not only against the Altar but also against the Throne.  He severely denounces the “Last Will of Jean Meslier,—­that famous Curate of Etrepigni,—­whose apostasy and blasphemies made so strong an impression on the minds of the populace,” and he styles the plan of D’Alembert for circulating a few thousand copies of the Abstract of the Will, as a “base project against the doctrines of the Gospel.” [Ibid, page 145] He even asserts his belief that: 

“The Jacobins will one day declare that all men are free, that all men are equal; and as a consequence of this Equality and Liberty they will conclude that every man must be left to the light of reason.  That every religion subjecting man’s reason to mysteries, or to the authority of any revelation speaking in God’s name, is a religion of constraint and slavery; that as such it should be annihilated in order to reestablish the indefeasible rights of Equality and Liberty as to the belief or disbelief of all that the reason of man approves or disapproves:  and they will call this Equality and Liberty the reign of Reason and the empire of Philosophy.” [History of Jacobinism, page 51.]

The results which the Abbe Barruel so clearly foresaw have at length been realized.  The labors of the Jacobins have not been in vain, and the Revolution they incited has restored France to the government of the people!

“With ardent hope for the future,” says President Carnot in his centennial address, May 5, 1889, “I greet in the palace of the monarchy the representatives of a nation that is now in complete possession of herself, that is mistress of her destinies, and that is in the full splendor and strength of liberty.  The first thoughts on this solemn meeting turn to our fathers.  The immortal generation of 1789, by dint of courage and many sacrifices, secured for us benefits which we must bequeath to our sons as a most precious inheritance.  Never can our gratitude equal the grandeur of the services rendered by our fathers to France and to the human race. . . .  The Revolution was based upon the rights of man.  It created a new era in history and founded modern society.”

This is literally true.  The freethinkers of France have taught mankind the doctrines of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.  They have taught the dignity of human reason, and the sacredness of human rights.  They have broken the bondage of the altar, and severed the shackles of the throne; and it is to be regretted that at the centennial celebration held in this city on April 30th, 1889, the appointed orator [See the Centennial Address of the Hon. Chauncey M. Depew.] did not realize the grandeur of the occasion, and did not, like Carnot, pay a just tribute to our allies, the reformers of Europe, as well as to the fathers of the republic.  But the people of America will remember what the politician has forgotten.  They will remember the names and deeds of their foreign benefactors as well as of the American patriots of ’76.  When they recall the illustrious Europeans who fought for our liberties they will remember the name of Lafayette; when they think of the Declaration of Independence they will not forget the name of Thomas Jefferson; and when they speak of “the times that tried men’s souls” they will recall with gratitude the name of Thomas Paine.