3 10 37 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document BALTIMORE, July 12th. On Wednesday the committee appointed to examine the situation of the French fleet arrived in this harbor, and ascertain the number of passengers and the relief necessary to be given them, made the following report: That they visited thirteen of the vessels that arrived on Tuesday, and found on board 351 passengers, (exclusive of people of color and negroes), of which number about 100 are women and children—That the passengers in the other ships, arrived and expected, are probably equal to the above number, of which they have advised an accurate report to be made to the Consul of the French Republic—That the distresses of those unhappy people have not been exaggerated, or perhaps equalled, by the information already given to the public—That an exertion of great humanity is indispensably necessary in the town of Baltimore, to supply their immediate town of Baltimore, to supply their immediate wants, and provide for their comfortable accommodation, until the inference of the French Minister, or the General Government, can be engaged—That the passengers and crews in general appeared to be healthy. The committee, actuated by motives of pity for the helpless part of the passengers, have, of their own authority, ordered a supply of fresh provisions and vegetables to several of the ships; of which articles they had been totally destitute during the voyage.—This part of their conduct, they trust, will be approved of by their Fellow Citizens.—The business of a future supply, the committee conceive, ought to be conducted on some regular system. Subscriptions have been opened, and nearly eleven thousand dollars have been already subscribed; many of the inhabitants have generously relinquished a part of the strangers and politely furnished them with the participation of their tables; such is the ardor which inspires every bosom, that no doubt can exist but every comfort will be provided for the unfortunate exiles, until the peace may again visit their native shores. From a Correspondent. The liberality which has so eminently distinguished the citizens of Baltimore on many former distressing occasions, still shews [sic] itself as resplendent as ever. The unfortunate inhabitants of St. Domingo have found an alleviation of their distress by taking refuge in this port; but it is much to be regretted that there are among us too many of a disposition to take advantage, even of the misfortunes of their friends. Our markets are shamefully raised; and the exorbitant prices of provisions are severely felt as well by the honest, but poor laborer of our own country, as by the plundered people who have fled the Cape to save the relicts of their families; many of whom have been in a moment reduced from affluence to want: That soul, who would on such terms acquire wealth, must be debased indeed. Some measures should be pursued to blast this evil: Our country is blest with stores, not only to support its own inhabitants, but also to furnish to the needy of other countries more than enough to gratify all their wants. The pretext therefore, that a scarcity enhances the value of provisions truly poor: It is the ignorance of the French strangers, with respect to our language and to the usual prices of food, which actuates the wretches of America to impose upon them. Philadelphia, as well as this town, is a refuge for distressed allies; the same enthusiastical generosity is there displayed to soothe the misfortunes of the empoverished inhabitants of a lavished isle. The same shameful imposition by the vendors of provisions, on the ignorance of distressed guests began to shew its hideous face. The citizens nobly combined to crush this horrid monster, to efface this stigma from their name, and refused to accede to the knavery: They resolved to suppress it by depriving themselves of necessaries rather than indulge the imposition of unfeeling minds. Let our citizens do likewise, and meet with merited success. The powers of conception are too feeble to give an adequate idea of the sufferings of those who have escaped the horrors of the Cape.—The murderous fury of the insurgents did not afford leisure to preserve the property or clothes: Happy are they who seeing their wealth for ever lost, their friends, their dearest relations fall the hapless victims or more than savage barbarity. Happy were they to elude their unfeeling murderers and escape with life; in this condition they fled their native spot. Wives separated from their husbands lost or murdered; husbands as unhappily situated; children snatched from the devouring flames, and rescued from their parents' corpse; crowded in vessels, unexpecting any such event, and unprovided with provisions to support the crowd, and flying to the happy shores of America, to which they look up for clothes to cover nakedness, and food to preserve their miserable existence. Their wants are liberally relieved by our generous citizens, and the severity of their afflictions greatly mitigated; their most sanguine hopes, during their gloomy passage, could not have surpassed the events which have occurred since their arrival: They have now only the pensive retrospect to dwell on, which gives to their sorrowing view, the horrors of their dear, their native isle: And great indeed is the consolation; that there are not super added the tortures of famine and houseless state. It is a happy reflection, that the severities of winter did not prevail, to render the unhappy occurrence more affecting, the little infants, who are now smiling on their nakedness, would have then given more horror to the scene, as they sink beneath the chilling grip of poverty and death. Sortable Date 1793-07-17 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia), 17 July 1793; available on cd-rom (Accessible Archives: Wilmington, Del., distributed by Scholarly Resources, 1998). Description An account of the resource Many American cities met the emergency needs of an influx of white refugees who fled the uprising. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 574 Title A name given to the resource The Pennsylvania Gazette: White Refugees (17 July 1793) Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/574/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource July 17, 1793 Public Opinion Text The US and Great Britain in Revolution War Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document EDENTON, November 9th. The Governor of South Carolina has issued a proclamation, requiring and ordering all free negroes and people of color, who have arrived there from St. Domingo, or who have arrived within twelve months from any other place, to depart the state in ten days from the date thereof, many characters amongst them being deemed dangerous to the welfare and peace of that state. Sortable Date 1793-12-04 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia), 4 December 1793; available on cd-rom (Accessible Archives: Wilmington, Del., distributed by Scholarly Resources, 1998). Description An account of the resource Free blacks and mulattos also fled the uprising. Mulattos could own slaves and plantations, and many of them did. Free blacks often manned the militias used to hunt down runaway slaves. Like the white settlers, both groups therefore had reason to flee. But states such as South Carolina feared the consequences of their influence on the state’s own slave population. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 575 Title A name given to the resource The Pennsylvania Gazette: Free blacks and mulattos flee (4 December 1793) Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/575/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource December 4, 1793 Public Opinion Text The US and Great Britain in Revolution War Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document From the Courier Française. CAPE, 23 August 1796. Since my first letter, which accompanies this, there has occurred, and there is still occurring, what follows: At Port-au-Prince, and in the environs, the Negroes are in a state of insurrection; they have burnt many habitations, which had remained untouched till this day. The Negroes will not work. On this side of Grand Rivière, there is a great rising; the Brigand Negroes have killed a Negro chief named Gagnet, who commanded for the Republic, his family, and the état-major. Fifteen thousand men taken from the principal posts, are to go against the revolters; they doubt much the success of these new Republicans. I deplore the unhappy fate of the inhabitants of St. Domingo. It is impossible for them to come with security to their habitations. The Negroes who have returned to their habitations will not absolutely attend to speak to their masters; they are willing enough to be Republicans, but point de travail [no work]; they think it is contrary to Republican rights; by this title they are to be supplied with all that is necessary.The mask is thrown off—the Negroes say, haughtily, that St. Domingo belongs to them; on this condition they will work, otherwise not. &c. &c. Here follows a letter of the Directory, and a proclamation of L. F. Sonthonas, dated August 18th, relative to this insurrection. This proclamation declares, that the northern part of St. Domingo, is in danger. It orders, that all unmarried citizens from 16 to 25, who are not employed in agriculture or in the offices of Commissioners, be considered in a state of requisition. Those who shall not obey these orders, without assigning a legitimate reason, are to be declared and treated as traitors, and tried by martial law. Emigrants are forbidden, &c. A letter appears in the Courier Française of this morning, from Henry Perroud, former Ordonnateur of St. Domingo, &c. &c. in which, after saying that the accounts of the distressed situation of that island are fabricated by interested, evil-minded person, enemies of republicanism, &c. goes on to state, that Gonaives, l'Arthonite, la petite Rivière, and their dependencies, enjoy, under the orders of General Toussaint, Louverture, the greatest tranquility; the plantations near the enemy's camps promise a fine harvest. The cultivators rejoice in the sweets of liberty, and work constantly for the houses to which they are attached, &c. &c. On this the Editor of the French paper observes; We shall not permit ourselves to judge on circumstances so important. We leave our readers to decide between the accounts given yesterday, and the letter we have published to-day. Sortable Date 1796-09-28 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia), 28 September 1796; available on cd-rom (Accessible Archives: Wilmington, Del., distributed by Scholarly Resources, 1998). Description An account of the resource Despite the abolition of slavery by the French, turbulence continued in many parts of the colony. The French relied on local generals, such as Toussaint L’Ouverture, to restore order. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 576 Title A name given to the resource The Pennsylvania Gazette: Unrest Continues (28 September 1796) Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/576/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September 28, 1796 Public Opinion Text The US and Great Britain in Revolution War Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Extract of a letter from Charleston, dated November 21th: "On Saturday last a plot was discovered, which may have saved some lives and some property. Seventeen French negroes intended to set fire to the town in different places, kill the whites, and probably take possession of the power magazine and the arms; but luckily one of them turned states evidence. Five have been apprehended, two hung, and the others have escaped into the country." From the Charleston State Gazette of the 22d ultimo. On Tuesday, the 14th inst. the Intendant received certain information of a Conspiracy of several French negroes to fire the city, and to act here as they had formerly done at S. Domingo—as the discovery did not implicate more than ten or fifteen persons, and as the information first given was not so complete as to charge all the ringleaders, the Intendant delayed taking any measures for their apprehension until the plan should be more matured, and their guilt more closely ascertained; but the plot having been communicated to persons, on whose secrecy the city magistrates could not depend, they found themselves obliged on Saturday last to apprehend a number of negroes, and among others the following, charged (together with another not yet taken) as the ring-leaders, viz.—Figaro, the property of Mr. Robinett; Jean Louis, the property of Mr. Langstaff; Figaro the younger, the property of Mr. Delaire; and Capelle. . . . On examination they all at first positively denied their knowledge or concern in the plot; but the younger Figaro, after some time, made a partial confession, and was admitted an evidence on the part of the state. The others were on Monday brought to trial, in the City Hall, before as respectable a court and jury as we ever remember to have been convened. A number of witnesses were examined, and fully proved the guilt of the prisoners; and the court, on mature consideration, unanimously condemned Figaro, Sen. and Jean Louis, to be hung, and Capelle and Figaro the younger to be transported. The rest who were apprehended are under confinement, for further examination. After the condemnation of Jean Louis, he turned to the two Figaros and said, "I do not blame the whites, though I suffer, they have done right, but it is you who have brought me to this trouble." Figaro and Jean Louis were yesterday executed in pursuance of their sentence. Sortable Date 1797-12-13 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia), 13 December 1797; available on cd-rom (Accessible Archives: Wilmington, Del., distributed by Scholarly Resources, 1998), 13 December 1797. Description An account of the resource In the United States, vigilance remained at a high pitch as slaveowners dreaded the possible importation of rebellion from Saint Domingue. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 577 Title A name given to the resource The Pennsylvania Gazette: U.S. Vigilance (13 December 1797) Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/577/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource December 13, 1797 Public Opinion Text The US and Great Britain in Revolution War Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Not sufficiently content with abusing the National Assembly, a great part of his work is taken up with abusing Dr. Price (one of the best-hearted men that lives) and the two societies in England known by the name of the Revolution Society and the Society for Constitutional Information. Dr. Price had preached a sermon on the 4th of November, 1789, being the anniversary of what is called in England the Revolution, which took place [in] 1688. Mr. Burke, speaking of this sermon, says: "The political Divine proceeds dogmatically to assert, that by the principles of the Revolution, the people of England have acquired three fundamental rights: 1. To choose our own governors. 2. To cashier them for misconduct. 3. To frame a government for ourselves." Dr. Price does not say that the right to do these things exists in this or in that person, or in this or in that description of persons, but that it exists in the whole; that it is a right resident in the nation. Mr. Burke, on the contrary, denies that such a right exists in the nation, either in whole or in part, or that it exists anywhere; and, what is still more strange and marvellous, he says: "that the people of England utterly disclaim such a right, and that they will resist the practical assertion of it with their lives and fortunes." That men should take up arms and spend their lives and fortunes, not to maintain their rights, but to maintain they have not rights, is an entirely new species of discovery, and suited to the paradoxical genius of Mr. Burke. The method which Mr. Burke takes to prove that the people of England have no such rights, and that such rights do not now exist in the nation, either in whole or in part, or anywhere at all, is of the same marvellous and monstrous kind with what he has already said; for his arguments are that the persons, or the generation of persons, in whom they did exist, are dead, and with them the right is dead also. To prove this, he quotes a declaration made by Parliament about a hundred years ago, to William and Mary, in these words: "The Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, do, in the name of the people aforesaid" (meaning the people of England then living) "most humbly and faithfully submit themselves, their heirs and posterities, for Ever." He quotes a clause of another Act of Parliament made in the same reign, the terms of which he says, "bind us" (meaning the people of their day), "our heirs and our posterity, to them, their heirs and posterity, to the end of time." Mr. Burke conceives his point sufficiently established by producing those clauses, which he enforces by saying that they exclude the right of the nation for ever. And not yet content with making such declarations, repeated over and over again, he farther says, "that if the people of England possessed such a right before the Revolution" (which he acknowledges to have been the case, not only in England, but throughout Europe, at an early period), "yet that the English Nation did, at the time of the Revolution, most solemnly renounce and abdicate it, for themselves, and for all their posterity, for ever." As Mr. Burke occasionally applies the poison drawn from his horrid principles, not only to the English nation, but to the French Revolution and the National Assembly, and charges that august, illuminated and illuminating body of men with the epithet of usurpers, I shall, sans ceremonie, place another system of principles in opposition to his. The English Parliament of 1688 did a certain thing, which, for themselves and their constituents, they had a right to do, and which it appeared right should be done. But, in addition to this right, which they possessed by delegation, they set up another right by assumption, that of binding and controlling posterity to the end of time. The case, therefore, divides itself into two parts; the right which they possessed by delegation, and the right which they set up by assumption. The first is admitted; but with respect to the second, I reply there never did, there never will, and there never can, exist a Parliament, or any description of men, or any generation of men, in any country, possessed of the right or the power of binding and controlling posterity to the "end of time," or of commanding for ever how the world shall be governed, or who shall govern it; and therefore all such clauses, acts or declarations by which the makers of them attempt to do what they have neither the right nor the power to do, nor the power to execute, are in themselves null and void. Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the age and generations which preceded it. The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies. Man has no property in man; neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow. The Parliament or the people of 1688, or of any other period, had no more right to dispose of the people of the present day, or to bind or to control them in any shape whatever, than the parliament or the people of the present day have to dispose of, bind or control those who are to live a hundred or a thousand years hence. Every generation is, and must be, competent to all the purposes which its occasions require. It is the living, and not the dead, that are to be accommodated. When man ceases to be, his power and his wants cease with him; and having no longer any participation in the concerns of this world, he has no longer any authority in directing who shall be its governors, or how its government shall be organised, or how administered. I am not contending for nor against any form of government, nor for nor against any party, here or elsewhere. That which a whole nation chooses to do it has a right to do. Mr. Burke says, No. Where, then, does the right exist? I am contending for the rights of the living, and against their being willed away and controlled and contracted for by the manuscript assumed authority of the dead, and Mr. Burke is contending for the authority of the dead over the rights and freedom of the living. There was a time when kings disposed of their crowns by will upon their death-beds, and consigned the people, like beasts of the field, to whatever successor they appointed. This is now so exploded as scarcely to be remembered, and so monstrous as hardly to be believed. But the Parliamentary clauses upon which Mr. Burke builds his political church are of the same nature. The laws of every country must be analogous to some common principle. In England no parent or master, nor all the authority of Parliament, omnipotent as it has called itself, can bind or control the personal freedom even of an individual beyond the age of twenty-one years. On what ground of right, then, could the Parliament of 1688, or any other Parliament, bind all posterity for ever? . . . We are now got at the origin of man, and at the origin of his rights. As to the manner in which the world has been governed from that day to this, it is no farther any concern of ours than to make a proper use of the errors or the improvements which the history of it presents. Those who lived an hundred or a thousand years ago, were then moderns, as we are now. They had their ancients, and those ancients had others, and