Cyrrise
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Favorite Quote:
"...Le Chapelier, a lawyer of Rennes, a prominent member of the Literary Chamber of that city, a forceful man, fertile in revolutionary ideas and of an exceptional gift of eloquence." - Scaramouche, Book I, Chapter VII
Birthday:
JUNE 12, 1754
Character's Full name:
Isaac Rene Guy le Chapelier
Occupation:
Lawyer, Politician
Physical Description:
A slight, swarthy man of little more than thirty, firm of mouth and impertinent of nose.
Friendships/Relationships:
Andre-Louis Moreau - friend
Danton - associate
Robespierre - thinks he's a little blighter
Personal History:
Isaac le Chapelier was born at Rennes on the 12th of June 1754, his father being prominent amongst the corporation of lawyers in that town. He entered his father's profession, and had some success as an orator. In 1789 he was elected as a deputy to the States General by the 3rd-Estate of the senechaussee of Rennes. He adopted advanced opinions, and was one of the founders of the Breton Club; his influence in the Constituent Assembly was considerable, and on the 3rd of August 1789 he was elected its president. Thus he presided over the Assembly. His biggest contribution was
Le Chapelier Law.
Character's connection to the Revolution or the League:
Advocate for the Revolution and prominent political figure until 1794.
The Pivotal Questions:
What is your favorite word?
champion
What is your least favorite word?
unions
What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
the law and seeing it put to good use
What turns you off?
Bully boys picking on those who can't defend themselves, that snot Robespierre, and having my head cut off - I hate that!
What is your favorite curse word?
Nom de Dieu!
What sound or noise do you love?
a warm fire crackling on the hearth
What sound or noise do you hate?
Gun shots, the fall of the blade of the guillotine (did I mention I hate having my head cut off?)
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Swordsman. Andre makes it look fun.
What profession would you not like to do?
coal-heaver
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
"You've done well."
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In the spring of 1791, as the National Assembly worked on political and social reforms, workers in Paris took economic matters into their own hands by staging a series of strikes and demonstrations against their employers. To many deputies, most prominently Isaac�Ren�Guy Le Chapelier, the workers were still thinking in terms of a guild concept, and they were acting on a collective rather than an individual basis. Thus Le Chapelier found their demands for higher wages contrary to what he claimed were the new principles of the Revolution. To prevent continued associations of workers based on such economic interests, he introduced a measure (passed into law on 14 June 1791) that historians remember by his name, the "Le Chapelier law." It barred craft guilds and would bar trade unions until 1884.
The Le Chapelier Law (14 June 1791)
Article
In that the abolition of any kind of citizen's guild in the same trade or of the same profession is one of the fundamental bases of the French Constitution, it is forbidden to reestablish them under any pretext or in any form whatsoever.
Article
Citizens of the same trade or profession, entrepreneurs, those who
have set up shop, workers and journeymen of any skill may not, when
assembled, appoint a president, secretaries, or trustees, keep
accounts, pass decrees or resolutions, or draft regulations
concerning their alleged common interests.
Article
All administrative or municipal bodies are forbidden to receive any address or petition in the name of an occupation or profession, or to make any response thereto. Additionally, they are enjoined to declare null and void whatever resolutions have been made in such manner, and to make certain that no effect or execution be given thereto.
Article
It is contrary to the principles of liberty and the Constitution for citizens with the same professions, arts, or trades to deliberate or make agreements among themselves designed to set prices for their industry or their labor. If such deliberations and agreements are concluded, whether accompanied by oath or not, they will be declared unconstitutional, prejudicial to liberty and the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and will be null and void. Administrative and municipal bodies shall be required to declare them as such. The authors, leaders, and instigators who provoked, drafted, or presided over these agreements shall be charged by the police and at the request of the communal attorney will be fined 500 livres, suspended for a year from the enjoyment of all rights of active citizenship, and barred from admittance to the primary assemblies.
Article
All administrative and municipal bodies are forbidden, even if the members are using their own names, to employ, admit, or allow to be admitted to their professions in any public works, those entrepreneurs, workers, or journeymen who have provoked or signed the said deliberations or conventions, unless, of their own accord, they have presented themselves to the registrar of the police court to retract or disavow them.
Article
If the said deliberations or convocations, posted placards, or circular letters contain any threats against entrepreneurs, artisans, workers, or foreign day-laborers working there, or against those accepting lower wages, all authors, instigators, and signatories of such acts or writings shall be punished with a fine of 1,000 livres each and imprisoned for three months.
Article
Those who use threats or violence against workers who are taking advantage of the freedoms granted to labor and industry by constitutional law shall be subject to criminal prosecution and shall be punished to the fullest extent of the law, as disturbers of the public peace.
Article
All assemblies composed of artisans, workers, journeymen, day-laborers, or those incited by them against the free exercise of industry and labor, belonging to any kind of person and under all circumstances mutually agreed to, or against the action of police and the execution of judgments rendered in such connection, as well as against public auctions and adjudications of various enterprises, shall be considered seditious assemblies, and as such shall be dispersed by the guardians of the law, upon legal warrants made thereupon, and shall be punished to the fullest extent of the laws concerning authors, instigators, and leaders of the said assemblies, and all those who have committed assaults and acts of violence.
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