Twelve Who Ruled
Tlte Year of the Terror in the French fuuolution Bv R. R. PALMER
PRINCETON PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS (tt+t/ r,rst) rHE TWE,LVE CHAPTER I
tlce Earth Tw)e/ae Terrorists to Be " stranger se t of Clotr'd'-C onr'peller's ._CARLYLII TH E FRIIN clr REVOLU TIo N m' ez, e r s a19." : NYONE who had business with the government of the Reign of Terror directed his steps to the Tuileries, an old the Guillotine"' a law- BpnrneNu Baninr, b. tT5S, "Anacreotl of palace of the kings of France on the right bank of the Seine -- t^uyJ.:t {amily, easy going' affable' hard- ,., brecl in " between the Louvre and the Tuileries Gardens, in which tilen as worl
a TERRORISTS TO BII 6 TWELVE WHO RULED TWELVE 7 to the "good king be ar-r intrigue. IIe had the virtues alrd the life of his own occupation, all of them.loyal share sccmcd to him to ln lts grave' faults of an incluisitor. A lover of mankirrd, he could ttot euter Louis" whose headless body now rotted to France governed by with sympathy into the minds of his own neighbors- Aristocratic nrrrop. *"J tppttttd -see they in the peaceful years At Arras there was a litcrary society, where tlre members, be- "nobodies." Who then, o' *h^t, were sides reading each other oratiorrs and odes, often discussed public that preceded their great adventure i questions. f'heir discussious'w'ere likely to be bookish and abstract, before the Revoiu- for few of them, under the bureaucratic monarchy, had ever had At Arras, near the Straits of Dover' shortiy olcl' named Maxi'rilie. any experieuce in affairs. These societies r,l'ere nunlcrotls iu Fratrce. tion live .i--] 'i '.': . ' #] TWELVE TERRORISTS TO BE r9 l8 TWDLVE WHO RULED had ceased to perform its functions efnciently, and which to enter pulllic affairs which the seamy side of the goverument,-eager enlightened government might reorganize and direct. Philoso- about the improvemeut of an themselves, perhaps .u.-,t totttt'ned phy wai a catchword of the day, and those_who took a philosophical justice. view, besides thinking that the state should be supreme, were very They were steeped in the philoso- All twelve were intellectuals. dubious of revelation, impatient of the claims of any established a locly of ideas so pervasive tl-rat pfrf tf-r. eighteenth century, clergy, scoruful of solemn religious processious, pompous vest- "i ntt actorllaywright could hardly even a Protestant mtnister urr,l ,n.ntr, the consecration of wafers and the clanging of belis' They of charrge' Busin;11|itl escape it. They were acutely aware preferred a rrlore natural religion, some-.pure and sirnple form of were appeal lng on everyi.::: expanding for a century; new inventions Lelief which would make people socially conscious, teach them theories of progress' Change .1i.. fni*.rs set forih elaborate their civic duties, and still preserve the "consoling doctri'es" of n-rost ingrained,custonrs were to lle re- seemed to be easy; the the existence of God and of survival in a somewhathazy afterlife. Societv was artilicial; it ;;i;;.e ly tr.te enlightened t*9n1' These religious ideas were to bring the revolutionary intelli- It lvas confused' a n-rere hand- io b. n-t"d.i-t-'ore natural' gentsia into conflict with the majority of the people of France, "."J.J."fy should be given a new and purposeful me-down from the past; it ihe peasants and others who still respected their priests' an age with such faith in "constitution." Never had there been Intellectuals were not only out of sympathy with the world in social planning. they lived; many of them were attached emotionally to a materially well off' which Thousandslf people in France, educated' world of their imagination' Tiley looked to America, aud saw irritated at the paternalism of conscious of their powers, were tl-iirteen small republics of simple manncrs and exemplary firtues. of law ar-rd etiquette that stood gorr.r"n1."t, resentiul at the bars They remembered their ancient history, or moral episodes which cletestecl the privileges of tl.re in their way. The midclle classes they took to be history, and they saw mole idealized republics, the freely taiked of. forlears' nobles. Liberty and equality had been polished citizenry of Atirens, the steru patriots of Sparta, the setrse-of being a natiotr' Bardre -incorruptible it-r" .ourlrry ,,rrge,l alieady with a heroes of early Rome. They did not exPect to dupli- Why then should they not and Robespierre were boih French' any such society in France. They did not even have much law' in the shadow of the cate practise the same uniforn-r national practical belief in a republic. But their conception of statesmanship 't/;;.;t Dover? Saint-Andr6 was as loyal and by the Straits of was patterned on their dream. Their ideal statesman was no tacti- Why then should the Protestants be as the Archbishop o{ Paris' cian, no compromiser, no skilful organizer who could keep various kuew more tl-ran the Count de tr."t"a with suspicion? Carnot factions and pressure groups together. He was a man of eleva,ted Rochambeaus reap all the--glory.? Rochambeau. Why should the character, who knew himself to be in the right, a towering monu- lawyers' Then why should H6rault fina.t and Hdrauit were botl-r ment in a world of calumny and misunderstanding, a man who have to defer to him as a noble? oet the better iob, and Linclet would have no dealings with the partisans of error, and who, like of the aristocracy had lost il;.;;l ;;r.rr aia not know. Many Brutus, would sacrifice his own children that a principle might faith in the social sYstem' prevail. of the eighteenth At the same time, thanks to the philosophy Nor were the ideas to be gleaned from Rousseau more sui'ted classes were estranged century, large elenrents of the educated to encourage conciliation. In the philosophy of the Social Contract Blow Agai'wst Preiat'd'ice fron1 ih. CJnotlc church' Billaud's Last the "people" or "natiolt" is a moral abstraction. It is by nature church had lost the was only one of many books of its kind'.The good; its will is law. It is a solid indivisible thing. That the it had once enjoyed' Many intellectual and morai leadership tl,at people n-right differ among themselves was a thought that Rous- too powerful as an organized force in n""nt. thought that it was ieau passqd over rather hurriedly. Believers in the Sociol Contract possess more landed wealth politics. It was wrdely supposed to thus viewed political circumstances in a highly simplified way' ^tt public corporation un it actually did' it wai thought o{ as a a & *r a Ia 't. 4 :l I 4 TWELVE TERRORISTS TO tsB 2r WHO RULED it TWELVE 1 'il' precedent constitutional conventions in the J a co11ventiol1 from the of between the people and something not A11 struggles were United States. antinational and alien' ,#- the people, betweeu ttt. antl Our twelve men, "ttioo 'nmtitling beyond ques- * The elections were held in the next few weeks. u,as the pgblic interest, self-evident, 9 On the one har]d { by this time if not active in Palis were at least promir.rent *"'l; o" ti're other hand were private who ;;;g by an upright local politicians, were all chosen as deputies, alor-rg with nrore arrd illegitimate' The followers ;;;res.rt,-selfish, .i't[ttt "l l:T: than seven hundred others. side tl-rey were on' It is t"11'-1t:tl-g ,"",, *.i" in no doubt which ""t The great Convention met on September 20, 1792. Two days not. compromise. with conservattve tn- that they would not oniy later Collot d'Herbois moved the abolition of