we also shall be ancients in our turn. If the mere name of antiquity is to govern in the affairs of life, the people who are to live an hundred or a thousand years hence, may as well take us for a precedent, as we make a precedent of those who lived an hundred or a thousand years ago. The fact is, that portions of antiquity, by proving everything, establish nothing. It is authority against authority all the way, till we come to the divine origin of the rights of man at the creation. Here our enquiries find a resting-place, and our reason finds a home. If a dispute about the rights of man had arisen at the distance of an hundred years from the creation, it is to this source of authority they must have referred, and it is to this same source of authority that we must now refer. Though I mean not to touch upon any sectarian principle of religion, yet it may be worth observing, that the genealogy of Christ is traced to Adam. Why then not trace the rights of man to the creation of man? I will answer the question. Because there have been upstart governments, thrusting themselves between, and presumptuously working to un-make man. If any generation of men ever possessed the right of dictating the mode by which the world should be governed for ever, it was the first generation that existed; and if that generation did it not, no succeeding generation can show any authority for doing it, nor can set any up. The illuminating and divine principle of the equal rights of man (for it has its origin from the Maker of man) relates, not only to the living individuals, but to generations of men succeeding each other. Every generation is equal in rights to generations which preceded it, by the same rule that every individual is born equal in rights with his contemporary. Sortable Date 1791-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Thomas Paine, "Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution," in The Political Works of Thomas Paine (New York: C. Blanchard, 1860), 6–8, 30, 32–36. Description An account of the resource Thomas Paine (1737–1809) played a vital role in mobilizing American support for their own independence, and he leapt to support the French revolutionaries when Edmund Burke attacked. Elected deputy to the French National Convention in 1793, Paine nearly lost his head as an associate of the Girondins during the Terror. In his reply to Burke, Paine defended the idea of reform based on reason. He dedicated the work to George Washington with the words: "Sir, I present you with a small treatise in defense of those principles of freedom which your exemplary virtue hath so eminently contributed to establish. That the rights of man may become as universal as your benevolence can wish, and that you may enjoy the happiness of seeing the new world regenerate the old." Paine argued that people now alive should not be bound by what their ancestors did; tradition and heredity should count for nothing. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 578 Title A name given to the resource Rights of Man Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/578/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1791 Enlightenment Popular Politics Public Opinion Sans-culottes Text The US and Great Britain in Revolution Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document From the Dedication to M. Talleyrand-Perigord Contending for the rights of woman, my main argument is built on this simple principle, that if she be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge and virtue; for truth must be common to all, or it will be inefficacious with respect to its influence on general practice. And how can woman be expected to co-operate unless she know why she ought to be virtuous? Unless freedom strengthen her reason till she comprehend her duty, and see in what manner it is connected with her real good? If children are to be educated to understand the true principle of patriotism, their mother must be a patriot; and the love of mankind, from which an orderly strain of virtues spring, can only be produced by considering the moral and civil interest of mankind; but the education and situation of woman, at present, shuts her out from such investigations. In this work I have produced many arguments, which to me were conclusive, to prove that the prevailing notion respecting a sexual character was subversive of morality, and I have contended, that to render the human body and mind more perfect, chastity must more universally prevail, and that chastity will never be respected in the male world till the person of a woman is not, as it were, idolized, when little virtue or sense embellish it with the grand traces of mental beauty, or the interesting simplicity of affection. Consider, Sir, dispassionately, these observations—for a glimpse of this truth seemed to open before you when you observed, "that to see one half of the human race excluded by the other from all participation of government, was a political phaenomenon that, according to abstract principles, it was impossible to explain." If so, on what does your constitution rest? If the abstract rights of man will bear discussion and explanation, those of woman, by a parity of reasoning, will not shrink from the same test: though a different opinion prevails in this country, built on the very arguments which you use to justify the oppression of woman—prescription. Consider, I address you as a legislator, whether, when men contend for their freedom, and to be allowed to judge for themselves respecting their own happiness, it be not inconsistent and unjust to subjugate women, even though you firmly believe that you are acting in the manner best calculated to promote their happiness? Who made man the exclusive judge, if woman partake with him the gift of reason? In this style, argue tyrants of every denomination, from the weak king to the weak father of a family; they are all eager to crush reason; yet always assert that they usurp its throne only to be useful. Do you not act a similar part, when you force all women, by denying them civil and political rights, to remain immured in their families groping in the dark? for surely, Sir, you will not assert, that a duty can be binding which is not founded on reason? If indeed this be their destination, arguments may be drawn from reason: and thus augustly supported, the more understanding women acquire, the more they will be attached to their duty—comprehending it—for unless they comprehend it, unless their morals be fixed on the same immutable principle as those of man, no authority can make them discharge it in a virtuous manner. They may be convenient slaves, but slavery will have its constant effect, degrading the master and the abject dependent. But, if women are to be excluded, without having a voice, from a participation of the natural rights of mankind, prove first, to ward off the charge of injustice and inconsistency, that they want reason—else this flaw in your NEW CONSTITUTION will ever shew that man must, in some shape, act like a tyrant, and tyranny, in whatever part of society it rears its brazen front, will ever undermine morality. I have repeatedly asserted, and produced what appeared to me irrefragable arguments