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Student Work - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The Feulliant Club Issue Two Since 1792 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - One Will, One People, One France France is in a state of internal conflict. (Rousseau 65). This social contract that we all Our great country is being torn apart by violence, abide by in a civil society eliminates our right to oppression and philosophical differences. The take anything we crave. It makes the wants of the sovereign will of the people, the general and ultimate will, is being lost in a tangled web of Table of Contents: private interests. All the factions of France - the -One Will, One People, One France ………… 1 clergy men, radicals and crowd members alike – -This is Madness, Retain the Monarchy! ........ 4 are guilty of this. It is imperative that we all recall -It’s Not Personal, It’s Business ……………... 7 what the general will means, and how it is was originally intended by Rousseau. It is crucial that -Without Compromise France Will Burn….. 10 we all take a step back and remember the social contract itself. “What man loses by the social contract -Letter to the Editor ……………………........ 14 is his natural liberty and the absolute right to anything that temps him and that he can take; what he gains by the social contract is civil liberty and the legal right of property in what he possesses.” 1 people more important than our own. This Now as our National Assembly meets I would most benefit. Within a government there means that in society and government, the see vast improvement from the Estates will always be a majority and minority opinion. sovereign will should always be invested in General, but I still see many imperfections However it is very pivotal that we remember and act as a representation of the general will. within our governing body. Each faction of our the majority opinion of the people in our assembly claims to represent the general will, legislative body might not be the majority Our government as it existed before the but what we forget is that the this will does not opinion of the citizens of France. revolution had a misrepresentation. The will of consist of the people at our table but the the people of France was being denied by As a legislative body our biggest hurdle majority of the state of France. No one person, secular groups. Their personal interests began is to understand what the general will is. This is or faction, could ever represent the entirety of govern France, as opposed to the general the only way staying true to the sovereign will our people “Thus if the general will is to be will.“There is a great difference between the is possible. If we can follow this path correctly clearly expressed, it is imperative that there will of all and the general will; the general will our government will represent the citizens of should be no sectional associations in the state, studies only the common interest while the will this great country better than any other. The and that every citizen should make up his own of all studies private interest, and is indeed no people of France will be ignited and rise mind for himself” (Rousseau 73). We must more than the sum of individual desires” quickly from the ashes. In order to do this we learn to put our differences aside and (Rousseau 72). And since the general will was must stay focused and selfless. We must not remember that when given the sovereign power being overrun by the will of all, the sovereign conspire with fear or with violence. “We it is your duty to delegate it as the majority of was not invested in the right place. always want what is advantageous to us but we France sees fit - Not how your specific faction do not always discern it. The people is never 2 corrupted, but it is often misled; and only then being, cannot be represented by anyone but They conceive, very does it seem to will what is bad.” (Rousseau itself – power maybe delegated, but the will systematically that all things which give 72). The minute people in our assembly are cannot.” (Rousseau 69). The power of the perpetuity are mischievous and threatened or fed any type of propaganda, the French Government would therefore be therefore they are at inexpiable war general will becomes impossible to find. contingent on how well the sovereign will is with all establishments. They think that dealt out. government may vary like modes of This legislative body has the ability to dress, and with as little ill effort; that maintain the general will of the people – and I The induction of a constitution would there needs no principle of attachment, believe that all of us can create laws that best completely eradicate the ancient regime. The except a sense of present convenience, represent the majority of France. The King would retain some power as an executive to any constitution of the state. (Burke smoothest way we will transition this branch – but the government of France would 92) government is by the ratification of a be completely revamped. This new system constitution. This constitution will in no way would not only completely rejuvenate the The other European nations doubt our transfer the sovereign will from the people, but people but it would be work better than the intelligence and preparations in regards to our it will serve to protect the power it has preceded form in regards to protecting their new form of government. The revolution is entrusted to the legislative body. “Sovereignty, general will. Speculations from other countries being looked at as a joke, a brash attempt to being nothing other than the exercise of the disagree. take down rule and establishment. We have to general will, can never be alienated; and that come together as a nation to prove them wrong. the sovereign, which is simply a collective 3 The creation of a government for the on will vest in the people of our nation. The that will. As long as we do not deviate from people is what France needed to prosper. Now general will, the majority opinion, is what shall this plan, France will rise to be stronger than that we have the tools to create this, we must rule over France and as a legislative body it is any nation. follow through. Ultimate sovereignty from now our duty to distribute our power in regards to -Citizen Lindsey Diffley This is Madness, Retain the Monarchy! During this most revolutionary period, the people of France have (Burke 81). What better body for the spirit of France to reside in than that decided they must have a voice in the government that decides all of their of your anointed king? When his majesty Louis XVI was crowned at the futures. Of course the people have a right to decide what happens to them, Cathedral of Reims not twenty years ago, he took something intangible but recent talk of all this occurring without the consent or need for a king is into himself as the new ruler of the French people. The body politic of all preposterous, as well as dangerous to the future of France. As our English the past kings of France came to reside in our king, blessing him and neighbor Edmund Burke has so rightly said, “I do most heartily wish that forwarding the wish that the Bourbon line should be the one to rule over all France may be animated by a spirit of rational liberty…I think you of France. bound…to provide a permanent body in which that spirit may reside” 4 We have all been allowed a chance to stand side by side with our since birth, along with a myriad of his most trusted and able ministers are king and forge a new way towards an even more glorious monarchy, but quite capable of making laws without the help of common men, or (God instead we have ignored this opportunity for change and allowed it to slip forbid!) women. Having King Louis on the throne doing what he was bred by. When a king comes to fear his own people that is when the world has to do allows the people of France to go about living their daily lives with truly turned on its head. King Louis has sat through these most heinous and routine and repetition, which is what they need in this most precarious of libelous proceedings of the National Assembly virtually silent, unable to times. There is no reason for the masses to delve into the inner workings of defend himself for fear of attacks from voting members of his Assembly or a government which their uneducated, amateur minds cannot understand. worse, the mobs. Can it be any wonder to When there are children is the streets crying out us why our king chose to seek help from for bread and shelter, where should their others outside of the nation? He does not protectors be found? Hard at work for the money mean to destroy us, but to find some peace to feed them, or standing about in some meeting of mind for himself and his family, house for hours simply for the opportunity of especially his son, our beloved Dauphin signing their name to a sheet of paper?! It is an who will ensure the future happiness and idea not to be endured. If King Louis is forced prosperity of France. out of the picture, who will we look to for guidance? Maximilien Robespierre? He and his radical Jacobins will Why the common people of France would want to waste their time crowd the streets crying for blood, and there will be no one to restrain them working on legislations and bills in government is beyond my from taking the lives of whomever they see fit.
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