29 10 1079 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The prevalent sentiment seemed to be, that after the first attack, a compromise would be effected with Toussaint and the different chiefs, which would enable the French force to establish itself throughout the island, and complete the subjugation of the armed blacks. This prison may be considered the sepulture of Toussaint. France forgot awhile the habits of a civilized nation, to entomb one she should have graced with a public triumph; and England, instead of making a common cause to annihilate a nation of heroes and depress the human intellect when rising to its level, should have guarded from violation the rights of humanity in its person. It has been the lot of him whose feeble hand attempts a tribute of gratitude, respect, and justice to his character, to regret the ill-requited life of the discoverer of the new world, and the unpropitious efforts of the enlightened and benignant D'Ogeron, to view the untimely death of many brave and exalted characters in the fluctuation of events in the different attempts to obtain possession of an island whose fate is as conspicuous as the most celebrated ancient state; but in no one instance does the mind linger with such keen sensations as on the unhappy fortune of the great, the good, the pious and benevolent Toussaint L'Ouverture. Sortable Date 1805-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Marcus Rainsford, An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti: Comprehending a View of the Principal Transactions in the Revolution of Saint-Domingo; with its Ancient and Modern State (London, 1805), 264–65. Description An account of the resource In this excerpt, Rainsford continues to exhalt the qualities of L’Ouverture while criticizing French behavior in the attempted reconquest of the island under Napoleon. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 608 Title A name given to the resource The French Return from An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/608/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1805 Counterrevolution Napoleon Bonaparte Text War Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Another misfortune arose, which, however it might have been long expected, was still more unlooked-for than any other. Witnesses of the general commotion of the colony, and perceiving that, notwithstanding the attention which had been paid by the mother-country to the people of color, (except interweaving their sufferings with the subject, for the purposes of oratory) nothing was proposed with regard to them; the negroes began to consider of some melioration for themselves among the new arrangements then taking place. As they had unfortunately perceived that the first step in all the disputes of their masters had consisted of outrage, so they determined to follow those means which promised such certain success, and at the same time, afforded objects the most grateful to people in a state of slavery. It cannot be denied, that they may have felt no great pleasure in contemplating an acquisition of power by the mulattoes, who, from being, according to their own account more conversant with their habits, and better acquainted with their dispositions, had always been considered by the negroes as their severest masters; it is very probable, that they exercised the same, or greater rigor, over the negroes, than they received themselves from the whites. Be this as it may, while a perfect calm seemed to pervade every contending interest, one morning before day-break a sudden and confused alarm spread throughout the town of the Cape, that the negro slaves in the neighboring parishes had revolted, were murdering the whites, and setting fire to the plantations. The governor immediately assembled all the military officers, but nothing certain could be collected till dawn, when the reports were too sadly confirmed by the arrival of numbers, just escaped with life, who, begging for protection in the town, communicated the particulars. From them they found, that the negroes in a plantation called Noe, in the parish of Acul, were the ringleaders, fourteen of whom, after having murdered the principal managers of the plantation, followed by the remainder, hastened to the adjoining one, and repeated the same enormities. The slaves of this estate immediately joined them. Their determination seemed, that it was necessary none should escape, for they shewed not the same discrimination they afterwards used. M. Clements, the owner of the latter plantation received his death from one he had regarded with much tenderness, and promoted (for so it was considered) to be his position. The same occurred at the largest plantation on the plain of the Cape, that of M. Galifet, whose negroes, the whole of whom joined the insurrection, were proverbial for receiving good treatment. Similar circumstances took place at the very time, on the estate of M. Flaville, a few miles distant, from whence they carried off the wife, and three daughters, of the Procureur, after murdering him before their faces. Day-light convinced the astonished inhabitants that the revolt was concerted, for some parties of observation sent from the town, soon perceived that the rising was general throughout the province, and the flames quickly burst from all quarters. The terror of the whole community now became excessive, and the shrieks of women and children as the appearances of horror spread, wildly, running from door to door, inquiring their fate of each other, produced a most distressing effect. The men armed themselves, and the General Assembly invested the governor with the command of the National Guards. As soon as any plan could be matured, it was determined, to send the white women and children on board the ships in the harbor; and the ablest of the domestic negroes in the town were also sent, under a guard, lest they should be concerned in any treacherous connection. The next transaction which took place was relative to a considerable body of mulattoes in the town, who, although they had not joined the previous disputes, were immediately marked as objects of vengeance by the lower classes of white people, and it became necessary for the Assembly to afford them protection. This circumstance became the medium of an agreeable conciliation; for, in return, all the able men among them, proposed themselves to march against the rebels, leaving their wives and children as hostages for their fidelity. They were, therefore, enrolled in the militia, and a mutual confidence, to a certain degree, established itself between them. As many seamen as could be spared from the ships were joined to the inhabitants, and the whole formed into a military order, when M. de Touzard, an officer who had distinguished himself in North America, took the command of a detachment of militia and troops of the line, and marched to attack the most powerful body of the revolters in the neighborhood. They were posted at the plantation of M. Latour, to the number of 4,000 negroes, a large portion of whom were destroyed, but their places were supplied by such increased numbers, that M. de Touzard was compelled to retreat. The weakness of the town obliged the governor to stand on the defensive, till he could contrive means to strengthen the only position he could command; if the negroes had proceeded to Cap François at that time, they might have easily taken the town, and effected every enormity they chose. On the river which intersected the main road from the plain at the east end of the town, over which there was a ferry, a battery of cannon was raised on boats, protected by two small camps at a short distance; at the other principal road lying over the Haut du Cap, a considerable body of troops, with artillery, was stationed, while a strong palisade and chevaux-de-frize, surrounded the town on the land side; an embargo was laid on the shipping, for the purpose of retreat, and retaining the assistance of the sailors. The whole of the inhabitants, without distinction, labored at the fortifications. Every method was used to communicate the information of the insurrection, when it could be conveyed with safety, and several camps were formed, which seemed to arrest the progress of the rebellion; nevertheless, those at Grande Rivière and Dondon were attacked by the negroes, joined by mulattoes, and after a sharp contest, forced with great, slaughter. The surviving whites from Dondon took refuge in the Spanish territory. The whole of the plain, of the Cape, and the district of Grande Riviere, now in the possession of the insurgents, and abandoned to their ravages, as were the miserable inhabitants, to whom no assistance could be given, who, therefore, suffered every injury, that bewildered licentiousness could devise, before a death, in this instance merciful, but of more than common torments, closed for them the scene. It serves few of the purposes of history to describe the various modes of torture which occurred to the savage insurgents, or to relate amounts of the grossest violations of virgins and pregnant women, in the presence of their dying husbands, or parents; much it is to be regretted, that civilized states should ever find it necessary to render torture of any kind familiar to vulgar minds; for they are exhibitions that live in the memory, and steel the heart against those affections which form the grandest boundary of our nature. There is reason to fear that the perpetrators of those horrid deeds had been witnesses to the ridicule of misery in others who should have evinced themselves superior to such conduct, by the godlike attributes of mercy and benevolence; the licentiousness of their intercourse with the female slaves could leave no impression to prevent a retaliation on the occasion, with objects, too, of such superior attraction, alas! unhappily for themselves. Sortable Date 1805-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Marcus Rainsford, An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti: Comprehending a View of the Principal Transactions in the Revolution of Saint-Domingo; with its Ancient and Modern State (London, 1805), 134–39. Description An account of the resource Rainsford’s detailed contemporary account of the revolt emphasizes the strenuous yet ultimately unsuccessful mobilization of colonial French resources. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 607 Title A name given to the resource The Revolt from An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/607/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1805 Popular Politics Public Opinion Text War Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document But, no sooner was one cause of commotion removed, than another supplied its place, of a more hostile complexion and with less occasion—the rebellion of Ogé, a mulatto; whose mother had a coffee plantation about thirty miles from Cape François. During his residence at Paris, for the purpose of education, he had imbibed, in addition to the natural feelings of his class, all the prejudices entertained at this period against the white planters in the mother country. Having become connected with the society of Amis des Noirs, and inflated with an idea of his own capacity, he was easily persuaded by Robespierre, and other violent members, to attach himself to a conspiracy, supposed to be already ripe in St. Domingo, and requiring only the talents of an active leader to produce the effects desired, in behalf of the people of color. Armed by their means, and charged with all the inveteracy of the party, Ogé arrived in St. Domingo about two months after the Assembly bad left it, and immediately prepared to assume an imaginary command, for which he had no foundation. He found means to convey a quantity of arms and ammunition to a place called Grand Rivière, about fifteen miles from the Cape, where his brother had been prepared to receive it, and, having collected about two hundred followers, exerted himself every where in spreading disaffection; he wrote imperiously to M. Peynier, stating the inattention which had been paid to the execution of the Code Noir [the laws for the protection of the Blacks, instituted by Louis XIV], demanding its enforcement, and also an extension of the privileges enjoyed by the whites to all persons without distinction. He took upon himself the character of Protector of the Mulattoes, and declared his intention, if necessary, of arming in their behalf. He established his camp where he had deposited his stores, and appointed his two brothers, and another mulatto, of a ferocious character, named Mark Chavane, his lieutenants. These men commenced their unruly operations by the murder of two white men, whom they met accidentally, and by punishing with extreme cruelty those of their own complexion not disposed to revolt; one who excused himself on account of a wife and six children, they murdered, with the whole of his family. Fortunately their reign was not long, for a body of regular troops, and the Cape Militia, were dispatched to invest their camp, when, with a weak resistance, they were totally routed; many were killed, sixty were taken prisoners, and the chiefs escaped into the Spanish part of the island. Sortable Date 1805-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Marcus Rainsford, An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti: Comprehending a View of the Principal Transactions in the Revolution of Saint-Domingo; with its Ancient and Modern State (London, 1805), 121–22. Description An account of the resource Rainsford’s sympathy for the revolt in Haiti did not seem to extend to the influence of ideas imported from revolutionary France, which appear to have been at the heart of Ogé’s rebellion. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 606 Title A name given to the resource Ogé’s Rebellion in An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/606/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1805 Popular Politics Public Opinion Text War Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document PROCLAMATION OF DESSALINES, CHRISTOPHE, AND CLERVAUX, CHIEFS OF ST. DOMINGO. In the Name of the Black People, and Men of Color of St. Domingo: THE Independence of St. Domingo is proclaimed. Restored to our primitive dignity, we have asserted our rights; we swear never to yield them to any power on earth; the frightful veil of prejudice is torn to pieces, be it so for ever. Woe be to them who would dare to put together its bloody tatters. Oh! Landholders of St. Domingo, wandering in foreign countries by proclaiming our independence, we do not forbid you, indiscriminately, from returning to your property; far be from us this unjust idea. We are not ignorant that there are some among you that have renounced their former errors, abjured the injustice of their exorbitant pretensions, and acknowledged the lawfulness of the cause for which we have been spilling our blood these twelve years. Toward those men who do us justice, we will act as brothers; let them rely for ever on our esteem and friendship; let them return among us. The God who protects us, the God of Freemen, bids us to stretch out towards them our conquering arms. But as for those, who, intoxicated with foolish pride, interested slaves of a guilty pretension, are blinded so much as to believe themselves the essence of human nature, and assert that they are destined by heaven to be our masters and our tyrants, let them never come near the land of St. Domingo: if they come hither, they will only meet with chains or deportation; then let them stay where they are; tormented by their well-deserved misery, and the frowns of the just men whom they have too long mocked, let them still continue to move, unpitied and unnoticed by all. We have sworn not to listen with clemency towards all those who would dare to speak to us of slavery; we will be inexorable, perhaps even cruel, towards all troops who, themselves forgetting the object for which they have not ceased fighting since 1780, should come from Europe to bring among us death and servitude. Nothing is too dear, and all means are lawful to men from whom it is wished to tear the first of all blessings. Were they to cause rivers and torrents of blood to run; were they, in order to maintain their liberty, to conflagrate seven-eighths of the globe, they are innocent before the tribunal of Providence, that never created men, to see them groaning under so harsh and shameful a servitude. In the various commotions that took place, some inhabitants against whom we had not to complain, have been victims by the cruelty of a few soldiers or cultivators, too much blinded by the remembrance of their past sufferings to be able to distinguish the good and humane landowners from those that were unfeeling and cruel, we lament with all feeling souls so deplorable an end, and declare to the world, whatever may be said to the contrary by wicked people, that the murders were committed contrary to the wishes of our hearts. It was impossible, especially in the crisis in which the colony was, to be able to prevent or stop those horrors. They who are in the least acquainted with history, know that a people, when assailed by civil dissentions, though they may be the most polished on earth, give themselves up to every species of excess, and the authority of the chiefs, at that time not firmly supported, in a time of revolution cannot punish all that are guilty, without meeting with new difficulties. But now a-days the Aurora of peace hails us, with the glimpse of a less stormy time; now that the calm of victory has succeeded to the trouble of a dreadful war, every thing in St. Domingo ought to assume a new face, and its government henceforward be that of justice. Done at the Head-Quarters, Fort Dauphin, 29 November 1803. (Signed) DESSALINES. CHRISTOPHE. CLERVEAUX. True Copy, B. Aime, Secretary. Sortable Date 1803-11-29 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Marcus Rainsford, An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti: Comprehending a View of the Principal Transactions in the Revolution of Saint-Domingo; with its Ancient and Modern State (London, 1805), 439–41. Description An account of the resource This important and revealing document evokes both the contemporary situation in the colonies and the political developments taking place in Paris. It comes from Marcus Rainsford’s supportive account of the Haitian Revolution. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 605 Title A name given to the resource Declaration of the Independence of the Blacks of St. Domingo Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/605/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource November 29, 1803 Public Opinion Text Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The publication of the Declaration of Rights did not tend to remedy this unfavorable impression of the people against one of their own communities, "for the article that All men are born, and continue, free and equal as to their rights," implied an entire subversion of their establishments, and created a complete ferment among the whole of the French proprietors. They conceived, and the French government appear afterwards to have done the same, that the effect of this declaration was to rouse the negroes to an assertion of those rights it was supposed to give them. Apprehensive of disorders arising in the colony, [the] governor received orders from his new constituents, the National Assembly, to call together the inhabitants for the purpose of interior regulation. The measure had been anticipated by the ready disposition of the self-constituted legislators, and a provincial assembly for the northern district had already met at Cape François; an example which was soon followed by the western and southern provinces, the former of which met at Port-au-Prince, and the latter at Aux Cayes. For more immediate communication between the people, and to accommodate every description, parochial committees were also established. These committees were of the disposition which might be expected, and, by dividing, among themselves upon every occasion, they served only to inform the negroes of their frivolity; and to excite them to take advantage of their want of unanimity and power; and the principal determination in their proceedings was that, of the necessity of a full and speedy colonial representation. The order of the king, however, which was received in January 1790, tended to supersede their deliberations, by convoking a general Colonial Assembly, which was appointed to meet in the central town of Leogane. . . . The mulattoes, not willing to be left behind in exertion, when they perceived the opposition of the whites to every movement of the government, determined to proceed a step still farther, and accordingly arming themselves, they proceeded to claim by force the benefit of equal privileges with the whites. Their combination was premature, and they were soon overpowered. . . . In the division of parties, too, inconsistent as it may appear, some of the whites, among whom were included persons of high respectability, adopted the cause of the people of color, and even seconded their inclination to revolt. Among these, an old magistrate named Ferrand de Beaudierre, was the first to become conspicuous, for the purpose of removing the disgrace which had attached to him in consequence of having offered marriage to a woman of color. He drew up a memorial in their behalf, which had not time to be presented to the parochial committee, before, he was seized by an enraged mob, and put to death. The deputy procureur-general, M. Dubois, also, whose duty demanded a different course, became so infatuated, as to declaim against the slavery of the negroes in their presence; but he enjoyed a milder fate; he was only arrested by the people, and dismissed from the colony by the, governor, who soon after followed. Such was the confused state of the colony, and every one seemed to be so bent upon harassing the metropolitan government, that it was, with great reason, apprehended in France, that the island was about to declare itself independent, or to submit to some foreign power. The alarm became general throughout those places which had any concern with St. Domingo, and the National Assembly on being earnestly implored to consider of the best means of saving so valuable a dependency resolved, after a serious discussion of the subject, "That it was not the intention of the Assembly to interfere with the interior government of the colonies, or to subject them to laws incompatible with their local establishments; they therefore authorized the inhabitants of each colony to signify their own plan of legislation and commercial arrangement, preserving only a conformity with the principles of the mother country, and a regard for the reciprocal interests of both." It superadded, that no innovation was intended in an any system of commerce in which the colonies were already concerned. It will easily be conceived that this conciliating resolution, so necessary, as regarded the discontented white colonists, would be very differently received by the people of color. It excited among them a general clamor, which extended to every part where their cause (diffused by the means used on those occasions) was known, or even heard of. Sortable Date 1805-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Marcus Rainsford, An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti: Comprehending a View of the Principal Transactions in the Revolution of Saint-Domingo; with its Ancient and Modern State (London, 1805), 110–13. Description An account of the resource In this excerpt, Rainsford describes the divisive effects of the Declaration of Rights of the Blacks among the various racial/social groupings. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 604 Title A name given to the resource A Divided Elite from An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/604/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1805 Popular Politics Public Opinion Text Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document In opposition to the wishes of a judicious few (among who was the intelligent De Charmilly) and even to the prohibitions of the government, the impetuous proprietors summoned provincial and parochial meetings, for the purpose of electing themselves to legislative functions; heated resolutions were passed; and eighteen deputies were elected, to represent the island in the meeting of the Estates-General, without any other authority than the noise of demagogues, and their own inclinations. Twelve were never recognized in France, and the other six were received with difficulty. The mulattoes, who could have no share in this self-created body, thought it naturally time to show an attention to themselves; and, accordingly, not only communicated with numbers of their brethren then resident in the mother-country, but augmented those powerful advocates in their behalf, with much more effect than was produced by the self-created body of colonial deputies. The negroes, however, more successful than all, without either deputies or intercessors, obtained, unsolicited, the interest of such a powerful body in their behalf, as to drown the recollection of every other object. A society, in which were enrolled the names of several great and good men, under the title of "The Friends of the Blacks" (Amis des Noirs), circulated its protests and appeals with such vigor, that, before the negroes themselves, although eager and alert in their inquiries, were acquainted with the importance which they had obtained in the deliberations of the mother-country, they were the prominent subjects of conversation and regret in half the towns of Europe. They were not, however, tardy in acquiring this information and though it would be difficult to contemplate any thing in human nature so bad, as to suppose that the highest and best of motives did not actuate so respectable a body as that which composed this society, or the similar establishment which had before obtained in London; yet the unhappy eloquence with which the miseries of slavery were depicted by them, and the forcible points of view in which all the errors of their opponents were placed, as well as the enthusiasm, which always accompanies the exertions of ardent minds, were certainly the cause of bringing into action, on a broad basis, that spirit of revolt which only sleeps in the enslaved African, or his descendant and which has produced on their side, and on that of the white inhabitants of the colonies, such horrors as "make ev'n the angels weep." I conclude this account of the origin of the revolution of St. Domingo, with observing how much better it would have been for themselves, and perhaps for humanity, if happily discerning the signs of the times, the planters of this delightful and flourishing colony (a character which none have attempted to deny it), by resigning an overweening fondness for dominion, and an undue avarice of gain, had rather calmed than provoked the dissentions of those whose interest should have bid them to agree and by softening the evils of a state which is so bad in its best form, have conciliated the affections of those to whose labors, under the present regimen, every thing productive of wealth or prosperity must depend. A partial concession to those who, by complexion itself, claim half a right to political existence, would have been sufficient: with a little regard for the morals of a people who require them the most, and a revolution in their own minds, as far as human nature will admit. These would have preserved to them, now lingering in a melancholy exile, if not the sudden victims of their impolicy, an island the boast of the new world, and a powerful support of the old. If they had then contemplated some more legitimate means of prosecuting the labors, of their colony, they might, however immediately unavailing, have laid a foundation for their posterity more lasting than the bequest of inordinate wealth, and have claimed the approbation of society. Sortable Date 1805-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Marcus Rainsford, An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti: Comprehending a View of the Principal Transactions in the Revolution of Saint-Domingo; with its Ancient and Modern State (London, 1805), 106–8. Description An account of the resource Rainsford wrote one of the first favorable accounts of the Haitian Revolution. He blamed the colonists for refusing to alter the slave system. Our excerpts begin with reactions to the revolution in mainland France in 1789 and continue through the death in prison in France of Toussaint L’Ouverture in 1803. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 603 Title A name given to the resource Discontent Spreads from An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/603/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1805 Popular Politics Text Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Sire: To discover whether it is expedient to establish municipalities in those cantons of France where they do not exist, whether it is necessary to improve or change those already in existence, and how to constitute those it is deemed necessary to create does not involve going back to the origin of municipal administrations, giving an historical account of the vicissitudes they have undergone, or even analyzing in great detail the diverse forms they exhibit today. In deciding what must be done in serious matters, it has been much too frequent a practice to revert to the examination and example of what our ancestors did in times of ignorance and barbarism. This method serves only to lead justice astray in the multiplicity of facts presented as precedents; and it tends to make princes disgusted with their most important functions, by persuading them that it is necessary to be prodigiously learned in order to discharge these functions with success and glory. However, it is really only necessary to understand thoroughly and to weigh carefully the rights and interests of men. These rights and interests are not very numerous, so that the science which comprises them, based upon the principles of justice that each of us bears in our heart, and on the intimate conviction of our own sensations has a very great degree of certainty and yet is not at all extensive. It does not require the effort of long study, nor is it beyond the capabilities of any man of good will. . . . This nation is numerous. That it obey is not everything. It is necessary to make sure that it can be commanded effectively. In order to succeed in this, it would first seem necessary to know, in fairly great detail, the nation's situation, its needs, its capabilities. This knowledge would doubtless be more useful than historical accounts of past positions. . . . The cause of the evil, Sire, stems from the fact that your nation has no constitution. It is a society composed of different orders badly united, and of a people among whose members there are but very few social ties. In consequence, each individual is occupied only with his own particular, exclusive interest; and almost no one bothers to fulfill his duties or to know his relationship to others. As a result, there is a perpetual war of claims and counterclaims which reason and mutual understanding have never regulated, in which Your Majesty is obliged to decide everything personally or through your agents. Everyone insists on your special orders to contribute to the public good, to respect the goods of others, sometimes even to make use of his own goods. You are forced to decree on everything, in most cases by particular acts of will, whereas you could govern like God by general laws if the various parts composing your realm had a regular organization and clearly established relationship. Your realm is made up of provinces. These provinces are composed of cantons or districts which (depending on the province) are called bailliages, e'lections, vigueries, or some other such name. These districts are made up of a certain number of towns and villages, which are in turn inhabited by families. To them belong the lands which yield products, provide for the livelihood of the inhabitants, and furnish the revenues from which salaries are paid to those without land and taxes are levied to meet public expenditures. The families, finally, are composed of individuals, who have many duties to fulfill towards one another and towards society, duties justified in terms of the benefits they have received, and which they continue to receive daily. But individuals are educated poorly regarding their duties within the family and not at all regarding those which link them to the state. Families themselves scarcely know that they depend on this state, of which they form a part: they have no idea of the nature of their relationship to it. They consider the levying of the taxes required for the maintenance of public order as nothing but the law of the strongest; and they see no other reason to obey than their powerlessness to resist. As a result, everyone seeks to cheat the authorities and to pass social obligations on to his neighbors. Incomes are concealed and can only be discovered very imperfectly by a kind of inquisition which would lead one to say that Your Majesty is at war with your people. And in this type of war which, were it only apparent, would always be destructive and deadly, no one has an interest in taking the government's part, and anyone who did so would be regarded with hostility. There is no public spirit because there is no known and visible common interest. The villages and towns, whose members are thus disunited, have no more links between them in the districts to which they belong. They are unable to get together on any of the public works that might be necessary for them. The same applies to the various divisions of the provinces, and to the provinces themselves in relation to the realm as a whole. Some of these provinces do, however, have a kind of constitution, assemblies, a sort of public will; they are called pays d'Etats. But since these Estates are composed of orders with very diverse claims, and with interests that are very separate one from another and from that of the nation, they are still far from producing all the good to be desired for the provinces in which they form part of the administration. These local half-benefits are perhaps an evil; provinces enjoying them are less sensitive to the necessity for reform. But Your Majesty can bring them to recognize that necessity by giving the other provinces, which have no constitution at all, a constitution better organized than that which at present makes the pays d'Etats so full of pride. It is by means of example, Sire, that they can be brought to desire that your power authorize them to change what is defective in their present form. In order to dissipate this spirit of disunity, which vastly increases the work of your servants and of Your Majesty, and which necessarily and prodigiously diminishes your power; in order to substitute instead a spirit of order and union which would mobilize the forces and means of your nation for the common good, gathering them together in your hand and making them easy to direct, it would be necessary to conceive of a plan that would link individuals to their families, families to the village or town to which they belong, towns and villages to the district of which they form part, districts to their province, and provinces finally to the state. This plan would involve instruction that would be compelling, a common interest, deliberating about it and acting according to it. . . . The Means of Preparing Individuals and Families to Enter Effectively into a Well-Constituted Society The first and perhaps the most important of all the institutions which I would believe necessary, Sire, that which would seem to me the most fitting to immortalize Your Majesty's reign and which would have the greatest influence on the kingdom as a whole, would be the formation of a council on national instruction responsible for the direction of the academies, universities, and secondary and elementary schools. The first bond of nations is custom; the first foundation of custom is the instruction received from childhood regarding all the duties of man in society. It is astonishing that this science is so little advanced. There are methods and institutions for training grammarians, mathematicians, doctors, painters. There are none for training citizens. There would be, if national instruction were directed by one of Your Majesty's councils, in the public interest and according to uniform principles. There would be no need for this council to be very large, because it would be necessary for it to be united in spirit. In accordance with this spirit, it would commission textbooks systematically planned and written in such a way that one would lead to another, and that the study of the duties of the citizen, as member of a family and of the state, would be the basis for all other studies, which would be organized in relation to their usefulness to society. This council would supervise the entire organization of education and it could render literary bodies useful for that purpose. The present efforts of these bodies tend only to create savants, poets, men of wit and taste; those unable to aspire to this goal are neglected and count for nothing. A new system of education, which can only be established by Your Majesty's entire authority, seconded by a well-chosen council, would lead to the formation, among all classes of society, of virtuous and useful men, just souls, pure hearts, and zealous citizens. Those among them who then wished to devote themselves particularly to sciences and letters, and were capable of doing so, would be diverted from frivolous matters by the importance of the first principles which they had received, and would approach their work in a more vigorous and determined spirit. Taste itself would improve, as would the national tone: it would become more serious and more elevated, but, above all, more concerned with virtuous things. This would be the fruit of the uniformity of patriotic attitudes that the council on instruction would disseminate in all the teaching given to youth. There is at present only one type of instruction that has any uniformity: religious instruction. Even here, this uniformity is not complete. Textbooks vary from one diocese to another; the Paris catechism is not the same as the Montpellier catechism, and neither is identical to that of Besancon. This diversity of textbooks is unavoidable in an educational system that has several independent heads. The instruction organized by your council on instruction would not have that drawback. It would be all the more necessary in that religious instruction is limited to heavenly things. The proof that this instruction is not sufficient for the morality to be observed between citizens, and especially between different groups of citizens, lies in the multitude of issues arising every day in which Your Majesty sees one part of your subjects seeking to vex another by exclusive privileges; with the result that your Council is forced to quash these requests and proscribe as unjust the pretexts they invoke. Your kingdom, Sire, is of this world. It is over the earthly conduct of your subjects, towards one another and towards the state, that Your Majesty is obliged to watch for the sake of your conscience and the welfare of your crown. I do not wish to place any obstacle in the way of that instruction which has a higher object, and which already has its rules and ministers completely established. Quite the contrary. Nevertheless, I do not believe I can propose anything more advantageous for your people, more conducive to the maintenance of peace and good order and to the encouragement of all useful works, more fitting to make your authority cherished and your person daily more dear to the hearts of your subjects, than to provide them all with an education which clearly shows them their obligations towards society and towards your power which protects it, the duties which these obligations impose upon them, and the interest they have in fulfilling these duties for the public good, as for their own. This moral and social instruction demands textbooks written expressly for the purpose, in open competition and with great care, and a schoolmaster in each parish who will teach them to the children, together with reading, writing, arithmetic, measurement, and the principles of mechanics. More learned instruction, progressively embracing the knowledge necessary for the citizens whose position requires more extensive enlightenment, would be taught in the secondary schools. But it would follow the same principles, more fully developed according to the functions which the rank of the students fits them to fill in society. If Your Majesty approves this plan, Sire, I shall submit for your consideration a special memorandum containing the relevant details. But I dare to assert that ten years from now, your nation would be unrecognizable; and that, by virtue of its intelligence, its good customs, its enlightened zeal for your service and for that of the country, it would be infinitely superior to all other peoples past and present. Children who are now ten years old would then find themselves men of twenty, prepared for the state, attached to the country, submissive to authority not from fear, but by reason supportive of their fellow citizens, accustomed to knowing and respecting the justice which is the first foundation of societies. Such men will act well within their families, and will doubtless raise families that will be easy to govern in the villages to which they belong. Sortable Date 1775-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Gustave Schelle, ed., Oeuvres de Turgot, 4 vols. (Paris: F. Alcan, 1913–23), 4:568–628. Description An account of the resource In 1774, on the accession of Louis XVI, Anne–Robert Turgot was named controller general. In this position, he became responsible for royal finances, and hence for administrative policies relating to taxation, the economy, and local government. With his recent experience as an intendant in mind, Turgot directed his secretary (the economist, Pierre–Samuel Dupont de Nemours) to draft a long memorandum diagnosing the problems of provincial administration and outlining the plans for national regeneration that the controller general intended to submit to the King. Although this Mémoire sur les Municipalités was written in 1775, Turgot fell from power before it could be presented to Louis XVI. But its arguments exercised a powerful influence on administrative thinking in the remaining years of the old regime. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 598 Title A name given to the resource "Memorandum on Local Government" (1775) Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/598/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1775 Enlightenment Nobility Peasants Provinces Public Opinion Text Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document I have thought hard and long about the declaration of the rights of man, whether living in France or in some other country of the world. I attached the same ideas as the Latins to the word man; and here is perhaps the origin of my very excusable error. In fact their homo expressed by itself these two words consecrated by usage, man, woman; I will therefore use it in the same fashion, and if I have employed the word individual, it is because it appeared to me more appropriate for indicating humans of each sex, of all ages, all members, in my opinion, of the great family which inhabits the world. This once posed, the first question that presents itself to the mind of a partisan of political equality between the individuals of humankind is this: does the Declaration of the Rights of Man apply to women? . . . What is then the prodigious difference between men and women? I see none in their characteristic traits. I mean soul for those who believe in it, reason and the passions for the partisans of the one or the other system. There is no doubt a difference, that of the sexes . . . but I do not conceive how a sexual difference makes for one in the equality of rights. . . . I maintain that half of the individuals of a society do not have the right to deprive the other half of the imprescriptible right of giving their opinion. Let us liberate ourselves rather from the prejudice of sex, just as we have freed ourselves from the prejudice against the color of Negroes. . . . I think therefore that the declaration of rights is the same for men and women. I do not see what right of sovereignty could be claimed by the one which would not be immediately asserted by the other. Custom and oppression only serve to prove that power has been usurped. The law of the strongest maintains tyranny; that of justice, reason, and humanity brings us back effortlessly to equality and liberty, the bases of a democratic republic. . . . What! At the birth of equality, would one also proclaim the enslavement of half of humankind, whose happiness we have made our project? The epoch of the new order of things will leave women in the old one, and they will date from this day their designation as islands within the Republic; they will be servants without wages, placed at the same rank that our legislators assigned to hired servants. In effect, they will have no citizenship; if they do not have the right to vote in the primary assemblies, they are not members of the sovereign. These are two empty words for them. I observe, in passing, that the name of citizeness is more than ridiculous and should be struck from our language. We should henceforth call them either wives or daughters of a citizen, never citizenesses. Either strike the word, or bring reality in line with it. . . . Pressed by this argument in conformity with our principles, but pushed to a logical conclusion which could displease, I do not doubt that some will soon have recourse to the escape of a presumed representation. They will say therefore that a husband is the born representative of his wife. Following the same line of argument, charge him right away with drinking and eating for her, since surely the moral faculties are as independent as all the physical needs. . . . Voting women incontestably have the right to be elected. . . . I do not even see any inconvenience in their admission to certain local offices, which would require no travel. The creation of free posts for women for policing themselves seems to me to be part of the system of equality established for male and female primary school teachers. This is far from the flagrant injustice that places them in a class with children, imbeciles, and madmen, all incapable of voting in the primary assemblies. This then is what men do to the women to whom they owe their perilous birth, the care of their childhood, their first education! Sexual pride makes them forget everything. Sortable Date 1793-04-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The materials listed below appeared originally in The French Revolution and Human Rights: A Brief Documentary History, translated, edited, and with an introduction by Lynn Hunt (Bedford/St. Martin's: Boston/New York), 1996, 133–135. Description An account of the resource Pierre Guyomar wrote the pamphlet excerpted here during the war–torn and hungry spring of 1793, at the height of popular political mobilization that restated arguments made by Condorcet three years earlier. A political moderate, Guyomar supported equal political rights for women and compares the question of women’s rights to that of the rights of black slaves. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 597 Title A name given to the resource Guyomar, "The Partisan of Political Equality between Individuals" (April 1793) Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/597/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource April 1793 Laws Public Opinion Text Women Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document So far, the weakness of the legal government is extreme. For four years, whatever its kind, everywhere and constantly, it has been disobeyed; for four years, whatever its kind, it has never dared enforce obedience. Recruited among the cultivated and refined class, the rulers of the country have brought with them into power the prejudices and sensibilities of the epoch; under the empire of the prevailing dogma they have deferred to the will of the multitude and, with too much faith in the rights of man, they have had too little in the rights of the magistrate; moreover, through humanity, they have abhorred bloodshed and, unwilling to repress, they have allowed themselves to be repressed. Thus, from the 1st of May, 1789, to 2 June 1793, they have carried on the administration, or legislated, athwart innumerable insurrections, almost all of them going unpunished; while their constitutions, so many unhealthy products of theory and fear, have done no more than transform spontaneous anarchy into legal anarchy. Willfully and through distrust of authority they have undermined the principle of command, reduced the King to the post of a decorative puppet, and almost annihilated the central power: from the top to the bottom of the hierarchy the superior has lost his hold on the inferior, the minister on the departments, the departments on the districts, and the districts on the communes; throughout all branches of the service, the chief, elected on the spot and by his subordinates, has come to depend on them. Thenceforth, each post in which authority is vested is found isolated, dismantled and preyed upon, while, to crown all, the Declaration of Rights, proclaiming "the jurisdiction of constituents over their clerks,"1 has invited the assailants to make the assault. On the strength of this a faction arises which ends in becoming an organized band: under its clamorings, its menaces and its pikes, at Paris and in the provinces, at the polls and in the parliament, the majorities are all silenced, while the minorities vote, decree and govern; the Legislative Assembly is purged, the King is dethroned, and the Convention is mutilated. Of all the garrisons of the central citadel, whether royalists, constitutionalists, or Girondists, not one has been able to defend itself, to re-fashion the executive instrument, to draw the sword and use it in the streets: on the first attack, often at the first summons, all have surrendered, and now the citadel, with every other public fortress, is in the hands of the Jacobins. This time, its occupants are of a different stamp. Aside from the great mass of well-disposed people fond of a quiet life, the Revolution has sifted out and separated from the rest all who are fanatical, brutal or perverse enough to have lost respect for others; these form the new garrison—sectarians blinded by their creed, the roughs (assommeurs) who are hardened by their calling, and those who make all they can out of their offices. None of this class are scrupulous concerning human life or property; for, as we have seen, they have shaped the theory to suit themselves, and reduced popular sovereignty to their sovereignty. The commonwealth, according to the Jacobin, is his; with him, the commonwealth comprises all private possessions, bodies, estates, souls and consciences; everything belongs to him; the fact of being a Jacobin makes him legitimately czar and pope. Little does he care about the wills of actually living Frenchmen; his mandate does not emanate from a vote; it descends to him from aloft, conferred on him by Truth, by Reason, by Virtue. As he alone is enlightened, and the only patriot, he alone is worthy to take command, while resistance, according to his imperious pride, is criminal. If the majority protests, it is because the majority is imbecile or corrupt; in either case, it merits a check, and a check it shall have. Accordingly, the Jacobin does nothing else from the outset; insurrections, usurpations, pillagings, murders, assaults on individuals, on magistrates, on assemblies, violations of law, attacks on the State, on communities—there is no outrage not committed by him. He has always acted as sovereign instinctively; he was so as a private individual and clubbist; he is not to cease being so, now that he possesses legal authority, and all the more because if he hesitates he knows he is lost; to save himself from the scaffold he has no refuge but in a dictatorship. Such a man, unlike his predecessors, will not allow himself to be turned out; on the contrary, he will exact obedience at any cost. He will not hesitate to restore the central power; he will put back the local wheels that have been detached; he will repair the old forcing-gear; he will set it agoing so as to work more rudely and arbitrarily than ever, with greater contempt for private rights and public liberties than either a Louis XIV or a Napoleon.1The words of Marat. Sortable Date 1878-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Hippolyte Taine, The French Revolution, trans. John Durand, vol. 3 (New York: Peter Smith, 1931), 2–4. Description An account of the resource Literary critic and historian, Hippolyte Taine (1828–1893) was lionized by late–nineteenth–century republican France. He emphasized rationalism and mathematical simplicity, being a bitter critic of the ideological abstractions that had occupied France since 1789. He searched for formulas to understand history and human behavior to comprehend France’s humiliation by Prussia in 1870–71 and, here in his study of the French Revolution, he attacked the revolutionaries for their lack of respect for government and for being petty despots. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 595 Title A name given to the resource Hippolyte Taine on the French Revolution Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/595/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1878 Public Opinion Text Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Nature and Reason The sovereign freedom of a state makes it externally independent of its neighbors, but internally renders it subject to the disciplines of strength, fruitful endeavor, justice and peace. The freedom of the different associations, institutions, and groups of which it is composed consists in remaining in control of their own rules of conduct: it cannot mean the freedom to disintegrate in internal strife. Finally the freedom of the citizens themselves, according to their different roles and stations in life, is but a proposition to each that he should pursue a mode of life which is appropriate to what he must do, and wishes to do. Freedom cannot authorize them to break ranks in disorder, it is the binding force against death, it is the defensive force against division. In contrast, the political freedom of revolutionary doctrine utters without distinction one single appeal for the general liberation of every section of society, supposedly all equal, states, enterprises, persons, entirely without taking account of their different functions. The level of this indeterminate freedom is pitched so low that men bear no other label but that which they share with every plant or animal: individuality. Individual liberty, social individualism, such is the vocabulary of progressive doctrine. How ironical it is. A dog, a donkey, even a blade of grass are all individuals. Naturally, the jostling throng of disorganized "individuals" will willingly accept from the revolutionary spirits its dazzling promises of power and happiness: but if the mob falls for these promises, it is the task of reason to challenge them and of experience to give them the lie. Reason foresees that the quality of life will decline when the unbridled individual is granted, under the direction of the state, his dreary freedom to think only of himself and to live only for himself. Posterity when it pays the price will declare this prediction all too well justified. In close parallel to this, the critical mind of the future will challenge the libertarian aspirations of romanticism, and literary history will see clearly the damaging effect they had upon the poet and his work: enslavement, decomposition. Thus we find, in politics as in art, the harmony of nature and reason. Criticism and logic, history and philosophy, far from being in conflict, come to the aid of each other. We have had to dwell on this point before. Foreign influences (English mainly) at work in reverse upon the French conservative spirit, tended to represent the principles of the Revolution as an expression of the rational, and the principles of reaction as the voice of the natural world. Abstract reason had erred. Experience, with its clear view of the concrete, rectified the spirit's error, embodying thus the triumph of practical good sense (mental error being the child of pure theory!). This amounted to saying that all theories are false, all generalizations suspect. With one accord we have rejected this contradictory system and refused to dismiss all ideas simply because they are ideas. This rejection applies equally to the gratuitous notion that some special honor is due to an undefined "idealism" which admits any old system of ideas if it seems to oppose reality. In fact reality and ideas are in no sense opposite or incompatible. There are ideas which are consistent with reality and these are the true ideas. There are realities which are consistent with the noblest ideas and these we call great men, beauty, sacred things. If contradiction we must establish, it is between true ideas and false ideas, between good reality and bad reality. No man of sense will condemn revolutionary ideas merely because they are abstract or generalized. Let us throw light upon this confusion. Politics is not morality. The science and art of the conduct of the state is not the science and art of man's own conduct. What satisfies general man, can be profoundly disagreeable for the particular state. By losing its head in these metaphysical clouds, concentrating upon these insubstantial wraiths, the Constituent Assembly managed to overlook entirely the problem it was called upon to resolve. Its mind wandered and what followed is the proof. Furthermore, as if it were not enough for the Assembly to use a pair of scales to measure out a gallon of water, it compounded the error by using false weights. From the standpoint of reason as invoked by itself, the general ideas of the Revolution are the antithesis of truth. In drawing up the French constitution, it felt inclined to speak of an ideal and absolute type of man in Article I of the Declaration of the Rights of Man: that they be born and live free and equal before the law. "What," exclaimed Frederic Amouretti,1 "a child five minutes old is a free man!" And, of course, it logically follows from the declaration that this infant has the same freedom as its mother and father! In exactly the same way, if the Assembly was disposed, when dealing with a tangible entity called France, to reason in terms of political society in general, it should have avoided the pitfall of holding that the social group is an "association" of individual wills whose "aim" is to "conserve" "rights" (as Article 2 has it) since society is in being before the will to associate, since man is a part of society even before he is born, and since the rights of man would in any case be inconceivable without the existence of society. Any affirmation to the contrary, belied in nature, is totally untenable in reason. Whoever drafted such articles produced a mere collection of words without having examined what they meant. There is nothing more irrational. Nor is it rational that all men should command everyone to be sovereign: this is yet another contradiction in terms so characteristic of the pure and unadulterated irrational. It is not rational that men should meet to elect their leaders, for leaders have to command and an elected leader is little obeyed; elected authority is an instrument which bears no relation to its intended function, an instrument first ridiculous then defunct. If it is not rational, it is contradictory, that the state, founded for the purpose of building unity amongst men, unity in time which we call continuity, unity in space which we call concord, should be legally constituted by competition and discord between parties which by their very nature are divisive. All those liberal and democratic concepts, principles of the revolutionary spirit, are no more than an essay in squaring the circle. It should not be supposed that even at the outset the needle of reason failed to pierce the skin of revolutionary principle and expose its weakness. Its first critics were not just simple practical men like Burke whose sense of politics and history had been somewhat shocked. Good critical minds, clear vigorous spirits like Rivarol2 and Maistre, found intolerable the absurd because it was absurd; in the unreason of liberal and Jacobin they foresaw disasters to come; error and catastrophe. The catastrophes they predicted came to pass. Revolutionary legality has broken up the family, revolutionary centralism has killed community life, the elective system has bloated the state and burst it asunder. While the enfeeblement of peaceful crafts has brought about the recession of the economy; five invasions, each more severe than the last, have demonstrated, both in defeat and in victory, despite the immense sacrifices of our nation, the total inadequacy of the New Spirit and the New State. Of the three revolutionary ideas now written up on every wall, the first, the principle of political liberty, essence of the republican system, has destroyed not only the citizen's respect for the laws of the state which he regards as the commonplace expression of a passing whim (no whim is permanent), but also and above all his respect for those other laws, profound and solemn; leges naturae, offspring of nature's union with reason, laws in which the caprices of man or the citizen count for less than nothing. Oblivious, negligent and disdainful of these natural and spiritual laws, the French state threw discretion to the winds and exposed itself to the gravest dangers and corruptions. The second of the revolutionary ideas, the principle of equality, essence of the democratic system, handed over power to the most numerous, that is to say the most inferior elements of the nation, to the least vigorous producers, to the most voracious consumers, who do the least work and the most damage. The Frenchman is continually discouraged, if he is enterprising, by a meddling administration legally representative of the greatest number, but finds himself, if he is meek and humdrum, in receipt of the favors with which the same administration gratefully blesses his idleness, and so he has resigned himself to being an office parasite to such an extent that the flame of French national life burnt low and almost died because individuals are not helped to become people or rather because people are dragged down to the level of a herd of individual sheep. Finally the third revolutionary idea, the principle of fraternity, the essence of cosmopolitan brotherhood, imposed on the one hand a limitless indulgence towards all men, provided they lived far enough away from us, were unknown to us, spoke a different language, or, better still, had a skin of different color. On the other hand this splendid principle allowed us to regard anyone, be he even fellow citizen or brother, as a monster and a villain if he failed to share with us even our mildest attack of philanthropic fever. The principle of universal fraternity which was supposed to establish peace among nations, has taken that frenzy of anger and aggression built by nature into the secret mechanism of that political animal, that political carnivore rather, called man, and turned each nation upon itself, upon its own compatriots. Frenchmen have been instructed in the arts of civil war. And that is not all. The same ideas, distributed worldwide as French merchandise to all our customers, brought great harm to them and returned with interest upon our own heads. 1Joseph-François-Frederick Amouretti (1863–1903), like Maurras a Provençal; disciple of Mistral who led a movement (Le Felibrige) for the revival of the Provençal language. His passionate provincialism influenced both Barres and Maurras. He contributed frequently to the Cocarde when it was run by Barres. 2Antoine de Rivarol (1753–1801), man of letters, journalist, and pamphleteer, famous for the saying, "Ce qui n'est pas clair n'est pas français" [If it's not clear, it's not French]. Respectfully received in England by Pitt and Burke. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived J.S. McClelland, ed., The French Right (From de Maistre to Maurras), trans. John Frears (New York: Harper & Row, 1970), 251–55. Copyright © 1970 by J.S. McClelland. Translations by John Frears, Eric Harber, J.S. McClelland, and R.H.L. Phillipson © 1970 by Jonathan Cape Ltd. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Description An account of the resource A classical scholar and militant atheist and anti–Semite, Charles Maurras (1868–1952) became involved in politics during the Dreyfus Affair (1893–1906) when he founded a group known as Action Française. He believed that as a result of the Revolution, France had become dominated by outside influences, namely, Protestants, Freemasons, and especially Jews. He hoped to destroy these influences and return France to its traditional institutions, particularly the monarchy and Catholicism. Maurras and his movement embittered numerous groups and contributed to the development of attitudes and positions that would become identified with fascism between the two World Wars. Here he gives his thoughts on the French Revolution. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 594 Title A name given to the resource Charles Maurras on the French Revolution Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/594/ Counterrevolution Monarchy Public Opinion Text