Robespierre adds "vicious men" as its special and favorite prey.
Henceforth, he may in vain abstain from action, take refuge in his
rhetoric, stop his chaste ears, and raise his hypocritical eyes to
heaven, he cannot avoid seeing or hearing under his immaculate feet
the streaming gore, and the bones crashing in the open jaws of the
insatiable monster which he has fashioned and on which he rides.[31140]
These ever open and hungry jaws must be daily fed with an ampler supply
of human flesh; not only is he bound to let it eat, but to furnish the
food, often with his own hands, except that he must afterwards wash
them, declaring, and even believing, that no spot of blood has ever
soiled them. He is generally content to caress and flatter the brute, to
excuse it, to let it go on. Nevertheless, more than once, tempted by the
opportunity, he has launched it against his designated victim.[31141] He
is now himself starting off in quest of living prey; he casts the net of
his rhetoric[31142] around it; he fetches it bound to the open jaws; he
thrusts aside with an uncompromising air the arms of friends, wives and
mothers, the outstretched hands of suppliants begging for lives;[31143]
he suddenly throttles the struggling victims[31144] and, for fear that
they might escape, he strangles them in time. Near the end, this is no
longer enough; the brute must have grander quarries, and, accordingly, a
pack of hounds, beaters-up, and, willingly or not, it is Robespierre who
equips, directs and urges them on, at Orange, at Paris,[31145] ordering
them to empty the prison's, and be expeditious in doing their work.--In
this profession of slaughtering, destructive instincts, long repressed
by civilization, become aroused. His feline physiognomy, at first "that
of a domestic cat, restless but mild, changes into the savage appearance
of the wildcat, and close to the ferocious exterior of the tiger. In the
Constituent Assembly he speaks with a whine, in the Convention he froths
at the mouth."[31146] The monotonous drone of a stiff sub-professor
changes into the personal accent of furious passion; he hisses and
grinds his teeth;[31147] Sometimes, on a change of scene, he affects to
shed tears.[31148] But his wildest outbursts are less alarming than his
affected sensibility. The festering grudges, corrosive envies and bitter
scheming which have accumulated in his breast are astonishing. The gall
bladder is full, and the extravasated gall overflows on the dead. He
never tires of re-executing his guillotined adversaries, the Girondists,
Chaumette, Hébert and especially Danton,[31149] probably because Danton
was the active agent in the Revolution of which he was simply the
incapable pedagogue; he vents his posthumous hatred on this still warm
corpse in artful insinuations and obvious misrepresentations. Thus,
inwardly corroded by the venom it distills, his physical machine gets
out of order, like that of Marat, but with other symptoms. When speaking
in the tribune "his hands crisp with a sort of nervous contraction;"
sudden tremors agitate "his shoulders and neck, shaking him convulsively
to and fro."[31150] "His bilious complexion becomes livid," his eyelids
quiver under his spectacles, and how he looks! "Ah," said a Montagnard,
"you would have voted as we did on the 9th of Thermidor, had you seen
his green eyeballs!" "Physically as well as morally," he becomes a
second Marat, suffering all the more because his delirium is not steady,
and because his policy, being a moral one, forces him to exterminate on
a grander scale.
But he is a discreet Marat, of a timid temperament, anxious,[31151]
keeping his thoughts to himself, made for a school-master or a
pleader, but not for taking the lead or for governing, always acting
hesitatingly, and ambitious to be rather the pope, than the dictator
of the Revolution.[31152] Above all, he wants to remain a political
Grandison[31153]; until the very end, he keeps his mask, not only in
public but also to himself and in his inmost conscience. The mask,
indeed, has adhered to his skin; he can no longer distinguish one from
the other; never did an impostor more carefully conceal intentions and
acts under sophisms, and persuade himself that the mask was his face,
and that in telling a lie, he told the truth.
