ON THE PRINCIPTES OF REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT 99

t3 which brought it into being. It should not be sought in the books of political writers, who did not foresee that revolution, nor in the laws of tyrants who, satisfied with abusing their power, are not much concented ON TH E PRINCIPLES OF with its legitimacy; and to the aristocracy that word is only a subject of ten-or or slanderous text; to tyrants, a mere scandal; to many other REVOLUTIONARY people, just an enigma; it needs to be explained to all, so that good citizens at least will rally to the principles of the public interest. GOVE RN M ENT The function of government is to direct the moral and physical forces of the nation towards the goal of its appointing. The goal of constitutional govemnent is ro preserve the Republic; 25 December 179315 Nrvdse yeor ll1 that of revolutionary govemment is to found it. Revolution is the war of liberty against its enemies: the constitution is the system of liberry victorious and at peace. () Revolutionary government needs extraordinary activiry, precisely because it is at war. It is subject to less uniform and less rigorous rules, because the circumstances in which it exists are stonny and shifting, and A month after the passage of Biilaud-varenne's deoee,z Robespierre defended above all because it is continually forced to deploy new resources rapidly, the necessity ,Indurgents, of tlrc Terror. It was a response to the and to camilre to confront new and pressing dangers. Desmoulins and his fiewspaper Le Vieux cordelier in partiu,lar, who rmd Constitutional govemment is concerned principally with civil liber-ty, uoiced citicisrn of the Terror. and revolutionary goverrrment, with public liberry. lJnder the constitu- tional system, it almost suffices to protect individuals against abuse of Citizen people's representarives, public power; under the revolutionary system, public power itself is Successes send weak souls to sreep; they spur strong souls on. Let us obliged to defend itself against all the factions attacking it. leave it to Europe and history to praise the rniracles of foulon,3 while we Revolutionary govemment owes good citizens full national protec- prepare new triumphs for liberry. tion; to enemies of the people it owes nothing but death. The Republic's defenders adopt caesar's maxim: they believe nothing These notions suffice to explain the ongin and nature of the laws we has been done so long as something remains to be done. we still face call revolutionary. Those who call them arbitrary or tyrannical are stupid enough dangers to occupy all our zeal. or pelverse sophists seeking to confuse opposites: they wanr to apply the vanquishing Englishmen and traitors is something easy enough for the same system to peace and war, health and sickness; or rather they only valour of our republican soldiers; there is an enterprise that is no ress want the resurrection of ryranny and the death of the homeland. If they important and more difficult: to confound through unwavering energy invoke the literal execution of constitutional adages, it is just to violate the eternal intrigues of all the enernies of our liberry, .rrrrr.""triumph them with impuniry. They are cowardly assassins who, to cut the for the principles ".rd on which public prosperity should be based. Republic's throat in its cradle without risk, try hard to muzzle it with Such are the fint duties you have imposed on your cornmittee of vague rnaxims from which they are practised at extricating themselves. Public SaGry. The constitutional vessel was not built to stay in dry dock for ever; but we are going to start by developing the principles and the necessity of should it have been launched in mid*tempest, into unfavourable winds? revolutionary government; then we will show the cause that tends to That was wanted by the fyrants and slaves who had opposed its paralyse it at birth. construction; but the French people has ordered you to wait for calmer The theory of revolutionary goverruxent ls as new as the revolution conditions. Its unanimous wishes, instantlv drownins the clamour from IOO VIRTUE AND TERROR ON THE PRINCIPLES OF REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNIYENT IOI

