The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 4: The French Revolution, Volume 3 by Hippolyte A. Taine

3139 (return)
[ Ibid., No.668 (July 8, 1792).—Cf. No. 649 (May 6, 1792). He approves of the murder of General Dillon by his men, and recommends the troops everywhere to do the same thing.]

3140 (return)
[ Ibid., No.677 (August 10, 1792). See also subsequent numbers, especially No. 680, Aug. 19th, for hastening on the massacre of the Abbaye prisoners. And Aug. 21st: "As to the officers, they deserve to be quartered like Louis Capet and his manège toadies."]

3141 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux, XXVIII., 105. (Letter of Chevalier Saint-Dizier, member of the first committee of Surveillance, Sep.10, 1792.)—Michelet, II., 94. (In December, 1790, he already demands twenty thousand heads).]

3142 (return)
[ Moniteur, Oct. 26, 1792. (Session of the Convention, Oct. 24th.) "N—: I know a member of the convention, who heard Marat say that, to ensure public tranquility, two hundred and seventy thousand heads more should fall."

     Vermont: "I declare that Marat made that
     statement in my presence."]

     Marat: "Well, I did say so; that's my
     opinion and I say it again."—

Up to the last he advocates surgical operations. (No. for July 12, 1793, the eve of his death.) Observe what he says on the anti-revolutionaries. "To prevent them from entering into any new military body I had proposed at that time, as an indispensable prudent measure, cutting off their ears, or rather their thumbs." He likewise had his imitators. (Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 186, Session of the Convention, April 4, 1796.) Deputies from the popular club of Cette "regret that they had not followed his advice and cut off three hundred thousand heads."]

3143 (return)
[ Danton never wrote or printed a speech. "I am no writer," he says. (Garat, Memoires, 31.)]

3144 (return)
[ Garat, "Memoires," III.: "Danton had given no serious study to those philosophers who, for a century past, had detected the principles of social art in human nature. He had not sought in his own organization for the vast and simple combinations which a great empire demands. He had that instinct for the grand which constitutes genius and that silent circumspection which constitutes judgment."]

3146 (return)
[ The head of a State may be considered in the same light as the superintendent of an asylum for the sick, the demented and the infirm. In the government of his asylum he undoubtedly does well to consult the moralist and the physiologist; but, before following out their instructions he must remember that in his asylum its inmates, including the keepers and himself, are more or less ill, demented or infirm.]

3147 (return)
[ De Sybel: "Histoire de l'Europe pendant la Revolution Française," (Dosquet's translation from the German) II., 303. "It can now be stated that it was the active operations of Danton and the first committee of Public Safety which divided the coalition and gave the Republic the power of opposing Europe... We shall soon see, on the contrary, that the measures of the "Mountain" party, far from hastening the armaments, hindered them."]

3148 (return)
[ Ibid., I., 558, 562, 585. (The intermediaries were Westermann and Dumouriez.)]

3151 (return)
[ According to a statement made by Count Theodore de Lameth, the eldest of the four brothers Lameth and a colonel and also deputy in the Legislative Assembly. During the Assembly he was well acquainted with Danton. After the September massacre he took refuge in Switzerland and was put on the list of emigrants. About a month before the King's death he was desirous of making a last effort and came to Paris. "I went straight to Danton's house, and, without giving my name, insisted on seeing him immediately. Finally, I was admitted and I found Danton in a bath-tub. "You here!" he exclaimed. "Do you know that I have only to say the word and send you to the guillotine?" "Danton," I replied, "you are a great criminal, but there are some vile things you cannot do, and one of them is to denounce me." "You come to save the King?" "Yes." We then began to talk in a friendly and confidential way. "I am willing," said Danton, "to try and save the King, but I must have a million to buy up the necessary votes and the money must be on hand in eight days. I warn you that although I may save his life I shall vote for his death; I am quite willing to save his head but not to lose mine." M. de Lameth set about raising the money; he saw the Spanish ambassador and had the matter broached to Pitt who refused. Danton, as he said he would, voted for the King's death, and then aided or allowed the return of M. de Lameth to Switzerland. (I have this account through M (probably Pasquier).... who had it from count Theodore de Lameth's own lips.)]

3152 (return)
[ Garat. "Memoires," 317. "Twenty times, he said to me one day, I offered them peace. They did not want it. They refused to believe me in order to reserve the right of ruining me."]

3154 (return)
[ "Danton," by Dr. Robinet, passim. (Notices by Béon, one of Danton's fellow-disciples.—Fragment by Saint-Albin.)—"The Revolution," II., p.35, foot-note.]

