Pierre-André Gargas | Union souveraine et conciliatrice.

Pierre-André Gargas

Union souveraine et conciliatrice, De toutes les Nations d'Europe, & de celles qui sont connues. Ou Projet de Paix générale et perpétuelle. La Haye [Avignon?], 1785

12mo (160 x 92 mm). Half title, woodcut headpieces, tailpieces, and other ornaments in text, contemporary ink dedicatory inscription on leaf C7v, to "son excelence Monseigneur le Ministre Plenipotentiaire de l'infant duc de Parme"; a pale stain and a paper repair to the half title; tiny loss at corner of leaf A5, small hole (paper flaw?) in leaf C4 affecting one word on the verso of the leaf, the inscription on leaf C7 shaved, a small yellow stain at lower corners of final two leaves, otherwise a bright copy. Modern dark brown morocco spine, vellum corners, marbled paper boards, smooth spine with gilt decorations, black morocco spine-label, edges stained yellow; a tiny white stain on front board, very mild rubbing along bottom edge.

The only known copy of Pierre-André Gargas's revised plan to establish a union of nations to ensure perpetual peace in Europe, dedicated to Benjamin Franklin. This treatise uses the term United Nations, anticipating the U.N. by over a century and a half.

Pierre-André Gargas (1728–1801), a Provençale landowner, was accused of murder, dispossessed of his land, and condemned to twenty years as a galley slave on charges that he always denied. While serving his sentence in a hulk moored off the coast of Toulon, he was somehow able to write a book on phonetic spelling, Alfabet qonciliateur de l’ortografe. . . (Marseille: Jean Mossy, 1773), and draft a manuscript for a short work on establishing perpetual peace in Europe. After sending the manuscript to a number of luminaries, including Voltaire, he sent a copy to Benjamin Franklin. It was accompanied by a note where he begged the famous American diplomat for "the kindness, Monsieur, of having them printed, announced, and distributed to the public as far as it would be possible for you to do so" (Gargas to Benjamin Franklin, 14 February 1779, as translated by Ellen R. Cohn).

After his release, Gargas made his way on foot to Paris to visit Franklin at his home in Passy on the outskirts of Paris, at the Hôtel de Valentinois. Despite the ex-prisoner's ragged appearance, Franklin welcomed him, discussed the project, likely gave his own input, and printed the pamphlet, which is titled Concilateur de toutes les nations d’Europe, ou Projet de paix perpetuelle entre tous les souverains de l’Europe et leurs voisins (Passy: Benjamin Franklin, 1782). The major points of the plan were to freeze Europe's borders and settle international disputes through a Perpetual Congress (which in this later version of the text is called the United Nations). The congress would be made up of one delegate from each nation. The president of the delegates would be chosen through a system of hierarchy determined by each sovereign's age, with hereditary sovereigns given precedence over elected ones. He also suggests turning Europe's standing armies into a massive public works force, tasked with building infrastructure and engaging in community services. Gargas's intention was to distribute his work freely to Europe's rulers and diplomats, though he evidently did not get much traction for his improbable ideas. For Franklin, however, embroiled in negotiations with England, the idea of universal peace must have been particularly enticing. In a letter to the British politician David Hartley, 10 July 1782, he wrote:

"There is methinks a point that has been too little considered in treaties, the means of making them durable. An honest peasant from the mountains of Provence, brought me the other day a manuscript he had written on the subject, and which he could not procure permission to print. It appeared to me to have much good sense in it, and therefore I got some copies to be struck off for him to distribute where he may think fit. I send you one enclosed. This man aims at no profit from his pamphlet or his project, asks for nothing, expects nothing, and does not even desire to be known... such was his zeal for peace and the hope of forwarding and securing it by communicating his ideas to great men here. His rustic and poor appearance has prevented his access to them or his obtaining their attention; but he does not seem yet to be discouraged. I honour much of the character of this veritable philosophe" (Papers 37:607–608).

Having received little notice in Paris outside of Franklin and his circle, Gargas returned south to his home in Theze where, a year later, he decided to print a revised and enlarged version his plan. He wrote to Franklin on 2 May 1783 to ask permission to dedicate the work to him. At that time, dedications functioned as endorsements, and Franklin would often decline them. However, this time he accepted. In August 1785, the present work, Union souveraine, was published, probably in Avignon, under a false imprint without a privilege du roi. The previous pamphlet had been printed on Franklin's diplomatically immune press, but that was not the case here. As it turned out, Franklin never received his copy of the book. According to Cohn, the 300 copies that Gargas intended for him were seized in transit by the censors, and, in any event, Franklin was halfway across the Atlantic when the package was sent.

Gargas set off himself for Paris to hand-deliver his Union Souveraine to the king, the royal family, his nine state ministers, and twenty-nine foreign ambassadors. This example, personally addressed to the minister plenipotentiary of the Duchy of Parma, was one of the copies intended for a foreign diplomat. The only other copy of this text that has been traced is a set of page proofs, held at the Archives Nationales in Paris.

A few years later, in 1787, Franklin sent Gargas a copy of his own proposal for a national union, The Constitution. Franklin personally inscribed it to "M. Gargas, who propos'd the Union of the States of Europe." However, just as the Union Souveraine never reached Franklin, The Constitution never made it to Gargas—Franklin sent it to his close friend and banker, Ferdinand Grand, who never forwarded it.

REFERENCES

Ellen R. Cohn, "'he Printer and the 'Peasant': Benjamin Franklin and Pierre-André Gargaz, Two Philosophers in Search of Peace," in Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Winter 2010), pp. 146-172

PROVENANCE

Giquello, 1 June, 2017 lot 61 (undesignated consignor)