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PIERRE VERGNIAUD

597

of men the most vile, and of wretches the most detestable; men who continue to imagine that the Revolution has been made for themselves alone, and who have sent Louis XVI. to the Temple, in order that they may be enthroned at the Tuileries! It is time to break these disgraceful chainsto crush this new despotism. It is time that those who have made honest men tremble should be made to tremble in their turn.

I am not ignorant that they have poniards at their service. On the night of the second of September-that night of proscription!-did they not seek to turn them against several deputies, and myself among the number! Were we not denounced to the people as traitors! Fortunately, it was the people into whose hands we fell. The assassins were elsewhere occupied. The voice of calumny failed of its effect. If my voice may yet make itself heard from this place, I call you all to witness it shall not cease to thunder, with all its energy, against tyrants, whether of high or low degree. What to me their ruffians and their poniards? What his own life to the representative of the people, while the safety of the country is at stake?

When William Tell adjusted the arrow which was to pierce the fatal apple that a tyrant had placed on his son's head, he exclaimed, "Perish my name, and perish my memory, provided Switzerland may be free!" And we, also, we will say, "Perish the National Assembly and its memory, provided France may be free."* Ay, perish the National Assembly and its memory, so by its death it may save the Nation from a course of crime that would affix an eternal stigma to the French name; so, by its action, it may show the Nations of Europe that, despite the calumnies by which it is sought to dishonor France, there is still in the very bosom of that momentary anarchy where the brigands have plunged us-there is still in our country some public virtue, some respect for humanity left! Perish the National Assembly and its memory, if upon our ashes our more fortunate successors may establish the edifice of a Constitution, which shall assure the happiness of France, and consolidate the reign of liberty and equality!

When these words were spoken the deputies rose with intense enthusiasm and repeated the words of the orator, while the audience in the galleries added their cries of approval to the tumult on the floor.

GEORGE JACQUES DANTON (1759-1794)

THE MIRABEAU OF THE SANS-CULOTTES

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ARGE of frame, dauntless of spirit, passionate of temperament, powerful in voice, Danton was well adapted for political oratory and revolutionary times. In quiet days he would not have shone, but in the whirlpool of the French Revolution he was at home, while his fervid and splendid oratory made him the favorite of the Parisian populace. Nothing was wanting to make Danton a great man-except virtue," said Lamartine, and this well describes him. His famous sayings: "To dare, again to dare, always to dare," and "Let France be free, though my name be accursed," speak volumes for the boldness and patriotism of the man. Before men like him, and sentiments like these, the old institutions could not stand. The club founded by him, that of the Cordeliers, was more radical even than that of the Jacobins. For a time, Danton, Marat and Robespierre ruled the Revolution. Then a break took place between them, and while Danton hesitated Robespierre acted. The natural result followed, the guillotine became his fate.

LET FRANCE BE FREE.

[The disasters of the French armies on the frontier called out from Danton in the Convention, March 10, 1793, one of his most impassioned addresses. Of this we give the telling closing portion, in which occurs one of his most famous sentences.]

The general considerations that have been presented to you are true; but at this moment it is less necessary to examine the causes of the disasters that have struck us than to apply their remedy rapidly. When the edifice is on fire, I do not join the rascals who would steal the furniture, I extinguish the flames. I tell you, therefore, you should be convinced by the dispatches of Dumouriez that you have not a moment to spare in saving the Republic.

GEORGE JACQUES DANTON

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Dumouriez conceived a plan which did honor to his genius. I would render him greater justice and praise than I did recently. But three months ago he announced to the executive power, your General Committee of Defence, that if we were not audacious enough to invade Holland in the middle of winter, to declare instantly against England the war which actually we had long been making, that we would double the difficulties of our campaign, in giving our enemies the time to deploy their forces. Since we failed to recognize this stroke of his genius, we must now repair our faults.

Dumouriez is not discouraged; he is in the middle of Holland, where he will find munitions of war. To overthrow all our enemies, he wants but Frenchmen, and France is filled with citizens. Would we be free? If we no longer desire it, let us perish, for we have all sworn it. If we wish it, let all march to defend our independence. Your enemies are making their last efforts. Pitt, recognizing he has all to lose, dares spare nothing. Take Holland, and Carthage is destroyed, and England can no longer exist but for liberty!

Expediate, then, your commissioners; sustain them with your energy; let them leave this very night, this very evening. Let them say to the opulent classes, "The aristocracy of Europe must succumb to our efforts and pay our debt, or you will have to pay it!" The people have nothing but blood, they lavish it! Go, then, ingrates, and lavish your wealth! See, citizens, the fair destinies that await you. What! What! You have a whole nation as a lever, its reason as your fulcrum, and you have not yet upturned the world! To do this we need firmness and character, and of a truth we lack it. I put to one side all passions. They are all strangers to me save a passion for the public good.