3155 (return)
[ Emile Bos, "Les Avocats du conseil du Roi," 515, 520. (See Danton's marriage-contract and the discussions about his fortune. From 1787 to 1791, he is found engaged as counsel only in three cases.)]

3156 (return)
[ Madame Roland, "Memoires." (Statement of Madame Danton to Madame Roland.)]

3157 (return)
[ Expressions used by Garat and Roederer.—Larévilliere-Lepaux calls him "the Cyclop."]

3159 (return)
[ Riouffe, "Mémoires sur les prisons." "In prison every utterance was mingled with oaths and gross expressions."]

3160 (return)
[ Terms used by Fabre d'Eglantine and Garat.—Beugnot, a very good observer, had an accurate impression of Danton ("Mémoires", I, 249-252).—M. Dufort de Cheverney, (manuscript memoirs published by M. Robert de Crèveceur), after the execution of Babeuf, in 1797, had an opportunity to hear Samson, the executioner, talk with a war commissary, in an inn between Vendôme and Blois. Samson recounted the last moments of Danton and Fabre d'Églantine. Danton, on the way to the scaffold, asked if he might sing. "There is nothing to hinder," said Samson. "All right. Try to remember the verses I have just composed," and he sang the following to a tune in vogue:

     Nous sommes menés au trépas     We are led to our death
     Par quantité de scélérats,      by a gang of scoundrels
     c'est ce qui nous désole.       that makes us sad.
     Mais bientot le moment viendra But soon the time shall come
     Où chacun d'eux y passera,      when all of them shall follow
     c'est ce qui nous console."     that's our consolation.]

3161 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux, XXI., 108. Speech (printed) by Pétion: "Marat embraced Danton and Danton embraced him. I certify that this took place in my presence."]

3162 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux, XXI., 126. ("To Maximilian Robespierre and his royalists," a pamphlet by Louvet.)—Beugnot, "Mémoires," I., 250, "On arriving in Paris as deputy from my department (to the Legislative Assembly) Danton sought me and wanted me to join his party. I dined with him three times, in the Cour du Commerce, and always went away frightened at his plans and energy.... He contented himself by remarking to his friend Courtois and my colleague: 'Thy big Beugnot is nothing but a devotee—you can do nothing with him.'"]

3163 (return)
[ The Cordeliers district. (Buchez et Roux, IV., 27.) Assembly meeting of the Cordeliers district, November 11th, 1789, to sanction Danton's permanent presidency. He is always re-elected, and unanimously. This is the first sign of his ascendancy, although sometimes, to save the appearance of his dictatorship, he has his chief clerk Paré elected, whom he subsequently made minister.]

3166 (return)
[ Ibid., IX., 408: X., 144, 234, 297, 417.—Lafayette "Mémoires," I., 359, 366. Immediately after Mirabeau's death (April, 1791) Danton's plans are apparent, and his initiative is of the highest importance.]

3167 (return)
[ "The Revolution," II., 238 (Note) and 283.—Garat, 309: "After the 20th of June everybody made mischief at the chateau; the power of which was daily increasing. Danton arranged the 10th of August and the chateau was thunderstruck."—Robinet: "Le Procès des Dantonistes," 224, 229. ("Journal de la Societé des amis de la Constitution," No. 214, June 5, 1792.) Danton proposes "the law of Valerius Publicola, passed in Rome after the expulsion of the Tarquins, permitting every citizen to kill any man convicted of having expressed opinions opposed to the law of the State, except in case of proof of the crime." (Ibid., Nos. 230 and 231, July 13, 1792.) Danton induces the federals present "to swear that they will not leave the capital until liberty is established, and before the will of the department is made known on the fate of the executive power." Such are the principles and the instruments, of "August 10th" and "September 2nd."]

3168 (return)
[ Garat, 314. "He was present for a moment on the committee of Public Safety. The outbreaks of May 31st and June 2nd occurred; he was the author of both these days."]

3173 (return)
[ See "The Revolution," vol. III., ch. I.-Buchez et Roux, XXV., 285. (Meeting of Nov.26, 1793.)—Moniteur, XIX., 726. Danton (March 16, 1794) secures the passing of a decree that "hereafter prose only shall be heard at the rostrum of the house."]

