DOCSLIB.ORG

Maximilien Robespierre and Political Intolerance

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Maximilien Robespierre and Political Intolerance POLITICAL INTOLERANCE Maximilien Robespierre and Political Intolerance n 1792, France was in turmoil. It was the third ments in favor of executing Louis XVI, that won him Iyear of revolution, and instability reigned. popularity among the revolutionary masses. Many Undermined by revolts in the provinces and beset moderates opposed Robespierre’s position, calling upon by counter-revolutionary armies on all of instead for a popular referendum on the fate of the its frontiers, France’s new leaders desperately king. However, these voices soon were drowned out sought new ways to instill order among the chaos. by the powerful revolutionary rhetoric employed The constitutional monarchy established in the by Robespierre and his allies. Declaring that “Louis Constitution of 1791 had failed to govern the must die so that the nation may live,” Robespierre country effectively. Revolutionary violence reached helped convince the Convention to vote for the a fever pitch as thousands of imprisoned nobles king’s death. The hopes for moderation in building and clerics were slaughtered in their jail cells in the a just and peaceful revolution died along with the “September Massacres.” The National Convention king. Robespierre and many other revolutionaries had become the default government and voted to were bent on destroying the old order in France and dissolve the monarchy. They now had to decide ushering in a utopian reign of liberty, equality, and what to do with the deposed and imprisoned king. fraternity. The Revolution had reached a crisis. For their part, Robespierre and the faction of It was during this period that a little-known political radicals known as the Montagnards became lawyer and Deputy of the National Convention, convinced that the tendencies of the moderate Maximilien Robespierre, began his rapid ascent group, the Girondists, were not merely hobbling to power. Known early on as “the incorruptible,” the progress of the revolution, but constituted Robespierre’s fierce dedication to the principles outright treason. By May 1793, Robespierre called of the revolution made him a popular figure. His on the Montagnards to rebel against the Girondist- uncompromising ideological allegiance led government and urged the armed to the purity of virtue and the prin- people of Paris to forcibly depose ciples of the revolution, and his Girondist deputies. In June, willingness to destroy its en- the Girondists were expelled emies, led him to embrace from the Convention and bloody, state-sponsored arrested. violence to achieve his In July 1793, Robe- ends of a utopian state. spierre took control of The consequence was the newly-formed Com- the Terror. mittee of Public Safety. A former opponent In most initiatives, the of the death penalty, he Committee was able to made powerful argu- bypass the more deliber- HEROES & VILLAINS: THE QUEST FOR CIVIC VIRTUE ate National Convention and take direct action as The Committee and the Revolutionary Tribu- committee members saw fit. Because of these far- nals oversaw the execution of thousands of people reaching powers, the Committee of Public Safety by the guillotine who disagreed, or appeared to became the de-facto executive of the French Re- disagree, with the official policies of Robespierre public, with Robespierre at its helm. Robespierre and the Montagnards. In March 1794, even the and his followers could now impose their vision of Hébertists, a political faction even more extreme revolutionary virtue and ideological purity with the than Robespierre, were executed. That same power of the state. The search for “enemies of the month, Robespierre’s former ally Georges Danton, a revolution” and “enemies of the state” soon began well-established Montagnard radical, was executed in earnest. for publicly critiquing the mandates of the Com- In September 1793, Robespierre and the mittee of Public Safety. In the provinces, the Reign Committee of Public Safety sought to destroy any of Terror was carried out in gruesomely creative perceived ideological opponents to the revolution ways. In Nantes, thousands of people were rowed within France. Inspired by a speech by Robespierre, out into the Loire River, weighted with large stones, they declared that “terror was the order of the and drowned en masse. Priests and nuns were es- day,” inaugurating the