THE THERMIDORIANS AND THE JACOBINS.
The Reign of Committees.--The Jeunesse Dorée.--The Reaction.--Motion
against Fouquier Tinville.--Apotheosis of Rousseau.--Battle
of Fleurus.--Brutal Order of the Committee of Public
Welfare.--Composition of the two Parties.--Speech of Billaud
Varennes.--Speech of Légendre.--The Club-house of the Jacobins
closed.--Victories of Pichegru.--Alliance between Holland and
France.--Advance of Kleber.--Peace with Prussia.--Quiberon.--Riot in
Lyons.
The fall of Robespierre was hailed with general enthusiasm, for he was
believed to be the chief instigator of that carnage which, in reality,
at the time of his fall, he was struggling to repress. There were now
in the Convention the headless remains of four parties, the Girondists,
Hebertists, Dantonists, and Robespierrians. The able leaders of all
these parties had, each in their turn, perished upon the scaffold.
There now arose from these ruins a party, which was called, as we have
before remarked, _Thermidorians_, from the month Thermidor (_July_),
in which its supremacy commenced. A new government was immediately and
noiselessly evolved, the result of necessity. The extreme concentration
of power in the Committee of Public Safety, over which Robespierre
had been supposed to rule as a dictator, was now succeeded by a
dissemination of power, wide and ineffective. Sixteen committees became
the executive of France; one Assembly its legislative power. These
committees were composed of members numbering from twelve to fifty.
The Committee of Public Welfare contained twelve, and superintended
military and diplomatic operations; that of General Safety sixteen, and
had the direction of the police; that of Finance forty-eight. Such was
the new government, under which, after the fall of Robespierre, the
Republic struggled along.
The horrors of the Reign of Terror were now producing a decided
reaction. Many of the young men of Paris, who abhorred the past scenes
of violence, organized themselves into a band called the Jeunesse
Dorée, or Gilded Youth, and commenced vigorous opposition to the
Jacobins. They wore a distinctive dress, and armed themselves with
a short club loaded with lead. Frequent conflicts took place in the
streets between the two parties, in which the Jeunesse Dorée were
generally victorious. The Terrorists having become unpopular, and being
in the decided minority, the guillotine was soon allowed to rest. Mercy
rapidly succeeded cruelty. The captives who crowded the prisons of
Paris were gradually liberated, and even the Revolutionary Tribunal was
first modified and then abolished.
[Illustration: APOTHEOSIS OF ROUSSEAU, OCTOBER 11, 1794.]
The reaction was so strong, annulling past decrees, liberating
suspected Loyalists, and punishing violent Revolutionists, that even
many of the true friends of popular rights were alarmed lest the
nation should drift back again under the sway of old feudal despotism.
M. Fréron, in the following terms, moved, in the Convention, an act of
accusation against the execrable Fouquier Tinville, who had been public
accuser:
"I demand that the earth be at length delivered from that monster, and
that Fouquier be sent to hell, there to wallow in the blood he has
shed."
The decree was passed by acclamation. In the space of eight or ten days
after the fall of Robespierre, out of ten thousand suspected persons
not one remained in the prisons of Paris.[434] For many weeks nothing
of moment occurred in the Convention but the petty strife of factions.
On the 11th of October the remains of Rousseau were transferred to the
Pantheon with all the accompaniments of funeral pageantry. They were
deposited by the side of the remains of Voltaire. Upon his tomb were
inscribed the words, "Here reposes the man of nature and of truth."
[Illustration: BATTLE OF FLEURUS.]
About a month before the fall of Robespierre, on the 26th of June, the
celebrated battle of Fleurus was fought. The sanguinary engagement
extended along a semicircle nearly thirty miles in extent. The French
had brought up about eighty thousand troops, to oppose an equal number
of the Allies. The French, under Pichegru, were victorious at every
point, and the Allies were compelled to retreat. They rallied for a
short time in the vicinity of Brussels, but were soon again compelled
to retire, and all Belgium fell into the hands of the Republicans.
About the middle of July two armies of the French, amounting to
one hundred and fifty thousand, effected a junction in the city of
Brussels. The Committee of Public Safety had passed an inhuman decree
that no quarter should be given to the English. The soldiers refused
obedience to this decree. A sergeant, having taken some English
prisoners, brought them to an officer.
"Why did you spare their lives?" the officer inquired.
"Because," the sergeant replied, "it was saving so many shots."
"True," rejoined the officer, "but the Representatives will oblige us
to shoot them."