3174 (return)
[ Archives Nationales, Papers of the committee of General Security, No 134.—Letter of Delacroix to Danton, Lille, March 25, 1793, on the situation in Belgium, and the retreat of Dumouriez.... "My letter is so long I fear that you will not read it to the end... .Oblige me by forgetting your usual indolence."—Letter of Chabot to Danton, Frimaire 12, year II. "I know your genius, my dear colleague, and consequently your natural indolent disposition. I was afraid that you would not read me through if I wrote a long letter. Nevertheless I rely on your friendship to make an exception in my favor."]

3175 (return)
[ Lagrange, the mathematician, and senator under the empire, was asked how it was that he voted for the terrible annual conscriptions. "It had no sensible effect on the tables of mortality," he replied.]

3178 (return)
[ Quinet, "La Révolution," II., 304. (According to the unpublished memoirs of Baudot.) These expressions by Danton's friends all bear the mark of Danton himself. At all events they express exactly his ideas.]

3180 (return)
[ Miot de Melito, "Mémoires," I., 40, 42.—Michelet, "Histoire de la Révolution Française," VI., 34; V. 178, 184. (On the second marriage of Danton in June, 1793, to a young girl of sixteen. On his journey to Arcis, March, 1794.)—Riouffe, 68. In prison "He talked constantly about trees, the country and nature."]

3181 (return)
[ We can trace the effect of his attitude on the public in the police reports, especially at the end of 1793, and beginning of the year 1794. (Archives Nationales, F 7, 31167 report of Charmont, Nivôse 6, year II.) "Robespierre gains singularly in public estimation, especially since his speech in the Convention, calling on his colleagues to rally and crush out the monsters in the interior, also in which he calls on all to support the new revolutionary government with their intelligence and talents.... I have to state that I have everywhere heard his name mentioned with admiration. They wound up by saying that it would be well for all members of the Convention to adopt the measures presented by Robespierre."—(Report of Robin, Nivôse 8.) "Citizen Robespierre is honored everywhere, in all groupes and in the cafe's. At the Café Manouri it was given out that his views of the government were the only ones which, like the magnet, would attract all citizens to the Revolution. It is not the same with citizen Billaud-Varennes." (Report of the Purveyor, Nivôse 9.) "In certain clubs and groups there is a rumor that Robespierre is to be appointed dictator..... The people do justice to his austere virtues; it is noticed that he has never changed his opinions since the Revolution began."]

3182 (return)
[ "Souvenirs d'un déporté." by P. Villiers, (Robespierre's secretary for seven months in 1790,) p. 2. "Of painstaking cleanliness."—Buchez et Roux, XXXIV., 94. Description of Robespierre, published in the newspapers after his death: "His clothes were exquisitely clean and his hair always carefully brushed."]

3183 (return)
[ D'Hericault, "La Revolution du 9 Thermidor," (as stated by Daunou).—Meillan, "Mémoires," p.4. "His eloquence was nothing but diffusive declamation without order or method, and especially with no conclusions. Every time he spoke we were obliged to ask him what he was driving at..... Never did he propose any remedy. He left the task of finding expedients to others, and especially to Danton."]

3184 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 437, 438, 440, 442. (Speech by Robespierre, Thermidor 8, year II.)]

3185 (return)
[ Ibid., XXX., 225, 226, 227, 228 (Speech, Nov. 17, 1793), and XXXI., 255 (Speech, Jan.26, '794). "The policy of the London Cabinet largely contributed to the first movement of our Revolution.... Taking advantage of political tempests (the cabinet) aimed to effect in exhausted and dismembered France a change of dynasty and to place the Duke of York on the throne of Louis XVI.... Pitt....is an imbecile, whatever may be said of a reputation that has been much too greatly puffed up. A man who, abusing the influence acquired by him on an island placed haphazard in the ocean, is desirous of contending with the French people, could not have conceived of such an absurd plan elsewhere than in a madhouse."—Cf. Ibid., XXX., 465.]

3186 (return)
[ Ibid., XXVI., 433, 441, (Speech on the Constitution, May 10, 1793); XXXI., 275. "Goodness consists in the people preferring itself to what is not itself; the magistrate, to be good, must sacrifice himself to the people.".... "Let this maxim be first adopted that the people are good and that its delegates are corruptible.".. . XXX., 464. (Speech, Dec.25, 1793): "The virtues are the appanages of the unfortunate and the patrimony of the people."]

3187 (return)
[ Cf. passim, Hamel, "Histoire de Robespierre," 3 vols. An elaborate panegyric full of details. Although eighty years have elapsed, Robespierre still makes dupes of people through his attitudes and rhetorical flourishes. M. Hamel twice intimates his resemblance to Jesus Christ. The resemblance, indeed, is that of Pascal's Jesuits to the Jesus of the Gospel.]

