“Convinced by the experience of a life devoted to Liberty, that she can only be preserved in the midst of citizens submissive to the laws, as she can only be defended by disciplined troops, I have served the people without cajoling them, and in my constant struggle against license and anarchy I have incurred the honorable hatred of the ambitious, and of all factions. “To-day that the army awaits me, it is not with a pernicious complaisance, but with an inflexible discipline, and with a rigorous fulfilment of duty, that I will justify the affection which they accord to me, and the esteem which they owe me. “But since I control free men by the imperious will of a chief, it is necessary that we all feel—general, officers, and soldiers—that in this coming war it is a combat to the death between our principles and the pretensions of despots. We must work for the rights of each citizen and the safety of all. We must work for the constitution which we have sworn by, and for the sacred cause of liberty and equality. In short, we must work for the National Sovereignty, by which only we shall be able to resist any such combination of force and danger as there may be; and without which, not only will the French people, but humanity itself, be betrayed. “Soldiers of Liberty! it is not sufficient for merit to be brave; be patient, indefatigable. Your general ought to plan and order; you, to obey. Be generous! respect a disarmed enemy. Those troops which always grant quarter, and will never receive it, will be invincible. Let us be disinterested, so that the shameful idea of pillage will never soil the nobility of our motives. Let us be humane; it will make every one admire our sentiments and bless our laws. “Resolve ye, with your general, that we shall see Liberty triumph, or that we shall not survive her. “Soldiers of the Constitution! fear not that she ceases to watch you when you fight for her. Fear not when you go to defend your country, that these internal dissensions shall trouble your firesides. Without doubt the legislative corps and the king will intimately unite in the decisive moment to insure the empire and the law, every one, and their property will be respected. Civil and religious liberty will not be profaned; the peaceable citizen will be protected, whatever may be his opinions; the culpable will be punished, whatever may be his pretences. “All parties will be dispelled, and the constitution alone will rule; and upon the rebels who have attacked with open voice, and upon the traitors, who have perverted it by their vile passions, will be meted out such judgment as shall make them fear it inwardly and respect it outwardly.