The system, however, is subject to a restriction, which
provides, that at least one half of the representatives of each
department shall be chosen from among those who reside in it.
In the beginning of the revolution, a much wider door was open: all that
was then necessary to entitle a man to vote, was, that he should be
twenty-one years of age, a Frenchman, and one who had lived for a year
in the country on his own revenue, or on the produce of his labor, and
was not in a state of servitude. It was then also decreed, that the
electors should have each three livres a day during their mission, and
should be allowed at the rate of one livre a league, for the distance
from their usual place of residence, to that in which the election of
members for their department is held. Such were the only conditions
requisite for eligibility, either as elector or deputy; except, indeed,
that the citizens in the primary assemblies, and the electors in the
electoral assembly, swore that they would maintain liberty and equality,
or die rather than violate their oath[48].
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