Reign of Terror. This led to pecially targeted in this practice that became known the wholesale execution of tens of thousands of as the “Republican Baptism.” In other instances, political and religious dissidents, rebels, émigrés, hundreds of political prisoners were gathered to- common criminals, and anyone suspected of being gether and mowed down by cannon fire. No one an enemy of the revolution or failing adequately to was immune from the revolutionary violence in its embrace it with enough fervor. That same month, pursuit of a pure revolution. the Committee passed the Law of Suspects, naming During Robespierre’s reign as the head of large swathes of the population as suspected traitors the Committee of Public Safety, the barbarity to the revolution. Among those named in the law and scope of the Reign of Terror continually were “those who, by their conduct, associations, widened. The national sense of paranoia came to comments, or writings have shown themselves a crescendo throughout the spring and summer of partisans of tyranny or federalism and enemies of 1794. On July 26, Robespierre spoke before the liberty,” as well as any nobility and their family who Convention and claimed a new conspiracy was had not displayed sufficient revolutionary ardor. afoot to undermine the nation. The deputies in By October 1793, Robespierre and the Committee the Convention grew afraid that Robespierre and of Public Safety approvingly watched the execution his supporters intended to execute them on false of the deposed Girondists, their former friends charges of treason. The next day, the Convention and allies. In December, the Convention granted ordered the arrest of Robespierre and several other sole executive authority to the committee, making members of the Committee of Public Safety. On Robespierre the most powerful man in France. July 28, Robespierre himself was executed by the The unhealthy political and civic culture of guillotine, the horrific symbol of the Reign of Terror. revolutionary France now fed suspicion of fellow A more moderate government was installed in the citizens and resulted in a murderous purge of ensuing Thermidorian Reaction (even though it “enemies.” This destruction of enemies of the state killed thousands of Catholic rebels in the Vendee), would became prevalent in totalitarian regimes in and the Terror was over. the twentieth century. © THE BILL OF RIGHTS INSTITUTE Defining Civic Virtues: Political Intolerance Disrespect for the different political views of others and violating their inalienable rights HEROES & VILLAINS: THE QUEST FOR CIVIC VIRTUE.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The French Revolution and Haiti, by Alex Fairfax-Cholmeley
    52 III.2. The French Revolution and Haiti Alex Fairfax-Cholmeley Queen Mary, University of London Keywords: the Atlantic; Bourbon Restoration; National Convention; Paris Revolutionary Tribunal; Saint-Domingue; slavery; Thermidorian reaction I have become increasingly interested in the potential of using Saint- Domingue/Haiti as a prism through which to study French society during the Revolutionary era. Not only is the story of the revolution in Saint-Domingue important in its own right, but the complex and contradictory reactions it provoked back in the metropole offer an opportunity to put Revolutionary and counter-revolutionary principles under the microscope. The Haitian revolution was, after all, a test case for revolutionaries in France, who were debating the limits and potential of liberty and equality – as set against concerns over issues like the sanctity of private property, public order and geopolitical security. A Haitian prism on French politics has two further distinct advantages. First, it encourages, or perhaps even demands, a much broader timeframe than is usually employed in Revolutionary historiography, with French recognition of Haiti’s status as an independent nation in 1825 one obvious end point. Second, it leads naturally to engagement with the developing transnational e-France, volume 4, 2013, A. Fairfax-Cholmeley and C. Jones (eds.), New Perspectives on the French Revolution, pp.52-54. New Perspectives 53 historiography of the Atlantic world during this period – for example, work that looks at American condemnation and support for a successful slave rebellion in its vicinity. (Geggus and Friering, 2009; Sepinwall, 2012) This is therefore an opportunity to site French Revolutionary historiography in a truly international context.
