[1] Any contempory Western reader take notice ! ! The proof of any
Jacobin or Socialist or Communist take-over, surreptitious or open-
handed, lies in their take-over of the important posts in politics,
the judicial system, the media and the administration. They may be
years in doing this, placing convinced or controlled men and women,
first in the faculties, later in career post, so that they, 30 years
later, have their people on all leading posts; or they may do it all
at once, like the Jacobins in France, Lenin in Russia or Stalin in
the conquered territories after the second world war. (SR).
[2] Duvergier, "Collection des lois et décrets," decrees of Sept. 22
and Oct. 19, 1792. The electoral assemblies and clubs had already
proceeded in many places to renew on their own authority the decree
rendering their appointments valid.
[3] The necessity of placing Jacobins everywhere is well shown in the
following letter: "Please designate by a cross, on the margin of the
jury-panel for your district, those Jacobins that it will do to put on
the list of 200 for the next quarter. We require patriots." (Letter
from the attorney-general of Doubs, Dec. 23, 1792. Sauzay, III. 220.)
[4] Pétion, "Mémoires" (Ed. Dauban), p. 118: "The justice who
accompanied me was very talkative, but could not speak a word of
French. He told me that he had been a stone-cutter before he became a
justice, having taken this office on patriotic grounds. He wanted to
draw up a statement and give me a guard of two gendarmes; he did not
know how, so I dictated to him what to say; but my patience was
severely taxed by his incredibly slow writing.
[5] Decrees of July 6, Aug. 15 and 20, Sept. 26, 1792.
[6] Decree of Nov. 1, 1792.-- Albert Babeau, II. 14, 39, 40.
[7] Dumouriez, III. 309, 355. -- Miot de Melito, "Mémoires," I.31,
33.-- Gouverneur Morris, letter of Feb. 14, 1793: "The state of
disorganization appears to be irremediable. The venality is such that,
if there be no traitors, it is because the enemy have not common
sense."
[8] "Archives Nationales," F7, 3268. Letter of the municipal officers
of Rambouillet, Oct. 3, 1792. They denounce a petition of the Jacobins
of the town, who strive to deprive forty foresters of their places,
nearly all with families, 'on account of their once having been in the
pay of a perjured king." -- Arnault ("Souvenirs d'un sexagénaire"),
II. 15. He resigns a small place he had in the assignate manufacture,
because, he says, "the most insignificant place being sought for, he
found himself exposed to every kind of denunciation."
[9] Dumouriez, III. 339. -- Meillan, "Mémoires," 27. "Eight days
after his installation as Minister of War, Beurnonville confessed to
me that he had been offered sums to the amount of 500,000 francs to
lend himself to embezzlements." He tries to sweep out the vermin of
stealing employees, and is forthwith denounced by Marat. -- Barbaroux,
"Mémoires" (Ed. Dauban). (Letter of Feb. 5, 1793.) "I found the
Minister of the Interior in tears at the obstinacy of Vieilz, who
wanted him to violate the law of Oct. 12, 1791 (on promotion)." Vieilz
had been in the service only four months, instead of five years, as
the law required, and the Minister did not dare to make an enemy of a
man of so much influence in the clubs. Buchez et Roux, XXVIII.19
("Publication des pièces relatives au 31 Mai," at Caen, by Bergoing,
June 28, 1793): "My friend learned that the place had been given to
another, who had paid 50 louis to the deputy. -- The places in the
bureaus, the armies, the administrations and commissions are estimated
at 9,000. The deputies of the Mountain have exclusive disposal of them
and set their price on them, the rates being almost publicly stated."
The number greatly increases during the following year (Mallet du Pan,
II.56, March, 1794). "The public employees at the capital alone amount
to 35,000."
[10] Decree of Aug. 11, 12, 1792.
[11] Sauzay, III. 45. The number increases from 3,200 to 7,000.
[12] Durand-Maillane, "Mémoires," p. 30: "This proceeding converted
the French proletariat, which had no property or tenacity, into the
dominant party at electoral assemblages.. . . The various clubs
established in France (were) then masters of the elections." In the
Bouches-du-Rhône "400 electors in Marseilles, one-sixth of whom had
not the income of a silver marc, despotically controlled our Electoral
Assembly. Not a voice was allowed to be raised against them. . . Only
those were elected whom Barbaroux designated."
[13] Decree of Aug. 11, 12, "Archives Nationales," CII. 58 to 76.
Official report of the Electoral Assembly of the Rhône-et-Loire, held
at Saint-Etienne. The electors of Saint-Etienne demand remuneration
the same as the others, considering that they gave their time in the
same way. Granted.
[14] "Archives Nationales," CII. 1 to 32. Official report of the
Electoral Assembly of the Bouches-du-Rhône, speech by Durand-Maillane:
"Could I in the National Convention be otherwise than I have been in
relation to the former Louis XVI., who, after his flight on the 22d of
June, appeared to me unworthy of the throne? Can I do otherwise than
abhor royalty, after so many of our regal crimes?"
