Presentation of the Flag of France

Monday, January 4.

The Speaker informed the House, that a Message was ready to be delivered to the House, of a nature calculated to give the most pleasing satisfaction to every American breast. He suggested to the House, and the citizens in the galleries, the propriety of not suffering the fervor of enthusiasm to infringe on the dignity of the Representative Councils of the United States. He recommended that a respectful silence should be observed, as most compatible with the true dignity of the House, and the honor of the magnanimous Republic that was the subject of the Message.

The President's Secretary was then introduced, with an American officer bearing the Standard of the French Republic, sent by the Committee of Public Safety, Organ of the National Convention, as a token of friendship to the United States. The Secretary presented a Message in writing from the President, with sundry papers accompanying it, to the Speaker, by whom they were read as follows:

Gentlemen of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives:

A letter from the Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republic, received on the 22d of the last month, covered an Address, dated the 21st of October, 1794, from the Committee of Public Safety to the Representatives of the United States in Congress; and also informed me that he was instructed by the committee to present to the United States the Colors of France. I therefore proposed to receive them last Friday, the first day of the new year, a day of general joy and congratulation. On that day the Minister of the French Republic delivered the Colors, with an Address, to which I returned an answer. By the latter, the House will see that I have informed the Minister that the Colors will be deposited with the archives of the United States. But it seemed to me proper previously to exhibit to the two Houses of Congress these evidences of the continued friendship of the French Republic, together with the sentiments expressed by me on the occasion in behalf of the United States. They are herewith communicated.

G. WASHINGTON.

United States, January 4, 1796.

[Translation.]

The Representatives of the French People, composing the Committee of Public Safety of the National Convention, charged by the laws of the 7th Fructidor, with the direction of Foreign Relations, to the Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled:

Citizens Representatives: The connections which nature, reciprocal events, and a happy concurrence of circumstances, have formed between two free nations, cannot but be indissoluble. You have strengthened those sacred ties by the declarations, which the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States has made, in your name, to the National Convention, and to the French people. They have been received with rapture by a nation who know how to appreciate every testimony which the United States have given to them of their affection. The Colors of both nations, united in the centre of the National Convention, will be an everlasting evidence of the part which the United States have taken in the success of the French Republic.

You were the first defenders of the rights of man in another hemisphere. Strengthened by your example, and endowed with an invincible energy, the French people have vanquished that tyranny, which, during so many centuries of ignorance, superstition, and baseness, had enchained a generous nation.

Soon did the people of the United States perceive that every victory of ours strengthened their independence and happiness. They were deeply affected at our momentary misfortunes, occasioned by treasons purchased by English gold. They have celebrated with rapture the successes of our brave armies.

None of these sympathetic emotions have escaped the sensibility of the French nation. They have all served to cement the most intimate and solid union that has ever existed between two nations.

The citizen Adet, who will reside near your Government in quality of Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republic, is specially instructed to tighten these bands of fraternity and mutual benevolence. We hope that he may fulfil this principal object of his mission, by a conduct worthy of the confidence of both nations, and of the reputation which his patriotism and virtues have acquired him.

An analogy of political principles; the natural relations of commerce and industry; the efforts and immense sacrifices of both nations in the defence of liberty and equality; the blood which they have spilled together; their avowed hatred for despots; the moderation of their political views; the disinterestedness of their councils; and especially, the success of the vows which they have made in presence of the Supreme Being, to be free or die; all combine to render indestructible the connections which they have formed.

Doubt it not, citizens, we shall finally destroy the combination of tyrants. You, by the picture of prosperity, which, in your vast countries, has succeeded to a bloody struggle of eight years; we, by the enthusiasm which glows in the breast of every Frenchman. Astonished nations, too long the dupes of perfidious Kings, Nobles, and Priests, will eventually recover their rights, and the human race will owe to the American and French nations their regeneration and a lasting peace.

Paris, 30th Vindemaire, 3d year of the French Republic, one and indivisible.

The Members of the Committee of Public Safety.

J. S. B. DELMAS,
MERLIN (of Douai) &c.

October 21, 1794.

[Translation.]

Mr. President: I come to acquit myself of a duty very dear to my heart; I come to deposit in your hands and in the midst of a people justly renowned for their courage and their love of liberty, the symbol of the triumphs and of the enfranchisement of my nation.

When she broke her chains; when she proclaimed the imprescriptible rights of man; when, in a terrible war, she sealed with her blood the covenant she had made with Liberty, her own happiness was not alone the object of her glorious efforts; her views extended also to all free people. She saw their interests blended with her own, and doubly rejoiced in her victories, which, in assuring to her the enjoyment of her rights, became to them new guarantees of their independence.

