The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
FRANCE / CONSTITUTION
This country advances with a steady pace towards the establishment of
a constitution, whereby the people will resume the great mass of those
powers, so fatally lodged in the hands of the King. During the session
of the Notables, and after their votes against the rights of the
people, the parliament of Paris took up the subject, and passed a vote
in opposition to theirs (which I send you). This was not their genuine
sentiment; it was a manoeuvre of the young members, who are truly well
disposed, taking advantage of the accidental absence of many old
members, and bringing others over. . . You are not to suppose that
these dispositions of the court proceed from any love of the people,
or justice towards their rights. Courts love the people always, as
wolves do the sheep. The fact is this. The court wants money. From the
Tiers ~tat they cannot get it, because they are already squeezed to
the last drop. The clergy and the nobles, by their privileges and
their influence, have hitherto screened their property in a great
degree, from public contribution. That half of the orange then,
remains yet to be squeezed, and for this operation there is no agent
powerful enough, but the people. They are, therefore, brought forward
as the favorites of the court, and will be supported by them. The
moment of crisis will be the meeting of the States; because their
first act will be, to decide whether they shall vote by persons or by
orders. The clergy will leave nothing unattempted to obtain the
latter; for they see that the spirit of reformation will not confine
itself to the political, but. will extend to the ecclesiastical
establishment also. With respect to the nobles, the younger members
are generally for the people, and the middle aged are daily coming
over to the same side; so that by the time the States meet, we may
hope there will be a majority of that body also in favor of the
people, and consequently for voting by persons, and not by orders.
to John Jay, 11 January 1789
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