"It is in that body, in its public meaning, the _love_ of the laws is denounced as aristocracy, and their _breach_ as patriotism. _There_ the assassins of Dessilles receive their triumphs, the crimes of Jourdan find panegyrists. There, the recital of the massacre which has stained the city of Metz, has also been received with _infernal_ acclamations! Have they become sacred because the emperor Leopold has pronounced their name? And because it is our highest duty to combat the _foreigners_, who mingle in our domestic quarrels, are we at liberty to refrain from _delivering_ our country from domestic tyranny? "Of what importance is it, as to the fulfillment of this duty, that strangers have their projects; and their connivance and concert with our internal foes? It is I, who denounce to you this sect [the jacobins]; I, who, without speaking of my past life, _can reply_ to those who suspect my motives--"Approach, in this moment of awful crisis, when the character of each man must be known, and see which of us, more inflexible in his principles, more obstinate in his resistance, will more courageously overcome, those obstacles, and those dangers, which traitors to their country conceal, and which true citizens know how to appreciate, and to brave for her." "And how could I delay longer to fulfill this duty, whilst every successive day weakens still more the constituted authorities, substitutes the spirit of party for the will of the people; whilst the audacity of the agitators, [the disorganizers] imposes silence on peaceable citizens, throws into retirement useful men, and whilst _devotion_ to the _sect_ or _party_ stands in the place of _public_ and _private_ virtues, which, in a free country, ought to be the austere [severe, or strict] and only means of attaining to public office. "It is, after having opposed to all the obstacles, and to all the snares, which were laid for me, the courageous and persevering patriotism of an army, sacrificed perhaps to conspiracies against its commander, (Lafayette 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.