ABSTRACT
The town of Orléans, 80 miles (130 kilometres) southwest of Paris, welcomed the Revolution but soon became internally divided by the impact of Church reform. It was also a major centre for grain production and therefore vulnerable to the demands of cities such as Paris. On the first anniversary of the Revolution of 14 July 1789, patriotic women made this statement of support, replete with assumptions about ‘women’s place’ as well as expressions of profound joy. Other women in Orléans would later be more militant about their rights to participate.
14 July 1790, the mayor received a package from patriotic women (citoyennes patriotes) containing the following speech:
Monsieur, so the happy day has arrived when we can express the feelings which animate us!
For a long time, we have enjoyed in silence the great and astonishing revolution, which is under way and strengthening every day, and for a long time too we have grumbled about not being able to express the feelings in our tender hearts.
If we are denied the knowledge granted to the men who govern us, and whose courage and laws we swear to respect; if the weakness of our sex prevents us from sharing in the noble work of our brave and generous protectors, as we pass by let us throw some flowers on the altar they have erected, so that we can share, and add to if possible, their pleasure their courage and their patriotism.
How beautiful is the moment which brings us together. Everything reminds us of our rights to public happiness. Yes, we are Frenchwomen, we are spouses and mothers, and these sacred natural rights we hold in our hands are the happiness of future generations.
Warmed by the same spirit, animated by the same zeal, we come to swear on the altar of the homeland respect and fidelity towards the nation, to the law and to the king; and we promise to instil profoundly in our children’s hearts the heroic courage of our liberators and the virtues of the generous monarch we cherish.
We implore at this time, the sweetest of our lives, that heaven may lengthen the happy days of our dear monarch whom we love so tenderly and assure his wellbeing by granting us the virtues necessary to be citizens worthy of him and his successors.
Source: D. Lottin, Recherches historiques sur la ville d’Orléans, 8 vols (Orléans, 1838), volume 1, part II, pp. 201–03.