A Letter Addressed to the Abbe Raynal

A Letter Addressed to the Abbe Raynal,
on
by Thomas Paine

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the Affairs of North America, in Which the Mistakes in the Abbe's Account of the
Revolution of America Are Corrected and Cleared Up, by Thomas Paine This eBook is
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Title: A Letter Addressed to the Abbe Raynal, on the Affairs of North America, in Which
the Mistakes in the Abbe's Account of the Revolution of America Are Corrected and
Cleared Up
Author: Thomas Paine
Release Date: March 7, 2005 [EBook #15279]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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A LETTER ADDRESSED TO THE ABBE RAYNAL,
ON THE
AFFAIRS OF NORTH AMERICA;
IN WHICH THE MISTAKES IN THE ABBE's ACCOUNT
OF THE

REVOLUTION of AMREICA [sic]
ARE CORRECTED AND CLEARED UP.
* * * * *
BY THOMAS PAINE,
SECRETARY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO CONGRESS, DURING THE
AMERICAN WAR, AND AUTHOR OF COMMON SENSE, AND THE RIGHTS OF
MAN.
* * * * *
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR J. RIDGEWAY, NO. 1, YORK-STREET, ST. JAMES'S SQUARE.
M,DCC,XII. [sic, actually 1792]

INTRODUCTION.
A London translation of an original work in French, by the Abbe Raynal, which treats of
the Revolution of North America, having been reprinted in Philadelphia and other parts
of the continent, and as the distance at which the Abbe is placed from the American
theatre of war and politics, has occasioned him to mistake several facts, or misconceive
the causes or principles by which they were produced; the following tract, therefore, is
published with a view to rectify them, and prevent even accidental errors intermixing
with history, under the sanction of time and silence.
The Editor of the London edition has entitled it, "The Revolution of America, by the
Abbe Raynal," and the American printers have followed the example. But I have
understood, and I believe my information just, that the piece, which is more properly
reflections on the revolution, was unfairly purloined from the printer which the Abbe
employed, or from the manuscript copy, and is only part of a larger work then in the press,
or preparing for it. The person who procured it appears to have been an Englishman; and
though, in an advertisement prefixt to the London edition, he has endeavoured to gloss
over the embezzlement with professions of patriotism, and to soften it with high
encomiums on the author, yet the action, in any view in which it can be placed, is illiberal
and unpardonable.
"In the course of his travels," says he, "the translator happily succeeded in obtaining a
copy of this exquisite little piece, which has not yet made its appearance from any press.
He publishes a French edition, in favour of those who will feel its eloquent reasoning
more forcibly in its native language, at the same time with the following translation of it;
in which he has been desirous, perhaps in vain, that all the warmth, the grace, the strength,
the dignity of the original should not be lost. And he flatters himself, that the indulgence

of the illustrious historian will not be wanting to a man, who, of his own motion, has
taken the liberty to give this composition to the public, only from a strong persuasion,
that this momentous argument will be useful, in a critical conjecture, to that country
which he loves with an ardour that can be exceeded only by the nobler flame which burns
in the bosom of the philanthropic author, for the freedom and happiness of all the
countries upon earth."
This plausibility of setting off a dishonourable action, may pass for patriotism and sound
principles with those who do not enter into its demerits, and whose interest is not injured,
nor their happiness affected thereby. But it is more than probable, notwithstanding the
declarations it contains, that the copy was obtained for the sake of profiting by the sale of
a new and popular work, and that the professions are but a garb to the fraud.
It may with propriety be remarked, that in all countries where literature is protected, and
it never can flourish where it is not, the works of an author are his legal property; and to
treat letters in any other light than this, is to banish them from the country, or strangle
them in the birth.--The embezzlement from the Abbe Raynal was, it is true, committed by
one country upon another,