Speech of Buonaparte, Commander in Chief, to his Soldiers, on the st Vendemiaire (22d September).'

WE

celebrate the ft Vendemiaite, the epoch the most dear to Frenchmen: it is a day that will be much celebrated in the annals of the world. It is from that day that we date the foundation of the republic, the organization of a great nation which is called by its destiny to aftonith and confole the world.

Soldiers! diftant from your country, and triumphing for Europe, chains have been prepared for you. You know it; you have avowed it; but the people awoke, feized the traitors, and already they are in irons. You will learn by the proclamation from the Executive Directory, the plots of the particular enemies of the foldiers, especially the enemies of the divifions of the army of Italy. We honour this preference! The hatred of traitors, of tyrants, and of flaves, will be in hiftory our beft title to glory and immortality!

Thanks to the courage of the firft magiftrates of the republic, of the armies of the Sambre and Meufe, and the interior; to the patriots, to the reprefentatives remaining faithful to the destiny of France; they have accomplished, at one blow, that which for fix years we have laboured to give our country.

(Signed)

BUONAPARTE.

Report to the Executive Directory respecting Emigrants, on the 25th September 1797.

Citizens Directors,

THE

HE law of the 5th September, rendered neceffary by the dangers to which the royalist confpirators have expofed the conftitution and the republic, bears that character of greatness and wildom which has directed the fteps of the two powers in the Jate circumftances. It was received with tranfport throughout the republic. The French people confidered it as a folemn pledge of the virtue of the legislative body; and, thanks to that body, hiftory cannot reproach that remarkable epoch with a fingle excefs. The execution of this falutary law muft deliver the republic from its greatest enemies, emigrants and turbulent priests. Its regulations are fimple and humane; it does not require the blood of thofe men who have only fignalized their return on the territory of the republic, by troubles, revolt, and affaffinations; it merely -expels these from a country, to the laws of which they refuse to fubmit. The advantages refulting from this measure are immenfe and inestimable; the inconveniences are flight and partial. You require to know, citizens directors, what are the exceptions which

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which it will be poffible to make to this 15th article of the law. You inform me at the fame time, that fome legiflators have propofed to except from this article the perfons fet down on the list of emigrants by the administrations of other departments than that in which they refided, and that the Council of Five Hundred has referred to you the petitions of two foldiers who complain of having been unjustly set down on the lift. To pafs in fuch cafes an exception to the law, would be to deftroy the principal law. There are, without doubt, well-founded protests against the law; doubtlefs, citizens, there are fome citizens, fome public functionaries, and even fome defenders of the country, who are affected by the law; but the magiftrates and legiflators of a great nation cannot facrifice the intereft of the whole to that of individuals. It has been proved to demonftration, that the emigrants and rebellious priests must be banished the French foil, or that the conftitution and the republic must be expofed to the hazards of a civil war, and to the calamities to which it gives rife. It is in vain to urge, that to except fuch and fuch a clafs of citizens from the operations of this law, is not to destroy it; experience has fhown, that when once the principle is attacked, intereft and malice can take advantage of it, and render the most severe law void. It was by means of fimilar exceptions that the emigrants were heretofore recalled as fugitives from the lower Rhine, as fugitives from Toulon, and as fugitives from the colonies. The most conftitutional law, citizens directors, is that which drives emigrants from the republic. By how many captious arguments, by how many apparently authentic proofs, is it eafy to deceive on the queftion of emigration! Have I not lately communicated to you the fraud of a great number of emigrants, who, having been able by corruption to fubftitute their names in the places of thofe of the defenders of the country, have demanded to be struck out as fuch? How many others, if the propofed exception were to be adopted, would equivocate as to the place of their habitation, and would elude the effect of the law by a thousand tricks? Every emigrant would by thefe means remain in France. Yes, citizens directors, I have no hesitation to declare to you, that the fafety of the republic depends on the ftrict execution of the law of the 5th of September. The partizans of royalty, and the accomplices of the late confpirators, are far from believing themfelves conquered they are already, you know, affaffinating the public functionaries in feveral of the departments; the important correfpondence which a little while ago fell into your hands, exposed to you the vast plan of destruction and death, the bloody execution of which you pre vented on the 4th September; and now, when the French nation, in order to put an end to fo much wickednefs and crime, is contented to drive from its bofom its most avowed enemies, we are fearful of exercising this great act of justice, because it affects

the

the interefts of fome individuals. The most equitable law is that which produces the leaft injuftice. No one better than myself, citizens directors, can bear teftimony to your conftant folicitude to diftinguifh the innocent from the guilty. I have in every cafe, as far as I have been able, exercised this fentiment of justice, and every day which has elapfed fince the law of the 4th September, has been marked by the erafure of a great number of citizens whom error or malice had fet down on the lift of emigrants. As to the reft, the legislative body may remain tranquil; you have in your hands, and you have already made ufe of means which have mitigated the rigour of the laws, and which will prevent the innocent from being confounded with the guilty. As to myfelf, I cannot diffemble, I think the law ought to be fully carried into execution; by that you will put an end to thofe confpiracies, and difconcert the projects of our external and internal enemies, and drive out of the republic thofe who would tear her bofom. To mitigate this law would endanger the conAtitution; even to hesitate to maintain it, is a public calamity.

The Minifter of the Interior to the Commiffioners of the Directory in the different central and municipal Adminiftrations.

Citizens Commiffioners,

Paris, 24th Fructidor (Sept. 10).

