Edmond-Charles Genêt

“ One very ingeniously compared the legislative power to the head of a man who conceives and the executive power to the arms of the same man who carries out the work. If his arms refuse to do what the head considered to be necessary to the wellbeing of the whole body, deprived of any help he becomes sick and he dies.
Canadiens, it is time to leave the lethargic sleep in which you are plunged, arm yourselves, call to your help your friends the Indians, count on the support of your neighbours, and on that of the French. ”

“ Indeed, French people would treat their co-citizens as brothers and would be less worried to please the English despot than to render justice to the Canadiens, they would not be so much concerned with contenting the kings, but rather their brothers: they would give up their places rather than making an injustice: they would prefer to pensions granted to them the sweet satisfaction to be loved and judged worthy of their origin. ”

“ Swear to drop your weapons only when you are rid of your enemies, take the heaven and your conscience as witnesses of the equity of your resolutions and you will obtain what energetic men never claim in vain: freedom and independence. ”

“ Everyday the republican principles make sharp progress there and the number of the friends of liberty and France increases in a significant way; but do not wait the outcome of this event to reclaim your rights, work for yourselves, for your glory, do not fear anything of George III, of his soldiers, in too small a number to successfully oppose your value, his weak army is retained in England around him by the murmurs of the English, and by the immense preparations of France, which do not allow him to increase the number of your torturers. ”

“ But today when by the excesses of an unbearable domination, entire peoples, by rising up against their oppressors, have revealed the secret of their weakness and unveiled the iniquity of their means, how guilty are the nations which voluntarily remain in degrading irons and which, frightened by the sacrifice of a few moments of rest, devote themselves to a shameful inertia and voluntarily remain in servitude. ”

“ Everything around you invites you to freedom; The country in which you live was conquered by your fathers. It owes its prosperity solely to their care and to yours, this land belongs to you, it must be independent. ”

“ Canadiens, imitate their example and ours, the road has been drawn up for it, a magnanimous resolution can make you leave the state of abjection where you are plunged. It depends on you to reprint on your foreheads this first dignity that nature gave to man and that slavery had erased.
Man was born free. ”

“ But today we are free, we have reclaimed our rights, our oppressors are punished, all the parts of our administration are regenerated, and strong of the justice of our cause, of our courage and of the immense means which we have prepared to embank all the tyrants of the world ”

“ Summary of the advantages which the Canadiens can gain by freeing themselves from English domination.
Canada will be a free and independent State. It will be able to form alliances with France and the United States. The Canadiens will choice their government, they will appoint the members of the legislative and executive powers. The veto will be abolished. Every person who will have obtained the right of citizen of Canada will be eligible to all public functions. Corvées will be abolished. Trade will enjoy the widest liberty. There will no longer be privileged companies for fur trade ”

“ Is it not as ridiculous to entrust to such a man located on the other extremity of the globe the care to be responsible for your dearer interests, as to see a Canadien farmer positioning himself at the source of the Missouri to better manage his household. ”

“ Will also be abolished hereditary titles, there will no longer be neither lords nor seigneurs nor nobles. All religious cults will be free. Catholic priests will be appointed by the people as in the time of the primitive Church and will enjoy a treatment adequate to their utility. ”