taught to believe that the liberty of a Citizen was the
first object of all free Governments, and that it ought not to give
preference to, or be blended with, any other. It is that public object
that all the world can see, and which obtains an influence upon public
opinion more than any other. This is not the case with the objects you
allude to. But be those objects what they may, can you suppose you will
accomplish them the easier by holding me in the back-ground, or making
me only an accident in the negotiation? Those with whom you confer will
conclude from thence that you do not feel yourself very strong upon
those points, and that you politically keep me out of sight in the
meantime to make your approach the easier.

There is one part in your letter that is equally as proper should be
communicated to the Committee as to me, and which I conceive you are
under some diplomatic obligation to do. It is that part which you
conclude by saying that "_to the welfare of Thomas Paine the Americans
are not and cannot be indifferent_." As it is impossible the Americans
can preserve their esteem for me and for my oppressors at the same
time, the injustice to me strikes at the popular part of the Treaty of
Alliance. If it be the wish of the Committee to reduce the treaty to a
mere skeleton of Government forms, they are taking the right method to
do it, and it is not improbable they will blame you afterwards for not
in-forming them upon the subject. The disposition to retort has been so
notorious here, that you ought to be guarded against it at all points.

You say in your letter that you doubt whether the gentleman who informed
me of the language held by some Americans respecting my citizenship of
America conveyed even his own ideas clearly upon the subject.(1) I know
not how this may be, but I believe he told me the truth. I received a
letter a few days ago from a friend and former comrade of mine in which
he tells me, that all the Americans he converses with, say, that
I should have been in liberty long ago if the Minister could have
reclaimed me as an American citizen. When I compare this with the
counter-declarations in your letter I can explain the case no otherwise
than I have already done, that it is an apology to get rid of the shame
and dishonour they feel at the imprisonment of an American citizen,
and because they are not willing it should be supposed there is want
of influence in the American Embassy. But they ought to