us
fumes.[3201] Everywhere the same fever, delirium, and convulsions mark
the presence of the same virus. That virus is the Jacobin dogma. By
virtue of the Jacobin dogma, theft, usurpation, murder, take on the
guise of political philosophy, and the gravest crimes against persons,
against public or private property, become legitimate; for they are
the acts of the legitimate supreme power, the power that has the public
welfare in its keeping.

I. The Sovereignty of the People.

Its principle is the Jacobin dogma of the sovereignty of the
people.----The new right is officially proclaimed.--Public
statement of the new regime.--Its object, its opponents, its
methods.--Its extension from Paris to the provinces.

That each Jacobin band should be invested with the local dictatorship
in its own canton is, according to the Jacobins, a natural right. It
becomes the written law from the day that the National Assembly declares
the country in danger. "From that date," says their most widely read
Journal,[3202] and by the mere fact of that declaration, "the people of
France are assembled and insurgent. They have repossessed themselves of
the sovereign power." Their magistrates, their deputies, all constituted
authorities, return to nothingness, their essential state. And you,
temporary and revocable representatives, "you are nothing but presiding
officers for the people; you have nothing to do but to collect their
votes, and to announce the result when these shall have been cast with
due solemnity."--Nor is this the theory of the Jacobins only; it is also
official theory. The National Assembly approves of the insurrection,
recognizes the Commune, keeps in the background, abdicates as far as
possible, and only remains provisionally in office in order that the
place may not be left vacant. It abstains from exercising power, even
to provide its own successors; it merely "invites" the French people to
organize a national convention; it confesses that it has "no right to
put the exercise of sovereign power under binding rules"; it does no
more than "indicate to citizens" the rules for the elections "to which
it invites them to conform." Meanwhile it is subject to the will of the
sovereign people, then so-called; it dares not resist their crimes; it
interferes with assassins only by entreaties.--Much more; it authorizes
them, either by ministerial signature or counter-signature, to begin
their work elsewhere. Ro