[15] Moniteur, XIII. 623, session of Sept. 8, speech by Larivière. -
"Archives Nationales," CII., 1 to 83. (The official reports make
frequent mention of the dispatch of this comparative lists, and the
Jacobins who send it request the Electoral Assembly to have it read
forthwith.)
[16] Rétif de la Bretonne, "Les Nuits de Paris," Night X. p. 301: "As
soon as the primary assemblies had been set up, the plotters began to
work, electors were nominated, and through the vicious system adopted
in the sections, an uproar made it out for a majority of voices. --
Cf. Schmidt, "Tableaux de la Révolution Française," I. 98. Letter of
Damour, vice-president of the section of the Théatre-Français, Oct.29.
-- " Un Séjour en France," p.29: "The primary assemblies have already
begun in this department (Pas-de-Calais). We happened to enter a
church, where we found young Robespierre haranguing an audience as
small in point of number as it was in that of respectability. They
applauded vigorously as if to make up for their other shortcomings."
[17] Albert Babeau, I. 518. At Troyes, Aug.26, the revolutionaries in
most of the sections have it decided that the relations of an émigré,
designated as hostages and the signers of royalist addresses, shall
not be entitled to vote: "The sovereign people in their primary
assembly may admit among its members only pure citizens against whom
there is not the slightest reproach" (resolution of the Madeleine
section). -- Sauzay, III. 47, 49 and following pages. At Quinsy, Aug.
26, Lout, working the Chattily furnaces, along with a hundred of his
men armed with clubs, keeps away from the ballot-box the electors of
the commune of Courcelles, "suspected of incivisme. " -- " Archives
Nationales," F7, 3217. Letters of Gilles, justice an the canton of
Roquemaure (Gard), Oct. 31, 1792, and Jan. 23, 1793, on the electoral
proceedings employed in this canton: Dutour, president of the club,
left his chair to support the motion for "lanterning" the grumpy and
all the false patriots. . . On the 4th of November "he forced
contributions by threatening to cut off heads and destroy houses." He
was elected juge-de-paix. -- Another, Magère, "approved of the motion
for setting up a gallows, provided that it was not placed in front of
his windows, and stated openly in the club that if people followed the
law they would never accomplish anything to be remembered." He was
elected member of the department directory. -- A third, Fournier,
"wrote that the gifts which citizens made to save their lives were
voluntary gifts." He is made a department councilor. "Peaceable
citizens are storing their furniture in safe places in order to take
to flight . . . There is no security in France; the epithet of
aristocrat, of Feuillant, of moderate affixed to the most honest
citizen's name is enough to make him an object of spoliation and to
expose him to losing his life. . . I insist on regarding the false
idea which is current in relation to popular sovereignty as the
principal cause of the existing anarchy."
[18] Schmidt, "Pariser Zustande," I. 50 and following pages. --
Mortimer-Ternaux, V. 95. 109, 117, 129. (Ballot of Oct. 4, 14,137
voters; Oct. 22, 14,006; Nov.19, 10,223, Dec. 6, 7062.)
[19] Sauzay, III. 45, 46, 221. -- Albert Babeau, I. 517. -- Lallié,
"Le district de Machecoul, 225. -- Cf. in the above the history of the
elections 'of Saint-Affrique: out of more than 600 registered electors
the mayor and syndic-attorney are elected by forty votes. -- The
plebiscite of September, 1795, on the constitution of the year III.
calls out only 958,000 voters. Repugnance to voting still exists.
"Ninety times out of a hundred, on asking: 'Citizen, how did the
Electoral Assembly of your canton go off?' they would reply (in
patois): 'Me, citizen? why should I go there? They have a good deal of
trouble in getting along together.' Or, 'What would you? Only a few
will come; honest people will stay at home!'" (Meissner, "Voyage à
Paris," towards the end of 1795.)
[20] Stalin easily found a remedy. He obliged all to vote and
falsified the count so that 99% now voted for him and his men. (SR).
[21] " Archives Nationales," CII. 1 to 76, passim, especially the
official reports of the assemblies of the Bouches-du-Rhône, Hérault
and Paris. Speech by Barbaroux to the Electoral Assembly of the
Bouches-du-Rhône: "Brothers and friends, liberty will perish if you do
not elect men to the National Convention whose hearts are filled with
hatred of royalty. . . Mine is the soul of a freeman; ever since my
fourth year it has been nourished on hatred to kings. I will relieve
France from this detestable race, or I will die in the attempt. Before
I leave you I will sign my own death-warrant, I will designate what I
love most, I will show you all my possessions, I will lay a dagger on
the table which shall pierce my heart if ever for an instant I prove
false to the cause of the people!" (session of Sept. 3). - Guillon de
Montléon, I, 135.
[22] Durand-Maillane, I.33. In the Electoral Assembly of the Bouches-
du-Rhône "there was a desire to kill an elector suspected of
aristocracy."