drawn from matters of fact, to prove my assertion, that women cannot, by force, be confined to domestic concerns; for they will, however ignorant, intermeddle with more weighty affairs, neglecting private duties only to disturb, by cunning tricks, the orderly plans of reason which rise above their comprehension. Besides, whilst they are only made to acquire personal accomplishments, men will seek for pleasure in variety, and faithless husbands will make faithless wives; such ignorant beings, indeed, will be very excusable when, not taught to respect public good, nor allowed any civil rights, they attempt to do themselves justice by retaliation. . . . From Chapter V, Section V To prevent any misconstruction, I must add, that I do not believe that a private education can work the wonders which some sanguine writers have attributed to it. Men and women must be educated, in a great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in. In every age there has been a stream of popular opinion that has carried all before it, and given a family character, as it were, to the century. It may then fairly be inferred, that, till society be differently constituted, much cannot be expected from education. It is, however, sufficient for my present purpose to assert, that, whatever effect circumstances have on the abilities, every being may become virtuous by the exercise of its own reason; for if but one being was created with vicious inclinations, that is positively bad, what can save us from atheism? or if we worship a God, is not that God a devil? Consequently, the most perfect education, in my opinion, is such an exercise of the understanding as is best calculated to strengthen the body and form the heart. Or, in other words, to enable the individual to attain such habits of virtue as will render it independent. In fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason. This was Rousseau's opinion respecting men: I extend it to women, and confidently assert that they have been drawn out of their sphere by false refinement, and not by an endeavour to acquire masculine qualities. Still the regal homage which they receive is so intoxicating, that till the manners of the times are changed, and formed on more reasonable principles, it may be impossible to convince them that the illegitimate power, which they obtain, by degrading themselves, is a curse, and that they must return to nature and equality, if they wish to secure the placid satisfaction that unsophisticated affections impart. But for this epoch we must wait—wait, perhaps, till kings and nobles, enlightened by reason, and, preferring the real dignity of man to childish state, throw off their gaudy hereditary trappings: and if then women do not resign the arbitrary power of beauty—they will prove that they have less mind than man. . . . I know that a kind of fashion now prevails of respecting prejudices; and when any one dares to face them, though actuated by humanity and armed by reason, he is superciliously asked whether his ancestors were fools. No, I should reply; opinions, at first, of every description, were all, probably, considered, and therefore were founded on some reason; yet not unfrequently, of course, it was rather a local expedient than a fundamental principle, that would be reasonable at all times. But, moss-covered opinions assume the disproportioned form of prejudices, when they are indolently adopted only because age has given them a venerable aspect, though the reason on which they were built ceases to be a reason, or cannot be traced. Why are we to love prejudices, merely because they are prejudices?[1] A prejudice is a fond obstinate persuasion for which we can give no reason; for the moment a reason can be given for an opinion, it ceases to be a prejudice, though it may be an error in judgment: and are we then advised to cherish opinions only to set reason at defiance? This mode of arguing, if arguing it may be called, reminds me of what is vulgarly termed a woman's reason. For women sometimes declare that they love, or believe, certain things, because they love, or believe them. . . . Chapter VI: The Effect Which an Early Association of Ideas Has upon the Character. Educated in the enervating style recommended by the writers on whom I have been animadverting; and not having a chance, from their subordinate state in society, to recover their lost ground, is it surprising that women everywhere appear a defect in nature? Is it surprising, when we consider what a determinate effect an early association of ideas has on the character, that they neglect their understandings, and turn all their attention to their persons? Sortable Date 1792-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mary Wollstonecraft, "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman," in Mary Wollstonecraft, The Rights of Woman (London: Scott, 1891), xxvi–xxix,17–18, 155–56, 159. Description An account of the resource The English writer Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–97) argued against both Burke and Rousseau, defending the notion of natural rights, particularly rights for women, such as equal education. She insisted that women could not become virtuous, even as mothers, unless they won the right to participate in economic and political life on an equal basis with men. Although she did not specifically demand the right to vote for women, her emphasis on women’s rights made her an object of ridicule for some, heroism for others. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 579 Title A name given to the resource A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/579/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1792 Enlightenment Public Opinion Text The US and Great Britain in Revolution Women Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The men were terrible, in the bloody-minded anger with which they looked from windows, caught up what arms they had, and came pouring down into the streets; but, the women were a sight to chill the boldest. From such household occupations as their bare poverty yielded, from their children, from their aged and their sick crouching on the bare ground famished and naked, they ran out with streaming hair, urging one another, and themselves, to madness with the wildest cries and actions. Villain Foulon taken, my sister! Old Foulon taken, my mother! Miscreant Foulon taken, my daughter! Then, a score of others ran into the midst of these, beating their breasts, tearing their hair, and screaming, Foulon alive! Foulon who told the starving people they might eat grass! Foulon who told my old father that he might eat grass when I had no bread to give him! Foulon who told my baby it might suck grass, when these breasts were dry with want! O mother of God, this Foulon! O Heaven, our suffering! Hear me, my dead baby and my withered father: I swear on my knees, on these stones, to avenge you on Foulon! Husbands, and brothers, and young men, Give us the blood of Foulon, Give us the head of Foulon, Give us the heart of Foulon, Give us the body and soul of Foulon, Rend Foulon to pieces, and dig him into the ground, that grass may grow from him! With these cries, numbers of the women lashed into blind frenzy, whirled