I thought it would be useful to have a sort of permanent online repository of Camille's writings and other resources — His works can be found at WikiSource, BnF Gallica, and various other scattered locations, but it's all a bit spotty. It also seemed like it would be useful to have a permanent home for our translations, given that LiveJournal is a ghost town and at risk of shutting down any day.
Currently, I have his most-known works up (LVC, La France Libre, etc), some portraits, and a list of biographies. I hope to add a lot more but it will necessarily be a slow process.
I'm very slowly adding English translations as I proofread them. The three up right now (Le Vieux Cordelier I, II, and III) are mine but any that are added in the future will have the original translator fully credited (which in most cases will be Sarah!). Of course, if anyone has posted a translation and isn't comfortable having it up, let me know!
Not sure who still visits this community, but anyone who would like involvement in this project is very much invited! I also welcome any ideas, corrections, etc.
Not a translation, but I thought I'd post my research on locations of significance to Lucile and Camille, a sort of "tourist guide" to Camille and Lucile Desmoulins' France. Posting for my own future reference as much as anything, but I hope it may be of interest to someone. First is a list of locations of most direct relevance. Second is a very abbreviated list of other locations of relevance to them & the French Revolution in general. Third is a list of museums. Finally, I have three rather long-winded notes below the cut on: (1) Camille's residence pre-marriage at Rue de Tournon, (2) the location of Bourg-la-Reine, and (3) entering their apartment building at 22 Rue de l'Odéon.
I will continue editing this post as I discover more. As always, additions, corrections, speculation, and input of any sort is greatly appreciated. Note that in this post I use the French numbering system for floors — The ground floor is "ground," the floor one level up is "first," etc.
Camille and Lucile's locations in France
Camille's childhood home - Destroyed in 1914. The current location: 230 Rue Camille Desmoulins, 02120 Guise, France
School in Cateau-Cambrésis - The source for this seems to be either Godart’s Genéalogie (1866) or Matton’s article in Journal du Vervins, no. 2303, 15 June 1884, neither of which I have access to. I haven’t found any additional information/verification - neither did Hervé Leuwers from what I can tell.
Louis le Grand - 123 rue Saint-Jacques, 75005 Paris - The exterior facade has changed but the building is the same
Café de Foy in Palais Royal — Still exists (no longer Café de Foy). N°. 57 to 60, Galerie de Montpensier
17 Rue de Tournon / 22 Rue de Condé [see note 1]* - Still exists. The apartment of the Duplessis family during the 1780s to early 1790s. The apartment was on the 2nd floor with the entrance on Rue de Tournon and the windows looking out onto Rue de Condé (hence the two addresses).
42 Rue de Tournon - possibly now 19 Rue de Tournon [see note 1]* - Possibly still exists. Camille had an apartment here before marriage, from around Oct/Nov 1789 to sometime in 1790 before his marriage (see Leuwers, ch. 7 & notes to ch. 7)
Église Saint-Sulpice - Still exists. Location of Camille & Lucile’s marriage
22 Rue de l’Odéon - originally 1 Rue de Théatre Francais - Still exists. Camille and Lucile’s apartment during marriage — At the corner of Place de l’Odéon and Rue Crébillon. 3rd floor with windows overlooking Rue Crébillon, possibly also mezzanine on the 2nd floor (American: 4th floor, possibly mezzanine on 3rd floor) (see Leuwers, ch. 10 & notes).[See note 3 on building access]*
Camille and Lucile’s apartment at No. 1 Cour du Commerce - Claretie mentions this. It is not mentioned in more recent biographies and generally doesn’t fit well with what we know. I surmise that Claretie, in 1876, was writing before Camille’s apartment was definitively identified. The fact that Leuwers, who is incredibly rigorous, doesn’t even mention it makes me think this does not exist.
