of her power. Let cur brave sailors
fly to the veflels of the Republic. Our mar
ine, as renowned for their patriotism, as our ar
mies, shall heap viftory upon viftory ; drfen
cumbered of effeminate nobility. Sons of
commerce, who under the yoke of a despotism,
that overwhelmed you with insults, produced a
Jean Bart-Duquent Dague Trouin, what is
there not to be expefted from you under the
reign of Equality ?—No more restrain the'
combat to the difehargeof cannon—a freeman
should depend only on himfelf. Our grena-