    [Show full text]
  • After Robespierre
    J . After Robespierre THE THERMIDORIAN REACTION Mter Robespierre THE THERMIDORIAN REACTION By ALBERT MATHIEZ Translated from the French by Catherine Alison Phillips The Universal Library GROSSET & DUNLAP NEW YORK COPYRIGHT ©1931 BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AS La Reaction Thermidorienne COPYRIGHT 1929 BY MAX LECLERC ET CIE UNIVERSAL LIBRARY EDITION, 1965 BY ARRANGEMENT WITH ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 65·14385 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PREFACE So far as order of time is concerned, M. M athie( s study of the Thermidorian Reaction, of which the present volume is a translation, is a continuation of his history of the French Revolution, of which the English version was published in 1928. In form and character, however, there is a notable difference. In the case of the earlier work the limitations imposed by the publishers excluded all references and foot-notes, and the author had to refer the reader to his other published works for the evidence on which his conclusions were based. In the case of the present book no such limitations have been set, and M. Mathiei: has thus been able not only to state his con­ clusions, but to give the chain of reasoning by which they have been reached. The Thermidorian Reaction is therefore something more than a sequel to The French Revolution, which M. Mathiei:, with perhaps undue modesty, has described as a precis having no independent authority; it is not only a work of art, but a weighty contribution to historical science. In the preface to his French Revolution M.
    [Show full text]
  • NORMAN HAMPSON Norman Hampson 1922–2011
    NORMAN HAMPSON Norman Hampson 1922–2011 ‘NORMAN WAS ALWAYS LUCKY’, said his father when he married Jacqueline Gardin in 1948.1 Norman Hampson never doubted it, knowing that the happiest events in his life came about by chance. They left him profoundly convinced that history, too, develops by chances that historians habitually underestimate, and his deepest instincts left him sceptical of all forms of historical determinism. He did not consciously set out to be a professional historian, much less a historian of France. He was born on 8 April 1922 in Leyland and grew up in industrial Lancashire. His mother, Elizabeth Fazackerley, bore a very ancient Lancashire name. His father, Frank Hampson, was clerk to the Education Authority. Neither came from an educated background, but their efforts to compensate through their two sons won them entry to the most prestigious school in the north, Manchester Grammar School. Here Norman at first followed his much revered elder brother (who went on to become a consultant surgeon) on the science side, though all the while developing a passion for all forms of literature, from the classics, at which he excelled, down to modern English poetry. Only in the sixth form did he finally abandon science. Throughout his life he could quote pages of Shakespeare by heart, and in the sixth form he and Norman Swallow, later a pioneering television producer, established a literary magazine, Phoenix, which carried on with the help of his father some years after he had left school. Haunting Manchester bookshops on his way home, he also began to write his own poems, and even a short novel.
    [Show full text]
  • Timeline (PDF)
    Timeline of the French Revolution 1789 1793 May 5 Estates General convened in Versailles Jan. 21 Execution of Louis XVI (and later, Marie Jun. 17 National Assembly Antoinette on Oct. 16) Jun. 20 Tennis Court Oath Feb. 1 France declares war on British and Dutch (and Jul. 11 Necker dismissed on Spain on Mar. 7) Jul. 13 Bourgeois militias in Paris Mar. 11 Counterrevolution starts in Vendée Jul. 14 Storming of the Bastille in Paris (official start of Apr. 6 Committee of Public Safety formed the French Revolution) Jun. 1-2 Mountain purges Girondins Jul. 16 Necker recalled Jul. 13 Marat assassinated Jul. 20 Great Fear begins in the countryside Jul. 27 Maximilien Robespierre joins CPS Aug. 4 Abolition of feudalism Aug. 10 Festival of Unity and Indivisibility Aug. 26 Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen Sept. 5 Terror the order of the day Oct. 5 Adoption of Revolutionary calendar 1791 1794 Jun. 20-21 Flight to Varennes Aug. 27 Declaration of Pillnitz Jun. 8 Festival of the Supreme Being Jul. 27 9 Thermidor: fall of Robespierre 1792 1795 Apr. 20 France declares war on Austria (and provokes Prussian declaration on Jun. 13) Apr. 5/Jul. 22 Treaties of Basel (Prussia and Spain resp.) Sept. 2-6 September massacres in Paris Oct. 5 Vendémiare uprising: “whiff of grapeshot” Sept. 20 Battle of Valmy Oct. 26 Directory established Sept. 21 Convention formally abolishes monarchy Sept. 22 Beginning of Year I (First Republic) 1797 Oct. 17 Treaty of Campoformio Nov. 21 Berlin Decree 1798 1807 Jul. 21 Battle of the Pyramids Aug.