"It is not we," retorted the sergeant, "who will shoot them. Send them
to the Representatives. If they are barbarous enough, why, let them
kill and eat them if they like."[435]
While the French armies were gaining these signal victories all along
the Rhine, war was raging with almost equal ferocity in the ravines of
the Alps and at the base of the Pyrenees, as the Republicans struggled
to repel the invading hosts of Austria, England, and Spain.
The Thermidorians and the Jacobins were now the two great parties
struggling for power all over France. The Thermidorians were the
moderate conservative party, and the Jacobins called them Aristocrats.
The Jacobins were the radical, progressive, revolutionary party, and
the Thermidorians called them Terrorists. The more intelligent and
reputable portion of the community were with the Thermidorians; the
women, weary of turmoil and blood, were very generally with them; and
the very efficient military band of young men called the _Jeunesse
Dorée_ (gilded youth), who belonged to the rich and middle classes,
were very efficient supporters of this party, hurling defiance upon
the Jacobins, and ever ready for a street fray with their clubs. The
Jacobins were composed of the mob, generally headed by those vigorous,
reckless, determined men who usually form what Thiers calls "the
ferocious democracy." Fréron's journal, _The Orator of the People_,
was the eloquent advocate of the Thermidorians, now rising rapidly to
power, and it launched incessant and merciless anathemas against the
_revolutionary canaille_. The females who advocated Jacobinism were
called _the furies of the guillotine_, because they had frequently
formed circles around the scaffold, assailing the victims with ribald
abuse. These two parties were so equally divided, and the strife was
so fierce between them, that scenes of fearful uproar frequently took
place not only in the Convention but throughout all France. The spirit
of the Jacobins at this time may be seen in the following brief extract
from a speech of Billaud Varennes:
"People talk," said he, "of shootings and drownings, but they do
not recollect that the individuals for whom they feel pity had
furnished succors to the banditti. They do not recollect the cruelties
perpetrated on our volunteers, who were hanged upon trees and shot in
files. If vengeance is demanded for the banditti, let the families of
two hundred thousand Republicans, mercilessly slaughtered, come also
to demand vengeance. The course of counter-revolutionists is known.
When, in the time of the Constituent Assembly, they wanted to bring
the Revolution to trial, they called the Jacobins _disorganizers_
and shot them in the Field of Mars. After the 2d of September, when
they wanted to prevent the establishment of the Republic, they called
them _quaffers of blood_ and loaded them with atrocious calumnies.
They are now recommencing the same machinations; but let them not
expect to triumph. The Patriots have been able to keep silence for a
moment, but the lion is not dead when he slumbers, and when he awakes
he exterminates all his enemies. The trenches are open, the Patriots
are about to rouse themselves and to resume all their energy. We have
already risked our lives a thousand times. If the scaffold awaits us,
let us recollect that it was the scaffold which covered the immortal
Sidney with glory."
This speech, reported in the journal of the Jacobins, called the
_Journal de la Montagne_, created great excitement, and gave rise to
one of the stormiest debates in the Convention. The Jacobins were
accused of wishing to direct the mob against the Convention. They,
on the other hand, accused the Thermidorians of releasing well-known
Royalists from prison, and of thus encouraging a counter-revolution.
Légendre, speaking in behalf of the Thermidorians, in reply to the
Jacobins, said,
"What have you to complain of, you who are constantly accusing us? Is
it because citizens are no longer sent to prison by hundreds? because
the guillotine no longer dispatches fifty, sixty, or eighty persons per
day? Ah! I must confess that in this point our pleasure differs from
yours, and that our manner of sweeping the prisons is not the same. We
have visited them ourselves; we have made, as far as it was possible
to do so, a distinction between the Aristocrats and the Patriots; if
we have done wrong, here are our heads to answer for it. But while we
make reparation for crimes, while we are striving to make you forget
that those crimes are your own, why do you go to a notorious society to
denounce us, and to mislead the people who attend there, fortunately in
no great numbers? I move that the Convention take measures to prevent
its members from going and preaching up rebellion at the Jacobins'."
The conflict extended from the Convention into the streets, and
for several days there were serious riots. Angry groups in hostile
bands paraded the gardens of the Tuileries and the Palais Royal--the
partisans of the Thermidorians shouting "_Down with the Terrorists and
Robespierre's tail_." Their opponents shouted "_The Jacobins forever!
Down with the Aristocrats!_"
On the 9th of November there was a battle between the two parties in
the Rue St. Honoré, in and around the hall of the Jacobins, which
lasted for several hours. A number of the women, called Furies of the
Guillotine, who mingled in the fray, were caught by the _Jeunesse
Dorée_, and, in defiance of all the rules of chivalry, had their
clothes stripped from their backs and were ignominiously whipped. It
was midnight before the disturbance was quelled. A stormy debate ensued
next day in the Convention.
