HISTORY
SOLUTION: Oregon State University French Revolution History Essay
SOLUTION: Oregon State University French Revolution History Essay.
READING QUESTIONS
Rousseau, Burke, and the Revolution in France
As you read, answer the following questions and support your answers by citing the text:
Rousseau’s “First Discourse”
Part 1:
1. What question prompted Rousseau to write this treatise?
2. Rousseau alludes to the dark ages, a time when “Europe had sunk back into barbarism.” Does he
disapprove of the rise of learning that commenced with Islamic scholarship and precipitated the
Renaissance?
3. Rousseau mentions the “vaunted civility” of ancient Athens and Rome and sees its echoes in the
salons of leading intellectuals of contemporary Paris. What does Rousseau see as the failing of
civility and good manners?
4. If societies that have championed knowledge are characterized by moral debauchery, what
societies does Rousseau find as exemplars of moral purity and wholesomeness?
5. Does Rousseau prefer the militaristic, spare culture of Sparta or the opulent, brilliant culture of
Athens? Why?
6. Rousseau denounces the philosophes, and especially popular figures such as Diderot, whose
Encylopédie was to bring knowledge to the reading masses, as “arrogant attempts” to enable man
to “emerge from the happy ignorance in which eternal wisdom had placed us.” What does
Rousseau mean by “happy ignorance” and “eternal wisdom”?
Part 2:
7. What does Rousseau mean when he says that the “enlightened and learned men” smile
“disdainfully at the old-fashioned words of fatherland and religion, and devote their talents and
philosophy to destroying and debasing all that is sacred among men”?
8. What is the relation of science to luxury? What is the latter “bad”? How does science sap the
“warlike” and “moral” qualities of young people?
9. What is Rousseau getting at when he writes that Descartes and Newton, the great intellects of the
previous century, themselves had no teachers?
Rousseau’s Social Contract
10. What ideas link Rousseau’s “First Discourse” and his “Social Contract?”
11. What does it mean to be “virtuous”? What makes this an important quality in politics? Would both
Rousseau and Burke agree?
12. How can you determine what the “General Will” is, according to Rousseau?
13. What is sovereignty, according to Rousseau? Can it be divided? What would he say about the US
constitution?
Abbé Sieyès, “What is the Third Estate?”
14. How does Sieyes view the nobility?
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15. What are some of the complaints that Abbe Sieyes makes about the nobility?
16. What does he advocate?
17. Imagine that you are a French person reading Sieyes’s pamphlet in early 1789, just before a
meeting of the Estates General. How would you react if you were a member of the nobility? A
member of the Third Estate?
Arthur Young, “Early Revolution in Paris”
18. How are ideas circulated?
19. Where are ideas circulated?
20.What are some themes of the publications?
21. How does Young feel about what is going on?
22. Do other people feel the same?
23. What is going on in the rest of the country?
24. How does he describe the proceedings of the Estates General at Versailles?
Decree Creating the National Assembly, June 17, 1789
25. What is the central message of this document?
26. How does this document echo Sieyes’ “What is the Third Estate”?
The Tennis Court Oath, June 20, 1789
27. What is the central message of this document?
August Decrees
28.Lists often suggestion priorities. If that is the case here, what issues seem to be most important to
people?
29. What was the punishment for keeping pigeons or hunting without permission?
30.Nobles, as we discussed earlier, saw their privileges as a form of property. Does the National
Assembly seize their property outright?
31. What issues are repeated again and again?
32. How will the surrender of special privileges benefit the nation, according to the National
Assembly?
“Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen”
33. What are the “natural, inalienable, and sacred rights of man”? And what does this phrase mean?
34. What is meant by the words, “sovereignty” and “nation”?
35. How is “liberty” defined?
36. How does the Declaration define “the general will”?
37. What does “equality” mean in the Declaration?
38.What does it say about property?
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39. Nearly every article recalls a particular abuse of the ancien régime. What are they?
40.Are there any clues about how society should be governed?
41. What is missing from this document?
Montesquieu, “The Spirit of the Laws”
42. What is political liberty, according to Montesquieu?
43. What are the greatest dangers to liberty?
44. In the face of such dangers, how can liberty best be attained and preserved?
45. What kind of powers do we find in every government?
46.What might happen if the legislative and executive powers were united in the same person?
47. Why must judicial power be separated from the legislative and executive?
48.Is democracy possible in a large state?
49.What is the role of the nobility?
50.What is the role of the monarch?
51. Should the legislative power have the right to check the executive?
Constitution of 1791
52. This is a statement of what the Revolution values. What are some of those values?
53. Is the National Assembly a unicameral or bicameral legislature?
54. What are the requirements to be an “active citizen”?
55. What is the role of the king?
Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France
56. Burke writes, “All men have equal rights, but not to equal things.” Do you think this statement is
true? What would Burke say about modern ideas concerning social welfare, income redistribution,
etc.?
57. Why was Burke so hostile to the idea that the structure of government could be shaped by abstract
principles?
58. What are some benefits to slow, evolutionary change when compared to rapid, revolutionary
change? Why, in some cases, is revolutionary change preferable? Examples?
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SCHEDULE OF SESSIONS: Rousseau, Burke, and Revolution in France, 1791
If you are schedule to give a speech, you must post a DRAFT of your speech on SLACK
NA = National Assembly; J = Jacobin Faction; F = Feuillant Faction; C = Conservative Faction; S = Section Leaders of Paris; I = Indeterminates
In order to identify your allegiance to a faction, please wear the appropriate color (shirt, scarf, etc):
Jacobins (red); Feuillants (blue); Conservatives (white); Section Leaders (green)
Class date: Mon. 3/21
Session: 1
1791
Speeches or Brief
Comments (but anyone
can speak about these
issues)
Key Primary Sources
Issue
Should the NA revoke the Civil Constitution of the Clergy
which turns priests and bishops into employees of the
French government? Or does the existence of the
Catholic Church as a separate entity mean that France
will never cohere as a uni ed nation?
Maury (C
Bérardier (C
Sieyès (F
Saint-André (J
Lucy (I
Hebert (S
Juigné (C
Grégoire (J
Bouron (I
Blampain (I
Marat (S)
Civil Constitution of the Clerg
Pope Pius VI, Charita
August Decrees (1789
Rousseau, Social Contract, Book 1, Chapter 7; Book 2,
Chapters 2, 3, and
Voltaire’s writings
Issue
To be determined
Class date: Wed. 3/23
Session: 2
1791
Speeches or Brief
Comments (but anyone
can speak about these
issues)
Key Primary Sources
Should the NA rescind the Decree on Church Lands and
return the property formerly belonging to the Catholic
Church? If so, how will the government pay o its
massive debt? Where will new revenue come from?
Juigné (C
Mounier (F
Pétion (J
Alquier (I
Dupre (I)
Issue
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Decree on Church Lands (1790)
August Decrees (1789
Pope Pius VI, Charita
GM Newsletter #
Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789
Rousseau, Social Contract, Book 1, Chapter
Voltaire’s writings
Issue
Should the NA revoke the Fourth of August Decrees and
the provisions of the constitution eliminating the
nobility? Or should it outlaw the feudal regime and all
“hereditary distinctions”?
Issue
To be determined
Clermont (C
Lally (C
Liancourt (C
Lameth (F
Buzot (J
Polverel (I
Cazalès (C)
Class date: Fri. 3/25
Session: 3
1791
Speeches or Brief
Comments (but anyone
can speak about these
issues)
What amendments should be made to the
Constitution? For example, should the NA be a
unicameral legislature? Should France be a
constitutional monarchy? Or a Republic?Should the
king have a suspensive veto?
Clermont (C
Bailly (F
Barnave (F
Saint-Just (J
Danton (S)
Sieyès (F
Ducos (F
Hérault (J
Hutteau (I
Blampain (I
Lucy (I
King Louis XVI
Issue
Speeches or Brief
Comments (but anyone
can speak about these
issues)
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Key Primary Sources
Constitution of 1791, Title II
Declaration of the King (June 23, 1789
Decree Creating the National Assembl
Montesquieu, The Persian Letters and The Spirit of the Laws
Rousseau, Social Contract, Book 1, Chapters 6-8; Book 2,
Chapters 1Sieyès, What is the Third Estate
Arthur Young, Early Revolution in Paris
To be determined
Class date: Mon. 3/28
Session: 4
1791
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August Decrees (1789)
Decree Abolishing the Nobility (1790
Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789
Rousseau, Social Contract, Book 1, Chapter
Arthur Young, Abuses of the Ancient Régim
Sieyès, What is the Third Estate
Burke, Re ections on the Revolution
Key Primary Sources
Barère (F
Bouron (I
Palm (I
Perier (I
Andalle (S
Leon (S
Rolin (S
Babeuf (S)
Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789
Arthur Young, Early Revolution in Pari
GM Newsletter #2
Speeches or Brief
Comments (but anyone
can speak about these
issues)
Key Primary Sources
Lafayett
Bérardier (C
Lally (C)
Mounier (F
Buzot (J
Saint-Just (J
Desmoulins (J
Leon (S)
Declaration of the King (June 23, 1789
Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789
Robespierre, “Speech Denouncing the New Conditions of
Eligibility” (1789
Rousseau, Nature and Civilizatio
Decree Creating the National Assembl
The Tennis Court Oat
Decree Regarding Membership in the National Guard
(1790)
Class date: Fri. 4/1
Session: 6
1791
Speeches or Brief
Comments (but anyone
can speak about these
issues)
Key Primary Sources
Issue
Should the NA declare war on foreign monarchs?
