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THE YANKEE
Boston, Friday, October 13, 1815WASHINGTON'S ANSWER TO THE FRENCH MINISTER
The answer that President Washington gave to the Minister of France, when he presented him with the tri-colored flag of that nation:
"Born, sir, in a land of liberty; having early learned its value; having engaged in a perilous conflict to defend it; having, in a word, devoted the best years of my life to secure its permanent establishment in our own country -- my anxious recollections, my sympathetic feelings, and my best wishes, are irresistibly excited, whensoever, in any country, I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom. But, above all, the events of the French revolution have produced the deepest solicitude, as well as the highest admiration. To call your nation brave were to pronounce but common praise -- Wonderful people! Ages to come will read with astonishment the history of your brilliant exploits.
I rejoice that the period of your toils and of your immense sacrifices is approaching; I rejoice that the interesting revolutionary movements of so many years have issued in the formation of a constitution designed to give permanency to the great object for which you have contended; I rejoice that liberty, which you have so long embraced with enthusiasm; liberty, of which you have been the invincible defenders, now finds an asylum in the bosom of a regular organized government -- a government, which, being formed to secure the happiness of the French people, corresponds with the ardent wishes of my heart, whilst it gratifies the pride of every citizen of the United States, by it resemblance to their own. On these glorious event, accept, Sir, my sincere congratulations.
In delivering to you these sentiments, I express not my own feelings only, but those of my fellow citizens, in relation to the commencement, the progress, and the issue of the French revolution; and they will cordially join with me in purest wishes to the supreme being, that the citizens of our sister republic, our magnanimous allies, may soon enjoy in peace, that liberty which they have purchased at so great a price, and all the happiness liberty can bestow.
I receive, Sir, with lively sensibility, the symbol of the triumphs and the enfranchisement of your nation, the colours of France, which you have now presented to the United States. The transaction will be deposited with those archives of the United States, which are at once the evidences and the memorials of their freedom and independence: May these be perpetual, and may the friendship of the two republics be commensurate with their existence."REMARKS
Those persons who call themselves Washingtonians are the loudest in their rejoicings at the fall of France; they applaud the military contributions and proscriptions, and the utter extinction of the revolutionary party. According to the gentry, the French revolution began in iniquity and ended, as it should, in disgrace; the efforts of the French were at all time wrong, and it is right that an end should be put to "modern philosophy".
Such are the opinions of men who pretend to be the disciples of Washington, and yet Washington himself enthusiastically approved of the "commencement, the progress, and the issue of the French revolution," as we have often shown and shall now show again.
The same persons rejoice at the fall of the tri-colored flag, and yet Washington himself received the tri-colored flag with "lively sensibility," as "the symbol of the enfranchisement of the French nation."
The same persons vilify and abuse, in the most scurrilous language, the founders of the French republic, and yet Washington himself called France "our sister republic, our magnanimous ally."
If the British had been as successful in 1776 as they have been in 1815, Washington would never have had an opportunity to approve of the French revolution; if not hanged, he might have been sent to Botany Bay, or St. Helena, and the rest of the soldiers and statesmen of the American revolution, would have been proscribed like Carnot and his compatriots. It is in vain, therefore, for the usurpers of Washington's name, to abuse the French revolution and pretend to rejoice at our own; and it is as ??? As it is ridiculous for them to rejoice at the degradation of France and pretend that they wish America to be free.
Washington thought as a freeman, as a successful assertor of liberty; his pretended admirers think and act as those do whom he conquered. If he was now alive, he would deplore the fate of France; he would be alarmed at the successful putting down of a nation, and at the forcing of detested tyrants upon it; he would not rejoice at the blotting from the map of Europe so many small States and all republics; even he would tremble at the probable consequences. He would not consider the ambition or the tyranny of Bonaparte, as a justifiable excuse for ravaging France and forcing a detested government upon it, long after Bonaparte's political death.
The allies and Louis XVIII consider all the governments since the death of Louis XVI as usurpations, and all the people who supported them, rebels; Louis now pretends that he is in the 21st year of his reign; so do all those in America who call themselves Washingtonians, and yet Washington himself declared that he rejoiced that the French had formed a government insuring their liberty and happiness, and so much like our own -- he said that he viewed the events of the French revolution with "highest admiration," and what were those events? Why, the dethroning and bringing to justice Louis XVI, the expulsion of his race, and the overthrow of the nobility; but his pretended followers now say that the beginning and progress and events of the French revolution were detestable, they rejoice at the return of the "legitimate" Bourbons, and at the restoration of the old debauched and imbecile nobility and priesthood.
If those who pretend to be, really were, disciples of Washington, they might indeed condemn the ambition and the tyranny of Bonaparte, but they would not rejoice at the fall of one domeflick tyrant, because it produced the usurpation of a host of tyrants; they would deplore the fate of France, and would wish her to enjoy under a good government like our own, that liberty which they fought at so great a price; Washington would have done so, but his pretended admirers do not recollect his sentiments, or else they treat them as they do the bible, they make a mask of it for every inquiry.
But, why quote such instances of inconsistency as to foreign affairs; do we not all know that Washington, on his death bed called on his countrymen to frown indignantly upon the most insignificant effort to separate the States? And do we not all know that those who call themselves his disciples did all they could in the eastern States to form the New English nation for themselves?
We have no desire to intrude upon the opinions, or to disturb the feelings of any set of men; but it behooves us to bear witness to the American people, that the sentiments and wishes of those who say they are admirers of Washington, are utterly at variance with those of that great man, and that Washington would have died on a gallows, if the American people thought in 1776, s is pretended disciples think and act now.
The proof of Washington's opinions of the French revolution, which we annex, we have often published; we give it now again, and think it would be well for other papers to copy it. It is the authentic answer of Washington to the address of the French nation, when the latter presented to the American people, through their president Washington, the tri-colored flag. We ask all our readers to peruse attentively this eloquent answer, and we ask them to compare its sentiments with those of Governor Morris and his friends; they will find Washington expressing the deepest solicitude for the success of the French revolution, they will find him expressing the highest admiration at the expulsion of the Bourbons, and at the insuring the banners of freedom by an oppressed nation -- whilst they will find Governor Morris and his friends rejoicing that "the long agony is over," and that "France reposes in the arms of her legitimate Sovereign." -- and yet, after all this, those advocates of tyranny in France dare to try to hide their intentions in America under the mantle of Washington; but they have not got the mantle, it was left by Washington to his country as a shield against internal enemies.
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