"It is somewhat singular that we should
be engaged in the same project for the same purpose," Franklin wrote
to Chastellux, referring to the Assembly of Notables in France and the
Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. "I hope both assemblies
will be blessed with success and that their deliberations and councils
may promote the happiness of both nations."
It so chanced that the very day the convention in Philadelphia had a
quorum, the Assembly in France, initiatory of the French Revolution,
was dismissed. Both had met in the spirit of reform; but to what
different ends did the two movements eventually come! The Americans
had in no case attempted the impossible; had not hoped for the immediate
dawn of the millennium; had not even attempted to put into practice
the loftiest sentiments of the Declaration of Independence; and had
carefully distinguished between the State as an agency for political
and for social rights. Very similar moderate sentiments on government
had been carried to France by Lafayette, the Lameths, Viscount de
Noailles, the Prince de Broglie, and others who came to America to
take part in the Revolutionary War.
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