King Louis XV
Bailly (F
Lameth (F
Hérault (J
Saint-André (J
Rolin (S
And many more!
Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789
See GM Newsletter #2 and #3
Issue
Should the NA eliminate institutions and groups that
oppose the General Will?
Issue
Should the NA pass the Declaration of the Rights of Man
as written? Or are there some issues that need to be
revisited, for example, the rights of women and the
rights of property?
Issue
To be determined
Class date: Wed. 3/30
Session: 5
1791
Should the NA retain property requirements for voting
and holding o ces and keep the distinction between
“active” and “passive” citizens
Issue
Should the National Guard consist of both “active” and
“passive citizens”, if the distinction has not already
been abolished?
Issue
To be determined
Rousseau, Social Contract, Book 2, Chapters 3 and 5
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ROUSSEAU, BURKE AND REVOLUTION IN FRANCE, 1791
FEUILLANT FACTION
Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie
B arnave (B AR-n awve)
Delegate of the National Assembly
Y
ou are the 29-year-old son of a Grenoble family. You followed in your father’s footsteps, becoming a lawyer in the Parlement of Dauphiny, one of the most independent
parlements (royal law courts). Often this parlement has criticized the king’s administrators! The Revolution broke out in Dauphiny a year before it did in Paris, led in
part by Claude Périer with his liberal ideals and his political acumen, but you were
certainly quite willing to join in. Indeed, the Revolution, no matter where it occurred, met with your
own ambitions, as you were inclined to think that you were destined to be great, whether through a
literary, philosophical, or political career. When the first revolutionary sentiments started circulating in
your region, you attacked the king’s ministers with a pamphlet entitled “Spirit of the Edicts Registered
by Military Force at the Parlement of Grenoble on May 10, 1788.” This tract attacked the king’s agents
and demanded that the king call a meeting for the Estates General. Many were impressed by the force
of your words and your personality.
You were soon elected to the Estates General to represent Grenoble’s Third Estate. Listeners praised
your rhetorical skill, if at times they found your zeal and passion a bit lacking in moderation. You are
committed to your ideas! You aligned yourself with the patriots soon after arriving in Versailles and
became a popular hero. Stories came back to Grenoble quickly, telling of how you voted to call the
Third Estate a National Assembly, or, more tellingly, how you supported rioters in Paris. L
ally-Tollendal
condemned the crowd for relying on vigilante justice on July 18, killing Louis Bertier de Sauvigny and
Joseph Foulon for allegedly profiting from the poverty and hardship of the Paris workers; you, on the
other hand, had little sympathy for the murdered men: “Gentlemen, there are those who would attempt
to elicit our sympathies in favor of the blood spilt yesterday in Paris. Was that blood therefore so pure?”1
Once a radical, you have become significantly less so since 1790. Even as you have demanded limitations on monarchical power, you have thought about limiting the freedom of others, too. Parisians
have taken to the streets, necessitating martial law, and you have seen that democratic demands can
themselves be dangerous if they are not limited.
You began the revolution as a close ally of Joseph Mounier (also a Feuillant) but you have found a
better friend more recently in Alexander Lameth (a Feuillant) and Adrien Duport. Lameth in particular
holds philosophical positions close to your own. For example, he, like you, is a solid supporter of rural
commoners. Your friendship with him has convinced you that the slaveholders of Saint-Domingue have
a right to protection of their property and, indeed, that France needs economic and political stability
in its trade with the island. You, Lameth, and Duport have stepped in to offer advice to Louis. He often
trusts you, at least as much as he trusts anyone.
After the king’s flight to Varennes, you feel somewhat adrift. You believe that if the monarchy is
abolished, chaos will ravage France; this caused you to fight and split with the radical Jacobins, forming
the Feuillants in opposition. The king is currently suspended, but you must find a way to fully restore
him to the throne and revise the constitution.
1. Paul R. Hanson, Historical Dictionary of the French Revolution (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2004), 27; Francois
Furet, Interpreting the French Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 187.
ROLE SHEET: Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave, Feuillant Faction
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Faction Advisory
FEUILLANTS
You are a member of the Feuillant faction. Depending on the size of the class, your faction will consist
of two to eight players, as follows:
• Sieyès, juring clergy
• Bailly, Mayor of Paris (and your faction’s candidate for President of the National Assembly)
• Barère
• Barnave
• Lameth
• Ducos
• Mounier
During the past two years, you have supported most of the initiatives of the French Revolution: the
transformation of the Third Estate into a National Assembly; the nationalization of the Catholic
Church and seizure of its lands (Civil Constitution of the Clergy), and the advance of the constitutional
monarchy, which you hope to soon ratify (in the Constitution of 1791).
But during the past spring (of 1791), you have been alarmed by the waves of violence that have
swept through Paris—and across France. You winced at the human consequences of this violence—
bodies dangling from lampposts and heads jammed upon pikes—but you understood that, given the
obstinacy of the conservatives, violence was necessary. You often attended meetings of the Jacobin
Club and usually applauded their speakers.
But in the past few months, the Jacobin Club has been taken over by radicals such as Robespierre,
Grégoire, Hérault, Buzot, and other extremists. They have endorsed the crazy policies of demagogues
such as Marat and Desmoulins. Riots break out in the S aint-Antoine and S aint-Marcel districts of Paris
nearly every day. Personal safety has become a daily concern, and the right to property is challenged
at every corner by drunken louts. The violence of the mobs has become as great a danger as the
anti-revolutionary groups within France and the monarchs beyond its borders.
VICTORY OBJECTIVES
As a leader of the Feuillant faction, you believe that France must preserve the gains of the Revolution
without slipping into bloody anarchy and chaos (especially in Paris). In other words, you seek to limit
the power of the king, but not destroy it altogether; you seek to restrain the mob, but not abandon the
principles of freedom that animated the Revolution from the outset. You want the proposed constitution (the Constitution of 1791) to be passed as is, for the most part (see pp. 136–45 of the game book).
This will create a constitutional monarchy, which amounts to a compromise between the conservatives
on the right and the Jacobins on the left. By acknowledging the value of conservatives’ as well as revolutionaries’ beliefs, you hope to build a political system in France that truly reflects the wishes of all
French men and women. Your compromise will build a unified, strong, and progressive French nation.
ROLE SHEET: Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave, Feuillant Faction
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Some of the provisions of the proposed constitution have already been approved by the National
Assembly, but the whole document has not. You seek to achieve the following objectives in the National
Assembly:
1 Deprive the Catholic Church of much of its land (Decree on
Church Lands).
The Catholic Church has paid too little attention to the souls of parishioners and too much to its vast,
wealth-producing property. The Decree on Church Lands takes the Catholic Church’s land, to which
it was never entitled, and redistributes it among the productive people of France. Their payments for
the land provide desperately needed revenue for the new government you have built. As the decree
explains: “Property intended . . . for all services of public utility belongs to the nation and is at all times
at its disposal.” (This decree was passed nearly two years ago but you must not revoke it for the simple
reason that, without that stream of income, France cannot pay for its army and navy, ensure adequate
grain supplies for cities, or provide basic government services.)
2 Endorse the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy nationalizes the Catholic Church and prevents the pope in Rome
from controlling French priests and bishops. It enables every community to elect its own priests and
arranges for them to be paid by the French government. The Civil Constitution also promises to end
many of the abuses of the old Catholic church in France.
3 Outlaw the feudal regime and all “hereditary distinctions” while
retaining the king as an expression of French traditions and
culture.
This is consistent with the moderate principle of adapting the past to fit new circumstances.
4 Insist on the ultimate sovereignty of the people while protecting
them from rash decisions by empowering the king to use a
suspensive veto (Royal Sanction).
This constitutional device empowers the king to delay unwise legislation and force subsequent legislatures to reconsider it. If three successive National Assemblies approve the legislation, then it will
become law despite the king’s veto. The king’s veto, in other words, is not absolute; it merely imposes
a prudent delay in the implementation of controversial legislation.
5 Protect the principle of free speech and simultaneously prevent
incitements to violence.
Do this by declaring that free speech is allowed, provided that its “manifestation does not derange
the public order.” Demented rabble-rousers have no right to incite the poor of Paris to slaughter
aristocrats—or anyone else.
