The
specimens of his eloquence here given were translated for this
Library from the Paris edition of his works, published in 1843.

REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY AGAINST MAJORITY ABSOLUTISM
(Delivered in the National Assembly, August 11th, 1791)

It is not enough to desire to be free--one must know how to be
free. I shall speak briefly on this subject, for after the success
of our deliberations, I await with confidence the spirit and action
of this Assembly. I only wish to announce my opinions on a
question, the rejection of which would sooner or later mean the loss
of our liberties. This question leaves no doubt in the minds of
those who reflect on governments and are guided by impartial
judgments. Those who have combatted the committee have made a
fundamental error. They have confounded democratic government with
representative government; they have confounded the rights of the
people with the qualifications of an elector, which society
dispenses for its well understood interest. Where the government is
representative, where there exists an intermediary degree of
electors, society which elects them has essentially the right to
determine the conditions of their eligibility. There is one right
existing in our constitution, that of the active citizen, but the
function of an elector is not a right. I repeat, society has the
right to determine its conditions. Those who misunderstand the
nature as they do the advantages of representative government,
remind us of the governments of Athens and Sparta, ignoring the
differences that distinguish them from France, such as extent of
territory, population, etc. Do they forget that they interdicted
representative government? Have they forgotten that the
Lacedemonians had the right to vote in the assemblies only when they
held helots? And only by sacrifice of individual rights did the
Lacedemonians, Athenians, and Romans possess any democratic
governments! I ask those who remind us of them, if it is at such
government they would arrive? I ask those who profess here
metaphysical ideas, because they have no practical ideas, those who
envelop the question in clouds of theory, because they ignore
entirely the fundamental facts of a positive government--I ask is
it forgotten that the democracy of a portion of a people would exist
but by the entire enslavement of the other portion of the people? A
representative government has but one evil to fear, that of
corruption. That