FAUCHET (Claude). Eloge civique de Benjamin Franklin, pronon - Lot 27

FAUCHET (Claude). Eloge civique de Benjamin Franklin, prononcé, le 21 juillet 1790, dans la rotonde, au nom de la Commune de Paris [...], en présence de MM. les députés de tous les départemens du royaume à la Confédération, de M. le maire, de M. le commandant-général, de MM. les représentans de la Commune, de MM. les présidents de districts, & de MM. les électeurs de Paris. À Paris, chez J.-R. Lottin, G. L. Bailly, et chez Vict. Desenne l'aîné, J. Cussac, 1790. Small in-8, (2)-50 pp, marbled paper bradel, long paper title page; title a little stained, some ff. with minor restorations (modern binding). FIRST EDITION. "Les représentans de la Commune de Paris ont arrêté, le 22 juillet 1790, que cet ouvrage seroit imprimé, présenté à l'Assemblée nationale, & envoyé, en Amérique, au Congrès" (mention printed on verso of title). "ONE OF THE FATHERS OF LIBERTY". Speech delivered in the rotunda of the Halle aux Blés, draped in black for the occasion, with catafalque and illuminations: "[...] The second creation takes place; the elements of society combine; the moral universe emerges from chaos; the genius of liberty awakens, it rises; it pours its divine light & its creative fires on both hemispheres; a great nation, astonished to see itself free, embraces from one end of the earth to the other, the first nation to become so: the foundations of a new city are laid in both worlds: brother peoples, hasten to inhabit it; it is the city of the human race. One of the first founders of this universal city was the immortal Franklin, liberator of America: the second founders, who accelerated this great work & raised it to the height of Europe, the legislators of France, paid to his memory the most solemn tribute ever paid to simple wisdom; they said: "A friend of humanity is dead; all humanity must be in sorrow. Nations have hitherto mourned kings; let us mourn a man; & let the tears of the French mingle with those of the Americans, to honor the eternally cherished memory of one of the fathers of liberty" [...] ". CLAUDE FAUCHET (1744-1793) was a preceptor to the children of the Marquis de Choiseul (the minister's cousin), and the king's preacher, but his bold religious views and pro-poor declarations led him to lose his position. He embraced the revolutionary cause, took part in the storming of the Bastille with his sword, and then, in his speeches and preaching, denounced tyranny and paid tribute to those who died for freedom. Immensely popular in Paris, he was a member of the Commune from September 1789 to October 1790. Claude Fauchet advocated a socialism founded on love and Christianity, ideals he borrowed from Freemasonry, of which he was probably a member: he headed the Société des Amis de la vérité and was, with Nicolas de Bonneville, editor of La Bouche de fer, a periodical imbued with the mystical conceptions of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin. In 1790, he inaugurated the "Cercle Social", a club based on a Masonic lodge. A convinced Republican, he was elected deputy for Calvados to the Legislative Assembly and then to the Convention, and in 1791 was appointed constitutional bishop for the same department, speaking out violently against émigrés and refractory priests, but remaining attached to Catholicism and voting against the King's death. Close to the Girondins, he refused to take his seat after the June 2, 1793 insurrection against the Girondins, and was implicated in the Charlotte Corday affair: arrested, he was executed.