3189 (return)
[ Garat, "Mémoires," 84. Garat who is himself an ideologist, notes "his eternal twadle about the rights of man, the sovereignty of the people, and other principles which he was always talking about, and on which he never gave utterance to one precise or fresh idea."]

3190 (return)
[ Read especially his speech on the constitution, (May 10, 1793), his report on the principles of Republican Government, (Dec.15, 1793), his speech on the relationship between religious and national ideas and republican principles (May 7, 1794) and speech of Thermidor 8.-Carnot: "Memoires," II., 512. "In all deliberations on affairs he contributed nothing but vague generalities."]

3191 (return)
[ During this century all important Jacobin leaders, Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin, Stalin, Castro etc. have in their turn followed robespierre's example and bored their captive audiences with their interminable speeches. (SR).]

3192 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 406. (Speech delivered Thermidor 8th.) The printed copy of the manuscript with corrections and erasures.]

3194 (return)
[ Ibid., 428, 435, 436. "O day forever blessed! What a sight to behold, the entire French people assembled together and rendering to the author of nature the only homage worthy of him! How affecting each object that enchants the eye and touches the heart of man! O honored old age! O generous ardor of the young of our country! O the innocent, pure joy of youthful citizens! O the exquisite tears of tender mothers! O the divine charms of innocence and beauty! What majesty in a great people happy in its strength, power and virtue!"—"No, Charmette, No, death is not the sleep of eternity!"—"Remember, O, People, that in a republic, etc."—"If such truths must be dissembled then bring me the hemlock!"]

3195 (return)
[ Speech, May 7, 1794. (On moral and religious ideas in relation to republican principles.)]

3197 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 436. "The verres and Catilines of our country." (Speech of Thermidor 8th.)—Note especially the speech delivered March 7, 1794, crammed full of classical reminiscences.]

3198 (return)
[ Ibid., XXXIII., 421. "Truth has touching and terrible accents which reverberate powerfully in pure hearts as in guilty consciences, and which falsehood can no more counterfeit than Salome can counterfeit the thunders of heaven."—437: "Why do those who yesterday predicted such frightful tempests now gaze only on the fleeciest clouds? Why do those who but lately exclaimed 'I affirm that we are treading on a volcano' now behold themselves sleeping on a bed of roses?"]

3199 (return)
[ Ibid., XXXII., 360, 361. (Portraits of the encyclopaedists and Hébertists.)]

31100 (return)
[ Ibid., XXXIII., 408. "Here, I have to open my heart."—XXXII., 475-478, the concluding part.]

31101 (return)
[ Hamel: "Histoire de Robespierre," I., 34-76. An attorney at 23, a member of the Rosati club at Arras at 24, a member of the Arras Academy at 25. The Royal Society of Metz awarded him a second prize for his discourse against the prejudice which regards the relatives of condemned criminals as infamous. His eulogy of Gresset is not crowned by the Amiens Academy. He reads before the Academy of Arras a discourse against the civil incapacities of illegitimate children, and then another on reforms in criminal jurisprudence. In 1789, he is president of the Arras Academy, and publishes an eulogy of Dupaty and an address to the people from Artois on the qualities necessary for future deputies.]

31102 (return)
[ See his eulogy of Rousseau in the speech of May 7, 1794. (Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 369.—Garat, 85. "I hoped that his selection of Rousseau for a model of style and the constant reading of his works would exert some good influence on his character."]

31103 (return)
[ Fievée, "correspondance" (introduction). Fievée, who heard him at the Jacobin Club, said that he resembled a "tailor of the ancient regime." La Réeveillère-Lepeaux, ´"Memoires."—Buchez et Roux, XXXIV., 94.—Malouet, "Mémoires," II., 135. (Session of May 31, 1791, after the delivery of Abbé Raynal's address.) "This is the first and only time I found Robespierre clear and even eloquent.... He spun out his opening phrases as usual, which contained the spirit of his discourse, and which, in spite of his accustomed rigmarole, produced the effect he intended."]

31104 (return)
[ Courrier de Provence, III., No. 52, (Oct. 7 and 8, 1789).—Buchez et Roux, VI., 372. (Session of July 10, 1790.) Another similar blunder was committed by him on the occasion of an American deputation. The president had made his response, which was "unanimously applauded." Robespierre wanted to have his say notwithstanding the objections of the Assembly, impatient at his verbiage, and which finally put him down. Amidst the laughter, "M. l'Abbé Maury demands ironically the printing of M. Robespierre's discourse."]

