42 10 1079 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document At that time, counting on the new principles of the National Convention, I thought I would be able to take advantage of the circumstances and go up to the rostrum to deliver a legitimate criticism of the Montagnards for their disgraceful practices towards the "people's appellate" (i.e., in the trial of Louis XVI), and towards the Nation's representatives who they had stifled. They suspected my intentions when they saw me at the rostrum, where no deputy from the Right had appeared in a long time. They did not want to hear me. But times had changed, and I forced them to give me the floor. My speech, which was nothing more that a motion calling for the freedom of opinion, was delivered on 4 Fructidor, Year II [21 August 1794], a little more than three weeks after the fall of Robespierre. I gave them nothing that they could use against me. I made them listen, however, to the truths that reminded several Montagnards how unjust a persecution is that can lead to the gallows simply for having an opinion. This reprimand was taken to heart, since Bentabolle, during this same session, took the floor and said: "Among the opinions offered to the Tribunal, I noticed Durand-Maillane's, for which I request that he give us a report. Every honest man should want that the freedom of opinion never be jeopardized by unproven charges or invective. We should not swear at men whom we look upon as 'weak beings' in order to shackle the opinions that they only want to express for the good of the People. If someone here believes that they should make a serious reproach toward one of his colleagues, let him explain himself and stipulate the facts, not just offer insults. Let the accused be heard, and let us not seek to make people fear from threats. Only the conspirators should be afraid." [Excited applause.] This is what is written in the Journal of Debate on the session of 4 Fructidor, Year II. Bentabolle's proposition requesting a report on my motion was rightfully argued against, since the freedom of opinion is the right of a representative of the people, and that without this freedom, the entire State would be oppressed. Also, far from wanting either a report or a decree on this matter, I proposed that only those who were against this sacred right receive a punishment. In addition, Bentabolle's language made it clear how the Montagnards judged the silence of their colleagues on their right. They called them the "weak beings," a name which, if they were right, was a serious charge against us, since we were sent by the Nation to uphold its interests. To neglect those interests, or sacrifice them through weakness, would have been a real failure to do our duty. But we only had the appearance of weakness, because, not being able to fight the follies of the Mountain under pain of death, our inertia was but a great strength. We preferred the dangers, the disrespect, the humiliations with which we were bombarded, than giving in to being accomplices of the Mountain for our own safety. Nothing was easier for us than to line up in the reassuring ranks of our dominators. But the price to pay for this peace was worse than death. . . . There was, in the space that separated the Right from the Mountain, a spot in the hall that was called "the stomach." Those that sat there were not of the Right, they did not share in our humiliations, but neither did they have the courage to disprove the evil done by the left side by sitting so close. They had nonetheless the silly pride to call themselves wiser that those on their right, even though they were less courageous, and alone deserved the name "weak beings." Sortable Date 1794-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mathurin de Lescure, ed., Mémoires sur les assemblées parlementaires de la révolution, 2 vols. (Paris: Firmin-Didot et cie, 1881), 2:410–13. Translated by Exploring the French Revolution project staff from original documents in French found in John Hardman, French Revolution Documents 1792–95, vol. 2 (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1973), 263–64. Description An account of the resource In condemning Robespierre on 9 Thermidor, the Convention deputies did not necessarily intend to end the Terror as much as prevent Robespierre and his followers from turning it on them. Yet in the weeks and months that followed, it became clear that Thermidor had been a turning point away from "revolutionary government" and toward a revival of procedural, parliamentary politics. In this passage from the memoirs of a Thermidorean Convention deputy named Pierre–Toussaint Durand–Maillane, we see how it once again become politically feasible to express differences of opinion without fear of being brought before a Revolutionary Tribunal. Note the expectation that people are "weak beings" who cannot be, as Robespierre had demanded, constantly virtuous or spontaneously aligned with the "general will." Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 448 Title A name given to the resource Dismantling the Terror: Parliamentarianism Reasserted Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/448/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1794 Clubs Laws Text The Terror Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 9 Thermidor [27 July 1794] After the reading of correspondence, about eight o'clock in the evening, the crowd being very large and the galleries filled with citizens and citizenesses from all quarters of the city, someone asked that a member of the Convention report on its meeting that day. Chasles, a deputy of the départment of Eure-et-Loire, wounded at the siege of Lille, climbed to the rostrum with the aid of his crutch. He began to give his report, but was interrupted after almost every word by a universal clamor condemning the decree that had been passed against the two Robespierres, Couthon, Saint-Just, and Le Bas. . . . At nine thirty, a member rushed into the meeting, hurried to