Taking his word for it, he had nothing to do with the September
events.[31154] "Previous to these events, he had ceased to attend the
General Council of the Commune... He no longer went there." He was not
charged with any duty, he had no influence there; he had not provoked
the arrest and murder of the Girondists.[31155] All he did was to "speak
frankly concerning certain members of the Committee of Twenty-one;" as
"a magistrate" and "one of a municipal assembly." Should he not" explain
himself freely on the authors of a dangerous plot?" Besides, the Commune
"far from provoking the 2nd of September did all in its power to prevent
it." After all, only one innocent person perished, "which is undoubtedly
one too many. Citizens, mourn over this cruel mistake; we too have long
mourned over it! But, as all things human come to an end, let your tears
cease to flow." When the sovereign people resumes its delegated
power and exercises its inalienable rights, we have only to bow our
heads.--Moreover, it is just, wise and good "in all that it undertakes,
all is virtue and truth; nothing can be excess, error or crime."[31156]
It must intervene when its true representatives are hampered by the
law "let it assemble in its sections and compel the arrest of faithless
deputies."[31157] What is more legal than such a motion, which is the
only part Robespierre took on the 31st of May. He is too scrupulous to
commit or prescribe an illegal act. That will do for the Dantons, the
Marats, men of relaxed morals or excited brains, who if need be, tramp
in the gutters and roll up their shirt-sleeves; as to himself, he can
do nothing that would ostensibly derange or soil the dress proper to
an honest man and irreproachable citizen. In the Committee of Public
Safety, he merely executes the decrees of the Convention, and the
Convention is always free. He a dictator! He is merely one of seven
hundred deputies, and his authority, if he has any, is simply the
legitimate ascendancy of reason and virtue.[31158] He a murderer! If
he has denounced conspirators, it is the Convention which summons these
before the revolutionary Tribunal,[31159] and the revolutionary Tribunal
pronounces judgment on them. He a terrorist! He merely seeks to simplify
the established proceedings, so as to secure a speedier release of the
innocent, the punishment of the guilty, and the final purgation that
is to render liberty and morals the order of the day.[31160]--Before
uttering all this he almost believes it, and, when he has uttered it he
believes it fully.[31161] When nature and history combine, to produce a
character, they succeed better than man's imagination. Neither Molière
in his "Tartuffe," nor Shakespeare in his "Richard III.," dared bring
on the stage a hypocrite believing himself sincere, and a Cain that
regarded himself as an Abel.[31162] There he stands on a colossal stage,
in the presence of a hundred thousand spectators, on the 8th of June,
1794, the most glorious day of his life, at that fête in honor of the
Supreme Being, which is the glorious triumph of his doctrine and
the official consecration of his papacy. Two characters are found in
Robespierre, as in the Revolution which he represents: one, apparent,
paraded, external, and the other hidden, dissembled, inward, the latter
being overlaid by the former.--The first one all for show, fashioned
out of purely cerebral cogitations, is as artificial as the solemn farce
going on around him. According to David's programme, the cavalcade
of supernumeraries who file in front of an allegorical mountain,
gesticulate and shout at the command, and under the eyes, of Henriot
and his gendarmes,[31163] manifesting at the appointed time the emotions
which are prescribed for them. At five o'clock in the morning
"friends, husbands, wives, relations and children will embrace....
The old man, his eyes streaming with tears of joy, feels himself
rejuvenated."
At two o'clock, on the turf-laid terraces of the sacred mountain,
"all will show a state of commotion and excitement: mothers here press
to their bosoms the infants they suckle, and there offer them up in
homage to the author of Nature, while youths, aglow with the ardor
of battle, simultaneously draw their swords and hand them to their
venerable fathers. Sharing in the enthusiasm of their sons, the deported
old men embrace them and bestow on them the paternal benediction.....
All the men distributed around the 'Field of Reunion' sing in chorus
the (first) refrain.... All the Women distributed around the 'Field of
Reunion' sing in unison the (second) refrain.... All Frenchmen partake
of each other's sentiments in one grand fraternal embrace."
