If the mainspring of
popular government in peacetime is virtue, amid revolution it is at the same
time both virtue and terror: virtue without which terror is fatal; without
which virtue is impotent. Terror is nothing but prompt, severe, inflexible
justice; it is therefore an emanation of virtue. Robespierre, February
1794.
Robespierre was the leading proponent of state terror during
the French Revolution, who ironically fell under his own apparatus of Terror in
July, 1794. A defender of The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
of 1789, he later saw fit to violate these basic rights in his pursuit of what
he thought was a struggle for the survival of the Revolution. He thought of
himself eventually as the only one able to steer the Revolution between
reactionary monarchial forces, foreign and domestic and the extreme populist
movements calling for violent social leveling and de-Christianizing programs. And
it will be seen that the fundamental basis of the American Republic stands in antagonism
to the Robespierre’s faith in populist infallibility.
Specifically, his revolution was anchored on his idea of
Virtue, something akin to ancient civic virtue of the Romans and Greeks. “Now
what is the fundamental principle of democratic, or popular government -- that
is to say, the essential mainspring upon which it depends and makes it
function? It is virtue: I mean public virtue... that virtue which is nothing
else but love of fatherland and its laws....”, Robespierre would say.
Robespierre (1758-1794) born in Arras, in the northeast of
France. He came out of a middle class background. His father was an attorney in
the Arras court system, married a brewer’s daughter, when she was six months
pregnant. The bride’s parents didn’t attend the wedding. His mother would die of
child birth, when he was six and his father would eventually disappear and not
be heard from again. He was raised by his paternal grandparents. He was
fortunate enough to have gotten a scholarship to attend the prestigious College
de Louis-Le-Grand, a Jesuit inspired academy in Paris. He spent twelve years
there completing his education as an attorney at twenty three.
He encountered the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who
famously wrote, “man is born free but he is everywhere in chains”. The
implication is that natural, primordial man is good and pure, but only the
constraints of society and institutions have enslaved him. Robespierre would
have undying belief in the authority of the people and desire to overthrow
established noble and religious institutions. He would call for reform and
later destruction the monarchy.
He returned to Arras, France in 1781 to have a moderately
successful legal career. Not part of the ruling local elite, Robespierre on
several occasions felt compelled to include egalitarian sentiments in his
cases. The most renowned was the lightning case. Neighbors of the defended sued
to have him cease experiments regarding lightning. He didn’t endear himself to
the local Arras elites, who maintained social ties, that Robespierre was not
part of. There was some social
disapproval for being conceived out of wedlock, despite his parents being
married by the time of this birth. That disapproval and lack of access to the local
ruling elite undoubtedly lead significantly to his republican sympathies.
After the American Revolution in which France joined to wage
war on Great Britain, the French finances were in shambles. Even before the
French Monarchy tipped over into the precipice in 1789, the Parliament of Paris
(a French court originally assigned to register laws) clashed with Louis XVI in
March 1776, in which the nobility resisted the beginning of certain reforms
that would remove their privileges, notably their exemption from taxes. The
French Parlements were loci of resistance to centralization of the Monarchy and
repository of the privileges of the Nobility. Possessing an antique heritage,
the Parlement of Paris had a seven century history, founded in 1260. Ironically,
their check on the absolutism of the French Monarchy would become a fatal
impediment to its reform, leading to its own demise and the demise of the
French Nobility.
In February 1787 the current Finance Minister Calonne called
an Assembly of Notables to gain a consensus on the need for reform and tax assessments
on the Nobility and Church. Tragically the Assembly of Notables rejected efforts
to assess taxes. The nobles and the Church hierarchy were jealous of their
privileges and resisted reforms purposed by the Monarchy. Historically they retained
exemption from taxation gained as a compromise made after the Fronde
(1648-1653), a revolt of the nobility against royal power. As a result of their
defeat in the Fronde, the nobility were essentially rendered powerless and would
be consigned to live under the aegis of the Louis XIV in Versailles. An
absolute monarch would rule his kingdom through his appointed Intendants for
much of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Initially the aristocracy fought the French absolutist monarchy
through the vehicle of the Parlements, a judicial panel that registered laws in
the various provinces. Some argued for some unspoken fundamental constitution
that embodied a higher law than even the dictate of the absolutist monarch.
This fundamental law was narrowly interpreted to grant rights of protest to the
aristocracy, something far different than the democratic representative rights
of the people that would soon be advocated in the upcoming Estates General. The
Church leadership and the Nobility essentially kicked the can down the road and
called for this Estates General to decide any major reforms. Ironically, the
failure to support the Monarchy in preliminary stirrings of unrest would open
up the flood gates of change and soon precipitate their destruction. Due to the
Assembly failure to act and Court intrigue, the Finance Minister Calonne
resigned.
Parlements continued their intransigence to reforms that
touched on Noble privileges and new taxation, arguing only the Estates General
could authorize new taxes. Riots in Paris, Grenoble as well as wide spread food
riots took place in 1788 due to the poor harvest.