royalty. The Con- eveu tolelate free discussion amotrg them- terests, but would not so ordered. Billaud-Varenr.re proposed and the Convention they disagreed' in each others' vention selves, or have .o'''nJ*e, when ! zz, t792, shctuld be the first day of the "r.,y the Revolution was decreed that September motives. Robespierre in the first weeks of * One and Indivisible the country'" French Republic, which was affirmed to be own *o'd', "unmasking.'the enemies of 3 --alrea "A POLITICAL HISTORY OF EUROPE AND .AMERICA, 1760-1800 ** \K V"l. If : THE STRUGGLE SAj-;ffiX H tsY R. R. PALMER PRINCETON, NEW IERSEY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS 19 64 THE SURVIVAL OF THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE reuolutiondry gouernment The theory ol EvEnyrnrNc now depended on wirat happened in France. The revolu- is as neru as the reaolution that has produced tion in Poland had been stopped. Belgian democrats had again scurried it. It cannot be in the boofts ol political fownd out of their country, where the Statists came to terms uriters, by uhom this reuolution tuas not with the Aus- trians. The Dutch 6migr6s had their expectations suddenly dashed, and foreseen. . The aim ol constitutional gouernment is to the Dutch patriots at home, sadly disappointed, were reduced to pas- presera e t he com m onr.uealt /t ; of reu olutionary sively awaiting a change in the fortunes of war which would bring in goaernment, to found it. . ' . the French as liberators. In Ireland, Wolfe Tone privately remarked in (Jnder th.e constitutional regime it is altnost March r7g3 that ten thousand French troops in Ireland would efiect to protect the indiuidual against the enoagh Irish deliverance from Great Britain. In Britain the radical feeling was abuse of public authority. Under the reuolu- less subversive, but reformist and radical groups, of various descriptions, tionary regime the public authority must were dismayed and outraged by the war in which the British govern- delend itself against facNions that attacft it. Reuolutionary gouernment otues good citi' ment was now engaged. In every country where the government was zens the uhole protection of the nation. To at war with the French Republic in r793-in Britain and lreland, in enemies of the people it outcs nothing but the United Provinces and in Belgium restored to the Emperor, in the death,-wtxrMrllEN RoBEsPIERRE, December Austrian Monarchy, the small German states and the Prussian king- r793 dom, in the Italian kingdom of Sardinia (the one exception may be Spain)-there were groups of people, more than individual dreamers, whose sympathies lay in varying degree with the declared enemy. Feeling ran high in neutral countries. In the United States the emerging Republicans repeatedly said, in the large language of the day, that the cause of the French Republic was the cause of the human race. There were even Federalists, like Noah Webster, who could not bring themselves to desire victory for the Coalition. On the other side of Europe, in Russia, where Catherine II and the upper classes were now hysterically fearful of France, they were afraid also of malcontenrs among t6eir own people, especially among the "low-born intelligent- sia," or persons who did not belong to the nobility but had acquired some knowledge of the world. "I venture to predict," said a worried roo'l SURVIVAL OF THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE SURVIVAL OF THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE Bourbons not surrounded by a nobility, are such nonentities as hardly in F11nc9 will have many unhappy writer of r793,"that the agitation to be worth the honors of assassination."' lands"-i'e', Russia'' .onr"q.t.rr.Jr-io, th.re wondrous Beyond an Allied military victory, and restoration of the French had been heard of there were men wherever the French Revolution throne, what the aristocratic French 6migr6s and conservative church- whowisheditnottofail.TheirconcernwasnotonlyforFrancebut men hoped for, and what the revolutionary element in Frartce with in their own countries. for the future of some kind of democratization good reason feared, was restoration of the nobility and the church. to see the whole Revolu- For those, on the other hand, who hoped It would not be a mere restoration of their persons, but restoration of revival of the ex- tion undone, these same first months of q93 saw a social bodies with something of the old powers and privileges, and XVI .i,irrg ."p..t"tior,, of a year before. In the execution of Louis the old forms of wealth and income. cornered regi- they"saw^a sign of desperation, the act of a handful of The Pope asked Maury to draft memoranda on the steps to be taken, the outside cides who had turned all decent men against them. To now that the Revolution seemed to be nearing its end. The memoranda world no one could seem more revolutionary than Dumouriez' Yet do not show what the Pope would have actually done, but they do had col- Dumouriez had repudiated the Revolution, declaring that it show what the most conservative of the French clergy wanted in ryg3, crazed' in lapsed into anarchy. The Republic seemed a sinking ship, and the pressures to which the Pope would be subjected by his own addition, by mutiny in its own crew' most loyal supporters. Here is what Maury advised: the Pope should The kingt deattr was received with mixed feelings. catherine II be- excommunicate all French constitutional clergy and depose recalci- after crush came ill. Pope Pius vI was genuinely concerned. He declared trant bishops. A restored king should the Gallicanism of the much thoug'ht, as his personal opinion, that Louis XVI had died a restored Parlements. Toleration of Protestants should be withdrawn, extirpated. martyr to tlie Catholic faith, for whom canonization proceedings might and |ansenism and Freemasonry Bad books should be cen- Charles I sored, education supervised by bishops, and school-teaching turned some day be in order. For a precedent he looked back, not to minds over priests. remarriages of so-called divorced persons should of England, where the analogy was clear enough to more secular to All had been be declared void. Religious orders should be re-established, with vows in all"camps, but to the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots, who permitted at age sixteen. And all their former property should be re- considered a true martyr by Benedict XIV. The French convention, of turned to ecclesiastical owners, subject, however (it was Maury's one according to Pius vI, was no better than the dreadful Elizabeth concession), to taxation by the restored king.' Englandl Both, in his view, had been swayed by bad books and In a few places the probable consequences of Counter-Revolution "factious, Calvinistical men."' became concretely evident at the time. After defeating Dumouriez at A week after Louis' death his brother, the count of Provence, took intention to Neerwinden, the Austrians crossed the border and occupied the regions the title of Regent and issued a proclamation, declaring his power rec- about Valenciennes and Lille. They remained there about a year, and restore the "ancient Constitution" of France. No European to have a what happened is signifrcant in suggesting what might have happened ognized him. The powers ar war with France did not wish it in the rest of France if the armed forces of the Coalition had obtained glu"rt*.t, that they need respect',Nor were leading French 6migr6s a clear victory. The occupying administration set up by the Au,strians and noblemen in a mood to subordinate themselves to the monarchy' his was not reactionary in principle. It tried to be moderate wirh the when a fumof spread after the king's death of a plot to assassinate local people involved in the Revolution, those who had accepted office two brorhers, the Prince of cond€, a leading 6migr6 (and himself a under the new municipalities, or purchased land formerly belonging Bourbon) put it ofi with a joke: "Be assured, Princes without armies, to church bodies or to 6migr6s. But under the Austrian administration, (washington, 18z6), I, ro8; for Noah webster, pp' 3-4 lFor Wolfe Tone see his Lrlr local malcontents emerged from obscurity, and French churchmen, fo, tlre Russians, Itl.