Here is a first draft of my speech for Friday.

Before we can perform any action that might affect the stability of the country, we must first consider whether it is in the best interest of the country and the individuals involved.  For this reason we must consider whether it is truly good for the Jews of France to receive emancipation.  The Jews have historically been the recipients of scorn and hatred, much of it undeserved, and now we must consider what our actions should be towards them.

It is easy to say the Jews have been persecuted and now deserve the same rights as any other citizen.  But such rights entail certain responsibilities that I feel the Jews have yet to show and therefore I believe such rights cannot be granted.  When our glorious revolution began it was to free the impoverished masses from the rich and corrupt who lived in great splendor while their people starved.  Are we now to put the peasants under a new master who can reduce them to the most miserable of conditions.  The Jews profession of money lending has brought many advantages in the past, such is undeniable by even the most foolish of men, but now they use their power without restraint upon the citizens of France.  Should we allow for the 400,000 peasants who borrowed money from jews to buy land to be impoverished and penniless?  Should we allow for those who cannot pay their debts to have their lands be taken from them and given to Jews?  I say no.  If we allow such we should behead every peasant that is unable to pay for they will do no better under the new Jewish aristocrats then under those we have overthrown.

Some will no doubt be quick to point out that the Jews did not choose their profession but were limited to it by laws older than any of us.  This too is true, but we must consider the responsibility of a citizen as well.  The jews have used their power not to encourage the ideals of the revolution but to gain land for themselves at the expense of the peasants.  The jews consider themselves a separate community and do not treat others in the humane manner of equals.  In the assembly of August 1806 called for by Napoleon the jews claimed to consider the Frenchmen their brothers.  What brother then would put over the head of his kinsmen the threat of debt and would then seize his land if he was unable to pay?  Clearly the Jews do not consider the French their brothers; or if they do, they believe it is right for one brother to take the livelihood away from his own kin.  If that is so and we allow the Jews to continue unhindered we will soon find ourselves in a new aristocratic society with the wealthy jews.

I do not say that we should treat the Jews as less than human, indeed there are many instances of the Jews acting for the good of their country.  In Italy the jews were essential to the revolution and were among the most active in contributing to its success.  The Italian Jews have recognized themselves as citizens of Italy and accepted the responsibility of improving their country.

As such the Jew should be given the rights of any man of sufficient mental ability and protected from any harm other individuals might be inclined to do them.  They should be free to move within their own county and settle as they wish.  However, there is the fundamental difference between the Jews of France and the Jews of Italy that cannot be ignored.  The jews of Italy were wholehearted in the revolution of their country and have worked in its best interests, whereas the Jews of France have proven themselves to be unwilling to cooperate with the French peasantry.  Until the Jews can lend money without the compulsion to put their lenders under threat of debt and seize their lands they cannot be trusted.  Rather than help they have threatened to return the country to its previous state but under their power.  This above all else cannot be born without undoing all the work of our glorious revolution.