PENNSYLVANIA. - BUREAUX DE PUSY (Jean-Xavier). The National - Lot 51

PENNSYLVANIA. - BUREAUX DE PUSY (Jean-Xavier). The National Assembly of France to the representatives of the people of Pensilvania. June 6, 1791. [Paris], de l'Imprimerie nationale, [1791]. In-8, (4) pp. of which the last 2 are blank; wet. The General Assembly of Pennsylvania had addressed an open letter of friendship to the French National Constituent Assembly on April 8, 1791. In response, Jean-Xavier Bureaux de Pusy sent this address AS PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, and read it from the rostrum on June 6, 1791: "[...] France has not forgotten what it owes to your examples, what it owes to this wise Pensilvania, in whose bosom the legislators of America dared to announce to the world the true principles of the social art. May the inhabitants of this glorious & fortunate land recognize in the decree of the National Assembly the sentiments that animated the first friends of American independence! May this act of the will of the French people, which strengthens the union of two nations whose principles confuse them, increase their mutual relations, identify their interests, and remind them always that they are free through each other! [...] " FRIEND OF LA FAYETTE, OFFICER AND POLITICAL MAN JEAN-XAVIER BUREAUX DE PUSY (1759-1805) made a career as an engineer officer. A noble deputy to the Estates General in 1789, he played a significant political role for a time, presiding over the National Constituent Assembly three times. A moderate democrat, however, in 1792, after the fall of the monarchy, he decided to go to America with the Marquis de La Fayette. Arrested by the Austrians and imprisoned in Olmütz, they were not released until 1797, when Napoleon Bonaparte intervened. Bureaux de Pusy then left for the United States, where his political career, his known friendship with the United States and his proximity to the Marquis de La Fayette led to him being well received, with offers of land concessions on the banks of the Delaware River. However, after his name was removed from the list of emigrants under the Consulate, he returned to France, where he served three terms as Prefect under Napoleon.