1866
People :
Author : Louis-Auguste Blanqui
Translator : Mitchell Abidor
Text :
Given the declaration by the Minister of War, dated [blank] December 1851, signed Leroy and Saint-Arnaud, which states:
“All individuals taken arms in hand will be executed.”
Given that following the criminal attack of December 2, 1851 [1] those prisoners who were defenders of the constitution were put to death during and after the combat;
That in diverse places in the capitol a crowd of citizens, inoffensive and without arms; innocent bystanders, were killed at the hands of the Pretorian guards;
That on the boulevard, a mass of peaceful spectators, men, women and children were suddenly and without provocation massacred by Bonaparte’s soldiery;
That this same soldiery slaughtered, in their homes, without distinction of either age or sex, the residents of several houses;
That in the departments of the Herault, Ain and the Nievre, the defenders of the constitution were, not gunned down, but guillotined by sentence of the Councils of War, well after the end of the struggle;
Given that in the presence of these crimes the magnanimity which the people has shown over the last forty years during civil wars would from here on in be both a crime and an act of suicide.
The commander-in-chief of the Republican army declares:
Article 1 – Bonaparte, his ministers, the legislature and the senate are declared public enemies;
Article 2 – All government functionaries are suspended from their duties. All violators will be executed;
Article 3 – All police officers and agents are to remain at home. Those who appear on the streets, in uniform or otherwise, will be executed;
Article 4 – Those officers who are members of a body that fired on the people will be executed;
Article 5 – Officers, noncommissioned officers and soldiers of any artillery regiment that fired on houses so as to set them on fire, will be executed;
Article 6 – Those noncommissioned officers and soldiers who fired on the people will be sent to the colonies. Those who massacred children, women, or the elderly will be executed;
Article 7 – All soldiers are called upon to shoot down any chief who orders that the people be fired upon;
Article 8 – Those officers who, during the struggle, declare themselves for the republic, will receive a large reward as a sign of national gratitude;
Article 9 – Those soldiers and noncommissioned officers who, during the struggle, embrace the Republican cause will have a right either to leave the army, or to promotion to a higher rank within the national army. Upon leaving each soldier will receive 300 francs beyond his departure bonus, each noncommissioned officer 500 francs.
From : Marxists.org.
Chronology :
February 20, 1866 : Proclamation of February 20, 1866 -- Publication.
January 16, 2021 : Proclamation of February 20, 1866 -- Added.
January 06, 2022 : Proclamation of February 20, 1866 -- Updated.
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