[23] Mortimer-Ternaux, IV. 52. "Archives Nationales," CII. I to 32. --
Official report of the Electora1 Assembly of Bouches-du-Rhône. Speech
by Pierre Bayle, Sept. 3: "That man is not free who tries to conceal
his conscience in the shadow of a vote. The Romans openly elected
their tribunes. . . Who amongst us would reject so wise a measure? The
galleries of the National Assembly have had as much to do with
fostering the Revolution as the bayonets of patriots. " -- In Seine-
et-Marne the Assembly at first decided for the secret vote; at the
request of the Paris commissaries, Ronsin and Lacroix, it rescinds its
decision and adopts voting aloud and by call.
[24] Barbaroux, "Mémoires," 379: "One day, on proceeding to the
elections, tumultuous shouts break out: 'That is an anti-revolutionary
from Arles, hang him!' An Arlesian had, indeed, been arrested on the
square, brought into the Assembly, and they were lowering the lantern
to run him up."
[25] Mortimer-Ternaux, III. 338. -- De Sybel, "Histoire de l'Europe
pendant la Révolution Française" (Dosquet's translation), I. 525.
(Correspondence of the army of the South, letter by Charles de Hesse,
commanding the regular troops at Lyons.)
[26] Mortimer-Ternaux, V.101, 122 and following pages.
[27] Guillon de Montléon, I. 172, 196 and following pages.
[28] Sauzay, III. 220 and following pages. -- Albert Babeau, II. 15.
At Troyes, two mayors elected refuse in turn. At the third ballot in
this town of from 32,000 to 35,000 souls, the mayor-elect obtains 400
out of 555 votes.
[29] Moniteur, XV. 184 to 233 (the roll-call of those who voted for
the death of Louis XVI).--Dumouriez, II. 73 (Dumouriez reaches Paris
Feb. 2, 1793, after visiting the coasts of Dunkirk and Antwerp): "All
through Picardy, Artois, and maritime Flanders Dumouriez found the
people in consternation at the tragic end of Louis XVI. He noticed
that the very name of Jacobin excited horror as well as fear."
[30] This number, so important, is verified by the following passages:
-- Moniteur, session of Dec. 39, 1792. Speech by Birotteau: "Fifty
members against 690. . . About twenty former nobles, fifteen or twenty
priests, and a dozen September judges (want to prevail against) 700
deputies." -- Ibid., 851 (Dec.26, on the motion to defer the trial of
the king): "About fifty voices, with energy, No! no! " -- Ibid., 865,
(Dec.27, a violent speech by Lequinio, applauded by the extreme "Left"
and the galleries; the president calls them to order): "The applause
continues of about fifty members of the extreme 'Left.' " -- Mortimer-
Ternaux, VI. 557. (Address by Tallien to the Parisians, Dec.23,
against the banishment of the Duke of Orleans): "To-morrow, under the
vain pretext of another measure of general safety, the 60 or 80
members who on account of their courageous and inflexible adherence to
principles are offensive to the Brissotine faction, will be driven
out." -- Moniteur, XV. 74 (Jan. 6). Robespierre, addressing Roland,
utters this expression: "the factious ministers." "Cries of Order! A
vote of censure! To the Abbaye/ 'Is the honest minister whom all
France esteems,' says a member, 'to be treated in this way?' -- Shouts
of laughter greet the exclamation from about sixty members." -- Ibid.,
XV. 114. (Jan. 11). Denunciation of the party of anarchists by Buzot.
Garnier replies to him: "You calumniate Paris; you preach civil war!"
"Yes! yes! 'exclaim about sixty members. -- Buchez et Roux, XXIV. 368
(Feb. 26). The question is whether Marat shall be indicted. "Murmurs
from the extreme left, about a dozen members noisily demanding the
order of the day."
[31] Mercier, "Le nouveau Paris," II. 200.
[32] Buchez et Roux, XIX. 17. XXVIII. 168. - The king is declared
guilty by 683 votes; 37 abstain from voting, as judges; of these 37,
26, either as individuals or legislators, declare the king guilty.
None of the other 11 declare him innocent.
[33] "Dictionnaire biographique," by Eymery, 1807 (4 vols). The
situation of the conventionists who survive the Revolution may here be
ascertained. Most of them will become civil or criminal judges,
prefects, commissaries of police, heads of bureaus, post-office
employees, or registry clerks, collectors, review-inspectors, etc. The
following is the proportion of regicides among those thus in office:
Out of 23 prefects 21 voted for the king'' death; 42 out of 43
magistrates voted for it, the 43rd being ill at the time of the
sentence. Of 5 senators 4 voted for his death, and 14 deputies out of
16. Out of 36 other functionaries of various kinds 35 voted for death.
Among the remaining regicides we again find 2 councillors of state, 4
diplomatic agents and consuls, 2 generals, 2 receiver-generals, 1
commissary-general of the police, 1 minister in the cabinet of King
Joseph, the minister of police, and the arch-chancellor of the empire.
