Gazette Of The United States & Evening Advertiser

NATIONAL CONVENTION.

October 12.

Barrère read a letter from Chateauneuf Randon, dated Head Quarters, at Lyons Oct. 9, which ran as follows:

"Citizens Colleagues,

"The actions of the 25th and 29th of Sept. have been closely followed by prodigies of valor, and to night the troops of the Republic entered Lyons. The chiefs of the rebels, 2000 in number, have made an attempt to save themselves by flight, but they are pursued on all sides, and cannot possibly escape, not only the ardor of our troops, but also that of the people of Lyons, enraged at their having been deceived by them. I previously informed my colleagues of our entrance into Lyons. Gen. Doppet is going by an extraordinary courier to send a detailed report of his military operations. Couthon, Maignet, Laporte, Dubois, Crance and Bael, who we had joined at St. Fox, are on the point of repairing hither, and will be eager to inform you of all our operations. My Colleagues wish to keep me here; I expect the orders of the National Convention.

Signed,
Chateauneuf Randon.

P. S. I have detained the courier to inform you that the rebels have been pursued and cut to pieces on all sides: their train of artillery and the treasure which they carried off are taken. Barrère. The committee has determined that not one criminal ought to escape; they have ordered the fugitives to be pursued, and the tocsin to be sounded all over the country, in order that the people may be roused to exterminate them. The traitors must be taken, their punishment must be speedy: it is proper that the inhabitants of Lyons should be disarmed, and their arms confided to the youth of the South, who will employ them against the slaves of Spain. But will you allow a city to exist, which by its rebellion has caused so much blood of the Patriots to be shed? Who shall dare to demand your indulgence for this rebellious city? What ought you to respect in your vengeance? The house of the indigent persecuted by the rich, those manufacturers of which the barbarous English so eagerly desire the destruction. What ought you to respect? The asylum of humanity, the edifice consecrated to public instruction. The plough ought to pass over the rest. When the Prussians last year invaded the territory of the Republic, the South affected courage and republicanism. At present all is changed, the North now defends Liberty, and the South makes war upon it. In this situation a great example is necessary, I propose the following decree:

Art. I. There shall be named by the National Convention, upon the presentation of the committee of public safety, an extraordinary commission composed of five members, in order to punish the Revolutionists of Lyons according to military law, and without delay.

II. All the inhabitants of Lyons shall be disarmed: their arms shall be immediately distributed among the defenders of the Republic. A part shall be restored to the Patriots of Lyons, who have been oppressed by the rich and the counter-revolutionists.

III. The city of Lyons shall be destroyed. Whatever was inhabited by a rich man, shall be demolished. The poor-houses the dwellings of slaughtered and proscribed patriots, the edifices peculiarly employed to industry, and the monuments consecrated humanity and public instructions, shall alone remain.

IV. The name of Lyons shall be effaced from the list of the towns of the Republic. The re-union of houses preserved shall henceforth bear the name of Ville Affranchie.

V. A column shall be raised upon the ruins of Lyons, to attest to posterity the crimes and the punishment of the Royalists of that city, with this inscription,

Lyons warred against Liberty—
Lyons is no more.

The eighteenth Day of the first Month,
Second Year of the Republic,
One and Indivisible.

VI. The Representatives of the people shall immediately nominate commissioners to make a list of all the property which belonged to the rich and counter-revolutionists of Lyons, that the resolutions of the Convention may be immediately carried into execution.—Decreed.