TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE
Dear Sir,—I never made an offer to anybody, to have corn or flour brought here, from America; no such idea ever entered my head. Mr. Neckar desired me to give information in America, that there would be a want of flour. I did so in a letter to Mr. Jay, which he published with my name to it, for the encouragement of the merchants. Those here, who have named me on this subject, must have mistaken me for Mr. Parker. I have heard him say, he offered Mr. Neckar to bring a large supply, yet I do not think I ever repeated this; or if I did, it must have been in a company I relied on. I will thank you to satisfy Mr. Neckar of the truth. It would be disagreeable, and perhaps mischievous, were he to have an idea that I encouraged censures on him. I will bring you the paper you desire to-morrow; and shall dine at the Dutchess Danville's, where I shall be happy to meet you. Adieu. Yours affectionately.
TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE
Dear Sir,—Your letter of yesterday gave me the first information that Monsieur de Mirabeau had suggested to the honorable the Assembly of the Nation, that I had made an offer to Mr. Neckar, to obtain from America a quantity of corn or flour, which had been refused. I know not how Monsieur de Mirabeau has been led into this error. I never in my life made any proposition to Mr. Neckar on the subject; I never said I had made such a proposition. Some time last autumn, Mr. Neckar did me the honor to desire I would have notified in the United States, that corn and flour would meet with a good sale in France. I conveyed this notice, in a letter to Mr. Jay, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, as you will see by the extract of my letter published by him in an American gazette, which I have the honor to send you. I must beg leave to avail myself of your friendship and of your position, to have a communication of these facts made to the honorable Assembly of the Nation, of which you are a member, and to repeat to you those sentiments of respect and attachment, with which I have the honor to be, my dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO MR. NECKAR
Sir,—I have the honor to enclose you a copy of my letter to Monsieur de La Fayette. When I called on him yesterday, he had already spoken to Monsieur de Mirabeau, who acknowledged he had been in an error in what he had advanced in the Assembly of the Nation, as to the proposition supposed to have been made by me to your Excellency, and undertook to declare his error, when the subject should be resumed by the Assembly, to whom my letter to the Marquis de La Fayette will be also read.
I have thought it a duty, Sir, thus to correct in the first moment, an error, by which your name had been compromitted by an unfounded use of mine, and shall be happy in every occasion of proving to you those sentiments of profound respect and attachment with which I have the honor to be, your Excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO THE COUNT DE MONTMORIN
Sir,—My hotel having been lately robbed for the third time, I take the liberty of uniting my wish with that of the inhabitants of this quarter, that it might coincide with the arrangements of police, to extend to us the protection of a guard. While the Douane remained here, no accident of that kind happened, but since their removal, other houses in the neighborhood have been robbed, as well as mine. Perhaps it may lessen the difficulties of this request, that the house occupied by the people of the Douane, will lodge abundantly a corps de garde. On the one side of that house is Chaillot, on the other the Roule, on the third the Champs Elysées, where accidents are said to happen very frequently, all of which are very distant from any corps de garde.
I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect respect and esteem, your Excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE
Dear Sir,—Having been curious to form some estimate of the quantity of corn and flour, which have been supplied to France this year, I applied to a person in the Farms, to know upon what quantities the premium had been paid. He could not give me information, but as to the Atlantic ports, into which there have been imported from the United States, from March to May inclusive, forty-four thousand one hundred and sixteen quintals of corn, twelve thousand two hundred and twenty-one quintals of flour, making fifty-six thousand three hundred and thirty-seven quintals, in the whole. Add to this, what has been imported since May, suppose nearly twenty thousand quintals a month, and what has been furnished to the French islands, which has prevented an equal quantity being exported from France, and you will have the proportion drawn from us. Observe, that we have regular and constant markets for corn and flour, in Spain, Portugal, and all the West India islands, except the French. These take nearly our whole quantity. This year, France, the French West Indies and Canada were added. But a regular course of trade is not quitted in an instant, nor constant customers deserted for accidental ones. This is the reason that so small a proportion has come here. I am, dear Sir, with great sincerity, your affectionate friend and servant.
TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE
Dear Sir,—The acknowledgment by Monsieur de Mirabeau to the National Assembly, that he had been in an error as to the offer he supposed me to have made, and the reading to them my letter, seem to be all that was requisite for any just purpose. As I was unwilling my name should be used to injure the minister, I am also unwilling it should be used to injure Monsieur de Mirabeau. I learn that his enemies in Paris are framing scandalous versions of my letter. I think, therefore, with you, it may be better to print it, and I send you a copy of it. I gave copies of it to Monsieur de Montmorin and Monsieur Neckar, as was my duty.
I am, with sincere affection, my dear Sir, your friend and servant.
TO THOMAS PAINE
Dear Sir,—Since my last, which was of May the 19th, I have received yours of June the 17th and 18th. I am struck with the idea of the geometrical wheelbarrow, and will beg of you a farther account, if it can be obtained. I have no news yet of my congé.
Though you have doubtless heard most of the proceedings of the States General since my last, I will take up the narration where that left it, that you may be able to separate the true from the false accounts you have heard. A good part of what was conjecture in that letter, is now become true history.
The National Assembly then (for that is the name they take), having shown through every stage of these transactions a coolness, wisdom, and resolution to set fire to the four corners of the kingdom and to perish with it themselves, rather than to relinquish an iota from their plan of a total change of government, are now in complete and undisputed possession of the sovereignty. The executive and aristocracy are at their feet; the mass of the nation, the mass of the clergy, and the army are with them; they have prostrated the old government, and are now beginning to build one from the foundation. A committee, charged with the arrangement of their business, gave in, two days ago, the following order of proceedings.
"1. Every government should have for its only end, the preservation of the rights of man; whence it follows, that to recall constantly the government to the end proposed, the constitution should begin by a declaration of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man.
"2. Monarchical government being proper to maintain those rights, it has been chosen by the French nation. It suits especially a great society; it is necessary for the happiness of France. The declaration of the principles of this government, then, should follow immediately the declaration of the rights of man.
"3. It results from the principles of monarchy, that the nation, to assure its own rights, has yielded particular rights to the monarch; the constitution, then, should declare, in a precise manner, the rights of both. It should begin by declaring the rights of the French nation, and then it should declare the rights