These sentiments which animated the French nation from the dawn of their revolution, have acquired new strength since the foundation of the Republic. France, at that time, by the form of its Government, assimilated to, or rather identified with, free people, saw in them only friends and brothers. Long accustomed to regard the American people as her most faithful allies, she has sought to draw closer the ties already formed in the fields of America, under the auspices of victory, over the ruins of tyranny.

The National Convention, the organ of the will of the French nation, have more than once expressed their sentiments to the American people; but above all, these burst forth on that august day, when the Minister of the United States presented to the National Representation the Colors of his country. Desiring never to lose recollections as dear to Frenchmen as they must be to Americans, the Convention ordered that these Colors should be placed in the hall of their sittings. They had experienced sensations too agreeable not to cause them to be partaken of by their allies, and decreed that, to them, the National Colors should be presented.

Mr. President, I do not doubt their expectations will be fulfilled; and I am convinced that every citizen will receive, with a pleasing emotion, this flag, elsewhere the terror of the enemies of liberty, here the certain pledge of faithful friendship; especially when they recollect that it guides to combat, men who have shared their toils, and who were prepared for liberty by aiding them to acquire their own.

P. A. ADET.

The Answer of the President of the United States to the Address of the Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republic, on his presenting the Colors of France to the United States:

Born, sir, in a land of liberty; having early learned its value; having engaged in a perilous conflict to defend it; having, in a word, devoted the best years of my life to secure its permanent establishment in my own country; my anxious recollections, my sympathetic feelings, and my best wishes, are irresistibly excited, whensoever, in any country, I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banner of freedom. But, above all, the events of the French Revolution have produced the deepest solicitude, as well as the highest admiration. To call your nation brave, were to pronounce but common praise. Wonderful people! Ages to come will read with astonishment the history of your brilliant exploits! I rejoice that the period of your toils and of your immense sacrifices is approaching. I rejoice that the interesting revolutionary movements of so many years have issued in the formation of a constitution designed to give permanency to the great object for which you have contended. I rejoice that liberty, which you have so long embraced with enthusiasm; liberty, of which you have been the invincible defenders, now finds an asylum in the bosom of a regularly organized Government; a Government, which being formed to secure the happiness of the French people, corresponds with the ardent wishes of my heart, while it gratifies the pride of every citizen of the United States by its resemblance to their own. On these glorious events, accept, sir, my sincere congratulations.

In delivering to you these sentiments, I express not my own feelings only, but those of my fellow-citizens, in relation to the commencement, the progress, and the issue of the French Revolution; and they will cordially join with me in purest wishes to the Supreme Being, that the citizens of our sister Republic, our magnanimous allies, may soon enjoy in peace, that liberty which they have purchased at so great a price, and all the happiness which liberty can bestow.

I receive, sir, with lively sensibility, the symbol of the triumphs and of the enfranchisement of your nation—the Colors of France—which you have now presented to the United States. The transaction will be announced to Congress, and the Colors will be deposited with those archives of the United States, which are at once the evidences and the memorials of their freedom and independence. May these be perpetual, and may the friendship of the two Republics be commensurate with their existence.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

United States, January 1, 1796.

When the reading of the Message and papers had been concluded—

Mr. Giles informed the House that, having been aware that the flag would be presented to the House this day, considering it as an additional testimony of the affection of France, and it having been the practice on analogous occasions for the House to express their sentiments independent of the other branch, he had prepared a resolution expressive of what he conceived would be their sense on the occasion. It was nearly in the words following:

"Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to make known to the Representatives of the French people, that this House has received, with the most lively sensibility, the communication of the Committee of Public Safety, of the 21st of October, 1794, accompanied with the Colors of the French Republic, and to assure them that the presentation of the Colors of France to the Congress of the United States is deemed a most honorable testimony of the existing sympathy and affections of the two Republics, founded upon their solid and reciprocal interests; that the House rejoices in the opportunity of congratulating the French Republic on the brilliant and glorious achievements accomplished under it during the present afflictive war, and that they hope those achievements will be attended with a perfect attainment of their object, the permanent establishment of the liberty and happiness of that great and magnanimous people."

Mr. Parker moved an amendment as follows: "That this House has received with the most sincere and lively sensibility," &c. The amendment was for inserting the two words in italics, to which the House consented. The Message was then voted unanimously, and a thousand copies of the communications and resolution were ordered to be printed. A committee of two members was appointed to wait on the President, and inform him of the resolution agreed to by the House.