Girondin constitutional project

The Girondin constitutional project, presented to the French National Convention on 15 and 16 February 1793 by Nicolas de Caritat, formerly the Marquis de Condorcet, is composed of three parts: The work was signed by the eight members of the Convention's Constitution Committee: Condorcet, Gensonné, Barrère, Barbaroux, Paine, Pétion, Vergniaud and Sieyès.

[1] In the exposition of the principles and motives behind the constitutional scheme that he reads before the National Convention, Condorcet begins, as a true mathematician, by a description of the "problem to solve": To give to a territory of twenty-seven thousand square leagues, inhabited by twenty-five million individuals, a constitution which, being founded solely on the principles of reason and justice, insures to citizens the fullest enjoyment of their rights; to combine the parts of this constitution, so that the necessity of obedience to the laws, the submission of individual wills to the general will, allow the subsistence in all their extent, of the sovereignty of the people, equality among citizens, and the exercise of natural liberty, such is the problem that we had to solve.

[2]Are subsequently exposed, in this order: The first article declares the natural, civil, and political rights of men which are liberty, equality, safety, property, social security, and resistance to oppression.

Half of the members of the departments' administrative bodies are renewed every two years, three months after the date of the legislative elections.

The list of presentation is formed from the names that received the most votes, and their number is triple that of the offices needing to be renewed.

A sixth minister would be responsible for agriculture, trade and manufactures and a seventh for aids, works, public buildings, and the arts.

The representatives would have exercised the functions of president and secretaries of the legislative assembly for one month maximum.

Judicial censors are elected every two years and are charged with breaking the rulings rendered by infringement of the law.

A national jury renders verdicts on crimes of high treason determined by the penal code.

The constitution may be modified by the national convention, convened by the legislative body every twenty years.

The people, by themselves or through their representatives, consent to public contributions, which are deliberated upon annually by the legislative body and cannot continue beyond one year without an explicit renewal.

The French Republic may make war by arms only "for the preservation of its liberty, the conservation of its territory and the defence of its allies".

War can be decreed only by the legislative body, with the means of a signed poll, whose moment is fixed three days in advance and after "having heard the Executive Council on the state of the Republic".