the aristocracy and federalism, comrnanded you to deliver it first frorn all ener-rries ofliberry are looking to tum against it not only its faults, but also its enemies" its wisest neasures. Is the govemment coming down on rvhat is caiied Temples to the gods are not meant to provide sanctuary for the exaggeration? They seek to revive moderantism and adstocracy. If it sacrilegious who come to profane them; nor is the constitution supposed tums its attention to those two tlonsters, tirey prolllote exaggeratlon protect to the plots of tyrants who seek to destroy it. with all their might. It is dangerous to ieave them the rleans to mjslead If revolutionary govemment should be more active in its working and the zeal of good citizens; it is more dangerous still to discourage and fieer in its movements than ordinary government, does that ,,.^ ake it less persecute the good citizens they have deceived. Through one of these just and less legitimate? No. It is supported by the holiest of all laws: the abuses, the republic would be in danger of expiring in a convulsive salvation of the people; by the rnost indisputable of all endtiements: movement; through the other, it would infallibly pine away. necessity. So what should be done? Hunt down the culpable inventors of has It its rules too, all drawn from justice and public order. It has perfidious schemes, protecr patriotism, even in its errors; enhghten nothing in common with anarchy or disorder; its pu{pose on the patriots; and constantly raise the people to the level of its rights and contrary is to suppress then, to introduce and consolidate the rule of destiny. law- has It nothing in common with arbitrary rule; it should not be If you do not adopt this rule, you iose everything. guided by individual passions, but by the public interest. If we had to choose between an excess of patriotic fervour and the It should come close to ordinary and general principles in ali cases total absence of civic spirit, or the stagnation of moderantislr, there where they can be applied rigorously without cornprornising pubric would be no hesitation. A vigorous body, tonlented by an excess of sap, liberry. The measure of its strength should be the boldness o. p.rfidy of leaves more resources than a co{pse. the conspiraton. The more terrible it is towards the wicked, th. Above all we n.rust be careful not to kill patriotism by trying to cure it. favourably -or" it should treat the good. The more circumstances impose Patriotism is ardent by its nature. Who can love the homeland coldly? necessary rigour on it, the more it should abstain from measures that It is the gift particularly of simple men, not much given to calculating the pointlessly 'Where interGre with liberry, and that jostle private interests without political consequences of a civic step from its motive. is the any public advantage. patriot, even enlightened, who has never been deceived? Yes! If it is has sail It to befween r'uvo dangerous rocks, weakness and temeriry, accepted that there are moderates and cowards of good faith, why should moderantism and excess;4 moderantism, which is to moderation as there not be patriots of good faith, who are sorletines carried away by a irnpotence is to chastiry, and excess, which resembles energy as dropsy praiseworthy sentiment to €io too far? So ifwe were to regard as criminals resembles health. those in the revolutionaly movement rvho nright have strayed beyond The ryrants have sought constantly to make us retreat into servitude by the exact line drawn by prudence, we would be including in a common the paths of moderantism; and sometimes they have also tried to drive us proscription, along with the bad citizens, all the natural friends of liberty, to the opposite extreme. Both extremes end at the same point.'whether your own friends and the best supporters of the Republic. The adroit ovenhot or undershot, the target is missed in both cases. Nothing ernissaries of fyranny, after having deceived them, would themselves resembles the apostle of federalism more closely than the untimely then become their accusers and perhaps their judges too. preacher of the single universal Republic. The friend of kinss and What then will disentangle all these uuances?'What wil1 trace the line the p.ublic prosecutor of the human race undentand one anothel qurte of demarcation between all the contradictory excesses? Love of the well.' The scapular-wearing fanatic and the fanatic preaching atheism homeland and tmth. Kings and knaves wili sti1l be seeking to erase it; have marry similarities. Democratic barons are the brothers of the they want nothing to do with reason or with truth. Koblenz" marquises; and sometimes red bonnets are closer to red hieh By sketching the duties of revolutionary govemment, we have heels than one might think. marked the pitfalls that threaten it. The greater its power, the more But here government needs to be extrenely circumspect, for the free and rapid its action, tire more it should be directed by good faith. On IO2 VIRTUE AND TERROR ON THE PRINCIPLES OF REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT I03