"Where has tyranny," said Rewbel, "been organized? At the Jacobins'.
Where has it found its supporters and satellites? At the Jacobins'.
Who have covered France with mourning, carried despair into families,
filled the country with prisons, and rendered the Republic so odious
that a slave, pressed down by the weight of his irons, would refuse to
live under it? The Jacobins. Who regret the frightful government under
which we have lived? The Jacobins. If you have not now the courage to
declare yourselves, you have no longer a Republic, because you have
Jacobins."
Influenced by such sentiments, the Convention passed a decree "to
close the door of places where factions arise and where civil war is
preached."
[Illustration: THE CLUB-HOUSE OF THE JACOBINS CLOSED.]
Thus terminated the long reign of the Jacobin Club. The act was greeted
with acclaim by the general voice of France.[436]
The French, who had twelve hundred thousand men under arms, were now
in possession of all the important points on the Rhine, and every
where held their assailants at bay.[437] The latter part of December,
Pichegru, driving the allied Dutch, English, and Austrians before him,
crossed the Meuse on the ice and entered Holland. The Republican party
in Holland was numerous and detested their rulers. They immediately
prepared to rise and welcome their friends, the French. In this
desperate situation the Stadtholder implored a truce, offering as a
condition of peace neutrality and indemnification for the expenses of
the war.[438] Pichegru refused the truce; but sent the terms of peace
for the consideration of the government in Paris. The proffered terms
were refused, and Pichegru was ordered to press on and restore the
Dutch Republic. At the head of two hundred thousand troops he spread,
like a torrent, over all Holland. He was every where received with open
arms and as a deliverer. The Allies, with the emigrants, fled in all
directions, some by land and some by sea. A portion of the Dutch fleet,
at anchor near the Texel, was frozen in by the unparalleled severity
of the winter. A squadron of horse-artillery galloped across the ice
and summoned it to surrender. The fleet was compelled to strike its
flags to these novel assailants. On the 20th of January, 1795, Pichegru
entered Amsterdam in triumph. The inhabitants crowded from the walls to
meet him, shouting "_The French Republic forever! Liberty forever!_"
[Illustration: THE FRENCH ENTERING AMSTERDAM ON THE ICE.]
Holland, organizing as the Republic of the United Provinces, on the
16th of May entered into an alliance offensive and defensive with the
French Republic, to be perpetual during the continuance of the war.
The two infant republics needed mutual support to resist the combined
monarchies of England and the Continent.[439]
While Pichegru was gaining such victories on the Lower Rhine and in
Holland, Kleber was also, on the Upper Rhine, driving the Austrians
before him. He boldly crossed the river in the impetuous pursuit, and
carried the horrors of war into the enemies' country. Soon, however, he
was crowded with such numbers of antagonists that he was compelled, in
his turn, to commence a retreat. Again, re-enforcements arriving, he
assumed the offensive. Thus the tide of war ebbed and flowed.
Prussia, alarmed by these signal victories of the Republican troops,
and threatened with invasion, was anxious to withdraw from the
coalition. The king sent a commissioner to Pichegru's head-quarters to
propose peace. The commissioners from the two countries met at Basle,
and on the 5th of April a treaty of peace was signed. The French agreed
to evacuate the Prussian provinces they had occupied on the right bank
of the Rhine, and the Prussian monarchy agreed that there should be
peace, amity, and a good understanding between the King of Prussia and
the French Republic.
[Illustration: THE FRENCH CROSSING THE RHINE UNDER KLEBER.]
Spain, also, trembling in view of the triumphant march of Dugommier
through the defiles of the Pyrenees, made proposals of accommodation,
promising to acknowledge the Republic and to pay indemnities for the
war. Peace with the Peninsula was signed at Basle on the 12th of July.
This peace, which detached a Bourbon from the coalition, was hailed
throughout France with transports of joy.[440]
[Illustration: VICTORY OF QUIBERON.]
[Illustration: MASSACRE IN LYONS LED BY THE PRIESTS.]
England, Austria, and Naples still remained firm in their determination
to crush the Republic. William Pitt led the ministry with his warlike
measures, and triumphed over the peaceful policy of Sheridan and Fox.
