Europe and the American Revolution 191
Sometimes it is à la David, teaching the theme of civic self- sacrifice, as in Da-
vid’s painting, The Oath of the Horatii, which caused a great stir at the Paris salon in
1785: “Already the cry of ‘Our Country’ makes itself heard, already the citizen has
taken for a device this maxim, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori; already his blood
is ready to flow for the welfare and safety of his native land.... Every colonist is
another Curtius, ready to leap into the gulf to save his country.... His blood be-
longs to her.... To shed it without reserve is the duty of a true Republican, to
whom the prize of liberty makes hateful every yoke but that of the Laws and of the
Deity.”^17
Sometimes it more directly echoes Plutarch and the noble Romans: “The day
when Washington resigned his command in the Hall of Congress, a Crown set
with jewels had been placed on the Book of the Constitutions. Suddenly Washing-
ton seized the crown, broke it, and threw it in pieces before the assembled people.
How petty does the ambitious Caeasar seem before this Hero of America!”^18
Or again the inspiration is from the classical epic, as in L’Amérique délivrée,
which though written in French was published in Holland and dedicated to John
Adams. Here in seven hundred pages of rimed hexameters, Pride, Rumor, Perfidy,
and Discord bestride the stage with Minerva, Hercules, Theseus, and the Conti-
nental Congress. The author addresses the latter:
Vénerable Congrès, d’un peuple libre et bon
Vous avez cimenté la gloire et l’union;
Vous avez délivré l’Amérique et ses ondes
Des fougueux Leopards [the British],du tiran des deux mondes:
De nos vains préjugés habiles scrutateurs
Vous êtes descendus jusqu’au fond denos coeurs:
Vous y faites plonger un torrent de lumière,
Qui porte la clarté dans ce triste hemisphère,
En frappe les tirans, et de leur joug honteux
Nous invite à briser les détestables noeuds.^19A footnote here declares: “This may happen sooner than we think.” In other notes
the author explains at length that his purpose is to combat Anglomania in Hol-
land, and to persuade the Dutch against emigration, since they may enjoy as much
liberty, equality and comfort in the Netherlands as in New York.
And indeed, beneath the literary artifice and rhetorical effusiveness that they
derived from their education, we may see a kind of spiritual emigration. We can
17 Coup d ’oeil sur la Grande Bretagne (London, 1776), 86–87.
18 J. B. Mailhe, Discours qui a remporté le prix à lAcadémie des Jeux Floraux en 1784, sur la grandeur
et l ’ importance de la révolution qui vient de s’opérer dans l ’Amérique Septentrionale (Toulouse, 1784).
19 Chavanne de la Giraudière, L’Amérique délivrée (Amsterdam, 1783), 716. For translation of
metrical passages see Appendix II.