D. The Sources

1. Procès-Verbal De L’Assemblée Nationale, Tuesday, June 21, 1791.

The president, having arrived, said that the mayor of Paris had just informed him of the departure of the king, and that the assembly would, without doubt, wish to take some action and give some orders in a conjuncture so unforeseen and so important. [After several motions had been made and discussed] the national assembly decreed:

"That the minister of the interior should expedite couriers at once into all the departments with an order to all public functionaries, national guards, and troops of the line, to arrest or have arrested all persons whomsoever leaving the kingdom, as well as to prevent all exportation of effects, arms, munitions, specie in gold or silver, carriages and horses; and in the case in which the said couriers should overtake any individuals of the royal family, and those who may have aided in their abduction, the said public functionaries or national guards and troops of the line are required to take all measures necessary to check the effects of said abduction by opposing the prosecution of the journey, and to give an account of everything to the national assembly."

A member asked that the place of the sessions of the assembly be carefully guarded, and that no stranger be allowed to enter there. The national assembly adopted this proposition. It was thereupon proposed and decreed to order the minister of war to have M. de Rochambeau depart at once with the necessary orders to have put in a state of defense the frontiers of the departments in which the command of the troops of the line is intrusted to him.

The president announced that the ministers were going to come to the assembly. The minister of justice was introduced first. . . . [The aide de camp of Lafayette, sent with a companion to follow the king, came to the assembly to announce that they had been arrested by the people. Two members of the assembly were named as commissioners] to secure for these aides de camp full liberty to execute their orders. A member having announced that M. de Lafayette had been arrested by the people in front of the city hall, the president was authorized to name six commissioners to call to the assembly the mayor of Paris and the commandant of the national guard. . . . The minister of finance was introduced into the assembly. . . .

"The national assembly declares to the citizens of Paris and to all the inhabitants of the empire that the same firmness which it has shown in the midst of all the difficulties which have accompanied its labors is going to direct its deliberations on the occasion of the abduction of the king and a part of the royal family;

"That it has taken the most effective steps to follow the traces of those who were culpable of this crime;

"That without any interruption in its sessions it is going to employ all possible means that public affairs may not suffer from this event;

"That all citizens ought to have full confidence that it would take such measures as the public welfare demanded; that it warned them that the public welfare never demanded more imperiously the conservation of order; and that whatever might excite trouble, injure persons, or menace property would be so much the more culpable, as thereby both liberty and the constitution would be compromised.

"It orders that citizens hold themselves ready to maintain public order and defend the country according to the orders that shall be given to them by the national assembly.

"It orders administrators of departments and municipal officers throughout the entire kingdom to have the present decree published at once and to look carefully after public peace."

The minister of marine was introduced into the assembly. . . .

"The national assembly, wishing to prevent the evils which might result from expediting into the departments and districts of decrees, opinions, and other matters which might be circulated there in the name of the assembly, declares that the only authentic seal of its decrees and expeditions is that one applied to the decree which bears the words, The Law and the King. National Assembly, 1789, and the seal of its archives for packages delivered there, bearing the words, The Nation, the Law, and the King. National Archives; it instructs administrative assemblies and public functionaries to exercise the most careful supervision over copies of the decrees which may be circulated among the people in order to be sure of the authenticity of them as well as of the correctness of the signatures and the seals; and to prevent the abuse of the seal bearing the words, National Assembly 1789, The Law and the King, it decrees that all the seals bearing only these words shall be deposited in one place through the care of the archivist and intrusted to commissioners who shall watch over the application of the seal to the decrees. . . ."

The minister of the interior was introduced into the assembly. . . . Upon a motion made and seconded by several Members the assembly decreed that the ministers should be admitted provisionally to its sessions, in order to be always ready to receive orders and to give necessary information.

At the same time it ordered its diplomatic committee to arrange with the minister of foreign affairs measures it might be fitting to propose to the assembly relative to the foreign powers.

The minister of justice asked to be heard, which was granted. He observed that the state seal having been confided to him by the king, and M. de la Porte having shown him this morning a Mémoire written, and signed by the hand of the king, at the bottom of which was a note containing the prohibition to sign anything as minister until he had received further orders, and even the order to send him the seal as soon as he should require it, he could not, without an express injunction of the assembly, apply the state seal to their decrees. He added that he had advised M. de la Porte to carry the Mémoire to the president. . . .

The national assembly decrees as follows:

"1. The decrees of the national assembly already rendered, which have not been sanctioned nor accepted by the king, as well as the decrees which may be rendered and cannot be sanctioned nor accepted on account of the absence of the king, shall bear, nevertheless, the name and shall have in the length and breadth of the land the force of law, and the usual formula shall continue to be employed there.

"2. It is enjoined upon the minister of justice to apply the seal of state, without the need of the sanction or acceptance of the king, and to sign both the minutes of the decrees which are to be deposited in the national archives and in those of the chancellery and the copies of the laws to be sent to the tribunals and the administrative bodies.

