Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Proclamation of the Executive Directory of the Cifalpine Republic on the 14th Sept. 1797.

THE

HE Executive Directory, confidering that it is neceffary to maintain public order against the efforts of the difaffected, who in the prefent circumftances endeavour to deceive the people, in order to re-eftablish the ancient government, or to diforganize that which exifts, ordains that any person who by worl or deed thali endeavour to favour monarchy, the conftitution of 1703, or any other form of government different from that ich exifts, fhall be confidered as a difturber of the public peace, and inftantly punished on the fpot as fuch with death, agreeably to the law of the 5th of August last, enacted against the enemies of public tranquillity.

(Signed) G. G. SERBELLONI, Prefident.

Buonaparte, Commander in Chief of the Army of Italy, to the Soldiers and Citizens of the eighth Military Divifion.

Head Quarters, Pafferiano, 36 Fructidor. SOLDIERS and citizens of the eighth military divifion, the Executive Directory has put you under my military command. This task, painful to me, will be ufeful to your tranquil. lity. I know the patriotifm of the people of the fouthern departments. Men, enemies of liberty, have in vain fought to lead you aftray. I shall make the neceffary difpofitions to restore to your delightful country, happiness and tranquillity.

Patriots! republicans! return to your homes: evil to that commune which fhall not protect you: evil to the conftituted body which fhall fhield crime and affaflination with indulgence!

And you, generals, commanding the places; officers, foldiers; you are worthy of your brothers in arms! Protect the republicans, and fuffer not the men covered with crimes, who delivered Toulon to the English, which coft us a long and painful fiege, who in one day burnt thirteen ships of war, to return and give us law!

Municipal adminiftrators, juftices of the peace, act as your confcience directs. Are you friends of the republic, of the national glory? Are you worthy of being the magiftrates of a great nation? If you are, execute the laws with precifion, and know that you shall be refponfible for the blood that may flow under your eyes. We shall be your friends, if you are attached to the conftitution and to liberty. We fhall be your enemies, if you are only the agents of Louis XVIII. and of the cruel plots fomented by foreign gold,

(Signed)

BUONAPARTE.

Speech

Speech of Buonaparte, Commander in Chief, to his Soldiers, on the fi Vendemiaire (22d September).

WE

E celebrate the 1ft Vendemiaire, the epoch the most dear to Frenchmen: it is a day that will be much celebrated in the annals of the world. It is from that day that we date the foundation of the republic, the organization of a great nation which is called by its defliny to astonish and confole the world.

Soldiers! diftant from your country, and triumphing for Europe, chains have been prepared for you. You know it; you have avowed it; but the people awoke, feized the traitors, and already they are in irons. You will learn by the proclamation from the Executive Directory, the plots of the particular enemies of the foldiers, efpecially the enemies of the divifions of the army of Italy. We honour this preference! The hatred of traitors, of tyrants, and of flaves, will be in hiftory our beft title to glory and immortality!

Thanks to the courage of the first magiftrates of the republic, of the armies of the Sambre and Meufe, and the interior; to the patriots, to the reprefentatives remaining faithful to the destiny of France; they have accomplished, at one blow, that which for fix years we have laboured to give our country.

(Signed)

'BUONAPARTE.

Report to the Executive Directory refpecting Emigrauts, on the 25th September 1797.

Citizens Directors,

THE

HE law of the 5th September, rendered neceffary by the dangers to which the royalist confpirators have expofed the conftitution and the republic, bears that character of greatness and wifdom which has directed the fteps of the two powers in the Jate circumftances. It was received with transport throughout the republic. The French people confidered it as a folemn pledge of the virtue of the legislative body; and, thanks to that body, hittory cannot reproach that remarkable epoch with a fingle excefs. The execution of this falutary law muit deliver the republic from its greatest enemies, emigrants and turbulent priefts. Its regulations are fimple and humane; it does not require the blood of thofe men who have only fignalized their return on the territory of the republic, by troubles, revolt, and affaffinations; it merely expels thefe from a country, to the laws of which they refufe to fubmit. The advantages refulting from this measure are immenfe and inestimable; the inconveniences are flight and partial. You require to know, citizens directors, what are the exceptions which

I

which it will be poffible to make to this 15th article of the law. You inform me at the fame time, that fome legiilators have propofed to except from this article the perfons fet down on the lift of emigrants by the administrations of other departments than that in which they refided, and that the Council of Five Hundred has referred to you the petitions of two foldiers who complain of having been unjustly fet down on the lift. To pafs in fuch cafes an exception to the law, would be to destroy the principal law. There are, without doubt, well-founded protests against the law; doubtJefs, citizens, there are fome citizens, fome public functionaries, and even some defenders of the country, who are affected by the law; but the magiftrates and legiflators of a great nation cannot facrifice the intereft of the whole to that of individuals. It has been proved to demonftration, that the emigrants and rebellious priests must be banished the French foil, or that the conftitution and the republic must be exposed to the hazards of a civil war, and to the calamities to which it gives rife. It is in vain to urge, that to except fuch and such a class of citizens from the operations of this law, is not to deftroy it; experience has fhown, that when once the principle is attacked, intereft and malice can take advantage of it, and render the moft fevere law void. It was by means of fimilar exceptions that the emigrants were heretofore recalled as fugitives from the lower Rhine, as fugitives from Toulon, and as fugitives from the colonies. The most conftitational law, citizens directors, is that which drives emigrants from the republic. By how many captious arguments, by how many apparently authentic proofs, is it eafy to deceive on the queftion of emigration! Have I not lately communicated to you the fraud of a great number of emigrants, who, having been able by corruption to fubftitute their names in the places of thofe of the defenders of the country, have demanded to be ftruck out as fuch? How many others, if the propofed exception were to be adopted, would equivocate as to the place of their habitation, and would elude the effect of the law by a thoufand tricks? Every emigrant would by these means remain in France. Yes, citizens directors, I have no hesitation to declare to you, that the fafety of the republic depends on the ftrict execution of the law of the 5th of September. The partizans of royalty, and the accomplices of the late confpirators, are far from believing themfelves conquered; they are already, you know, affaffinating the public functionaries in feveral of the departments; the important correfpondence which a little while ago fell into your hands, expofed to you the vast plan of deftruction and death, the bloody execution of which you prevented on the 4th September, and now, when the French nation, in order to put an end to fo much wickedness and crime, is contented to drive from its bofom its moft avowed enemies, we are fearful of exercising this great act of justice, becaule it affects

