"There have been several arrivals here in short passages from England. P. Porcupine, I see, is become the panegyrist of Bonaparte. You will see it in the Aurora of March 19, and also the message of Bonaparte to the french legislature. It is a good thing.
"Mrs. Bonneville sends her compliments. She would have wrote, but she cannot yet venture to write in English. I congratulate you on your new appointment.
"Yours in friendship."*
* I am indebted for this letter to the N. Y. Hist. Society,
which owns the original ought to be fulfilled." The
following passages may be quoted:
"In casting my eye over England and America, and comparing
them together, the difference is very striking. The two
countries were created by the same power, and peopled from
the same stock. What then has caused the difference? Have
those who emigrated to America improved, or those whom they
left behind degenerated?... We see America flourishing
in peace, cultivating friendship with all nations, and
reducing her public debt and taxes, incurred by the
revolution. On the contrary we see England almost
perpetually in war, or warlike disputes, and her debt and
taxes continually increasing. Could we suppose a stranger,
who knew nothing of the origin of the two nations, he would
from observation conclude that America was the old country,
experienced and sage, and England the new, eccentric and
wild. Scarcely had England drawn home her troops from
America, after the revolutionary war, than she was on the
point of plunging herself into a war with Holland, on
account of the Stadtholder; then with Russia; then with
Spain on account of the Nootka cat-skins; and actually with
France to prevent her revolution. Scarcely had she made
peace with France, and before she had fulfilled her own part
of the Treaty, than she declared war again, to avoid
fulfilling the Treaty. In her Treaty of peace with America,
she engaged to evacuate the western posts within six months;
but, having obtained peace, she refused to fulfil the
conditions, and kept possession of the posts, and embroiled
herself in an Indian war.* In her Treaty of peace with
France, she engaged to evacuate Malta within three months;
but, having obtained peace, she refused to evacuate Malta,
and began a new war."
* Paine's case is not quite sound at this point. The
Americans had not, on their side, fulfilled the condition of
paying their English debts.
(1804)
Paine's letter alluded to was printed in the Aurora with the following note:
"To the Editor.—As the good sense of the people in their elections has now put the affairs of America in a prosperous condition at home and abroad, there is nothing immediately important for the subject of a letter. I therefore send you a piece on another subject."
The piece presently appeared as a pamphlet of sixteen pages with the following title: "Thomas Paine to the People of England, on the Invasion of England. Philadelphia: Printed at the Temple of Reason Press, Arch Street. 1804." Once more the hope had risen in Paine's breast that Napoleon was to turn liberator, and that England was to be set free. "If the invasion succeed I hope Bonaparte will remember that this war has not been provoked by the people. It is altogether the act of the government without their consent or knowledge; and though the late peace appears to have been insidious from the first, on the part of the government, it was received by the people with a sincerity of joy." He still hopes that the English people may be able to end the trouble peacefully, by compelling Parliament to fulfil the Treaty of Amiens.
Paine points out that the failure of the French Revolution was due to "the provocative interference of foreign powers, of which Pitt was the principal and vindictive agent," and affirms the success of representative government in the United States after thirty years' trial. "The people of England have now two revolutions before them,—the one as an example, the other as a warning. Their own wisdom will direct them what to choose and what to avoid; and in everything which regards their happiness, combined with the common good of mankind, I wish them honor and success."
During this summer, Paine wrote a brilliant paper on a memorial sent to Congress from the French inhabitants of Louisiana. They demanded immediate admission to equal Statehood, also the right to continue the importation of negro slaves. Paine reminds the memorialists of the "mischief caused in France by the possession of power before they understood principles." After explaining their position, and the freedom they have acquired by the merits of others, he points out their ignorance of human "rights" as shown in their guilty notion that to enslave others is among them. "Dare you put up a petition to Heaven for such a power, without fearing to be struck from the earth by its justice? Why, then, do you ask it of man against man? Do you want to renew in Louisiana the horrors of Domingo?"