Duplessis’s Farm at Bourg la Reine [see note 2 for location]* - Destroyed - Allegedly at 40 Avenue du Général Leclerc. For reasons described below, I think it is currently at number 42 Avenue du Général Leclerc (note that the Google maps location for 40 Avenue du Général Leclerc is not right and the actual location of that address in just south of where Avenue du General Leclerc crosses Rue Jean Roger Thorelle). It occupied 21 hectares. A (not so helpful) description of it can be found in pgs 19/20/21 of G. Lenotre Romances of the French Revolution: “skirting the right hand side of the road from Paris just on entering the village” and is “barely touched by the railway line.” Philippe Lejeune managed to locate the remains of the well in the early-mid 1990s (Journal de Lucile Desmoulins, pg. 127). I spent some time trying to figure out where the farm would have been. To not clutter this section, see note 2 for elaboration.
Hôtel de Bourvallais - Still exists. The place Camille & Lucile stayed for several months when Danton was Minister of Justice
Diderot’s printing press, on River Essonne - Unknown. Where Camille & Lucile stayed in Feb 1793. Sadly, I have not located this.
Luxembourg Palace - Still exists. Where Camille was imprisoned before being taken to the Conciergerie
Sainte-Pélagie Prison - Destroyed. Where Lucile was imprisoned before being taken to the Conciergerie - between the current group of buildings bearing No. 56 Rue de la Clef with Rue du Puits-de-l'Ermite
Conciergerie, Paris, France — Still exists. Where Camille and Lucile were imprisoned immediately before execution. More in the "museum" section.
Guillotine location - Have not researched this much as it doesn’t bring joy, but the best information I have found is from Where Did They Put the Guillotine? by Stew Ross. The guillotine during the time of the Dantonists’ execution seems to have been in the center of the road, if you stand right beside the plaque in Place de la Concorde and face towards Champs-Élysées.
Other relevant locations (obviously very abbreviated)
Danton’s Apartment - Destroyed. 20 cour du Commerce-Saint-André - destroyed by Boulevard Saint Germain (statue allegedly roughly marks the spot where it was)
The Duplay house, where Robespierre lived - 398 Rue Saint Honore. More or less still exists, there are many analyses to be found from the Robespierre folks on this.
Mirabeau’s residence - 34 rue de General Leclerc, Versailles
Jacobin Club meeting place - Dominican monastery Couvent des Jacobins de la rue Saint-Honoré - Destroyed - Place du Marché Saint-Honoré marks the spot
Cordeliers Club meeting place - originally Couvent des Cordeliers, 15 rue de l'Ecole de Médecine. Only the refectory remains. It later met in Salle du Musée in the Place de Thionville (currently Place Dauphine).
National Convention - Salle du Manège - Destroyed to make way for Rue Rivoli - approximately parallel to Place de Vendome (across Rue de Castiglioni - plaque marks the spot).
Museums
Musée Carnavalet, Paris, France - The museum has regular hours and is open from 10 AM to 6 PM Tuesday to Sunday. It had portraits of Camille and Lucile, as well as inkwell owned by Camille, and portraits & items belonging to other revolutionaries. (It also had Camille and Lucile biographies in the gift shop when I was last there.)
Conciergerie, Paris, France - Regular hours and open to the public - opened 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM every day
Musée Camille Desmoulins, Guise, France - A small museum that opened in Guise a few years ago, housing Camille’s wedding vest and some of his works. As of writing (Aug 2022), it is located in Espace Culturel "Le Familia" at 114A Rue Camille Desmoulins, 02120 Guise. It is open only upon request - To visit, I recommend emailing the city of Guise or Association Camille Desmoulins and they may be able to have someone open it up to you and show you around.
From Lejeune, p. 60-63. Rest in Peace, dear Lucile.
Cloé had seen the twelve months of the year revolve no more than twelve times. Her only occupation, her only amusement during this happy period of her life, was to look for nests in the woods and watch these fledgling broods grow under her eyes and by her care.
