CHAPTER III 

 The Plebiscite in the French Revolution 



The French Revolution, itself the product of a growing 

 resentment by the tiers etat against the oppression to which 

 they had been subjected by and in favor of the two other 

 estates, proclaimed and defined liberty as the power to " do 

 all that does not interfere with the doings of one's neigh- 

 bor."^ According to article 4 of the Declaration of the 

 rights of man and citizen, proclaimed by the Constitutional 

 Assembly in August, 1789, "the exercise of the natural 

 rights of everyone [cJiaque honiuic] has no limitations save 

 those which assure to the other members of society the en- 

 joyment of those same rights. These limitations cannot be 

 determined except by law."^ Less than a year later the 

 same Assembly passed a decree which stipulated that "the 

 French nation renounces the undertaking of any war for 

 the purpose of conquest, and that it will never employ its 

 forces against the liberty of any people."^ 



To place the plebiscites, or rather the annexations by 

 plebiscites, of revolutionary France in their proper perspec- 

 tive and to give them their due historical appraisal we must 

 consider them in the light of these expressions and pledges. 



First in line is the acquisition of Avignon and Venaissin 



1 Article 4 of the Declaration des droits de rhomme et du citoyen, 

 adopted Aug. 21, 1789. (Arch, pari., ser. I, vol. viii, p. 464.) Re- 

 vised edition of the Declaration of June 23, 1793, Article 6: "La 

 liberie est le pouvoir qui appartienf a Thomme de faire tout ce qui 

 ne nuit pas aux droits d'autrui : elle a pour principe la nature; pour 

 regie la justice; pour sauvegarde la loi : sa iimite morale est dans 

 cctte maxime: Ne fais pas a un autre ce que tu ne veux pas qu'il te 

 soit fait" (Arch, pari., ser. I., vol. Ixvii, pp. 106-107). 



2 See note i. 



8 Decree of May 22, 1790: "... I'Assemblee nationale declarant*, 

 a cet cfiFct, que la nation frangaise renonce a entreprendre aucune 

 guerre dans la vue de faire des conquetes, et qu'elle n'cmploiera 

 jamais ses forces contre la libcrte d'aucun pcuple " (Arch, pari., ser. 

 I., vol. XV, p. 662). 



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