355] '^^^ PLEBISCITE IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 57 



before you later votes. These are the successive votes cast within 

 the space of a very few months, cast before the French national 

 guards; cast almost always by the dominant factions, arms in hand; 

 cast in the absence of a multitude of the inhabitants driven out by 

 the violence of the dominant party. ... It is in the absence of this 

 considerable part of the people that they have cast this vote [emis 

 ce voeu]. This absence has not been voluntary; it is the conse- 

 quence of an act of rigour, an act of injustice; it is the consequence 

 of continued persecution. . . , 



Having scrutinized the motives of the pro-annexationists 

 he referred to the fact that the advocates of annexation had 

 adduced in support of their policy the expression from other 

 French cities in favor of the reunion of Avignon with 

 France and he claims that "this is rather a weapon in the 

 system of those opposed to reunion." For, so he continued, 

 " it is the desire of the French to unite with themselves the 

 people of Avignon ; it is this French influence, which we 

 cannot mistake, this influence which has existed since the 

 beginning of the revolution, which will render suspicious to 

 the veritable friends of truth, all that has been laid be- 

 fore you as the free will [or vote] of the people of 

 Avignon. , . ."^^ 



Furthermore, de Menou himself, the most ardent cham- 

 pion of the annexationists' cause, referring to the first vote 

 of June, 1790, admitted that "one could object . . . that it 

 was taken in the midst of tumult, disorder and the massacre 

 of .several citizens."" The series of later petitions and at- 

 tested votes referring to the voters speaks of " un voeu 

 forme par les citoyens actifs d'Avignon, pour se reunir a 

 la France." One of these petitions attests the rendering of 

 the oath on the French Constitution by "toutes les gardes 

 nati nales d'Avignon."^'' A letter addressed to the King 

 of France, asking him for speedy annexation and begging 

 him not to permit "that a good people perish because it 

 wishes to become once more French " is signed : " Sire, de 



1* Arch, par!., ser. I, vol. xxvi. p. 365. See also his speech of 

 Nov. 20, 1790, ibid., vol. xx, pp. 559-563. 



i*lbid., vol. xxvi, pp. 362-364. In thi.s connection see also the 

 petition for annexation of Juno, 1790, for which see note 5. 



»" Ibid., vol. xxvi, pp. 36^364. For a definition of the term cito- 

 yens actifs see above, p. 25, note 48; also Wambaugh, p. 37. 