The baby birds had grown up, and she did not have the courage to get rid of them; she kept each one and fed them as best she could. Her parents, who were not wealthy, found themselves forced to interfere with their daughter's innocent pleasures. The aviary had become considerable and demanded quite a large quantity of grain, which the young shepherdess obtained only with great difficulty. She was even obliged to steal it more than once. This was witnessed one morning when young Cloé had gone out to search for new broods. What a spectacle awaited her on her return! She arrived very happy, a pretty nest of warblers in her hands. She ran to her aviary: the door of her aviary was wide open, and not a single bird inside.... The merry chaffinches, the bullfinches, the candid sparrows, the goldfinches, the tender warbler, the nightingale... and even you, faithful pigeon —all had taken their flight; not a single one had awaited the return of its poor mistress!
Camille wrote this to Lucile the day before he made the speech which follows.
My dear Lucile, I beg you not to cry on account of missing your dearest friend, M. Hon. He is up to his neck in the revolution. How pleased you would have been to see me today in the city parade! It's the first time I've played a public role and I was as proud as Don Quixote. Still, I should have liked to have had my dear Rouleau, my Cachan hen riding behind me on my horse. My God! Don't be too much in love with me dearest, it may do you too much harm. Today I dined with Robespierre, where I was constantly talking about you, Rouleau, my poor Rouleau, my beloved demon! Right now I am finishing my speech since they have asked me to read it to the Conseil General on Tuesday. I've already frightened the wealthy members terribly with a few words which I spoke at the tribune yesterday - for which I received tremendous applause.
Today I was on horseback and devoted the whole day to proclaiming the danger to the patrie before 3,000 National Guards and 20 pieces of canon. I darent mention your little one for fear of bringing tears to your eyes. It is eleven o clock in the evening , I'm writing now so that you may receive the letter tomorrow. I will be going to bed, but you won't be stroking my shoulder or winding your arms around me. I will hurry my speech so that I can fly to your arms. Farewell my good angel, my Lolotte, mother of that little lizard. Hug Daronne and Horace for me.
This was an important speech for Camille. As the date indicates it's less than three weeks away from August 10 and must have been instrumental in shaping those events even though they may have been longer in the planning. He sets out some interesting ideas, I'm particularly interested in the lost idea of replacing the King with two honoured men of the revolution. It's very long so I've cut out a lot of quite interesting references to English history, the Monmouth Rebellion. Judge Jeffreys et al. The full speech is available in Gallica if you want more. So here goes.......
Throughout history politicians have been aware that a great city is an immense threat to despotism. We know that when Peter the Great was asked if he admired Paris the Czar replied 'if I had such a big city my first concern would be to reduce it by half.' Our kings have not reduced Paris by a half, but to diminish the danger from such a large population they have resorted to the shrewd tactic of tying public wellbeing to the peace and prosperity of the tyrants. It is a deeply political policy in as much as it has created endless loans to pay for the unrestrained expenditure of the court. This has the advantage of involving equally the rich and the poor, master and servant, idle youth and feeble age. The despots have made an art out of mortgaging public wealth for their own benefit and making every citizen a creditor, so that they must all support their debtors or be ruined by them. Thus it is that in our own time we have seen Potemkin maintain a lifelong unshakeable credit because he had the art to borrow money from three quarters of Russia. Plutarch tells us that when Julius Caesar wanted to become a great pontiff he borrowed enormous sums from all sides. In this way he gained the votes of the poor, by buying them and the votes of the rich because they were frightened they would not be repaid. In fact on the day of the election Caesar said to his mother 'by tonight I will become either a great pontiff or a bankrupt'. We saw the same effect when M. de Lafayette was to be sent to Orleans, we could see how this thought filled a certain person with the fear of ruination. It was a curious thing for a observer to see how much concern the notary Brichard showed for the General, his debtor; how he wrote of him 'within and without the walls everyone speaks of his glory'. There can be no doubt that it is this which has so powerfully infected Paris with royalist sympathies. The division of France into 83 departments and a constitution which, at base, is completely republican allows a glimpse of a possible future in which there is a confederation of departments; a possible dismemberment of the empire and such a great draining away of taxes can only alarm a capital city entirely populated by those whose income is totally dependent on taxation, and of retailers who cannot support themselves unless Paris remains the centre of all skills, the meeting place of all the wealthy and the capital of the empire. Since these people cannot see any link but royalty cementing these 83 departments all the bourgeoisie believe that they must apply their efforts to strengthening this link. They must bind the people and the monarchy more tightly because they think it is only this indissolubility which safeguards their fortunes.
