but since I have gone thus far I will fill up the remainder of
the sheet with such matters as occur to me.

There ought to be some regulation with respect to the spirit of
denunciation that now prevails. If every individual is to indulge his
private malignancy or his private ambition, to denounce at random and
without any kind of proof, all confidence will be undermined and all
authority be destroyed. Calumny is a species of Treachery that ought to
be punished as well as any other kind of Treachery. It is a private vice
productive of public evils; because it is possible to irritate men into
disaffection by continual calumny who never intended to be disaffected.
It is therefore, equally as necessary to guard against the evils
of unfounded or malignant suspicion as against the evils of blind
confidence. It is equally as necessary to protect the characters of
public officers from calumny as it is to punish them for treachery or
misconduct. For my own part I shall hold it a matter of doubt, until
better evidence arises than is known at present, whether Dumouriez has
been a traitor from policy or resentment. There was certainly a time
when he acted well, but it is not every man whose mind is strong enough
to bear up against ingratitude, and I think he experienced a great deal
of this before he revolted. Calumny becomes harmless and defeats itself,
when it attempts to act upon too large a scale. Thus the denunciation
of the Sections [of Paris] against the twenty-two deputies [Girondists]
falls to the ground. The departments that elected them are better judges
of their moral and political characters than those who have denounced
them. This denunciation will injure Paris in the opinion of the
departments because it has the appearance of dictating to them what sort
of deputies they shall elect. Most of the acquaintances that I have in
the Convention are among those who are in that list, and I know there
are not better men nor better patriots than what they are.

I have written a letter to Marat of the same date as this but not on the
same subject. He may show it to you if he chuse.

Votre Ami,

Thomas Paine.

Citoyen Danton.

XIX. A CITIZEN OF AMERICA TO THE CITIZENS OF EUROPE (1)

18th Year of Independence.

1 State Archives, Paris: Etats Unis, vol. 38, fol. 90. This
pamphlet is in English, without indication of authorship or
of the place of publication. It is accompanied by a French
trans