ong,
it is a part of our duty to consider the interests of those who shall
replace us. If by any act of ours the number of the nation's enemies
shall be needlessly increased, and that of its friends diminished,--at a
time when the finances may be more strained than to-day,--we should
not be justifiable for having thus unnecessarily heaped obstacles in
the path of our successors. Let us therefore not be precipitate in our
decisions.

1 It is possible that the course of the debate may have
produced some reaction among the people, but when Paine
voted against submitting the king's fate to the popular vote
it was believed by the king and his friends that it would be
fatal. The American Minister, Gouverneur Morris, who had
long been acting for the king, wrote to President
Washington, Jan. 6, 1793: "The king's fate is to be decided
next Monday, the 14th. That unhappy man, conversing with one
of his Council on his own fate, calmly summed up the motives
of every kind, and concluded that a majority of the Council
would vote for referring his case to the people, and that in
consequence he should be massacred." Writing to Washington
on Dec. 28, 1792, Morris mentions having heard from Paine
that he was to move the king's banishment to America, and he
may then have informed Paine that the king believed
reference of his case to popular vote would be fatal.
Genet was to have conducted the royal family to America.--
_Editor._

France has but one ally--the United States of America. That is the only
nation that can furnish France with naval provisions, for the
kingdoms of northern Europe are, or soon will be, at war with her. It
unfortunately happens that the person now under discussion is considered
by the Americans as having been the friend of their revolution. His
execution will be an affliction to them, and it is in your power not
to wound the feelings of your ally. Could I speak the French language I
would descend to your bar, and in their name become your petitioner to
respite the execution of the sentence on Louis.

Thuriot: This is not the language of Thomas Paine.

Marat: I denounce the interpreter. I maintain that it is not Thomas
Paine's opinion. It is an untrue translation.

Garran: I have read the original, and the translation is correct.(1)

[_Prolonged uproar. Paine, still standing in the tribune beside his
interpreter, Deput