This is how it is for the wealthy, the merchants and the well to do throughout our country. Neither patriots or aristocrats, after having made the 1789 revolution with the people against the King, in order to avoid bankruptcy and the daylight robbery of the court, now they want to make the counter revolution, with the King against the people in order to escape the imaginary pillage of the sans culottes.
They are so horrified by the nightmare of an agrarian law and they have heard so many speaking of the Jacobins as brigands, that the notaries of Paris are more afraid of our clubs than of the Austrians or Prussians. I am going to set out, to these people, the position of the capital. I am going to speak in their own language,using their own passions and interests to make them understand, in place of their foolish fears, the real dangers to Paris and to their properties. They will understand that the same measures which they believe will prevent the loss of their fortunes will actually make that loss inevitable. And they must understand that Paris cannot spare fifteen days to deliberate if they want to avoid utter ruin.
As I showed, four years ago, the capital can easily be aroused, by the French constitution, by admiration and adoption of our laws to the same degree of splendour and prosperity as some towns of antiquity by shipping commerce and conquest. Indeed gentlemen, today wealth will arrive in the bosom of Paris not only by way of the Var and the Sambre but also the Elbe and the Tagus. This wealth will be more honourable to the capital since it will not arrive mingled with the blood of the people but through legislation,philosophy and the nobility of enlightenment. Recall the glory days of Rome and Carthage, of Tyre and Athens. Such would be the flourishing state of the capital if we had not rejected the alliance of the Belgians and Liegeois two years ago; if the patriots had not been ceaselessly misled down paths that were more and more deadly for three years by advisers who were either treacherous or blind; if they had not ignored our speeches, which they termed incendiary but which were proved to be prophetic; if they had not taken pains to defame our constitution abroad, by the disasters in our colonies, the flames in Courtray and by accusing the patriots of the execrable crimes of the executive. It was shrewd conspirators who actually committed these crimes expressly for the design and joy of blaming them on the people.
Four years of treachery has certainly changed the face of the business of the party of Liberty. The politicians in the council of the despots certainly know how difficult it is going to be to place us back under the yoke. They know perfectly well that we are country which has just modernised itself and has revived the rights of man. It is in vain that in their despair after the fall of the Bastille, the emigres, the Tuileries and even the nobles in the Constituent Assembly call ceaselessly on the tyrants of Europe for assistance.
