"In pursuance of article sixty-eight of the constitution, viz., the
President of the Republic, the ministers, the agents, and depositaries
of public authority are responsible, each in what concerns himself
respectively, for all the acts of the Government and the Administration:
any measure by which the President of the Republic dissolves the
National Assembly, prorogues it, or places obstacles in the exercise of
its powers is a crime of high treason.
"By this act alone, the President is deprived of all authority; the
citizens are bound to withhold their obedience, the executive power
passes in full right to the National Assembly. The judges of the High
Court of Justice will meet immediately, under pain of forfeiture; they
will convoke the juries in the place which they will select to proceed
to the judgment of the President and his accomplices; they will nominate
the magistrates charged to fulfil the duties of public ministers.
"And seeing that the National Assembly is prevented by violence from
exercising its powers, it decrees as follows, viz.: Louis Napoleon
Bonaparte is deprived of all authority as President of the Republic. The
citizens are enjoined to withhold their obedience. The executive power
has passed in full right to the National Assembly. The judges of the
High Court of Justice are enjoined to meet immediately, under pain of
forfeiture, to proceed to the judgment of the President and his
accomplices; consequently, all the officers and functionaries of power
and of public authority are bound to obey all requisitions made in the
name of the National Assembly, under pain of forfeiture and of high
treason.
"Done and decreed unanimously in public sitting, this second day of
December, 1851."
After this first decree was voted, another was unanimously passed,
naming General Oudinot commander of the public forces, and M. Tamisier
was joined with him as chief of the staff. The choice of these two
officers, each having distinct shades of political opinion, showed that
the Assembly was animated by one common spirit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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