The French Revolution: A Document Collection

397 Pages·2023·14.073 MB·English

by  Laura Mason, Tracey Rizzo

The
F
rench
R
evolution
A Document Collection
Second Edition
Edited and Translated, with an Introduction, by
Laura Mason & Tracey Rizzo
The French
Revolution
A Document Collection
Second Edition

The French
Revolution
A Document Collection
Second Edition
Edited and Translated by
Laura Mason and Tracey Rizzo
With a general introduction and section introductions by
Laura Mason
Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Indianapolis/Cambridge
Copyright © 2023 by Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
26 25 24 23 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
For further information, please address
Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
P.O. Box 44937
Indianapolis, Indiana 46244-0937
www.hackettpublishing.com
Cover image: Vue de la démolition de la Bastille. Houel, Jean, 1789. Musée
Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris (D.6009 CC0 Paris Musées / Musée Carnavalet-
Histoire de Paris).
Cover design by E. L. Wilson
Composition by Aptara, Inc.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022937814
ISBN-13: 978-1-64792-090-6 (pbk.)
ISBN-13: 978-1-64792-096-8 (PDF ebook)
Contents
Introduction xi
Chronology xv
List of Illustrations xxiii
Maps xxiv
PART ONE
From Old Regime to Revolution (1610–1789) 1
chapter 1: The Prerevolution 9
1. Charles Loyseau, A Treatise on Orders (1610) 9
2. The Paris Parlement, Remonstrance Concerning the Third Twentieth Tax
(July 11–12, 1782) 16
3. Jacques Necker, Preface to Account to the King (1781) 19
4. Emilie Du Châtelet, Examinations of the Bible (c. 1730s) 22
5. Abbé Raynal, A Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and
Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies (1770) 25
6. Isabelle de Charrière, The Nobleman (1763) 30
7. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of
Inequality Among Men (1755) 32
8. Louis Sébastien Mercier, Paris Scenes (1782–1788) 39
chapter 2: From Estates General to National Assembly 42
9. Letter from the King for the Convocation of the Estates General
at Versailles (January 24, 1789) 42
10. Abbé Sieyès, What Is the Third Estate? (January 1789) 43
11. Cahiers de Doléances 49
a. Cahier of the Parish of St. Germain d’Airan, Written This First
Day of March 1789, According to the King’s Wishes 50
b. List of Grievances for the Town of Vire (February 26, 1789) 51
12. The Declaration of the National Assembly (June 17, 1789) 53
13. The Tennis Court Oath (June 20, 1789) 55
chapter 3: The Emergence of Popular Revolution 57
14. Rural Unrest 57
a. Letter from the Commissioners of the Estates of Dauphiné to the
Committee of Twelve (July 31, 1789) 57
b. Letter from La Breaudière of Segondigny (Poitou) to the Committee of
Twelve (July 24, 1789) 59
v
vi Contents
15. M. the Duc d’ Aiguillon, Motion Concerning Individual Privileges
and Feudal and Seigneurial Rights (August 4, 1789) 63
16. The Debate over the King’s Veto 65
a. Abbé Henri Grégoire, Opinion . . . on the Royal Veto, at the Session
of the National Assembly (September 4, 1789) 65
b. Jean-Joseph Mounier, Speech on the Royal Sanction (September 5, 1789) 68
17. Women’s March to Versailles 74
a. The Woman Cheret, The Event of Paris and Versailles, by One of the Ladies
Who Had the Honor to Be in the Deputation to the General Assembly (1789) 74
b. Testimony of Master Jean-Louis Brousse des Faucherets (1790) 76
PART TWO
From Liberal to Republican Revolution (1789–1792) 79
chapter 4: Legislating an Enlightened Regime 87
18. National Assembly, Debate on Religious Freedom (August 23, 1789) 87
19. Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (August 26, 1789) 90
20. Petition by the Jews Settled in France to the National Assembly
