The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 3 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and PrivateJefferson, Thomas
History
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 3 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
1. The States General shall assemble, uncalled, on the first day of
November, annually, and shall remain together so long as they shall
see cause. They shall regulate their own elections and proceedings, and
until they shall ordain otherwise, their elections shall be in the forms
observed in the present year, and shall be triennial.
2. The States General alone shall levy money on the nation, and shall
appropriate it.
3. Laws shall be made by the States General only, with the consent of the
King.
4. No person shall be restrained of his liberty, but by regular process
from a court of justice, authorized by a general law. (Except that a Noble
may be imprisoned by order of a court of justice, on the prayer of twelve
of his nearest relations.) On complaint of an unlawful imprisonment, to
any judge whatever, he shall have the prisoner immediately brought before
him, and shall discharge him, if his imprisonment be unlawful. The officer
in whose custody the prisoner is, shall obey the orders of the judge; and
both judge and officer shall be responsible, civilly and criminally, for
a failure of duty herein.
5. The military shall be subordinate to the civil authority.
6. Printers shall be liable to legal prosecution for printing and
publishing false facts, injurious to the party prosecuting; but they shall
be under no other restraint.
7. All pecuniary privileges and exemptions, enjoyed by any description of
persons, are abolished.
8. All debts already contracted by the King, are hereby made the debts
of the nation; and the faith thereof is pledged for their payment in due
time.
9. Eighty millions of livres are now granted to the King, to be raised by
loan, and reimbursed by the nation; and the taxes heretofore paid, shall
continue to be paid to the end of the present year, and no longer.
10. The States General shall now separate, and meet again on the 1st day
of November next.
Done, on behalf of the whole nation, by the King and their representatives
in the States General, at Versailles, this ---- day of June, 1789.
Signed by the King, and by every member individually, and in his presence.
TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
Paris, June 12, 1789.
My Dear Sir,--As I may not be able to get at you, at Versailles, I write
this to deliver it myself at your door. With respect to the utility, or
inutility of your minority's joining the Commons, I am unable to form an
opinion for myself. I know too little of the subject to see what may be
its consequences.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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