French Revolution Readings

Loyseau -Paris Jurist -systematic account of legal forms and moral principles underlying the traditional social order -expresses the traditions of the time, but also (perhaps subconciously) realizes nobles are changing -hints at insecurity because own status is transforming -some jabs at old regime -pays particular attention to visible signs of nobility - each group and subgroup had uniform of sorts -said men of letters were above businessmen -self-serving, but also true -contradicts merit and birth - wants it both ways -bottom of pyramid is men who work with hands, top is clergy

Diderot -at heart a democratic text: uses knowledge from all classes and available to all men -considered quintessential pre-enlightenment text because it captures hope in progress that almost all the enlightened thinkers of the 18th century believed in -even equal to God because depicts man as center of the universe - knowledge is most important -challenges Rousseau's idea of a legislator, we need everyone working hard and together

Rousseau
-General Will: overall ideas on governance and how things should be run, supposed to be obvious:
-What gets in way? particular interests: only benefits you or people like you, not whole country
-all peoples' service must be given to sovereign
-favored a legislator who was wise and detached from bias to make laws and step back
-criticized England for ceding sovereignty to Parliament, part of which was unelected "they think they are free but are grossly mistaken"
-criticized laziness of people who have come to enjoy luxuries and buy soldiers and others to do their service: "by reason of idleness and money, they end up having soldiers to enslave their country and representatives to sell it"-favored a removal of the forces that breed inequality: "it is precisely because the force of circumstances tends to continuously destroy equality that the force of legislation should always tend to its maintenance"-"man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains"

Louis XV -also known as the seance de la flagellation -King speaking to special session of Parlement of Paris , denouncing idea that all different parlements were part of one body, functioning as representative as nation, so could gather together in opposition of king's decrees -representative of traditional thoughts on royal absolutism -viewed sovereignty as all-powerful, absolute, obedient (you obey me), loyal, owed (the king gave the nobles their office and the laws which they are enforcing so he is still in charge), indivisible
-"as if anyone could forget that the sovereign power resides in my person only"

President of the court of appeals in Paris
-L16 reinstated Maupeau and sovereign courts, first thing they did was to produce document indicting several fiscal policies of king
-summary of criticisms of monarchy from magistrates for the past 20 years
-King unhappy, all copies destroyed, but original still somehow published
-Thought sovereignty should be accessible, a covenant, credible, transparent, accountable
-Thought it should NOT be corrupt, despotic, secret
-addressed to King, very deferential, but still truthful
-"We must make known to Your Majesty, as your reign begins, the real condition of the people - for the spectacle of a brilliant court will never remind you of it"
-Oriental despotism - people under king have absolute and unlimited power
-warns king of many abuses, like tax farmers
-repeats "you receive petitions from all your subjects" but then exposes places where the petitions may be stopped or corrupted
-argues for local representation and oversight

Family of the King
-representative of the Assembly of Notables' rejections of Third Estates' demands
-also addressed to King
-warns against corruption of third estate, instead thinks they are better represented by the other two orders
-"every author sets himself up as a legislator; eloquence or a facile pen - even devoid of study, knowledge, or experience - seems sufficient authorization to regulate the constitution of empires"
-"who can say where the audacity of opinions will stop?"

Abbe Sieyes
-clergy, but still elected deputy of third estate
-What is the third estate? Everything. What has it been until now in the political order? Nothing. What does it want to be? Something
-3rd estate performs 19/20s of what is necessary for society, and loaded with all the really arduous work, all the tasks which the privileged order refuses to perform
-would anger third estate to action
-"It is like a strong and robust man with one arm still in chains. If the privileged order were removed, the nation would not be something less, but something more. What then is the Third Estate? All; but an "all" that is fettered and oppresed."
-"What an odd country, where the citizens who profit most from the commonewealth contribute least to it!"
-rejects the nobility's offer to pay equal taxes now as a trick to continue to repress third estate

Jay Smith
-suggests that the correct route to understanding revolutionary thought is not through discourse (a group of ideas greater than one person or one thought) or experience but conciousness (how things are interpreted and put into action)
-hard to find concrete social phenomenon
-criticizes Taket's analysis (in Becoming a Revolutionary) of revolutionary thought: subconscious processes that had no outlet before May 5
-adresses agency - the will or ability to act
-even show's that Taket's chronology is off (sieyes' dates wrong)
-uses Servan as an example, showing it could not have been personal experience or the political discourse of the time that solely contributed to his thoughts
-Servan tried to find common ground with nobility before becoming embittered