He thus, for a quarter of a century, converted all Europe into a field
of blood. Roused by the energies of Pitt, the English government
organized a very formidable expedition, to be landed in La Vendée, to
rouse and rally the Royalists all over France, and thus to reinvigorate
the energies of civil war. A squadron was fitted out, consisting of
three 74-gun ships, two frigates of 44 guns, four frigates of 30 to
36 guns, and several gun-boats and transports. This was the first
division, which, as soon as it was established in France, was to be
followed by another. The fleet came to anchor in the Bay of Quiberon
on the 25th of June. A motley mass of about seven thousand men were
speedily landed; the Royalists soon joined them, making an army of
some thirteen thousand. General Hoche, who had for some time been
valiantly and most humanely struggling for the pacification of La
Vendée, marched to repel them. A few bloody battles ensued, in which
the unhappy invaders were driven into a narrow peninsula, where, by a
midnight assault, they most miserably perished. A few only escaped to
the ships; many were drowned, and a large number were mercilessly put
to the sword. The Convention had decreed the penalty of death to any
Frenchman who should enter France with arms in his hands.
At Lyons there was a general rising of the Royalists and the
reactionary party against the Revolutionists. The Royalists proved
themselves not one whit behind the Jacobins in the energy with which
they could push their Reign of Terror. Led by the priests, the Royalist
mob broke into the prisons and murdered seventy or eighty prisoners who
were accused of revolutionary violence. One prison was set on fire, and
all its inmates perished miserably in the flames.
The disturbances in Lyons were soon quelled, and Hoche, having
annihilated the force which the English had landed in the Bay of
Quiberon, gradually succeeded in introducing tranquillity into La
Vendée. Many of the Royalists came to his camp to seek terms of
reconciliation with the Republic.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 432: History of the Girondists, by Lamartine, vol. iii., p.
535.]
[Footnote 433: "Mirabeau, Marat, Brissot, Danton, Robespierre were
all heads cut off in succession; and all succeeding heads were saved
only by having recourse to one head and one arm in the Emperor
Napoleon."--_Life and Works of John Adams_, vol. vi., p. 547.
Though Mirabeau died a natural death, he would unquestionably have been
guillotined had he lived a few months longer.
Meda, the officer of the Convention who arrested Robespierre and his
associates at the Hôtel de Ville, thus describes the event: "The head
of my column moved forward; a terrible noise ensued; my ten pieces of
artillery were brought forward and ready; those opposed to me in like
manner. I threw myself between the two lines. I flew to the cannoneers
of the enemy. I spoke to them of their country; of the respect due to
the national representation; in short, I do not well remember what I
said, but the result was that they all came over to us. I instantly
dismounted, seized my pistols, addressed myself to my grenadiers, and
made for the staircase of the Hôtel de Ville." He describes the manner
in which he forced his way up the stairs, broke open the door, and
found about fifty people assembled in the room in great confusion.
Robespierre was sitting at a table, his head leaning upon his hand. "I
rushed upon him," he continues, in his narrative, "presented my sabre
to his breast, 'Yield, traitor,' I cried. 'It is thou art the traitor,'
he replied, 'and I will have thee shot.' I instantly drew out one of my
pistols, and fired at him. I aimed at his breast, but the ball hit him
about the chin, and shattered all his left jaw. He fell from his chair.
At the sound of the explosion his brother threw himself through the
window. The uproar was immense. I cried '_Vive la République_!'"]
[Footnote 434: Lacretelle.]
[Footnote 435: Thiers, vol. iii., p. 84.]
[Footnote 436: "This popular body had powerfully served the
Revolution when, in order to repel Europe, it was necessary to
place the government in the multitude, and to give the Republic all
the energy of defense; but now it only obstructed the new order of
things."--_Mignet_, 282.]
[Footnote 437: "At one time France had seventeen hundred thousand
fighters on foot."--_Toulongeon_, vol. iii., p. 194.]
[Footnote 438: Thiers, vol. iii., p. 186.]
[Footnote 439: "The first act of the Representatives was to publish
a proclamation, in which they declared that they would respect all
private property, excepting, however, that of the Stadtholder; that
the latter, being the only foe of the French Republic, his property
belonged to the conquerors as an indemnification for the expenses of
the war; that the French entered as friends of the Batavian nation, not
to impose upon it any religion or any form of government whatever, but
to deliver it from its oppressors, and to confer upon it the means of
expressing its wishes. This proclamation, followed up by corresponding
acts, produced a most favorable impression."--_Thiers_, vol. iii., p.
184.]
[Footnote 440: "Tuscany, forced, in spite of herself, to give up her
neutrality by the English ambassador, who, threatening her with an
English squadron, had allowed her but twelve hours to decide, was
impatient to resume her part, especially since the French were at the
gates of Genoa. Good understanding and friendship were re-established
between the two states."--_Thiers_, vol. iii., p. 230.]