In the most difficult situations, when the enemy was at the gates of Paris, I said to those governing: "Your discussions are shameful, I can see but the enemy. You tire me by squabbling in place of occupying yourselves with the safety of the Republic! I repudiate you all as traitors to our country! I place you all in the same line!" I said to them : "What care I for my reputation! Let France be free, though my name were accursed!" What care I that I am called a "blood-drinker"! Well, let us drink the blood of the enemies of humanity, if needful; but let us struggle, let us achieve freedom. Some fear the departure of the commissioners may weaken one or the other section of this convention. Vain fears! Carry your energy everywhere. The pleasantest declaration will be to announce to the people that the terrible debt weighing upon them will be wrested from their enemies or that the rich will shortly have to pay it. The national situation is cruel. The representatives of value

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are no longer in equilibrium in the circulation. The day of the workingman is lengthened beyond necessity. A great corrective measure is necessary! The conquerors of Holland will reanimate in England the Republican party; let us advance France and we shall go glorified to posterity. Achieve these grand destinies; no more debates, no more quarrels, and the Farherland is saved.

TO DARE! ALWAYS TO DARE

[With this stirring sentence Danton ended his notable speech in defence of the Republic, on September 2, 1792.]

It seems a satisfaction for the ministers of a free people to announce to them that their country will be saved. All are stirred, all are enthused, all burn to enter the combat. You know that Verdun is not yet in the power of our enemies, and that its garrison swears to immolate the first one who breathes a proposition to surrender.

One portion of our people will guard our frontiers, another will dig and arm the entrenchments, the third with pikes will defend the interior of our cities. Paris will second these great efforts. The commissioners of the Commune will solemnly proclaim to the citizens the invitation to arm and march to the defence of the country. At such a moment you can proclaim that the capital deserves the esteem of all France. At such a moment this National Assembly becomes a veritable committee of war. We ask that you concur with us in directing this sublime movement of the people, by naming commissioners to second and assist all these great measures. We ask that any one refusing to give personal service or to furnish arms, shall meet the punishment of death. We ask that proper instructions be given to the citizens to direct their movements. We ask that carriers be sent to all the departments to notify them of the decrees that you proclaim here. The tocsin we shall sound is not the alarm signal of danger, it orders the charge on the enemies of France. At such a moment this National Assembly becomes a veritable committee of war. We ask that you concur with us in directing this sublime movement of the people, by naming commissioners to second and assist all these great measures. We ask that any one refusing to give personal service or to furnish arms, shall meet the punishment of death. We ask that proper instructions be given to the citizens to direct their movements. We ask that carriers be sent to all the departments to notify them of the decrees that you proclaim here. The tocsin we shall sound is not the alarm signal of danger, it orders the charge on the enemies of France. To conquer we have need to dare! to dare again! always to dare! And France will be saved!

JEAN PAUL MARAT (1743-1793)

"THE FRIEND OF THE PEOPLE"

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ERHAPS no man in all history has won the more universal reprobation of mankind than the bloodthirsty Marat, the ferocious enemy alike of royalists and his political opponents, for whose opinions he had but one cure-the guillotine. In 1789 he stirred up the passions of the mob by his journal, "The Friend of the People," and was long obliged to live in cellars and sewers to escape the officers of the law, charged to arrest him for his incendiary utterances. He was elected to the Convention in 1792, and in conjunction with Danton and Robespierre, inaugurated the "Reign of Terror," he acting as a public accuser of all whom he wished to remove by death. Tried on a charge of outrages against the Convention in May, 1793, he was triumphantly acquitted; but two months afterward the patriotic hand of Charlotte Corday ended the career of this monster in human form. The only charitable view that can be taken of Marat's conduct is that he was the victim of a diseased mind. Certainly his body was so deeply diseased that the knife of the avenger only shortly anticipated his death from natural causes.

A DEFENCE FROM IMPEACHMENT

[Threatened with impeachment for his course, Marat defended himself before the Convention in the following specious words, in which he seemed to indicate that his plan for settling the affairs of the state was to give increased activity to the guillotine.]

I shuddered at the vehement and disorderly movements of the people, when I saw them prolonged beyond the necessary point. In order that these movements should not forever fail, and to avoid the necessity of their recommencement, I proposed that some wise and just citizen should be named, known for his attachment to freedom, to take the direction of

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