The Invention of the Passport: Surveillance, Citizenship and the State (Cambridge Studies in Law and Society)

by John Torpey

In the end, under the influence of the siege mentality invoked by numerous speakers during the debate, the Assembly reversed a decision it had excitedly and unhesitatingly taken only a few months before. The atmosphere in which the Assembly adopted this course could hardly be better indicated than by Thuriot’s remarks on January 30, 1792, which were met with exuberant applause: “At this moment, we cannot deceive ourselves: there are conspiracies of every kind against us, and we cannot be too vigilant.” The forces favoring the restoration of controls – mostly from the revolutionary left – won out, and passport restrictions were reintroduced. Declaring that “the health of the Empire requires the most active surveillance,” the National Assembly mandated that everyone – whether French or foreign – traveling within the kingdom be in possession of a passport. Those wishing to leave French territory had to have a notation to this effect inserted into their passports by the authorities in their place of residence;