-ft. it o"og.l Russftoy.e obshchestuo i Frantsuzftaya Re.u- r78g-t794) (Moscol' 1956)' "bou.;-i""ri;* (Russian Society and the Frinch-Revolution' 3E. Daudet, Coblentz t789-17gj (Paris, r89o), 297. summartzrng thls Kusslan DooK' a ,i6. I'^^ indebted to Dr. W. L. Blackwell for "Memoire de Maury , . sur les d€terminations du Pape envers I'dglise de France" '-a'. retatils aar aftaires religieuses de la France, er*mts il.i*;; Dori*rot, inldits (Rome, fune 4, 1793), in Theiner, r, 38r-42o. des archiues se'nltes du Vatican (Paris, 1857), r' r77'9r' Iro0] Iloll SURVIVAL OF THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE SURVIVAL OF THN REVOLUTION IN FRANCE nobles, and €migr6s swarmed into the occupied area, despite Austrian lay with committees of the Convention, which consisted of 75o men efforts to keep them out. Where the Austrians, for example, at Valen- from the middle classes assembled under chaotic conditions, and en- ciennes, authorized only six persons to reside as actual returned 6migrds joying neither confidence in each other, nor the prestige of an acknowl- from the locality, the Valenciennes municipality, now in the hands edged authority, nor habits of obedience on the part of the population. of French counter-revolutionaries, authorized oyer two hundred. The Organs of local government, as set up in r79o and tJ9r, had not had Austrians, naturally enough, gradually and under pressure came to time to consolidate. Tax reforms of the early years of the Revolution favor their own supporters. Tithes and seigneurial dues were declared had also been caught unfinished by the war and the upheaval of rygz. collectible, former landowners re-established themselves, and towns- Taxes, like much else, existed mainly in principle. There were no men and villagers who had accepted office under the Revolution, since regular revenues, so that the Convention depended on paper money. r78g, werr- branded as menaces to society." Army reforms, begun early in the Revolution, had also been far from Somewhat similarly, when the British occupied Corsica in ryg4, and completel the country went to war with its armies commanded remained for two years, setting up an Anglo-Corsican kingdom, the largely by officers of the Old Regime I and as the revolutionary spirit attempts of the British viceroy at moderation were repeatedly frustrated I mounted into r7g3, the officers increasingly lost respect for the civilians and Corsica, which had belonged to France for twenty-five years, ex- in Paris who claimed to govern. Dumouriez was only the most spec- hibited what might have happened in France if the Counter-Revolution tacular case. had succeeded at this time.u Impotence in what would normally be considered the government Rebellion broke out in western France, beginning in the Vendde, in was matched by an intense political liveliness among the "governed." March qg3. Led by disafiected seigneurs, in touch with the 6migr6s It was a question whether the country could be governed at all, ex- and the British government) it appealed to peasant grievances against cept by dictatorship, whether a revolutionary dictatorship such as soon the Revolutionary church policy and military conscription. It spread developed, or the dictatorship of a restored king, such as the moderate most rapidly in rural areas, since the towns, even the small ones, Mounier, writing in exile, had recommended in 1792. The French characteristically remained as isolated and besieged pockets adhering people in ry93 were too highly politicized, too spontaneously active, to the new order. The leaders of the rebellion attempted to set up a too disillusioned with persons in public office (not without reason), civil authority over such territories as they were able to control. This to accept orders from any political heights. When they said the people authority restored the church tithe, re-established the royal courts as were sovereign, they meant it literally, and they meant themselves. before 1789, and declared all sales of former church and 6migrd prop- Middle class citizens, associated in the Paris ]acobin club and in simi- erty null and void.' lar clubs in the provinces, and acting on their own initiative, tried The issue, for France and the world in r7g3, was not whether one somehow to keep going, coordinate, and dominate the shattered ap- paratus of state, from the National Convention down to the village band of facobins should chase out another, but whether Revolution communes. Citizens of more modest station were aroused in the pop- or Counter-Revolution should prevail. ular revolutionism described in Chapter rr above. They met in lesser clubs, like the Paris Cordeliers, or in the face-to-face groups of imme- G o ua erne ment r 6u olutionn atre diate neighbors, as in the section assemblies of Paris and other large It was true that France at the moment suffered from anarchy, and cities. They too, at the local level, helped to carry on the business of that what it needed was government. "Anarchy" is hardly too strong government. a word. Ministers and ministries remained in existence, but decisions The people were not only soveqeign but deboat, "on their feet " to use expression the time. Popular leaders called 5 Georges Lefebvre, Les paysans du Nord pendant la. Rluolution,frangaise (Bari, the of for a leute cn ry59),572-76; but for this purpose the 6rst edition (Paris, r9z4) is better, including rno,rse, or general "rising." The term leuie en masse has become trozen note r to Book u, chap. 5, omitted in the reissue. to signify the universal military service of the Revolution, a conscrip- 6 See Chapter rx below. ?For a good summary see f. Godechot, La Contre-tiuolution (Paris, ry6t),235. tion conducted by government and designed to expel foreign invaders- i1021 Ir03l SURVIVAL OF THE REVOLT]TION IN FRANCE been very It is true that the military leutc en masse would not have raising and efiective if it had not been converted into an organized the term .quippirrg of troops by a government' But in its origin *or.. A "mass-rising," in t793, could be a general rising -..rri -ir.t of official of the people for any purpose, with or without the assistance be p.rron, wio did ,to,-.or;r*"nd much public confidence' It could '" armies of r*"r*ing of citizen soldiers to defy the regular .Prussia against the Con- and Austril It could be a risirtg of the sections of Paris insurrection or vention or some of its membeis. It could be an armed be the wandering of an unarmed demonstration in the streets' It could another, self-organ- a band of sans-culottes from one part of France to or in search ized as an armte rlaolutionnaz'7rii' pursuit of aristocrats idea. of food. There was something inherintly anarchic in the whole the Out of this anarchy there arose, however, by gradual stages'. a goaaernen ent rlaoluiionnaire, confirmed by the Convention in France i".no.ts decree of October ro, rTg3declaring "the government-of ,.uotorionrry until th. p."ie.;-ii began with an at first little noticed defection' provision, *h.r, on Apiil O, the day after Dumouriez' final Safety, which the Convention authorized a special Committee of Public in six months became the keystone of the gouaernenTent rlaolution' naire.It was this government, which lasted until the death of Robes- government pierre, and which Napoleon once called the only serious in Franc. in the d..