Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

SPEECH OF REVILLIERE LEPEAUX,

President of France.

To the FRENCH PEOPLE at the Champ de Mars,

ON THE

FRENCH NEW-YEAR'S DAY—Sept. 22.

"Thanks be to thee, Sovereign Regulator of the destiny of the Universe! Let praise be rendered unto thee!—France is a Republic!

"For many ages, despotism had banished the genius of liberty, which in ancient times covered the shores of the Mediterranean with flourishing republics. If some nations, at distant periods, and at long intervals have thrown off the yoke of an individual, they soon bowed themselves before a new master, or submitted to the not less degrading rod of aristocracy and fanaticism. Slavery, superstition, and ignorance, had subjected mankind. No where on our continent did real liberty and political equality exist.

"When more frequent communications began to reconcile nations to each other, and when the torch of philosophy was rapidly enlightening them, their rulers, terrified at the progress of reason, formed an impious league to extinguish knowledge, or to empoison its effects. Uniting the links of servitude which each of them had separately in his hand, they forged, amidst the gloom of their political dungeons, an oppressive chain, which was soon to have encircled the globe. Their sanguinary quarrels about the portions of this chain which each of them claimed to preserve, served only to make them more unanimous in their disposition to aggravate its weight and to hasten the execution of their plan. They believed their work was completed; and it WAS BROKEN IN PIECES!

"Our miseries made us burst forth in a moment: an ardour hitherto unknown elevated our hearts; and, liberty, thy powerful voice resounded over France. The ravishing sound was re-echoed by the whole nation. The posterity of the ancient Gauls are no longer slaves; they are restored to manhood. With persevering labour they have sapped the throne, and all those dominations which, by their union and terrible force, had overpowered them for many ages. Scarcely three years have passed, and the most ancient monarchy, the most powerful, and in appearance, the most durable, is levelled with the dust!

"Thanks be rendered unto thee, Sovereign Arbiter of the Universe! Thanks be rendered unto thee!—France is a Republic!

"Unworthy Frenchmen, however, that extravagant composition of baseness and of pride, led from their homes, and lifted up arms against their country. They urged the powers of Europe to embrace their quarrels. These, enraged to see the chain which had cost them so much labour, suddenly interrupted and broken, advanced with immense forces to establish the monarchy, or rather to divide amongst themselves its ruins. France was about to fall again into the abyss of despotism! But she is Sustained by thy all powerful hand! The voice of war was heard to resound: every where arms were forged; and our, valiant youth, animated by thy Divine Spirit, formed, as it were by enchantment, formidable armies.

Thou placest in the hearts of our soldiers that burning courage which teaches them to brave every danger, and vanquish every opposition. Thou givest to their chiefs that tranquil valour and presence of mind which enables them to foresee every event, and to accomplish every enterprize they undertake. The signal was given, and the innumerable cohorts of our enemies were scattered by republican bayonets, as columns of thick smoke are dissipated by the winds of a tempest.

"Ambition and profligacy, prostituted by the troubles inseparable from movements so vast and so multiplied, elevated for a moment the rightful throne of terror on the wreck of that of monarchy: but the true friends of liberty, directed by thee, in one day made it disappear. Our trophies were now successively embellished with the olive of peace. A constitution was formed; and, notwithstanding the efforts of royalism and aristocracy, rendered abortive in the glorious day of the 13th Vendemaire, that constitution, duly executed in all its parts, fixed the lot of France. Then every enlightened patriot exclaimed in the joy of his heart, Thanks be rendered unto thee, Sovereign Arbiter of the destiny of the Universe! Thanks be rendered unto thee!—France is a Republic!

"Notwithstanding, however, the new triumph obtained over our remaining enemies—notwithstanding that the most obstinate of them were at last compelled to listen to propositions of Peace—notwithstanding that an astonishing internal amelioration proved the excellence of the Republican Constitution—attempts were yet made to destroy it, and to re-elevate the Monarchy! Our enemies did not employ force; their arms were intrigue and corruption, the consequence of their perfidious combinations. Traitors, placed in every authority, and even in the Supreme Executive Power, having undermined our social edifice, no longer concealed their plan of subversion. Another moment, the Constitution would have been overthrown, Liberty annihilated, Republicans murdered, and France, rendered the prey of Civil War, would have been covered with dead bodies and ruins! But thy paternal eye was never withdrawn from us. At the moment when the state verged to destruction, thou didst replace it on its basis: Thou didst excite the just indignation of the Defenders of the Country. Thou hast struck the Conspirators with blindness and terror! while thou didst enlighten the path of the Friends of Liberty, and inspire them with a noble intrepidity! On the immortal day of the 18th Fructidor, thou didst confound the traitors; thou, madest them fall into the snares they had prepared for the destruction of the Friends of Liberty; The Republican Constitution was consolidated by the very efforts that had been made to accomplish its ruin. — But thanks be rendered unto thee, Sovereign Arbiter of the Universe! Thanks be rendered unto thee! France is a Republic.

"Now complete thy work; consolidate for ever this Republic. The enemies of the Constitution of the third year lurk in concealment, but they are still watchful; its friends, then, Should not repose in false security. May our country be incessantly under thy protection, and may we be directed by thy counsels! May the grandeur of the measures adopted by the Legislative Body keep pace with the wisdom of its Laws! May the Executive Directory display an active and unremitting vigour in their execution, and in the conduct of Government; and may all the Civil and Military. Authorities firmly concur with them! May our hearts be always open to humanity and compassion; but may a strict, though enlightened justice, prevent us from weakening the effect of the means appointed by the Law, and ordered by the Government! Let us never forget, that if atrocity must shock the feelings of men, feebleness provokes their contempt; and that, to prevent some evils unfortunately inevitable, it would again plunge France into that abyss of horrors of which we would wish to efface the remembrance! But, above all, may those who have been misled by their passions be enlightened by thy justice, and at length cease to mistake the spirit of Faction for that of Patriotism. Far from us be those who regard the services which they render to their country as titles by which to make it their property. Far from us be those who can discern the Republic in those only who surround them—who decide on the prosperity of the State merely by the degree of power and influence of. which themselves are possessed, and regulate their views of public interest by a comparison with their private gains.

"May. thou, on the contrary, inspire all Frenchmen with sentiments grand, elevated, generous, disinterested!—Propagate among them a spirit of peace and mutual benevolence, a strong attachment to truth and ingenuous openness, a rooted aversion to falsehood and hypocrisy, a profound respect for Virtue, a marked hatred to Vice, au ardent love of Liberty, and an unlimited devotion to the cause of their country.

"France shall then be for ever free, happy, triumphant and peaceful!

." May these our ardent vows be accomplished!