"3. The ministers are authorized to assemble, to make and sign together proclamations and other acts of a similar nature."

The ministers retired to see to the execution of the decrees.

A member of the military committee observed that, the national assembly having passed the laws called for by the internal situation, it was important to take thought of what was needed for the security of the frontiers. He proposed, in consequence, that this committee meet to consider measures to be taken touching the public force and thereupon give an account to the assembly. This proposition was adopted. Another member made a motion relative to M. d’Affry, commandant of the troops of the line in the department of Paris and in the neighboring departments, which was passed as follows:

"The national assembly decrees that M. d’Affry, commandant of the troops of the line in the department of Paris and the neighboring departments, shall be summoned to give to the assembly an account of the measures he has taken to secure public tranquillity in the departments in which he commands as well as the dispositions relative to the regiment of Swiss guards which are in the service of the nation. . . ."

A deputation of the department of Paris presented itself at the bar and gave an account of the decree the department had rendered, conceived in these terms:

Extract from the Register of the Department of Paris, June 21, 1791

"Department of Paris.

"On the proposition of one of its members, the department, in consideration of the departure of the king and the entire royal family, has decreed that the municipality of Paris shall at once place seals upon the apartments of the château of the Tuileries and the Luxembourg; that it shall make the investigations which may be necessary to learn by what exits the royal family was abducted; that it shall hold under arrest until further orders all those who dwell in the interior of the chateau of the Tuileries and shall have them questioned; that the municipality shall give the necessary orders to have all the exits of Paris closed and see to it that no one goes out to-day.

"Decrees, further, that one of its members shall go at once to the national assembly to inform it of this action."

The national assembly gave its approval to this decree, and, a member having proposed that the department of Paris should come and hold its sessions in one of the offices contiguous to the hall of the national assembly, to be nearer for the purpose of receiving its orders, this disposition was ordered. . . .

[The minister of foreign affairs] was introduced into the assembly, and after he had been heard the preceding motion was amended and passed in the following form:

"The national assembly decrees as follows:

"The minister of the interior is ordered to establish at once a strong guard at the depots of foreign affairs at Paris and at the depots of foreign affairs, war, marine, and others at Versailles, with orders not to allow papers, ciphers, or packages to leave the place where they are otherwise than by an order of the minister and upon his responsibility. Similar orders will be executed as to the lodging occupied at Paris by the minister of foreign affairs."

Upon an order to add some members to the committee on investigations, it was proposed to unite the committee on reports to that on investigation, that they might occupy themselves with the existing situation. This last motion was passed. . . .

M. d’Affry was brought to the bar with several officers of the staff of the Swiss guards. He expressed his sentiments of fidelity and attachment to the nation. He begged that they would not regard the Swiss as foreign auxiliaries, but as Frenchmen who loved their country. He said he would consecrate to it his last efforts. . . .

On a motion made to that purpose the president, authorized by the assembly, named commissioners to be added to the secretaries, for the redaction of the Procès-verbal and the classification of the decrees passed in this session. . . . They retired at once with one of the secretaries to do this work.

It was proposed to issue a proclamation or address to the French people relative to the present circumstances. This was voted, and the committee on the constitution was charged to draw it up.

[It was proposed that a report should be made to the assembly of the state of the treasury and the reserve fund] as a result of which the assembly decreed as follows:

"The national assembly, the king being absent, orders that its commissioners at the national treasury and the reserve fund, acting in concert with the commissioners of the king for the said treasury and fund, shall draw up a Procès-verbal of the present state of the said fund and treasury, which Procès-verbal shall be brought at once to the national assembly."

Thereupon the national assembly passed to the order of the day, which was the continuation of the reading of the minutes of the previous day and the discussion upon the penal code. . . .

At half past one, before passing to the order of the day, a member asked that it be decreed that the assembly would not separate until a new decree had suspended the session. The assembly adopted the proposition. . . .

[M. de la Porte, intendant of the civil list, was called to the bar, and stated how the Mémoire written by the king had been handed him that morning by a servant attached to one of the royal valets. He presented the Mémoire to the assembly, and it was read. The opening passage was as follows:]

"So long as the king could hope to see a new birth of order and business in the kingdom through the means employed by the national assembly, and by his residence near this assembly in the capital of the kingdom, no personal sacrifice was too great for him; he would not even have discussed the nullity with which all his acts, since the month of October, 1789, were struck because of his absolute lack of liberty, if this hope had been realized. But now that the sole recompense of so many sacrifices is to see the destruction of the kingdom, to see all authorities disregarded, all property violated, the security of persons everywhere endangered, crime unpunished, complete anarchy established above the laws, without the appearance of authority given him by the new constitution being sufficient to repair a single one of the ills which afflict the kingdom, the king, after having solemnly protested against all the acts emanating from him during his captivity, believes he ought to place before the eyes of the French and of the whole world a picture of his conduct and that of the government which has established itself in the kingdom."