the front and said: "Citizens, I am going to announce some good news." A great silence fell upon the assembly. "Citizens, the cannoneers with their cannons at this moment surround the Committee of Public Safety; they are preceded by some magistrates and followed by a large crowd of people. The magistrates again demand from the Committee, in the name of the people and the law, the liberty of Robespierre, Couthon, Le Bas, and Saint-Just." At these words, cries of "Long live Liberty! Long live Liberty!" broke out throughout the hall and throughout all the galleries; hats were waved in the air, people applauded with their feet and their hands, and expressions of the liveliest and most intense joy were prolonged for several minutes. It was then that commissioners were appointed to fraternize with the Commune and other commissioners sent to the sections on the same mission. Sortable Date 1794-07-27 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived From THE NINTH OF THERMIDOR by Richard Bienvenu. Copyright (c) 1970 by Oxford University Press, Inc., 228–30. Used by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc. Description An account of the resource Having carried the day in the Jacobin Club, Robespierre rose to speak the next day in the Convention, where he attacked members of the Committee of Public Safety and Committee of General Security, until now his closest collaborators, for their extreme use of the Terror. He also hinted that such "terrorists" should be purged from the Convention. Fearing for their own safety, some members of those committees, a number of deputies noted for their harsh repressive measures, and others introduced to the Convention measures they had prepared in advance that condemned Robespierre. In effect, the Incorruptible’s turn against the immoderate use of the Terror created a conspiracy against him where one had not existed before. The resolution was passed, and Robespierre, his brother Augustin, Louis–Antoine Saint–Just, Georges Couthon, and several others were arrested. Robespierre’s supporters, hoping to energize the sections to influence the Convention deputies on their own behalf, issued a call for a general mobilization. As the text below shows, a crowd gathered outside the Convention Hall to demand "liberty" for the arrested leaders. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 442 Title A name given to the resource Execution of Robespierre Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/442/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource July 27, 1794 Text The Terror Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Meanwhile, the Reign of Terror was reaching its end. Robespierre had become unbearable, even to his own accomplices. The members of the committees were in a power struggle with him, and were afraid that sooner or later, they would become his victims. When faced with his tyranny in the Convention, everyone whimpered, not daring to attack him. But soon Robespierre, through his speeches and actions, would give "hope to the damned" for Tallien, Bourdon-de l'Oise, Legendre, Le Cointre, and others, who feared sharing the fate of Danton and Lacroix. Every tyrant who threatens but does not strike, is himself struck. Tallien, Bourdon and two or three other Montagnards who had been threatened could no longer sleep, so, to defend themselves, they formed a conspiracy against Robespierre. But how to go about overthrowing him? Robespierre was in charge of all of the Parisian authorities, all of the club agitators, and counted Henriot, the commander of the Armed Forces, among his devoted followers. Only a decree from the Convention could fell this Colossus, because nothing is more powerful than morality in a war of opinions. But there were other problems. The Right, with more votes, was, as they should have been, less a friend of the threatened Montagnards, who had often called for their arrest and indictment, than of Robespierre who had constantly protected them. (No doubt to keep them as a backup if the need ever arose.) However, since no other way existed, the Montagnards turned to us. Their emissaries came to us. They spoke with Palasne-Champeaux, Boissy-d'Anglas and myself, all of us former members of the Constituent Assembly, and whose example would convince others. They used everything they could to help us make up our minds. . . . On 9 Thermidor, a few moments before the famous session, Bourdon-de-l'Oise met me in the gallery, touched me on the hand, and said, "Oh, how brave they are, those men of the Right." I went up to the Hall of Liberty, where I strolled for a moment with Robère. Tallien approached us, but then immediately saw Saint-Just at the rostrum and left us saying, "There is Saint-Just at the rostrum, we must be done with this." We followed him, and from his seat at the top of the Mountain, heard him sharply interrupt Saint-Just and start the attack. The stage thus set, Billaud-Varenne took over from Tallien and spoke even more vehemently. Robespierre went up to the rostrum to defend Saint-Just. The only words that could be heard were: "Down with the tyrant! Arrest him!" Since the Mountain was still acting alone, Robespierre turned to us and said: "Deputies of the Right, men of honor, men of virtue, give me the floor, since the assassins will not." He hoped to receive this favor as a reward for the protection he had given us. But our party was decided. There was no answer, just dead silence until the debate over the decree to arrest Robespierre and his accomplices, for which we all voted in favor, which made the decision unanimous. Sortable Date 1794-07-27 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Pierre-Toussaint Durand de Maillane, Histoire de la Convention Nationale (Paris: Baudouin, 1825), 198–201. Translated by Exploring the French Revolution project staff from original documents in French found in John Hardman, French Revolution Documents 1792–95, vol. 2 (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1973), 253–54. Description An account of the resource This account of the proceedings in the Convention Hall on the 9 Thermidor Year II (27 July 1794) describes how Robespierre and Saint–Just, facing an organized attack by other members of the Committee of Public Safety, tried one last gamble, appealing to the deputies of the "Right" to come to their aid. These deputies repudiated the appeal, and the Convention unanimously voted for the resolution condemning them. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 441 Title A name given to the resource 9 Thermidor: The Conspiracy against Robespierre Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/441/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource July 27, 1794 Text The Terror Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document In several evening sessions, the two Committees met to decide how to go about revoking the Law of 22 Prairial. After several debates that took place during the month of Messidor, they called in Robespierre and Saint-Just to force them to revoke the law themselves, which had been the result of a combination that all of the other members of the government had been unaware of. It was a very stormy session. Of the members of the National Security Committee, it was Vadier and Moïse Bayle who attacked the law and its authors with the most force and indignation. As for the Committee of Public Safety, they stated that they had played no role in the matter, and disowned the law completely. Everyone agreed that it would be revoked the next day. After this decision, Robespierre and Saint-Just stated that they would put the matter before the public. They stated that it was perfectly clear that a party had been created to ensure immunity for the enemies of the people and that in this way, Liberty's most ardent friends would be lost. But, they said, they would know how to protect the good citizens against the combined maneuvering of the two governmental committees. They departed, threatening members of the committee, including Carnot, among others, whom Saint-Just called an aristocrat and threatened to denounce to the Assembly. It was like a declaration of war between the two committees and the triumvirate. Sortable Date 1794-06-10 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac, Mémoires de B. Barère, membre de la constituante, de la Convention, du Comité de Salut public, et de la Chambre des représentants, vol. 2 (Paris: J. Labitte, 1842), 205–6. Translated by Exploring the French Revolution project staff from original documents in French found in John Hardman, French Revolution Documents 1792–95, vol. 2 (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1973), 250. Description An account of the resource Many in the Convention, including some on the Committee of Public Safety, opposed the proposed law, which they feared concentrated too much power in too few hands and would only further destabilize the Republic. This passage from the memoirs of Bertrand Barère, a member of the committee, reveals how opponents of the law had to confront the fear that opposition would expose adversaries to the Terror. The passage of this law marked the beginning of the period known to historians as the "Great Terror," when violence, no longer necessary to protect the Republic, accelerated and became more focused not only on former nobles and clergy but more broadly on "the wealthy." From 22 Prairial until 10 Thermidor (10 June–28 July 1794), over 1,300 were executed in Paris and nearly 1,500 in the provinces, some 15 percent of the total number put to death in the entire fifteen–month reign of Terror. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 440 Title A name given to the resource Debate on the Law of 22 Prairial Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/440/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 10, 1794 Clubs Public Opinion Text The Terror Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The Revolutionary Tribunal shall divide itself into sections, composed of twelve members, to wit: three judges and nine jurors, which jurors may not pass judgment unless they are seven in number. The Revolutionary Tribunal is instituted to punish the enemies of the people. The enemies of the people are those who seek to destroy public liberty, either by force or by cunning. The following are deemed enemies of the people: those who have instigated the reestablishment of monarchy, or have sought to disparage or dissolve the National Convention and the revolutionary and republican government of which it is the center: Those who have betrayed the Republic in the command of places and armies, or in any other military function, carried on correspondence with the enemies of the Republic, labored to disrupt the provisioning or the service of the armies; Those who have sought to impede the provisioning of Paris, or to create scarcity within the Republic; Those who have supported the designs of the enemies of France, either by countenancing the sheltering and the impunity of conspirators and aristocracy, by persecuting and calumniating patriotism, by corrupting the mandataries of the people, or by abusing the principles of the Revolution or the laws or measures of the government by false and perfidious applications; Those who have deceived the people or the representatives of the people, in order to lead them into undertakings contrary to the interests of liberty; Those who have sought to inspire discouragement, in order to favor the enterprises of the tyrants leagued against the Republic; Those who have disseminated false news in order to divide or disturb the people; Those who have sought to mislead opinion and to prevent the instruction of the people, to deprave morals and to corrupt the public conscience, to impair the energy and the purity of revolutionary and republican principles, or to impede the progress thereof, either by counterrevolutionary or insidious writings, or by any other machination; Contractors of bad