Directory
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/1085/
1085
Hymn of 9 Thermidor
This hymn commemorates the overthrow of Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety by the men of the National Convention. It had its debut performance on the first anniversary of that event (27 July 1795).
1795-07-27
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/617/
617
Patriotic Song on the Unveiling of the Busts of Marat and Le Pelletier (1793)
This song illustrates the fluid boundary between "high" and "popular" musical forms. Althought these lyrics were set to a new composition by Joseph Gossec, they could also be sung to a tune already familiar to many French men and women. The song honors journalist Jean–Paul Marat and deputy Michel LePelletier, both of whom had been assasinated and were considered martyrs to the Revolution.
1793
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/621/
621
Song of the Marseillaise of the Federation of 10 August, Year II
One of many hymns that was composed by rhyming new lyrics to the wildly popular tune of the "Marseillaise," this song was performed at a festival celebrating the first anniversary of the republican revolution of August 10.
1793-08-10
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/615/
615
The Marseillaise (War Song for the Army of the Rhine)
Composed by Joseph Rouget de Lisle when he learned that France had declared war on Austria, the Marseillaise quickly became the anthem of the republican Revolution. it remains the French national anthem today. A republican anthem, the Marseillaise was considered suitable for all sorts of revolutionary events. While it was often sung casually in streets and parks, its learned composition also facilitated its adoption as a hymn by formally–trained musicians and singers.
1792
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/625/
625
The Carmagnole
Sharing its name with a popular dance, this song heaps scorn upon the queen<em> (Madame Veto),</em> believed to be a traitor, and the "aristocrats" who support her. Like "It’ll Be Okay", the simple tune of the "Carmagnole" permitted even the illiterate to learn lyrics with which to proclaim their conviction in the Revolution’s progress.
1792-08-00
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/624/
624
It’ll Be Okay
Popular during the early years of the Revolution, this song’s lively tune and repetitive chorus expressed revolutionaries’ hopefulness about the future. Singers manipulated its malleable lyrics to address a broad range of topical issues.
1790-05-00
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/623/
623
<i>Curious Proposal of the Women of the Maubert Marketplace</i> (1785)
As a result of the "libels" against the court and especially the Queen, asense was spreading that the monarchy was not fulfilling its obligations inruling over France. Demonstrating that sentiment, this pamphlet is writtenin the voice of Parisian working women from the open–air market of theplace Maubert. It describes how such hardworking, salt–of–the–earth,honest, family–oriented women could do a better job raising the Dauphinthan the Queen, thus suggesting that the future of the realm should beentrusted to its people rather than the royal family.
Anonymous, Motion curieuse des dames de la place Maubert (Paris:Guillaume, 1785)..
1785
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/264/
264
The <i>Bill of Rights</i>, 1689
In response to policies that threatened to restore Catholicism in England, Parliament deposed King James II and called William of Orange from the Dutch Republic and his wife Mary, who was James’s Protestant daughter, to replace him. William and Mary agreed to the <i>Bill of Rights</i> presented to them by Parliament, thereby acknowledging that their power came from the legislature rather than from any concept of the "divine right of kings." The <i>Bill of Rights</i> confirmed traditional English liberties, especially the power of Parliament to make laws and consent to taxation. It also confirmed and guaranteed freedom of speech and denied the legitimacy of cruel and unusual punishments. The <i>Bill of Rights</i> quickly took its place as a foundation of English constitutionalism and exercised great influence in the British North American colonies during their war for independence.
Guy Carleton Lee, <i>Source-Book of English History</i> (London: Henry Holt, 1901), 424–31.
1689
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/267/
267
John Locke, "Of Political or Civil Society"
John Locke (1632–1704) wrote his <i>Second Treatise of Government</i> early in the 1680s and published it in 1690. In it Locke proposed a social contract theory of government and argued against the idea of "divine right," which held that rulers had a legitimate claim on their office because they were God’s emissaries on earth. Locke believed that government derived from an agreement between men to give up life in the state of nature in favor of life in a political or civil society. They set up political society in order to guarantee their natural rights: life, liberty, and estate (or property). Locke’s emphasis on a social contract that protected natural rights shaped the views of the American revolutionaries. This excerpt is from <i>Two Treatises on Civil Government</i>, <i>Second Treatise</i>, Chapter VII.
Henry Morley, ed., <i>John Locke's Two Treatises on Civil Government</i> (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1884), 230–40.
1689
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/268/
268