ROLE SHEET: Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave, Feuillant Faction
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ROUSSEAU, BURKE AND REVOLUTION IN FRANCE, 1791
6 Proclaim the equality of citizens while ensuring that one’s right
to property is “inalienable” and “sacred.”
See the Declaration of the Rights of Man, Article 17.
7 Ensure the economic viability of the new government.
The collapse in tax collection has called into question the viability of your constitutional monarchy. If
it were not for the sale of church lands, the government would be bankrupt. But at some point all of
the church land will be sold. You must put the foundations of the new government on firmer economic
footing.
8 Delay a debate on ending slavery in Saint-Domingue (Haiti).
The simple fact is that the sugar trade has become central to the French e conomy—and thus to the
lives of some 3 to 4 million people in France. That some five hundred thousand blacks are enslaved
on the island is unfortunate. Slavery, you agree, is incompatible with the first article of the Declaration
of the Rights of Man: “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights.” But to eliminate slavery
now would plunge parts of France into economic chaos and endanger the moderate revolution you
endorse. Slavery must someday be ended in S aint-Domingue, but not right now. The easiest way to
avoid a painful debate on the matter in the National Assembly is to argue that the Colonial Assembly in
Saint-Domingue (which is dominated by slaveholders) should handle it.
9 Ensure that a Feuillant is President of the National Assembly
when the game ends.
If the Feuillants do not control the French government, then the constitution and the entire system it
represents is in jeopardy. If Lafayette or any of the Indeterminate delegates join the Feuillant party, their
election as President will fulfill this victory objective.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Your chief responsibility is to the people of France. They need a strong and stable government that best
reflects the interests of all. To that end, you have crafted a system of government that embodies the
achievements of the revolution: creation of a constitutional monarchy, passage of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, and affirmation of new freedoms and liberties (the Declaration of the Rights of Man).
Critics from both extremes—the left and the right—will attack the constitutional monarchy as
illogical and unworkable. Extremists will each seek to eliminate provisions with which they disagree.
But the essence of the constitution is its balance; the same is true of the government you seek. Destroy
either side and you destroy France. Within the National Assembly, the factions of the left and right are
so extreme, and so irredeemably hostile, that if either prevails civil war will likely ensue.
ROLE SHEET: Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave, Feuillant Faction
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Your responsibility, then, is to lead France into a future without anarchy, chaos, and civil war. You
consequently seek to persuade the people of France to embrace moderation and toleration.
Your individual biography outlines the story of your life, including your own personal goals and
objectives. But you must always remember that your foremost allegiance is to your faction. You win
the game by ensuring that your faction’s philosophy prevails. For example, each player must advance
particular arguments in speeches and essays; suggestions along these lines are included in the Assignments section of this role packet. But your faction must also work as a team, guided chiefly by the goals
outlined below. In other words, if you do well individually but your faction does poorly, you lose. If
one player stumbles or encounters fierce opposition, others in your team must come to that player’s
assistance. Your Gamemaster may have further guidance on how to win, but this much is obvious: your
faction must persuade other players, especially those who are undecided or “Indeterminate,” to support
goals that uphold your faction’s philosophy. Your faction should schedule regular meetings outside of
class to determine what exactly needs to be done and how best to accomplish it. Remember that other
factions, intent on winning, are likely strategizing to ensure that your faction will lose!
POWERS
Within the National Assembly
Like every other member of your faction, you are a leader in the National Assembly. This means that
whenever you cast a vote, forty-nine other delegates, inspired by your leadership, vote as you do. During the game the number of your s upporters—and votes—may rise or fall. If, for example, you fail to
speak in two consecutive sessions, thereby depriving your followers of the guidance they crave, the
Gamemaster may reduce your delegate total. How can delegates follow your lead if you do not speak
to them? Conversely, the Gamemaster may award you additional delegates for exceptionally strong oral
presentations or newspaper essays.
As the moderate party, furthermore, you can likely generate majorities on most issues by making
temporary alliances with either the conservatives (Catholic clergy and nobility) on the right, or with the
republicans ( Jacobins) on the left. In the hands of skillful politicians such as the leaders of your faction,
this is a major source of power. (See also the section on Strategy Advice, below.)
Within the Government
Because the National Assembly controls the only real source of revenue (sale of church lands), the
dominant faction in the National Assembly influences the d ay-to-day operations of the government.
In history, this power was delegated to various committees, which supervised government operations
(that is, the king’s ministers [cabinet] conferred with the appropriate committee of the National Assembly that controlled the sources of revenue). In the game, this power is delegated to the President of the
National Assembly, who can create committees and give instructions to the king’s ministers.
The Feuillants will likely succeed in their strategy of electing one of their o
wn—Jean Bailly, Mayor
of Paris—as President of the National Assembly. This gives your faction even more power in influencing
government policy. The Feuillant president, who commands a majority in the National Assembly, can
pressure government ministers to do what the Feuillants want. Most government ministers, mindful of
the National Assembly’s control of the purse strings, will listen very carefully to Bailly’s instructions.
You also have considerable influence with Lafayette, commander of the National Guard. Though
he is popular in his own right, he will likely need your votes to retain a comfortable position with
respect to the National Assembly. Because Lafayette’s army helps keep the crowds of Paris in check,
your influence with him is another major source of your power.
ROLE SHEET: Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave, Feuillant Faction
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ASSIGNMENTS
Within twenty-four hours of receiving this role packet, therefore, you should arrange to meet with
the entire Feuillant faction. (You might wish to invite Lafayette to join you as well.) Your first task is to
choose the editor of your newspaper. The editor is in effect the leader—the organizer—of your faction.
You must immediately inform the Gamemaster of which player has been assigned this task. Because
you seek to elect Bailly as the President of the National Assembly, a major task, he should not also serve
as editor.
Your editor will take the lead in assigning writing topics for each newspaper. The writer on any
given topic will likely be the main proponent of that topic in National Assembly debates. The editor
should work with the President of the National Assembly, who sets agenda topics, and should lay out,
in consultation with the entire faction, an editorial plan for the first newspaper. In doing so, she should
consult the Main Topics Table for Feuillants (below). This table provides suggestions on who might be
best suited to write on particular topics. This table will help ensure that all of the main issues have some
coverage. If a particular issue is crucial to winning, your editor may propose that you scrap the table
and assign topics as best supports your victory objectives.
See “Reading Guide for Primary
Documents and Texts” on Blackboard
Main Topics Table for Feuillants
To ensure that someone is taking responsibility for writing and researching each of the major topics,
players should cross out the names of those figures in the table who are not in the game. If you have
fewer players and no one to assign to speak and write for or against some major topics (left column),
then players will need to take on these unassigned topics.
Note: any player may persuade Lafayette to write his or her paper on some of these topics.
MAIN TOPICS
TOPIC
SUGGESTED RESPONSIBILITES
PLAYER
Sieyès
For Civil Constitution of the Clergy
Yes*
For Obligatory
Oath
Yes, as juring clergy
For king’s veto
Bailly
Barnave
Lameth
Ducos
Mounier
Yes
Yes
Yes
For Church land to
the state
For unicameral
legislature
Barère
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Abolish feudalism
For “passive citizen” distinction
Retain slavery in
Saint-Domingue
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes and no
(continued )
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(continued )
Keep a right to
property
Yes
Avoid war
Yes
Other issues
Royal
Academy
of Art (if
art addendum is
included)
Yes
*“YES” denotes a suggested topic for this player. At the time of the game, June of 1791, the historical Abbé Sieyès was firmly opposed to the Civil
Constitution of the Clergy. To accommodate the structure of the game and maintain consistency in argumentation, your Sieyès will begin with a
more radical position that most closely matches his later views and includes support of the Civil Constitution.
RELATIONSHIPS
With Big Ideas and Texts
Your critics may say that they are animated by “big ideas.” The Jacobins and the section leaders of Paris
will incessantly invoke Rousseau’s name. For example, just a few months ago in December 1790, the
National Assembly decreed that “there shall be erected to the author of Emile and The Social Contract a
statue bearing the inscription: ‘La Nation Française libre [free because of] J. J. Rousseau.’” That same
month, at the other political extreme, Edmund Burke, the famous British statesmen, published his
Reflections on the Revolution in France, a sharp criticism. (Burke even attacks some of the members of
your faction by name!)
But while conservative and Jacobin critics of your faction will insist that your faction “just makes
deals” without regard to “big ideas,” you can reply that your big idea is the philosophy of moderation.
Perhaps it can be traced to the wisdom of Aristotle, whose “doctrine of the mean” was an appeal
for moderation in human behavior (Nicomachean Ethics). Courage, Aristotle explained, is preferable
to either impulsive action or abject cowardice; moderation is the better course. The apostle Paul, in
1 Corinthians, similarly encouraged people to be “temperate in all things.” This moderate sensibility and
a spirit of compromise are the main principles of the Feuillant faction.
You believe, furthermore, that moderation can be embedded within systems of government. Montesquieu proposed, in his Spirit of the Laws (see pp. 88–93 of the game book) that the best government
prevents any one component from gaining too much power. In a proper system of checks and balances,
tyranny is impossible. This insight is fundamental to your goals and approach; it demonstrates that
your position is preferable to either of the extremes.