[The king then reviewed the events of 1789 and 1790, notably those of July and October, 1789, the federation of 1790, the arrest of his aunts, and the opposition to his departure for Saint-Cloud in 1791. The review of events was accompanied by a criticism of the constitution under the heads of Justice, Internal Administration, Foreign Affairs, and Finance. The document fills twenty-two pages of the Procès-verbal. It concludes in the following words:]

"Frenchmen, and above all you people of Paris, you inhabitants of a city whom the ancestors of His Majesty were pleased to call the good city of Paris, beware of the lies and suggestions of your false friends. Return to your king; he will always be your father, your best friend. What pleasure will he not take in forgetting all his personal injuries and seeing himself again in the midst of you when a constitution, which he will have accepted freely, will be so effective that our holy religion will be respected, the government established on a firm footing and useful through its action, property and the status of each no longer troubled, the laws no longer violated with impunity, and finally liberty placed on firm and unshakable bases. (Signed) Louis.

"At Paris, June 20, 1791."

"The King forbids his ministers to sign any order in his name until they have received further orders from him. He enjoins the guard of the seal of the state to send it to him as soon as he shall require him to do so. (Signed) Louis.

"At Paris, June 20, 1791."

At the close of the reading the motion was made to pass to the order of the day, and a second to send the Mémoire to the committee on the constitution to prepare, in consequence, a proclamation. The two motions were put to vote and passed at the same time. . . .

IIme suite du procès-verbal de la séance permanente

Tuesday, June 21, 1791, six o’clock in the evening.

M. Dauchy, ex-president, took the chair and announced that the committee, charged with editing the different decrees passed this morning, would not delay the presentation of its work. . . .

[After several motions relating to foreign affairs the following decree was passed:]

"The national assembly, the king being absent, orders that the minister of foreign affairs shah make known to the ambassadors and ministers of the powers at present residing in Paris, as well as to the ambassadors of Prance in foreign states and kingdoms, the wish of the French nation to continue with the said states and kingdoms the correspondence of amity and good intelligence which has existed up to the present time, and to instruct the said ambassadors and residents for the powers that they should remit to M. de Montmorin the official notes with which they may be charged on the part of the respective princes and estates. . . ."

One of the commissioners of the assembly, charged to supervise the reserve fund, made a report on the condition of that fund. . . . In consequence he proposed the following decree:

"The national assembly decrees that the commissioner-administrator of the reserve fund be alone authorized to sign ordinances mentioned in Article IV of the law of December 6th last, sanctioned the 15th of this month, until further orders; and the said commissioner of the king shall be responsible for the said ordinances, in conformity with the said article." . . . The assembly voted the proposition of the committee.

A member of the committee of finance gave an account to the assembly of the state of the public treasury. The result was that there was found in the treasury, namely:

A member of the military committee, in the execution of a decree rendered this morning, presented a project upon the means of providing in these circumstances for the external and internal security of the state and the maintenance of the constitution. . . . This amendment was adopted and the project of the committee passed in the following terms:

"The national assembly, wishing to provide in the circumstances for the external and internal security of the state and the maintenance of the constitution, decrees as follows:

"ARTICLE I

"The national guard of the kingdom shall be called to arms according to the dispositions announced in the following articles: . . .

"ARTICLE IX

"From the day of the assembling of these companies, all the citizens who compose them shall receivc–namely, the national guard 15 sous a day. . . .

"ARTICLE X"

"When the situation of the state shall no longer demand the extraordinary services of these companies the citizens who compose them shall cease to be paid, and shall re-enter their companies of the national guard without any distinction being made."

The assembly suspended its deliberations at eleven o’clock in the evening. At midnight the debates began again. M. Dauchy, ex-president, having taken the chair, announced that the commissioners had edited the first part of the Procès-verbal of that day’s session. The assembly, after having heard the reading of it, referred it back to the commissioners to have the corrections made which seemed fitting. . . . A member observed that it was of the greatest importance to send the Procès-verbal to all of the departments, to maintain public peace there, and to inform the citizens of the measures taken by the assembly to assure the defense of the state. . . .

The assembly suspended its deliberations a second time at an hour and a half after midnight, and renewed them at three o’clock on the morning of the 22d of the current month. One of the commissioners who acted as editor brought in a corrected redaction of the Procès-verbal of yesterday morning. After the reading the national assembly ordered "that the Procès-verbal should be printed at once and sent without delay to all the administrations of the departments and districts of the kingdom." The deliberations were suspended for the third time at four o’clock in the morning. (Signed) Alexandre Beau-harnais, President; Dauchy, Jacques, Menou, ex-Presidents; Mauriet, Grenot, Regnier, Le Carlier, Merle, Fricaud, Secretaries.