^d. after 1789, that turned the tide of foreign both invasion, carried on the Terror, protected the country from anarchy and counter-revolution, and initiated the military o$ensive established which was to revolutionize Holland and Italy and shake the order of Europe. the For the purposes of this book, it is of especial interest to trace relations of this Revolutionary Government with popular revolution' by both ism and with international revolutionism. Pressures generated into these movements helped to bring the Revolutionary Government to being. Once established, it sought to subordinate both movements itself. SURVIVAL OF TTIE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE SURVIVAL OF THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE es of t792, Which' in the Paris sections against the convention. Not yet in power himself, torians) to "renounce" the two Propaganda Decre decrees at all' The he was more sympathetic to "direct democracy" than he would be later. .xplained, were not really "propaganda" govern' He also called for the addition of two groups of new articles to the Crr*.",ir""r'"lt.iay ,ro* d.ilrr.d that it would nor interfere with the must not interfere in the Declaration of Rights. The first group, composed of five articles, re- ment of other powers, but that these powers that anyone favoring com- ferred to the right of property, and touched on the ideology of pop- afiairs of France and its constitution; and wnless the enemy' in ular revolution. The second group, in four articles, referred to inter- promise the ."t"'y should be put to death' with and national fraternization, and touched on the matter of international "i'rit t"t"ttig"ty' ;ndtptndence' indivisibility :;;;;;,'r.."s"ir.a This left revolutionism. ,rr. "li.p"ur,q"L";a.dir'iiu.tty and equality."" il;;i had not yet made Robespierre, like the popular democrats, favored a degree of eco- not actualry t";; ;h;"ged, since tlt po*ett matters nomic equality which he never specified, but which fell short of the clear any such bland intentions' body, at wal with ali equality of incomes that Babeuf demanded three years later. "Equal- Mea'while ,rr. c""".rii"n, an incredible disloyal' with ity of wealth is a chimerar" he said, "necessary neither to private hap- its .oro*l,,Ji"g g*tt"l in Belgium proved Europe, with "the l" ,.U.itio' ir"the West, with the currency out of con- piness nor to the public welfare." But world hardly needed a ;;rfi ";*.a agitation in the Paris revolution to learn that extreme disproportion of wealth is the source ffol, the economy ,offii"g, and the popular moments to in its theoretically of many evils." Hc proposed, therefore, to lay it down as a principle sections boiling over, found -engage l'to"'tit"te" government through a that property right was a creation of law, not of nature apart from principal business, to a regular of rights. The committee on law, and that, like liberty, it was inseparable from considerations of new written constitution and declaration and other Brissotins or ethics, and found its limits where it touched on the rights of others. the constitution was dominated by Condorcet did not disagree the He also proposed a progressive income tax. Brissot objected, and Girondists. There *", ,ootf' on which they $1f schooltng' publlc re- praise for Robespierre on this score has come more from posterity than Mountain, notably universal sufirage, universal state' Robes- from his contemporaries. Since there was no discussion of actual rates, lief to the needy, and other attributes of a democratic were unfit to it is hard to estimate the social significance of Robespierre's idea of a pierre, however, was convinced that the Girondists of Rights' progressive tax. He himself soon changed his mind, coming to be- H. mai. an issue over their proposed Declaration iou"rn. a draft lieve that in a democratic society it was better for men of small means On April z4 he submitted and to the Convention ""pl"i"td it is^a key document to carry a proportionate share of the costs, lest the well-to-do, Declaration of his own. Though niv., "dopted, by supplying the money, make themselves too indispensable to the to the understanding of his thinking and his tactics'" state. That he was something of a social as well as a political democrat Foronething,w-heretheGirondistdraftwouldlimitresistanceto to g*.rrr*.n, to ';legal" channels, Robespierre was more indulgent there can be no doubt. He appealed also to the force of world revolution, which he now therightofinsurrection.Thismeant'inthepoliticalrealitiesofthe of the sans-culottes blamed the Girondists for ignoring. He scorned the argument that moment, that Robespierre supported the dynamism to stir up the peoples might aggravate the trouble with kings. "I con- Lt Moniteur, xvr, r43. notes' This speech of Robespierre's fess that inconvenience does not frighten me." The kings were rz Oeuures, rx, with the valuable- editors' tlis 41;9-75, of his speeches, on which b.en a favorite r"iarr-iir.r. fubfshing collections already combined against France and liberty everywhere. "Al1 has always Maximilien Robespierre \n the 4gainst curious observ.rion, Speer.i"s .of Publishers, r9z7) simply deletes men of all countries are brothers." They should lend mutual aid as if Voices ol Reaolt series""n'i.';;;;""il 1iS.#-V-f.,-trrt.irrrti"""t is a.chimera"' and that "it is'more im- Robespierre's remarks ,rt"l';tq*ii'yk *t"tttt they were citizens of a single state. The oppressor of one nation is rr.""rable than to-'9i."t'1;'oa' proscribe opulence." on the other hand, #;i;;;;i.'p"".rrv reoT)' published for the enemy of all. "Kings, aristocrats and tyrants, of every description, Robespiene: pog,,,noi,i)7";;;*s;;;i' lParis' ;u:rxrrfi;di.::'l';l;i.Tt';;*,;6 are slaves in revolt against the sovereign of the eart\ which is the r,f :*lnlru*rulur*:ff little human race, and against the legislator of the world, which is nature." ,p..tft, ii*"it t-itt"ti'.ta democracy while saying expounding tf'* -its ,social attribute to the ,.ioi,ril'nir-,'*rri.t Mathiez preferred to "Verbiage pretending'to profundityr" said Brissot, who had done as of..Girondins." its internation"r t I0g l IrOel SURVIVAL OF THE REVOLU'TION IN FRANCE SURVIVAL OF THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE French politics since much as anyone to inffoduce such language into simply identifying his own purposes with "the Revolution" I Was ll9g. he only resisting the fate he had meted out to Brissot ? It does not -'ii in the convenrion, ti_. of war anri defeat, against the Brissotins seem so. To purge the Convention was one thing; to dissolve it, an- and against the cosmopolitan-forces.of Counter-Revolution' Robes- other. The logic of revolution is not altogether weird or subjective, pi.rr.ir", willing to ally himself with two spirits that have never and demands for dissolution of the Convention in r7g3, as voiced on those of mass upheaval and world the most unregenerate conserva- ir"ir"U.