What could better than such an idyll, ruled with an iron hand, in the
presence of moral symbols and colored pasteboard divinities, could
better please the counterfeit moralist, unable to distinguish the
false from the true, and whose skin-deep sensibility is borrowed from
sentimental authors! "For the first time" his glowing countenance beams
with joy, while "the enthusiasm"[31164] of the scribe overflows, as
usual, in book phraseology.
"Behold!" he exclaims, "that which is most interesting in humanity! The
Universe is here assembled! O, Nature, how sublime, how exquisite is thy
power! How tyrants must quail at the contemplation of this festival!"
Is not he himself its most dazzling ornament? Was not he unanimously
chosen to preside over the Convention and conduct the ceremonies? Is he
not the founder of the new cult, the only pure worship on the face of
the earth, approved of by morality and reason? Wearing the uniform of a
representative, nankeen breeches, blue coat, tri-colored sash and plumed
hat,[31165] holding in his hand a bouquet of flowers and grain, he
marches at the head of the Convention and officiates on the platform;
he sets fire to the veil which hides from view the idol representing
"Atheism," and suddenly, through an ingenious contrivance, the majestic
statue of "Wisdom" appears in its place. He then addresses the crowd,
over and over again, exhorting, apostrophizing, preaching, elevating his
soul to the Supreme Being, and with what oratorical combinations! What
an academic swell of bombastic cadences, strung together to enforce
his tirades! How cunning the even balance of adjective and
substantive![31166] From these faded rhetorical flowers, arranged as if
for a prize distribution or a funeral oration, exhales a sanctimonious,
collegiate odor which he complacently breathes, and which intoxicates
him. At this moment, he must certainly be in earnest; there is no
hesitation or reserve in his self-admiration; he is not only in his own
eyes a great writer and great orator, but a great statesman and
great citizen his artificial, philosophic conscience awards him
only praise.--But look underneath, or rather wait a moment. Signs of
impatience and antipathy appear behind his back: Lecointre has braved
him openly; numerous insults, and, worse than these, sarcasms, reach his
ears. On such an occasion, and in such a place! Against the pontiff of
Truth, the apostle of Virtue! The miscreants, how dare they! Silent and
pale, he suppresses his rage, and,[31167] losing his balance, closing
his eyes, he plunges headlong on the path of murder: cost what it
will, the miscreants must perish and without loss of time. To expedite
matters, he must get their heads off quietly, and as "up to this time
things have been managed confidentially in the Committee of Public
Safety," he, alone with Couthon, two days after, without informing his
colleagues,[31168] draws up, brings to the Convention, and has passed
the terrible act of Prairial which places everybody's life at his
disposal.--In his crafty, blundering haste, he has demanded too much;
each one, on reflection, becomes alarmed for himself; he is compelled
to back out, to protest that he is misunderstood, admit that
representatives are excepted, and, accordingly, to sheathe the knife he
has already applied to his adversaries throats. But he still holds it
in his grasp. He watches them, and, pretending to retreat, affects
a renunciation, crouched in his corner,[31169] waiting until they
discredit themselves, so as to spring upon them a second time. He has
not to wait long, for the exterminating machine he set up on the 22nd
of Prairial, is in their hands, and it has to work as he planned it,
namely, by making rapid turns and almost haphazard: the odium of a blind
sweeping massacre rests with them; he not only makes no opposition to
this, but, while pretending to abstain from it, he urges it on. Secluded
in the private office of his secret police, he orders arrests;[31170]
he sends out his principal bloodhound, Herman; he first signs and
then dispatches the resolution by which it is supposed that there are
conspirators among those in confinement and which, authorizing spies
or paid informers, is to provide the guillotine with those vast batches
which purge and clean prisons out in a trice."[31171]--"I am not
responsible," he states later on...." My lack of power to do any good,
to arrest the evil, forced me for more than six weeks to abandon my post
on the Committee of Public Safety."[31172] To ruin his adversaries by
murders committed by him, by those which he makes them commit and which
he imputes to them, to whitewash himself and blacken them with the same
stroke of the brush, what intense delight! If the natural conscience
murmurs in whispers at moments, the acquired superposed conscience
immediately imposes silence, concealing personal hatreds under public
pretexts: the guillotined, after all, were aristocrats, and whoever
comes under the guillotine is immoral. Thus, the means are good and the
end better; in employing the means, as well as in pursuing the end, the
function is sacerdotal.