the day it falls into impure or per{idious hands, liberry wi'be rost; rts very the functions of revolutionary administration are no longer laborious name will becorne a pretext and excuse for counter-revolutro'; its duties but objects of ambition, then the Republic is a.lready lost. energy will become that of a violent polson. The authority of the National Convention needs to be respected by all The co'fide'ce of the French p.opi. is attached to the character rhe Europe; it is to degade it, it is to rn'ipe it out that the tyrants are National convention has shown, rather tha. to the i'stitution itself, exhausting all the resources of their policy, and lavishing their treasure. In placi'g all the power in your hands, it expected your government The Convention needs to take a firm resolution to prefer its own to be beneficent to patnots, as well as fonnidable to ene'ries of'the govemment to that of the London cabinet and ali the coufts in Europe; homeland' It has given you the duty to deploy at the courage and the for if it does not govem, the tyrants will reign. policy needed to crush them, and above all, ,t th. ,rrrre time, ti marntain And what advantages would they not have in this war of ruse and the uniry you need anrong yourselves to fulfil your great destinies. comrption they are waging on the Republic! All the vices are fighting for The foundation of the French Republic is not a g"-. fo, chirdren. It them: the Republic only has virtues on its side. Virtues are simple, cannot be the work of whim or insouciance, nor the fortuitous ourcome modest, poor, often ignorant, sontetimes rough; they are rhe prerogative of the clash between all the individual 'wisdom, crairns and an the revolutionary of the unfortunate, and the heritage of the people. Vices are sunounded elernents. as much as power, presided over the creation of the by every treasure, anned with all the charms of luxury and all the lures of universe. By imposing on mernben drawn from among you the for_ perfidy; they are flanked by all the dangerous talents used for crime. rnidable task of watching ceaselessly over the destiny of the ho'reland, With what depth of artistry the tyrants tum against us, I will not say you have imposed the obligation on yourselves to ,.rppor, the'r with our passions and weaknesses, but our very patriotism! your strength and confidence. If the revolutiorr"ry gorr..rr_..r, i, ,ro, And with what rapidiry the seeds of division they throw among us seconded by the energy, enlighten'renr, patriotism and benevolence of could develop, if we do not hasten to stifle them! all the people's representatives, how .r'it h"rre the stre'gth ,o ..rporra Thanks to five years of betrayal and ryranny, thanks to an excess of proportionately to the efforts of Europe which is attacki,f it, rrra to irnprovidence and credulity, thanks to a few robust strokes too readily the enemies of liberry pressing in on "tt -woe it from all sides? withdrawn in pusillanimous repentance, Austria, England, Russia, Prus- betide us if we open our souls to the treacherous insinuations of sia and Italy have had time to establish a secret government in , the our enemies' who can vanquish us only -woe by dividing usl betide us if French government's nval. They too have their committees, their we break the bundle apart, instead of binding it;*if private iru.r.rtr, if treasury, their agents; that government is acquiring the strength we offended vanity be heard instead of the homeland and the truthl are removing from our own; it has the uniry we have long lacked, the Let us raise our souls ro,ttr; of republican virtues and examples spirit of from ]ielSnt policy we are too inclined to think we can do without, the antiquiry. ThenristocresT hadmore genius rhan the Lacedaernoniarr consistency, and the concerted approach we have not always felt to be general commanding the Greek fleet: however, when the general necessary. answered a much_needed piece of advice meant to save the country And for some time, the foreign courts have been vomiting over France by raising his baton to strike hi'r, The'ristocles .Strike merely said then, ail the cunning scoundrels they have in their pay. Their agents still infest but listen" and Greece triumphed over the Asian ryrant. Scipios was our armies; the very victory at Toulon proves it: it took all the dash ofthe wolth as much as any Roman general: Scipio, .orrqr..rrrg fl"r..rib"l soldiers, all the fidelity of the generals, all the heroism of the people's and Carrhage, gloried in serving under the "ft., orders of his err._i. O ,,i.r,r. representatives, to triumph over that betrayal. They deliberate in our of great heartsl In your presence, what are all the agitation, of prid. ..rd administrations, our section assemblies;e they infiltrate our clubs;lO they all the pretensions of sman souls? o virtue, are you less necessary for have even sat in the sanctuary of national representation; they are con- founding a Republic than for goveming it in peace? O homeland, have trolling and will indefinitely control counter-revolution on the safre level. you fewer claims on the representatives of th. French p.opt",' th"., They prowl about us; they overhear our secrets; they flatter our Greece and Rome had on their generals? What am I saying? If amons us passions; they seek to influence us even in our opinions; they tum our IO4 VIRTUE AND TERROR ON THE PRINCIPLES OF REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT I05

