the course of the debate, Jacobin firebrand Jean-François Delacroix expanded upon this notion, suggesting that the passport, far from entailing a presumption of guilt, was in fact a “certificate of probity” ensuring the security of those traveling in France.57 There was something to Delacroix’s view: if state authorities had the right to demand some independent verification of a person’s identity and some justification of his or her whereabouts, as Codet had insisted they did, possession of a document attesting to these matters would provide a certain security to the would-be traveler.