Such is the scenic exterior of the Revolution, a specious mask with a
hideous visage beneath it, under the reign of a nominal humanitarian
theory, covering over the effective dictatorship of evil and low
passions. In its true representative, as in itself, we see ferocity
issuing from philanthropy, and, from the pedant (cuistre), the
executioner.
*****
[Footnote 3101: Harmand (de la Meuse): "Anecdotes relatives à la
Revolution." "He was dressed like a tough cab-driver. He had a disturbed
look and an eye always in motion; he acted in an abrupt, quick and
jerky way. A constant restlessness gave a convulsive contraction to his
muscles and features which likewise affected his manner of walking so
that he didn't walk but hopped."]
[Footnote 3102: Chevremont, "Jean Paul Marat;" also Alfred Bougeard,
"Marat" passim. These two works, with numerous documents, are panegyrics
of Marat.--Bougeat, I., II (description of Marat by Fabre d'Eglantine);
II., 259 and I., 83.--"Journal de la Republique Française," by Marat,
No.93, January 9, 1793. "I devote only two out of the twenty four
hours to sleep, and only one hour to my meals, toilette and domestic
necessities... I have not taken fifteen minutes recreation for more than
three years."]
[Footnote 3103: Chevremont, I., pp. I and 2. His family, on the father's
side, was Spanish, long settled in Sardinia. The father, Dr. Jean Mara,
had abandoned Catholicism and removed to Geneva where he married a
woman of that city; he afterwards established himself in the canton of
Neufchatel.]
[Footnote 3104: "Journal de la République Française" No.98, description
of "l'Ami du peuple" by himself.]
[Footnote 3105: Read his novel "Les Aventures du jeune comte Potowski,"
letter 5, by Lucile: "I think of Potowski only. My imagination, inflamed
at the torch of love, ever presents to me his sweet image." Letter of
Potowski after his marriage. "Lucile now grants to love all that modesty
permits... enjoying such transports of bliss, I believe that the gods
are jealous of my lot."]
[Footnote 3106: Preface, XX. "Descartes, Helvetius, Haller, Lelat all
ignored great principles; Man, with them, is an enigma, an impenetrable
secret." He says in a foot-note, "We find evidence of this in the works
of Hume, Voltaire, Bonnet, Racine and Pascal."]
[Footnote 3107: "Mémoires Académiques sur la Lumière," pref., VII.--He
especially opposes "the differential refrangibility of heterogeneous
rays" which is "the basis of Newton's theory."]
[Footnote 3108: Chevremont, I., 74. (See the testimony of Arago, Feb.24,
1844).]
[Footnote 3109: Ibid., I., 104. (Sketch of a declaration of the rights
of man and of the citizen).]
[Footnote 3110: See the epigraph of his "Mémoires sur la Lumiere."
"They will force their way against wind and tide."--Ibid., preface, VII.
"Déconvertes de Monsieur Marat," 1780, 2nd ed., p. 140.]
[Footnote 3111: "Recherches physiques sur l'electricité," 1782, pp.13,
17.]
[Footnote 3112: Chevremont, I., 59.]
[Footnote 3113: "De l'Homme," preface VII. and book IV.]
[Footnote 3114: "Journal de la République Française," No 98.]
[Footnote 3115: "Journal de la République Française," by Marat, No. I.]