It is at this moment, with the advance of the Austrian army, that the position of Paris becomes all at once critical and desperate. At this moment, when the North becomes the prey of the Prussians and Austrians, a general cry will be raised against Paris. Here are the accusations which every department will rightly make against us:
'Blind Parisians' they will say 'you are to blame for all the evils which have left France in a state of desolation; you have praised to the skies the reputations of our greatest enemies; in ordering funerary celebrations for these fifteen parricides (not sure who they are sorry -ed), in raising statues to Arnold and awarding civic crowns to Bouille you have persistently led public opinion astray and diverted confidence from the true friends of the people. By flattering the most contemptible idols you have filled the National Assembly and other institutions with schemers and allies of Coblentz. You have nurtured these volcanoes of poison at your very core; these counter revolutionary journals which have puked their bile all over France, L'ami du Roi, La Gazette de Paris, La Gazette Universelle, Gaulthier, Royou and so many more who have infected town and country alike and ceaselessly defamed the revolution in the eyes of all Europe, presenting the patriots as no more than criminals, meriting a thousand deaths. 'What nation, what foolish town, after enduring conspiracies at its heart for four years, continues to invite its enemies to come and tear it apart? It is you who have abused, persecuted and prosecuted the best citizens, the same citizens whose predictions are today justified by these events. You have forced the people who spoke the most truth to flee from one underground hiding place to another. It is you who have placed sentries to protect the publications of Gaulthier and Royou whose journals are the enemies of France, whilst you besiege Marat. It is you cowardly Parisians who have allowed the Temple of Liberty to be defiled for four years and have allowed the senate of the French people to be soiled by 400 pro Austrian senators. Whilst you couldn't prevent the taking of the Bastille, you have prevented the taking of Vincennes. You have weighted down with iron the generous, patriotic hands that would have demolished it. On the Champ de Mars it was you who dared to murder peaceable citizens exercising their constitutional right, the sacred right of petition. Without you, without your white horse, your martial law, shopkeepers, Feuillants, journals and justices of the peace, Liberty would have been affirmed for the last three years and the country would have flourished calmly as a model,for all governments. The kings of Hungary and Prussia would never have been able to approach that land of freedom and good fortune. The tyrants would have been put to flight in the face of Liberty, like criminals before justice. It is you, Parisians, who by the contagion of your example have taken pains to deprave public opinion, to put patriotism on ice, to murder Liberty with slow acting poisons and to open up the road to Paris for the Austrian despot. You can become slaves if you like! Even become Austrians if you wish; we will die as free men and Frenchmen. We want the harmony of friends and brothers; your rentiers want the peace of slavery. They alone have reversed the revolution and led the empire to this state of upheaval and destruction. We are sick and tired of seeing our tributes provisioning these Austrian auxiliaries. We don't retain enough of our taxes to defend our country and we want to separate ourselves from the metropolis which is killing Liberty. Thus, abandoned by the North, dismembered by the coalition of despots, the midi and the confederation of patriots what will become of Paris, which only exists on taxation, when all the channels bringing in the southern riches are cut off? What will become of you, wealthy counter revolutionaries? The misery of your ruin will not even be tempered by the joy of being Austrians or slaves. Four or five hundred thousand men will rise up to repeal and exterminate the enemy troops at our gate in spite of all your efforts. In all that political turmoil you will force the 83 departments to that state of republican confederation which you fear so much and which renders you so morbidly afraid. In Paris, abandoned by the nation, fear the same isolation as Versailles abandoned by the court. You haughty, property owners and aristocratic shop owners should fear the passive citizens who have never even been part of the third estate; whose condition the revolution has worsened rather than improved, whom the Austrians have liberated with the burden of war. Fear an even worse equality, the equality of destitution, isolation, depopulation, bankruptcy and what will be for you the ultimate misery, The Republic of Paris!'
Unseeing rich men, you have less than a month to find a remedy for these evils. If you wish to avoid them I am here to show you the way. My fellow citizens can have more faith in my speeches at this tribune than in my writing, which has occasionally been mistaken. You can see that our enemies may even now be invading, with fire and flames to hand. You can see that the National Assembly, after so many oaths to preserve the constitution, cannot accept any other articles of capitulation without being dishonoured. Women, children and the sans culottes are perfectly well able to support the constitution with out help from the National Assembly and will harass the unworthy with the fact that the inviolability of the constitution is entrusted to the entire nation. So capitulation is impossible. 500,000 men will rise up to defend the home of the constitution, and if they cannot wage war with your support, will wage it with your property and your wealth. And here I am calling down thunder on my roof too, I have property. I could hardly imagine that Paris would fall, but I say with absolute certainty that Paris will before Liberty falls. And here you must know the complete truth. When even the 300,000 Jacobins and the five million federees are annihilated don't imagin that Paris will escape being turned over to the destruction of the Austrians and despotism.
