The Virginia Gazette

Translation of a letter from General Paoli.

SIR,

You are, without doubt, acquainted with my true sentiments on the situation of our affairs. My character has not been that of a hero of romance, a Quixote, or an Amadis. There is nothing more real than the object I pursue; but if, instead of a real object, I pursue a chimera, I am deceived indeed; yet my error shall never cause me to desert the common cause. What are for the most part the objects of our pursuits, but dazzling chimeras, which have no other existence, than that, which our lively and deceived imagination lends them?

Upon this principle, I will pursue my first plan: and if that liberty which I seek, is not to be found any where, I still shall account him my enemy, that will undertake to remove the delusion from my sight! Let me enjoy this dream, which, to me, seems so much like truth.

The offers that have been made me, are both injurious to me, and repugnant to that spirit of liberty, which circulates with my blood in my veins, and which shall circulate with it to the last drop. You little know the courage of the Corsicans, if you can believe they will ever submit to a foreign yoke. All the efforts of Genoa have proved ineffectual, against their valour and love of liberty: and shall we then submit to another power that comes to offer us its chains?

The rocks that surround me, shall melt away, ere I will betray a cause which I hold in common with the lowest Corsican. No: I never will become the base destroyer of my country, after having been the generous defender of it.

If any man was capable of enslaving me, it would be the Comte de Marbeuf; and the king his master could not have chosen a more enchanting man; but, you know, Sir, the price of liberty, like health, is only known when lost; they are the most precious enjoyments of life.

Let the mean slaves of their masters wills fawn at their feet, and renounce the natural rights of humanity: as for me, I have learnt to be free: I know how to live so: and to die free, I would sacrifice ten lives if I had them. I have but one, but that shall not survive my liberty.

Be assured, Sir, I shall ever be immoveable. Gold loses its splendor, when offered as the price of liberty. Honours are only able to dazzle fools, if they are not to be obtained but by renouncing the privileges of human nature.

What does it signify to me, that I am able to command a multitude of slaves, who shall come and humiliate themselves at my feet, it, in a quarter of an hour afterwards, I am forced, in my turn, to humble myself at the feet of another, one degree higher than myself?

If I fall the victim of liberty I shall fall nobly, and teach others to sacrifice themselves to the common cause. Our love of liberty will subsist, even among the ruins of our country; it will be enlivened by fire, be born again of the ashes, and will grow, though in irons. Of one slaughtered hero will be produced a thousand; and as Tertullian said of the primitive martyrs of the church, Their blood will be fruitful, and heroes will never be wanting in Corsica.