I THOUGHT that I fhould have maintained my correfpondence with you much longer than I now will do. I hoped that I fhould have continued to avail myfelf of that medium, and of the confidence with which you have diftinguished me, in order to reanimate the republican fpirit. But when I haftened, upon the 18th Fructidor, to apprife you of the events of that day, I did not imagine that I fhould have quitted fo foon the office which I held. Obliged to leave it, I am defirous once more to renew my correfpondence with you, before I quit the office of the minister of the interior for the Directory.

You now know, citizens commiffioners, that the Directory was feconded by the reprefentatives, who have remained faithful to the republic. Let us not lofe the fruit of fuch a glorious triumph. It has made no man wear mourning; it has coft no man a tear; its purity is not ftained with a fingle drop of blood. May the example of the tranquillity, the order and public fpirit of the commune of Paris, be imitated throughout all the departments! No perfon was feduced to follow the ftandard of the royal confpirators: they imagined they should have had a powerful party, and an army they found themfelves alone. In all that has paffed

fince the 1ft Prairial, the proofs of treafon were fo evident; fo palpable to every eye that was willing to fee-the.confpirators maintained fo little referve, and boafted fo publicly that they were fent to recommence, as they were wont to fay, the revolution; they had fo openly called their 1ft of Prairial a new 14th of July, that no man can deny their intentions but he who partakes their views. it feemed almoft fuperfluous to add to thefe proofs the particular facts that had been collected, and the decifive docu-ments which have been printed. In a word, no doubt remains; and the world will be more furprifed ftill, when prudence thall permit us to fathom the depth of the abyfs into which France was about to be plunged by the machinations of the royaliit confpirators. It is poffible, however, that the latter may find apologi'ts among the fycophants of flavery. The enemies of the people zad of the republic will not fail to repeat, with that hypocrify which is peculiar to them, that the constitution has been violated, and liberty attacked. Perfidious traitors!. they invoked the conftitution only that they might compals its deftruction; they spoke of liberty, while they laboured to restore fervitude. Ah! if it is neceffary to reply to their objections, tell them that hitherto the genius of the republic has watched over its destinies, and that it is ever ready, ever armed, to crush them to atoms.

Republican commiffioners, reprefent to the people with what defperate art the royalift commiffioners had laboured to fecure the fuccefs of their plots. I he fovereignty of the people was the refpeâable cloak under which they had concealed themfelves, in order to tear from the people their rights. It was by ufurping all the constituted powers that they flattered themfelves with the hope of extinguishing all thefe powers. It was by corrupting public opinion, by the licentioufnefs of the prefs, of which they made a privilege and an exclufive monopoly for themselves and their friends; it was by letting loofe the vengeance of the emigrants, and the fanaticifm of priests, the enemies of liberty; it was by daily deftroying, piece-meal, republican ufages and inftitutions; it was by provoking an execrable civil war in the name of humanity itfel, by preaching the murder of all the purchasers of national property in the name of justice, by renewing the maffacres of St. Bartholomew's day in the name of the God of peace, that they laboured to reftore the worship and the laws of their fathers. Tell the French people, then, that one day has fufficed to difconcert all their machinations. Thanks to that fortunate day, we can now breathe, without restraint, the air of liberty! We can now pronounce, without fear, the delightful name of citizen, the beloved name of the republic, and the facred name of the conftitution! We can now talk, without danger, of the grand exploits of our warriors, of their virtues and their glory!

It

It is well known, that on the evening preceding the 18th Fructidor, placards, journals, the hired railers of the royalist commiffioners, infolently bawled abroad the crimes of Buonaparte; while, in the tribune, the orators dared to revile the liberty of Italy. On the evening preceding that day, they affected to tell us of the faction of Orleans, a chimera invented to conceal the real faction of the friends of Louis XVIII. You have feen whether both have not been repreffed by a juft profcription. Above all, they affected to tell us inceflantly of terrorism and of anarchy, in order to divert our attention from a much more dreadful anarchy, and a much more ferious terror, which they were defirous to organize. You have feen, too, whether, on the 18th Fructidor, anarchy and terror have tarnished the wifdom of the operations of the legislative body, and of the government. You have feen, whether, for a moment, the idea was entertained of again rearing fcaffolds and baftiles. It is time to banish that odious abufe of words-to carry back men's views, their fentiments, their hopes, to the republican fyftem, and its inftitutions to reinvigorate public fpirit-to reanimate, in France, patriotifm, enfeebled, attacked, depraved by fo many infamous arts.

Till you receive the wife measures which the executive power and the legislative body are about to adopt in concert for their objects, it belongs to you, citizens commiffioners, to begin this imIt is your bufinefs to tell Frenchmen, that their portant work. rights as well as their duties were engraved by nature upon their hearts, before they were written on the table of the laws. Nature, before the conftitution, faid to man, "Be juft, if you with to deserve freedom; be virtuous, if you wish to preferve li berty; adore your country, if you wish to be protected by its laws." Such is the only language which the government speak's to the French people. You will receive from the Executive Di rectory the proclamation which has been addreffed to the French nation, to represent to them, in the prefent fituation of affairs, the neceffity of an unanimous and permanent return to republican ufages. You cannot too much infift upon the truths contained in this proclamation; you cannot diffufe them too widely; and engrave them upon your own hearts, in order to imprefs them upor thofe over whom your jurifdiction extends.

You have remarked, doubtlefs, that perfidious combination, that fyftem, purfued with a conftancy truly invincible, by which the confpirators had almoft infenfibly moulded the manners, the habits, the inftitutions of democracy, to aristocratic, facerdotal, and royal forms. In a republic, men almoft were prohibited to be republicans. The glorious title of citizen, which is not fully known, which is not ufed but by free nations, had become the object of contempt and infult. The language of the confpirators was the language of flaves. The names of patriot and friend of

the