was the commander) that I now oppose to this faction the _correspondence_
of a _ministry, worthy_ representative of its _club_--a correspondence, the
calculations of which are false, its promises vain and illusory--its
information deceitful or frivolous--its advice perfidious or
contradictory--correspondence, in which _after_ pressing me to advance
without precaution--to attack _without means_--they finally began to tell
me that _resistance_ was _impossible_, when I indignantly repelled the
cowardly and base assertion. What a remarkable conformity of language,
gentlemen, between the factions whom the _aristocracy_ avow, and those who
_usurp_ the _name_ of _patriots_! They both wish to overthrow our laws,
rejoice in our disorders, array themselves against the constituted
authorities, detest the national guards (the militia)--preach
insubordination to the army--sow, at one moment, distrust, at another,
discouragement.

"As to myself, gentlemen, _who embraced the American cause at the moment
when its ambassadors declared to me that it was perilous or desperate_--
who from that moment have devoted my life to a persevering defence of
liberty and of the sovereignty of the people--who, on the 14th of July,
1789 after the taking of the Bastille, in presenting to my country a
declaration of rights dared to say "that in order that a nation should be
free, it is only necessary that it should _will_ so to be." I come, this
day, full of confidence in the justice of our cause--of contempt, for the
cowards who desert it, and of indignation against the traitors who would
sully or stain it with crimes; I am ready to declare that the French
nation, if it is not the vilest in the universe, can and ought to resist
the conspiracy of kings who have coalesced against it!

"It is not in the midst of my brave army that timid counsels should be
permitted.--Patriotism, discipline, patience, mutual confidence, all the