Several examples:
The conservatives seek an all-powerful monarch while the Jacobins seek to eliminate the monarchy entirely.
You propose a moderate position between these extremes, a compromise: a constitutional monarch whose
power is checked by a constitution—and especially by the National Assembly;
The conservative clergy want the Catholic Church to be controlled by the pope in Rome while the
wild-eyed section leaders of the mobs of Paris seek to obliterate the Catholic Church. You propose a moderate position: Catholic Church officials will be chosen by the people of their communities and become
employees of the French national government.
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The conservative nobility and clergy demand that “their” property be returned to them while the radicals
in Paris insist that no one but the state be allowed to possess private property. Your Declaration of the Rights
of Man defines property as a “sacred and inviolable right” and insists that “no one can be deprived of it.” But
it also indicates certain exceptions, such as when a “legally established public necessity evidently demands
it, under the condition of a just and prior indemnity” (Article 17). (This provides the legal justification for
confiscating church land.)
In all of these ways, the Feuillants endorse a policy of moderation and compromise.
Critics from both extremes—the left and the right—will attack the constitutional monarchy as
illogical because it contains discordant elements. But democracy is the art of making compromises so
as to build a broad consensus. Within the National Assembly, the factions of the left and right are so
extreme and irredeemably hostile that if either prevails, France will be plunged into civil war or anarchy.
With Other Characters and Factions
THE KING
The king’s disastrous flight was a major error, perhaps even a fatal one (for him). It will make your job
far more difficult: how can you persuade people of the merits of a constitutional monarchy when the
monarch flees from his people? On the other hand, who is to say that a king cannot travel within his
own nation? And perhaps the king has learned his lesson. In any case, you must persuade Louis XVI to
embrace fully the current constitutional monarchy. It is true that he has lost many powers, but in this
age of Enlightenment, few people believe in the divine right of kings. The current constitution gives
the monarch several real powers, such as the Royal Sanction (which allows him to delay controversial
legislation) and the right to retain command of the ministries of government: that is, he can appoint
ministers and give them instructions.
Pull the king away from his counterrevolutionary brothers and the other monarchs of Europe;
persuade him to break with Pope Pius VI in Rome, who continues to attack the Civil Constitution of
the Clergy. And, above all, work with Lafayette to protect the king from the mob in Paris. You will have
a hard time promoting a constitutional monarchy if the monarch is dead.
LAFAYETTE
Perhaps the most popular person in France, Lafayette has more than a hundred delegates who follow
his lead in the National Assembly. Moreover, he controls the t wenty-thousand-man National Guard of
Paris. Like you, he was once a revolutionary; he was also once a marquis, and he remains wealthy. On
more than one occasion, you have yourself felt uncomfortable while walking in the Saint-Antoine or
Saint-Marcel districts of Paris, where the sans-culottes parade through the streets, sometimes with the
head of an aristocrat impaled on a pike. You need to give Lafayette encouragement, because he must
preserve the revolution not only from the mobs of Paris, but also from its original enemies: the Catholic Church leaders and nobility who scheme to reclaim their lands and power. As in the past, moreover,
Lafayette’s troops may help provide protection if the king connives with foreign monarchs to overturn
the Revolution.
What Lafayette truly wants is not clear, perhaps even to himself. Does he seek a republic, possibly
modeled on the one created by the Americans of whom he speaks so highly? If so, then he can have
nothing to do with a constitutional monarchy. Or does he want to emulate Washington, a military hero
who was once offered a crown? Does Lafayette intend to exploit the instability in France to become a
military dictator? He now spends a great deal of time with the king, who is holed up in the Tuileries
palace. Once a nobleman, does Lafayette now side with the conservatives and the monarchy? You do
not know for sure; and perhaps he does not know, either.
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You must help persuade Lafayette to work with you in creating and sustaining a viable constitutional monarchy. You must guide him, too, to ensure that the National Guard serves as a buffer protecting the moderates from the myriad forces that seek to tear the Revolution apart. Inside France, there
is the rampaging mob of Paris on the left, and Catholic peasants and non-juring clergy who abhor the
Civil Constitution on the right.
STRATEGY ADVICE
The Constitution of 1791
You Feuillants have a major advantage over everyone else in that you know exactly what you want and
how to achieve it. You want the National Assembly to pass the current constitution (the Constitution of
1791) along with the Declaration of the Rights of Man (pp. 120–3 of the game book). And you will achieve
this goal by systematically passing one measure after another in the National Assembly. Although the
Feuillants are unlikely to have an absolute majority on any issue, they should be able to use their political skills to broker deals, first with the Jacobins to support the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and the
other decrees nationalizing the Catholic Church, and then with the conservatives to give the king the
power to veto (for five years) legislation he regards as unwise. The reasonableness of their positions,
moreover, will attract undecided delegates to the Feuillant faction. That, too, is a central part of your
strategy: winning over the undecided delegates.
The Flight of the King
The king’s abortive flight from Paris has proven a tremendous embarrassment. As current leaders of
the National Assembly, and with Lafayette’s connivance, your faction disseminated the story that the
king had been abducted. You may wish to promote that explanation, or perhaps craft an alternative
defense of the king. In short, you must find a way to preserve the principles behind the constitutional
monarchy while limiting the damage done by the king’s awkward actions in recent weeks.
The Economy
Another issue concerns the economy. You believe, with the English philosopher John Locke, that property is not a symbol of one man’s subjugation to another, but rather an expression of and safeguard
for his freedom. A man without property is not really free and cannot easily carry out the duties of
a citizen. But in addition to being an expression of liberty, property, wisely employed, can generate
wealth and thus improve human happiness. The economy of the Ancien Régime was stagnant and
has remained mired in a system of production dominated by craftspeople. By destroying the economically conservative power of the monarchy and the nobility, the moderate revolution embraced by your
constitution will allow investors and farsighted merchants to revitalize the stagnant French economy.
Investors and businessmen will never pour their energies and money into a society in chaos, one in
which a mob rampages through the cities and declares that no one has a “right” to their land or factories or property. The mob demands bread, but what they need is a healthy economy that will generate
wealth and the wages to buy bread. By weakening the old order that hindered economic growth, and
by guaranteeing property and property rights, your constitution will benefit all Frenchmen, which is
the true objective of the General Will.
Avoiding War with the Monarchies of Europe
France is perched on a razor’s edge: counterrevolution beckons from the right and anarchy from the
left. The nation is too fragile to endure the tremendous stresses of war. Conservatives may seek war in
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the hope that invading kings will arrest the French r evolutionaries—including you and the other Feuillants! And Jacobins may seek war, too, in the hope that it destabilizes France and embarrasses Louis
XVI—after all, how can he remain king when his b rother-in-law Leopold II, the emperor of Austria, is
attacking France? In either scenario, the onset of war would weaken your constitutional m
onarchy—
and strengthen the radical republicans.
You may wish to do everything possible to avoid war. Seek to pursue a steady course: finalize the
Constitution of 1791, complete the absorption of the Catholic Church into the government of France,
strengthen the economy, and preserve peace and stability within P
aris—and France more generally.
A Culture of Inclusion and Compromise
As Feuillants you must accomplish political objectives, but you must also teach France a broader lesson about compromise and moderation. The French are a passionate people, which is among their
strengths; too often, though, they let their passions get the better of them. You seek to teach toleration,
compromise, and respect for just laws, property, and authority. To that end, you may wish to organize
some cultural events, such as a festival, to emphasize your common culture and celebrate the achievements of the moderate revolution you have wrought. You will profit, too, by preparing tricolor cockades (pins) and persuading as many people as possible to wear them.
Note: you will derive a tangible benefit if you convince others to sport tricolor insignia. If everyone
in the Feuillant faction, including Lafayette, is wearing such symbols prominently—and no others—and
if a majority of the undecided/Indeterminate delegates are doing so, too, then the Gamemaster will
not allow a vote to determine if the current President of the National Assembly still retains majority
support. In other words, as long as the National Assembly is filled with tricolored cockades, it will be
hard to replace Bailly or another Feuillant as President of the National Assembly. The Gamemaster
may not remember this rule, so you may wish to bring this paragraph to her attention if circumstances
warrant it.
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S U M M A RY O F Y O U R FAC T I O N’S V IC T ORY OB J E C T I V E S
1. Deprive the Catholic Church of much of its land (Decree on Church Lands).
2. Endorse the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
3. Outlaw the feudal regime and all “hereditary distinctions” while retaining the
king as an expression of French traditions and culture.
4. Insist on the ultimate sovereignty of the people while protecting them from rash
decisions by empowering the king to use a suspensive veto (Royal Sanction).
5. Protect the principle of free speech and simultaneously prevent incitements to
violence.
6. Proclaim the equality of citizens while ensuring that one’s right to property is
“inalienable” and “sacred.”
