ABSTRACT
The Convention’s sense that it was at the heart of a struggle of international significance was personified by the presence, as elected deputies, of two foreign revolutionaries, Tom Paine from Britain and the Dutchman Anacharsis Cloots. The British radical Joseph Priestley was elected in two departments, but declined to take his seat. They were three of eighteen foreigners who had already been made honorary French citizens – among the others were heroes of the American Revolution and Republic, British and European radicals and educators. The parliamentary reporter had some difficulty in transcribing their names.
M. Guadet proposes, in the name of the special commission, and the Assembly unanimously adopts the following decree.
The National Assembly, considering that those men who, through their writings and through their courage, have served the cause of liberty and prepared the emancipation of peoples, cannot be seen as foreigners by a nation that has been made free by their knowledge and their courage; considering that, if five years of residence in France are sufficient for a foreigner to obtain the title of French citizen, this title is all the more rightly due to those who, whatever the soil on which they live, have dedicated their strength and their vigilance to the defence of the cause of the people against the despotism of kings, to the abolition of earthly prejudices; and to the extension of the limits of human knowledge; considering that, if it is not possible to hope that men will one day form one sole family, one sole association, before law as before nature, the friends of liberty and of universal brotherhood should not be any the less dear to a nation that has proclaimed its renunciation of any conquest, and its desire to fraternise with all people; considering, finally, that at the moment when a National Convention is arranging the destinies of France, and preparing, perhaps, that of humankind, it is up to a generous and free people to call on all sources of knowledge, and to confer the right to work towards this great goal of reason on men who, through their feelings, their writings and their courage, have shown themselves to be so eminently worthy of it; declares that it confers the title of French citizens on Priestly, Payne, Benthonn, Wilberforce, Clarkson, Makintosh, David Williams, Gornai, Anacharsis Clootz, Campe, Cormelle Paw, Pestalozzi, Washington, Hamilton, Maddison, Klopsloc, Kosciusko, Gileers.
Source: Gazette nationale ou le Moniteur universel, no. 241, 23 August 1792, vol. 13, pp. 540–1.https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781032618814/e9ac31eb-0a68-4fdc-b417-e6e5b1e67c6c/content/fig13_Unfig_001.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>