Gazette Of The United States

The friends to the rights of human nature, and particularly every American, must feel interested in the commotions which now agitate the kingdom of France. The prospect that opened upon that people, of a compleat emancipation from a state of abject despotism, impressed the most pleasing sensations upon every philanthropic mind. That they may finally establish a free government, is most devoutly to be wished. Recent accounts, however seem to corroborate the hackneyed sentiment, that mankind are alike in every age. A triumphant majority too seldom discovers a proper sense of the rights of the minority. Distinctions will obtain in all governments; they are truly estimable only in free States; for there, they are held by the most precious and desirable tenure—the good will of the people, founded on merit, and sanctioned by the laws. However, in France a very respectable and formidable body, composed of clergy and laity, has long been established; endowed it is true, with privileges and immunities, degrading to the people, and hostile to their rights. These exemptions the nobility have most nobly divested themselves of: but their sacrifices do not seem to be sufficient; and from confounding and involving all distinctions, the transition to stripping the Sovereign of the essentials of monarchy is very natural. Happy will it be for the French nation, if the excesses of a spirit of reformation do not combine an interest against the National Assembly, that may prove paramount to all their fine spun, democratical theories of government.