[34] Buchez et Roux, XIX, 97, session of Sept. 25, 1792. Marat states:
" 'I have many personal enemies in this assembly.' 'All! all!' exclaim
the entire Assembly, indignantly rising." - Ibid., XIX. 9, 49, 63,
338.
[35] "Right" and "Left", only refers to the right and left wings of
the hemicycles of the hall in which the Assembly meets. The Plain and
the Mountain refer to the same Assembly but here to those on the lower
or the upper benches.(SR).
[36] Meillan, "Mémoires," 20. - Buchez et Roux, XXVI. Session of April
15, 1793. Denunciation of the Twenty-two Girondists by the sections of
Paris: Royer-Fonfrède regrets "that his name is not inscribed on this
honorable list. 'And all of us - all! All!' exclaim three-quarters of
the Assembly, rising from their seats."
[37] The Philosophe Denis Diderot (1713-84) was largely responsible
for the 28 volume Encyclopédie (1751-729, which incorporated the
latest knowledge and progressive ideas, and which helped spread the
ideas of the Enlightenment in France and in other parts of Europe.
(Guinness Encyclopedia).
[38] "Archives Nationales," A.F. 45. Letter of Thomas Paine to
Danton, May 6, 1792 (in English). "I do not know better men or better
patriots." This letter, compared with the speeches or publications of
the day, produces a singular impression through its practical good
sense. This Anglo-American, however radical he may be, relies on
nothing but experience and example in his political discussions.
[39] Cf. The memoirs of Buzot, Barbaroux, Louvet, Madame Roland, etc.
[40] And for some incomprehensible reason still in fashion at the end
of the 20th Century. (SR).
[41] Buchez et Roux, XXIV. 102. (Plan drawn up by Condorcet, and
reported in the name of the Committee on the Constitution, April 15
and 16, 1793.) Condorcet adds to this a report of his own, of which he
publishes and abstract in the Chronique de Paris.
[42] Buchez et Roux, XXIV. 102. Condorcet's abstract contains the
following extraordinary sentence: "In all free countries the influence
of the populace is feared with reason; but give all men the same
rights and there will be no populace."
[43] Cf. Edmond Biré. "La Légende des Girondins," on the part of the
Girondists in all these odious measures.
[44] These traits are well defined in the charges of the popular
party against them made by Fabre d'Eglantine. Maillan, "Mémoires,"
323. (Speech of Fabre d'Eglantine at the Jacobin Club in relation to
the address of the commune, demanding the expulsion of the Twenty-
Two.) "You have often taken the people to task; you have even
sometimes tried to flatter them; but there was about this flattery
that aristocratic air of coldness and dislike which could deceive
nobody. Your ways of a bourgeois patrician are always perceptible in
your words and acts; you never wanted to mix with the people. Here is
your doctrine in few words: after the people have served in
revolutions they must return to dust, be of no account, and allow
themselves to be led by those who know more than they and who are
willing to take the trouble to lead them. You, Brissot, and especially
you, Pétion, you have received us formally, haughtily, and with
reserve. You extend to us one finger, but you never grasp the whole
hand. You have not even refused yourselves that keen delight of the
ambitious, insolence and disdain."
[45] Buzot, "Mémoires," 78.
[46] Edmond Biré, "La légende des Girondins." (Inedited fragments of
the memoirs of Pétion and Barbaroux, quoted by Vatel in "Charlotte
Corday and the Girondists," III. 472, 478.)
[47] Buchez et Roux, XXVI. A financial plan offered by the department
of Hérault adopted by Cambon and rejected by the Girondists.
[48] Buchez et Roux, XXV. Speech by Vergniaud (April 10), pp. 376,
377, 378. "An effort is made to accomplish the Revolution by terror. I
would accomplish it through love."
[49] Maillan, 22.
[50] Buchez et Roux, XXIV. 109. Plan of a constitution presented by
Condorcet. Declaration of rights, article 32. "In every free
government the mode of resistance to different acts of oppression
should be regulated by law." - Ibid., 136. Title VIII. Of the
Constitution "De la Censure des lois."
[51] Buchez et Roux, 93. Session of the Jacobin Club, April 21, 1793.
[52] Schmidt, "Tableaux de la révolution Française," II.4 (Report of
Dutard, June 6, 1793.) - The mental traits of the Jacobins form a
contrast and are fully visible in the following speeches: "We desire
despotically a popular constitution." (Address of the Paris Jacobin
Club to the clubs in the departments, Jan. 7, 1793.) - Buchez et Roux,
XXIII. 288 - Ibid., 274. (Speech by Legros in the Jacobin Club, Jan.
1.) "Patriots are not counted; they go by weight. . . One patriot in
a scale weights more than 100,000 aristocrats. One Jacobin weights
more than 10,000 Feuillants. One republican weights more than 100,000
monarchists. One patriot of the Mountain weights more than 100,000
Brissotins. Hence I conclude that the convention should not be stopped
by the large number of votes against the death-sentence of Louis XVI.,
(and that) even (if there should be) but a minority of the nation
desiring Capet's death." - "Applauded." (I am obliged to correct the
last sentence, as it would otherwise be obscure.)
