Gazette Of The United States

LONDON, July 16.
Declaration of the French,
Assembled under the command of General Gaston, in the Departments of Vendée, Maine, Loire, and Loire Inférieure.

Denounced by the assembly entitling itself the national convention of France, as traitors to our country, and rebels to its laws, we ought, as our duty, to declare to all loyal Frenchmen, and all the loyalists of Europe, the motives which have hitherto directed our conduct, the principles which shall for the future regulate it.

When first we assembled in February last, in the defence of our lives, of our individual safety, of our religion, of our liberty, and of our property, the greatest of crimes was committed--the head of Louis XVI. was brought to the scaffold.
From that time, nothing could be expected from the new order of things that arose up in France, under the name of republic, but confusion, robberies, and anarchy, every day gave birth to a new faction; and if these robbers sometimes appeared divided among themselves in opinion and interest, upon two principal points they terminated their difference, viz. usurpation and pillaging of property, massacring and imprisoning good citizens, who refused being accomplices in their enormities.

For more than three years the rights of persons and property have undergone in France numerous attempts; violence hindered us from the free exercise of the religion of our fore fathers. But, there remained to us a King; and though he was stripped of that part of his authority so necessary for the maintaining a great monarchy, we were still in hopes that the French people would yet acknowledge their true interests, and that order would be re-established without convulsions, and without violence.

We were deprived of this last hope when we saw our fellow citizens, truly groaning under the yoke of a small number of factions, but making no effort to liberate themselves; struck with consternation at viewing our king dragged to the place of execution; but keeping silence through terror, and not daring to arm ourselves to rescue him from the clutches of his executioners.

Under such dilemmas, what were loyal subjects to do?--either accomplices or victims was to be our portion; but we would be neither the one nor the other; we have assembled, we have armed ourselves, and hitherto Heaven has crowned our efforts with success.

We are not the aggressors; our intentions are only to defend our persons and property. As men, we have the right to resist oppression; as possessors of property, we oppose its devastation; as Frenchmen, we will have a king; as Christians, we will have the religion of our fathers; as citizens, we will have fixed laws, under cover of which we may again find peace. In fine, we are weary of being the sport and victims of the factious.

This is neither the time nor place to declaim on political opinions; we have not the smallest pretension to govern France. Individual safety, property, liberty of religious worship, and a king, are what we demand; for that it is we contend; and we will not disarm till we have obtained them.

We invite all people, whatever may be their political or religious opinions, to unite themselves quickly to us; it is their most pressing interest; for every man who is not a robber is on our side;

if any citizen has not a load of property to defend, all have at least their person. Property, (and personal liberty is shamefully violated by our enemies) all are interested in enjoying in peace, the fruit of their labor and industry; all are interested in living securely at home, and to have their houses for an asylum--this is what we demand for our fellow citizens, as well as for ourselves.

It is the interest of all the powers of Europe to sustain and protect us; for our enemies are such as wished to overthrow, every king and every throne.
It is the interest of all people to send us help: for our enemies wished to disturb the peace, and overturn the laws of all people.

Our enemies unmercifully punish with death those of us they make prisoners of war. We declare, before all Europe and France, that we have not used, and we will not use, in this respect, death for death. The cause which we defend is that of justice and humanity; and we will never dishonor it by acts of barbarity.

They threaten to crush us by number and the factious announce, that they will attack us with all the forces they can assemble. We await them determined for we have on our side our courage, and the justice of our cause. We have the God of armies, who will fight for us the God of Clovis and of St. Louis who did not permit formerly the French monarchy to be overthrown, and who miraculously sustained the throne of our kings, almost destroyed under Charles V under Charles VII. and under Henry IV.

At last, if, by one of those strokes of providence, which the human mind can neither calculate nor foresee, we are overcome in the defence of a cause so just, we shall at least have the glory of dying, in fighting for our God, for our king, and for our country,--thousands will arm themselves sooner or later to avenge us for the French people will at last be weary of their heavy yoke of anarchy; and even our defeat itself will serve to hasten the fall of our tyrants. Besides, let them not believe us so weak as we are said to be at the bar, and at the tribune of their assembly, where they place us between victory and punishment; for they are always strong, who have no other alternative but to conquer or die.

(Signed),
GASTON,
For myself and my brave
fellow soldiers.
General Quarters, near
Fontenay la Comte
25th May, 1793.