Encyclopedia:
Stanislas Marie Adelaide, comte de Clermont-Tonnerre
Stanislas Marie Adelaide,
comte de Clermont-Tonnerre (
October 10,
1757 –
August 10,
1792) was a
French politician.
Early life and career
Born in
Pont-a-Mousson, at the beginning of the
French Revolution he was a
colonel, with reputation as a
Freemason (a noted
orator, he had acquired practice in speaking in the
Masonic Lodge) and a
Liberal. He was elected to the
Estates-General of
1789 by the
noblesse of Paris, and was the spokesman of the minority of Liberal nobles who joined the
Third Estate on the 25th of June.
Clermont-Tonnerre desired to model the new constitution of France on the
organic laws of
England. He was elected president of the
National Constituent Assembly on
August 17,
1789; but, on the rejection by the Assembly of the profect elaborated by the first Constitutional Committee, he attached himself to the party of moderate
Royalists, known as
monarchi gens, led by
Pierre Victor, baron Malouet.
Conflict with the Jacobins
His speech in favor of reserving to the
King of France the right of absolute
veto under the new constitution made him the animosity of radical politicians of the
Palais Royal; but in spite of threats and abuse he continued to advocate a moderate liberal policy, especially in the matter of removing
restrictions for the Jews and
Protestants and of extending the system of
trial by jury.
In January
1790, he collaborated with Malouet in founding the
Club des Impartiaux and the
Journal des Impartiaux, the names of which were changed in November to the
Société des Amis de la Constitution Monarchique and
Journal de la Société, &c. in order to emphasize their opposition to the
Jacobin Club. Their
Société des Amis was denounced by
Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave in the Assembly (
January 21,
1791), and on
March 28 it was attacked by a mob, whereupon it was closed by order of the Assembly.
Clermont-Tonnerre was murdered by the people of Paris during the rising of the
August 9 and
August 10 1792 - the
Storming of the Tuileries, Palace).
References
In turn, it gives the following references:**
Recueil des opinions de Stanislas de Clermont-Tonnerre (4 vols., Paris, 1791), the text of his speeches as published by himself
**A. Aulard,
Les Orateurs de la Constituante (2nd ed., Paris, 1905).
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