The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction to the Third Volume. With Historical Notes and Documents.
• I.: The Republican Proclamation.
• II.: To the Authors of Le RÉpublicain
• III.: To the AbbÉ
• IV.: To the Attorney General.
• V.: To Mr. Secretary Dundas.
• VI.: Letters to Onslow Cranley,
• VII.: To the Sheriff of the County of Sussex Or , the Gentleman Who Shall Preside At the Meeting to Be Held At Lewes, July 4.
• VIII.: To Mr. Secretary Dundas.
• IX.: Letter Addressed to the Addressers On the Late Proclamation.
• X.: Address to the People of France.
• XI.: Anti-monarchal Essay.
• XII.: To the Attorney General, On the Prosecution Against the Second Part of Rights of Man.
• XIII.: On the Propriety of Bringing Louis XVI. To Trial.
• XIV.: Reasons For Preserving the Life of Louis Capet,
• XV.: Shall Louis XVI. Have Respite?
• XVI.: Declaration of Rights.
• XVII.: Private Letters to Jefferson.
• XVIII.: Letter to Danton.
• XIX.: A Citizen of America to the Citizens of Europe.
• XX.: Appeal to the Convention.
• XXI.: The Memorial to Monroe.
• XXII.: Letter to George Washington.
• XXIII.: Observations.
• XXIV.: Dissertation On First Principles of Government. 1
• XXV.: The Constitution of 1795. Speech In the French National Convention, July 7, 1795.
• XXVI.: The Decline and Fall of the English System of Finance.
• XXVII.: Forgetfulness. 1 From ‘the Castle In the Air,’ to the ‘little Corner of the World.’
• XXVIII.: Agrarian Justice.
• XXIX.: The Eighteenth Fructidor. to the People of France and the French Armies.
• XXX.: The Recall of Monroe.
• XXXI.: Private Letter to Thomas Jefferson.
• XXXII.: Proposal That Louisiana Be Purchased. (sent to the President, Christmas Day, 1802.)
• XXXIII.: Thomas Paine to the Citizens of the United States, and Particularly to the Leaders of the Féderal Faction .
• Letter I.
• Letter II.
• Letter III.
• Letter IV.
• Letter V.
• Letter VI.
• Letter VII.
• XXXIV.: To the French Inhabitants of Louisiana.

XXX.

THE RECALL OF MONROE.1

• Paris,

Sept. 27, 1797.

Editors of the Bien-informé.

Citizens: in your 19th number of the complementary 5th, you gave an analysis of the letters of James Monroe to Timothy Pickering. The newspapers of Paris and the departments have copied this correspondence between the ambassador of the United States and the Secretary of State. I notice, however, that a few of them have omitted some important facts, whilst indulging in comments of such an extraordinary nature that it is clear they know neither Monroe’s integrity nor the intrigues of Pitt in this affair.

The recall of Monroe is connected with circumstances so important to the interests of France and the United States, that we must be careful not to confound it with the recall of an ordinary individual. The Washington faction had affected to spread it abroad that James Monroe was the cause of rupture between the two Republics. This accusation is a perfidious and calumnious one; since the main point in this affair is not so much the recall of a worthy, enlightened and republican minister, as the ingratitude and clandestine manœuvering of the government of Washington, who caused the misunderstanding by signing a treaty injurious to the French Republic.

James Monroe, in his letters, does not deny the right of government to withdraw its confidence from any one of its delegates, representatives, or agents. He has hinted, it is true, that caprice and temper are not in accordance with the spirit of paternal rule, and that whenever a representative government punishes or rewards, good faith, integrity and justice should replace the good pleasure of Kings.

In the present case, they have done more than recall an agent. Had they confined themselves to depriving him of his appointment, James Monroe would have kept silence; but he has been accused of lighting the torch of discord in both Republics. The refutation of this absurd and infamous reproach is the chief object of his correspondence. If he did not immediately complain of these slanders in his letters of the 6th and 8th [July], it is because he wished to use at first a certain degree of caution, and, if it were possible, to stifle intestine troubles at their birth. He wished to reopen the way to peaceful negotiations to be conducted with good faith and justice.

The arguments of the Secretary of State on the rights of the supreme administration of the United States are peremptory; but the observations of Monroe on the hidden causes of his recall are touching; they come from the heart; they are characteristic of an excellent citizen. If he does more than complain of his unjust recall as a man of feeling would; if he proudly asks for proofs of a grave accusation, it is after he has tried in vain every honest and straightforward means. He will not suffer that a government, sold to the enemies of freedom, should discharge upon him its shame, its crimes, its ingratitude, and all the odium of its unjust dealings.

Were Monroe to find himself an object of public hatred, the Republican party in the United States, that party which is the sincere ally of France, would be annihilated, and this is the aim of the English government.

Imagine the triumph of Pitt, if Monroe and the other friends of freedom in America, should be unjustly attacked in France!

Monroe does not lay his cause before the Senate since the Senate itself ratified the unconstitutional treaty; he appeals to the house of Representatives, and at the same time lays his cause before the upright tribunal of the American nation.

[1]Monroe, like Edmund Randolph and Thomas Paine, was sacrificed to the new commercial alliance with Great Britain. The Cabinet of Washington were entirely hostile to France, and in their determination to replace Monroe were assisted by Gouverneur Morris, still in Europe, who wrote to President Washington calumnies against that Minister. In a letter of December 19, 1795, Morris tells Washington that he had heard from a trusted informant that Monroe had said to several Frenchmen that “he had no doubt but that, if they would do what was proper here, he and his friends would turn out Washington.” On July 2, 1796, the Cabinet ministers, Pickering, Wolcott, and McHenry, wrote to the President their joint opinion that the interests of the United States required Monroe’s recall, and slanderously connected him with anonymous letters from France written by M. Montflorence. The recall, dated August 22, 1796, reached Monroe early in November. It alluded to certain “concurring circumstances,” which induced his removal, and these “hidden causes” (in Paine’s phrase) Monroe vainly demanded on his return to America early in 1797. The Directory, on notification of Monroe’s recall, resolved not to recognize his successor, and the only approach to an American Minister in Paris for the remainder of the century was Thomas Paine, who was consulted by the Foreign Ministers, De la Croix and Talleyrand, and by Napoleon. On the approach of C. C. Pinckney, as successor to Monroe, Paine feared that his dismissal might entail war, and urged the Minister (De la Croix) to regard Pinckney,—nominated in a recess of the Senate,—as in “suspension” until confirmed by that body. There might be unofficial “pourparlers” with him. This letter (State Archives, Paris, États Unis, vol. 46, fol. 425) was considered for several days before Pinckney reached Paris (December 5, 1796), but the Directory considered that it was not a “dignified” course, and Pinckney was ordered to leave French territory, under the existing decree against foreigners who had no permit to remain.—Editor.