about, striking and tearing at their own friends until they dropped into a passionate swoon, and were only saved by the men belonging to them from being trampled under foot. Nevertheless, not a moment was lost; not a moment! This Foulon was at the Hotel de ville, and might be loosed. Never, if Saint Antoine knew his own sufferings, insults, and wrongs! Armed men and women flocked out of the Quarter so fast, and drew even these last dregs after them with such a force of suction, that within a quarter of an hour there was not a human creature in Saint Antoine's bosom but a few old crones and the wailing children. No. They were all by that time choking the Hall of Examination, where this old man, ugly and wicked, was, and overflowing into the adjacent open space and streets. The Defarges, husband and wife, The Vengeance, and Jacques Three, were in the first press, and at no great distance from him in the Hall. "See!" cried Madame, pointing with her knife. "See the old villain bound with ropes. That was well done to tie a bunch of grass upon his back. Ha, ha! That was well done. Let him eat it now!" Madame put her knife under her arm, and clapped her hands as at a play. The people immediately behind Madame Defarges, explaining the cause of her satisfaction to those behind them, and those again explaining to others, and those to others, the neighboring streets resounded with the clapping of hands. Similarly, during two or three hours of drawl, and the winnowing of many bushels of words, Madame Defarge's frequent expressions of impatience were taken up, with marvelous quickness, at a distance: the more readily, because certain men who had by some wonderful exercise of agility climbed up the external architecture to look in from the windows, knew Madame Defarge well, and acted as a telegraph between her and the crowd outside the building. At length the sun rose so high that it struck a kindly ray as of hope or protection, directly down upon the old prisoner's head. The favor was too much to bear; in an instant the barrier of dust and chaff that had stood surprisingly long, went to the winds, and Saint Antoine had got him! It was known directly, to the furthest confines of the crowd. Defarge had but sprung over a railing and a table, and folded the miserable wretch in a deadly embrace. Madame Defarge had but followed and turned her hand in one of the ropes with which he was tied—The Vengeance and Jacques Three were not yet up with them, and the men at the windows had not yet swooped into the hall, like birds of prey from their high perches—when the cry seemed to go up, all over the city, "Bring him out! Bring him to the lamp!" Down, and up, and head foremost on the steps of the building; now, on his knees; now, on his feet; now, on his back; dragged, and struck at, and stifled by the bunches of grass and straw that were thrust into his face by hundreds of hands; torn, bruised, panting, bleeding, yet always entreating and beseeching for mercy; now full of vehement agony of action, with a small clear space about him as the people drew one another back that they might see; now, a log of dead wood drawn through a forest of legs; he was hauled to the nearest street corner where one of the fatal lamps swung, and there Madame Defarge let him go—as a cat might have done to a mouse—and silently and composedly looked at him while they made ready, and while he besought her: the women passionately screeching at him all the time, and the men sternly calling out to have him killed with grass in his mouth. Once, he went aloft, and the rope broke, and they caught him shrieking; twice, he went aloft, and the rope broke, and they caught him shrieking; then, the rope was merciful, and held him, and his head was soon upon a pike, with grass enough in the mouth for all Saint Antoine to dance at the sight of. Nor was this the end of the day's bad work, for Saint Antoine so shouted and danced his angry blood up, that it boiled again, on hearing when the day closed in that the son-in-law of the dispatched, another of the people's enemies and insulters, was coming into Paris under a guard five hundred strong, in cavalry alone. Saint Antoine wrote his crimes on flaring sheets of paper, seized him—would have torn him out of the breast of an army to bear Foulon company—set his head and heart on pikes, and carried the three spoils of the day, in Wolf-procession through the streets. Not before dark night did the men and women come back to the children, wailing and breadless. Then, the miserable bakers' shops were beset by long files of them, patiently waiting to buy bad bread; and while they waited with stomachs faint and empty, they beguiled the time by embracing one another on the triumphs of the day, and achieving them again in gossip. Gradually, these strings of ragged people shortened and frayed away; and then poor lights began to shine in high windows, and slender fires were made in the streets, at which neighbors cooked in common, afterwards supping at their doors. Scanty and insufficient suppers those, and innocent of meat, as of most other sauce to wretched bread. Yet, human fellowship infused some nourishment into the flinty viands, and struck some sparks of cheerfulness out of them. Fathers and mothers who had had their full share in the worst of the day, played gently with their meager children; and lovers, with such a world around them and before them, loved and hoped. It was almost morning, when Defarge's wine shop parted with its last knot of customers, and Monsieur Defarge said to Madame his wife, in husky tones, while fastening the door: "At last it is come, my dear!" "Eh well!" returned Madame. "Almost." Saint Antoine slept, the Defarges slept: even The Vengeance slept with her starved grocer, and the drum was at rest. The drum's was the only voice in Saint Antoine that blood and hurry had not changed. The Vengeance, as custodian of the drum, could have awakened him up and had the same speech out of him as before the Bastille fell, or old Foulon was seized; not so with the hoarse tones of the men and women in Saint Antoine's bosom. Sortable Date 1859-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, intro. G. K. Chesterton (London: J. M. Dent, [1906] 1955), 218–21. Description An account of the resource Charles Dickens’s (1812–70) novels generally appeared in serial form in popular newspapers. Usually he took his subjects and characters from contemporary English society, but in this novel he created one of the most enduring and pessimistic English–language portrayals of the French Revolution, particularly the fearsome female "knitters" of the Faubourg Saint–Antoine in Paris, like Madame Defarge, to whom he attributes much of the Revolution’s bloodthirstiness. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 586 Title A name given to the resource Dickens, Tale of Two Cities Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/586/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1859 Economic Conditions Popular Politics Public Opinion Sans-culottes Text The Terror The US and Great Britain in Revolution Women Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document I am not sure whether it was in this winter or the next that I first read a history of the French Revolution.1 I learnt with astonishment, that the principles of democracy, then apparently in so insignificant and hopeless a minority everywhere in Europe, had borne all before them in France thirty years earlier, and had been the creed of the nation. As may be supposed from this, I had previously a very vague idea of that great commotion. I knew only that the French had thrown off the absolute monarchy of Louis XIV and XV, had put the king and queen to death, guillotined many persons, one of whom was Lavoisier, and had ultimately fallen under the despotism of Bonaparte. From this time, as was natural, the subject took an immense hold of my feelings. It allied itself with all my juvenile aspirations to the character of a democratic champion. . . . And thus ended my connexion with the original Westminster. The last article which I wrote in it had cost me more labour than any previous; but it was a labour of love, being a defence of the early French Revolutionists against the Tory misrepresentations of Sir Walter Scott, in the introduction to his Life of Napoleon. The number of books which I read for this purpose, making notes and extracts—even the number I had to buy (for in those days there was no public or subscription library from which books of reference could be taken home), far exceeded the worth of the immediate object; but I had at that time a half-formed intention of writing a History of the French Revolution; and though I never executed my collections afterwards were very useful to Carlyle for a similar purpose.2 1Probably François-Emmanuel Toulongeon, Histoire de France, depuis la révolution de 1789, 4 vols. (Paris: Treuttel and Wurtz, 1801–10). 2I.e., Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution, 3 vols. (London: Fraser, 1837). Sortable Date 1824-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Stuart Mill, Autobiography and Literary Essays, ed. John M. Robson and Jack Stillinger (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981), 65, 135. Description An account of the resource John Stuart Mill (1806–73), an English civil servant and philosopher, was a firm believer in the liberal, democratic, and anti–absolutist elements of the legacy of the Revolution and hoped to extend these concepts as widely as possible. Most famous for On Liberty (1859) and The Subjection of Women (1869), Mill was profoundly influenced by the French Revolution. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 588 Title A name given to the resource John Stuart Mill on the French Revolution Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/588/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1824 Enlightenment Public Opinion Text The US and Great Britain in Revolution Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 12 December 1792 SITUATION OF FRANCE In adverting to the present disastrous situation of France, many, perhaps may be inclined to reprobate that revolution which has produced effects so horrible. But if we survey the effects with the eye of cool deliberation, we shall find that though they certainly emanated from the revolution, yet that our reprobation ought to be turned into another channel. The change which took place in the system of government, emancipated twenty-four millions of the human species.—Prima facie, therefore, the most cautious reasoning must allow it to be an event of infinite advantage to the world. But though it was effected with the consent and support of nine parts out of ten, yet the tenth part viewed it in a different light. A long series of years had transmitted to them hereditary rights & privileges which placed them above the great body of the nation. The King exercised a despotic power without restraint. The nobles described around them a circle equally tyrannical, though of extent less ample. To those who know how dear the possession of power to the human mind, it will not appear strange that such persons should view the revolution with the eye of anger, in as much as it wrested from them those exclusive rights which had descended to them covered with the reverend rust of antiquity neither will it be a matter of wonder that they should attempt to impede the progress of a system to them so distasteful. The argument will apply in the present instance. The Emigrant Princess, and the other malcontents have sedulously and uniformly endeavored to bring the revolution in disrepose. We have seen them, secretly assisted by the King and Queen disperse calamities all over Europe. We have seen them dispatch emissaries into France to attack every measure that tended to facilitate the progress of Liberty. We have heard them broach the most abominable falsehoods and the most monstrous doctrines.—We have beheld them at length engage several nations to assist in murdering their countrymen, and in deluging their native soil with blood. To such men what crimes are too horrible to be committed, or what system too infamous to be adopted?—none—Leagued with Calonne, a man indeed tauto dignus honore, we have no doubt that the recent massacres are attributable to them. We can easily believe that they have bribed persons to feign an affection for the revolution, and under that mask to take the lead in the most ferocious murders. Nor let this appear strange—the world knows how easily a few designing men can inflame the passions of the mob to a degree of madness that breaks down every barrier opposed to it. In fine, whether our conjectures be well founded or not, let us recollect, that though much blood may be shed ere Liberty be firmly established; yet that when it shall be established the effusion will cease. A system of Despotism, however, cannot be supported without blood, and we have no reason to believe that as long as it continues, the sanguinary torrent will ever cease. Until we know the real cause of those ferocious acts, which no honest man can approve nor no honest man contemplate without horror, it is treason against a good cause to attribute them to the friends of the Revolution. 25 January 1793 Answer to a paragraph exhibiting the difference between the French and American Revolution, lately published in some of the newspapers of the United States. There is that difference between the French and American Revolutions, that the latter was not opposed by cunning priests, nor cruel aristocrats determined to overthrow every principle of honesty and humanity, for a chimera misled by common sense—A royal puppet on this spot, did not dance on the wire of a band of courtiers; the most despicable and abandoned wretches that ever disgraced mankind. The focus of both despotism and nobility was far from this land of liberty, and its glorious adherents could not be infected with the pernicious breath of mad royalty and impudent aristocracy. The popular cause was opposed openly, sword in hand, and victoriously fought by the friends to the rights of men; had the French republicans met with such opponents, they had not done those excesses, the king, the nobles and clergy have roused them to by the most perfidious contrivances. A king did not forswear himself in America, nor had the American people more than one Arnold; their tempers were soured neither by misery nor by a complicated