[Footnote 3116: "L'Ami du Peuple" No. 173. (July 26, 1790). The memories
of conceited persons, given to immoderate self-expansion, are largely at
fault. I have seen patients in asylums who, believing in their exalted
position, have recounted their successes in about the same vein as
Marat. (Chevremont, I., 40, 47, 54). "The reports of extraordinary cures
effected by me brought me a great crowd of the sick. The street in front
of my door was blocked with carriages. People came to consult me
from all quarters.... The abstract of my experiments on Light finally
appeared and it created a prodigious sensation throughout Europe; the
newspapers were all filled with it. I had the court and the town in my
house for six months.... The Academy, finding that it could not stifle
my discoveries tried to make it appear that they had emanated from its
body." Three academic bodies came in turn the same day to see if he
would not present himself as a candidate.--"Up to the present time
several crowned heads have sought me and always on account of the fame
of my works."]
[Footnote 3117: "Journal de la République Française," July 6 1793.]
[Footnote 3118: Moniteur, (Session of the Convention, Sep.25, 1792).
Marat, indeed, is constantly claiming the post of temporary dictator.
("L'Ami du peuple," Nos. 258, 268, 466, 668 and "Appel à la nation,"
p.53).]
[Footnote 3119: Moniteur, (Session of the Convention, Sep.25, 1792).
Marat, indeed, is constantly claiming the post of temporary dictator.
("L'Ami du peuple," Nos. 258, 268, 466, 668 and "Appel à la nation,"
p.53).]
[Footnote 3120: Moniteur, (Session of the Convention, Sep.25, 1792).
Marat, indeed, is constantly claiming the post of temporary dictator.
("L'Ami du peuple," Nos. 258, 268, 466, 668 and "Appel à la nation,"
p.53).]
[Footnote 3121: Chevremont, I., 40. (Marat's letters, 1793).]
[Footnote 3122: Journal de la Republique Française, No.98.]
[Footnote 3123: The words of Marat and Panes. (Chevremont, I., 197, 203;
also "The Revolution" II., 290, 2nd note).]
[Footnote 3124: Michelet, "Histoire de la Révolution," II., 89.
(Narrated by M. Bourdier, Marat's physician, to M. Serre, the
physiologist). Barbaroux, "Mémoires," 355, (after a visit to Marat):
"You should see how superficially Marat composed his articles. Without
any knowledge of a public man he would ask the first person he met what
he thought of him and this he wrote down, exclaiming 'I'll crush the
rascal!'"]
[Footnote 3125: Chevremont, I., 361. (From a pamphlet against Necker, by
Marat, July, 1790).]
[Footnote 3126: "L'Ami du Peuple," No.552. (August 30, 1791).]
[Footnote 3127: Ibid., No.626. (Dec. 15, 1791). Cf. "The Revolution,"
II., 129, on the number of armed emigrés. At this date the authorized
number as published is four thousand.]
[Footnote 3128: His filthy imputations cannot be quoted. See in Buchez
et Roux, IX., 419 (April 26, 1791), and X., 220 (Nos. for June 17, 19
and 21), his statement against Lafayette; again, his list with its vile
qualifications of "rascals and rogues," who are canvassing for election,
and his letters on the Academicians.]
[Footnote 3129: Buchez et Roux, X., 407 (Sept., 1791).--Cf. ibid., 473.
According to Marat, "it is useless to measure a degree of the meridian;
the Egyptians having already given this measure. The Academicians
obtained an appropriation of one thousand crowns for the expenses
of this undertaking, a small cake which they have fraternally divided
amongst themselves."]
[Footnote 3130: Chevremont, I., 238-249. "L'Ami du peuple," Nos. 419,
519, 543, 608, 641. Other falsehoods just as extravagant are nearly all
grotesque. No.630, (April 15, 1792). "Simonneau, mayor of d'Etampes,
is an infamous ministerial monopolizer."--No. 627, (April 12, 1792).
Delessart, the minister, "accepts gold to let a got-up decree be passed
against him." No. 650, (May 10, 1792). "Louis XVI. desired war only to
establish his despotism on an indestructible foundation."]
[Footnote 3131: Chevremont, I., 106. (Draft of a declaration of the
rights of man and of the citizen, 1789).--Ibid., I., 196.]
