Why is society constituted in such a way that the destiny of the country depends upon the safety of the capital?
Why, in case our territory be invaded and Paris besieged, cannot the legislative, executive, and military powers act outside of Paris?
Why this localization of all the vital forces of France ?...

Do not cry out upon decentralization.

This hackneyed reproach would discredit only your own intelligence and sincerity.

It is not a question of decentralization; it is your political fetichism which I attack.

Why should the national unity be attached to a certain place, to certain functionaries, to certain bayonets?
Why should the Place Maubert and the Palace of the Tuileries be the palladium of France?
Now let me make an hypothesis.
Suppose it were written in the charter, "In case the country be again invaded, and Paris forced to surrender, the government being annihilated and the national assembly dissolved, the electoral colleges shall reassemble spontaneously and without other official notice, for the purpose of appointing new deputies, who shall organize a provisional government at Orleans.
"If Orleans succumbs, the government shall reconstruct itself in the same way at Lyons; then at Bordeaux, then at Bayonne, until all France be captured or the enemy driven from the land.