resol'tions against us' Are you weak? Trrey praisc your pmdence. Are raising new counter-revolutionary redoubts and batteries, while the you pnrdent? They accuse you of weakness; they calr your courage tyrants who pay them are asser-nbling new annies. relxenfy; your justice, cruelty. Treat them weil, they .or_rqpi.. publicly; Yes, these perfidious emissaries who talk to us, who flatter us, are the threaten then, and they co'spire in the shadows, behind a mask of brothers, the accomplices ofthe ferocious parasites who ravage our crops, patnotis.r' Yesterday they were the defenders of liberty; who have taken possession of our cities and our vessels bought by their today they are arending their 'rurdering funerals, and dernanding divrne honours rnasters, who have massacred our brothers, pitilessly slaughtered our for them' while arvaiting the chance to siaughter their feliows. Is rt time prisoners, our wives, our children, the representatives of the French to ignite civil war? Theypreach ail the follies of superstition. Is the civil people. What am I saying? The monsters rvho committed those crimes war about to be extinguished by the floods ofF.ench blood? ffr.f rU.;"* are less atrocious than the wretches who tear secretly at our entrails, yet therr priesthood and their gods to reignite rt. they still breathe, they still conspire unpunished! Englishmen, pmssians, have been sJen spreading through our towns They only await leaden to rally them; they are seeking them from and countryside, announcing senseless doctrines in the name of the among you. Their main object is to set us at odds with each other. That National convention; unfrocked priests have bee' seen at the head of disastrous struggle would raise the hopes of the adstocracy, revive the seditious gatherings, for which rerigion was the motive or pretexr. plots of federalism; it would avenge the Girondin faction for the law that Already, patriots led into irnprudent acts by hatred of fanaticism alone punished its crimes; it would punish for its sublime have been rnurdered; blood has already flowed in a number of distncts as devotion; for it is the Mountain, or rather the Convention, that they a result of these deplorable quarrels, as if we had too rnuch bl00d to fight are attacking by dividing it and destroying its work. the fyrants of Europe' o shamel o the weakness of human reason! A As for ourselves, we will make war only on the English, the Prussians, great narion looking like the playthi'g of rhe nrost despicable lackeys the Austrians and their accomplices. It is by exterminating them that we fyrannyl of will reply to these libels. We can hate only the enemies of the homeland. For some trme foreigners have appeared the ar-biten of public tranquir- We should strike terror not into the hearts of patriots or unfortunates, lity' Money flowed or vanished th.i. will; when tn.y *rrn.J but into the dens of foreign brigands where the spoils are shared and the people "t it, the found bread; mobs fonned and dissipated outside bakers, doon at blood of the French people is drunk. their signal' They sun:ound us with their hired murderen and spies; we The Committee has noted that the law was not prompt enough in know it, we see it, and yet they live! They seem inaccessibre to the blade of punishing major culprits. Foreignen, known agents of the allied kings; the law. It is more drffculg even today, to punish an irnportant.orrrpi..ro. generals stained with the blood of Frenchmen, former accomplices of than to snatch a friend of liberty from ttie hands of calumny. Dumouriez,l2 Custine and Lamarlid..,tt h",r. been under arrest for some Hardly had we begun ro de.ounce the falsery philoropiri. excesses time and have not been tried. provoked by enemies of France; hardly had patriotisr' p-rrorrrr..a i' The conspirators are many; they seem to be multiplying, and