Traduire pour stabiliser : l’exemple des ouvrages américains parus en français à la veille de la République, printemps-été 1792

In the last decade of the 18th century, translations were very useful in order to spread new revolutionary ideas and to build up a new political language. Among the first works to be translated in France after 1789 were the canonical texts of the American politics John Adams’ Defence and the Federalist by Hamilton, Madison and Jay. Both were published in the first half of 1792 by the Parisian publisher Buisson. Namely the Federalist enjoyed a considerable success because the same translation was later represented in 1795, during the time of the constitutional debates regarding the institutional form of government for the newly French Republic. However, the translation was not a paean for the republican cause, because it was carried out by the Lafayette entourage who, even in 1792, deemed it possible to blend the American model with the monarchical form. A detailed study of the translation suggests how it was the work of several men, very different from each other with respect to their approach to the new political language. These differences are confirmed, for example, by the various translations of the same original expression “federal government” and they suggest that the revolutionary years were decisive in order to create a new political language.