[Sidenote: France the Champion of the Revolution]
Emboldened by the ease with which its armies were overrunning the
neighboring states, the National Convention proposed to propagate
liberty and reform throughout Europe and in December, 1792, issued the
following significant decree: "The French nation declares that it will
treat as enemies every people who, refusing liberty and equality or
renouncing them, may wish to maintain, recall, or treat with a prince
and the privileged classes; on the other hand, it engages not to
subscribe to any treaty and not to lay down its arms until the
sovereignty and independence of the people whose territory the troops
of the republic shall have entered shall be established, and until the
people shall have adopted the principles of equality and founded a free
and democratic government."
[Sidenote: Foreign Fears]
In thus throwing down the gauntlet to all the monarchs of Europe and in
putting the issue clearly between democracy and the old regime, the
French revolutionaries took a dangerous step.
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