Chapter 20: On the Organization of the National Guard.

Among the four natural rights recognized by the Declaration of August 26, 1789 [N° 12] was resistance to oppression. Should those in government fail to protect the liberties of the nation or run roughshod over them, the citizens had the right to resist force with force and change the composition or indeed the structure of the state. Easy to say, but if it comes down to it, how was this supposed to be accomplished? Was it not the state that had the weapons? But it was not quite that simple, and therein lies the drama of the National Guard or citizen militia during the Revolution. On the one hand, it was an arm of the state whose role was to maintain law and order; on the other, its mission was to defy, and, if need be, overthrow or purify the state. In the final analysis, the force of the people, so frequently vaunted during Year II of the Republic, was the force of the National Guard units that adopted their position. Conversely, the force of the government was the force of the units that supported it%#x2026;. Although not as widely known as some of Robespierre's other efforts, his observations on the Guard testify eloquently to his democratic orientation. In fact, his writing does more than point out that all citizens, regardless of wealth, should have the right to bear arms in defense of the country and its laws, or that those who are deprived of this right stand powerless before those who are not. Or that the latter are their de facto masters. Building upon the perception that the same persons who have been denied the right to protect themselves are those who have been denied the right to participate in the formation of the law, Robespierre delivers a defense of the people while unleashing a bitter critique of laws and a constitution "that have not been established so that the general interest be realized, but instead for the private benefit of a certain class of men, that …. are not the common property of all members of society, but the patrimony of the rich…." All of which will become common fare after the overthrow of the monarchy (by National Guard units), but in late 1790 was neither commonplace nor popular among the nation's representatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]