Concerning the Postponement of December 24, 1789 (January 28, 1790) 92
21. Demands for Equal Rights by Free People of Color 96
a. Society of American Colonists, Petition to the
National Assembly (Paris, 1789) 96
b. Vincent Ogé, Petition to the Assembly of the
North Province (October 29, 1790) 98
22. The National Assembly Decrees the Enfranchisement of Free Men
of Color (May 15, 1791) 98
23. Olympe de Gouges, Declaration of the Rights of Woman
(September 14, 1791) 99
24. Maximilien Robespierre, On the Abolition of the Death Penalty
(May 30, 1791) 104
25. Discussion of the Le Chapelier Law (June 13, 1791) 107
26. Insurrection in Saint-Domingue 110
a. Report of the Limbé Town Council on What Happened in This District
at the Time of the Slave Insurrection (August 1791) 110
b. Imprisoned Insurgents, Letter to Governor Blanchelande,
Camp Gallifet (September 24, 1791) 111
27. Pierre François Gossin, Report and Decree on the Transfer of
Voltaire’s Remains to Sainte-Geneviève (March 1791) 112
28. National Assembly, Constitution of 1791 114
Contents vii
chapter 5: Revolution in the Countryside 120
29. The Continuing Contest over Seigneurial Rights 120
a. Petition from Inhabitants of the Somme to the National Assembly Concerning
Seigneurial Rights and Taxes (Received by the National Assembly
on December 31, 1789) 120
b. Letter from the Community of Marnay (Haute Saône) to the
National Assembly Concerning Rights to Waterways (April 15, 1790) 123
30. Petition from the Residents of Roscoff (Finistère) to the National
Assembly Concerning the High Price of Bread (January 1790) 124
31. Remarks on the Dialect and Mores of the People of the Countryside
in the Department of Lot-et-Garonne, Sent by the Society of
Friends of the Constitution of Agen to the Abbé Grégoire (1791) 126
chapter 6: New Tensions 131
32. The Municipal Council Versus the Society of Friends of the
Constitution of Tours (November 1790) 131
33. The Debate over the Civil Constitution of the Clergy 137
a. Warning from Monsieur the Archbishop of Vienne, to the Secular and
Regular Clergy, and to the Faithful of His Diocese (November 11, 1790) 138
b. Minutes of the Swearing of the Oath by Jean-Baptiste Petitjean,
Curé of Epineuil, Department of the Cher (January 1791) 141
34. Declaration of the King Addressed to All the French about
His Flight from Paris (June 21, 1791) 144
35. Marie Antoinette, Letter to Leopold II (September 8, 1791) 147
36. Anonymous, The Queen’s Farewells to Her Darlings of Both Sexes (1792) 149
chapter 7: War and a New Revolution 151
37. Manon Roland on the Meetings of the Girondins in Her Home (1793) 151
38. The Debate over a Declaration of War 153
a. Maximilien Robespierre, Discourse on War Delivered to the
Jacobin Club (January 2 and 11, 1792) 154
b. Jacques-Pierre Brissot, Third Discourse on the Necessity of War,
Delivered to the Jacobin Club (January 20, 1792) 156
39. The “Marseillaise” (August 1792) 158
40. The Brunswick Manifesto (July 25, 1792) 160
41. Deposing the King 164
a. Petition from the Paris Sections to the National Assembly
Demanding the Suspension of the King (August 3, 1792) 164
b. Decree of the National Assembly for Suspending the King (August 10, 1792) 166
42. The September Massacres (September 1792) 167
43. Speeches on the Trial of the King 171
a. Speech by Charles-François-Gabriel Morrison (November 13, 1792) 171
b. Speech by the Marquis de Condorcet (December 3, 1792) 176
viii Contents
PART THREE
The Republican Crisis (1793–1795) 183
chapter 8: Popular Movements Beyond the Convention 190
44. Definitions of the Sans-Culotte, the Moderate, and the
Aristocrat (April–May 1793) 190
a. Response to the Impertinent Question, But What Is a Sans-Culotte? 190
b. Definition of the Moderate, the Feuillant, the Aristocrat 191
45. Address by Section Sans-Culotte to the National Convention