system of treachery, framed coolly and pursued with the greatest obstinacy. The American people were not loaded with enormous taxes that had reduced millions of their fellow citizens to the utmost misery to maintain haughty plunderers in sloth and profligacy. All this odds must be reckoned by impartial men; to explain the difference insidiously delineated between the two revolutions, by some desperate royalty, or a narrow minded plan. Sortable Date 1792-12-12 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Benjamin Franklin Bache, The General Advertiser, no. 690 (Philadelphia, 12 December 1792), 2; and The General Advertiser, no. 727 (Philadelphia, 25 January 1793), 2. Description An account of the resource Benjamin Franklin Bache, grandson on Benjamin Franklin, was a supporter of Jefferson’s Republican Party. His sympathetically summarized the situation in France during the period when Louis XVI was put on trial and executed. He defended the actions of the revolutionaries on the grounds that they were merely responding to the provocations of nobles and other "traitors." Even through the Terror Bache continued his strong support. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 591 Title A name given to the resource A Positive American View Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/591/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource December 12, 1792 Public Opinion Text The Terror The US and Great Britain in Revolution Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Philadelphia Jan. 3. 1793 DEAR SIR The tone of your letters had for some time given me pain, on account of the extreme warmth with which they censured the proceedings of the Jacobins of France. I considered that sect as the same with the Republican patriots, and the Feuillants as the Monarchical patriots, well known in the early part of the revolution, and but little distant in their views, both having in object the establishment of a free constitution, and differing only on the question whether their chief Executive should be hereditary or not. The Jacobins (as since called) yielded to the Feuillants and tried the experiment of retaining their hereditary Executive. The experiment failed completely, and would have brought on the reestablishment of despotism had it been pursued. The Jacobins saw this, and that the expunging that officer was of absolute necessity, and the Nation was with them in opinion, for however they might have been formerly for the constitution framed by the first assembly, they were come over from their hope in it, and were now generally Jacobins. In the struggle which was necessary, many guilty persons fell without the forms of trial, and with them some innocent. These I deplore as much as any body, and shall deplore some of them to the day of my death. But I deplore them as I should have done had they fallen in battle. It was necessary to use the arm of the people, a machine not quite so blind as balls and bombs, but blind to a certain degree. A few of their cordial friends met at their hands, the fate of enemies. But time and truth will rescue and embalm their memories, while their posterity will be enjoying that very liberty for which they would never have hesitated to offer up their lives. The liberty of the whole earth was depending on the issue of the contest, and was ever such a prize won with so little innocent blood? My own affections have been deeply wounded by some of the martyrs to this cause, but rather than it should have failed, I would have seen half the earth desolated. Were there but an Adam and an Eve left in every country, and left free, it would be better than as it now is. I have expressed to you my sentiments, because they are really those of 99 in an hundred of our citizens. The universal feasts, and rejoicings which have lately been had on account of the successes of the French shewed the genuine effusions of their hearts. You have been wounded by the sufferings of your friends, and have by this circumstance been hurried into a temper of mind which would be extremely disrelished if known to your countrymen. The reserve of the Pres. of the U.S. had never permitted me to discover the light in which he viewed it, and as I was more anxious that you should satisfy him than me, I had still avoided explanations with you on the subject. But your [letter] 113 induced him to break silence and to notice the extreme acrimony of your expressions. He added that he had been informed the sentiments you expressed in your conversations were equally offensive to our allies, and that you should consider yourself as the representative of your country and that what you say, might be imputed to your constituents. He desired me therefore to write to you on this subject. He added that he considered France as the sheet anchor of this country and its friendship as a first object. There are in the U.S. some characters of opposite principles; some of them are high in office, others possessing great wealth, and all of them hostile to France and fondly looking to England as the staff of their hope. These I named to you on a former occasion. Their prospects have certainly not brightened. Excepting them, this country is entirely republican, friends to the constitution, anxious to preserve it and to have it administered according to it's [sic] own republican principles. The little party above mentioned have espoused it only as a stepping stone to monarchy, and have endeavored to approximate it to that in it's [sic] administration, in order to render it's [sic] final transition more easy. The successes of republicanism in France have given the coup de grace to their prospects, and I hope to their projects.—I have developed to you faithfully the sentiments of your country, that you may govern yourself accordingly. I know your republicanism to be pure, and that it is no decay of that which has embittered you against it's[sic] votaries in France, but too great a sensibility at the partial evil by which it's object has been accomplished there. Sortable Date 1793-01-03 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Thomas Jefferson, "Letter to William Short" (3 January 1793), Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress, Series 1, Reel 17. Description An account of the resource Although deeply sympathetic to the French in general and the revolutionary cause in particular, Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) deplored the excesses of violence that took place even before the implementation of the Reign of Terror. Still, he believed that many of the steps taken by the French, such as deposing their king, had been necessary, and claimed that most North Americans supported the French. The Terror would later make him reconsider still more, though without renouncing the Revolution entirely. Here he explains himself to the secretary he had used while working in France. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 592 Title A name given to the resource Thomas Jefferson on the French Revolution Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/592/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource January 3, 1793 Public Opinion Text The Terror The US and Great Britain in Revolution