CONSTITUTIONAL ACT OF THE REPUBLIC
The French Republic is one and indivisible.
ON CITIZENSHIP
The following are admitted to exercise the rights of French citizenship:
Every man born and domiciled in France, fully twenty-one years of age;
Every foreigner, fully twenty-one years of age, who, domiciled in France for one year:
And lives there by his labor,
Or acquires property,
Or marries a French woman,
Or adopts a child,
Or supports an elderly person;
Finally, every foreigner who is considered by the legislative body to be deserving of being treated humanely.
The exercise of the rights of citizenship is lost:
By naturalization in a foreign country;
By the acceptance of offices or favors emanating from a government that is not of the people;
By sentencing with punishments that are dishonorable or strip the party of his civil rights, until rehabilitation.
The exercise of the rights of citizenship is suspended:
By status of indictment;
By sentencing in absentia, until such sentence is revoked.
ON POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY
Popular sovereignty includes all French citizens.
It directly appoints its deputies.
It delegates to its electors the choice of administrators, public arbiters, and judges for criminal and appellate courts.
It deliberates upon the law.
ON NATIONAL REPRESENTATION
Population is the sole basis of national representation.
There shall be one deputy for every 40,000 individuals.
Every grouping of the primary assemblies, with a population of between 39,000 and 41,000 inhabitants, shall directly elect one deputy.
The election is decided by absolute majority.
Every assembly shall count the votes, and shall send a commissioner to the most central location for the general count.
If the first return does not produce an absolute majority, a second roll call shall be held, and a vote taken between the two citizens who have obtained the most votes.
In case of a tie, the elder shall have the choice, either to hold another vote or to be declared the winner. In the case where both citizens are of equal age, the decision shall be made by lot.
Every Frenchman who enjoys the rights of citizenship is eligible throughout the entire Republic.
Every deputy belongs to the whole nation.
In case of the nonacceptance, resignation, forfeiture, or death of a deputy, the primary assemblies that elected him shall provide for his replacement.
A deputy who has proffered his resignation may not leave his post until after the swearing in of his successor.
The French people shall assemble annually, on the 1st of May, to hold elections.
They shall proceed thereto, regardless of how many citizens have the right to vote.
The primary assemblies shall meet in extraordinary session upon the request of one-fifth of the citizens who have the right to vote in that district.
In such cases, the town council of the usual place of assembly shall conduct the convocation.
Such extraordinary sessions shall deliberate only when one-half plus one of the citizens who have the right to vote in that district are present.
ON SESSIONS OF THE LEGISLATIVE BODY
Sessions of the National Assembly shall be public.
The minutes of its sessions shall be printed.
It may only deliberate if at least 200 members are present.
Its members must be granted permission to speak, in the order in which they requested it.
Its decisions shall be determined by majority vote.
ON THE FUNCTIONS OF THE LEGISLATIVE BODY
The Legislative Body shall propose laws and render decrees.
Included under the general title of "law" are acts of the Legislative Body concerning:
Civil and criminal legislation;
General administration of the revenues and ordinary expenditures of the Republic;
State property;
The standard, weight, stamp, and denomination of monies;
The nature, amount, and collection of taxes;
The declaration of war;
Every new general distribution of French territory;
Public schooling;
Public honors in memory of great men.
ON THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
There shall be an Executive Council composed of twenty-four members.
The Electoral College of each and every department shall appoint a candidate. The Legislative Body shall select the members of the council from the general list.
One-half of the members shall be replaced during the final months of every legislative session.
The council shall be responsible for the management and supervision of the civil administration, and may act only to execute the laws of decrees of the Legislative Body.
It shall appoint, from outside its own body, the executives of the civil administration of the Republic.
ON ADMINISTRATIVE AND MUNICIPAL BODIES
In each and every commune of the Republic there shall be a municipal administration;
In each and every district, there shall be an intermediate administration;
In each and every department, there shall be a central administration.
The municipal officials shall be elected by the communal assemblies.
The administrators shall be appointed by the electoral colleges of the departments and districts.
One-half of the municipalities and administrations shall be renewed annually.
The administration and municipal officials shall have no representational role.
They may not, under any circumstances, alter the acts of the Legislative Body nor stop their execution.
The Legislative Body shall determine the duties of the municipal officials and administrators, the rules governing their subordination, and the penalties they may incur.
Sessions of the municipalities and administrations shall be public.
ON CIVIL JUSTICE
The code of civil and criminal laws shall be uniform throughout the Republic.
No infringement may be made upon the right of citizens to have arbitrators of their own choice pass judgment on their disagreements.
The decision of such arbitrators shall be final, unless the citizens have reserved the right to protest.
There shall be justices of the peace, elected by the citizens in districts determined by law.
They shall reconcile and judge without charge.
Their numbers and abilities shall be regulated by the Legislative Body.
There shall be public arbitrators elected by the electoral colleges.
ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE
In criminal matters citizens may be judged only upon an indictment received by juries or decreed by the Legislative Body.
The accused shall have council, chosen by themselves or appointed by the court.
Inquiries shall be public.
Facts and intents shall be declared by a trial jury.
The penalty shall be imposed by a criminal court.
Criminal judges shall be elected annually by the electoral colleges.
ON PUBLIC TAXES
No citizen is exempt from the honorable obligation of contributing to public expenses.
