Paine's speech, delivered to the French National Assembly, speaks to the issue of the execution of Louis XVI. Though he professes himself the eternal enemy of monarchy, Paine argues that the individual monarch, Louis Capet, must not pay the price of the bad system with his own life; Louis has been as victimized by monarchy as have the rest of the French people. Additionally, Paine argues, since Louis has already abdicated the thrown, he has no remaining power or authority. In other words, he has been sufficiently punished and dethroned, and to execute him would serve no purpose but brutality.

Instead of executing Louis Capet, Paine, as a "citizen of both countries" (385), proposes that Louis and his family be sent to America after the war. There Louis can be a prisoner and will be in no danger of attempting to reassume the throne. He ends his speech by praising and assuring the success of the French Revolution: "[France] has shewn [liberal principles] clear as daylight, and for ever crushed that infernal system; and he, whoever he may be, that should ever dare to reclaim those rights, he would be regarded not as a Pretender but punished as a Traitor" (387).