“MY DEAR GENERAL: In the midst of our internal troubles it is a great consolation for me to enjoy the assured prosperity of my adopted country, because the news from America gives me the hope that the constitution will be accepted. Permit me once more, my dear General, to beseech you not to refuse the presidency. The constitution, such as is proposed, responds to many desires; but I fear there are, regarding it, certain passages which will not be completed without danger, if the United States have not the happiness of possessing their guardian angel, who will appreciate the advantages and disadvantages of each clause, and will be aware, before re-entering his quiet retreat, how to determine with precision the degree of force which it is indispensable to give the government, and to limit those powers which one might abuse; in short, to indicate that which remains to be done, in order to attain that perfection to which the new constitution is nearer than that of any other form of government, past or present. “The affairs of France are reaching a crisis, of which the good results are most uncertain, as the people in general have no inclination to come to extremities. _Mourir pour la liberté_ is not the motto upon this side of the Atlantic; as all the classes are more or less dependent, as the rich love their repose, at the same time that the poor are enervated by misery and ignorance, we have but one resource: it is to reason with them, and to inspire the nation with a sort of passive discontent, or non-obedience which will fatigue the levity and baffle the plans of government. “The Parliaments, in spite of their inefficiency, have been the necessary champions to move. You will see by the publications—because I have sent you all which have appeared—that the king has raised pretensions, and that the courts of justice are established upon principles so contradictory, that one can scarcely believe that these assertions have been declared in the same country and in the same age. Affairs cannot remain thus; the government has employed the force of arms against the disarmed and expelled magistrates. And the people, say you?—The people, my dear General, have been so benumbed that it has made me sick, and medicines have been necessary to cool my blood. That which has greatly increased my indignation is a bench of justice where the king has created a plenary court composed of judges, of peers, and of courtiers, without a single real representative of the people, and the impudence of the ministers who have dared to say that all the taxes and loans will be registered.