ON NATIONAL CONVENTIONS
If, in one-half of the departments plus one, one-tenth of the regularly constituted primary assemblies requests the revision of a Constitutional Act or the amendment of some of its articles, the Legislative Body shall be required to convoke all the primary assemblies of the Republic to ascertain if there are grounds for a National Convention.
ON THE RELATIONS OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC WITH FOREIGN NATIONS
The French people are the friends and natural allies of free peoples.
They do not interfere in the government of other nations; nor do they permit other nations to interfere in theirs.
They give asylum to foreigners who, in the name of liberty, are banished from their homelands, and refuse it to tyrants.
They do not make peace with an enemy who is occupying their territory.
ON THE GUARANTEE OF RIGHTS
The Constitution guarantees all Frenchmen equality, liberty, security, property, public debt, freedom of worship, public schooling, public relief, unrestricted freedom of the press, the right to assemble in groups, and the enjoyment of all the rights of man.
The French Republic respects loyalty, courage, the elderly, filial piety, and misfortune. It entrusts its Constitution to the care of all the virtues.
The Declaration of Rights and the Constitutional Act shall be engraved on tablets and placed in the midst of the Legislative Body and in public places.
The president [Robespierre] announces that a large number of Parisian citizens were requesting permission to enter the chamber and have their delegation present a petition.
The delegation is introduced, headed by the mayor and several municipal officers.
Chaumette: Citizen legislators, the citizens of Paris are tired of a situation that has been uncertain and wavering for too long and want to settle their fate once and for all. EuropeÕs tyrants, along with the stateÕs internal enemies, persist outrageously in their hideous plot to starve the French People into submission and to force them to shamefully trade their liberty and sovereignty for a piece of breadÑsomething they will certainly never do.
New lords, just as cruel, just as greedy, and just as brazen as those they replaced, have risen up in the ruins of feudalism. They have leased or bought the properties of their former masters and continue to follow the well-worn paths of crime, to profit from public misery, to stem the tide of abundance, and to tyrannize those who destroyed tyranny.
Another class, as greedy and as criminal as the first, has seized control of [the supply of] basic necessities. You have dealt them a blow, but they were only dazed. They continue to plunder beneath the very nose of the law.
You have passed wise laws, laws that promise happiness. But they have not been implemented because the power to do so is lacking. If you do not create that power quickly, these laws risk becoming obsolete almost at birth.
At this very moment, the enemies of the state are raising their swords against it . . . swords already stained with the stateÕs own blood. You both possess and implement the needed skills which then, in republican hands, change metal into weapons capable of felling tyrants. But where are the hands that can drive these weapons into the traitors' breasts?
Hidden domestic enemies, freely speaking the word "liberty," stem the flow of life. In spite of your benevolent laws, they close granaries and coolly engage in the heinous calculation of how much they stand to make from a famine, a riot, or a massacre. Your spirit buckles at the very thought, so you turn over the granariesÕ keys and the execrable ledgers of these monsters back to the administrators. But where is the strong hand that will forcefully turn that key so fatal to such traitors? Where is that proud and impassible being, unyielding to conspiracy and corruption, who will tear out the pages of the book that has been written with the PeopleÕs blood, immediately commuting it into a death sentence against those who are starving the nation?
Every day we learn of new betrayals and new crimes. Every day we become upset at the discovery and the reappearance of new conspiracies. Every day new disturbances stir up the Republic, ready to drag it into their stormy whirlwinds, hurling it into the bottomless abyss of the centuries to come. But where is that powerful being whose terrible cry will reawaken sleeping justiceÑor rather justice that has been paralyzed, dazed by the clamor of factionsÑand force it at last to strike off criminal heads? Where is that powerful being who will crush all these reptiles who corrupt everything they touch and whose venomous stings stir up our citizens, transforming political gatherings into gladiatorial arenas where each passion, each interest, finds apologists and armies?
Legislators, it is time to put an end to the impious struggle that has been going on since 1789 between the sons and daughters of the nation and those who have abandoned it. Your fate, and ours, is tied to the unvarying establishment of the republic. We must either destroy its enemies, or they will destroy us. They have thrown down the gauntlet in the midst of the People, who have picked it up. They have stirred up agitation. They have attempted to separate, to divide the mass of the citizens, in order to crush the People and to avoid being crushed themselves. Today, the mass of the People, who are without resources, must destroy them using their own weight and willpower. . . .
. . . Legislators, the immense gathering of citizens who assembled yesterday and today in the Commune building, and in the square outside it, passed only one resolution, which is brought to you by a delegation. It is: Food, and to get it, strength for the law. As a result, we are charged with demanding the creation of the revolutionary army which you have already decreed but which the guilty, through plotting and fear, have aborted. [Unanimous applause breaks out several times.] Let this army form its core in Paris immediately, and from every department through which it passes, let all men join who want a republic united and indivisible. Let an incorruptible and formidable tribunal follow this army, as well as that deadly tool which, with a single stroke, ends both the conspiracies and the days of their authors. Let this tribunal be tasked with making avarice and cupidity cough up the wealth of the land, that inexhaustible wet nurse of all children. Let it bear the following words on its standards, which shall be its constant order: Peace to men of good will; war on those who would starve people; protection for the weak; war on tyrants; justice; and no oppression.
Finally, let this army be established such that there remains in each city sufficient forces to restrain malicious people. . . .