So, what remains for you to do blind ones? Since you cannot compromise with enemy because of us, you will have to vanquish them by our side. It is in your best interests, your only interests, that Paris remains the capital and that France remains united to avoid bearing the entire costs of the war which will not be inconsiderable. It will be shared among the 83 departments. Yes! My country can flourish again. Again Paris can eclipse London and become the queen of cities, the centre of enlightenment law and human wisdom. It only requires you, gentlemen, to make it flourish with Liberty, the arts and commerce to draw in all nations. But the danger is imminent. Twenty million Frenchmen, determined to live free or die, have grown tired of the blindness of those Parisians who risk the safety of the patrie and the freedom of the world. What treachery will make the scales fall from your eyes? When will you pick up your weapons and reverse this stance which shocks our eyes and soils the commune if not when Paris is under threat? You see that the executive power has betrayed you. What must be done? The same thing which the English Parliament did when it too was betrayed by the executive power.
The Constitution, although it doesn't rule on the possible madness of the King doesn't claim that the executive power should continue to hold the reins of state if he is not acting in good faith. His removal is not forbidden. The King's insanity is easily proved by a thousand facts. I need only one: for example everyone would agree that only a treacherous or insane general would attempt to save his allies by burning their towns. Yet the French King has allowed General Jarry to make the Belgians hate the French by the burning of the town of Courtray. In this way he has made this friendly town of allies suffer all the ills that could be imposed by their cruel,enemies. Could there be a clearer example of madness or treachery?
If he is mad, Loius XVI must be suspended, if he is treacherous he must be deposed. Is there clearer evidence of insanity than for this constitutional monarch to appoint officers and generals who spend all their time in the camps of the enemies of the constitution or to dismiss ministers who support the constitution? Today, in the hands of the King, the appointment of ministers, to borrow a phrase from M.Manuel, is no less than a gift to the aristocracy. Is there clearer evidence of insanity than to dismiss a minister for proposing a camp of 20,000 men at Soissons only to propose a camp of 30,000 in the same place the very next day?
The Earl of Shaftesbury said that enslavement and Catholicism are like two brothers who go hand in hand. Sometimes one will be the first to,enter a country, sometimes the other, but they always come together. In England the Stuart's wanted to introduce Catholicism first, to pave the way for despotism; in Scotland they began by adopting despotism to pave the way for Papism. In the same way here, every counter revolutionary journal or manifesto, every emigre or Prussian speaks only of returning France to the double yoke of religion and reactionary politics: refractory priests in the departments spread the madness of papacy, servitude and imbecility against the sound ideas of philosophy and freedom, opposing the constitution; can the be any clearer sign of madness than for a constitutional monarch to veto the decree exiling all such priests? In doing this our constitutional monarch displayed before the whole world a total loss of intellectual faculty, the Paris commune must demand that the National Assembly either suspend him, because he is mad, or dethrone him because he is a traitor. The Constituion is not forbidden to deal with this King Lear in such a way, and if it were then the constituents would have to declare him insane.
During the suspension of executive power, in order to maintain the political indivisibility of the 83 departments, I think that the commune should nominate two 'curators' of the monarchy, to act for Louis XVI whilst his insanity continues and until his rightful senses return. I prefer this solution to that of asking all 83 departments to elect separate individuals to form a Council of State because it is to be feared that these would be 83 kinglets, and we all know that there is nothing worse than petty tyrants! If the 83 departments simply nominate 2 regents, able to be removed when necessary, it seems to me that the choice is already made, and that four years of revolution have clearly shown two men who merit our confidence, provisionally and for the duration of the National Convention. (Georges and Max?? ed.)
I don't know which would be the greater disaster for the Patriots and the cause of freedom: if he were assassinated by Coblentz and the aristocracy or if he escaped us through flight. If he were assassinated I can assure that the murderer would be instantly killed, like Clement, and we would certainly find that a Jacobin calling card had been slipped into his pocket so that we could be charged with the crime; because it won't take place in France. If he flees, that is just what Coblentz and the Congress of Mayence are hoping and praying for.
