Nothing is worse than political, civil, religious and
domestic federalism; we combat it under all its forms.[87] In this
particular, the Constituent Assembly has paved the way for us, since
it has broken up all the principal historic or material groups by
which men have separated themselves from the masses and formed a band
apart, provinces, clergy, nobles, parliaments, religious orders and
trades-unions. We complete its work, we destroy churches, we suppress
literary or scientific associations, educational or benevolent
societies, even down to financial companies.[88] We prohibit any
departmental or commercial "local spirit:" we find
"odious and opposed to all principles, that, amongst municipalities,
some should be rich and others poor, that one should have immense
patrimonial possessions and another nothing but debts."[89]
We regard these possessions as the nation's, and we place
indebtedness to the nation's account. We take grain from rich
communes and departments, to feed poor communes and departments. We
build bridges, roads and canals of each district, at the expense of
the State; "we centralize the labor of the French people in a broad,
opulent fashion.
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