Description:

Allen John

Federalist Member of Congress Blasts French Revolutionaries as “villains, robbers, cutthroats”

 

JOHN ALLEN, Autograph Letter Signed, to Samuel Whiting, November 13, 1797, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 3 pp., 7.75" x 9.75"  Expected folds; tape repair to splits on folds; sealing wax intact; very early postmark on free frank.

 

This fascinating letter by Connecticut Congressman John Allen to his close friend Samuel Whiting describes his return to Congress via stagecoach with a “foolish” Democrat. Annoyed by the Democrat’s enthusiasm for the French Revolution, Allen predicts more violence in revolutionary France based on David Hume’s principles of logic. He hopes that the violence in France will not disturb other countries.

 

Allen also notes that the fever had left Philadelphia. In 1793, more than 10 percent of the population of Philadelphia died in a yellow fever epidemic, then poorly understood in both causes and treatment. Philadelphia suffered additional yellow fever epidemics in 1797, 1798, and 1799.

 

This letter is also notable for an early postmark from Philadelphia. A stamped circle with “14 NO” indicates that it was mailed on November 14, and a “FREE” stamp and Allen’s signature illustrate the free-franking privilege of members of Congress.

 

Excerpts

“I reached this City this morning fatigued, and something ill-natured from a foolish Demo. whom we had with us in the stage, a Rep. from N.Y. who insisted that the Triumvirate in France had a constitutional right to arrest & punish their Colleagues &c., and his main proof of it was that they had in fact done it.”

 

“The Fever has disappeared, the Citizens have returned and seem as busy, as gay and as vicious as if Death had not riotted in their borders.”

 

“The exclusive patriots seem somewhat astonished at the late events in Paris. they have boasted so much of the moral and republican virtues of some of the proscribed that it is not easy at once to acknowledge them villains & traitors.”

 

“Too small a number of men have arrested too many—too much ability, address, virtue, & popularity to leave the business & the arresters in this condition. There will be another explosion, but how or on whom it will burst cannot be foreseen. that it will take place can be believed on every principle of Hume’s logic, the same causes, undisturbed by any counteracting cause, produce the same effects, but I apprehend the next explosion will not be a bloodless one. Merciful God! Stay the effects of this cursed French Revolution in all other Countries; but let thy Justice, only measure out the quantity of French blood to be spilt. Mankind would be benefitted, nay, saved, by exterminating that horde of villains, robbers, cutthroats.”

 

John Allen (1763-1812) was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and studied law at the Litchfield Law School from 1784 to 1786. Admitted to the bar in 1786, he practiced law in Litchfield, Connecticut. He served in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1793 to 1796, then as a Federalist member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1797 to 1799. While in Congress, he supported the Alien and Sedition Acts. He did not seek re-nomination in 1798 and returned to Connecticut, where he continued his law practice and was a member of the Supreme Court of Errors from 1800 to 1806.

 

Samuel Whiting (1761-1832) was born in Hartford, Connecticut. By 1789, he was a merchant in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He also served as a justice of the peace and a member of the Massachusetts legislature. In 1803, he married Sarah Betts, and they had three children. They moved to Redding, Connecticut, where he served as a member of the Connecticut legislature and judge of the county court. He wrote many articles and essays for newspapers and magazines, and in 1814, Whiting published a work entitled The Connecticut Town-Officer that provided guidance to various town officers according to Connecticut law.

 

 

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