(September 2, 1793) 192
46. Jean-Paul Marat, The People’s Friend (June 23, 1793) 194
47. Jacques-René Hébert, Father Duchesne 197
48. Revolutionary Women in Paris 200
a. Petition from the Revolutionary Republican Women to the
National Convention on the Leadership of the Armies and the
Law of Suspects (August 1793) 200
b. Revolutionary Republican Women in a Showdown with the
Market Women (November 1793) 201
49. Emancipation in Saint-Domingue 204
a. Georges Biassou, Jean-François Papillon, and Gabriel Belair, Letter
from the Leaders of the Insurgent Blacks to the General Assembly,
National Commissioners, and Citizens of the French Part of
Saint-Domingue (July 1792) 204
b. Toussaint Louverture, Letter (August 25, 1793) 207
c. Léger-Félicité Sonthonax, The Emancipation Proclamation of August 29, 1793 208
d. Jean-Baptiste Belley, The Truth about the Colonists or the Plan of the
Club Massiac (Paris, n.d.) 210
50. Creole of Saint-Domingue, My Odyssey: Experiences of a Young Refugee
from Two Revolutions (1793) 211
51. Ronchet, Address from the Provisional Municipality to the
National Convention, in the Name of Liberty, Equality, and the
One and Indivisible Republic (August 2, 1793) 213
52. The Vendée War 218
a. Counter-Revolutionary Activism 218
(i) Procés-Verbal of the War Council at Oye (April 4, 1793) 218
(ii) Public Notice and Invitation to Parishes of the Military Division of the
Camp of La Roche-sur-Yon (June 13, 1793) 219
b. Revolutionary Repression 220
(i) Louis-Marie Turreau, Memoir for the History of the Vendée War (1795) 220
chapter 9: Legislating the Terror 223
53. Constitution of the Year I (June 24, 1793) 223
54. Instituting the Terror (September 5, 1793) 227
55. Law on Suspects (September 17, 1793) 233
Contents ix
56. The National Convention Outlaws Women’s Clubs and
Popular Societies (October 30, 1793) 234
57. Georges-Jacques Danton, “Concerning Arbitrary Measures and
Arrests” (January 23, 1794) 239
58. Bertrand Barère, On Behalf of the Committee of Public Safety, Report to the
National Convention on the Maximum (February 22, 1794) 240
59. Law of 22 Prairial Year II (June 10, 1794) 243
chapter 10: Revolution in Society and Culture 247
60. Anonymous, Reflections of a Good Citizen in Favor of Divorce (1789?) 247
61. Decree Regulating Divorce (September 20, 1792) 249
62. Citizen Lebrun, Republican Ode to the French People on the Supreme Being
(October–November 1793) 251
63. Pierre-Laurent Monestier, Decree Concerning Fanatical Priests or
Troublemakers, and the Celebration of the Decades (1794) 253
64. Maximilien Robespierre, Report on the Principles of Political Morality
That Should Guide the National Convention in the Domestic Administration
of the Republic (February 5, 1794) 255
65. Louis-Antoine-Léon de Saint-Just, Report in the Name of the Committees
of Public Safety and General Security Concerning Prisoners . . .
8 Ventôse Year II (February 26, 1794) 259
chapter 11: The Thermidorian Reaction 264
66. Jean-Lambert Tallien, On the System of Terror (August 28, 1794) 264
67. Pierre Gaveaux and Jean-Marie Souriguère, “The Alarm of the People”
(January 1795) 269
68. The Prairial Uprising (May 20–23, 1795) 270
69. Louis XVIII, Declaration of Verona (June 24, 1795) 276
PART FOUR
Directory and Consulate (1795–1803) 279
chapter 12: Orchestrating Politics from Above 286
70. A New Constitution 286
a. François Antoine Boissy d’Anglas, Preliminary Discourse to the Draft of the
French Republican Constitution (June 23, 1795) 286
b. Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Citizens (August 22, 1795) 288
71. Law against Provoking the Dissolution of Government (April 1796) 291
72. Council of Five Hundred Decrees the Closure of All Political
Clubs (July 24–25, 1797) 293
73. Proclamation of the Directory to the French People
(September 14, 1797) 296