Born October 28, 1759; executed April 6, 1794.
At the time of the outbreak of the Revolution he was a needy lawyer.
The immorality of his private life caused him to be greatly discredited
by members of his profession, and he seldom obtained employment. He
therefore hailed with joy the social changes, and threw himself with
all the energy of his temperament into the Revolutionary movement. He
made the acquaintance of Mirabeau, who found him a man whose actions
and unscrupulousness were likely to be of great use to his political
plans. Mignet, in his “History of the Revolution,” says:
Danton was a revolutionary giant. He saw nothing condemnable in
any action which could serve his purpose. His theory was that
with audacity one could achieve anything and everything.
Danton, who had been surnamed “the Mirabeau of the populace,”
possessed the following characteristics in common with the great
Tribune. Strongly marked features, a loud voice, an imperious
mien, a bold eloquence, and a dominating presence. Their vices
were similar, with this difference, that in all his debaucheries
Mirabeau remained a patrician, and Danton never ceased to be a
democrat.
President of the Cordeliers, Danton took for his satellites Marât and
Camille Desmoulins. Danton became the orator of the people, and was
ready to speak anywhere and everywhere either in a public hall or in
the street, from an open window or in the Tribune of the Assembly.
The political _rôle_ and public life of Danton did not attain
real importance until the return of the Royal Family from Varennes.
For a time he sold himself to the Court party, and as he was under an
order of arrest for debts he gladly accepted the terms offered him
by the anti-revolutionists. He received altogether £12,000 sterling,
but as soon as supplies ceased he rejoined his former friends and
was a more implacable revolutionist than before. When the “Federals”
arrived from Marseilles, Pétion, the Mayor of Paris, placed them under
Danton’s orders. He plied them with wine and led them himself, with
that personal courage which never deserted him, to the attack on the
Tuileries on August 10. During the whole of that eventful day Marât and
Robespierre were hiding in a cellar.
After August 10, Danton was appointed, as a reward for his services,
Minister of Justice. He began his ministry by ordering domiciliary
visits in every part of Paris, by arresting the clergy and all
suspected Royalists. He then assembled the General Committee of
National Defence, and in a speech to that body on September 1, 1792,
said: “My advice is that it is necessary to terrify all Royalists.”
The following day he appeared in the Legislative Assembly at the head
of the authorities, and in a voice of thunder shouted to the trembling
Deputies:
It is at this moment, gentlemen, you can decree that Paris is
worthy of France. The cannon you are about to hear sound, is not
the cannon of alarm, it is the first step taken to destroy our
enemies. What is required to vanquish them? Audacity! still more
audacity!! and ever increasing audacity!!!
A few hours afterwards the massacres of September commenced. They
lasted four days, and to the assassinations of defenceless prisoners in
Paris succeeded those of the equally defenceless prisoners at Orleans
on the ninth of the same month; a day or two later, a similar scene of
slaughter occurred at Versailles.
Elected one of the Paris Deputies to the Convention, Danton resigned
his Ministerial post. He was a violent promoter of the trial of Louis
XVI., and to a friend who suggested the Convention was not by right of
law a court of justice, he replied: “You are right; and we will _not
judge him_, we shall _kill him_.”
Bertrand de Molleville, ex-Minister of Marine, who had taken refuge in
London, informed Danton he possessed a letter written by him (Danton)
at the time he was in the pay of the Royalists. This he threatened
to publish if Danton used his influence to condemn Louis XVI. Danton
left Paris in consequence and did not return until the last day of
the King’s trial. Immediately after the King’s execution, Danton and
Lacroix repaired to Belgium, which Dumouriez had just invaded. They
received 4,000,000 of francs (£600,000) to be used in promoting a
Revolution in Flanders and the Netherlands.
They were accused of having appropriated the greater part of this
enormous sum, and there is every reason to believe this accusation was
a just one. In order to avert suspicion, Danton replaced himself at
the head of the most extreme revolutionists. He proposed and carried a
motion for the levying of an army of 300,000 men, and also suggested
the devastation of France in case of invasion. On March 10 he decreed
the establishment of the famous Revolutionary Tribunal, which a year
later sent him to the scaffold.
The Committee of Public Safety was formed and became the real governing
power of France. Danton was its foremost member, and now reached the
apogee of his career. But he was menaced on two sides; by the party
of the Girondins, who clamoured for the punishment of those who had
_by murder soiled the cause of Liberty_, and by the “Purists”
of the _Montagne_, who accused him of the embezzlement of funds
in Belgium. As, according to his own cynical remark, “authority in a
Revolution should always belong to rogues,” he joined Robespierre and
Pache and brought about the trial and execution of the Girondins. Soon
afterwards the influence of Danton began to wane, he was now reproached
with too much moderation, and of being desirous to coerce the actions
of the Revolutionary Tribunal. He had denounced the Saturnalia of the
Feast of Reason.
Robespierre decided Danton should fall, and many of his (Danton’s)
friends advised him to fly while there was yet time. He replied: “They
would not dare!” and remained, lulled by this false security, until
he was arrested in his own house on the night of March 30, 1794. Many
members of the Convention tried to save him, and an effort was made to
give him an opportunity of appearing before the Assembly and publicly
attesting his patriotism; but this was vetoed by Robespierre, who with
feigned indignation said: “We shall see whether the Convention will be
able to break a rotten idol, or will allow that idol to destroy in its
fall not only the Convention but the people of France.”
St. Just ascended the Tribune, and poured forth a violent impeachment
of his former ally, whom he accused of every possible form of treachery
to the Republic. “Terror was voted as the order of the day,” and
Danton’s fate was sealed.
After he and his companions had undergone a mock trial, devoid of every
semblance of justice, they were sentenced to death. Danton’s answer to
the sentence was: “We are being immolated by a few cowardly brigands;
but they will not long enjoy the fruits of their victory. Robespierre,
that infamous coward, will soon follow me.”
Danton was executed on April 5 with Camille Desmoulins, Lacroix, Fabre
d’Eglantine, Hermit, Le Sechelle, Philippeaux, Declannoy de Angers,
Chalet and Bazire (all of these men were Deputies of the Convention)
the famous Abbé d’Espagne, General Westerman, a Spaniard, a Dane, and
two Austrians. His last words were: _Montrez ma tête au Peuple, elle
en vaut la peine_.
He was thirty-five years of age when he perished. Robespierre enjoyed
the sight of the execution of his rival from a neighbouring window, and
after the fall of the knife retired into the Tuileries gardens to take
his daily walk, rubbing his hands with satisfaction.