La Vendee is a proof of
this.
If we wish to make an impression on the minds of any persons in France,
or to persuade them to join our standard, it is impossible that they
should not be more easily led, and more readily formed and disciplined,
(civilly and martially disciplined,) by those who speak their language,
who are acquainted with their manners, who are conversant with their
usages and habits of thinking, and who have a local knowledge of their
country, and some remains of ancient credit and consideration, than with
a body congregated from all tongues and tribes. Where none of the
respectable native interests are seen in the transaction, it is
impossible that any declarations can convince those that are within, or
those that are without, that anything else than some sort of hostility
in the style of a conqueror is meant. At best, it will appear to such
wavering persons, (if such there are,) whom we mean to fix with us, a
choice whether they are to continue a prey to domestic banditti, or to
be fought for as a carrion carcass and picked to the bone by all the
crows and vultures of the sky.
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