7. Ensure the economic viability of the new government.
8. Delay a debate on ending slavery in Saint-Domingue (Haiti).
9. Ensure that a Feuillant is President of the National Assembly when the game
ends.
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Rousseau, Burke, and the Revolution in France
As you read, answer the following questions and support your answers by citing the text:
Rousseau’s “First Discourse”
Part 1:
1. What question prompted Rousseau to write this treatise?
2. Rousseau alludes to the dark ages, a time when “Europe had sunk back into barbarism.” Does he
disapprove of the rise of learning that commenced with Islamic scholarship and precipitated the
Renaissance?
3. Rousseau mentions the “vaunted civility” of ancient Athens and Rome and sees its echoes in the
salons of leading intellectuals of contemporary Paris. What does Rousseau see as the failing of
civility and good manners?
4. If societies that have championed knowledge are characterized by moral debauchery, what
societies does Rousseau find as exemplars of moral purity and wholesomeness?
5. Does Rousseau prefer the militaristic, spare culture of Sparta or the opulent, brilliant culture of
Athens? Why?
6. Rousseau denounces the philosophes, and especially popular figures such as Diderot, whose
Encylopédie was to bring knowledge to the reading masses, as “arrogant attempts” to enable man
to “emerge from the happy ignorance in which eternal wisdom had placed us.” What does
Rousseau mean by “happy ignorance” and “eternal wisdom”?
Part 2:
7. What does Rousseau mean when he says that the “enlightened and learned men” smile
“disdainfully at the old-fashioned words of fatherland and religion, and devote their talents and
philosophy to destroying and debasing all that is sacred among men”?
8. What is the relation of science to luxury? What is the latter “bad”? How does science sap the
“warlike” and “moral” qualities of young people?
9. What is Rousseau getting at when he writes that Descartes and Newton, the great intellects of the
previous century, themselves had no teachers?
Rousseau’s Social Contract
10. What ideas link Rousseau’s “First Discourse” and his “Social Contract?”
11. What does it mean to be “virtuous”? What makes this an important quality in politics? Would both
Rousseau and Burke agree?
12. How can you determine what the “General Will” is, according to Rousseau?
13. What is sovereignty, according to Rousseau? Can it be divided? What would he say about the US
constitution?
Abbé Sieyès, “What is the Third Estate?”
14. How does Sieyes view the nobility?
1 of 3
15. What are some of the complaints that Abbe Sieyes makes about the nobility?
16. What does he advocate?
17. Imagine that you are a French person reading Sieyes’s pamphlet in early 1789, just before a
meeting of the Estates General. How would you react if you were a member of the nobility? A
member of the Third Estate?
Arthur Young, “Early Revolution in Paris”
18. How are ideas circulated?
19. Where are ideas circulated?
20.What are some themes of the publications?
21. How does Young feel about what is going on?
22. Do other people feel the same?
23. What is going on in the rest of the country?
24. How does he describe the proceedings of the Estates General at Versailles?
Decree Creating the National Assembly, June 17, 1789
25. What is the central message of this document?
26. How does this document echo Sieyes’ “What is the Third Estate”?
The Tennis Court Oath, June 20, 1789
27. What is the central message of this document?
August Decrees
28.Lists often suggestion priorities. If that is the case here, what issues seem to be most important to
people?
29. What was the punishment for keeping pigeons or hunting without permission?
30.Nobles, as we discussed earlier, saw their privileges as a form of property. Does the National
Assembly seize their property outright?
31. What issues are repeated again and again?
32. How will the surrender of special privileges benefit the nation, according to the National
Assembly?
“Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen”
33. What are the “natural, inalienable, and sacred rights of man”? And what does this phrase mean?
34. What is meant by the words, “sovereignty” and “nation”?
35. How is “liberty” defined?
36. How does the Declaration define “the general will”?
37. What does “equality” mean in the Declaration?
38.What does it say about property?
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39. Nearly every article recalls a particular abuse of the ancien régime. What are they?
40.Are there any clues about how society should be governed?
41. What is missing from this document?
Montesquieu, “The Spirit of the Laws”
42. What is political liberty, according to Montesquieu?
43. What are the greatest dangers to liberty?
44. In the face of such dangers, how can liberty best be attained and preserved?
45. What kind of powers do we find in every government?
46.What might happen if the legislative and executive powers were united in the same person?
47. Why must judicial power be separated from the legislative and executive?
48.Is democracy possible in a large state?
49.What is the role of the nobility?
50.What is the role of the monarch?
51. Should the legislative power have the right to check the executive?
Constitution of 1791
52. This is a statement of what the Revolution values. What are some of those values?
53. Is the National Assembly a unicameral or bicameral legislature?
54. What are the requirements to be an “active citizen”?
55. What is the role of the king?
Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France
56. Burke writes, “All men have equal rights, but not to equal things.” Do you think this statement is
true? What would Burke say about modern ideas concerning social welfare, income redistribution,
etc.?
57. Why was Burke so hostile to the idea that the structure of government could be shaped by abstract
principles?
58. What are some benefits to slow, evolutionary change when compared to rapid, revolutionary
change? Why, in some cases, is revolutionary change preferable? Examples?
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SCHEDULE OF SESSIONS: Rousseau, Burke, and Revolution in France, 1791
If you are schedule to give a speech, you must post a DRAFT of your speech on SLACK
NA = National Assembly; J = Jacobin Faction; F = Feuillant Faction; C = Conservative Faction; S = Section Leaders of Paris; I = Indeterminates
In order to identify your allegiance to a faction, please wear the appropriate color (shirt, scarf, etc):
Jacobins (red); Feuillants (blue); Conservatives (white); Section Leaders (green)
Class date: Mon. 3/21
Session: 1
1791
Speeches or Brief
Comments (but anyone
can speak about these
issues)
Key Primary Sources
Issue
Should the NA revoke the Civil Constitution of the Clergy
which turns priests and bishops into employees of the
French government? Or does the existence of the
Catholic Church as a separate entity mean that France
will never cohere as a uni ed nation?
Maury (C
Bérardier (C
Sieyès (F
Saint-André (J
Lucy (I
Hebert (S
Juigné (C
Grégoire (J
Bouron (I
Blampain (I
Marat (S)
Civil Constitution of the Clerg
Pope Pius VI, Charita
August Decrees (1789
Rousseau, Social Contract, Book 1, Chapter 7; Book 2,
Chapters 2, 3, and
Voltaire’s writings
Issue
To be determined
Class date: Wed. 3/23
Session: 2
1791
Speeches or Brief
Comments (but anyone
can speak about these
issues)
Key Primary Sources
Should the NA rescind the Decree on Church Lands and
return the property formerly belonging to the Catholic
Church? If so, how will the government pay o its
massive debt? Where will new revenue come from?
Juigné (C
Mounier (F
Pétion (J
Alquier (I
Dupre (I)
Issue
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Decree on Church Lands (1790)
August Decrees (1789
Pope Pius VI, Charita
GM Newsletter #
Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789
Rousseau, Social Contract, Book 1, Chapter
Voltaire’s writings
Issue
Should the NA revoke the Fourth of August Decrees and
the provisions of the constitution eliminating the
nobility? Or should it outlaw the feudal regime and all
“hereditary distinctions”?
Issue
To be determined
Clermont (C
Lally (C
Liancourt (C
Lameth (F
Buzot (J
Polverel (I
Cazalès (C)
Class date: Fri. 3/25
Session: 3
1791
Speeches or Brief
Comments (but anyone
can speak about these
issues)
What amendments should be made to the
Constitution? For example, should the NA be a
unicameral legislature? Should France be a
constitutional monarchy? Or a Republic?Should the
king have a suspensive veto?
Clermont (C
Bailly (F
Barnave (F
Saint-Just (J
Danton (S)
Sieyès (F
Ducos (F
Hérault (J
Hutteau (I
Blampain (I
Lucy (I
King Louis XVI
Issue
Speeches or Brief
Comments (but anyone
can speak about these
issues)
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Key Primary Sources
Constitution of 1791, Title II
Declaration of the King (June 23, 1789
Decree Creating the National Assembl
Montesquieu, The Persian Letters and The Spirit of the Laws
Rousseau, Social Contract, Book 1, Chapters 6-8; Book 2,
Chapters 1Sieyès, What is the Third Estate
Arthur Young, Early Revolution in Paris
To be determined
Class date: Mon. 3/28
Session: 4
1791
)
August Decrees (1789)
Decree Abolishing the Nobility (1790
Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789
Rousseau, Social Contract, Book 1, Chapter
Arthur Young, Abuses of the Ancient Régim
Sieyès, What is the Third Estate
Burke, Re ections on the Revolution
Key Primary Sources
Barère (F
Bouron (I
Palm (I
Perier (I
Andalle (S
Leon (S
Rolin (S
Babeuf (S)
Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789
Arthur Young, Early Revolution in Pari
GM Newsletter #2
Speeches or Brief
Comments (but anyone
can speak about these
issues)
Key Primary Sources
Lafayett
Bérardier (C
Lally (C)
Mounier (F
Buzot (J
Saint-Just (J
Desmoulins (J
Leon (S)
Declaration of the King (June 23, 1789
Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789
Robespierre, “Speech Denouncing the New Conditions of
Eligibility” (1789
Rousseau, Nature and Civilizatio
Decree Creating the National Assembl
The Tennis Court Oat
Decree Regarding Membership in the National Guard
(1790)
Class date: Fri. 4/1
Session: 6
1791
Speeches or Brief
Comments (but anyone
can speak about these
issues)
Key Primary Sources
Issue
Should the NA declare war on foreign monarchs?