[Footnote 3132: "L'Ami du peuple," Nos. 24 and 274.--Cf. "Placard de
Marat," Sept. 18, 1792. "The National Convention should always be under
the eye of the people, so that the people may stone it if it neglects
its duty."]
[Footnote 3133: "L'Ami du peuple," Nos. 108-111. (May 20-23, 1790).]
[Footnote 3134: Ibid., No. 258. (Oct. 22, 1790).]
[Footnote 3135: Ibid., No. 286 (Nov. 20, 1790).]
[Footnote 3136: Ibid., No. 198 (August 22, 1790).]
[Footnote 3137: Ibid., Nos. 523 and 524 (July 19 and 20, 1791).]
[Footnote 3138: Ibid., No.626 (Dec. 15, 1791).]
[Footnote 3139: 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.]
[Footnote 3140: 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."]
[Footnote 3141: 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).]
[Footnote 3142: 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."]
[Footnote 3143: Danton never wrote or printed a speech. "I am no
writer," he says. (Garat, Memoires, 31.)]
[Footnote 3144: 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."]
[Footnote 3145: Garat, ibid., 311, 312.]
[Footnote 3146: 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.]
[Footnote 3147: 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."]
[Footnote 3148: Ibid., I., 558, 562, 585. (The intermediaries were
Westermann and Dumouriez.)]
[Footnote 3149: 2 Ibid., II., 28, 290, 291, 293.]
[Footnote 3150: Buchez et Roux, XXV., 445. (Session of April 13, 1793.)]
[Footnote 3151: 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.)]
[Footnote 3152: 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."]
[Footnote 3153: Cf. the "Ancient Regime," p. 501.]
[Footnote 3154: "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.]
[Footnote 3155: 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.)]
[Footnote 3156: Madame Roland, "Memoires." (Statement of Madame Danton
to Madame Roland.)]
[Footnote 3157: Expressions used by Garat and
Roederer.--Larévilliere-Lepaux calls him "the Cyclop."]
[Footnote 3158: Fauchet describes him as "the Pluto of Eloquence."]
[Footnote 3159: Riouffe, "Mémoires sur les prisons." "In prison every
utterance was mingled with oaths and gross expressions."]
[Footnote 3160: 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.]
[Footnote 3161: 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."]
[Footnote 3162: 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.'"]
[Footnote 3163: 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.]
[Footnote 3164: Buchez et Roux, IV., 295, 298, 401; V., 140.]
[Footnote 3165: Ibid., VIII., 28 (October, 1790).]
[Footnote 3166: 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.]
[Footnote 3167: "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."]
[Footnote 3168: 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."]
[Footnote 3169: Decrees of April 6 and 7, 1793.]
[Footnote 3170: Decree of September 5, 1793.]
[Footnote 3171: Decree of March 10, 1793.]
[Footnote 3172: August 1 and 12, 1793.]
[Footnote 3173: 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."]
[Footnote 3174: 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."]
[Footnote 3175: 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.]
[Footnote 3176: Garat, 305, 310, 313. "His friends almost worshipped
him."]
[Footnote 3177: Ibid., 317.--Thibeaudeau, "Mémoires," I., 59.]
[Footnote 3178: 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.]
[Footnote 3179: Riouffe, 67.]
[Footnote 3180: 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."]
[Footnote 3181: 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."]
[Footnote 3182: "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."]
[Footnote 3183: 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."]
[Footnote 3184: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 437, 438, 440, 442. (Speech by
Robespierre, Thermidor 8, year II.)]
[Footnote 3185: 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.]
[Footnote 3186: 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."]
[Footnote 3187: 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.]
[Footnote 3188: "The Ancient Regime," p.262.]
[Footnote 3189: 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."]
[Footnote 3190: 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."]
[Footnote 3191: 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).]
[Footnote 3192: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 406. (Speech delivered
Thermidor 8th.) The printed copy of the manuscript with corrections and
erasures.]