[53] Buzot, "Mémoires," 33: "The majority of French people yearned
after royalty and the Constitution of 1790. This was the strongest
feeling, and especially at Paris . . This people is only republican
because it is threatened by the guillotine. . All its desires, all
its hopes incline to the constitution of 1791."---Schmidt, I. 232
(Dutard, May 16). Dutard, an old advocate and friend of Garat, is one
of those rare men who see facts behind words; clear-sighted,
energetic, active, abounding in practical counsels, and deserving of a
better chief than Garat.
[54] Schmidt, ibid., I. 173, 179 (May 1, 1793).
[55] "La Démagogie à en Paris en 1793," p.152. Dauban ("Diurnal de
Beaulieu," April 17). - "Archives Nationales," AF II. 45 (report by
the police, May 20). "The dearness of supplies is the leading cause of
agitation and complaints." -- (Ib., May 24). "The calm which now
appear to prevail in Paris will soon be disturbed if the prices of the
prime necessities of life do not shortly diminish." -- (Ibid., May
25). "Complaints against dear food increase daily end this
circumstance looks as if it might become one of the motives of
forthcoming events.
[56] Schmidt, I. 198 (Dutard, May 9).
[57] Schmidt, I. 350; II. 6 (Dutard, May 30, June 7 and 8).
[58] Durand-Maillane,100: "The Girondist party was yet more impious
than Robespierre." -- A deputy having demanded that mention should be
made of the Supreme Being in the preamble of the constitution,
Vergniaud replied: "We have no more to do with Numa's nymph than with
Mahomet's pigeon; reason is sufficient to give France a good
constitution." -- Buchez et Roux, XIII. 444. Robespierre having spoken
of the Emperor Leopold's death as a stroke of Providence, Guadet
replies that he sees "no sense in that idea," and blames Robespierre
for "endeavoring to return the people to slavery of superstition." -
Ibid., XXVI. 63 (session of April 19, 1793). Speech by Vergniaud
against article IX of the Declaration of Rights, which states that
"all men are free to worship as they please." This article, says
Vergniaud, "is a result of the despotism and superstition under which
we have so long languished." -- Salle : "I ask the Convention to draw
up an article by which each citizen, whatever his form of worship,
shall bind himself to submit to the law " - Lanjuinais, who often
ranked along with the Girondists, is a Catholic and confirmed
Gallican.
[59] Schmidt, I. 347 (Dutard, May 30). "What do I now behold? A
discontented people hating the Convention, all its administrators, and
the actual state of things generally."
[60] Schmidt, I. 278. (Dutard, May 23).
[61] Schmidt, I. 216 (Dutard, May 13).
[62] Schmidt, I. 240 (Dutard, May 17).
[63] Schmidt, I. 217 (Dutard, May 13).
[64] Schmidt, I. 163 (Dutard, April 30).
[65] Schmidt, II. 377 (Dutard, June 13). Cf. Ibid., II. 80. (Dutard,
June 21): "If the guillotining of the Thirty-Two were subject to a
roll call, and the vote a secret one I declare to you no respectable
man would fail to hasten in from the country to give his vote and that
none of those now in Paris would fail to betake themselves to their
section."
[66] Schmidt, II. 35 (Dutard, June 13). On the sense of these two
words, inferior aristocracy, Cf. All of Dutard's reports and those
of other observers in the employ of Garat.
[67] Schmidt, II. 37 (Dutard, June 13).
[68] Schmidt, I. 328 (Perrière, May 28): "Intelligent men and
property-owners abandoned the section assemblies and handed them to
others as these were places where the workman's fist prevailed against
the speaker's tongue." - Moniteur. XV. 114 (session of Jan. 11,
speech by Buzot). "There is not a man in this town who owns anything,
that is not afraid of being insulted and struck in his section if he
dares raise his voice against the ruling power. . . The permanent
assemblies of Paris consist of a small number of men who have
succeeded in keeping other citizens away." - Schmidt, I. 235 (Dutard,
May 28): "Another plan would be to drill young men in the use of the
staff. One must be a sans-culotte, must live with sans-culottes, to
discover the value of expedients of this kind. There is nothing the
sans-culotte fears as much as a truncheon. A number of young men
lately carried them in their trousers, and everybody trembled as they
passed. I wished that the fashion were general."
[69] Moniteur, XV. 95 (Letter of Charles Villette, deputy).
[70] Moniteur, XV. 179 (Letter of Roland, Jan. 11. 1793).