* quite lonjur.i "*"y, the Left, would produce exactly what revolution. tives throughout Europe most desired. It can be considered as certain TheParissectionsexplodedinMay.TheConventionenactedcon. that France could not be governed in ryg3 by liberal or democratic ,rolrorrtheretailpriceofbread'Agitationcontinued'sponsoredby constitutional means. To disband the Convention could only perpetu- of the Mountain. On May 3r a rising af sectionnaires cap- ate anarchy. In that case a monarchist restoration, even if it masked il."Ui"t sans- iur.d th. city government, and on june z-eighty thousand-armed a clerico-aristocratic dictatorship, would be welcomed. .rlott., b.si.g.d the Convention, demanding the arrest of .twentytwo That Robespierre could now detect "ultras" was a sign that he was yielded. Bris- of its memb.ir. D.f.rrr.less and divided, the Convention turning from insurrectionism to gouaernement rdaolutionnaire, and to be dis- sot and his friends were arrested (or fled, like Condorcet), that he himself had a hand in this incipient government' In |uly the popular por.d of by the Revolutionary Tribunal' The same kind of Convention elected him to its Committee of Public Safety. But matters the iirirrg *lri.tt by overthrowing the monarchy rrr r7g2 had brought had never been worse for the Convention than in this summer of itself in 1793. Coniention inio being now threatened the Convention 1793. Marat was assassinated in his bath. He was the second member could It remained to b. ,..]t whether the |acobins of the Mountain of the Convention to be assassinated since |anuary. The great pro- avoid the fate of those of the "Gironde'" vincial cities, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, where the expulsion of the A constitution was thrown together in a few days. Full of elaborately Girondists angered the urban bourgeoisie, denounced the anarchy in of democratic provisions, it came to be known as the Constitution Paris and defied the authority of the Convention. This "federalist" re- primary assem- the Year l-that is, the first year of the Republic' The bellion was of course a sign of anarchy in itself, and was abetted by reported as blies, throughout the country, ratified it with a Yote the secret maneuvers of true counter-revolutionaries and foreign agents. over r,8oi,9r8 to-rt,6ro, out of some seven million adult men 2r' At the end of August the royalists at Toulon threw the city open to the Fiench constitution of. q8g-t7gr, nor the American fed- the British and surrendered the fleet. Edmund Burke demanded that lN.ll'lr* direct eral constitution of q87, had even been ofiered for popular the Allies, now that they had a foothold in southern France, recognize ratification at all.) The Convention, given the facts of war and revo- a royal government and make clear their common cause with the lution, matle no moye to put the constitution into effect, seeming 6migr6s-the true people of France, as he called them (estimating appears that the rather to envisage its own indefinite continuation. It their numbe r at 7.o,ooo), the revolutionaries being "robbers" who had decision, seeing in mass of sans-culottes and sectionnaires accepted this driven them from the house." The powers did not take his advice. the Convention, now purged of its Girondist leadership' a necessary They wished a free hand in what seemed an imminent victory. ..rr,., and symbol of goveinmtnt in time of emergency' Immediately' In Paris the sans-culottes again invaded the Convention on Septem- of constitu- however, voices were h""td demanding the introduction ber 4. The Revolutionary Government was the outcome. It rested on tional government. They came from journalists and militants, like a compromise between the popular democrats of the sections and the really H6ber{ who were not members of the Cgnvention and who middle-class ]acobins of the Mountain in the Convention. The Con- meant, not constitutionality, but the dissolution of the Convention vention saved itself from further purging or dissolution, but only by and overthrow of Robespilrre. Robespierre coined the term "ultra- accepting the demands of the populace, in which hysteria, suspicion, revolution, as he revolutionary" to describe these men. In the logic of fear, revenge, resolution, and patriotic defiance were mixed together. ii, ultra-revolution came to be an insidious form of counter- understood 13 "Policy of the Allies," (1793) in Bvke, Writings and Speeches, rz vols. (Boston, setting himself up as a norm I Was he revolution. Was he merely rgor), rv, 446. Ilr0l t 111 j SURVIVAL OF THE REVOLUTIAN IN FRANCE SURVIVAL OF THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE least the first above the level the army' It first mass or "democratic" army, or at Convention authori zed a leuie en tnasse io enlarge Tlre of casual militia, possessed of a modern kind of national consciousness, to a semi-military mm/e rluolu'ionnaire to patrol consented reluctantly with its morale helghtened by political attitudes in the common soldiers, Maximum' a system of nation-wide the country. lt enacted the General with men promoted from the ranks on grounds goods' It promiscd to its higher ranks filled price contiols on a wide range of consumers' training, equipment, and dis- Sus- of "rierit," and prepared to act, by its unreliable offit""' It passed a draconian Law of ,ia ,n. army of cipline, in a great war among the old military powers of Errrope' Eight Rtuolt'tionary-Tribunal' The Terror began in ;;;J;itl"rg.d th. of Napoleon's empire, in addition to Bonaparte himself, were Marie Antoinette, and various unsuccessful -"rrh"l, earnest, as the Brirroiirr,' promoted to the rank of general officer at this time" g.riitoti"e' A-Republican Calendar was adopted' ;;;;it went to ttt. By the spring of the French armies resumed the ofiensive' In Ch'i'tian Era, and the beginning of the move- ry94 it"rf.i"g the end of tf,. they th. tattle of Fleurus, and the Austrians abandoned In this, as in some other rneas- 'Belgium.'Infune *o' ment known as Dechristianization. the Dutch cities the potential revolutionaries took hope minority that called for such extreme action' .rr.r, it was only a small Th. Poles, with Kosciuszko, again attempted revolution. Its anci impossible at such a time' opening the way But it was tlangerous outcome"g"ir.. was uncertain. But in France it was clear, by mid-r794, that d"nrrrr.iation, for anyone to question the demands t suspicion the Republic had survived. "rid patriotic' of the most intransigently It survived at a ccrtain cost, of on certain terms. Much happened hand, t(e^gooernment began to govern' The Com- On the other in France during the climactic Year Two of the republican calendar. ,.ttiitd larger powers' Its membership settled mittee of Public S"f.ty Within the larger framework of the general eighteenth century revolu' attwelve,whoremainedthe,"-"t*.lu.individualsfromseptember don, and inde; of the subsequent history of modern times, it is illumi- q94.'^ They included Robespierre' Saint-|ust' Couthon' lrn * iuly nating to see two of these developments in some detail. First, the Ca,not. The Committee of General Security ob- Bardre, and" Lazare Revolutionary Government reacted strongly against popular and inter- political police, and gradually subordinated the tained wide powers of revolution, exhibiting what, in the jargon, might be called ..