[Footnote 3193: Ibid., 420, 422, 427.]
[Footnote 3194: 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!"]
[Footnote 3195: Speech, May 7, 1794. (On moral and religious ideas in
relation to republican principles.)]
[Footnote 3196: Personifications. From Greek to make persons. (SR).]
[Footnote 3197: 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.]
[Footnote 3198: 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?"]
[Footnote 3199: Ibid., XXXII., 360, 361. (Portraits of the
encyclopaedists and Hébertists.)]
[Footnote 31100: Ibid., XXXIII., 408. "Here, I have to open my
heart."--XXXII., 475-478, the concluding part.]
[Footnote 31101: 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.]
[Footnote 31102: 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."]
[Footnote 31103: 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."]
[Footnote 31104: 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."]
[Footnote 31105: L. Villiers, 2.]
[Footnote 31106: 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!"]
[Footnote 31107: 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."]
[Footnote 31108: 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.]
[Footnote 31109: 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).]
[Footnote 31110: Hamel, I., 517, 532, 559; II., 5.]
[Footnote 31111: Laréveillère-Lepeaux," Mémoires."--Barbaroux,
"Mémoires," 358. (Both, after a visit to him.)]
[Footnote 31112: 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."]
[Footnote 31113: 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."]
[Footnote 31114: Fievée, "Correspondance," (introduction).]
[Footnote 31115: 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.]
[Footnote 31116: Ibid., No. 18. Letter of V--, former inspector of
"droits reservés," Feb. 5, 1792.]
[Footnote 31117: Ibid., No.8. Letter of P. Brincourt, Sedan, Aug.29,
1793.]
[Footnote 31118: Ibid., No. I. Letter of Besson, with an address of the
popular club of Menosque, Prairial 23, year II]
[Footnote 31119: Ibid., No.14. Letter of D--, member of the Cordeliers
Club, and former mercer, Jan.31, 1792]
[Footnote 31120: Ibid., No.12. Letter by C--, Chateau Thierry, Prairial
30, year II.]
[Footnote 31121: Hamel, III., 682. (Copied from Billaud-Varennes'
manuscripts, in the Archives Nationales).]
[Footnote 31122: Moniteur, XXII., '75. (Session of Vendémiaire i8, year
III. Speech by Laignelot.) "Robespierre had all the popular clubs under
his thumb."]
[Footnote 31123: 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."]
[Footnote 31124: Speech of May 16, 1794, and of Thermidor 8, year II.]
[Footnote 31125: 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.]
[Footnote 31126: 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.)]
[Footnote 31127: Hamel, II., 513. (Speech in the Convention, Prairial 7,
year II.)]
[Footnote 31128: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 422, 445, 447, 457. (Speech in
the Convention, Thermidor 8, year II.)]
[Footnote 31129: 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.)]
[Footnote 31130: Garat, "Mémoires," 87, 88.]
[Footnote 31131: 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."]
[Footnote 31132: Garat, 94. (After the King's death and a little before
the 10th of March, 1793.)]
[Footnote 31133: 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."]
[Footnote 31134: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 417. (Speech of Thermidor 8,
year II.)]
[Footnote 31135: Ibid., XXXII., 361, (Speech May 7, '794,) and 359.
"Immorality is the basis of despotism, as virtue is the essence of the
Republic."]
[Footnote 31136: Ibid., 371.]
[Footnote 31137: 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."]
[Footnote 31138: 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."]
[Footnote 31139: 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."]
[Footnote 31140: 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."]
[Footnote 31141: On the Girondists, Cf. "The Revolution," II., 216.]
[Footnote 31142: 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.]
[Footnote 31143: 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?"]
[Footnote 31144: 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."]
[Footnote 31145: De Martel, "Types revolutionnaires," 44. The
instructions sent to the Revolutionary Tribunal at Orange are in
Robespierre's handwriting.--(Archives Nationales, F7 4439.)]
[Footnote 31146: Merlin de Thionville.]
