e gets it, twelve
hours a day at a monotonous pursuit, living like a beast of burden and
dying in a alms-house.[2162] He should have his own bread, his own roof,
and all that is indispensable for life; he must not be overworked, nor
suffer anxiety or constraint;

"he must live independently, respect himself, have a tidy wife and
healthy and robust children."[2163]

The community should guarantee him comfort, security, the certainty of
not going hungry if he becomes infirm, and, if he dies, of not leaving
his family in want.

"It is not enough," says Barere,[2164] "to bleed the rich, to pull down
colossal fortunes; the slavery of poverty must be banished from the soil
of the Republic. No more beggars, no more almsgiving, no poor-houses".

"The poor and unfortunates," says Saint Just, "are the powerful of the
earth; they have a right to speak as masters to the governments which
neglect them;[2165] they have a right to national charity.... In a
democracy under construction, every effort should be made to free people
from having to battle for the bare minimum needed for survival; by labor
if he is fit for work, by education if he is a child, or with public
assistance if he is an invalid or in old age."[2166]

And never had the moment been so favorable. "Rich in property, the
Republic now expects to use the many millions the rich would have spent
on a counter revolution for the improvement of the conditions of its
less fortunate citizens... Those who would assassinate liberty have made
it the richer. The possessions of conspirators exist for the benefit of
the unfortunate."[2167]--Let the poor take with a clear conscience: it
is not a charity but "an indemnity" which we provide for them; we save
their pride by providing for their comfort, and we relieve them without
humiliating them.

"We leave charity and benevolent works to the monarchies; this insolent
and shabby way of furnishing assistance is fit only for slaves and
masters; we substitute for it a system of national works, on a grand
scale, over the whole territory of the Republic."[2168]

On the other hand, we cause a statement to be drawn up in each commune,
of "the condition of citizens without property," and "of national
possessions not disposed of;" we divide these possession in small lots;
we distribute them "in the shape of national sales" to poor folks able
to work. We give, "through the form of rental, "an acre to each head
of a family who has less than