[71] Moniteur, XV. 66, session of Jan. 5, speech of the mayor of
Paris; (Chambon) - Ib., XV 114, session of Jan. 14, speech by Buzot; -
- Ib., XV. 136, session of Jan. 13. Speech by a deputation of
Federates. - Buchez et Roux, XXVIII. 91 (Letter of Gadolle to Roland,
October, 1792). -- XXI. 417 (Dec. 20, article by Marat): " Boredom and
disgust have emptied the assemblies. -- Schmidt, II, 69 (Dutard, June
18).
[72] Schmidt, I. 203. (Dutard, May 10). The engravings published
during the early period of the Revolution and under the directory
exhibit this scene perfectly (cabinet des estampes, Paris).
[73] Moniteur, XV. 67 (session of Jan. 5, 1793). Speech by the mayor
of Paris.
[74] Schmidt, I. 378 (Blanc, June 12).
[75] Schmidt, II. 5 (Dutard, June 5).
[76] Schmidt, II. (Dutard, June 11) -- Ibid., II. (Dutard, June i8):
"I should like to visit with you," if it were possible, "the 3,000 or
4,000 wine-dealers, and the equally numerous places of refreshment in
Paris; you would find the 15,000 clerks they employ constantly busy.
If we should then go to the offices of the 114 notaries, we should
again find two-thirds of these gentlemen in their caps and red
slippers, also very much engaged. We might then, again, go to the 200
or 300 printing establishments, where we should find 4,000 or 5,000
editors, compositors, clerks, and porters all conservatized because
they no longer earn what they did before; and some because they have
made a fortune." -- The incompatibility between modern life and direct
democratic rule strikes one at every step, owing to modern life being
carried out under other conditions than those which characterized life
in ancient times. For modern life these conditions are, the magnitude
of States, the division of labor, the suppression of slavery and the
requirements of personal comforts and prosperity. Neither the
Girondists nor the Montagnards, who aimed to revive Athenian and
Spartan ways, comprehended the precisely opposite conditions on which
Athens and Sparta flourished.
[77] Schmidt, I. 207 (Dutard, May 10).
[78] Schmidt, II. 79 (Dutard, June 19).
[79] Schmidt, II.70 (Dutard, June 10).
[80] Lenin must have felt encouraged by reading these lines which can
only have increase his disdain for the "capitalist" and bourgeoisie.
(SR).
[81] Mortimer-Ternaux, V. 101.
[82] Meillan, 54. -- Raffet, Henriot's competitor and denounced as an
aristocrat, had at first the most votes, 4,953 against 4,578. At the
last ballot, out of about 15,000 he still has 5,900 against 9,087 for
Henriot. -- Mortimer-Ternaux, VIII. 31: "The electors had to vote
thirty at a time. All who dared give their votes to Raffet were marked
with a red cross on the roll-call, followed by the epithet of anti-
revolutionary."
[83] Schmidt, II. 37 (Dutard, June 13): "Marat and others have a party
of from 4,000 to 6,000 men, who would do anything to rescue them." --
Meillan, 155 (depositions taken by the Commission of the Twelve):
Laforet has stated that there were 6,000 sans-culottes to massacre
objectionable deputies at the first signal. -- Schmidt, II, 87
(Dutard, June 24): "I know that there are not in all Paris 3,000
decided revolutionaries."
[84] Moniteur, XV. 114, session of Jan. 11, speech by Buzot. --
Ibid., 136, session of Jan. 13, speech of the Federates of Finisterre.
- Buchez et Roux, XXVIII. 80, 81, 87, 91, 93 (Letter of Gadolle to
Roland, October 1792). - Schmidt, I. 207 (Dutard, May 10, 1793).
[85] Schmidt, II. 37 (Dutard, May 10, 1793).
[86] Mortimer-Ternaux, IV. 269 (petition presented by Gonchon.) -
"Archives Nationales, AF, II 43. Letters of Gonchon to the Minister
Garat, May 31, June 1, June 3, 1793). These are very odd and naive. He
addresses the Minister Garat: "Citizen Garra."
[87] Schmidt, I, 254 (Dutard, May 19). - Moniteur, XIV. 522 (Letter
addressed to Roland number for Nov. 21, 1792): "The sections (are)
composed of, or at least frequented, nineteen-twentieth of them, by
the lowest class, both in manners and information."
[88] Schmidt, II. 39 (Dutard, June 13).
[89] Schmidt, II.87 (Dutard, June 14). The expression of these fish-
women is still coarser.
[90] Rétif de la Bretonne ("Bibliographie de ses oeuvres, par Jacob,
287). -- (On the pillage of shops, Feb.25 and 26, 1793).
[91] Schmidt, II. 61; I. 265 (Dutard, May 21 and June 17).
[92] Schmidt, I.96 (Letter of citizen Lauchou to the president of the
Convention, Oct. 11, 1792). - II. 37 (Dutard, June 13). Statement of a
wigmaker's wife: "They are a vile set, the servants. Some of them come
here every day. They chatter away and say all sorts of horrible things
about their masters. They are all just alike. Nobody is crazier than
they are. I knew that some of them had received benefits from their
masters, and others who were :still being kindly treated; but nothing
stopped them."