Louis XVI was left to call the Estates General for the first
time in nearly two centuries, composed of the three medieval orders, the
Church, Nobles and the Commoners in the Third Estate in 1789; Robespierre
vigorously campaigned to be a delegate and was elected to represent Arras. This
meeting of the three estates quickly led to the disintegration of the French
political order. The delegates of the Third Estate opposed having the Orders
vote separately and wanted the assembly to vote ensemble. On June 17, 1789 the
unruly Third Estate declared it represented the nation, standing for 98% of the
people. It was locked out and decided to
meet separately in the now famous Tennis Court on June 20, 1789 and swear to
continue to meet until they had formulated a constitution.
The country in was in the midst of a failure in the harvest
and economic downturn and the peasants were starving. The peasants revolted in
Paris; the peasants looking for gunpowder, stormed the Bastille on July 14, 1789.
A pitched battle followed where some 100 peasants were killed; thanks to the
mutiny of the troops protecting the fortress, the peasants got the upper hand.
The Bastille was occupied and the head of the military governor of the Bastille,
Launay was paraded around on a pike.
In the countryside, the peasants saw dwindling spring grain
supplies due to the poor harvest of 1788. Rumors circulated that the summer’s
harvest was being sabotaged by the aristocracy to stage a famine plot to starve
them. A widespread revolt, La Grande Peur (The Great Fear) ensued, where documents
of the feudal privileges, granting the feudal lords their feudal privileges
over the peasants were sought to be destroyed. Many chateaux were attacked and
burnt down in the search. Shortly thereafter, August 10, 1789 the
representatives of the Third Estate, now the National Assembly dismantled the
Feudal system of corvee (forced labor), seigniorial fees owed to the manor, the
tithe (10%) to the Church, serfdom, etc. The revolution to overturn the Ancien
Regime (the old monarchy) would continue inexorably. All hereditary nobility
and titles would be abolished in June of the next year.
A new constitution was drawn up, in which the right of
suffrage was limited between “Active” and “Passive” citizen. The selection of
delegates got progressively restrictive for level toward selection of the members
of the National Assembly. Robespierre
opposed this exclusion of “passive” citizens (those who failed to pay the
minimum threshold of tax) to vote. He would suggest that the members of the new
Legislative Assembly would exclude any member of the National Assembly,
including himself.
There was widespread support to engage in an aggressive war
against foreign powers, specifically Austria. The Girondins thought this would
unite the country behind their revolutionary cause and eliminate a foreign
threat to the Revolution. General Lafayette, whom Marie Antoinette hated, was
also in favor, thinking that this war would strengthen the constitutional
monarchy. King Louis in fact supported the conflict in hopes France would lose
and foreign powers rescue him, retaining him as the absolutist monarch.
Robespierre, representing a minority, voiced heated opposition to war,
declaring the Revolution was not ready to fight a foreign.
War was declared on Austria in April 1791 and surprisingly
Prussia, an erstwhile enemy, joined Austria in June. Early on France
encountered military defeats and suddenly enemy forces were only a 150 miles
from Paris. Charges of betrayal by monarchist generals were heard. France’s
military defeats proved Robespierre correct, granting him additional
popularity.
Robespierre consistently took the side of the people, even
condoning their mob violence. He saw the people, as the fount of all good
governance. When mob violence would break out, he would admonish his critics to
save some tears for the countless millions who have suffered the torments of
oppression over the centuries. This particular response was generated in
response to the honor being bestowed on a M. Simonneau, Mayor of Etampes,
killed by the mob in a food riot, April 1792.
Always a critic of entrenched privilege, he’d criticized of
the wealth of the Catholic Bishops, calling into question their authority. On February 20, 1790, once again maintaining
his support of populist protest, he went on record opposing imposition of
martial law, as proposed by deputy LeChapelier. The law would dispatch troops
and issue martial law in regions with unrest. Bands of armed peasants in
regions in the south and parts of Brittany had been attacking chateaux.
Robespierre would say if a few chateaux in Brittany had been burned, then it
was because their owners were those most hostile to the Revolution.
Robespierre’s support of the Parisian mob, termed the sans-culottes, and defense of the
Revolution in numerous speeches at either the Jacobin Club or the Assembly
propelled his rise to popularity. Sans-culottes,
common people of the lower classes were termed as such, because they lacked the
knee-breeches, commonly worn by the nobility. He grants full confidence in them
saying, “Again, it may be said, that to love justice and equality the people
need no great effort of virtue; it is sufficient that they love themselves.” It must be said that this is in stark contrast
to the constraints embodied in the American Constitution, which would in no way
conform to Robespierre’s rosy assessment of the people’s inherent virtue. That
said, Robespierre’s close link with the sans-culottes
was a basic component of his rise to prominence.
The intellectual font of his sentiments towards the morality
of an egalitarian society was greatly influenced by the writings of Jean-Jacque
Rousseau, author of the Social Contract,
whose thoughts can be summed up by the statement, man is born free and yet everywhere
is in chains. The primitive state of humankind was tranquil and harmonious. The
civilized state was the reverse, a state of oppression and brutality. The
nobility and the Church with their privileges was the enemy of the revolution.
