312] 
exemption, 
it, : 
_ While France was thus, even dur. 
ing the tempest of a revolytion, 
treating the Americans with mark- 
ed attention; what, asks the note, 
were the executive of the United 
States employed in? They wére 
questioning whether they would 
acknowledge the republic and‘ re- 
ceive their ambassador ; whether 
they should consider the treaty, 
the price of American liberty, as 
binding ? whether the envoys from 
exiled and rebellious princes should 
be received ; an ambiguous procla- 
mation of neutrality was framed; 
French privateers were harassed ; 
England was suffered to spost with 
our neutrality, and to cut up our 
commerce to the detriment of 
France; English ships of war were 
admitted in our ports; the advances 
of France for a renewal of the trea- 
ty of commerce were eluded under 
the most frivolous pretexts, while 
our executive coprted the British, 
and solicited a treaty, by which, 
prostituting our neutrality, we sa- 
¢rificed France to her enemies ; 
and this whilst a review of late 
events, whilst every object around 
still reminds us of the tyranny of 
Britain, and the generous assistance 
of France. 
The note concludes by calling on 
Americans to remerober, that, if 
generous minds are alive to inju- 
ries, they can forgive; and that 
the French, when they are treated 
as friends, will still be found faith. 
ful friends and generous allies. 
they. early renewed 
The Minister Plenipotentiary of the 
French Republic with the United 
States of America, ta the French 
Citizes whe reside or travel in the’ 
United States. 
ANNUAL- REGISTER, 1796. 
_ Citizens, ; 
FROM the dawn of our revolu- 
tion, the tri-coloured cockade has 
been the rallying point of those 
energetic men, whose generous et. 
forts gave the first blow to arbitra. 
ry power. At their cali, the French 
nation, bent for centuries under 
the yoke, shook off that long drow- 
siness ; twenty-four millions of men 
adopted that august symbol; they 
exclaimed, ‘* He shill be free,’’ and 
all opposition was deteated, and the 
throne tumbied down in the dust, 
and all Europe armed against them, 
has been vanquished, 
The republic decorates all her 
‘eitizens with those national colours, 
the sacred symbol of liberty which 
they have won. 
Frenchmen who are absent from 
their native land ought not, amidst 
nations allied with theirs, to lay 
aside the distinétive mark which, 
by making them known, secures ta 
them the protectian and reciprocal 
respect guaranteed by our treaties 
with those nations. 
Those who, from a guilty in. 
difference, should slight the right, 
exempt themselves from that duty 
——those could lay no claim to that 
protection, they would renounce 
the support of the agents of the 
republic. 
But, citizens, I am persuaded 
that at the call of the mjnister of 
the French republic, you will has- 
ten to put on the symbol of a liber. 
ty, which is the fruit of eight years 
toils and privations and of five 
years victories. 
Thus you will draw a line of 
demarcation between you and those 
contemptible beings, whose unfeel. 
ing hearts are calious to the sacred 
name of native land, to the noble 
pride with which the freeman is 
‘ animated 
