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Foreign News August 12, 1824

Martinsburgh Gazette

Martinsburg, Berkeley County, West Virginia

What is this article about?

In 1817, Russian ambassador M. Pozzo di Borgo wrote a memoir to his court urging the subjugation of the United States to suppress revolutionary ideas spreading from America to Europe, claiming the US inspired the French Revolution and posed a threat to monarchies.

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FOREIGN NEWS.

From the London Morning Chronicle.

The extravagance of the Russian or high Ultra party in France, would hardly be credited in this country. Would it be believed that M. Pozzo di Borgo, its oracle in Paris, in a memoir addressed to his Court in 1817, on the importance of replacing South America under the dominion of Spain, actually allowed his zeal against liberty to carry him so far as gravely to propose the subjugation of the United States of North America. "Founded, he said, on the sovereignty of the people, the Republic of the United States of America, was a sire, of which the daily contact with Europe threatened the latter with conflagration; that this State, an asylum for all innovators, gave them the means of disseminating at a distance by their writings, and by the authority of their example, a poison of which the communication could not be questioned, as it was well known that the French Revolution had its origin in the United States; that already troublesome effects were felt in Europe from the presence of French Refugees in America, and more particularly in France; that the administration of that kingdom was obliged to bend before the Revolutionary spirit; and, that a prompt repression of democratical principles could alone prevent the irruption of an evil already so grave in its source. After a variety of considerations of the same sort, the Russian Ambassador proceeded to observe, That the conquest of the United States of America was an easy enterprise--that their submission to a mode of government more in harmony with that of the other civilized States in the world, would be attended with little inconvenience in comparison of the danger from allowing to subsist, much longer, the form of the actual government; that the degree of power to which the Americans had risen, made them objects of fear to the European Monarchical Governments, but that at the same time, the sum of their riches having augmented that of luxury and corruption, there was reason to think that the principal citizens of the United States would not be displeased to see a change that would place them at the head of the government of their country; that the aristocratical spirit was more particularly perceptible in the towns, the influence of the rich citizens might easily bring about the desired change; that it would in vain be objected that the U. States had just come off victorious out of the struggle they had maintained with G. Britain; that this success was owing to particular causes, the absence of which would overcome opposition and resistance, and that two of these causes could not fail to strike every observer--that in the first place, the richest citizens saw with fear the moment approach in which the English party would replace the United States under the power of England, that, in that case, they would consider themselves as stript of their power, and subjected to the tyranny of the British aristocracy, whose representatives would impose on them a yoke as severe as humiliating; that in consequence seeing they could gain nothing by this change they made every effort to overcome every difficulty, in which they would not perhaps have succeeded but for the impolitic conduct of the English who set fire to Washington; and that it is perhaps, to this second cause, that the failure of the enterprise, and consequently the consolidation of the Republic, is in a great measure to be attributed."

What sub-type of article is it?

Diplomatic Political

What keywords are associated?

Pozzo Di Borgo Russian Memoir Subjugation United States French Revolution Origin American Republic Threat

What entities or persons were involved?

M. Pozzo Di Borgo

Where did it happen?

Paris

Foreign News Details

Primary Location

Paris

Event Date

1817

Key Persons

M. Pozzo Di Borgo

Event Details

M. Pozzo di Borgo, Russian ambassador in Paris, addressed a memoir to his court in 1817 proposing the subjugation of the United States of North America to counter the spread of revolutionary ideas from the US, which he claimed originated the French Revolution and threatened European monarchies. He argued the conquest would be easy due to internal corruption and luxury among American elites, and that the recent US victory over Britain was due to specific circumstances unlikely to repeat.

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