Flush with the glow of having set out a document recognizing the equality of all French citizens before the law, the revolutionaries were in an expansive mood that extended even to forgiveness for the émigrés. The records of the proceedings indicate that the members of the Assembly believed they were making a major contribution to the cause of human freedom when they abolished passport controls on the French people, which they viewed as part and parcel of the arbitrary power of the ancien régime.37 Soon,