the

the interefts of fome individuals.

The moft equitable law is that which produces the leaft injuftice. No one better than myself, citizens directors, can bear teftimony to your conftant folicitude to diftinguith the innocent from the guilty. I have in every cafe, as far as I have been able, exercifed this fentiment of juftice, and every day which has elapfed fince the law of the 4th September, has been marked by the erafure of a great number of citizens whom error or malice had fet down on the lift of emigrants. As to the reft, the legiflative body may remain tranquil; you have in your hands, and you have already made ufe of means which have mitigated the rigour of the laws, and which will prevent the innocent from being confounded with the guilty. As to myfelf, I cannot diffemble, I think the law ought to be fully carried into execution; by that you will put an end to thofe confpiracies, and difconcert the projects of our external and internal enemies, and drive out of the republie those who would tear her bofom. To mitigate this law would endanger the conAitution; even to hesitate to maintain it, is a public calamity. SOTIN

(Signed.)

The Minister of the Interior to the Commiffioners of the Directory in the different central and municipal Adminiftrations.

Citizens Commiffioners,

Paris, 24th Fructidor (Sept. 10).

I THOUGHT that I fhould have maintained my correfpond ence with you much longer than I now will do. I hoped that I fhould have continued to avail myfelf of that medium, and of the confidence with which you have diftinguished me, in order to reanimate the republican fpirit. But when I haftened, upon the 18th Fructidor, to apprife you of the events of that day, I did not imagine that I fhould have quitted fo foon the office which I held. Obliged to leave it, I am defirous once more to renew my correfpondence with you, before I quit the office of the minifter of the interior for the Directory.

You now know, citizens commiffioners, that the Directory was feconded by the reprefentatives, who have remained faithful to the republic. Let us not lofe the fruit of fuch a glorious triumph. It has made no man wear mourning; it has coft no man a tear; its purity is not ftained with a fingle drop of blood. May the example of the tranquillity, the order and public fpirit of the commune of Paris, be imitated throughout all the departments! No perfon was feduced to follow the ftandard of the royal confpirators: they imagined they fhould have had a powerful party, and an army; they found themfelves alone. In all that has paffed

fince the ft Prairial, the proofs of treafon were so evident, so palpable to every eye that was willing to fee-the confpirators maintained fo little referve, and boafted fo publicly that they were fent to recommence, as they were wont to fay, the revolution; they had fo openly called their 1ft of Prairial a new 14th of July, that no man can deny their intentions but he who partakes their views. It feemed almoft fuperfluous to add to thefe proofs the particular facts that had been collected, and the decifive documents which have been printed. In a word, no doubt remains ; and the world will be more furprised ftill, when prudence fhall permit us to fathom the depth of the abyfs into which France was about to be plunged by the machinations of the royalift confpirators. It is poffible, however, that the latter may find apologifts among the fycophants of flavery. The enemies of the people and of the republic will not fail to repeat, with that hypocrify which is peculiar to them, that the conftitution has been violated, and liberty attacked. Perfidious traitors! they invoked the conftitution only that they might compais its dettruction; they spoke of liberty, while they laboured to rettore fervitude. Ah! if it is necesary to reply to their objections, tell them that hitherto the genius of the republic has watched over its deftinies, and that it is ever ready, ever armed, to crush them to atoms.

Republican commiffioners, reprefent to the people with what defperate art the royalift commiffioners had laboured to fecure the fuccefs of their plots. The fovereignty of the people was the refpe&able cloak under which they had concealed themselves, in order to tear from the people their rights. It was by uforping all the conftituted powers that they flattered themfelves with the hope of extinguishing all thefe powers. It was by corrupting public opinion, by the licentioufnefs of the prefs, of which they made a privilege and an exclufive monopoly for themfelves and their friends; it was by letting loofe the vengeance of the emigrants, and the fanaticifm of priests, the enemies of liberty; it was by daily destroying, piece-meal, republican ufages and inftitutions; it was by provoking an execrable civil war in the name of humanity itself, by preaching the murder of all the purchafers of national property in the name of juftice, by renewing the mafacres of St. Bartholomew's day in the name of the God of peace, that they laboured to restore the worthip and the laws of their fathers. Tell the French people, then, that one day has fufficed to difconcert all their machinations. Thanks to that fortunate day, we can now breathe, without reftraint, the air of liberty! We can now pronounce, without fear, the delightful name of citizen, the beloved name of the republic, and the facred name of the conftitution! We can now talk, without danger, of the grand exploits of our warriors, of their virtues and their. glory! VOL. VII.

D

It

« AnteriorContinuar »