Stanislas Marie Adelaide, comte de Clermont-Tonnerre

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Count Stanislas de Clermont-Tonnerre
Count Stanislas de Clermont-Tonnerre

Stanislas Marie Adelaide, comte de Clermont-Tonnerre (October 10, 1757 – August 10, 1792) was a French politician.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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).

[edit] References

  • This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. 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).