France September
17 1793
1.
Immediately after the publication of this decree, all suspects
found on the territory of the Republic and who are still at liberty
will be arrested.
2.
Suspects are (i) Those who, either by their conduct or their relationships,
by their remarks or by their writing, are shown to be partisans
of tyranny and federalism and enemies of liberty; (ii) Those who
cannot justify, tinder the provisions of the law of 21 March last,
their means of existence and the performance of their civic duties;
(iii) Those have been refused certificates of civic responsibility
(certificats de civisme); (iv) Public officials suspended or deprived
of their functions by the National Convention or its agents, and
not since reinstated, especially those who have been, or ought
to be, dismissed by the law of 14 August last; (v) Those former
nobles, including husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons or daughters,
brothers or sisters, and agents of émigrés, who
have not constantly manifested their loyalty to the Revolution;
(vi) Those who have emigrated during the interval between the
1 July 1789 and the publication of the law of 8 April 1792, although
they may have returned to France during the period of delay fixed
by the law or before.
3.
The comités de surveillance established under the law of
21 March last, or those substituting for them, are empowered by
the decrees of the representatives of the people to go to the
armies and the departments, according to the particular decrees
of the National Convention, and are charged with drawing up, in
each local district, a list of suspects, of issuing warrants for
their arrest and of affixing seals to their private papers. The
commanders of the public force, to whom these arrest warrants
will be conveyed, must carry them out immediately on pain of dismissal.
4.
The members of the committee may only order the arrest of any
individual if seven are present, and only by the absolute majority
of voices.
5.
Individuals arrested as suspects shall be taken first to the jails
of the place of their detention; in default of jails, they shall
be kept under surveillance in their respective dwellings.
6.
Within the following week, they shall be transferred to national
buildings, which the departmental administrations shall be required
to designate and to have prepared for such purpose immediately
after the receipt of the present decree.
7.
The prisoners may have their absolutely essential belongings brought
into said buildings; they shall remain there under guard until
the peace.
8.
The expenses of custody shall be charged to the prisoners, and
shall be divided among them equally: such custody shall be confided
preferably to fathers of families and to the relatives of citizens
who are at or are going to the frontiers. The salary therefore
is established, for each man of the guard, at the value of one
and one-half days of labour.
9.
The comités de surveillance shall dispatch to the Committee
of General Security of the National Convention, without delay,
the list of persons whom they have arrested, with the reasons
for their arrest and with the papers they have seized in such
connection.
10.
If there is occasion, the civil and criminal courts may detain
as suspects, and dispatch to the jails above stated, those who
are accused of offenses with regard to which it was been declared
that there was no occasion for indictment or who have been acquitted
of charges brought against them.
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