Paris, i Ventôse l'An ad. de la République une et indivisible.
Le Ministre des Affaires Étrangères au Ministre Plénipotentiaire des États Unis de V Amérique près la République Française.
Par votre lettre du 26 du mois dernier, vous réclamez la liberté de Thomas Faine, comme Citoyen américain. Né en Angleterre, cet ex-deputé est devenu successivement Citoyen Américain et Citoyen français. En acceptant ce dernier titre et en remplissant une place dans le Corps Législatif, il est soumis aux lob de la République et il a renoncé de fait à la protection que le droit des gens et les traités conclus avec les États Unis auraient pu lui assurer.
J'ignore les motifs de sa détention mais je dois présumer qûils bien fondés. Je vois néanmoins soumettre au Comité de Salut Public la démande que vous m'avez adressée et je m'empresserai de vous faire connaître sa décision.
Dir ORGUBS. (1)
1 Archives of the Foreign Office, Paris, "États Unis," vol.
xl. Translations:—Morris: "Sir,—Thomas Paine has just
applied to me to claim him as a citizen of the United
States. Here (I believe) are the facts relating to him. He
was born in England. Having afterwards become a citizen of
the United States, he acquired great celebrity there by his
revolutionary writings. In consequence he was adopted a
French citizen and then elected Member of the Convention.
His conduct since this epoch is out of my jurisdiction. I am
ignorant of the reason for his present detention in the
Luxembourg prison, but I beg you, sir (if reasons unknown to
me prevent his liberation), be so good as to inform me, that
I may communicate them to the government of the United
States." Deporgurs: "By your letter of the 36th of last
month you reclaim the liberty of Thomas Paine as an American
citizen. Born in England, this ex-deputy has become
successively an American and a French citizen. In accepting
this last title, and in occupying a place in the Corps
Législatif he submitted himself to the laws of the Republic,
and has certainly renounced the protection which the law of
nations, and treaties concluded with the United States,
could have assured him. I am ignorant of the motives of his
detention, but I must presume they are well founded. I shall
nevertheless submit to the Committee of Public Safety the
demand you have addressed to me, and I shall lose no time in
letting you know its decision."
It will be seen that Deforgues begins his letter with a falsehood: "You reclaim the liberty of Paine as an American citizen." Morris's letter had declared him a French citizen out of his (the American Minister's) "jurisdiction." Morris states for Deforgues his case, and it is obediently adopted, though quite discordant with the decree, which imprisoned Paine as a foreigner. Deforgues also makes Paine a member of a non-existent body, the "Corps Législatif," which might suggest in Philadelphia previous connection with the defunct Assembly. No such inquiries as Deforgues promised, nor any, were ever made, and of course none were intended. Morris had got from Deforgues the certificate he needed to show in Philadelphia and to Americans in Paris. His pretended "reclamation" was of course withheld: no copy of it ever reached America till brought from French archives by the present writer. Morris does not appear to have ventured even to keep a copy of it himself. The draft (presumably in English), found among his papers by Sparks, alters the fatal sentence which deprived Paine of his American citizenship and of protection. "Res-sort"—jurisdiction—which has a definite technical meaning in the mouth of a Minister, is changed to "cognizance"; the sentence is made to read, "his conduct from that time has not come under my cognizance." (Sparks's "Life of Gouverneur Morris," i., p. 401). Even as it stands in his book, Sparks says: "The application, it must be confessed, was neither pressing in its terms, nor cogent in its arguments."
The American Minister, armed with this French missive, dictated by himself, enclosed it to the Secretary of State, whom he supposed to be still Jefferson, with a letter stating that he had reclaimed Paine as an American, that he (Paine) was held to answer for "crimes," and that any further attempt to release him would probably be fatal to the prisoner. By these falsehoods, secured from detection by the profound secrecy of the Foreign Offices in both countries, Morris paralyzed all interference from America, as Washington could not of course intervene in behalf of an American charged with "crimes" committed in a foreign country, except to demand his trial. But it was important also to paralyze further action by Americans in Paris, and to them, too, was shown the French certificate of a reclamation never made. A copy was also sent to Paine, who returned to Morris an argument which he entreated him to embody in a further appeal to the French Minister. This document was of course buried away among the papers of Morris, who never again mentioned Paine in any communication to the French government, but contented himself with personal slanders of his victim in private letters to Washington's friend, Robert Morris, and no doubt others. I quote Sparks's summary of the argument unsuspectingly sent by Paine to Morris:
"He first proves himself to have been an American citizen, a character of which he affirms no subsequent act had deprived him. The title of French citizen was a mere nominal and honorary one, which the Convention chose to confer, when they asked him to help them in making a Constitution. But let the nature or honor of the title be what it might, the Convention had taken it away of their own accord. 'He was excluded from the Convention on the motion for excluding foreigners. Consequently he was no longer under the law of the Republic as a citizen, but under the protection of the Treaty of Alliance, as fully and effectually as any other citizen of America. It was therefore the duty of the American Minister to demand his release.'"
To this Sparks adds: