Paris (refs)
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[Social Protest in the Arts] (papers)
[Leo Gershov's 1789-1799 text]
These documents were (initally) gathered from Leo Gershov's
fine book "The Era of the French Revolution: 1789-1799.
Ten Years that shook the World", Anvil Press
ISBN 0.4442.00022.7 (Cincinnatti, 1957).
French Revolution (1789-1799)
On this page: {Abbé Sieyès' "What is the 3rd Estate?"} Well Done, Brother James!
{Cahier of the Community of Valleraugue}
{Cahier of the Third Estate of Beaucaire}
{The Creation of the National Assembly!} 1789.06.17:
{The Tennis Court Oath} 1789:06.20
{III. Proceedings of June 23} 1789.06.23
(Declaration of Louis XVI concerning the Estates)
Decree (respone) by the Assembly
{War & Propaganda (Republican victories leading up to...
Declaration for Assistance and Fraternity... 1792.11.19
Decree for Proclaiming the Liberty and
Sovereignty of all Peoples 1792.12.15
{The Guillotining of the King 1792.01.23
{An "Aristo" report on the Death of the King 1792.01.23
And finally: {A Police Report: Attacking the Cult of Marat 1795.01.20
Abbé Sieyès' Little Pamphlet
What is the 3rd Estate?
Pp. 119-121, from GERSHOV, LOC CIT.
Orig from: J.H. STUART (transl'r) in
"A Documentary Survey of the French Revolution"
(New York, 1951), Pp.42, 44, 45, 52.
Brother Leo writes: Of the 1000 or more pamphlets
that were printed and circulated
from 1788 to 1789, that of the Abbé Sieyès, "What is
the Third Estate?" from which excerpts are given, was
easily the most influential.
Brother James (the Abbé Sieyès) What is the Third Estate?
The plan of this pamphlet is very simple. We have three
questions to ask:"
1st. What is the third estate? Everything.
2nd. What has it been here-to-fore in the political
order? Nothing.
3rd. What does it demand? To become something there-in.
We shall see if the answers are correct. Then we shall
examine the measures that have been tried and those
which must be taken in order that the 3rd estate may
in fact become something. Thus, we shall state:
4th. What the ministers have attempted, and what the
privlidged classes themselves propose in its favor.
5th. What ought to have been done.
6th. Finally, what remains to be done in order that the
third estate may take its right-full place.
...
Who, then, would dare to say that the third estate has not
within itself all that is necessary to consititute a complete
nation? If the privledged order were abolished, the nation would
not be something less but something more. Thus, what is the
third estate? Everthing; but an every-thing that is shackled
and oppressed. What would it be without the privlidged order?
Everything; but an every-thing free and flourishing. Nothing
can progress wihtout it; everything would proceed infinitely
bettter without the others.
...
Let us examine its position in the Estates General.
Who have been its so-called representatives? The ennobled
or those privlidged for a period of years. These false
deputies have not even been always freely elected by the
people. Some-times in the Estates General, and almost
always in the provincial Estates, the representatives of
the people has been regarded as a prequisite of certain
posts or offices. ... Let us sum up: The Third Estate has
not here-to-fore had real representatives in the Estates
General. THus, its political rights are null.
...
The true petitions of this order may be appreciated only
through the authentic claims directed to the governement
by the larger municipalities of the kingdom. What is
indicated there-in? That the people wishes to be something,
and in turth, the very least that is possible. It
wishes to have real representatitives in the Estates
General, that is to say, deputies drawn from its order,
who are competent to be interpreters of its will and
defenders of its interests. But, what will it avail it
to be present at the Estates General if the predominating
interest there is contrary to its own! Its presence
would only consecrate the oppression of which it would be
the eternal victim. THus, it is indeed certain that it
can-not come to vote at the Estates General unless it
is to have in that body an influence at least equal to
that of the privledged classes; and that it demands
a number of represnetataives euqal to that of the first
two orders together. Finally, this equality of representation
would become completely illusory if every chamber voted
separately. The Third Estate demands, then, that votes
be taken by head and not by order. This is the
essence of those claims so alarming to the prividged
classes, because they believed that there-by the reform
of the abuses would become inevitable.
...
In such a state of affairs, what must the Third Estate do
if it wishes to gain possession of its political rights
in a manner beneficial to the nation? There are two ways
of attaining this objective. In following the first, the
Third Estate must assemble apart: It will not meet with
the nobility or the clergy at all; it will not remain
with them, either by order or by head. I pray
that they will keep in mind the enormous difference
between the assembly of the third estate and that of the
other two orders. THe first represents 25_000_000 men,
and deliberates concerning the interests of the nation.
The two others, were they to unite, ahve the powers of
only about 200_000 individuals, and think only of their
privlidges. The Third Estate alone, they say, can-not
constitute the Estates General. Well! So much the
better! It will form a National Assembly. ...
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Again, Brother Leo [Magum Opus Citato, P.119],
[Excerpts are from] two primary cahiers [notebooks] from
the provinc eof Languedoc, the cahier of the Third Estate
of a small commnity of fewer than 500 inhabitants,
Valleraugue in the Cévennes, and the chaier of the Third
Estate of the town of Beaucaire, with a population of
2_000.
Orig src (via footnote, [GERSHOV, P. 118]) is
translated from the text as quoted in A. Soboul,
1789, "'An Un de La Liberté", 2nd Ed.
(Paris, 1950), Pp. 80-82, and 85-86, respectively.
Chahier of the Community of Valleraugue
The King is most humbly beseeched:
In the first place: TO accord to this province
of Languedoc the right to assemble and form its special
estates in the way that it judges most suitable, by
admitting to this assembly memebers of the Third Estate
at least equal in number to that of the two other orders
combined.
2. To order that all citizens, without distinction of
orders be called upon to contribute to all expenses,
present or future, in proportion to their incomes and
abilities, of what-ever nature they be.
3. TO oblige the tithe-owners to grant to the curés a
portion really and truly adequate, that is to say,
suitable, sufficient, and capable of supporting them
in making a living in a deceent fashon, and of permitting
them to exercise their charity toward the poor.
4. TO be willing to reform the civil and criminal codes,
to abridge and simplify the juidicial forms, to decrease
the costs of justice, the length of the trials, and the
number of legal agents, to bring the sovereign courts of
justice closer in such a way so that the poor farmer no longer
will be obliged to seek justice fifty leagues away from his
home; to abolish the courts of exception, and if possible
the venality of offices.
5. To abrogae also all the lawas and the regulation
which harm agriculiture ... and to modify, above all,
those lawsw shich forbid the transfer of wealth
pertaining to dowry rights [and] the sale of the estates
of minors. ...
6. To suppress the [???] as destructive to
agriculture and replace this tax, if there be need, by a tax
levied in money in fonformity with the opinoin of Monsieiur
[king's brother], as contained in the minutes of
the first Assembly of Notables.
7. To secure the individual liberty of citizens and not
to punish anyone without a hearing and without observing
the forms prescribed by ordinanaces.
8. To order that in the future the community as a
whole bear the expenses for its militiamen.
9. To arrest the in-roads of celibacy by according
advantages and benefitsw uponjd married people, while
increasint one quarter the rate of the personal
tax of bachelors.
10. Finally, to bear in mind that the pays [???] of
the Hautes-Cévennes [???] is unable to stand an increase
in taxes because, on the one hand, its soil, by its
very location, depreciates in value every day and
grows more and moru sour and un-yielding; and on the
other hand, the price of mulberry leaves, the sole
source of income of this little area, which, only
thirty years ago, brought two measures of wheat,
today buys only one and a quarter.
Done and drawn up in two originals, the day and year
above, by the citizens making up the said assembly,
and those who were able to sign, having signed.
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NEXT: The Cahier (notebook) of the Third Estate of Beaucaire.
Cahier of the Third Estate of Beaucaire
[GERSHOY, Pp. 122-123]
1. The deputies of the commons of this city will be
instructed to present their wishes for the
suppression of the existing Estates of the province
and the drawing up of a new constitution with free
and equal representation. And to this end, a general
assembly of the three orders will be requested.
The deputies to protest against the regime of the
said estates and to authorise the deputies of the
diocese in Paris to beseech with all their might
the execution of the present article.
2. The deputies of the Estates General will direct
all their efforts toward mjaking the voting be by
head and not by order.
3. A declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen.
4. Liberty of th epress and the security of publications,
and in this respect the public trust may not be violated
in any place and in any case.
5. The abolition of lettres de cachet [???]
and every arbitrary act prejudicial to the liberty
of the citizen.
6. Proportional equality of contributions upon
persons and goods without distinction.
7. A commission will be nominated for the reform of
criminal lawas.
8. A second commission for the reform of civil lawas.
...?... 9-11???
12. The suppression of toils ... and other rights of
this nature by means of just and reasonable
indemnitites in favor of the owners.
13. To request theat in the re-assessment of taxes
all those harmfull to commerce and industry be
done away with.
14. Freedom of perpetural lease-holders to free
themselves from rights which weigh heavily
upon them by means of a payment of real, effective
and proportional compensation to their lords.
..15??..
16. That different positions in the military and
naval forces and in high magistracy be made
accessible to all members of the Third Estate.
17. The freedom of persons of the Third Estate to
carry arms with suitable restrictions.
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NEXT: The Creation of the National Assembly!
Again Brother Leo:
The June days of 1789
[The translations from the French are all from
F.M. Anderson, Consititutions and Documents
Illustrative of the History of France, 1789-1901
(New York, 1904), Pp.1-2; 3-4; and 10-11.]
The deliberate policy of the deputies of the
Third Estate to refrain from verifying their
credentials separately reached a dramatic
climax on June 17. On that day, they took a
*revolutionary* step [italics mine] by formally
conferring upon themselves the title of National
Assembly. They re-affirmed their dis-obedience of
Louis XVI three days later by swearing the Tennis
Court Oath and again on June 23, by refusing to
adjourn when ordered to do so.
(At this point in our story, the in-decisive Louis
the 16th decided to expand the seating of the assembly
hall at Versailles ?sp?. But, unfortunately, he did't
make WHAT he was doing clear. So, when the delegates
of the Third Estate showed up and found the doors
locked, they were a bit a-miff (to say the least).
The way that I heard it, it was Simone (the Baker's
wife who had showed up since his gout was acting up)
made the declaration: "Oi! I think we should bloddy
well set up on those bourgeois tennis court over there!"
(or what-ever the equivalent in common french is ;)
I. The Creation of the National Assembly
1789.06.17: !
The Assembly, deliberating after the verification of
the powers, recognises that this assembly is alredy
composed of the representatives sent directly by at\
least ninety-size percent of the nation. [Pizo: Can you imagine!]
Such a body of deputies can-not remain in-active
owing to the absence of the deputies of some
bailliages [???] and some classes of citizens; for the
absentees, who have been summoned, can-not prevent those
present from exercising the full extent of their rights,
espeically when the exercise of rhtese rights in an
imperious and pressing duty.
Furthermore, since it belongs only to the verified
representatives to participate in the formation of the
national opinion, and since all the verified
representatives ought to be in this assembly, it sis
still more indispensiable to conclude that the
interpreation and prestatiojn of
the gernal will of the nation belong to it,
belong to it alone, and
that there cann-not exist between the throne and this
assembly any veo, any naeatavie power. -- The Assembly
deaclares then that the common task of
tha nationa restoration can and ought to be
commenced without delay by the deputies presnet
and that they ought to pursue it without hindrance.
-- The denominationNATIONAL ASSEMBLY is the only one
which is suitable for the Assembly in the present
condition of things; because the
members who compse it are the only representaitves
lawfully and publiclly known and verified; because
they are sent directly by almost the totality of
the nation; because, lastly, the reprresentation being one and
indivisible, none chosen, has the right to exeercise his
functions apart from the present assembly. ... The
National Assembly orders that the motives of the
present decision be immediately drawn up in order to
be presented to the King and the nation.
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II. The Tennis Court Oath
1789:06.20 !
The National Assembly, considering that it has been
summoned to determine the Constitution of the kingdom,
to effect the re-generation of public order, to
maintain the true principles of monarchy; that nothing
can prevent it from continuing its deliberations in
what-ever place it may be forced to establish itself,
and lastly, that when-ever its members meet together,
there is the National Assembly.
Decrees that all the members of this Assembly shall
immediately take a solemn oath never to separate, andd
to re-assemble when-ever circumstances shall require,
until the Constitution of the kingdom shall be established
and consolidtgated upon firm foundation; and that, the
said oath being taken, all the members and each of them
individually shall ratify by their signatures this
stead-fast resolution.
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III. Proceedings of June 23
A. Declaration of Louis XVI concerning the Estates
General: The King wishes that the ancient
distinction of the three Orders of the State be
preserved in its entirety, as esentially linked to
the constition of his Kingdom; that the deputies,
freely elected by each of the three Orders, forming
three chambers, deliberating by Order ... can alone
be consdiered as forming the body of the representatives
of the Nation. As a result, the King has declared null the
resolutions passed by the deputies of the Order of the
Third Estae, the 17th of this month, as well as those
which followed them, as illegal and un-constitutional. ...
B. Declaration of the King's Intentions:
[After he had stated his intentions, the King declared:]
I order you, gentlemen, to separate immediately, and
to go to your Order; in order to take up again your
sessions. I order, therefore, the Grand Master of
Ceremonies, to have the halls prepared.
C.Decree of the Assembly: The National Assembly
declares that the person of each of the deputies is
in-vioable; that all individuals, all corporations,
tribunal, court or commission, that shall dare during
or after the present session, to pursue, to seek for,
to arrest or have arrested, detain or have detained,
a deputy, by reason of any propositions, advice,
opinions, or discourse made by him in the States-General;
as well as persons who shall lend their aid to any of
the said attempts by whom-so-ever they may be ordered,
are infamous and traitors to the Nation and guilty
of capital crime. The National Assembly decrees
that, in the a-fore-mentioned cases, it will take all
the necessary measures to have sought out, pursued
and punished those who may be its authors, instigators,
or executors.
[As Kosh might say: And so; it, begins.]
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War & Propaganda
Brother Leo writes: (P.152)
"The Despotism of Liberty",
The victories of the republican armies encouraged
the deputies late in 1792 to extend and amplify
their propaganda activities.
Translations from: F.M. Anderson, op.cit, Pp.129-132.
Declaration for Assistance and Fraternity to Foreign
Peoples (November 19, 1792)
The National Convention declares, in the name of the
French people, that it will accord fraternity and
assistance to these peoples and to defend the citizens
who may have been or may be harassed for the cause of
liberty. The present decree shall be tranlated and
printed in all languages.
Decree for Proclaiming the Liberty and Sovereignty
of all Peoples (December 15, 1792)
The National Convention, having heard the report of its
united committees of finances, war, and diplomacy,
faithful to the principles of the sovereignty of the
people, which do not permit it to recognise any of
the institutions which bring an attack upon it, and
wishing to settle the rules to be followed by the
generals of the armies of the Republic in countries
where they shall carry its arms, decrees:
1. In the countries which are or shall be occupied by
the armies of the Republic, the generals shall
proclaim immediately, in the name of the French nation,
the sovereignty of the people, the suppression of all
the established authorities and of the existing imposts
and taxes, the abolition of the tithe, of feudalism,
of seignoiorial rights, both feudal, and censuel,
fixed or precarious, of banalities [????],
of real and personal servitude of the the privlege of
funting and fishing, of corvés [???] of
the nobility, and generally of all privleges.
4. The generals shall directly place under the
safeguard and protection of the French Republic
all the movable and immovable goods belonging to the public
treasury, to the prince, to this abettors, adherents
and voluntary satellites, to the public establishments,
to the lay and ecclesiastical boddies and communities. ...
5. The provisional administration selected by the people
shall be charged with the surveillance and control of
the goods placed under the safeguard and protection of
the French Republic; it shall look after the security of
persons and property; ....
11. The French nation declares that it will treat as
enemies the people who, refusing liberty and
equality, or renouncing them, may wish to preserve,
recall or treat with the princes and the privliged
castes; it promosea dnd engages not to subscribe to
any treaty, and not to lay down its arms until after
the establishment of the sovereignty and independent
of th epople whose territory the troops of the
Republic have entered upon and who shall have
adopted the principles of equality, and established
a free and popular government.
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Guilloting of the King
[Translation by J.H. Stewart, op.cit. Pp.392-393]
Proclamation of the Convention of the French People
(January 23, 1793). Citizens, the tyrant is no more. For
a long time, the cries of the victims, whom war and
domestic dissensions have spread over France and Europe,
loudly protested his existence. He has paid his penalty,
and only acclamations for the Republic and for liberty
have been heard from the people.
We have had to comabat invetereate prejudices, and the
superstitions of centuries concerning monarchy.
Involuntary uncertaintinies and ineevitable disturbances
always accompany great changes and revolutions as
profound as ours. This political crisis has suddenly
surrounded us with contraditions and tumults.
... but the cause has ceased, and the motives have
disappeared; respect for liberty of opinion must cause
these tumultuous scenes to be forgotten; only the good
which they have produced through the death of the tyrant
and of tyranny now remains, and this judgement belongs
in its entirietly to each of us, just as it belongs to
the entire nation. The National Convention and the
French people are now to have only one mind, only one
sentiment, that of liberty and civic fraternity.
Now, above all, we need peace in the interior of the
Republic, and the most active surveillance of the
domestic enemies of liberty. Never did circumstances
more urgently require of all citizens the sacrifice
of their passions and their personal opinions concerning
the act of national justice which has just been effected.
Today, the French people can have no other passion than
that for liberty.
Liet us, through our union, avert the shame that domestic
discord would bring upon our new-born republic. Let us,
through our patriotism, avert those horrible shocks,
those anarchical and dis-orderly movements which would
soon over-whelm France with disturbances and grief,
if our outside enemeis, who are fomenting them, could
profit there-from. ...
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NEXT: An "Aristo" reports on the death of the King.
An "Aristo" report on the Death of the King
[Translated from P. de Vaissiére (Ed.), Lettres d'
"Aristocrates" (Paris, 1907), Pp. 476-477]
Monsieur, ... the frightful even of the 21st has spread
dismay everywhere, and it is worth noting that
even the most zealous partisans of the revolutionary
system found this measure both excesssive and dangerous.
It will not save us from the untold ills which threaten us,
the reality oand duration of which are now all the more sure.
Thus, peace, security, fortune -- one must make up one's
mind to sacrificing all of these without hope of anything
better. We must now see how departments will
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NEXT: A Police Report: "Attacking the Cult of Marat.
A Police Report
Attacking the Cult of Marat 1795.01.20
[Translated from the report of a police observer,
cited in F.A. Aulard, Paris pendant la réaction
thermidorienne, 5 vols. (Paris, 1898-1902),
I, P. 411.
Again, Brother Leo writes: (P.152)
"The Despotism of Liberty",
After the king had
been guillotined, the Convention issued a
proclamation calling on all citizens to support
it, but it is clear that the country was deeply
divided. THe bitter divisions within France and
the reverses on the fighting front in 1793 brought
the Revolution to the brink of defeat, from which
it was saved by the "great" Committee of Public
Safety. With the downfall of Robespierre on the
9th Tehmidor (July 27, 1794), reaction set in
against the committee and its rule.
Police Report, January 20, 1795.
Yesterday the day passed in the greatest calm until
6:00 or 7:00 in the evening, when some young men,
frequenters of the Cafe de Chartres, met as they
had planned. One of them spoke up and said: "I just
dined at Février's with my brothers of the the
Faubourge St. Antoine; they will be around with the
mannikin in 10 minutes". A short time later, two
or three hundred people assembled in the Jardin-Egalité
with a mannikin which they called the "Jacobin",
wearing a black wig and red bonnet on its head,
[and carrying] a purse and a portfolio in one
hand, a torch in the other. In the midst of this mob,
lit up by a half-dozen torches, one of them made a
speech and then sang several songs while the audience,
as chorus, repeated the refrain; from there they left
en masse and betook themselves first, and with much
clamor, on the route to the Place de Réunion, where
they insulted the memory of Marat; from there to the
court before [the convent of] the Jacobins where
the mannikin was burnt. The ashes were then tossed into
a chamber pot and thrown into the Maontmarte sewer, the
place, they said, which ought to be the Pantheon of
all Jacobins and blood-suckers. One citizen to whom
this behaviour appeared, at least, dangerous, spoke
her mind somewhat loudly; she was whipped with great
indecency after the most horrible revilement.
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Chronology