e or die, all combine to render indestructible the
connections which they have formed.
Doubt it not, citizens, we shall finally destroy the combination of
tyrants--you by the picture of prosperity which in your vast country has
succeeded to a bloody struggle of eight years; we by that enthusiasm
which glows in the breast of every Frenchman. Astonished nations, too
long the dupes of perfidious kings, nobles, and priests, will eventually
recover their rights, and the human race will owe to the American and
French nations their regeneration and a lasting peace.
The members of the Committee of Public Safety,
J.S.B. DELMAS,
MERLIN (OF DOUAI), ETC., ETC.
_The minister plenipotentiary of the French Republic to the President
of the United States_.
Mr. PRESIDENT: I come to acquit myself of a duty very dear to my heart.
I come to deposit in your hands and in the midst of a people justly
renowned for their courage and their love of liberty the symbol of the
triumphs and of the enfranchisement of my nation.
When she broke her chains; when she proclaimed the imprescriptible
rights of man; when in a terrible war she sealed with her blood the
covenant she had made with liberty, her own happiness was not alone
the object of her glorious efforts; her views extended also to all free
people. She saw their interest blended with her own, and doubly rejoiced
in her victories, which in assuring to her the enjoyment of her rights
became to them new guaranties of their independence.
These sentiments, which animated the French nation from the dawn of
their revolution, have acquired new strength since the foundation
of the Republic. France at that time, by the form of its Government,
assimilated to, or rather identified with, free people, saw in them only
friends and brothers. Long accustomed to regard the American people as
her most faithful allies, she has sought to draw closer the ties already
formed in the fields of America, under the auspices of victory, over the
ruins of tyranny.