THE KING SENTENCED.
If there had ever existed any doubt as to the crimes of high treason
charged against Louis XVI, the doubt vanished before the crushing proofs
furnished against him during his examination. Deseze, Tronchet and
Malesherbes, charged with the defense made their main plea on the royal
inviolability guaranteed by the Constitution of 1791.
According to the defense of Louis XVI, and, indeed, according to the
text of the Constitution itself, the King, even though he violated the
Constitution, even though he betrayed the state, even though he led an
invasion upon France, and at the head of foreign troops put the country
to fire and sword, even then he incurred no penalty other than that of
deposition. Such was the brief of the King's lawyers.
This theory, in which the absurd jostled the monstrous, was not judged
worthy of a refutation by the Convention. Capet's accusers placed the
question on a higher plane, by affirming and demonstrating the nullity
of the Constitutional pact of 1791. Such was the opinion held by
Robespierre, St. Just, Condorcet, Carnot, Danton, several Girondins,
and, in fact, the great majority of the house.
In the name of justice, of right, and of reason, Louis XVI richly
merited the verdict of guilty.
The sovereignty of the people being permanent, indivisible and
inalienable, the Constitution of 1791 was radically null and void, in
that it provided for the hereditary alienation of a portion of the
people's rights, in favor of the ex-royal family. The Conventionists of
1793 were no more in love with the Constitution of 1791 than the
Constituents of 1791 were with the monarchical, feudal and religious
institutions which had weighed like an incubus on France fourteen
centuries long.
A nation has the power, but never the right, to alienate its
sovereignty, either in whole or in part, by delegating it to a
hereditary family. Such an alienation, imposed amid the violence of
conquest, borne out of habits of thought, or consented to in a moment of
public aberration, binds neither the present generation nor those to
come. Accordingly, the Constitution of 1791 being virtually null in
fact, Louis Capet could not invoke the protection of that Constitution,
which guaranteed the inviolability of the royal person, and limited his
punishment to deposition in a few specified cases. Louis XVI was, then,
legally brought to trial. By reconquering its full sovereignty on the
10th of August, the nation invested the Convention with the powers
necessary for judging the one-time King. His crimes were notorious and
flagrant; their penalty was written in the books of the law, equally for
all citizens; he must, then, undergo the penalty for his misdeeds.
I, John Lebrenn, add here some further passages from my diary, relating
to the trial, judgment and execution of Louis Capet.
* * * * *
JANUARY 15, 1793.--Having heard the defense submitted by Deseze, one of
the attorneys for Louis XVI, the Convention put to a vote this first
question:
"Is Louis Capet guilty of conspiracy against liberty and the nation, and
of assault on the general safety of the State?"
The Assembly contained seven hundred and forty-nine members.
Six hundred and eighty-three replied:
"Yes, the accused is guilty."
The roll-call being completed, the president of the Assembly announced
the decision:
"In the name of the French people, the National Convention declares
Louis Capet guilty of conspiracy against liberty and the nation, and of
assault on the general safety of the State."
The second question was:
"Shall the decision of the National Convention be submitted to
ratification by the people?"
The members who voted for ratification by the people were two hundred
and eighty-one; those against ratification, four hundred and
twenty-three.
The president announced the result of the vote:
"The National Convention declares the judgment rendered on Louis Capet
shall not be sent for ratification to the people."
JANUARY 17, 1793.--To-day and yesterday the sessions of the Convention
were permanent, due to the gravity of the situation. The debate turned
upon the third question:
"What shall be the penalty imposed on Louis XVI?"
I was present at the sessions wherein the elected Representatives of the
people decided the fate of the Frankish monarchy, imposed on Gaul for
fourteen centuries. It was not alone the man, the King, that the
Convention decapitated--it was the most ancient monarchy in Europe. It
was not only the head of Capet that the Republic wished defiantly to
cast at the feet of allied Europe; it was the crown of the last of the
Kings.
It was eight in the evening. In response to their names as the roll was
called the members of the Convention mounted the tribunal one by one,
and in the midst of a solemn silence cast their vote.
This evening, Thursday, at eight o'clock, while throughout the spacious
hall one might have heard a pin drop, Vergniaud announced the result:
"The Assembly consists of seven hundred and forty-nine members; 15 are
absent on committees, 7 because of illness, 1 without cause, censured;
and 5 excused; number remaining, seven hundred and twenty-one.
"Required for an absolute majority, three hundred and sixty-one.
"Members voting for death unconditionally, three hundred and
eighty-seven.
"Members voting for imprisonment, irons, or conditional death, three
hundred and thirty-four.
"In the name of the people and the National Convention, I declare the
penalty of death pronounced against Louis Capet."
JANUARY 19, 1793.--The question put by Mailhe, "Shall there be any
postponement of Louis XVI's execution?" was discussed during the
sessions of the 17th and 18th. At the end of to-day's session, the
president put the question to a vote:
"Shall the execution of Louis Capet be postponed, yes or no?"
The vote resulted: for postponement, three hundred and ten; against,
three hundred and eighty. The postponement was lost. Pale, and with
grief impressed upon his features, Vergniaud again ascended the tribunal
and in a trembling voice announced:
"The National Convention declares:
"Article first.--Louis Capet, last King of France, is guilty of
conspiracy against the liberty of the nation and of assault upon the
general safety of the State.
"Article second.--The National Convention declares that Louis Capet
shall suffer the penalty of death.
"Article third.--Notice of the decree which condemns Louis Capet to
death shall he sent to the Executive Council.
"The Executive Council is charged to notify Louis XVI of the decree
during the day, and to have him executed within twenty-four hours.
"The mayors and municipal officers of Paris shall be enjoined to allow
Louis Capet liberty to communicate with his family, and to call upon a
minister of the denomination he may elect, to attend his last moments."
At three in the morning of Sunday, January 20, the meeting adjourned;
and to cries of "Long live the Nation!" "Long live the Republic!" the
multitude poured out of the galleries.