| “Lafitte, | Lobau, | |
| “Cassimir Perrier, | Odier.” | |
| “Gen. Gerard, |
“Proclamation.
“Fellow-Citizens: You have, by an unanimous acclamation, elected me your general. I shall prove myself worthy of the choice of the Parisian National Guard. We fight for our laws and our liberties.
“Fellow-Citizens, our triumph is certain. I beseech you to obey the orders of the chiefs that will be given you, and that cordially. The troops of the line have already given way. The guards are ready to do the same. The traitors who have excited the civil war, and who thought to massacre the people with impunity, will soon be forced to account before the tribunals, for their violation of the laws and their sanguinary plots.
“Signed at general quarters,
“Le général du Bourg,
“La Fayette.”
The following order of the day was issued by General La Fayette, on accepting the command of the National Guard:—
“Aug. 2.
“During the glorious crisis in which the Parisian energy has re-conquered our rights, everything still remains provisional; there is nothing definitive but the sovereignty of those national rights, and the eternal remembrance of the glorious work of the people; but amidst the various powers instituted through the necessity of our situation, the reorganization of the National Guard is a most necessary defence for the public order, and one which is highly called for. The opinion of the prince exercising the high station of lieutenant-general of the kingdom, is that I should, for the present, take that command. In 1790 I refused to accept such an offer, made to me by 3,000,000 of my comrades, as that office would have been a permanent one, and might one day have become a very dangerous one. Now that circumstances are altered, I think it my duty, in order to serve liberty and my country, to accept the station of general commandant of the National Guard of France.