    [Show full text]
  • Maximilien Robespierre, on the Moral and Political Principles of Domestic Policy
    Maximilien Robespierre, On the Moral and Political Principles of Domestic Policy, 1794 Maximilien de Robespierre’s (1758–1794) career would not have been possible without the French Revolution. A provincial lawyer, he took advantage of the Revolution’s emphasis on merit over birth, rising to become the leader of the government. He also led the Terror (September 1793–July 1794), a period when the French Revolution became increasingly radical. France was facing down military incursions from other European monarchs and from internal opponents of the Revolution. During this time, a small group of revolutionaries, led by Robespierre, took control of government and attempted to purge France of people whom they considered dangerous to the goals of the Revolution. This was a time of great fear in France, when people were executed for even the suspicion of disloyalty. Ultimately, France was victorious in external wars, but Robespierre continued the Terror. Eventually Robespierre himself was consumed by the Terror he had helped to create, facing execution by guillotine in 1794. Robespierre’s death marked the end of the Terror. Source: Robespierre, On the Moral and Political Principles of Domestic Policy, 1794 But, to found and consolidate democracy, to achieve the peaceable reign of the constitutional laws, we must end the war of liberty against tyranny and pass safely across the storms of the revolution: such is the aim of the revolutionary system that you have enacted. Your conduct, then, ought also to be regulated by the stormy circumstances in which the republic is placed; and the plan of your administration must result from the spirit of the revolutionary government combined with the general principles of democracy.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 6: the French Revolution and Napoleon
    Chapter 6: The French Revolution and Napoleon Unit 2: Enlightenment and Revolution (1700-1850) Section 1: On the Eve of Revolution Chapter 6: The French Revolution and Napoleon (1789-1815) French Revolution Section 1: Terms and People ancien régime – the government in pre-revolution France estate – social class bourgeoisie – the middle class deficit spending – when a government spends more money than it takes in Louis XVI – king of France from 1774 to 1792; executed in 1793 Jacques Necker – a financial advisor to Louis XVI Estates-General – the legislative body consisting of representatives of the three estates cahier – notebook used during the French Revolution to record grievances Tennis Court Oath – an oath taken by the members of the National Assembly to meet wherever the circumstances might require until they had created a constitution Bastille – fortress in Paris used as a prison; French Revolution began when Parisians stormed it in 1789 Cause #1: Enlightenment Ideas New ideas about power and authority began to spread among the Third Estate. People began to question the structure of society using words such as equality, liberty, and democracy. The success of the American revolution inspired many people to begin to discuss the radical views of Rousseau and Voltaire. Cause #2: Economic Crisis There was Deficit spending (govt. spent more than it took in) The Seven Years War = Strained the Treasury The government borrowed more $$$$ The upper class resisted any taxes Bad weather created a food shortage Bread prices doubled
    [Show full text]
  • Gracchus Babeuf and the Revolutionary Language of Thermidor
    Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses 3-1997 From the Printing Press to the Guillotine: Gracchus Babeuf and the Revolutionary Language of Thermidor David Brian Audley Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Part of the European History Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Audley, David Brian, "From the Printing Press to the Guillotine: Gracchus Babeuf and the Revolutionary Language of Thermidor" (1997). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 5740. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.7611 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. THESIS APPROVAL The abstract and thesis of David Brian Audley for the Master of Arts in History were presented February 14, 1997, and accepted by the thesis committee and the department. COMMITTEE APPROVALS: Thomas M. Luckett, Chair Robert Liebman Representative of the Office of Graduate Studies DEPARTMENT APPROVAL: G~s,~ Department of History * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ACCEPTED FOR PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY BY THE LIBRARY by ABSTRACT An abstract of the thesis of David Brian Audley for the Master of Arts in History presented February 14, 1997. Title: From the Printing Press to the Guillotine: Gracchus Babeuf and the Revolutionary Language of Thermidor. The traditional history of Fran9ois-Noel 'Gracchus' Babeuf has been centered on politics and socialism. Sine his death in 1797 historians have attempted to show the foundations of nineteenth and twentieth-century social revolution and communism in the polemical works of Babeuf.