31106 (return)
[ Cf. his principal speeches in the constituent Assembly;—against martial law; against the veto, even suspensive; against the qualification of the silver marc and in favor of universal suffrage; in favor of admitting into the National Guard non-acting citizens; of the marriage of priests; of the abolition of the death penalty; of granting political rights to colored men; of interdicting the father from favoring any one of his children; of declaring the "Constituants" ineligible to the Legislative Assembly, etc. On royalty: "The King is not the representative but the clerk of the nation." On the danger of allowing political rights to colored men: "Let the colonies perish if they cost you your honor, your glory, your liberty!"]

31107 (return)
[ Hamel, I., 76.77, (March, 1789). "My heart is an honest one and I stand firm; I have never bowed beneath the yoke of baseness and corruption." He enumerates the virtues that a representative of the Third Estate should possess (26, 83). He already shows his blubbering capacity and his disposition to regard himself as a victim: "They undertake making martyrs of the people's defenders. Had they the power to deprive me of the advantages they envy, could they snatch from me my soul and the consciousness of the benefits I desire to confer on them."]

31108 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux, XXXIII. "Who am I that am thus accused? The slave of freedom, a living martyr to the Republic, at once the victim and the enemy of crime!" See this speech in full.]

31109 (return)
[ Especially in his address to the French people, (Aug., 1791), which, in a justificatory form, is his apotheosis.—Cf. Hamel, II., 212; Speech in the Jacobin club, (April 27, 1792).]

31111 (return)
[ Laréveillère-Lepeaux," Mémoires."—Barbaroux, "Mémoires," 358. (Both, after a visit to him.)]

31112 (return)
[ Robespierre's devotees constantly attend at the Jacobin club and in the convention to hear him speak and applaud him, and are called, from their condition and dress, "the fat petticoats."]

31113 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux, XX., 197. (Meeting of Nov. I, 1792.)—"Chronique de Paris," Nov. 9, 1792, article by Condorcet. With the keen insight of the man of the world, he saw clearly into Robespierre's character. "Robespierre preaches, Robespierre censures; he is animated, grave, melancholy, deliberately enthusiastic and systematic in his ideas, and conduct. He thunders against the rich and the great; he lives on nothing and has no physical necessities. His sole mission is to talk, and this he does almost constantly... His characteristics are not those of a religious reformer, but of the chief of a sect. He has won a reputation for austerity approaching sanctity. He jumps up on a bench and talks about God and Providence. He styles himself the friend of the poor; he attracts around him a crowd of women and 'the poor in spirit, and gravely accepts their homage and worship.... Robespierre is a priest and never will be anything else." Among Robespierre's devotees Madame de Chalabre must be mentioned, (Hamel, I., 525), a young widow (Hamel, III., 524), who offers him her hand with an income of forty thousand francs. "Thou art my supreme deity," she writes to him, "and I know no other on this earth! I regard thee as my guardian angel, and would live only under thy laws."]

31115 (return)
[ Report of Courtois on the papers found in Robespierre's domicile. Justificatory documents No.20, letter of the Secretary of the Committee of Surveillance of Saint Calais, Nivôse 15, year II.]

31116 (return)
[ Ibid., No. 18. Letter of V—, former inspector of "droits reservés," Feb. 5, 1792.]

31118 (return)
[ Ibid., No. I. Letter of Besson, with an address of the popular club of Menosque, Prairial 23, year II]

31119 (return)
[ Ibid., No.14. Letter of D—, member of the Cordeliers Club, and former mercer, Jan.31, 1792]

31120 (return)
[ Ibid., No.12. Letter by C—, Chateau Thierry, Prairial 30, year II.]

31121 (return)
[ Hamel, III., 682. (Copied from Billaud-Varennes' manuscripts, in the Archives Nationales).]

31122 (return)
[ Moniteur, XXII., '75. (Session of Vendémiaire i8, year III. Speech by Laignelot.) "Robespierre had all the popular clubs under his thumb."]

31123 (return)
[ Garat, 85. "The most conspicuous sentiment with Robespierre, and one, indeed, of which he made no mystery, was that the defender of the people could never see amiss."—(Bailleul, quoted in Carnot's Memoirs, I. 516.) "He regarded himself as a privileged being, destined to become the people's regenerator and instructor."]

31125 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux, X., 295, 296. (Session June 22, 1791, of the Jacobin Club.)—Ibid., 294.—Marat spoke in the same vein: "I have made myself a curse for all good people in France." He writes, the same date: "Writers in behalf of the people will be dragged to dungeons. 'The friend of the people,' whose last sigh is given for his country, and whose faithful voice still summons you to freedom, is to find his grave in a fiery furnace." The last expression shows the difference in their imaginations.]

