The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2 - Online Library of ...

Online Library of Liberty: The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2
limits this gratifying enjoyment. No, we declare that all who wish to partake thereof
will find in us (ye French) a sure and certain ally. We will chase tyranny, and, above
all, aristocracy, off the theatre of the Universe. Mark that, my lord. The declaration
was unnecessary, for all clearsighted men were convinced, a year ago, that such was
the natural result of our endeavors. We begin, as your lordship observes, by
establishing free commerce on the bosom of the Scheldt, by opening the long-shut
gates of Antwerp, and bidding Wealth revisit, with his sister Liberty, their ancient
temple. In comparison with these sublime efforts to increase the sum of human
felicity, how cold and flat are all the little calculations of policy. Adieu, my lord. I
heartily wish you well, but I think you must prepare for hard struggles, either at home
or abroad. The theatre is perhaps still left to your choice, but certainly not the thing.”
“The Convention this day [December 3d] determine to try the King. It grows every
day more probable that England will declare war. Success continues to crown the
French arms, but we must not judge from success. The enemies of those who now
reign treat them as they did their predecessors, and as their successors will be treated.”
“Since I have been in this country,” wrote Morris to Thomas Pinckney, December 3d,
“I have seen the worship of many idols, and but little of the true God; I have seen
many of those idols broken, and some of them beaten to dust. I have seen the late
Constitution, in one short year, admired as a stupendous monument of human wisdom
and ridiculed as an egregious production of folly and vice. I wish much, very much,
the happiness of this inconstant people. I love them. I feel grateful for their efforts in
our cause, and I consider the establishment of a good constitution here as a principal
means, under Divine Providence, of extending the blessings of freedom to the many
millions of my fellow-men who groan in bondage on the Continent of Europe. But I
do not greatly indulge the flattering illusions of hope, because I do not yet perceive
that reformation of morals without which liberty is but an empty sound. My heart has
many sinister bodings, and reason would strive in vain to dispel the gloom which
always thickens where she exerts her sway.”
On the 11th of December the king was questioned before the Assembly. “He
answered well,” Morris mentions in the diary. “Some who saw him conducted tell me
that the people seemed rather sorrowful than triumphant.”
“I am told this day [December 12th] that the committee think they have been pushed
too far against the King, by the Orleans faction. The Convention banish the Bourbon
family.”
“To-day [December 19th] all accounts from England show a design to engage in the
war. Dine with some of the deputies. The decree against the Bourbons is suspended.
Several Americans dine with me. Paine looks a little down at the news from England;
he has been burned in effigy.”
Writing to Mr. Jefferson, under date of December 21st, Morris says:
“You will have seen that the Jacobin Club is as much at war with the present
government as it was with the preceding. Victory or death is the word with both
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