examples this chamber the word urtra-revo1ution.ry, to designate the'r; before the of that sort are rare. Punishing a hundred obscure and subordinate rraitors in Lyons,11 all the partisans of tyranny, hastened to."pplf it to culprits is less useful to liberry than executing the head of a conspiracy. hot-blooded and ge'erous parriots who had avenged the people and the The memben of the ,lo whose patriotism and law' on one hand they are reviving the former system of penecution fairness are generally praiseworthy, have themselves pointed out to the against friends of the Republic; on the other they plead ilrarrb.rr." fo. Committee of Public SaGty the causes that sometimes hamper its scoundrels dripping with the homeland,s blood. workings without making them rnore certain, and have asked us for Mearrwhi]e their crinres accunrulate; impious cohorts of foreigrr the reform of a law still bearing the marks of the unhappy time when it emissaries are recmited day after day; France is flooded with them; they was made. We propose to authorize the Committee to submit some awart, and will await indefinitely, a moment favourable to their sinister appropriate changes to you, which would also tend to make the designs. They are diggrg in, billeting themselves in our midst; they are workings ofjustice even more propitious to innocence, and at the same 106 VIRTUE AND TFRROR ON THE PRINCIPLES OF REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNIYENT I07 tinre inescapable for cri're and intrigue. you even charged it with this II * The co'e'ritree of Public Safety will reporr, task already, in an earlier decree. in the shortest rime possible, on ways of improving the we propose, as of this moment, organization of the Revolutionary that you hasten the trial of the foreignen and Tribunal. generals accused of conspiracy with the tyrants who are III The assistance and compensation making war on us. - pay''rents granted under earlier decrees to deG'ders It is not enough to of the ho'reland wounded while fighting for rt, or frighten the ene'ries of the horneland; its defbnders should be helped. to the widows and children of those killed, are increased by a third. we w'l rherefore ask your legar systern to rncrude IV A comrnission will be creared and charged with facilitati'g the some anangements in favour of the soldiers - who are fighting and neans suffering for liberry. to enjoy the benefits to which they are entitled by law. The French V - The members of this commission wrll be appointed by the army is nor only the terror of ryrants; it is the glory of the National convention, on nornination by the committee of pubric nation and humanity: when marching to victory, ou. ,ri.tuo"u, wariors Safery. cry: Long live the Republic; when they fall to ene'ry sreel, their cry rs: Long live the Republic. Their rast words are hymns io liberty, their rast sighs good wishes for the homeland. If an the chiefi had beenworthy of the troops, Europe would have been vanquished long ago. Any act of beneficence towards the anrly is an act of natronal gratitude. The assistance given to defe'ders of the homehnJ and their families seems to us to be too modest.'we believe that it courd be increased by a third without problems. The Republic's imnrense financial resources make this measure possible; the homeland is clamouring for it. It also seemed to us that crippled soldiers, and the widows and ch'dren of those who have died for the homeland, were finding the formalities required by law, the multipliciry of application fon's, and sometines the coldness or malevolence of certain junior of{icials, dif'cult enough to delay the enjoyment of the benefits to which the raw entitles them. we thought that the remedy to this problem would be to give them unofiicial deGnden established by law, to help them with ih. to secure their rights. -."r*