31126 (return)
[ Hamel, II., 122. (Meeting of the Jacobin Club, Feb.10, 1792.) "To obtain death at the hands of tyrants is not enough—one must deserve death. If it be true that the earliest defenders of liberty became its martyrs they should not suffer death without bearing tyranny along with them into the grave."—Cf., ibid., II., 215. (Meeting of April 27, 1792.)]

31127 (return)
[ Hamel, II., 513. (Speech in the Convention, Prairial 7, year II.)]

31128 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 422, 445, 447, 457. (Speech in the Convention, Thermidor 8, year II.)]

31129 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux, XX., 11, 18. (Meeting of the Jacobin Club, Oct.29, 1792.) Speech on Lafayette, the Feuillants and Girondists. XXXI., 360, 363. (Meeting of the Convention, May 7, 1794.) On Lafayette, the Girondists, Dantonists and Hébertists.—XXXIII., 427. (Speech of Thermidor 8, year II.)]

31131 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux, XXI., 107. (Speech of Pétion on the charges made against him by Robespierre.) Petion justly objects that "Brunswick would be the first to cut off Brissot's head, and Brissot is not fool enough to doubt it."]

31132 (return)
[ Garat, 94. (After the King's death and a little before the 10th of March, 1793.)]

31133 (return)
[ Ibid., 97. In 1789 Robespierre assured Garat that Necker was plundering the Treasury, and that people had seen mules loaded with the gold and silver he was sending off by millions to Geneva.—Carnot, "Mémoires," I. 512. "Robespierre," say Carnot and Prieur, "paid very little attention to public business, but a good deal to public officers; he made himself intolerable with his perpetual mistrust of these, never seeing any but traitors and conspirators."]

31134 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 417. (Speech of Thermidor 8, year II.)]

31135 (return)
[ Ibid., XXXII., 361, (Speech May 7, '794,) and 359. "Immorality is the basis of despotism, as virtue is the essence of the Republic."]

31137 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 195. (Report of Couthon and decree in conformity therewith, Prairial 22, year II.) "The revolutionary tribunal is organised for the punishment of the people's enemies.. .. The penalty for all offences within its jurisdiction is death. Those are held to be enemies of the people who shall have misled the people, or the representatives of the people, into measures opposed to the interests of liberty; those who shall have sought to create discouragement by favoring the undertakings of tyrants leagued against the Republic; those who shall have spread false reports to divide or disturb the people; those who shall have sought to misdirect opinion and impede popular instruction, produce depravity and corrupt the public conscience, diminish the energy and purity of revolutionary and republican principles, or stay their progress Those who, charged with public functions, abuse them to serve the enemies of the Revolution, vex patriots, oppress the people, etc."]

31138 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux, XXXV., 290. (" Institutions," by Saint-Just.) "The Revolution is chilled. Principles have lost their vigor. Nothing remains but red-caps worn by intrigue."—Report by Courtois, "Pièces justificatives" No.20. (Letter of Pays and Rompillon, president and secretary of the committee of Surveillance of Saint-Calais, to Robespierre, Nivôse 15, year II.) "The Mountain here is composed of only a dozen or fifteen men on whom you can rely as on yourself; the rest are either deceived, seduced, corrupted or enticed away. Public opinion is debauched by the gold and intrigues of honest folks."]

31139 (return)
[ Report by Courtois, N. 43.—Cf. Hamel, III., 43, 71.—(The following important document is on file in the Archives Nationales, F 7, 4446, and consists of two notes written by Robespierre in June and July, 1793): "Who are our enemies? The vicious and the rich.... How may the civil war be stopped? Punish traitors and conspirators, especially guilty deputies and administrators.... make terrible examples.... proscribe perfidious writers and anti-revolutionaries.... Internal danger comes from the bourgeois; to overcome the bourgeois, rally the people. The present insurrection must be kept up.... The insurrection should gradually continue to spread out... The sans-culottes should be paid and remain in the towns. They ought to be armed, worked up, taught."]

31140 (return)
[ The committee of Public Safety, and Robespierre especially, knew of and commanded the drownings of Nantes, as well as the principal massacres by Carrier, Turreau, etc. (De Martel, "Etude sur Fouché," 257-265.)—Ibid., ("Types revolutionnaires," 41-49.)—Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 101 (May 26, 1794.) Report by Barère and decree of the convention ordering that "No English prisoners should be taken." Robespierre afterwards speaks in the same sense. Ibid., 458. After the capture of Newport, where they took five thousand English prisoners, the French soldiers were unwilling to execute the convention's decree, on which Robespierre (speech of Thermidor 8) said: "I warn you that your decree against the English has constantly been violated; England, so ill-treated in our speeches, is spared by our arms."]

