Traduction assurée par l’auteure
The French Revolution has swept away venal offices and the Ancien Regime systemof cooptation : it has defined civil employment as every citizen’s right and duty. This article aims at delineating how evolved the relations of civil servants (elected) and office clerks (appointed) with the State, and the representations they had of themselves as servants of this State, between 1792 and Year IV. The sources are letters of office applicants and letters of acceptation or refusal of political positions. If the themes of disinterestedness and civic commitment prevail in Clerks and civil servants’ discourses in Year II, a more individualist ideology appears, that legitimizes personal claims to time for one’s family and wealth. State is no more an abstract figure of universality, but a fatherly and charitable body.