[93] Schmidt, I. 246 (Dutard, May 18). -- Grégoire, "Mémoires," I.
387. The mental and moral decline of the party is well shown in the
new composition of the Jacobin Club after September, 1792: "I went
back there," says Grégoire in September, 1792 (after a year's
absence), "and found it unrecognizable; no opinions could be expressed
there other than those of the Paris section . . . I did not set foot
there again; (it was) a factious disreputable drinking place." --
Buchez et Roux, XXVI. 214 (session of April 30,1793, speech by Buzot).
"Behold that once famous club. But. thirty of its founders remain
there; you find there none but men steeped in debt and crime."
[94] Schmidt, I. 189 (Dutard, May 6).
[95] Cf. Rétif de la Bretonne, "Nuits de Paris," vol. XVI. (July 12,
1789). At this date Rétif is in the Palais-Roya1, where "since the
13th of June numerous meetings have been held and motions made. . . I
found there none but brutal fellows with keen eyes, preparing
themselves for plunder rather than for liberty."
[96] Mortimer-Ternaux, V.226 and following pages (address of the sans-
culottes section, Sept. 25). -- "Archives Nationales," F7, 146
(address of the Roule section, Sept. 23). In relation to the
threatening tone of those at work on the camp, the petitioners add:
"Such was the language of the workshops in 1789 and 1790."
[97] Schmidt, II.12 (Dutard, June 7): "During a few days past I have
seen men from Neuilly, Versailles, and Saint-Germain staying here,
attracted by the scent."
[98 Schmidt, I.254 (Dutard, May 19) .-- At this date robbers swarm in
Paris; Mayor Chambon, in his report to the Convention, himself admits
it (Moniteur, XV. 67, session of Jan. 5, 1793).
[99] De Concourt, "La Société Française pendant 'a Révolution."
(According to the" Courrier de l'Egalité, Jul. 1793).
[100] Buzot, 72.
[101] Moore, Nov.10, 1792 (according to an article in the Chronique de
Paris). 'The day Robespierre made his "apology," "the galleries
contained from seven to eight hundred women, and two hundred men at
most. Robespierre is a priest who has his congregation of devotees." -
- Mortimer-Ternaux, VII. 562 (letter of the deputy Michel, May 20,
1793): "Two or three thousand women, organized and drilled by the
Fraternal Society in session at the Jacobin Club, began their uproar.
which lasted until 6 o'clock, when the house adjourned. Most of these
creatures are prostitutes."
[102] An expression of Gadol's in his letter to Roland.
[103] Buzot, 57.
[104] Buchez et Roux, XXVIII. 80 (Letter of Gadolle to Roland).
[105] Beaulieu, "Essais," I. 108 (an eye-witness). - Schmidt, II. 15.
Report by Perrières, June 8.
[106] Beaulieu, "Essais," I. 100. "Maillard died, his stomach eaten
away by brandy" (April 15, 1794). - Alexandre Sorel, "Stanislas
Maillard," pp. 32 to 42. Report of Fabre d'Eglantine on Maillard, Dec.
17, 1793. A decree subjecting him to indictment along with Ronsin and
Vincent, Maillard publishes his apology, in which we see that he was
already active in the Rue Favart before the 31st of May. "I am one of
the members of that meeting of true patriots and I am proud of it, for
it is there that the spark of that sacred insurrection of the 31st of
May was kindled."
[107] Alexandre Sorel, ibid. (denunciation of the circumstance by
Lecointre, Dec.14, 1793 accompanied with official reports of the
justices). -- "Archives Nationales," F7, 3268 (letter of the directory
of Corbeil to the Minister, with official report, Nov. 28,1792). On
the 26th of November eight or ten armed men, foot-soldiers, and others
on horseback, entered the farm-house of a man named Ruelle, in the
commune of Lisse. They dealt him two blows with their sabers, then put
a bag over his head, kicked him in the face, tormented him, and almost
smothered his wife and two women servants, to make him give up his
money. A carter was shot with a pistol in the shoulder and twice
struck with a saber; the hands about the premises were tied and bound
like so many cattle. Finally the bandits went away, carrying with them
silver plate, a watch, rings, laces, two guns, etc.
[108] Moniteur, XV. 565. -- Buchez et Roux, XXIV. 335 and following
pages. - Rétif de la Bretonne, "Nuits de Paris," VIII. 460. (an eye
witness). The last of these details are given by him.
[109] Cf. Ed. Fleury, "Baboeuf;" pp.139 and 150. Through a striking
coincidence the party staff is still of the same order in 1796.
