Verklaring van de Conventie aan de Naties, Convention nationale (december 1792)

Verklaring van de Conventie aan de Naties, Convention nationale (december 1792)

 

 

The Convention, after ridding France of the institution of monarchy, proposed to make its armies a means of propagating liberty and reform throughout Europe. it-accordingly prepared a proclamation to be published in those countries which already were, or should be, occupied by the armies of the new French republic.

The French people to the people of ; brothers and friends:

We have conquered our liberty and we shall maintain it. We offer to bring this inestimable blessing to you, for it has always been rightly ours, and only by a crime have our oppressors robbed us of it. We have driven out your tyrants. Show yourselves free men and we will protect you from their vengeance, their machinations, or their return.

From this moment the French nation proclaims the sovereignty of the people, the suppression of all civil and military authorities which have hitherto governed you and of all which the taxes which you bear, under whatever form, the abolition of the tithe, of feudalism, of seigniorial rights and monopolies of every kind, of serfdom, whether real or personal, of hunting and fishing privileges, of the corvee, the salt tax, the tolls and local imposts, and, in general, of. all the various kinds of taxes with which you have been loaded by your usurpers; it also proclaims the abolition among you of all noble and ecclesiastical corporations and of all prerogatives and privileges opposed to equality. You are, from this moment, brothers and friends ; all are citizens, equal in rights, and all are alike called to govern, to serve, and to defend your country.

 
 
 
 
 
 
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