Constitution of the Cisalpine Republic (1797)

PROCLAMATION.

Bonaparte general in chief of the army of Italy.

The Cisalpine Republic has been for some years under the dominion of the House of Austria.

The French Republic succeeded it by right of conquest. It renounces it from this day, and the Cisalpine Republic is free and independent. Recognised by France and by the Emperor, it will soon be acknowledged by all Europe.

The Executive Directory of the French Republic, not content, to have employed its influence and the victories of the republican armies, to assure the political existence of the Cisalpine Republic, carries its solicitude still farther; and, convinced, that if liberty be the first of blessings, a revolution may draw after it the most terrible of all calamities, it gives to the Cisalpine people, his proper Constitution, the result of the wisdom of the most enlightened nation of Europe.

The Cisalpine people then ought to pass from a military to a constitutional government.

That this passage may be made without shock or anarchy, the Executive Directory has thought it right to name, for this time only, the members of the government, and the legislature, in such a way, that when the first year shall have expired the people will elect their public functionaries, according to the Constitution.

Many years have passed away since the existence of a republic in Italy. The sacred fire of liberty was extinguished, and the finest part of Europe was subject to a foreign yoke. It belongs to the Cisalpine Republic to show to the world, by its wisdom, its energy, and the good organisation of its armies, that modern Italy is not degenerated, that it is still worthy of liberty. (Signed) B.