For all these reasons, we submit to you the following decree:

The Nadonal Convention decrees: Article I The public - prosecutor of the Revolutionary Tribunar wirl without delay bring to trial Dietrich,ls custine the son of the generar punished by the law, Biron,16 des Brulys, Barrh6lemy,t, ,fr. generals and officers of compliciry ^ndil lcclsed with Dumouriez, custrne, Lamarlidre and Houchard. He will bring to tnar in the same way rhe foreignen, bankers and other individuals charged with treasor, connivance with the kings aliied against the French Republic. "rra I52 VIRTUE AND TERROR NOTES I53

9 Mucius Scaevola (end of sixth century nc): Iegendary Roman hero who, 14 See Glossary. during the war against the Etruscans, slipped into the enemy camp in order 15 Baron de Dietrich (1748-93): supporter of a constirurional nronarchy, he to kill Porsena. Imprisoned by the Etruscans, he let his right hand be burnt tried to raise Strasbourg in revolt after 10 August rTg2before emigrating; on in the fire rather than denounce his accomplices. his retum he was condernned to death and guillotined.

10 See note 7 of chapter 9, this volume. 16 lJiron, Amand Louis de Gontaut (1747*93): a liberal'oble, he held a 1l See note 4 of chapter 2, this volume. nurnber of military posts before being accused of a lack of enthusiasrl by the 12 Octavian, Antony and Lepidus: triumvirate who shared power in the Convention; he was condemned and guillotined rn July 1793. Roman Republic after Caesar's death (44 nc). 17 Brulys (Emault de Bignac deg 1757-1809: chief of Staffofthe rhree a'rues 13 Sejanus (20nc-31 AD): Emperor Tiberius's praetorian prefect. of the North, Belgiuln and the Ardennes in April 1793. Suspended in 14 Brutus and Cassius: the assassins ofJulius Caesar. August 1793, arrested and imprisoned, he was o'ly released after the far of 15 Reference toJean-Baptiste Drouet, deputy in the Convention, imprisoned Robespierre. Barth6l6my (Frangois de) 1747-1830: French arnbassador ro by the Austrians at the end of October 1793. the Swiss cantons 1792 to 1797. 16 tsaille (Pierre Marie, 1750-93) and Beauvais (Charles Nicolas Beauvais de Pr6au, 1745-94): rwo reprbsentants en mission sent to Toulon by the Convention and imprisoned by the royaiists in July 1793. Bailie com- 14 ON THE PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL MORALITY THAT mitted suicide in prison and Beauvais died a few months after his SHOULD GUIDE THE NATTONAL CONVENTION IN THE liberation. DOMESTIC ADMINISTRATION OF THE REPUBLIC 17 Gasparin: reprisentant en mission, killed in the town of Orange on 11 November 1793. 1 'Sur les principes de morale poJitique qui doivent guider la convention nationale dans I'admi'isrration int6rieure de la R6publique', oeuures,vor.X pp. 350-66. I3 ON THE PRINCIPLES OF REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT 2 The vent6se decrees were supposed to sequester the goods of the 'enemies ofthe revolution' and share them out among the poor; they had only begun 1 'Sur les principes du gouvemement r6voludonnaire', Oeuvres, vol. X, pp. to be applied before they were cut short. 273-82. 3 Roman historian (55-120 ao). 2 See 'Revolutionary Goverment' in Glossary. 4 Phrlosopher and poiitician of the Renaissance (1469*1527). was taken back from the English 19 December 1793. 3 Toulon on 5 Tiberius and Vespasian: Roman emperors (14*37 ao) and (69-79 ao). 'ultra-revolutionaries', 4 The latter is a reproach vis-i-vis the especialiy for 6 Lycurgus : mythical Spartan legislator (ninth century nc). policy 'dechristianization'. their of 7 Agis: king of Sparta in the founh cenrury nc who tried to restore Lycurgus's 5 Reference to Anarchanis Cloots who was called 'the orator of the human laws. and whom Robespierre criricized for his 'atheist' positions. race' 8 Demosthenes was the Athenian leader (384-322 nc) who ied the resistance 6 See note 11 of chapter 5, this volume. against the Macedonian king, Philip. Themistocles : Athenian magistrate who won the Battle Salamis against 7 of 9 Miltiades (540-'189 nc): Athenian general who was comrna'der ar the the Penians (480 nc). Batde of Marathon (490 nc) against the Persians. 8 Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal in 202 sc and captured Cathage, 10 See note 5 of chapter 2, this volume. Rome's great rival. 71 See chapter 6, p. 42. 9 See Glossary. 12 caesar, Piso, clodius : rival chiefs compering for power at the end of the 10 See Glossary. Roman Republic (first century nc). 11 Fouch6 Reference to Collot d'Herbois and who had repressed anti- 13 Reference to Anarcharsis cloots; see note 5 of chapter 13, this volume. revolutionary activify in Lyons; Fouch6 was accused excesses. of 14 caligula and Heliogabalus: Roman emperors nororious for their great L2 See Glossary. cruelry (37-41 and 218-222 no). 13 See note 9 of chapter 10, this volume. VIRTU E AND TERROR

MAXIMILIEN ROBESPIERRE

tNTRoDUcloN By SLAVoJ ZtZx

TEXTS SELECTED AND ANNOTATED BY JEAN DUCANGE TRANSLATTON BY JOHN HOWE

VERS O London . NewYork (&oo71