I think we cannot be too watchful of Louis XVI; we should keep him closely guarded amongst us, right at the centre of our attention. I do still weigh the King in the balance of M.Manuel, but the question here is not the specific intrinsic weight of a king. I am weighing Louis XVI on the scales of the kings of Prussia and Hungary. Are we supporting the value of kings in the minds of slaves? What ransoms were paid for Louis IX and King Jean and Francois II? We should imitate the example of London. Once they realised that Charles I was in communication with the Catholics of Ireland,p;that he was secretly raising troops against parliament; from the time when rightly suspected him of trying to reverse the constitution, then they seized the Prince of Wales, the Dukes of York and Gloucester,and would equally have seized the Queen if she had not fled to France. Indeed M.le Maire, given the gravity of the circumstances you must show the vigilance and determination of Thomas Andrews, the Mayor of London. If you can keep guard over the King and his family, keeping them close by you, in this way you will save the capital and the empire. You will be saving yourself and all of us because in the scales of despots a King weighs more than 25 million citizens.
It is vital then that after suspending the King by cause of his insanity the National Assembly makes it clear that they are continuing to hold the King and his family as hostages to the safety of France.
I've omitted a chunk where Camille talks about English/Scottish reaction to the Monmouth rebellion as an example of the perfidious reactions of royalty and its supporters. In this section he proposes some sort of street party ~ quel horreur - as part of his otherwise fine strategy of involving the sans culottes more deeply in the revolution.
What should we do next? Someone once said that if kings make war on each other it is because they don't sit down and drink together. Me! I say that if anyone dares to attack us it is because there is nothing but pride, selfishness and hardness of heart between us. It is because the bourgeois scorns the worker just as much as the aristos scorn the bourgeois; because equality of rights exists only in the constitution, not in our hearts; because we, active citizens, hold ourselves at a greater distance from our poverty stricken brothers than the Romans did from their slaves. The senators of Rome, so proud, slaveowners who denied the rights of man, did at least set aside eight days a year when they sat at table with their slaves, exchanged garments with them, when they paid their debts and their rent! Even in aristocratic Rome they dedicated eight days to equality and a golden age.
But we, the disdainful bourgeoisie, have wiped out aristocracy and inequality from our laws only to let these evils find refuge in our hearts! So I repeat; if anyone dares to attack us it will be because we don't eat and drink together. To affirm our freedom we must do what Caesar and Crassus did to strengthen their tyranny. True, we can't do what Caesar did, and fill 22,000 tables for the citizens, or Crassus who laid on a feast for the people of Rome, and afterwards surprised them with as much grain as they could eat for three months! But if we truly believe in equality we must set tables outside our homes. For at least a day we should treat our equals as the Romans treated their slaves for a whole week. We should celebrate our escape from tyranny and aristocracy like the Jews celebrate their escape from Pharoah. We should eat together in our streets; in the same way that we eat Easter lamb we should eat National lamb. Come worthy artisans! Don't let your work roughened hands be scornful of mine, which are fatigued only by the holding of a pen! Let us drink together and embrace each other, and in this way our enemies will be vanquished!
And my next proposal is also suggested to me by Roman history (well there's a surprise -ed). Those who we term passive citizens are as worthy as the slaves of Rome. When the nation was in danger, in the Punic Wars or the war of Marius and Sulla, Rome gave the rights of the city to the enslaved people. The National Assembly has declared the nation in danger, so she too should give citizens' rights to passive citizens. Free the poor from all taxes, they pay enough by the shedding of their blood in battle. In this way, at a stroke, the nation will gain 5,000,000 men at arms!
People ask me what is the difference between us, who call ourselves Patriots and the nobles who we call aristocrats. The nobles want nothing more than to create an upper chamber and to relegate the entire third estate to the commons. In the same way we, the erstwhile third estate, happy to call ourselves active citizens are making ourselves an upper chamber in relation to the passive citizens, but without even giving them a lower house! And we claim to have scrutinised every aspect of government! In Athens, the poor were paid to be citizens, even Montesquieu, claimed by the aristos as one of their own, was full of admiration for this Athenian law.