31142 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux, XXX., 157. Sketch of a speech on the Fabre d'Eglantine factim.—Ibid., 336, Speech at the Jacobin Club against Clootz.—XXXII., abstract of a report on the Chabot affair, 18.-Ibid., 69, Speech on maintaining Danton's arrest.]

31143 (return)
[ Ibid., XXX., 378. (Dec.10, 1793.) With respect to the women who crowd the Convention in order to secure the liberty of their husbands: "Should the republican women forget their virtues as citizens whenever they remembering that they are wives?"]

31144 (return)
[ Hamel, III., 196.—Michelet, V., 394, abstract of the judicial debates on the disposition of the Girondists: "The minutes of this decree are found in Robespierre's handwriting."]

31145 (return)
[ De Martel, "Types revolutionnaires," 44. The instructions sent to the Revolutionary Tribunal at Orange are in Robespierre's handwriting.—(Archives Nationales, F7 4439.)]

31147 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 71. (On Danton.) "Before the day is over we shall see whether the convention will shatter an idol a long time rotten.... In what respect is Danton superior to his fellow-citizens?.... I say that the man who now hesitates is guilty..... The debate, just begun, is a danger to the country."—Also the speech in full, against Clootz.]

31148 (return)
[ Ibid., XXX., 338. "Alas, suffering patriots, what can we do, surrounded by enemies fighting in our own ranks!... Let us watch, for the fall of our country is not far off," etc.—These cantatas, with the accompaniments of the celestial harp, are terrible if we consider the circumstances. For instance, on the 3rd of September, 1792, in the electoral assembly while the massacres are going on: "M. Robespierre climbs up on the tribune and declares that he will calmly face the steel of the enemies of public good, and carry with him to his grave the satisfaction of having served his country, the certainty of France having preserved its liberty".—(Archives Nationales, C. II., 58-76.)]

31149 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 360, 371. (Speech of May 7, 1794.) "Danton! the most dangerous, if he had not been the most cowardly, of the enemies of his country.... Danton, the coldest, the most indifferent, during his country's greatest peril."]

31150 (return)
[ Ibid., XXXIV.,—Cf. the description of him by Fievée, who saw him in the tribune at the Jacobin Club.]

31151 (return)
[ Merlin de Thionville "A vague, painful anxiety, due to his temperament, was the sole source of his activity."]

31152 (return)
[ Barère, "Mémoires." "He wanted to rule France influentially rather than directly."—Buchez et Roux, XIV., 188. (Article by Marat.) During the early sessions of the Legislative Assembly, Marat saw Robespierre on one occasion, and explained to him his plans for exciting popular outbreaks, and for his purifying massacres. "Robespierre listened to me with dismay, turned pale and kept silent for some moments. This interview confirmed me in the idea I always had of him, that he combined the enlightenment of a wise senator with the uprightness of a genuine good man and the zeal of a true patriot, but that he equally lacked the views and boldness of a statesman."—Thibaudeau, "Mémoires," 58.—He was the only member of the committee of Public Safety who did not join the department missions.]

31153 (return)
[ Someone is "grandisonian" when he is like the novelist Richardson's hero, Sir Walter Grandison, beneficient, polite and chivalrous. (SR).]

31154 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux XX., 198. (Speech of Robespierre in the Convention, November 5, 1792.)]