[Footnote 31147: 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.]
[Footnote 31148: 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.)]
[Footnote 31149: 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."]
[Footnote 31150: Ibid., XXXIV.,--Cf. the description of him by Fievée,
who saw him in the tribune at the Jacobin Club.]
[Footnote 31151: Merlin de Thionville "A vague, painful anxiety, due to
his temperament, was the sole source of his activity."]
[Footnote 31152: 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.]
[Footnote 31153: Someone is "grandisonian" when he is like the novelist
Richardson's hero, Sir Walter Grandison, beneficient, polite and
chivalrous. (SR).]
[Footnote 31154: Buchez et Roux XX., 198. (Speech of Robespierre in the
Convention, November 5, 1792.)]
[Footnote 31155: 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."]
[Footnote 31156: Garat, 86.-Cf. Hamel, I., 264. (Speech, June 9, 1791.)]
[Footnote 31157: "The Revolution," II., 338, 339. (Speech. Aug. 3,
1792.)]
[Footnote 31158: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 420. (Speech, Thermidor 8.)]
[Footnote 31159: Ibid., XXXII., 71. (Speech against Danton.) "What have
you done that you have not done freely?"]
[Footnote 31160: Ibid., XXXIII., 199 and 221. (Speech on the law of
Prairial 22.)]
[Footnote 31161: 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."]
[Footnote 31162: 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).]
[Footnote 31163: 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."]
[Footnote 31164: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 176. (Narrative by Valate.)]
[Footnote 31165: Hamel, III., 541.]
[Footnote 31166: Buchez et Roux, XXVIII., 178, 180.]
[Footnote 31167: 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.]
[Footnote 31168: 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."]
[Footnote 31169: Carnot, "Mémoires," II. 526. "As his bureau was in a
separate place, where none of us set foot, he could retire to it without
coming in contact with any of us, as in effect, he did. He even made a
pretence of passing through the committee rooms, after the session was
over, and he signed some papers; but he really neglected nothing, except
our common discussions. He held frequent conferences in his house with
the presidents of the revolutionary tribunals, over which his influence
was greater than ever."]
[Footnote 31170: Dauban, "Paris en 1794," 563.--Archives Nationales,
AF.II., 58. The signature of Robespierre, in his own handwriting, is
found affixed to many of the resolutions of the Committee of Public
Safety, passed Thermidor 5 and 7, and those of St. Just and Couthon
after this, up to Thermidor 3, 6 and 7. On the register of the minutes
of the Committee of Public Safety, Robespierre is always recorded as
present at all meetings between Messidor 1 and Thermidor 8, inclusive.]
[Footnote 31171: Archives Nationales, F.7, 4438. Report to the Committee
of Public Safety by Herman, Commissioner of the civil and Police
administrations and of the Courts, Messidor 3, year II. "The committee
charged with a general supervision of the prisons, and obliged to
recognize that all the rascals mostly concerned with liberticide plots
are.... still in the prisons, forming a band apart, and rendering
surveillance very troublesome; they are a constant source of disorder,
always getting up attempts to escape, being a daily assemblage of
persons devoting themselves wholly to imprecations against liberty and
its defenders.... It would be easy to point out in each prison, those
who have served, and are to serve, the diverse factions, the diverse
conspiracies.... It may be necessary, perhaps, to purge the prisons
at once and free the soil of liberty of their filth, the refuse of
humanity." The Committee of Public Safety consequently "charges the
commission to ascertain in the prisons of Paris... who have been more
specially concerned in the diverse factions and conspiracies that the
National convention has destroyed." The word "approved" appears at the
foot of the resolution in Robespierre's handwriting, then the signature
of Robespierre, and lower down, those of Billaud and Barère. A similar
resolution providing for the 7th of Messidor, signed by the same parties
and five others, is dispatched the same day. (M. de Martel came across
and made use of this conclusive document before I did, most of it being
quoted in "Les Types Revolutionnaires.")]
[Footnote 31172: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 434.]