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French Revolution: Marquis de Toulongeon

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,000.00 USD
French Revolution: Marquis de Toulongeon

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Auction Date:2018 Dec 05 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
War-dated ALS in French, signed “Toulongeon,” four pages on two adjoining sheets, 8 x 12.25, December 17, 1791. Letter to Minister of War Louis, comte de Narbonne-Lara. In part (translated): "I have received…the obliging letter that you were good enough to write me after your appointment as Minister of War. I was very flattered to find anew therein the feelings you gave me evidence of previously. Perhaps you know that that position was offered to me on behalf of the King. I went to Paris in person to say that I felt had neither the courage nor the means to fill it, and that having no other aim but that of serving the King and the public good usefully, that be able to prove myself, in my mind and in my heart I believed myself much better placed at the bead of a division, still made up of Regiments good and faithful to their duty. I returned to Besancon. I presume to say that there I enjoy the confidence of the troops and the esteem of the honest citizens whose number is considerable. Most of the members of the Department are pure scoundrels, without even a sense of decency; a municipality scarcely any better, since the retirement of the good Mr. Ordinaire, and of a few upright men like Bois-Gilbert, Carban, and others; a club composed of madmen; a hypocritical bishop who is very intolerant—these…are the people with whom I must deal, against whom I must ceaselessly resist in order not to further the horrors, the black deeds, the perfidies that they invent daily.

You can easily believe that I could not be the man of such individuals. I am a troublesome and impious person to them. To hold me under chains would doubtlessly be greatly convenient to them. But since I have enough common sense never to have given them a hold on me; since I have always gone ahead holding in my hand the laws they invoke when they are favorable to them and reject in the contrary instance, laws which they have neither the courage, nor the strength, nor the means, nor the authority, nor even the will to have carried out; since they have seen that I have as much steadfastness in the good as they have in evil; they have understood that they had no means of getting rid of me except by corrupting and disorganizing the troops I command, very confident that if they succeeded in this aim or in getting them out from under my command I would not remain there after them. And in this they have seen clearly and have judged me accurately. These machinations took place simultaneously everywhere that I had troops, and all except the artillery have remained faithful to their duty. I love what is good and just in the Constitution; I detest everything in it that is unjust or makes it unworkable; such as you saw me, I am still, and will always be.

What is to be done in the present circumstances? That is the heart of the matter and I am going to give you my opinion frankly in this regard. You are going to send a commissioner. I hope that it won’t be an Abbe Mullot, and I am not afraid of such a choice from you. But even if he were an angel, how would he unravel the truth in the midst of this tangle of machinations, persecutions, false testimony, etc. The whole thing reduces itself to a quarrel incited in a bar, in which it is maintained (and that may be) that some cavalrymen—in order to provoke some volunteers—shouted ‘Long live the King and the Prince.’ There was a fight in the bar, both sides were angry. Two cavalrymen were killed by the volunteers with the same gunshot, and there were people wounded on both sides with saber blows. All that was not a major incident, but it was necessary to make one out of it in order to have a pretext to get the 22nd Regiment out. People took up arms on all sides and when the whole city was in an uproar, they imperiously ordered me to remove the regiment. I consented to this to have peace. And after it was done, peace returned, and they were satisfied.

Now, will you have the cavalry regiment removed from my division? I don’t need to tell you that if a single man goes, not a single officer will remain either in that one, nor even in the others, and that wherever they may go, they will not leave alone. The whole corps is aroused about the murder of two of their members and they will present a united front, officers, non-commissioned officers, and cavalrymen. I tell you that such a step would have a dangerous effect and would be a dangerous example. Do you wish to hold the troops of this division? Do you wish to keep the good opinion of Besancon and of the rest of the province in the situation you know them to be in? Do you believe it is useful to keep me myself in their good opinion? Then leave the cavalry regiments in the camps where I have placed them. Have returned to Besancon only fifty horses from each of the three cavalry regiments to man the place; leave there only six companies of artillery; send the rest to Strasbourg, from which you will have the Royal Liegeois regiment sent to me. Change nothing more in the Besancon Troops and in my division, and then I shall guarantee you the discipline of the troops, their loyalty, and the tranquility of the whole region. I insist about keeping only six artillery companies because the corps is in league with the Club and the populace; because they forced the barricade at the barracks on the day of the fifth; because the colonel and nine officers have already left.

There is the plan which the overall situation and the detailed knowledge I have of it suggests to me. That is the only one with which I can cooperate. You are aware…that in this letter there are many details which are for you alone and in confidence. But I owe them to you to guide you in the resolutions you will propose to the King. I am asking you for the Royal Liegeois or any other good Swiss or foreign regiment because if you send me a bad French regiment it is gangrene that you are placing in the midst of healthy parts. If the King’s commissioner arrives beforehand, I shall arrange to delay operations until the return of the courier who is bringing you this dispatch. As for me, I shall not return to Besancon until—by means of the satisfactions I am requesting—I go back there with the consideration that is due the place I occupy, in order to fill it honorably and usefully once more." In fine condition. Toulongeon, a member of the National Assembly, conveys the turbulent climate in Revolutionary France in this lengthy and eloquent letter. Situated in 1791—between the time of the storming of the Bastille and the rise of the Reign of Terror—this is a remarkable firsthand account that discusses the military, people, and politics of France during a time of turmoil.