A Hamilton
“You know that if my attachment to my native country has not been altered, the measures of her governors are repugnant in general to my sentiments; and in spite of the obligations which I am under to some of them for my deliverance, I cannot be considered as their personal friend. You know, also, that the independence, the dignity, the prosperity of the United States are more dear to me than to any one; my opinion ought, then, to have some weight with you. For I believe, be assured, as far as I can judge, at this distance where I am, in the best intentions which the Directory have in this respect.
“Under this supposition, my dear friend, at a moment when no one power of continental Europe can resist the French Republic, I believe it conformable to honor and to the interests of the United States to come half way toward a reconciliation. Never, and much less since your declarations, would I be so unjust towards any one of my best friends as to suppose that the spirit of party prejudices, or private grievances, could, under such grave circumstances, influence their conduct. Let America, so far as she has been wronged, maintain her dignity and her rights; but if an ancient alliance, which no one could pretend to regret or improve, can bring itself to her remembrance, I have confidence that the two parties which divide the countries will re-unite to effect a reconciliation.
“Since you have spoken to me of the difference of our opinions upon the European revolution, I would return to the time when, following that which I have often predicted, I found myself engaged in the struggle; up to August, then, in spite of the offers of a powerful faction, I believed it to be my duty to resist or to die in remaining always faithful to my constitutional oath.
“The passionate love of liberty which took me to America disposed me naturally to adopt a democratic and republican system. Afterwards, moved by all the dangers of royalty and of an English aristocracy, I remembered also the faults of our previous experiences. I concluded that the science of a social organization had not been sufficiently studied, and I desired that it should have a universal trial. The first principles, however, appeared to me indubitable. The fundamental doctrines of the rights of the man and the citizen, reduced to what I believed to be necessary and sufficient, were proclaimed by me; and after the national triumph of July 14, 1789, a civil militia was instituted, to measure itself against the permanent armies of Europe.
“Very soon after, all ancient abuses, all hereditary pretensions disappeared. However, an hereditary president of executive power had been established in the royal family, and that decision was so conformed to the will of the people, to the opinions of their representatives, and to other circumstances, that in the month of June, 1791, almost an entire majority of our constitutional assembly, heretofore discontented, thought better to replace upon the throne a constitutional king, than to complete the establishment of a republican government. The extent of the English prerogative was judged inadmissible, particularly on account of our military situation. If one believes that a constitutional monarchy, such as ours, might be modified so that it might gradually arrive at the adoption of a government entirely elective, such an inconvenience would be less grievous than that of usurpations upon the rights of the national sovereignty, or upon the liberty of citizens. It was after this manner of viewing affairs, that in the midst of popular outrages, the intrigues of factions, and the machinations of foreigners, a constitution was freely discussed and adopted by the nation. It had faults, truly, but it contained nothing contrary to the rights of men, and it included means, lawful and easy, for ameliorations.
“It is against this constitution that the old governments have united; it is to them, as well as to the Jacobins, that we must attribute our ruin. Until then, the excesses so often unpunished had not been official. When anarchy and the assassin had put down the honest patriot, the kings had the satisfaction of seeing extinguished all desire of imitation in Europe.
“Their hopes of conquest, however, were disappointed. The National Guard, dismissed from the interior, ran to the frontiers and fought with an irresistible force for national independence. During three years the Republic had been in France but a name tarnished by an extravagant and sanguinary tyranny. To these misfortunes succeeded the establishment of a constitution which was violated on the 18th Fructidor.
“I do not pretend that France at present enjoys liberty; but though the first constitution and that of the year III., preferable on many accounts (in particular by the establishment of two Chambers), cannot be considered by me but as secondary objects compared to the importance of the fundamental doctrine, I am persuaded that liberty can be consolidated in France and in other countries, upon the basis of an elective government, sooner than upon that of hereditary presidents. This opinion is not only the result of my republican inclinations; it comes also from the situation of men and of things. It has been even adopted by many unpatriotic monarchists who found that the resurrection of the French monarchy when it became a question of determining the powers of the king, caused more trouble than it had advantages.
“How in this situation have I not recognized with joy the American principles of my old friend, that it would be impolitic to re-establish an hereditary magistracy, the destruction of which had been illegal, but for which I had never desired immortality. Wherefore, shall I not hope that the elective governments, with differences of form and similarity of principle, could be so combined as to assure the establishment of a true liberty? Is it then indispensable to be free to have a king? Will that obligation necessarily be attached to a vast territory and people? I do not think so. And so far as the experiment has been tried I have found that it would be better to follow the American principles than for us to take the English method.