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Readings in Modern European History: A Collection of Extracts from the Sources Chosen With the Purpose of Illustrating Some of the Chief Phases of the Development of Europe During the Last Two Hundred Years, Volume 1: The Eighteenth Century: The French Re
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Historical SummaryWhile the National Assembly naturally tried to shield the king after his unmistakable attempt to escape beyond the boundaries of France, many leaders in the clubs denounced him as a traitor and demanded his deposition. A petition was drafted in which the National Assembly was requested to regard the flight of Louis XVI as tantamount to his abdication. This was submitted on July 17 to the crowds which collected on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Some disorder having arisen, the crowd treated the National Guard with disrespect, and the command was finally given to fire upon the people. Lafayette, then head of the guard, and others tried later to justify the harsh command, and were furiously attacked by Marat in his famous newspaper, The People’s Friend. The following extract from it furnishes a good illustration of the attitude of the violent republicans at this time:
CHEVREMONT, Jean-Paul Marat, I, 490 sqq. World History 124.
Marat Attacks Lafayette and the Royalists
O credulous Parisians I can you be duped by these shameful deceits and cowardly impostures? See if their aim in massacring the patriots was not to annihilate your clubs! Even while the massacre was going on, the emissaries of Mottier [i.e. Lafayette] were running about the streets mixing with the groups of people and loudly accusing the fraternal societies and the club of the Cordeliers of causing the misfortunes. The same evening the club of the Cordeliers, wishing to come together, found the doors of their place of meeting nailed up. Two pieces of artillery barred the entrance to the Fraternal Society, and only those conscript fathers who were sold to the court were permitted to enter the Jacobin Club, by means of their deputy’s cards.
Not satisfied with annihilating the patriotic associations, these scoundrels violate the liberty of the press, annihilate the Declaration of Rights—the rights of nature. Cowardly citizens, can you hear this without trembling? They declare the oppressed, who, in order to escape their tyranny, would make a weapon of his despair and counsel the massacre of his oppressors, a disturber of the public peace. They declare every citizen a disturber of the public peace who cries, in an uprising, to the ferocious satellites to lower or lay down their arms, thus metamorphosing into crimes the very humanity of peaceful citizens, the cries of terror and natural self-defense.
Infamous legislators, vile scoundrels, monsters satiated with gold and blood, privileged brigands who traffic with the monarch, with our fortunes, our rights, our liberty, and our lives! You thought to strike terror into the hearts of patriotic writers and paralyze them with fright at the sight of the punishments you inflict. I flatter myself that they will not soften. As for The Friend of the People, you know that for a long time your decrees directed against the Declaration of Rights have been waste paper to him. Could he but rally at his call two thousand determined men to save the country, he would proceed at their head to tear out the heart of the infernal Mottier in the midst of his battalions of slaves. He would burn the monarch and his minions in his palace, and impale you on your seats and bury you in the burning ruins of your lair.
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Chicago:
Jean-Paul Marat, "Marat Attacks Lafayette and the Royalists," Readings in Modern European History: A Collection of Extracts from the Sources Chosen With the Purpose of Illustrating Some of the Chief Phases of the Development of Europe During the Last Two Hundred Years, Volume 1: The Eighteenth Century: The French Re in Readings in Modern European History: A Collection of Extracts from the Sources Chosen With the Purpose of Illustrating Some of the Chief Phases of the Development of Europe During the Last Two Hundred Years, Volume 1: The Eighteenth Century: The French Re, ed. James Harvey Robinson (1863-1936) and Charles A. Beard (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1908), 280–282. Original Sources, accessed July 15, 2025, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=LINZUD2SEFTLII3.
MLA:
Marat, Jean-Paul. "Marat Attacks Lafayette and the Royalists." Readings in Modern European History: A Collection of Extracts from the Sources Chosen With the Purpose of Illustrating Some of the Chief Phases of the Development of Europe During the Last Two Hundred Years, Volume 1: The Eighteenth Century: The French Re, in Readings in Modern European History: A Collection of Extracts from the Sources Chosen With the Purpose of Illustrating Some of the Chief Phases of the Development of Europe During the Last Two Hundred Years, Volume 1: The Eighteenth Century: The French Re, edited by James Harvey Robinson (1863-1936) and Charles A. Beard, Boston, Ginn and Company, 1908, pp. 280–282. Original Sources. 15 Jul. 2025. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=LINZUD2SEFTLII3.
Harvard:
Marat, J, 'Marat Attacks Lafayette and the Royalists' in Readings in Modern European History: A Collection of Extracts from the Sources Chosen With the Purpose of Illustrating Some of the Chief Phases of the Development of Europe During the Last Two Hundred Years, Volume 1: The Eighteenth Century: The French Re. cited in 1908, Readings in Modern European History: A Collection of Extracts from the Sources Chosen With the Purpose of Illustrating Some of the Chief Phases of the Development of Europe During the Last Two Hundred Years, Volume 1: The Eighteenth Century: The French Re, ed. , Ginn and Company, Boston, pp.280–282. Original Sources, retrieved 15 July 2025, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=LINZUD2SEFTLII3.
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