Why has the revolution here placed the people under a more burdensome yoke than of old? It is because all the patriots, the courageous men of spirit, ALL THE JACOBINS, have flown to the defence of liberty and perished in combat, while all the self seeking, the cowards, THE FEUILLANTS, all those who have something to protect have allowed the tyrant and his civil list to triumph! They are the dregs of the nation!
What must be done to prevent this war from spilling the finest blood of our body politic, leaving us only those of corrupted blood? We must be wary of recruiting as we did before. We are all National Guards; it should be decreed that a quarter of the National Guard be sent to the borders, selected from all the municipalities. In this way we will preserve the best of the Jacobins in the same way that the King of Prussia so tenderly preserved the flower of the aristocracy by keeping the nobles and emigres back in the third line of defence, leaving them safely at home in Coblentz. If we adopt this strategy the Feuillants will have to share the nation's peril with the Jacobins and the Tyrolean fire will be turned on them as well as on us.
As for you, blind Feuillants, defectors from the Jacobins, take note of the history of our country and the tyrants who have ruled us to become aware that royalist vengeance will fall just as heavily on Feuillants as Jacobins.
So much for justice, amnesty and reconciliation between royalty, Feuillants and Jacobins. It is madness for you wealthy people to imagine that the Prussians will defend your property. Have you forgotten how these same Prussians and the counter revolutionary General Brunswick behaved recently when they put down the revolution in Holland? Have you forgotten how they ransacked the shops and houses in Amsterdam, taking whatever they wanted and throwing whatever they couldn't carry into the river. There are no worse thieves than these people whom you have invited to come and defend the Quai d'Orfevres. Don't you realise their despotic leaders have only prevented mass desertion by promising these pirates the right to pillage Paris and plunder our shops. It may be true that they have only promised them the businesses of the patriots but if the Jacobins don't have enough to satisfy them these bandits will turn their attentions to wealthier premises; and these won't belong to the Jacobins. They will be creating an August 4th in our land and you will not know where to turn! There will be nothing left for you to do but to join with us and cut off this war at its birth before it spawns ruin and disaster in Paris. You will have to take a lesson from Carthage during the third Punic war. After being lulled to sleep by the Feuillant Carthaginians and the treacherous Roman senate, Carthage was surprised to find the legions at their gates, intent on razing their city to the ground. Within three days, unprepared, with no arms or ramparts, the Carthaginians armed three thousand citizens and retook their walls; all the able bodied men were put to work making pikes, javelins and engines of war. Pliny tells us that the women of Carthage cut off their hair to make rope and within three days Carthage was sufficiently prepared to withstand a siege of three years. For my part I can scarcely get over the unbelievable blindness of the Parisians and I don't understand why we aren't hearing the sound of hammers beating out pikes in the street. If the National Assembly abandons us then it is up to you M le Maire to save us all and to set an example to other municipalities. The genius of the French surpasses all other nations in the making of artillery; we make cannons out of the statues of tyrants; these damnable men deserve no less a torment than to fight for freedom after their deaths just as they fought against it in life. To the music of arms the impetuous French will turn the tide of battle,making pikes longer than the Austrians javelins. Pikes and cannon! Cannon and pikes! You must provision Paris like an Arsenal. But this cold blooded silence from Parisians forces me to ask, in dread, has Paris become Austrian? If this is so there are still 500,000 Frenchmen in this Austrian town who will never be taken alive, enslaved by the enemy but would rather leave the tyrants nothing more than a heap of ashes in place of their buildings. I conclude by asking the commune to send a message to the National Assembly demanding that they adopt the measures I have outlined for the safety of the people: or, if they do not believe the constitution can be saved they should do as the Romans did and place all weapons in the hands of each citizen individually and collectively. The tocsin must sound and we should and bring the entire nation together, as they did in Rome, invested with the right to put all known conspirators to death.; to reaffirm the freedom and safety of the patrie. One single day of anarchy will achieve more than four years of the National Assembly.
