In this event, the regulars
who are sent for, will do as they do and remain quiet, following their
example, while the municipal magistrate, into whose hands the sword has
glided, will be able to do no more than make grievous reports, to his
superiors of the department or district, concerning the popular violence
of which he is a powerless witness.--In other cases, and especially in
the country, his condition is worse. The National Guard, preceded by its
drums, will come and take him off to the town hall to authorize by his
presence, and to legalize by his orders, the outrages that it is about
to commit. He marches along seized by the collar, and affixes his
signature at the point of the bayonet. In this case not only is his
instrument taken away from him, but it is turned against of holding it
by the hilt, he feels the point: the armed force which he ought to make
use of makes use of him.
IV.--On Universal Suffrage.
The National Guard as electors.--Its great power.--Its
important task.--The work imposed on active citizens.--They
avoid it.
Behold, then, the true sovereign, the elector, both National Guard and
voter. They are the kings designed by the Constitution; there he is,
in every hierarchical stage, with his suffrage, with which to delegate
authority, and his gun to assure its exercise.--Through his free
choice he creates all local powers, intermediary, central, legislative,
administrative, ecclesiastical, and judiciary. He appoints directly, and
in the primary assemblies, the mayor, the municipal board, the public
prosecutor and council of the commune, the justice of the peace and
his assessors, and the electors of the second degree. Indirectly, and
through these elected electors, he appoints the administrators and
procureurs-syndics of both district and department, the civil and
criminal judges, the public prosecutor, bishops, and priests, the
members of the National Assembly and jurors of the higher National
Court[2326]. All these commissions which he issues are of short date,
the principal ones, those of municipal officer, elector, and deputy,
having but two years to run; at the end of this brief term their
recipients are again subject to his vote, in order that, if he is
displeased with them, he may replace them by others. He must not be
fettered in his choice; in every well-conducted establishment the
legitimate proprietor must be free easily and frequently to renew his
staff of clerks. He is the only one in whom confidence can be placed,
and, for greater security, all arms are given up to him. When his
clerks wish to employ force he is the one to place it at their disposal.
Whatever he desired as elector he executes as National Guard. On two
occasions he interferes, both times in a decisive manner; and his
control over the legal powers is irresistible because these are born out
of his vote and are obeyed only through his support.--But these rights
are, at the same time, burdens.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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