Antoine Barnave Quotes
Perish the colonies, rather than a principle!
During the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution some powerful Frenchmen in the French Colonies wanted to maintain the caste system to keep the Blacks and other indigenous people from claiming equal rights. They claimed that the colonies would perish. But the French Revolutionaries were committed to “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity”, and Barnave summed up their viewpoint in this succinct statement of policy which became a memorable quotation.
Antoine Barnave, 1761–1793, French Orator, Deputy of the French National Assembly, Debate in the Constituent Assembly, May 7, 1791
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
See {632309} for an similar French Political expression made at approximately the same time over an important principle. However, commerce in its many forms such as business and job creation has been the major reason for compromising important moral and political principles during much of recorded history.
Burke argued for England giving America much more freedom and self determination.
Hobson, like Mark Twain in America, was a major critic of imperialism.
The Parliament was debating the reaction to the Stamp Act by the American Colonies. One of the members, reflecting a majority view, asked sarcastically when the American Colonies had been emancipated so that they could make their own independent decisions. Pitt then hit this one out of the park by reversing the question.
Canada was then still under British rule.
Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain
- Born: October 22, 1761
- Died: November 29, 1793
- Nationality: French
- Profession: Parlement
Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave was a French politician, and, together with Honoré Mirabeau, one of the most influential orators of the early part of the French Revolution. He is most notable for correspondence with Marie Antoinette in an attempt to set up a constitutional monarchy and for being one of the founding members of the Feuillants.