    [Show full text]
  • Jacobins Maximilien Robespierre the Committee of Public Safety
    The Reign of Terror Jacobins The most famous political group of the French Revolution was the Jacobins. Also known as the Society of the Friends of the Constitution, the club originally met at Versailles, organized by deputies of the Estates-General (and then National Assembly). They later met as a club in Paris. By July 1790, their membership grew to about 1,200 Parisian members, with 152 affiliate clubs; the number of members continued to grew thereafter. The club’s main concern was to protect what the revolutionaries had achieved so far—and prevent any reaction from the aristocracy. This desire resulted in the Reign of Terror. The Jacobins felt that it was their duty to catch anyone suspected of opposing the Revolution. The Jacobins also led the dechristianizing movement and organized Revolutionary festivals. Maximilien Robespierre Possibly the most well-known Jacobin was Maximilien Robespierre. He was trained as a lawyer and practiced law by representing poor people. When the Estates-General was summoned in 1789, the Third Estate elected him as one of their deputies. He was thirty years old. Robespierre was a quiet, simple man, with a weak voice. Yet he was able to make himself heard. He spoke more than five hundred times during the life of the National Assembly, and it was here that he gained supporters. He was a philosopher and sided with the ideals of the Enlightenment. He used this background to help shape the Declaration of the Rights of Man. He was a proponent of everything the Declaration stood for. He believed in equal rights, the right to hold office and join the national guard, and the right to petition.
    [Show full text]
  • Ending the Russian Revolution: Reflections on Soviet History and Its
    02 Fitzpatrick 1686.qxd 13/11/09 13:44 Page 29 ELIE KEDOURIE MEMORIAL LECTURE Ending the Russian Revolution: Reflections on Soviet History and its Interpreters SHEILA FITZPATRICK University of Chicago HOW DOES ONE end the Revolution? There are two kinds of problem. First is the problem for successful revolutionaries: how to draw a line under the upheaval and get on with the task of post-upheaval government. Second is the problem for historians: when do they end their history of the revolution? On the revolutionaries’ problem: let us take as our working definition of revolution a great political and social upheaval whose participants imagine themselves to be creating a new world, consciously freeing them- selves of ‘the shackles of the past’. Gripped by the ‘moment of madness’1 that tells them that ‘all is possible’ and that familiar constraints and com- promises of life no longer apply, revolutionaries may believe the moment is eternal. Yet all commonsensical observers know that it is not, and that sooner or later ‘normality’ will return, albeit in a world that actually is transformed in many ways, not all of them intended by the revolutionaries. If the revolutionary party remains in power, it will become—to borrow a term from Mexico—the ‘Institutional Revolutionary Party’:2 in other words, the word ‘revolution’ will come to stand for the new regime.3 Read at the Academy 8 April 2008. 1 Aristide R. Zolberg, ‘Moments of madness’, Politics & Society, 2 (1972), 183–207. 2 The long-lived Mexican Partido Revolucionario Institucional was the offspring of the Mexican Revolution of 1910–20.