Billaud-Varenne: It is by taking advantage of the energy of the People that we will finally exterminate the enemies of the revolution. We will lack neither food supplies nor plots of land on which to grow this food. Even more importantly, and what we must hope for, is that all the malicious people disappear from the face of the earth. As we stated before the Convention, it is finally time, it is more than time, that we settle the fate of the revolution. Indeed, we must congratulate ourselves, for it is in fact the very misfortunes of the People that increase their energy and make us equal to the task of exterminating our enemies. . . . The time has come to act . . . the time for deliberations is over. We must place all our enemies under arrest this very day. [Applause]
If revolutions drag on, it is because only half measures are taken. Let us leave it to weaker minds to worry about the results of the revolution. We work everything out . . . we see the grand vision of what must be achieved for the happiness of the People . . . let us boldly go along the path we have set for ourselves. Let us save the People, they will assist us. They want liberty regardless of the price. Let us crush the enemies of the revolution, and starting today, let the government take action, let the laws be executed, let the lot of the People be strengthened, and let liberty be saved.
Danton: . . . You have just proclaimed to all of France that it is still in a real and active state of revolution. Well, this revolution must be consummated. You must never fear movements that could tempt counterrevolutionaries in Paris, who would no doubt like to extinguish the flame of liberty where it burns the brightest. But the immense number of true patriots, of sans-culottes who have crushed their enemies a hundred times, still exists [and] is ready to take action. We only need to know how to lead them, and once again they will confound and foil all conspiracies. It is not enough to have a revolutionary army; you must be revolutionary yourselves. Remember that industrious men who live by the sweat of their brow cannot attend the sections and that it is only when the true patriots are absent that scheming can take over the section meetings. Therefore decree that two large section-meetings be held each week, and that the man of the People who attends these political assemblies will receive just remuneration for the time spent away from his work.
It is also good that you proclaim to all our enemies that we are determined to be continually and completely prepared for them. You have ordered thirty million [francs] placed at the disposal of the Minister of War in order to manufacture weapons. Decree that this emergency production cease only when the nation has given a gun to each citizen. Let us announce the firm resolution of having as many guns and almost as many cannon as there are sans-culottes. [Applause] Let it be the republic that puts a gun into the hands of the citizen, the true patriot, and let the republic say to him, "The country entrusts this weapon to you with for its defense. You will stand up for your country each month of the year, as well as any other time you are required to do so by the national authority." Let a gun be our most sacred object. . .let each of us lose our life rather than our gun. [Applause] I therefore ask that you decree at least 100 million [francs] to produce all kinds of weapons because, had we all had arms, we would all have marched. It is the lack of weapons that enslaves us. A country in danger will never be short of citizens.
The Society of Friends of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen [Cordeliers Club] to the Representatives of the Nation (21 June 1791)
Petition of the Cordelier Club (14 July 1791)
We were slaves in 1789, we believed ourselves free in 1790, we are free at the end of June 1791. Legislators! You had allocated the powers of the nation you represent. You had invested Louis XVI with excessive authority. You had consecrated tyranny in establishing him as an irremovable, inviolable and hereditary king. You had sanctioned the enslavement of the French in declaring that France was a monarchy.
Good citizens lamented and opinions clashed vehemently. But the law existed and we obeyed it, waiting for the progress of enlightenment and philosophy to bring us our salvation.
It seemed that this so-called contract between a nation that gives everything, and an individual who gives nothing, had to maintained. Until that time when Louis XVI had become an ungrateful traitor, we believed that we had only ourselves to blame for our ruined work.
But times have changed. This so-called convention between a people and its king no longer exists. Louis has abdicated the throne. From now on Louis is nothing to us, unless he become our enemy. . . .
The Society of Friends of the Rights of Man considers that a nation must do everything, either by itself or through removable officers chosen by it. It [the Society] considers that no single individual in the state should reasonably possess enough wealth and prerogatives to be able to corrupt the agents of the political administration. It believes that there should be no employment in the state that is not accessible to all the members of that state. And finally, it believes that the more important a job is, the shorter and more transitory its duration should be. Convinced of this truth and of the greatness of these principles, it can no longer close its eyes to the fact that monarchy, above all hereditary monarchy, is incompatible with liberty. Such is its opinion, for which it stands accountable to all Frenchmen.
It anticipates that such a proposition shall give rise to a host of opponents. But did not the Declaration of Rights itself encounter opposition? Nevertheless, this question is important to deserve serious debate by the legislators. They have already botched the revolution once because of lingering deference for the phantom of monarchy . . . let us therefore act without fear and without terror, and try not to bring it back to life. . . .
Legislators, you have a great lesson before your eyes. Consider well that, after what has happened, it is impossible for you to inspire in the people any degree of confidence in an official called "king." We therefore call upon you, in the name of the fatherland, to declare immediately that France is no longer a monarchy, but rather that it is a republic. Or at a minimum, wait until all the departments and all of the primary assemblies have expressed their opinion on this important question before you consider casting the fairest empire in the world into the chains and shackles of monarchism for a second time.
The society has decided that the present petition shall be printed, posted, and then sent to all the departments and patriotic societies of the French empire.
Petition of the Jacobin Club (16 July 1791)
The Frenchmen undersigned, members of the sovereign;
Considering that in matters affecting the safety of the people, it has the right to express its desire in order to enlighten and direct the representatives who have received its mandate; that there has never been a more important question than that concerning the king's desertion; that the decree passed on 15 July contains no provision regarding Louis XVI; that while obeying this decree, it is important to decide promptly the matter of this individual's fate; that this decision must be based on his conduct; that Louis XVI, after having accepted the duties of kingship and sworn to defend the constitution, has deserted the post entrusted to him, has protested against this constitution by a declaration written and signed by his own hand, has sought to paralyze the executive power by his flight and orders, and to overthrow the constitution by his complicity with the men today accused of attacking it; that his betrayal, his desertion, protestation (to say nothing of all the other criminal acts preceding, accompanying, and following these) entail a formal abdication of the constitutional crown entrusted to him; that the National Assembly has judged him to this effect in taking over the executive authority, suspending the king's powers, and holding him under arrest; that new promises to observe the constitution on Louis XVI's part could not offer a sufficient guarantee to the nation against a new betrayal and a new conspiracy;
Considering, finally, that it would be as contrary to the majesty of the outraged nation as to its interests to entrust the reins of the empire to a perfidious, traitorous fugitive;
Formally and expressly demands that the National Assembly accept, in the nation's name, Louis XVI's abdication on 21 June of the crown delegated to him, and provide for his replacement by all constitutional means.
The undersigned declare that they will never recognize Louis XVI as their king, unless the majority of the nation expresses a desire contrary to that contained in the present nation.
Chabot: " . . . [in text] This is the moment to tell the whole truth about these allegedly revolutionary women. I'm going to lay bare for you the intrigues that stir them up, and I promise you'll be shocked. I know what risks you run when you embitter a woman, and all the more so when you embitter a large number of them, but I'm not afraid of their intrigue or their remarks of their threats.
A few days ago I was summoned by the head of these women, Citoyenne Lacombe, who asked me what we had in mind for the former Mayor of Toulouse. I answered that I was shocked that she would petition on behalf of a former noble, a man who had had patriots thrown into prison. She retorted that he gave bread to the poor. Ah, I replied—but that's how counterrevolution is hatched. Finally, she threatened me with the full censorship of the Revolutionary Women if I, along with the Committee of General Security, didn't order his release. I admit that I let out a swear word, and I left.
The next day she appeared at my house again to repeat what she said the day before, the same thing. Madame Lacombe—I just can't consider her a citoyenne—confessed to me that she wasn't so much concerned about Monsieur de Ray [the Mayor of Toulouse] as about his nephew. I—who am accused of allowing myself to be led about by women—told her: "I will never do for them [women] what men make you do, and all the women in the world will never get me to do anything but what I want to do for the Republic." Madame Lacombe then treated me to the most reactionary [Feuillant] remarks. She claimed that one didn't keep men in prison like that; that Revolution or no Revolution, they had to be questioned within twenty-four hours, released if they were innocent, and sent to the guillotine at once if they were guilty—in short, all the remarks that you hear aristocrats mouthing all the time when we arrest one of their friends. It's because I like women that I don't want them to be forming a body apart and calumniating even virtue. They've dared attack Robespierre, calling him Monsieur Robespierre [aristocratic form]. I ask that you take forceful measures against the Revolutionary Women to check this crazy mania that's seized them. I ask that they purge themselves of all the schemers they're protecting in their midst and that they be mandated by letter to do it."
I answered the most patriotic Monsieur Chabot. First of all it is true that I had him called out of the Jacobins on Friday, the thirteenth of this month. Here is the speech I held forth with; it is a bit different from the one which he put into my mouth.
"Chabot, I am here to ask you to do a favor to yourself, to yourself . . . [in text], not me. What's at issue is the Mayor of Toulouse, whom you removed from office three months ago along with two administrators. I have learned that these latter two have been ordered back in, and as the Mayor was removed on the same grounds, I was surprised to learn that this was a victim whom you reserved the right to sacrifice. Therefore, I am here to ask you, for yourself, to give him the same justice that his colleagues obtained. Either he is guilty along with them, or, along with them, he is innocent."
"He is guilty," Chabot answered. "He had patriots imprisoned, seventeen of them in Toulouse." "I will not believe it," I said, "until you give me palpable proofs." "Besides," he said, "he is rich enough to live in Paris." "I know," I told him, "that his having a fortune is charged against him as a crime, but it is true nonetheless that he has used it only to succor the unfortunate since the Revolution. He is cherished by all the people of Toulouse. That is how the aristocrats behave to deceive the people. They do them good."
"Besides," he retorted, raising his voice, "he is a nobleman." "There is the best proof you could give me of his innocence," I told him, "because as he was not removed on account of his nobility, you are making a big war horse out of him. I say to you, as a true Republican Woman, that if you do not give him the justice that is due him, I will go to the bar of the National Convention to obtain it for him". . . .
"You are a women's society," he replied, "which wants to get involved in [public] affairs, and you're being misled." I repeated my first answer, that "neither cajoleries nor assignats would ever tempt the Revolutionary Women. We are interested only in the oppressed, and I look upon the Mayor as a victim you felt like sacrificing. That is so true that you have had offers made to his nephew, whom you know is a fine patriot and who, from the time of his uncle's disgrace, has not left him for a single instant. I tell you that in order to destroy the uncle all the more easily, you have had positions offered to him [the nephew] three times in order to get him away from Paris and in this way deprive the uncle of the only consolation left to him. Is this the way men should comport themselves towards their fellows? I dare to assure you that if you don't give the Mayor the justice he has a right to expect, I'll argue for it myself at the bar of the Convention, and we'll see whether you have the right—you powerless dictator—to sacrifice patriots while you give preferential treatment to counterrevolutionaries every day. I warn you that if I go before the bar [of the Convention] I will tell some truths that will not be to your advantage.
At that point Monsieur Chabot composed himself, turning towards me with his hypocritical air, and fixing me with his cockroach eyes, he said: "Do you want that? Okay, I'll have the report drawn up tonight, and tomorrow the Mayor can leave, only he'll no longer be Mayor. We'll send him to his place of residence, because if we send him to Toulouse, the people would reelect him. I can't deny that he accomplished an infinite amount of good for the people, and besides, he has some excellent qualities, but he has too much influence at Toulouse. He mustn't go back there". . . .
I continue with the meeting of the Jacobins. . . [in text] Bazire says: . . . [in text] "And I am also all sickly, as you see me here, I have tangled with the Revolutionary Women." (There is laughter.) Renaudin says, "Do not laugh, this can turn out to be more serious than you think." Bazire: "I will explain myself. The other day, seven to eight Revolutionary Women came to the Committee of General Security to demand the liberty of a man named Sémandy. It [the deputation] was informing itself concerning the reasons for his detention so that if he were not guilty, justice might be obtained by having him released by the Tribunal, which must take cognizance of [this situation]—all of which is quite different [from what Bazire alleged]. He lies when he dares to say that our commissaires asked him for permission to visit all the prisons in order to inform themselves about the reasons for the prisoners' arrests so as to be able to force their release should they deem this appropriate . . . [in text]. The Revolutionary Women know the LAW, and it is only in conformity with it [the law] that we would have come to the aid of oppressed patriots . . . [in text]. He lies with the shameless audacity natural to him when he says that our commissaires called him a sucker. The Revolutionary Women know the meaning of words too well to have addressed such an insignificant one to Monsieur Bazire. I would like to believe that he latched onto it out of modesty.
You lie, Monsieur Bazire, when you dare to say that our commissaires called Robespierre "Monsieur." We keep watch over all public figures. And far be it from us to confuse Citizen Robespierre with the Bazires of the day. Be careful, Robespierre. I noticed that those accused of having lied believe they can sidestep the denunciation by accusing those who denounce them of having spoken ill of you. Be careful lest those who are forced to wrap themselves in your virtues also pull you with them over the precipice. As for you, Monsieur Bazire, the big war horse which you've built out of the word "Monsieur" Robespierre, which you've placed in the mouths of our commissaires, proves nothing except that you are a miserable liar. . . .
And finally, we are accused of being counterrevolutionaries. The request is made that I be brought before the Committee of General Security. Following several motions, one more extravagant than the other, to destroy the Society of Revolutionary Women—because it must be destroyed, no matter what the price—the proposal was made that the papers at my house be sealed. But Monsieur Chabot, who until then had treated me as one of the chiefs of the counterrevolutionaries, was so convinced that he had been nothing more than a base calumniator that he didn't hesitate to say that this last proposition was a trap set for the Jacobin Society; that if, when the seals were lifted, they found only patriotic papers at my place, it would be easier for me to justify myself; but that he held me to be a counterrevolutionary and that it was necessary that I be imprisoned immediately. The orders of Monsieur Chabot were not followed point by point, but three guards were sent to me in the gallery—all the more indecent, as there were only women in this gallery. So there I was, seated in the middle of them, placed under arrest in the presence of four thousand people. I told one of the guards that if he had orders to take me somewhere, he could let me know; that I was ready to submit to the laws. He told me that it was not time yet; that we had to stay there. As I had nothing to reproach myself with, it was not surprising that my face showed the calm of innocence. Who will believe it? This very calm attracted the grossest insults. I heard someone say, "Look at this new Corday. What a front she puts up; nothing can unsettle such people." To console me, one of the guards said to me, "It's sad to sleep in prison." "Why sadder for me than for others? I will add but one more to their number."
It really gets under my skin to see a bunch of rascals build castles in the air, sacrifice honor and country, and risk the guillotine in order to become rich. Who is served by this wealth? He who has a lot of gold and houses, does he dine twice? Hell! If we could only read the minds of all the poor devils who have piled sous upon sous to fill their coffers; if we understood the stupors of all these misers who skin fleas in order to get their hides, if you could see them always on their guard, always sleeping with one eye open, scared down to the marrow of their bones by the slightest noise, screaming for mercy when they hear judgments being shouted out against some crooks, tearing their hair out when the rich are forced to loosen the purse strings to help their country, burying their gold, dying of fright at the mere sound of the name of the revolutionary army!
Is there, in the whole world, a worse torture than this? What a damn difference there is between the fate of this pathetic character and that of the honest sans-culotte, who lives from day to day by the sweat of his brow. As long as he has a four-pound loaf in his bread box and a glass of red wine, he's content. As soon as he wakes up, he's as happy as a lark, and at the end of the day, he takes up his tools and sings his revolutionary song, "La Carmagnole." In the evening, after he has worked hard all day, he goes to his section. When he appears there among his brothers, they don't look at him as if he were a monster, and he doesn't see everyone whispering to each other and pointing their fingers at him like a nobleman or a moderate would.
They shake his hand, pat him on the shoulder, and ask him how he's doing. He doesn't worry about being denounced; he is never threatened with raids on his house. He holds his head high everywhere he goes.
In the evening, when he enters his hovel, his wife rushes to greet him, his small children hug him, his dog bounds up and licks him. He recounts the news that he heard at the section. He's as happy as a clam when telling about a victory over the Prussians, the Austrians, or the English. He tells how a traitorous general, a follower of Brissot, was guillotined. While telling his children about these scoundrels, he makes them promise to always be good citizens and to love the Republic above all else. Then he eats dinner with a hearty appetite, and after his meal, he entertains his family by reading to them from Le Grande colère du Père Duchesne [The Great Wrath of Father Duchesne] or La Grande joie du Père Duchesne [The Great Joy of Father Duchesne].
His wife laughs till she's hoarse when listening to him tell about the arguments between his neighbor Jacqueline and the religious zealots whining to the patron saints of the rich. The little rug-rats erupt with joy on hearing the four-letter words I use.
[3 September 1792] . . . a courier arrived here yesterday afternoon with an account that the Prussians were some leagues on this side [of] Verdun. Immediately on receiving this intelligence the Legislative Assembly decreed that as universal an alarm as possible should be spread through the whole country in order that no time might be lost in preparing for the general defence; in consequence however of the fermentation excited in Paris by the sounding the Tocsin, firing the alarm guns and beating to arms, the people assembled in different parts of the town in a very tumultuous manner, and at about seven o'clock in the evening surrounded the church called l'Eglise des Carmes, where about 160 Priests non sermentés, and taken into custody since the 10th, were confined. These unfortunate people fell victims to the fury of the enraged populace and were massacred with circumstances of barbarity too shocking to describe. The mob went afterwards to the prison of the Abbaye, and having demanded of the jailors a list of the prisoners they put aside such as were confined only for debt, and pulled to pieces most of the others. The same cruelties were committed during the night and continue this morning in all the other prisons of the town. When they have satiated their vengeance, which is principally directed against the refractory Priests, . . . it is to be hoped the tumult will subside, but as the multitude are perfectly masters, everything is to be dreaded. The Assembly deputed some of its most popular and most eloquent members to endeavour to bring the people to reason and a sense of their duty. These gentlemen escaped being insulted but were not listened to. The Royal Family were all safe and well late last night. It is impossible to describe to your Lordship the confusion and consternation which at present prevails here. The Prussians are advancing rapidly, they have already cut off the communication between the armies of Messrs Luckner and Dumouriez; and intelligence is just arrived that a detachment of 2000 men lately sent from hence to reinforce Verdun is fallen into the enemy's hands.
[14 September 1792] About one o'clock on Sunday forenoon three signal guns were fired, the Tocsin was rung, and one of the Municipality on horseback proclaimed in different parts of the city, that the enemy was at the gates, Verdun was besieged, and could only hold out a few days. The inhabitants were therefore ordered to assemble in their respective sections, and from thence to march to the Champ de Mars, where they were to select an army of sixty thousand men
The first part of this proclamation was put in execution, but the second was totally neglected. . . . A party at the instigation of some one or other declared they would not quit Paris, as long as the prisons were filled with Traitors (for they called those so, that were confined in the different Prisons and Churches), who might in the absence of such a number of Citizens rise and not only effect the release of His Majesty, but make an entire counterrevolution. To prevent this, a large body of sans-culottes . . . proceeded to the Church de Carmes, rue de Vaugirard, where amidst the acclamations of a savage mob they massacred a number of refractory Priests, all the Vicaires de Saint Sulpice, the directors of the Seminaries, and the Doctors of the Sorbonne, with the ci-devant Archbishop of Arles, and a number of others, exceeding in all one hundred and seventy. . . .
Many of the Municipality attended at the different prisons, and endeavoured to quell the fury of the people, but all in vain; they therefore proposed to the mob a plan of establishing a kind of Court of justice in the prisons, for the immediate trial of the remaining offenders. They caught at this, and two of the Municipality with a detachment of the mob, about two on Monday morning, began this strange Court of justice. The gaoler's list was called for, those that were confined for forging assignats, or theft, with the unhappy people that were any way suspected to be concerned in the affair of the 10th, were in general massacred; this form took place in nearly all the prisons in Paris. But early on Monday morning a detachment with seven pieces of cannon went to attack the Bicetre. It is reported that these wretches charged their cannon with small stones and such other things, and fired promiscuously among the prisoners. I cannot however vouch for this, they have however not finished their cruelties there yet, and it is now past six o'clock Tuesday evening. To be convinced of what I could not believe, I made a visit to the prison of the Abbaye about seven o'clock on Monday evening, for the slaughter had not ceased. . . .
Two of the Municipality were then in the prison with some of the mob distributing their justice. Those they found guilty were seemingly released, but only to be precipitated by the door on a number of piques, and then among the savage cries of vive la nation, to be hacked to pieces by those that had swords and were ready to receive them. After this their dead bodies were dragged by the arms or legs to the Abbaye, which is distant from the prison about two hundred yards; here they were laid up in heaps till carts could carry them away. The kennel was swimming with blood, and a bloody track was traced from the prison to the Abbaye door where they had dragged these unfortunate people.
I was fortunate enough to be present when five men were acquitted. Such a circumstance, a by-stander told me, had not happened in the operations of this horrid tribunal; and these inconsistent murderers seemed nearly as much pleased at the acquittal of a prisoner as they were at his condemnation. The same congratulations attended the others that were acquitted and the same those that were condemned. Nothing can exceed the inconsistency of these people. After the general massacre of Sunday night many of the dead bodies were laid on the Pont-neuf to be claimed, a person in the action of stealing a handkerchief from one of the corpses was hacked to pieces on the spot, by the same people who had been guilty of so much cruelty and injustice.
A DEPUTATION OF CITOYENNES AT THE COMMUNE, 24 February 1793
The Municipal Bureau, having received reports on the present state of subsistences in the city of Paris, and considering that emergency circumstances, need, and something of a rise in bread prices should call forth its full solicitude, orders administrators in the Department of Subsistence to take all measures which their wisdom and experience may suggest to provision the city of Paris so as to leave no pretexts from which our enemies can profit to disturb the public tranquility. The Municipal Bureau reserves for itself the responsibility of procuring the necessary funds so that payments for wheat and grain are not held up.
On the proposal of the Procurator of the Commune the municipal administration decrees that a proclamation be prepared for the citizens, urging them to fly to the defense of the Republic.
A large deputation of citoyennes appears before the municipal administration and asks for authorization to be introduced before the Convention to request a decrease in the price of foodstuffs and to denounce hoarders.
The mayor told this deputation that it need not request authorization to go the Convention; nevertheless, he requests that it [the deputation] return home quietly and rely on the solicitude of the people's magistrates who had already taken precautions in this domain by decreeing that an address would be presented in the National Convention to request a stringent law against hoarders. The citoyennes go away quietly.
The session of this female society was held in a vaulted room, formerly used as an ossuary. The president and the secretaries were placed opposite the entrance. Two rows of benches on each side were for the members of the Society; I counted sixty-seven of them. No galleries; the curious placed themselves at the far end of the room and were separated from the club members only by a simple breast-high bar. When we came in, the session had just begun. Before describing it I will say that some of these women covered their heads with red caps, in particular the president and the secretaries. This grotesque spectacle almost choked us, because we felt constrained not to let ourselves burst out laughing. This session seemed so comical to us that we each made a separate record of it when we left, while our memories were still filled with these details. All I am doing is copying our notes.
Session of the Society of Women, Meeting in the Ossuary of the Church of Saint-Eustache, Presidency of Citoyenne Lacombe
After the reading of the minutes and of the correspondence, the president recalled that the order of the day concerned the utility of women in a republican government, and she invited the sisters who had worked on this subject to share their research with the Society. Sister Monic was given the floor and read what follows:
From the famous Deborah, who succeeded Moses and Joshua, to the two Frei sisters, who fought so valiantly in our republican armies, not a single century has passed which has not produced a woman warrior. See how Thomyris, queen of the Scythians, battles and conquers the great Cyrus; the Marullus girl chases the Turks from [Stylimene]. Catherine Lisse saves the city of Amiens; the wife of Dubarry defends Leucate against Henry III; Joan of Arc, who forced the English to flee before her, shamed them into raising the siege of Orléans, and the name of that city is added to hers.
Without my having to cite for you the individual names of these courageous female warriors, which would only serve to throw into greater relief the timidity of our sex by these rare examples of the courage of a few of them, I will remind you of the virile and warriorlike vigor of that colony of Amazons whose existence has been cast into doubt because of people's jealousy of women; I will tell you danger didn't frighten these new Roman women, who cast themselves in the midst of the cutting edge of arms, justly avenging their late husbands; I will cite for you the women of Aquileia, who strung their defenders' bows and garbed their horses for battle; finally, I call your attention to the citoyennes of Lille, who, at this moment, are braving the rage of assailants and, while laughing, are defusing the bombs being cast into the city. What do all these examples prove, if not that women can form battalions, command armies, battle, and conquer as well as men? If any doubt remained, I would cite Panthee, Ingonde, Clotilde, Isabelle, Marguerite, etc., etc.
But I will not stop here, and I will say to these men who think they are our masters: Who delivered Judea and Syria from the tyranny of Holofernes? Judith. To whom did Rome owe her liberty and the Republic? To two women. Who were those who gave the final lesson in courage to the Spartans? Mothers and wives, who, in handing them their shields, said only these words: Return home borne upon your shield or bearing it.
I do not know why I am burying myself in the dust of history to search for traces of the courage and sacrifice of women, since we have them in our revolution and right before our eyes. In 1788, during the siege of the Palace, women exposed themselves to the brutality of soldiers hired by the court, in order to hail stones down upon them. At the storming of the Bastille, women familiar only with fireworks exposed themselves to cannon and musket fire on the ramparts to bring ammunition to the assailants. It was a battalion of women, commanded by the brave Reine Audu, who went to seek the despot at Versailles and led him triumphantly back to Paris, after having battled the arms of the gardes-de-corps and made them put them down. In spite of the modesty of our president, I will say that on 10 August she marched valiantly against the chateau, at the head of a corps of Fédérés; she still bears the marks of that day.
If women are suited for combat, they are no less suited for government. How many of them have governed with glory! My only problem is how to select examples. Theodelinda, queen of Lombardy, brought down Agilulf and extinguished the wars of religion which were blazing in her territories. Everyone knows that Semiramis was a dove in the cabinet and an eagle in the field. Isabelle of Spain governed with glory. Here again is a woman who supported the discovery of the New World. In our times Catherine of Russia achieved what Peter only outlined. But I will go further still and maintain that when the reins of government are held by men, women alone move and direct them. Exceptions are rarer than examples. Augustus proposed nothing to the Roman Senate without consulting Livia. Without searching the histories of other people, let us keep to ours. La Belle Ferronniere directed Francis I, Henry II. Charles IX and Henry III ruled only by the counsels of Catherine of Medici; the fair Gabrielle was behind Henry IV's mistakes; Madame de Pompadour governed the governor of France; finally, the courtesan Dubarry, who was herself a doll, made a marionette out of Louis XV. Thus one can prove that women have always directed governments. Thus one can conclude that they deserve to govern. I would almost say, better than men. Under the despotism of kings these reflections are not permitted, but in a republican regime it is a different story. I will not draw any further conclusions; I ask that the Society in its wisdom consider what rank women should have in a republic, and whether they should still be excluded from all positions and from administration.