King Louis XV
Bailly (F
Lameth (F
Hérault (J
Saint-André (J
Rolin (S
And many more!
Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789
See GM Newsletter #2 and #3
Issue
Should the NA eliminate institutions and groups that
oppose the General Will?
Issue
Should the NA pass the Declaration of the Rights of Man
as written? Or are there some issues that need to be
revisited, for example, the rights of women and the
rights of property?
Issue
To be determined
Class date: Wed. 3/30
Session: 5
1791
Should the NA retain property requirements for voting
and holding o ces and keep the distinction between
“active” and “passive” citizens
Issue
Should the National Guard consist of both “active” and
“passive citizens”, if the distinction has not already
been abolished?
Issue
To be determined
Rousseau, Social Contract, Book 2, Chapters 3 and 5
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ROUSSEAU, BURKE AND REVOLUTION IN FRANCE, 1791
FEUILLANT FACTION
Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie
B arnave (B AR-n awve)
Delegate of the National Assembly
Y
ou are the 29-year-old son of a Grenoble family. You followed in your father’s footsteps, becoming a lawyer in the Parlement of Dauphiny, one of the most independent
parlements (royal law courts). Often this parlement has criticized the king’s administrators! The Revolution broke out in Dauphiny a year before it did in Paris, led in
part by Claude Périer with his liberal ideals and his political acumen, but you were
certainly quite willing to join in. Indeed, the Revolution, no matter where it occurred, met with your
own ambitions, as you were inclined to think that you were destined to be great, whether through a
literary, philosophical, or political career. When the first revolutionary sentiments started circulating in
your region, you attacked the king’s ministers with a pamphlet entitled “Spirit of the Edicts Registered
by Military Force at the Parlement of Grenoble on May 10, 1788.” This tract attacked the king’s agents
and demanded that the king call a meeting for the Estates General. Many were impressed by the force
of your words and your personality.
You were soon elected to the Estates General to represent Grenoble’s Third Estate. Listeners praised
your rhetorical skill, if at times they found your zeal and passion a bit lacking in moderation. You are
committed to your ideas! You aligned yourself with the patriots soon after arriving in Versailles and
became a popular hero. Stories came back to Grenoble quickly, telling of how you voted to call the
Third Estate a National Assembly, or, more tellingly, how you supported rioters in Paris. L
ally-Tollendal
condemned the crowd for relying on vigilante justice on July 18, killing Louis Bertier de Sauvigny and
Joseph Foulon for allegedly profiting from the poverty and hardship of the Paris workers; you, on the
other hand, had little sympathy for the murdered men: “Gentlemen, there are those who would attempt
to elicit our sympathies in favor of the blood spilt yesterday in Paris. Was that blood therefore so pure?”1
Once a radical, you have become significantly less so since 1790. Even as you have demanded limitations on monarchical power, you have thought about limiting the freedom of others, too. Parisians
have taken to the streets, necessitating martial law, and you have seen that democratic demands can
themselves be dangerous if they are not limited.
You began the revolution as a close ally of Joseph Mounier (also a Feuillant) but you have found a
better friend more recently in Alexander Lameth (a Feuillant) and Adrien Duport. Lameth in particular
holds philosophical positions close to your own. For example, he, like you, is a solid supporter of rural
commoners. Your friendship with him has convinced you that the slaveholders of Saint-Domingue have
a right to protection of their property and, indeed, that France needs economic and political stability
in its trade with the island. You, Lameth, and Duport have stepped in to offer advice to Louis. He often
trusts you, at least as much as he trusts anyone.
After the king’s flight to Varennes, you feel somewhat adrift. You believe that if the monarchy is
abolished, chaos will ravage France; this caused you to fight and split with the radical Jacobins, forming
the Feuillants in opposition. The king is currently suspended, but you must find a way to fully restore
him to the throne and revise the constitution.
1. Paul R. Hanson, Historical Dictionary of the French Revolution (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2004), 27; Francois
Furet, Interpreting the French Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 187.
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Faction Advisory
FEUILLANTS
You are a member of the Feuillant faction. Depending on the size of the class, your faction will consist
of two to eight players, as follows:
• Sieyès, juring clergy
• Bailly, Mayor of Paris (and your faction’s candidate for President of the National Assembly)
• Barère
• Barnave
• Lameth
• Ducos
• Mounier
During the past two years, you have supported most of the initiatives of the French Revolution: the
transformation of the Third Estate into a National Assembly; the nationalization of the Catholic
Church and seizure of its lands (Civil Constitution of the Clergy), and the advance of the constitutional
monarchy, which you hope to soon ratify (in the Constitution of 1791).
But during the past spring (of 1791), you have been alarmed by the waves of violence that have
swept through Paris—and across France. You winced at the human consequences of this violence—
bodies dangling from lampposts and heads jammed upon pikes—but you understood that, given the
obstinacy of the conservatives, violence was necessary. You often attended meetings of the Jacobin
Club and usually applauded their speakers.
But in the past few months, the Jacobin Club has been taken over by radicals such as Robespierre,
Grégoire, Hérault, Buzot, and other extremists. They have endorsed the crazy policies of demagogues
such as Marat and Desmoulins. Riots break out in the S aint-Antoine and S aint-Marcel districts of Paris
nearly every day. Personal safety has become a daily concern, and the right to property is challenged
at every corner by drunken louts. The violence of the mobs has become as great a danger as the
anti-revolutionary groups within France and the monarchs beyond its borders.
VICTORY OBJECTIVES
As a leader of the Feuillant faction, you believe that France must preserve the gains of the Revolution
without slipping into bloody anarchy and chaos (especially in Paris). In other words, you seek to limit
the power of the king, but not destroy it altogether; you seek to restrain the mob, but not abandon the
principles of freedom that animated the Revolution from the outset. You want the proposed constitution (the Constitution of 1791) to be passed as is, for the most part (see pp. 136–45 of the game book).
This will create a constitutional monarchy, which amounts to a compromise between the conservatives
on the right and the Jacobins on the left. By acknowledging the value of conservatives’ as well as revolutionaries’ beliefs, you hope to build a political system in France that truly reflects the wishes of all
French men and women. Your compromise will build a unified, strong, and progressive French nation.
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Some of the provisions of the proposed constitution have already been approved by the National
Assembly, but the whole document has not. You seek to achieve the following objectives in the National
Assembly:
1 Deprive the Catholic Church of much of its land (Decree on
Church Lands).
The Catholic Church has paid too little attention to the souls of parishioners and too much to its vast,
wealth-producing property. The Decree on Church Lands takes the Catholic Church’s land, to which
it was never entitled, and redistributes it among the productive people of France. Their payments for
the land provide desperately needed revenue for the new government you have built. As the decree
explains: “Property intended . . . for all services of public utility belongs to the nation and is at all times
at its disposal.” (This decree was passed nearly two years ago but you must not revoke it for the simple
reason that, without that stream of income, France cannot pay for its army and navy, ensure adequate
grain supplies for cities, or provide basic government services.)
2 Endorse the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy nationalizes the Catholic Church and prevents the pope in Rome
from controlling French priests and bishops. It enables every community to elect its own priests and
arranges for them to be paid by the French government. The Civil Constitution also promises to end
many of the abuses of the old Catholic church in France.
3 Outlaw the feudal regime and all “hereditary distinctions” while
retaining the king as an expression of French traditions and
culture.
This is consistent with the moderate principle of adapting the past to fit new circumstances.
4 Insist on the ultimate sovereignty of the people while protecting
them from rash decisions by empowering the king to use a
suspensive veto (Royal Sanction).
This constitutional device empowers the king to delay unwise legislation and force subsequent legislatures to reconsider it. If three successive National Assemblies approve the legislation, then it will
become law despite the king’s veto. The king’s veto, in other words, is not absolute; it merely imposes
a prudent delay in the implementation of controversial legislation.
5 Protect the principle of free speech and simultaneously prevent
incitements to violence.
Do this by declaring that free speech is allowed, provided that its “manifestation does not derange
the public order.” Demented rabble-rousers have no right to incite the poor of Paris to slaughter
aristocrats—or anyone else.
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6 Proclaim the equality of citizens while ensuring that one’s right
to property is “inalienable” and “sacred.”
See the Declaration of the Rights of Man, Article 17.
