THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: RAYNAL & JEFFERSON (PART V)
"Contrée héroïque, mon âge avancé ne me permet pas de te visiter..." — Raynal
AM |
@HDI1780
In his gripping historical novel
Waffen für Amerika (1946), Lion Feuchtwanger describes Beaumarchais' euphoric demeanour as he introduces the American Declaration of Independence into Parisian
salons. Although his friends warn him that Benjamin Franklin "is not quite as optimistic as you are", an undeterred Beaumarchais sees the Declaration as the signal to move forward with his risky American ventures. The momentous events take place just as Raynal and Diderot sit down to write about events in North America for what would become the third edition of
Histoire des deux Indes.
* * *
Chapter 45 of
Book XVIII contains a partial translation of the
Declaration of Independence. While the Declaration is deemed the Revolution's
manifeste, its main author is not mentioned — a fact that must have contributed to Thomas Jefferson's enduring animosity towards Raynal. Here's the translation:
...l’histoire de la nation Angloise & de son roi n’offrira à l’avenir qu’elle entretiendra d’eux & de nous, qu’un tissu d’outrages & d’usurpations qui tendoient également à l’établissement d’une tyrannie absolue dans ces provinces.
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.
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Elle dira que son monarque a refusé son consentement aux loix les plus salutaires & les plus nécessaires au bien public.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
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[not translated]
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
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Qu’il a transféré les assemblées dans des lieux incommodes, éloignés des archives, pour amener plus aisément les députés à ses vues.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
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Qu’il a plusieurs fois dîssous la chambre des représentans, parce qu’on y défendoit avec fermeté les droits des peuples.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
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Qu’il a laissé, après cette dissolution, les états trop long-tems sans représentans, & par conséquent exposés aux inconvéniens résultant du défaut d’assemblée.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
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Qu’il s’est efforcé d’arrêter la population, en rendant la naturalisation des étrangers difficile, & en vendant trop cher les terreins dont il accordoit la propriété.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
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[not translated]
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
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Qu’il a trop mis les juges dans sa dépendance, en statuant qu’ils ne tiendroient que de lui, & leurs offices, & leurs salaires.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
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Qu’il a créé des places nouvelles & rempli ces régions d’une multitude d’employés qui dévoroient notre substance & troubloient notre tranquillité.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
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Qu’il a maintenu, en pleine paix, au milieu de nous des forces considérables, sans le consentement du pouvoir législatif.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
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Qu’il a rendu le pouvoir militaire indépendant de la loi civile & même supérieur à elle.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
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Qu’il a tout combiné avec des hommes pervers, pour loger dans nos maisons des gens de guerre armés, & les mettre à couvert des peines dues aux meurtres qu’ils pourroient commettre en Amérique; pour détruire notre commerce dans toutes les parties du globe; pour nous imposer des taxes sans notre aveu; pour nous priver, dans plusieurs cas, de nos jugemens par jurés; pour nous transporter & nous faire juger au-delà des mers; pour nous enlever nos chartes, supprimer nos meilleures loix, altérer le fonds & la forme de notre gouvernement; pour suspendre notre propre législation & pouvoir nous donner d’autres loix.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
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Qu’il a lui-même abdiqué son gouvernement dans les provinces Américaines, en nous déclarant déchus de sa protection & en nous faisant la guerre.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
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Qu’il a fait ravager nos côtes, détruire nos ports, brûler nos villes, massacrer nos peuples.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
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[order altered here] Que dans ce moment il arrivoit sur nos plages des armées mercenaires & étrangères, chargées de consommer l’ouvrage de la désolation & de la mort. Et qu’un prince, dont le caractère fut ainsi marqué par tous les traits de la tyrannie, n’étoit pas fait pour gouverner un peuple libre.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
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Qu’il a forcé nos concitoyens, faits prisonniers en pleine mer, à porter les armes contre leur patrie, à devenir les bourreaux de leurs amis & de leurs frères, où à périr eux-mêmes par des mains si chères.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
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Qu’il a excité parmi nous des divisions intestines, & qu’il s’est efforcé de soulever contre nos paisibles habitans les sauvages barbares, accoutumés à tout massacrer, sans distinction de rang, de sexe & d’âge.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
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