-surveillance committees'' to itself. The national local and largely ,po,'o'.ol,, .,bourgeois" and ,'nationalist" inclinations. second, in the extreme "revolutionary until the peace"'That is' the gou.rrro'.n, ivm d..l"r.d the Revolution, as understood by Robespierre, for the duration' Mem' emotional stimulation, of constitutionality was suspended a new world into being, and turned into lrr.rtion areas' became the means to call b.r, of the Convention, despatched to the provinces' to insurgent of Public Safety' something like a religion. and to the armies, r.por,.idi'ectly to.the Committee and enforced This netwo rk of, reprisentants en rnxssxon coordinated poficy, and worked to assure some measure of uniform loyalty powers ""iit"rfto the Revol,riion. In December the ruling Committee received throughout the of appointment and removal of local office-holders on.the ,onntry. A Subsistence Commission, building -price-controls' an elaborate and #orking uncler the ruling Committee' developed value system of requisitions, priorities, and. currency regulations'-The supplied' while of the assignat *", t.ta steady' The armies were end of 1793 C"rno, ,tplruis.d their motrilization and training' By the rebellions sup- the vend6an rebellion was neutralized, the federalist the spring af qg4 pressed, and the British ejected from Toulon' By was the of almost a million men faced the foreign enemy' It "rr "r-y m1 o! reprinted in 1a The Revolutionary Government is the subject of .boo]< ry4r, Ruled: the comnzittee ol Public rqsg with a slightly aig..-..i,"ititre, Tuelue'who Reu olution (Princeton' 1958)' iiti ti ilrn i 7h r'F,ro, h I r12 ] |T]RVIVAL OF THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE SURVIVAL OF TIIE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE what Robespierre, but not Adams, called a "democracy") would do Moral RePublic The much to bring such a world about."' The purpose of the Revolutionary Government was not melely to The difference was not so much in the main idea as in the action prepared defend the state but to found it, not only to win a war but to introducc that they were to take. Adams already lived in a kind of and Arcadia, as contrasted, at least, with Europe. Robespierre did not. a new and better society. That was what made it a revolutionary No doubt Adams had a saving grace of skepticism that would have held him not merely an emergency regime. In its vivid sense of a new wodd ,,eschatology," back from Robespierre's course, but it is intriguing to speculate on coming, iis the Revolution became a kind of religion. whether fohn Adams, an impatient, irritable, easily frustrated but The substance of things hoped for, or new world as now desired, was very determined man, with no very high opinion of his contemporaries, one in which human dignity would fest on a foundation of fellow was not the one among the American founders who, under pressures citizenship, freedom, and equality of status and respect' The picture such as those in France, could have most easily turned into a "facobin." had been drawn eloquently by Rousseau. It occupied the minds of Robespierre, in the speech in which he defined democracy, coupled many. Consider these statements by two "founders": Virtue and Terror. It was clear enough what the Terror meant. It was ,,A on these principles introduces knowledge consritution founded very much a fact of political life in February r794.It had risen gradually, them with a conscious dignity becoming among the people, and inspires from the street murders of |uly 1789, through the gruesome lynchings place, which causes good humor, free men; g.r,.t"l emulation takes of Septembe r r7g2, through the frenzies of suspicion that came with " elevation of sentiment sociability and good manners to be general. That Dumouriez' defection and led to the creation of the Revolutionary common people brave and inspired ty t".tt a government makes the Tribunal, on through the executions of the Brissotins and the queen. As them sober, enterprising. That ambition which is inspired by it makes in much else, so here, what began as popular clamor and violence industrious and frugal. You will find among them some elegance, ended up as a weapon in the hands of the government. The Terror perhaps, but more solidity; a little pleasure, but a great deal of business ; had become an instrument of state. There had been genuine public such country with ,ome politeness, but more civility. If you compare a revulsion against the Brissotins and the king and queen. There was no you the regions of domination, whether monarchical or aristocratical, such popular demand for the deaths of the Hdbertists, nor of the Dan- will fancy yourself in Arcadia or Elysium." tonists a few weeks later, nor of the victims of the climactic "great" The other said: Terror of |une and July 1794. These were devised by the government ..we want an order of things . . . in which the arts are an adornment itself, which manufactured the necessary demand. Acts of government, to the liberty that ennobles them, and commerce the source of wealth also, were the death sentences meted out by revolutionary courts in for the public and not of monstrous opulence for a few families. . . . In punishment for rebellion in the Vend€e and at Lyon and other federalist our countfy we desire morality instead of selfishness, honesty and not cities. These sentenc€s, in retribution for armed rebellion, made up mere 'honorr'principle and not mere custom, duty and not mere pro- almost two-thirds of all deliberate executions during the Terror. More priety, the sway of reason rather than the tylanny of fashion, a scorn for conservative governments, if equally frightened, might have done the vice and not a contempt for the unfortunate . . . good men instead same. There is little evidence that the Terror was used as a weapon of of good company, merit in place of intrigue, talent in place of mere class war: three-fifths of those executed were peasants and workingmen, cleverness, truth and not show, the charm of happiness and not the and only eight percent were noble. All told, about r7,ooo were con- boredom of pleasure . . . in short the virtues and miracles of a republic demned to death." The figure can be made to look small by application of a monarchy." and not the vices and absurdities 32 Adams, "Thoughts on Government," in Worfrs, ro vols. (Boston, r85r), tv, r99; The first was written by |ohn Adams in q76, the second by Maxi- Robespierre, "Rapport sur les principes de morale politique qui doivent guider la Convention," February 1794, in C. Vellay, Discours ct rapports de Robespierrc milien Robespierre in The pictures in their minds were much 5, ryg4. (Paris, r9o8), 325-26. alike. Both thought rhat a properly drafted constitution (producing 33D. Greer, The Incidence of the Terror during the French Reuolution (Cam- bridge, Mass., 1935). l12&) t LzS ) SURVIVAL OF THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE SURVIVAL OF THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE Convention were implicated when the East India Company was dis- twentieth-century standards, but such a well-publicized holocaust of solved. In part it meant a kind of austerity, a willingness to go with- (there was no secrecy because there was no shame) had been unknown out cofiee or new shoes when such items were in short supply, and a Europe ,it.. th. wars of religion, and broke upon men of ir, *.rr.rn belief that the sacrifices imposed by public emergency should be century with peculiar horror' the humane eighteenth