"The Minister of Foreign Affairs to the Minister of the United States. "In your letter of the 26th of last month you reclaim the liberty of Thomas Payne, as an American Citizen. Born in England, this ex-deputy has become successively an American and a French citizen. In accepting this last title, and in occupying a place in the Legislative Corps, he submitted himself to the laws of the Republic, and has _de fait_ renounced the protection which the right of the people and treaties concluded with the United States could have assured him. "I am ignorant of the motives of his detention, but I must presume they are well founded. I shall nevertheless submit the demand you have addressed me to the Committee of Public Safety, and I shall lose no time in letting you know its decision. "DEFORGUES." * "États Unis," vol. xl., Doc. 54. Endorsed: "Received the 18th of same [Pluviôse, i. e., Feb. 16th]. To declare reception and to tell him that the Minister will take the necessary steps." The French Minister's reply is Doc. 01 of the same volume. The opening assertion of the French Minister's note reveals the collusion. Careful examination of the American Minister's letter, to find where he "reclaims the liberty of Thomas Payne as an American citizen," forces me to the conclusion that the Frenchman only discovered such reclamation there by the assistance of Morris. The American Minister distinctly declares Paine to be a French citizen, and disclaims official recognition of his conduct as "_pas de mon ressort_." It will be borne in mind that this French Minister is the same Deforgues who had confided to Morris his longing to succeed Genêt in America, and to whom Morris had whispered his design against Paine. Morris resided at Sainport, twenty-seven miles away, but his note is written in Paris. Four days elapse before the reply. Consultation is further proved by the French Minister's speaking of Paine as "occupying a place in the Legislative Corps." No uninspired Frenchman could have so described the Convention, any more than an American would have described the Convention of 1787 as "Congress." Deforgues' phrase is calculated for Philadelphia, where it might be supposed that the recently adopted Constitution had been followed by the organization of a legislature, whose members must of course take an oath of allegiance, which the Convention had not required.* Deforgues also makes bold to declare--as far away as Philadelphia--that Paine is a French citizen, though he was excluded from the Convention and imprisoned; because he was a "foreigner." * Deforgues' phrase "laws of the Republic" is also a deception. The Constitution had been totally suspended by the Convention; no government or law had been or ever was established under or by it. There was as yet no Republic, and only revolutionary or martial laws.