Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 7.djvu/130



relates to the expression of the general will. On the contrary, we have two representatives who cooperate in the formation of law, one of whom introduces a kind of secondary will, exercises over the other a species of control, and bestows on the law his share of influence and authority. Therefore, the general will does not result from the unmodified will of the legislative body.

Let us now pursue the application of your principle to the exercise of the right of war and peace.

You have said: "Whatever in this is nothing more than will, as in all the rest, returns to its natural principle, and can be declared by the legislative power alone." Here I stop you; and I discover your sophism in a single word, which you yourself have brought forward: you shall not, then, escape from me.

In your speech, you confer the enunciation of the general will exclusively—upon whom? Upon the legislative power. Upon whom do you confer it in your decree? Upon the legislative body. And for this I call you to order. You have annulled the Constitution. If you mean that the legislative body is the legislative power, you thereby overturn every law that we have made. If, whenever the question turns upon expressing the general will with respect to war, the legislative body suffices, according to that alone—the king having neither participation, nor influence, nor control, nor anything of all that we