equally shared. It meant also patriotism or good citizenship, a subordi- a humane man himself, such violence was intoler- To Robespierre, nation of private to public good, a willingness to do one's part, whether a strong ethical It is sometimes argued able unless ii had fustification. by serving in the army or by scraping saltpeter in caves. It required him, ended up by killing people that Robespierre, and oth.r, like a suspension of factiousness and complaining, at least for "the dura- visionary idea of an impossible future because they began with a tion." It forbade profiteering and dabbling in the black market. And murder. The opposite may be at least world-thar fanalicism leads to it included all those qualities that were believed to be permanently that fanaticism itself is bred by events, as ffue of real human psychology: necessary to a wholesome commonwealth in the future. The good citi- and oth.rr, caught up in events, and having accepted or that Robespierre zen, in the good republic, would put behind him the false values of than the last, dwelt at length on a series of deciiions each more ruthless the immediate past, care nothing for social rank, detest everything hoped to create-if only to transform their own the better world they ornamental, frivolous or rococo, live contentedly at his business and in state of mind with which they could doubts or guilt feelings lrrto his familR spurn riches as a snare, be free from consuming ambition, explain otherwise" the intensity of the feelings, since live. It is hard to guard his civic and political freedom, accept other men as his equals as a flat thing itself, was common enough the idea of a moral republic, and delight in a classless society. who did not become so excited. The French Revolution, to many people Robespierre was not so simple as to suppose these qualities easy or itr fact been so vast' so soul-shaking, so ferocious, and so by t7gi,t"J "natural." Like everyone else in his day, he believed religion to be sacrifice, that it would seem to have been pitilisiy demanding of necessary to society. For the kind of society he had in mind the author- was followed by an incomparably better iotally unsuccessful unless it ities of the Christian churches had ceased to ofier much support. It world. was commonly believed, on all sides, that religions had been "invented." for Robespierre, the Terror For moral as well as for practical reasons, Moses and Numa Pompilius had been notably successful in this re- of popular gov- was unacceptable without Virtue. "If the mainspring spect. In founding a religion they had each also founded a polity and of popular gov€rn- efnment in time of peace is virtue, the mainspring a people. The Revolutionary Government would therefore invent a virtue, without ment in time of revolution is both airtue and terrori religion of its own. Prompted by Robespierre, the Convention decreed, virtue is helpless. Terror is which terror is evil; terror, without which on May 7, 1794, that "the French people recognizes the Supreme Being nothing but justice, prompt, severe and inflexible; it is therefore an and the immortality of the soul."tu to .*"rr"iion of virtue." It was also the "principle of democracy applied Thus originated the famous Worship of the Supreme Being, best the pressing needs of the country."'a known for the mammoth celebration held in Paris on fune 8. Though then It was the equation of Virtue and Terror that manv persons arising from the same sources as the Worship of Reason of the pre- and since have found especially nauseous, and which does indeed dis- ceding winter, it differed from the latter, in Robespierre's mind, in tinguish the Terror of the French Revolution from other general being less aggressively anti-Christian. It was his hope that all good liquidations in history. There seemed something insufierably hypo- citizens, whatever private religious views they might entertain, could that much hy- critical about it. To which a good |acobin would reply publicly unite in religious services so comprehensive, so tolerant, so causes' pocrisy has been expended on less defensible s5 - See, besides the decree, Robespierre's speech in its support, "Sur les rapports des And what was this virtue-the "virtue" which without terfor was iddes religieuses et morales avec les principes republicains et sur les f6tes nationales," May 1794, in Vellan Discours,347-75.The decree itself appears on helpless I In part it meant only common honesty, the avoidance, for ex- 7, 375-78. For the idea of 'lnventing" a religion, and for the whole present discussion, see the M. Reinhard of the corruption and thieving in which a few members of Religion, Reuolution et Contre-Reaolution, Centre de Documentation Universitaire, "*p1., Paris, 196o. The question of religion and revolution is also taken up in Chapter xr below. 3a Robespierre in Vellay, Discours, 332. I1261 tr271 SIJRVIVAL OF THE REVOLUT]ON /N T'R'4NCE SURVIVAL O]" THE REVOLUTION 1N FR,4NCE useful' As the "decadary Iacking in dogmatism, so irenical and so |une and fuly of ryg4. The Terror had got out of conrrol, or at least on each dtcadi' or "Sun- cult," celebrating republican or civic religion it bore less relation to outer realities, and was carried on by the re- originating in the r.p"uutil".t calendar, the observances lentless will of a few individual men. Everything was now centralized t";; trttt years' Contrary *orrhip of the Supreme Being lingered on- for several in the government, even the definition of religion and virtue. Virtue and hop., thty i*tJtnjoyed any mass following' itself came to mean harmlessness to the government. As Robespierre to Robespierr.', in ;;;;;t*tttg mainly tire anti-Christians remained as a divisive force himself had said, human authority was attacked by human pride. the..-ih";. rePublic' Never had he been so inquisitorial, so implacably suspicious, as in but it was a was a genuine religious feeling-in the new cult' these last few weeks. was a serse of man's religion that was ouerwhehiingly ethical' There If he had no longer objective grounds ro fear for the Republic, he sense of his proper role olace in the universe, but a riuch stronger had good reason to be fearful for himself. By his preaching of virtue, explained it (not unlike il;-";ri,,,|;r-ir, ,o.i.ry. As Robespierre and hieratic performance on June 8, he made enemies among his own and misleading' It was n"tf..), tlie inclividu"l ,.a'o" could be frail colleagues. Old Voltaireans sneered at the new Rousseau. So strict a authority can al- too involved with self-centered emotions' "Human state could have no lasting appeal for the mass of actual Frenchmen- of hlman author- *"y, U. attacked by human pride' The inadequacy or of actual human beings. Some were guilty of ofienses, of super- sense' by the ity is therefore "supplemt"Sa U1 the religious -which terrorism in the provinces, or political or money-making intrigues, given to moral principles ;;ril, impressed *it^h th. idea of a sanction for which it was evident that Robespierre questioned their virtue, and and even the truth of re- ff p"*i, superior to man."'u The value contemplated their demise. He had sent Danton to death, and some " public conduct which iiii"" *.r. ,.in in the moral principles and of his associates, to hold some kind of middle ground after the death the eighteenth cenrury, rhe ;ii;"" instilled. This being the end of of the Hdbertists. But in attacking the Dantonists he had attacked the difierently' For puUii.irr, of the opposition