7 Ensure the economic viability of the new government.
The collapse in tax collection has called into question the viability of your constitutional monarchy. If
it were not for the sale of church lands, the government would be bankrupt. But at some point all of
the church land will be sold. You must put the foundations of the new government on firmer economic
footing.
8 Delay a debate on ending slavery in Saint-Domingue (Haiti).
The simple fact is that the sugar trade has become central to the French e conomy—and thus to the
lives of some 3 to 4 million people in France. That some five hundred thousand blacks are enslaved
on the island is unfortunate. Slavery, you agree, is incompatible with the first article of the Declaration
of the Rights of Man: “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights.” But to eliminate slavery
now would plunge parts of France into economic chaos and endanger the moderate revolution you
endorse. Slavery must someday be ended in S aint-Domingue, but not right now. The easiest way to
avoid a painful debate on the matter in the National Assembly is to argue that the Colonial Assembly in
Saint-Domingue (which is dominated by slaveholders) should handle it.
9 Ensure that a Feuillant is President of the National Assembly
when the game ends.
If the Feuillants do not control the French government, then the constitution and the entire system it
represents is in jeopardy. If Lafayette or any of the Indeterminate delegates join the Feuillant party, their
election as President will fulfill this victory objective.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Your chief responsibility is to the people of France. They need a strong and stable government that best
reflects the interests of all. To that end, you have crafted a system of government that embodies the
achievements of the revolution: creation of a constitutional monarchy, passage of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, and affirmation of new freedoms and liberties (the Declaration of the Rights of Man).
Critics from both extremes—the left and the right—will attack the constitutional monarchy as
illogical and unworkable. Extremists will each seek to eliminate provisions with which they disagree.
But the essence of the constitution is its balance; the same is true of the government you seek. Destroy
either side and you destroy France. Within the National Assembly, the factions of the left and right are
so extreme, and so irredeemably hostile, that if either prevails civil war will likely ensue.
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Your responsibility, then, is to lead France into a future without anarchy, chaos, and civil war. You
consequently seek to persuade the people of France to embrace moderation and toleration.
Your individual biography outlines the story of your life, including your own personal goals and
objectives. But you must always remember that your foremost allegiance is to your faction. You win
the game by ensuring that your faction’s philosophy prevails. For example, each player must advance
particular arguments in speeches and essays; suggestions along these lines are included in the Assignments section of this role packet. But your faction must also work as a team, guided chiefly by the goals
outlined below. In other words, if you do well individually but your faction does poorly, you lose. If
one player stumbles or encounters fierce opposition, others in your team must come to that player’s
assistance. Your Gamemaster may have further guidance on how to win, but this much is obvious: your
faction must persuade other players, especially those who are undecided or “Indeterminate,” to support
goals that uphold your faction’s philosophy. Your faction should schedule regular meetings outside of
class to determine what exactly needs to be done and how best to accomplish it. Remember that other
factions, intent on winning, are likely strategizing to ensure that your faction will lose!
POWERS
Within the National Assembly
Like every other member of your faction, you are a leader in the National Assembly. This means that
whenever you cast a vote, forty-nine other delegates, inspired by your leadership, vote as you do. During the game the number of your s upporters—and votes—may rise or fall. If, for example, you fail to
speak in two consecutive sessions, thereby depriving your followers of the guidance they crave, the
Gamemaster may reduce your delegate total. How can delegates follow your lead if you do not speak
to them? Conversely, the Gamemaster may award you additional delegates for exceptionally strong oral
presentations or newspaper essays.
As the moderate party, furthermore, you can likely generate majorities on most issues by making
temporary alliances with either the conservatives (Catholic clergy and nobility) on the right, or with the
republicans ( Jacobins) on the left. In the hands of skillful politicians such as the leaders of your faction,
this is a major source of power. (See also the section on Strategy Advice, below.)
Within the Government
Because the National Assembly controls the only real source of revenue (sale of church lands), the
dominant faction in the National Assembly influences the d ay-to-day operations of the government.
In history, this power was delegated to various committees, which supervised government operations
(that is, the king’s ministers [cabinet] conferred with the appropriate committee of the National Assembly that controlled the sources of revenue). In the game, this power is delegated to the President of the
National Assembly, who can create committees and give instructions to the king’s ministers.
The Feuillants will likely succeed in their strategy of electing one of their o
wn—Jean Bailly, Mayor
of Paris—as President of the National Assembly. This gives your faction even more power in influencing
government policy. The Feuillant president, who commands a majority in the National Assembly, can
pressure government ministers to do what the Feuillants want. Most government ministers, mindful of
the National Assembly’s control of the purse strings, will listen very carefully to Bailly’s instructions.
You also have considerable influence with Lafayette, commander of the National Guard. Though
he is popular in his own right, he will likely need your votes to retain a comfortable position with
respect to the National Assembly. Because Lafayette’s army helps keep the crowds of Paris in check,
your influence with him is another major source of your power.
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ASSIGNMENTS
Within twenty-four hours of receiving this role packet, therefore, you should arrange to meet with
the entire Feuillant faction. (You might wish to invite Lafayette to join you as well.) Your first task is to
choose the editor of your newspaper. The editor is in effect the leader—the organizer—of your faction.
You must immediately inform the Gamemaster of which player has been assigned this task. Because
you seek to elect Bailly as the President of the National Assembly, a major task, he should not also serve
as editor.
Your editor will take the lead in assigning writing topics for each newspaper. The writer on any
given topic will likely be the main proponent of that topic in National Assembly debates. The editor
should work with the President of the National Assembly, who sets agenda topics, and should lay out,
in consultation with the entire faction, an editorial plan for the first newspaper. In doing so, she should
consult the Main Topics Table for Feuillants (below). This table provides suggestions on who might be
best suited to write on particular topics. This table will help ensure that all of the main issues have some
coverage. If a particular issue is crucial to winning, your editor may propose that you scrap the table
and assign topics as best supports your victory objectives.
See “Reading Guide for Primary
Documents and Texts” on Blackboard
Main Topics Table for Feuillants
To ensure that someone is taking responsibility for writing and researching each of the major topics,
players should cross out the names of those figures in the table who are not in the game. If you have
fewer players and no one to assign to speak and write for or against some major topics (left column),
then players will need to take on these unassigned topics.
Note: any player may persuade Lafayette to write his or her paper on some of these topics.
MAIN TOPICS
TOPIC
SUGGESTED RESPONSIBILITES
PLAYER
Sieyès
For Civil Constitution of the Clergy
Yes*
For Obligatory
Oath
Yes, as juring clergy
For king’s veto
Bailly
Barnave
Lameth
Ducos
Mounier
Yes
Yes
Yes
For Church land to
the state
For unicameral
legislature
Barère
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Abolish feudalism
For “passive citizen” distinction
Retain slavery in
Saint-Domingue
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes and no
(continued )
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(continued )
Keep a right to
property
Yes
Avoid war
Yes
Other issues
Royal
Academy
of Art (if
art addendum is
included)
Yes
*“YES” denotes a suggested topic for this player. At the time of the game, June of 1791, the historical Abbé Sieyès was firmly opposed to the Civil
Constitution of the Clergy. To accommodate the structure of the game and maintain consistency in argumentation, your Sieyès will begin with a
more radical position that most closely matches his later views and includes support of the Civil Constitution.
RELATIONSHIPS
With Big Ideas and Texts
Your critics may say that they are animated by “big ideas.” The Jacobins and the section leaders of Paris
will incessantly invoke Rousseau’s name. For example, just a few months ago in December 1790, the
National Assembly decreed that “there shall be erected to the author of Emile and The Social Contract a
statue bearing the inscription: ‘La Nation Française libre [free because of] J. J. Rousseau.’” That same
month, at the other political extreme, Edmund Burke, the famous British statesmen, published his
Reflections on the Revolution in France, a sharp criticism. (Burke even attacks some of the members of
your faction by name!)
But while conservative and Jacobin critics of your faction will insist that your faction “just makes
deals” without regard to “big ideas,” you can reply that your big idea is the philosophy of moderation.
Perhaps it can be traced to the wisdom of Aristotle, whose “doctrine of the mean” was an appeal
for moderation in human behavior (Nicomachean Ethics). Courage, Aristotle explained, is preferable
to either impulsive action or abject cowardice; moderation is the better course. The apostle Paul, in
1 Corinthians, similarly encouraged people to be “temperate in all things.” This moderate sensibility and
a spirit of compromise are the main principles of the Feuillant faction.
You believe, furthermore, that moderation can be embedded within systems of government. Montesquieu proposed, in his Spirit of the Laws (see pp. 88–93 of the game book) that the best government
prevents any one component from gaining too much power. In a proper system of checks and balances,
tyranny is impossible. This insight is fundamental to your goals and approach; it demonstrates that
your position is preferable to either of the extremes.
Several examples:
The conservatives seek an all-powerful monarch while the Jacobins seek to eliminate the monarchy entirely.
