The Sword of Honor; or, The Foundation of the French Republic: A Tale of The French RevolutionSue, Eugène
History
The Sword of Honor; or, The Foundation of the French Republic: A Tale of The French Revolution
Sue, Eugène
France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Fiction
The Sections of Paris met nightly to deliberate on public matters. The
Section of the Blind Asylum, or "Quinze-Vingts," in the suburb of St.
Antoine which was the most influential of all, took the initiative in
the measures for insurrection, with this manifesto:
MINUTES OF THE SECTION OF THE BLIND ASYLUM, AUGUST, 9, 1792.
The Section received the commissioners of the following Sections:
Fish-Wife, Good-News, Carpet-Shop, Montreuil, Gravillieurs,
Beaubourg, Red-Cross, Culvert, Lombards, Ill-Counsel, Popincourt,
the Arsenal, the Tuileries, etc., etc. All have adopted the
decisions of the Section of the Blind Asylum, recognizing that they
were armed solely for the safety of public affairs and the
regeneration of France.
An address was read from the federates of the eighty-two
departments, asking the Sections of Paris to assemble in arms.
On the motion of its members, the Section decided that each of the
Sections of Paris shall name three committee-men, the same to meet
at the City Hall of Paris, replace the present Municipal Council,
and consider the means necessary for the public weal.
The Sections shall receive no orders other than those coming from a
majority of their committee-men, forming the _Commune of Paris_.
The committee-men named to represent at the Commune the Section of
the Blind Asylum are Huguenin, Rossignol, and Balin.
Each Section formulated the powers given by it to its committee-men in
the new council of the Commune of Paris. Thus, the formula of the Blind
Asylum Section read: "The Section gives to its committee-men unlimited
power to do everything to save the country." Prominent among the
committee-men elected by the Sections to the new council were
Robespierre, Billaud-Varenne, Fabre D'Eglantine, Chaumette, and
Fouquier-Tinville.
The first act of the members of this revolutionary Commune was to march
to the City Hall on the night of the 9th of August, and in the name of
the sovereign people, whose representatives they were, to depose the old
Municipal Council from its functions, with the following decree:
The Assembly of the Committee-men of the Sections, assembled with
full power to save the common weal, considering that the first
measure of safety is to seize all the powers that have been
delegated to the Commune of Paris, and to remove from the staff of
the National Guard the evil influence that it has upon the public
liberty, decree:
1.º The staff is suspended from its functions.
2.º The Municipal Council is suspended. Citizen Petion, Mayor, and
Citizen Roederer, attorney for the Commune, shall continue their
duties.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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