This discourse, often interrupted, was crowned, when it was over, by violent applause. Nothing seemed more comical to us than to hear passages of history declaimed by a woman who murdered the language with an assurance difficult to describe. The applause was followed by a long period of murmuring through which one could make out a few words and proposals, each one more ridiculous than the last. One called for the raising of an army of 30,000 women to go into battle against enemies, with all prostitutes being forced to march. Another proposed that women be admitted into all branches of administration. Finally, after a half-hour of debate, all proposals were condensed into a petition to present to the Convention, calling for a decree obliging women to wear the national cockade. We were going to leave when we heard one of the club members ask for the floor, to make a new proposal. Let us remain, Lord Bedford said to me, I am too much amused to leave . . . [in text]. Olympe de Gouges spoke as follows: "While admiring what sister Monic has just said, I believe she has left out essential proposals that I am merely going to point out to you. Not only are empires governed through women's ascendancy, but one can maintain, without being refuted, that they are the force behind everything. Who fuels or extinguishes the warrior's courage? Regard Omphale, Delilah, Armida. If the Supreme Being created the soul of man, he left to woman the task of animating it. Watch the young girl dictating to her lover whatever laws please her. At her will, she makes of him a hero or a coward, a criminal or a virtuous man. Isolated, man is our slave; it is only when reunited in a mass that they overwhelm us in their pride. The greatest fault of our sex has been to submit to this unsuitable custom which puts man in the ascendancy; but let us profit from the difference in dress to arrive at some distinction. Here is what I have thought up: If there are no longer any processions, there will have to be public festivals; confide the direction and regulation of them to us. A lovely woman at the head of a crowd of citizens, charged, for example, with inciting young men to fly to the defense of the Fatherland, would say to one of them: Depart, and upon your return, the hand of your mistress will be the reward for your exploits. Whoever hesitates to fight the enemy will hear her voice speaking these words to him: Stay, you cowardly soul; but never count on being united with your lover; she has sworn to reject the desires of a man who is useless to his country. The art we possess to move the souls of men would produce the salutary effect of enflaming all spirits. Nothing can resist our seductive organ. The warrior would be happy to receive laurels from the hand of beauty; young husbands would believe their chains more fitting if they were forged by the hand of a woman. Let us request the direction of festivals and marriages, and that we be the only ones charged with the education of youth. This is all the more easily done, as the priests, whose privilege this used to be (for reasons I cannot fathom), are no longer here. It is up to us to replace them, and to found the religion of the true sans-culottes."
This last proposition occasioned bursts of laughter. Discussion of these interesting matters was postponed until another session, and we left with the crowd.
The Englishman said to me: "Confess that these extravagances are very amusing." I confess, but when I think about it, the delirium of these women frightens me. If their brains are overheated, you know the obstinacy of this sex; they are capable of committing certain excesses.
—Your nation possesses the remedy: the weapon of ridicule and banter, which it knows so well how to wield, will destroy these comical pretensions. Among the follies we have just heard, one can find nothing based in reason. It is, of course, certain that our customs give women much influence over the State. It cannot be denied that they are the most active force in society, the common center to which all the passions of men are attracted, and that they hold together honor, interest, love, taste, and opinion. It is thus a manifest contradiction not to count them for anything in our code of laws. I grant this contradiction; but you will also admit that it is fully justified by this universal and consequently dangerous ascendancy that you recognize in the sex.
—That is true. However it seems to me that instead of forgetting women in their households, one could use them. For example, if they were made the reward for great actions, I do not think there would be any effort men would not make to merit their esteem and their favors.
—I think as you do. But we are old stick-in-the-muds, and we forget them in our new laws, only because the first lawgivers of nations have not mentioned them, and because habit, stronger than reason, makes innovations too difficult in this delicate area. Besides, who is the man bold enough to innovate in this matter?
—Of course, your revolution changes the object of political speculations.
—It is precisely this upheaval which will prevent the true philosopher from casting out a new subject of discord, by presenting some project to give women credit in government. They are strong enough with their ascendancy over us. Let us leave them with the empire of grace and beauty.
At night, Monsieur Decretot and Monsieur Blin carried me to the revolution club at the Jacobins. . . . There were above one hundred deputies present, with a president in the chair; I was handed to him, and announced as the author of the Arithmetique Politique; the president standing up repeated my name to the company and demanded if there were any objections—None; and this is all the ceremony, not merely of an introduction but an election: for I was told that now I was free to be present when I pleased, being a foreigner. Ten or a dozen other elections were made. In this club the business that is to be brought into the National Assembly is regularly debated; the motions are read that are intended to be made there, and rejected or corrected and approved. When these have been fully agreed to, the whole party are engaged to support them. Plans of conduct are there determined; proper persons nominated for being of committees, and presidents of the Assembly named. And I may add that such is the majority of numbers, that whatever passes in this club is almost sure to pass in the Assembly.
Arthur Young.
[Jan. 17, 1790.]