Jid not argue very Joseph Convention itself. He had violated the body which he himself had of lay in ie M"irtre, foi F,dmund Burke, the importance .religion always held up as the only symbol of legitimate power. "s in a doctrine of attitudes the inculcation of moral principles, that is, The restoration of public authority, the achievements of the Revo- own place in society' and duties towards one's iellow man, and one's lutionary Governmenq the tremendbu, y.", which had assured the Theclaslrwaslessbetweenreligionandirreligionthanbetweenthe survival of the Revolution, and which seemed to promise the founda- and an idealized demo- .,riir, ,"rp..tively, of an idealized aristocratic tion of a moral and democratic republic, thus ended up in an unedify- cratic world. ing spectacle, in which the issue was to see which handful of men or 8' q94 It The Year II reached a culmination on 20 Prairial' |une would get rid of the other first. By a palace revolution, a mere con- Robespierr-e' just was the day of the Festival of the Supreme Being' spiracy in the Convention, Robespierre was outlawed on Thermidor officiated 9 elected for the two-week term as president of the'Convention' of the second year of the Republic, and died the next day. asakindofpriestoftheR.publi.astensorhundredsofthousands of summer, the recol- watched. The victories at the front, the coming The Meaning of Thermidor gave a joyousness to lection of a terrible danger that had been survived, the climax of his own Thermidor has become a byword for the reaction in which revolu- the occasion. For Robeslierre, very likeiy, it was tion ends. Many older histories of the lifeandthedayoffounclationofanewworld'EvenMalletduPan'a French Revolution terminare here. For a long time Robespierre was taken to represent the most realisticobserver,wlrenlrereadthereportsintheParispapers,believed of the past years advanced point of the Revolution. He was not exactly ne plils illtra., that Robespierre had successfully healed the wounds but the "ultras" beyond him did not reflect the "true" movement. With and might consolidate the new state' gave freer rein to his death came a "bourgeois" reaction, or at least a long, sordid, and Evenis proved otherwise. The Law of zz Pruitral uninspiring period until the appearance, or "advent," of Bonaparte. In theRevolutionaryTribunal.MostofthoseexecutedinParisdiedin more recent times, as the world has changed, it has been increasingly 36 Vellay, Discours, 36t. II28l II2el SURVIVAL OF THE REVOLTJTION IN FR.4NCE SURVIVAL OF THE REVOLUTION IN FP*ANCE au- the Terror, it was also the Convention that called seen that Robespierre was by no means the furthest Left among the Terror to a halt. thentic voice, of the Revolution. There was a whole movement of The Convention checkmated the counter-revolution, but the price paid was to turn revolution into a charged popular excitement among the common people, largely autonomous highly social myth, which would animate revolution-makers of the future. Revolution ,porrr"neous, without which the Revolution could never have suc- became a kind of "rric.ed.i, or taken the course that it took. The popular movement was miracle {or the correction of social ills. The Convention even created, for future use, the idea of goaaen enxent rtuolutionnaire: indeed crushed after Thermidor. But even before Thermidor it had the theory of a revolutionary dictatorship, exercising special emergency powers been crushed, or at least mortally weakened. Popular revolutionism or under no controls, as a "temporary" device for the introduction reached its height late in ryg3.It was checked, disciplined, and calmed of constitutional government new peaceable down by the Revolutiorr"ry Gou.rnment itself, following the lead of or a and secure form of society. That Robespierre and the Revolutionary Robespierre. Governmenr of. ry93- 1794 genuinely The French Revolution was by no means ended at Thermidor. The intended their powers to be temporary, "until the peace," cannot be doubted. Revolution survived, but at a certain cost and on certain conditions. There was no hypocrisy in this respect. But it seems likely also, as matters actually one of these was the supremacy of middle-class attitudes. only the worked out, that there could have been no transition to constitutional bourgeoisie, outside the aristocracy, was capable at the time of carrying liberties as long as Robes- pierre lived. on pirbfi. business. A revolution, to be successful, was bound to be ,,boirrgeois." This did not mean merely a triumph for a pre-existing Thermidor in a way was a positive vindication of the Revolution. The basically liberal and constitutionalist ideas bourgeoisie, for indeed many of the old-fashioned bourgeois wete of the whole revolu- tionary ,.u.r.ly mauled. It meant that a wide variety of people, from govern- era reasserted themselves. For the adherents of monarchy and aristocracy, the Reign of ment personnel to schoolteachers and landowning farmers, came to Terror had in fact been a piece of remark- able good fortune. "proved" what ,h"r. in the advantages of a "bourgeois" society. It carried with it, It they wanted to knqw-that a republic, a large, powerful, however, the estrangement, not only of aristocrats, but of the econom- in and civilized country, was an impossi- ble, anarchic, dictatorial, and bloodthirsty ically most depressed classes and their spokesmen. It prepared the way kind of regime. A republic in France that could function for accenr;ated class conflict after r83o, when the middle and the without Terror was not exactly what "n conservative Europe wanted. As the American lower classes, looking back, glorified the Revolution for very different writer, W. E. B. Du- Bois, once remarked. of South Carolina during reasons. Reconstruction: "If there was one thing that South Carolina feared more rhan The survival of the Revolution in ryg4 was purchased also at great bad Negro government, it was good Negro government.""t cosr to the republican idealism for which Robespierre had stood. The Somewhat the same holds for conservative Europe Republic after qg4-if not as "cynical" as consefvatives, radicals, and and republican France. If there \ilas one thing high-minaea altruists have agreed in alleging-was above all else a that conservatives, at least of the unregenerate kind, wanted less than the Republic goYernment among governments. with the Terror, ir was the Republic without the Terror. Il a certain idealism was lost, a powerful image had been created, the vision of a'Revolution militant and victorious, of Liberty and For friends of the French Revolution, in Europe and America, the relaxation dictatorship Equality marching irresistibly forward. "The Convention," as Alexis of and the closing down of the guillotine brought relief. Freed after Thermidor of the de Tocqu.uille once said in the r85o's, "which did so much harm to incubus of political blood- shed, the Republic became an inspiration contemporaries by its fury, has done everlasting harm by its examples. for analogous developments in other countries. It created the politics ol the impossible , turned madness into a theory, so se and blind audacity into a cult."" The Convention was not really Blacft Reconstruction in Arnerica (New York, ry35), 4zB. mad or so blind. If it was the Convention that accepted and conducted 3? A fragment from Tocqueville's unfinished volume on the Revolution, published by I. P. Miyer, ed., Oeanrcs complltes (Paris, r95r- ), rr, part 2' p. 255. I1301 trsll