208 
vain, the information fraudulent or 
frivolous, the councils perfidious 
or contradictory; where, after hav- 
ing pressed me to advance without 
precaution, and to attack without 
means, they began to tell me that 
resistance would soon be impossible, 
when my indignation repelled the 
dastardly assertion. 
What remarkable conformity of 
language, gentlemen, between those 
factious men who avow their aris- 
tocratic spirit, and those who usurp 
the name of patriots! Both wish 
to subvert our laws, nejoiee in dis- 
orders, rise up against the autho- 
rities conferred by the people, de- 
test the national guard, preach in- 
discipline to the army, and sow 
sometimes distrust, sometimes dis- 
couragement. 
As for me, gentlemen, who es- 
poused the American cause at the 
very moment when its ambassadors 
declared to me it was lost; who 
thenceforward devoted myself to a 
persevering defence of liberty and 
the sovereignty of the people ; who, 
on the 11th of July, 1789, on pre- 
senting to my country a declaration 
of rights, durst tell her,—For a 
nation to be free, it is sufficient that 
she wills it; I come now, full of 
confidence in the justice of our 
cause, of contempt for the cowards 
who desert it, and of indignation 
against the traitors who would sully 
it; I come to declare that the 
French nation, if she is not the 
vilest in the universe, may and 
ought to resist the conspiracy of 
kings formed against her. 
It is not undoubtedly in the 
midst of my brave army that timid 
sentiments are permitted : patriot- 
ism, energy, discipline, patience, 
mutual confidence, all the civil and 
military virtues I have found in it. 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1792. 
The principles of liberty and equa- 
lity are cherished, the laws respect- 
ed, property sacred in it; neither 
calumnies nor factions are known 
in it. 
But in order that we, soldiers of 
liberty, may fight with efficacy, or 
die with advantage to our cause, it 
is necessary that the number of the 
defenders of our country be speedily 
proportioned to that of their adver- 
saries; that stores of all sorts be 
multiplied ; that the comfort of the 
troops, their equipage, their pay, 
the accommodations for their health, 
be no longer exposed to fatal de- 
lays, or pretended savings, which 
always turn out the direct reverse 
of their object. 
Above all, it is necessary that the 
citizens, rallied around the consti- 
tution, be assured that the rights 
which it guarantees will be respect- 
ed with a religious fidelity, that 
shall drive its enemies, concealed 
or public, to despair. 
Reject not this wish: it is that 
of the sincere friends for your le- 
gitimate authority. Assured that no 
unjust consequence can flow from a 
pure principle, that no tyrannical 
measures can serve a cause which 
owes its strength and glory to the 
sacred basis of liberty and equality, 
make criminal justice resume its 
constitutional course, make civil 
equality and religious liberty enjoy 
the entire application of their true 
principles. 
Let the royal power be un- 
touched, for it is guaranteed by the 
constitution ; let it be independent, 
for its independence is one of the 
springs of our liberty; let the kin 
be revered, for he is invested wit 
the national majesty ; let him have ~ 
the power of choosing a ministry 
that wear not the chainsof a is 
an 
