They were on the whole able and strong men who did their work well. Gradually, as the effects of the Committee's sway became felt, the troops recovered confidence, and out of their ranks sprang men like Hoche and Pichegru and the great captains of Napoleon. In all this work of restoration Danton shared, and over and above this he roused France to the levée en masse, without which it might have been all to no purpose. He was no longer in office when the ebb of defeat became the flow of conquest, but as in 1792 so in 1793, to him more than any man the turn of the tide was due. CHAPTER XXIII 1793-continued ALIENS ILLITERATE VOTERS-SPEECH IN CONVENTION-VIEWS ON GARAT-OPPOSES INDISCRIMINATE ARREST ON CONSCRIPTION, THE Constitution which its framers were so eager to hurry into existence as all-important for the pacification of the country became by the irony of circumstance almost at the outset a dead letter, though acceptance or non-acceptance of it was a convenient shibboleth for testing the loyalty of the Departments. Till rebellion was quelled the one thing needful was by any means, constitutional or unconstitutional, diriger Paris sur la Vendée,' former une armée centrale de réserve pour rétablir la paix intérieure.' But Danton, knowing the importance of keeping a cheerful countenance, was careful to assume that France as a whole was with Paris. In pursuance of his previous assertions that all the Departments execrated dastardly Moderatism' he refused to accept the intrigues of a portion of Bordeaux as representing the whole city, or admit that the nation. would embark on civil war for a few Deputies. And with his usual common sense he would not assent to a R panic-stricken proposal for the banishment of aliens. 'Alien intriguers should be banished,' he said, but it would be unwise to impoverish their own population and commerce. There were aliens settled and domiciled in France better patriots than numbers of Frenchmen born.' Equally sensible was the way he cut the knot as to the mode in which illiterate citizens should vote in the primary assemblies. What was wanted was free expression of opinion. Let every man vote as he pleased, orally or by signing his name, the rich man being empowered to write, the poor man to speak.' This has been condemned as an anarchical proposal, but short of modern ballot-box devices how better could he have reconciled conflicting opinions? On June 13 he made one of those inspiring appeals to the Assembly which, on the principle that The word that moves a nation's heart Is in itself a deed, made his friends think the acquisition of him worth an army.' We are at this moment laying the real foundation of French liberty by giving France a republican Constitution. At the birth of anything great it is with political as with physical bodies, they are threatened with imminent dissolution. Storms surround us. The thunder rolls. But out of its explosions shall emerge the work which will be the glory of the French nation. Remember, citizens, what happened at the time of Lafayette's conspiracy. We seemed in the same position as today-patriots everywhere trampled on, everywhere proscribed, menaced with the greatest ills, in perils such as seem the inevitable lot of men who engender liberty. Lafayette and his faction were soon unmasked. To-day new enemies of the people have SPEECH JUSTIFYING MAY 31 243 betrayed themselves, fugitives as they are with false names, false descriptions, false passports. This Brissot, this Corypheus of the patricidal gang which is about to be extinguished, who boasted of his bravery and his poverty while he accused me of rolling in riches, is now only a wretch unable to escape the sword of the law, and already condemned to arrest by the people as a conspirator. They talk of the insurrection in Paris causing movements in the Departments. I declare before the universe that what happened there will be the glory of our superb city. I proclaim before France that but for the guns, but for the insurrection of the 31st of May, the conspirators would have triumphed, would have been our masters. On our heads be the guilt of that insurrection. I invoked it myself when I said that if there were in the Convention another hundred like me we would resist oppression, we would found liberty on a basis which nothing could destroy. Remember that you have been told that the agitation in the Departments only arose after the events in Paris. On the contrary, there is documentary proof that the Departments issued a circular inciting to federation and combination before the 31st. What remained for us to do? To identify ourselves with the people of Paris, with all good citizens; to tell the story of what had taken place. You know that I more than any man have been threatened with bayonets pointed at my breast. You know that I have sheltered at my own peril men who thought themselves in danger. But it was not the people of Paris who had any design on the liberty of their representatives. They assumed an attitude worthy of them. They rose in insurrection. Be not alarmed at the manifestoes of the Departments calumniating Paris. They are the work of a handful of intriguers, not of the citizens. Remember that others like them supported the Tyrant against Paris. Paris is the centre where everything converges. Paris will be the focus in which all rays of French patriotism will concentrate, and it will shrivel with them all our enemies. I appeal for a loyal understanding on this insurrection, which has had such happy results. The people see that the men accused of wishing to gorge themselves with their blood have done more in the last eight days for their good' than the Convention, tormented by intriguers, has been able to do ever since it came into existence. Those are the results which you must make patent to the men of the Departments. They are honest men; they will applaud your wise measures. The criminals in flight have spread terror everywhere they have gone. They have exaggerated everything, magnified everything. But the reaction of the people when undeceived will be all the stronger, and they will avenge themselves on their deceivers. As to the question now before us, I am of opinion that measures must be taken in all the Departments. Twenty-four hours' grace should be given to all officials who may have been misled; to those who mislead them, none. In Departments where patriot communes are struggling with an official aristocracy these officials should be displaced and true republicans placed in their room. Finally I appeal for a declaration by the Convention that there would have been an end of liberty if there had been no insurrection on May 31. Citizens, no weakness! Make this solemn declaration to the French people: that this horde of scoundrels which desired the restoration of the nobles had no desire for a Constitution. Bid them choose between this faction and the Mountain. Say to Frenchmen, Resume your indefeasible rights. Range yourselves round the Convention. Prepare to accept the Constitution about to be offered to you, the Constitution which, as I have said already, is a battery to rain on the enemy bullet-showers which will destroy them all. Prepare an army, but an army against the enemy in La Vendée. Stifle the rebellion there and you will have peace. When once the people are informed of this last phase of our revolution they will no more allow themselves to be beguiled; they will listen no more to calumnies |