Robespierre’s revolution was to be a rebirth of society.
We seek an order of
things in which all the base and cruel passions are enchained, all the
beneficent and generous passions are awakened by the laws…We want…to accomplish
the destiny of humanity [and] keep the promises of philosophy, absolve
providence from the long reign of crime and tyranny.
In contrast the American Founders had no fantasies about renewing
human attributes. All efforts were made to protect the society from
unrestrained government directed by an unrestrained rule of the majority. Mankind
was granted Natural Rights under God, but mankind was fallible and prone to
permit misrule. Thus, a republican government of checks and balances was
implemented, that’s endured over five centuries.
Robespierre, again in stark contrast to the Founders, places
all confidence in the “people” expressing a Rousseau like General Will.
We must know how to
profit from the sublime elan of the
people who press in around us. I know that when the people present their needs…
we must take only the measures they themselves present: for it is the genius of
the nation which has dictated them.
Thus, Robespierre and the French arrived at an unrestrained
National Assembly, swayed by Parisian mob violence, results of which would be
terrible indeed.
***
Initially Robespierre, as were most, a monarchist, defined
within the framework of constitutional restraints. The king greatly eroded his legitimacy
by attempting to flee the country in June 1791. He journeyed to Varennes near
Verdun, 31 miles from their destination at the royalist fortress Montmedy. He was recognized and brought back to Paris.
Nonetheless, the Girondins didn’t see an alternative for the executive power of
the King and continued to support him, excusing the attempted escape, saying it
was a kidnapping. Meanwhile, the people had lost faith in him. His monarchy would
fall under a popular insurrection fourteen months later. For the time being he would
become a weak constitutional monarch, given a suspensive veto delaying
legislation for four years and powers to declare war. The constitutional
monarchy for what little it was, lasted for the period of October 1791 to
August 1792.
***
In August of 1792 Robespierre was elected to the Paris Commune
(city government). Paris politically was segmented into 48 sections, each had
popularly elected representatives. He would represent the Section des Piques
(Pikes) in August 1792. The Paris mob had a profound influence over the
revolution. Robespierre said that the Commune
alone could be understood as the sovereign people expressing the general
will.
Incited by recent military defeats (blamed on the King’s
generals), a threat by Prussia and Austria, under the Brunswick Manifesto
(vengeance if the French King was harmed), and unpopular vetoes by the King
incited the Parisian mob. This mob accompanied by a French volunteer militia,
the Federes, (a Revolutionary replacement for the National Guard), attacked his
palace on August 10, 1792. Some twenty thousand fought his Swiss Guard of 1200.
The Swiss Guard was defeated and some 600 were brutally butchered. Some 200-400
French were killed in the fighting. In the aftermath Robespierre offered the
suggestion of a pyramid on Place Vendôme to memorialize the Parisian
attackers that died 10 August.
On August 29, 1792 the Prussians took Verdun only 150 miles
east of Paris; the way was open to Paris. Georges Danton, justice minister,
ordered the arrest on the flimsiest pretexts of conspirators within Paris, some
thousand suspects were picked up prior to September 2. Rumors circulated that
inmates in the prisons of Paris were conspiring with the Prussians and
counterrevolutionaries. September 2-6, 1792 the Paris mob ran rampant, emptying
the jails and summarily executing 1100-1600 prisoners, including 240 nonjuring
priests. Most of those executed were common criminals, oddly enough. A dramatic
victory led by General Dumouriez at Valmy, 20th September, 1792,
saved France from invasion and relieved a great deal of pressure on the
Revolution.
The Republic was proclaimed on September 21, 1792.
Robespierre would be elected to the newly convened National Convention
(September 1792 to July 1794). Members of the National Assembly, of which
Robespierre was a member, had been excluded from the Legislative Assembly
(October 1791-September 1792); Robespierre was thus not a delegate again until
this National Convention in September 1792; his notoriety consisted of being a leading
member of the Jacobin Club during the interim and publisher of the Le Défenseur de la Constitution.
After the King’s deposition a debate raged as to the nature
of his punishment. Should it be exile or execution, or as some Girondins
supposed retain him as a figure head, fearing the populist upheaval of a
republic? Many times the Girondins, advocates of Revolution nonetheless, wanted
to put brakes on the influence of the sans-culottes.
Robespierre argued for summary execution of the King, despite ironically being
on the record as opposing capital punishment. The King must die so the country
can live, he’d say.
King Louis XVI would be put on trial as traitor. While at
trial, his residence at the Tuileries Palace was searched; secret papers were
discovered behind a wooden panel in an iron safe, letters attempting to bribe
delegates and secret plans for counter revolution. His fate was set; he would
be convicted a traitor to his country with no negative votes. A majority of the
delegates voted for his execution. He was guillotined January 23, 1793.
The monarchies of Europe were outraged; this propelled
England and Holland to declare war on February 1, 1793. Spain a month later on
March 7, France was fighting the whole weight of Europe.
