Gazette Of The United States

The amnesty, allowed in France to the fugitive princes, and others who have opposed the revolution, is very honorable, as well as wise and politic. Men overturn a tyranny, because they fear it ; and what they fear they hate. The struggle for liberty inflames both passions, fear and hatred. The moment of triumph is a dangerous trial of the heart; for it finds the latter passion thirsting for the destruction of the objects and persons, which it lately feared and continues to hate. The amnesty evinces the magnanimous confidence of the National Assembly in the stability of their own work ; no longer fearing their foes, they have the nobleness of soul, as well as wisdom, to forgive them. It is to the honor of the age that opinions are no longer punished as crimes. Go on, enlightened Frenchmen, your mildness (a national virtue now resumed) in the use of your privileges, will make liberty appear amiable in the eyes of other nations.