You propose a moderate position between these extremes, a compromise: a constitutional monarch whose
power is checked by a constitution—and especially by the National Assembly;
The conservative clergy want the Catholic Church to be controlled by the pope in Rome while the
wild-eyed section leaders of the mobs of Paris seek to obliterate the Catholic Church. You propose a moderate position: Catholic Church officials will be chosen by the people of their communities and become
employees of the French national government.
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The conservative nobility and clergy demand that “their” property be returned to them while the radicals
in Paris insist that no one but the state be allowed to possess private property. Your Declaration of the Rights
of Man defines property as a “sacred and inviolable right” and insists that “no one can be deprived of it.” But
it also indicates certain exceptions, such as when a “legally established public necessity evidently demands
it, under the condition of a just and prior indemnity” (Article 17). (This provides the legal justification for
confiscating church land.)
In all of these ways, the Feuillants endorse a policy of moderation and compromise.
Critics from both extremes—the left and the right—will attack the constitutional monarchy as
illogical because it contains discordant elements. But democracy is the art of making compromises so
as to build a broad consensus. Within the National Assembly, the factions of the left and right are so
extreme and irredeemably hostile that if either prevails, France will be plunged into civil war or anarchy.
With Other Characters and Factions
THE KING
The king’s disastrous flight was a major error, perhaps even a fatal one (for him). It will make your job
far more difficult: how can you persuade people of the merits of a constitutional monarchy when the
monarch flees from his people? On the other hand, who is to say that a king cannot travel within his
own nation? And perhaps the king has learned his lesson. In any case, you must persuade Louis XVI to
embrace fully the current constitutional monarchy. It is true that he has lost many powers, but in this
age of Enlightenment, few people believe in the divine right of kings. The current constitution gives
the monarch several real powers, such as the Royal Sanction (which allows him to delay controversial
legislation) and the right to retain command of the ministries of government: that is, he can appoint
ministers and give them instructions.
Pull the king away from his counterrevolutionary brothers and the other monarchs of Europe;
persuade him to break with Pope Pius VI in Rome, who continues to attack the Civil Constitution of
the Clergy. And, above all, work with Lafayette to protect the king from the mob in Paris. You will have
a hard time promoting a constitutional monarchy if the monarch is dead.
LAFAYETTE
Perhaps the most popular person in France, Lafayette has more than a hundred delegates who follow
his lead in the National Assembly. Moreover, he controls the t wenty-thousand-man National Guard of
Paris. Like you, he was once a revolutionary; he was also once a marquis, and he remains wealthy. On
more than one occasion, you have yourself felt uncomfortable while walking in the Saint-Antoine or
Saint-Marcel districts of Paris, where the sans-culottes parade through the streets, sometimes with the
head of an aristocrat impaled on a pike. You need to give Lafayette encouragement, because he must
preserve the revolution not only from the mobs of Paris, but also from its original enemies: the Catholic Church leaders and nobility who scheme to reclaim their lands and power. As in the past, moreover,
Lafayette’s troops may help provide protection if the king connives with foreign monarchs to overturn
the Revolution.
What Lafayette truly wants is not clear, perhaps even to himself. Does he seek a republic, possibly
modeled on the one created by the Americans of whom he speaks so highly? If so, then he can have
nothing to do with a constitutional monarchy. Or does he want to emulate Washington, a military hero
who was once offered a crown? Does Lafayette intend to exploit the instability in France to become a
military dictator? He now spends a great deal of time with the king, who is holed up in the Tuileries
palace. Once a nobleman, does Lafayette now side with the conservatives and the monarchy? You do
not know for sure; and perhaps he does not know, either.
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You must help persuade Lafayette to work with you in creating and sustaining a viable constitutional monarchy. You must guide him, too, to ensure that the National Guard serves as a buffer protecting the moderates from the myriad forces that seek to tear the Revolution apart. Inside France, there
is the rampaging mob of Paris on the left, and Catholic peasants and non-juring clergy who abhor the
Civil Constitution on the right.
STRATEGY ADVICE
The Constitution of 1791
You Feuillants have a major advantage over everyone else in that you know exactly what you want and
how to achieve it. You want the National Assembly to pass the current constitution (the Constitution of
1791) along with the Declaration of the Rights of Man (pp. 120–3 of the game book). And you will achieve
this goal by systematically passing one measure after another in the National Assembly. Although the
Feuillants are unlikely to have an absolute majority on any issue, they should be able to use their political skills to broker deals, first with the Jacobins to support the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and the
other decrees nationalizing the Catholic Church, and then with the conservatives to give the king the
power to veto (for five years) legislation he regards as unwise. The reasonableness of their positions,
moreover, will attract undecided delegates to the Feuillant faction. That, too, is a central part of your
strategy: winning over the undecided delegates.
The Flight of the King
The king’s abortive flight from Paris has proven a tremendous embarrassment. As current leaders of
the National Assembly, and with Lafayette’s connivance, your faction disseminated the story that the
king had been abducted. You may wish to promote that explanation, or perhaps craft an alternative
defense of the king. In short, you must find a way to preserve the principles behind the constitutional
monarchy while limiting the damage done by the king’s awkward actions in recent weeks.
The Economy
Another issue concerns the economy. You believe, with the English philosopher John Locke, that property is not a symbol of one man’s subjugation to another, but rather an expression of and safeguard
for his freedom. A man without property is not really free and cannot easily carry out the duties of
a citizen. But in addition to being an expression of liberty, property, wisely employed, can generate
wealth and thus improve human happiness. The economy of the Ancien Régime was stagnant and
has remained mired in a system of production dominated by craftspeople. By destroying the economically conservative power of the monarchy and the nobility, the moderate revolution embraced by your
constitution will allow investors and farsighted merchants to revitalize the stagnant French economy.
Investors and businessmen will never pour their energies and money into a society in chaos, one in
which a mob rampages through the cities and declares that no one has a “right” to their land or factories or property. The mob demands bread, but what they need is a healthy economy that will generate
wealth and the wages to buy bread. By weakening the old order that hindered economic growth, and
by guaranteeing property and property rights, your constitution will benefit all Frenchmen, which is
the true objective of the General Will.
Avoiding War with the Monarchies of Europe
France is perched on a razor’s edge: counterrevolution beckons from the right and anarchy from the
left. The nation is too fragile to endure the tremendous stresses of war. Conservatives may seek war in
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the hope that invading kings will arrest the French r evolutionaries—including you and the other Feuillants! And Jacobins may seek war, too, in the hope that it destabilizes France and embarrasses Louis
XVI—after all, how can he remain king when his b rother-in-law Leopold II, the emperor of Austria, is
attacking France? In either scenario, the onset of war would weaken your constitutional m
onarchy—
and strengthen the radical republicans.
You may wish to do everything possible to avoid war. Seek to pursue a steady course: finalize the
Constitution of 1791, complete the absorption of the Catholic Church into the government of France,
strengthen the economy, and preserve peace and stability within P
aris—and France more generally.
A Culture of Inclusion and Compromise
As Feuillants you must accomplish political objectives, but you must also teach France a broader lesson about compromise and moderation. The French are a passionate people, which is among their
strengths; too often, though, they let their passions get the better of them. You seek to teach toleration,
compromise, and respect for just laws, property, and authority. To that end, you may wish to organize
some cultural events, such as a festival, to emphasize your common culture and celebrate the achievements of the moderate revolution you have wrought. You will profit, too, by preparing tricolor cockades (pins) and persuading as many people as possible to wear them.
Note: you will derive a tangible benefit if you convince others to sport tricolor insignia. If everyone
in the Feuillant faction, including Lafayette, is wearing such symbols prominently—and no others—and
if a majority of the undecided/Indeterminate delegates are doing so, too, then the Gamemaster will
not allow a vote to determine if the current President of the National Assembly still retains majority
support. In other words, as long as the National Assembly is filled with tricolored cockades, it will be
hard to replace Bailly or another Feuillant as President of the National Assembly. The Gamemaster
may not remember this rule, so you may wish to bring this paragraph to her attention if circumstances
warrant it.
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S U M M A RY O F Y O U R FAC T I O N’S V IC T ORY OB J E C T I V E S
1. Deprive the Catholic Church of much of its land (Decree on Church Lands).
2. Endorse the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
3. Outlaw the feudal regime and all “hereditary distinctions” while retaining the
king as an expression of French traditions and culture.
4. Insist on the ultimate sovereignty of the people while protecting them from rash
decisions by empowering the king to use a suspensive veto (Royal Sanction).
5. Protect the principle of free speech and simultaneously prevent incitements to
violence.
6. Proclaim the equality of citizens while ensuring that one’s right to property is
“inalienable” and “sacred.”
7. Ensure the economic viability of the new government.
8. Delay a debate on ending slavery in Saint-Domingue (Haiti).
9. Ensure that a Feuillant is President of the National Assembly when the game
ends.
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SOLUTION: Oregon State University French Revolution History Essay