31155 (return)
[ All these statements by Robespierre are opposed to the truth.—("Procés-verbaux des Séances de la Commune de Paris.") Sep. 1, 1792, Robespierre speaks twice at the evening session.—The testimony of two persons, both agreeing, indicate, moreover, that he spoke at the morning session, the names of the speakers not being given. "The question," says Pétion (Buchez et Roux, XXI., 103), "was the decree opening the barriers." This decree is under discussion at the Commune at the morning session of September 1: "Robespierre, on this question, spoke in the most animated manner, wandering off in sombre flights of imagination; he saw precipices at his feet and plots of liberticides; he designated the pretended conspirators."—Louvet (ibid., 130), assigns the same date, (except that he takes the evening for the morning session), for Robespierre's first denunciation of the Girondists: "Nobody, then," says Robespierre, "dare name the traitors? Very well, I denounce them. I denounce them for the security of the people. I denounce the liberticide Brissot, the Girondist faction, the villainous committee of twenty-one in the National Assembly. I denounce them for having sold France to Brunswick and for having received pay in advance for their baseness."—Sep. 2, ("Procès verbaux de la Commune," evening session), "MM. Billaud-Varennes and Robespierre, in developing their civic sentiments,.. denounce to the Conseil-Général the conspirators in favor of the Duke of Brunswick, whom a powerful party want to put on the throne of France."—September 3, at 6 o'clock in the morning, (Buchez et Roux, 16, 132, letter of Louvet), commissioners of the Commune present themselves at Brissot's house with an order to inspect his papers; one of them says to Brissot that he has eight similar orders against the Gironde deputies and that he is to begin with Guadet. (Letter of Brissot complaining of this visit, Monitur, Sep. 7, 1792.) This same day, Sep. 31 Robespierre presides at the Commune. (Granier de Cassagnac, "Les Girondins" II., 63.) It is here that a deputation of the Mauconseil section comes to find him, and he is charged by the "Conseil" with a commission at the Temple.—Sept. 4 (Buchez et Roux, XXI., 106, Speech of Petion), the Commune issues a warrant of arrest against Roland; Danton comes to the Mayoralty with Robespierre and has the warrant revoked; Robespierre ends by telling Petion: "I believe that Brissot belongs to Brunswick."—Ibid., 506. "Robespierre (before Sept. 2), took the lead in the Conseil"—Ibid., 107. "Robespierre," I said, "you are making a good deal of mischief. Your denunciations, your fears, hatreds and suspicions, excite the people."]

31159 (return)
[ Ibid., XXXII., 71. (Speech against Danton.) "What have you done that you have not done freely?"]

31160 (return)
[ Ibid., XXXIII., 199 and 221. (Speech on the law of Prairial 22.)]

31161 (return)
[ Mirabeau said of Robespierre: "Whatever that man has said, he believes in it.—Robespierre, Duplay's guest, dined every day with Duplay, a juryman in the revolutionary tribunal and co-operator for the guillotine, at eighteen francs a day. The talk at the table probably turned on the current abstractions; but there must have been frequent allusions to the condemnations of the day, and, even when not mentioned, they were in their minds. Only Robert Browning, at the present day, could imagine and revive what was spoken and thought in those evening conversations before the mother and daughters."]

31162 (return)
[ Today, more than 100 years later, where are we? Is it possible that man can thus lie to himself and hence to others? Robert Wright, in his book "The Moral Animal", describing "The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology", writes (page 280): "The proposition here is that the human brain is, in large part, a machine for winning arguments, a machine for convincing others that its owner is in the right—and thus a machine for convincing its owner of the same thing. The brain is like a good lawyer: given any set of interests to defend, its sets about convincing the world of their moral and logical worth, regardless of whether they in fact have any of either. Like a lawyer, it is sometimes more admirable for skill than for virtue." (SR).]

31163 (return)
[ Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 151.—Cf.. Dauban, "Paris en 1794," p.386 (engraving) and 392, "Fête de l'Être Suprême à Sceaux," according to the programme drawn up by the patriot Palloy. "All citizens are requested to be at their windows or doors, even those occupying the rear part of the main buildings."—Ibid., 399. "Youthful citizens will strew flowers at each station, fathers will embrace their children and mothers turn their eyes upward to heaven."—Moniteur, XXX., 653. "Plan of the fête in honor of the Supreme Being, drawn up by David, and decreed by the National Convention."]

31167 (return)
[ Ibid., 177 (Narrative by Vilate.) Ibid., 170, Notes by Robespierre on Bourdon (de l'Oise) 417. Passages erased by Robespierre in the manuscript of his speech of Thermidor 8.—249. Analogous passages in his speech as delivered,—all these indications enable us to trace the depths of his resentment.]

31168 (return)
[ Ibid., 183. Memoirs of Billaud-Varennes, Collot d'Herbois, Vadier and Barère. "The next day after Prairial 22, at the morning session (of the committee of Public Safety).... I now see, says Robespierre, that I stand alone, with nobody to support me, and, getting violently excited, he launched out against the members of the committee who had conspired against him. He shouted so loud as to collect together a number of citizens on the Tuileries terrace." Finally, "he pushed hypocrisy so far as to shed tears." The nervous machine, I imagine, broke down.—Another member of the committee, Prieur, (Carnot, "Mémoires," II., 525), relates that, in the month of Floréal, after another equally long and violent session, "Robespierre, exhausted, became ill."]