person to step
forward. In consequence of what passed thereupon between them he [Paine]
urged me to take the matter up, which I promised to do. On the 18th I
wrote to the Duke of Leeds requesting an interview."

1 Force's "American State Papers, For. Rel.," vol. i.

At that time (1790) Paine was as yet a lion in London, thus able to
give Morris a lift. He told Morris, in 1792 that he considered his
appointment to France a mistake. This was only on the ground of his
anti-republican opinions; he never dreamed of the secret commissions
to England. He could not have supposed that the Minister who had so
promptly presented the case of impressed seamen in England would
not equally attend to the distressed Captains in France; but these,
neglected by their Minister, appealed to Paine. Paine went to see
Morris, with whom he had an angry interview, during which he asked
Morris "if he did not feel ashamed to take the money of the country
and do nothing for it." Paine thus incurred the personal enmity of
Gouverneur Morris. By his next step he endangered this Minister's
scheme for increasing the friction between France and America; for
Paine advised the Americans to appeal directly to the Convention, and
introduced them to that body, which at once heeded their application,
Morris being left out of the matter altogether. This was August 22d, and
Morris was very angry. It is probable that the Americans in Paris
felt from that time that Paine was in danger, for on September 13th a
memorial, evidently concocted by them, was sent to the French government
proposing that they should send Commissioners to the United States to
forestall the intrigues of England, and that Paine should go with them,
and set forth their case in the journals, as he "has great influence
with the people." This looks like a design to get Paine safely out of
the country, but it probably sealed his fate. Had Paine gone to America
and reported there Morris's treacheries to France and to his own
country, and his licentiousness, notorious in Paris, which his diary has
recently revealed to the world, the career of the Minister would have
swiftly terminated. Gouverneur Morris wrote to Robert Morris that
Paine was intriguing for his removal, and intimates that he (Paine) was
ambitious of taking his place in Paris. Paine's return to America must
be prevented.

Had the American Minister not been well known as an enemy of the
republic it might have been easy to carry