Baboeuf estimates his adherents in Paris as "4,000 revolutionaries,
1,500 members of the former authorities, and 1,000 bourgeois gunners,"
besides soldiers, prisoners, and a police force. He also recruited a
good many prostitutes. The men who come to him are workmen who pretend
to have arsouillé109 in the Revolution and who are ready to repeat
the job, provided it is for the purpose of killing those rich rascals,
the monopolizers, merchants, informers, and panachés at the
Luxembourg." (Letter of the agent of the Bonne-Nouvelle section, April
13, 1796.)
[110] The proportion, composition and spirit of the party are
everywhere the same, especially at Lyons (Guillon de Montléon,
"Mémoires," and Balleydier, "Histoire du peuple de Lyon,". passim); at
Toulon (Lauvergne, "Histoire du department du Var"); at Marseilles,
Bordeaux, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Besançon, etc. -- At Bordeaux
(Riouffe, "Mémoires," 23) "it consisted wholly of vagabonds,
Savoyards, Biscayans, even Germans, . .brokers, and water-carriers,
who had become so powerful that they arrested the rich, and so well-
off that they traveled by post" Riouffe adds: "When I read this
passage in the Conciergerie men from every corner of the republic
exclaimed in one voice: 'It is the same in all the communes!'" -- Cf.
Durand-Maillane, "Mémoires," 67: "This people, thus qualified, since
the suppression of the silver marc has been the most vicious and most
depraved in the community." - Dumouriez, II. 51. "The Jacobins, taken
for the most part, from the most abject and most brutal of the nation,
unable to furnish men of sufficient dignity for offices, have degraded
offices to their own level. . . They are drunken, barbarous Helots
that have taken the places of the Spartans." -- The sign of their
advent is the expulsion of the liberals and of the refined of 1789.
("Archives Nationales," F7, 4434, No.6. Letter of Richard to the
committee on Public Safety, Ventôse 3, year II.). During the
proconsulate of Baudot at Toulouse "almost all the patriots of 1789
were excluded from the popular club they had founded; an immense
number were admitted whose patriotism reached only as far back as the
10th of August 1792, if it even went so far as the 31st of last May.
It is an established fact that out of more than 1,000 persons who now
compose the club there are not fifty whose patriotism as far back as
the beginning of the Revolution."
[111] Any tribune taking command of a mob of brutes is well advised
to understand Taine's analysis. One might think Hitler had read Taine
pr somebody who had learned from his wisdom, somewhat like the Devil
who had read the Bible. See page 208, The Secret of Ruling the Masses,
in Rauschning's book, "Hitler Speaks". (SR).
[112] Rœderer, "Chronique des cinquante jours."
[113] Schmidt, I. 246 (Dutard, May 18).
[114] Schmidt, I. 215 (Dutard, May 25).
[115] Buchez et Roux, XXV. 156 (extract from the Patriote Français,
March 30, 1793).Speech by Chasles at the Jacobin Club, March 27: "We
have announced to our fellow-citizens in the country that by means of
the war-tax the poor could be fed by the rich, and that they would
find in the purses of those egoists the wherewithal to live on."
Ibid., 269. Speech by Rose Lacombe: "Let us make sure of the
aristocrats; let us force them to meet the enemies which Dumouriez is
bringing against Paris. Let us give them to understand that if they
prove treacherous their wives and children shall have their throats
cut, and that we will burn their houses. . I do not want patriots to
leave the city; I want them to guard Paris. And if we are beaten, the
first man who hesitates to apply the torch, let him be stabbed at
once. I want all the owners of property who have grabbed everything
and excited the people's anger, to kill the tyrants themselves or else
be killed." [Applause -- April 3.] - Ibid., 302 (in the Convention,
April 8): "Marat demands that 100,000 relatives and friends of the
émigrés be seized as hostages for the safety of the commissioners in
the hands of the enemy." -- Cf. Balleydier, 117, 122. At Lyons, Jan.
26, 1793, Challier addresses the central club: "Sans-culottes,
rejoice! the blood of the royal tiger has flowed in sight of his den!
But full justice is not yet done to the people There are still 500
among you deserving of the tyrant's fate! " -- He proposes on the 5th
of February a revolutionary tribunal for trying arrested persons in a
revolutionary manner. "It is the only way to force it (the Revolution)
on royal and aristocratic factionists, the only rational way to avenge
the sovereignty of the brave sans-culottes, who belong only to us." -
- Hydens, a national commissioner adds: "Let 25,000,000 of Frenchmen
perish a hundred times over rather than one single indivisible
Republic!"
[116] Mallet du Pan, the last expression.
[117] Buzot, 64.
[118] Michelet, IV. 6 (according to an oral statement by Daunou). --
Buchez et Roux, 101 (Letter of Louvet to Roland): "At the moment of
the presentation of their petition against armed force (departmental)
by the so-called commissioners of the 48 sections of Paris, I heard
Santerre say in a loud tone to those around him, somewhat in these
words: 'You see, now, these deputies are not up to the Revolution. . .
That all comes from fifty, a hundred two hundred leagues off; they
don't understand one word you say!'"
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