    [Show full text]
  • "Virtue and Terror: Maximilien Robespierre on the Principles of the French Revolution." Revolutionary Moments: Reading Revolutionary Texts
    Linton, Marisa. "Virtue and Terror: Maximilien Robespierre on the Principles of the French Revolution." Revolutionary Moments: Reading Revolutionary Texts. Ed. Rachel Hammersley. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015. 93–100. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 29 Sep. 2021. <http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781474252669.0018>. Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 29 September 2021, 09:23 UTC. Copyright © Rachel Hammersley 2015. You may share this work for non-commercial purposes only, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher, and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. 1 1 Virtue and Terror: Maximilien Robespierre on the Principles of the French Revolution M a r i s a L i n t o n Th is great purity of the bases of the French Revolution, the very sublimity of its object is precisely what makes our strength and our weakness; our strength because it gives us the ascendancy of the truth over deception, and the rights of public interest over private interest; our weakness, because it rallies against us all the vicious men, all those who in their hearts plot to despoil the people, and all those who have despoiled them and want immunity, and those who have rejected liberty as a personal calamity, and those who have embraced the Revolution as a career and the Republic as their prey: hence the defection of so many ambitious or greedy men, who, since the beginning, have abandoned us along the way, because they had not begun the journey in order to reach the same goal. One could say that the two contrary geniuses that have been depicted here battling for control of the realm of nature, are fi ghting in this great epoch of human history, to shape irrevocably the destiny of the world, and that France is the theatre of this redoubtable contest.
    [Show full text]
  • Thomas Van, Anatomy of a Revolutionary: a Comparative
    Van 1 Thomas Van Doctor Christina Devlin ENGL 102 11 May 2021 ABSTRACT Maximilien Robespierre and the French Revolution and Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge offer a deeper insight into the nature of the relationship between human psychology, ideology, society, and violence. The two revolutionary leaders, Robespierre and Pol Pot, shared similar upbringings. They were made to look and consider the problems their societies were facing while they were born in privilege and received elite educations. Coming to power, these men sought to cure the ills, or perceived ills, of their societies; they possessed grand visions of what their societies should look like. To realize their societies, violence was their tool of choice, though the violence in France took a different tone than that in Cambodia. The tones of violence reflected the particularities and circumstances of either regime. In France, disorder and anti-revolutionary activity required the French regime to fight violently for its grip on power; therefore, no small effort was put into maintaining law and order. On the other hand, in Cambodia, no such issue was present. The Khmer Regime faced no similar threat to its power, and therefore could focus its efforts on violently creating their ideal society. Van 2 Anatomy of a Revolutionary: A Comparative Analysis of Maximilien Robespierre and Pol Pot Maximilien Robespierre and the French Revolution and Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge help us search for common patterns between two events, ideologies, and individuals in order to ultimately better understand the human capacity for cruelty. The points of comparison will be simplified into: the event, the individual, the ideology.
    [Show full text]
  • Enlightenment Notes
    The Enlightenment Definition: The European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason, science, and individualism (rather than tradition and revelation) as the primary sources of truth and as the catalyst to human flourishing. This epoch is also known in intellectual history as the “Modern Era” or the “Age of Reason.” Why is it called the Enlightenment? Humanity was progressing away from the authority, tradition, and religious superstition (i.e. Christianity) of the “Dark Ages” and into the light of an age of unbridled human progress. What lead to the Enlightenment? -The Renaissance in the 14th -17th centuries lead to the rise of the liberal arts called “humanism.” It was a “rebirth” (what the French word, “renaissance” means) of classical learning. The Renaissance focused on studying the classics of ancient Greece and Rome, going back to the original sources of classical learning (“ad fontes”), and proliferation of the arts. -The Reformation had weakened the stranglehold of the Roman Catholic Church on society. But the radical strictness of Protestant orthodoxy was seen as too legalistic and depressing. People wanted to move away from the Catholic Church but not toward the confines of Protestant morality. -Europeans were tired of all the wars and fighting between Protestants and Catholics. From their perspective, Christianity had led to nothing but authoritarian warfare. -New innovations in science and philosophy. Worldview in the Pre-Modern, Modern, and Post-Modern era Pre-Modern Era Modern Era Post-Modern Era (Enlightenment) Truth Objective: Revealed Objective: Reasoned Not objective: Only by God to or discovered in an attempt to gain science power Approach Supernatural Rational Nonrational Authority Church/Tradition Reason None Humanity Corporate Individual Undefinable Highest Subject of Theology Science Sociology and Study Politics: Power Structures Highest Value God Humanity Self Select major players and how they contributed to the worldview of the modern era.
    [Show full text]