faith who compromise the safety of the Republic, and squanderers of the public fortune, other than those included in the provisions of the law of 7 Frimaire; Those who, charged with public office, take advantage of it in order to serve the enemies of the Revolution, to harass patriots, or to oppress the people; Finally, all who are designated in previous laws relative to the punishment of conspirators and counterrevolutionaries, and who, by whatever means or by whatever appearances they assume, have made an attempt against the liberty, unity, and security of the Republic, or labored to prevent the strengthening thereof. The penalty provided for all offenses under the jurisdiction of the Revolutionary Tribunal is death. The proof necessary to convict enemies of the people comprises every kind of evidence, whether material or moral, oral or written, which can naturally secure the approval of every just and reasonable mind; the rule of judgments is the conscience of the jurors, enlightened by love of the Patrie; their aim, the triumph of the Republic and the ruin of its enemies; the procedure, the simple means which good sense dictates in order to arrive at a knowledge of the truth, in the forms determined by law. It is confined to the following points. Every citizen has the right to seize conspirators and counterrevolutionaries, and to arraign them before the magistrates. He is required to denounce them as soon as he knows of them. The accused shall be examined publicly in the courtroom: the formality of the preceding secret examination is suppressed as superfluous; it shall take place only under special circumstances in which it is deemed useful for a knowledge of the truth. If either material or moral proofs exist, apart from the attested proof, there shall be no further hearing of witnesses, unless such formality appears necessary, either to discover accomplices or for other important considerations of public interest. All proceedings shall be conducted in public, and no written deposition shall be received, unless witnesses are so situated that they cannot come before the Tribunal; and in such case an express authorization of the Committees of Public Safety and General Security shall be necessary. The law provides sworn patriots as counsel for calumniated patriots; it does not grant them to conspirators. The pleadings completed, the jurors shall formulate their verdicts, and the judges shall pronounce the penalty in the manner determined by law. The public prosecutor may not, on his own authority, discharge an accused person sent to the Tribunal, or one whom he himself has caused to be arraigned before it; in case there is no ground for accusation before the Tribunal, he shall make a written and motivated report thereon to the chamber of the council, which shall decide. But no accused person may be discharged from trial before the decision of the chamber has been communicated to the Committees of Public Safety and General Security, who shall examine it. Sortable Date 1794-06-10 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Hall Stewart, A Documentary History of the French Revolution (New York: Macmillan, 1951), 528–31. Description An account of the resource Although the most immediate threats to the security of the Republic—foreign invasion, the civil war in the Vendée, the Federalist uprisings, the grain shortage in Paris, and hyperinflation—had abated by June 1794, Robespierre and his allies on the Committee of Public Safety argued all the more strenuously that virtue needed to be enforced through terror. To this end, on 22 Prairial (10 June), they proposed a law that would free the Revolutionary Tribunals from control by the Convention and would greatly strengthen the position of prosecutors by limiting the ability of suspects to defend themselves. Furthermore, the law broadened the sorts of charges that could be brought so that virtually any criticism of the government became criminal. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 439 Title A name given to the resource The Law of 22 Prairial Year II (10 June 1794) Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/439/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 10, 1794 Clubs Laws Text The Terror Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The Festival of the Supreme Being (8 June 1794) At exactly five in the morning, a general recall shall be sounded in Paris. This call shall invite every citizen, men and women alike, to immediately adorn their houses with the beloved colors of liberty, either by rehanging their flags, or by embellishing their houses with garlands of flowers and greenery. They shall then go to the assembly areas of their respective sections to await the departure signal. No men shall be armed, except for fourteen- to eighteen-year-old boys, who shall be armed with sabers and guns or pikes. In each section, these boys shall form a square battalion marching twelve across, in the middle of which the banners and flags of the armed force of each section shall be placed, carried by those who are ordinarily entrusted with them. Every male citizen and young boy shall hold an oak branch in his hand. All female citizens, mothers and daughters, shall be dressed in the colors of liberty. Mothers shall hold bouquets of roses in their hands, and the young girls shall carry baskets filled with flowers. Each section shall choose ten older men, ten mothers, ten girls from fifteen to twenty years of age, ten adolescents from fifteen to eighteen years of age, and ten male children below the age of eight to stand on the raised mountain in the Champ de la Reunion. The ten mothers chosen by each section shall be in white and wear a tricolored sash from right to left. The ten girls shall also be in white and shall wear the sash like the mothers. The girls shall have flowers braided into their hair. The ten adolescents shall be armed with swords. . . . Every citizen shall make sure they have their oak branches, bouquets, garlands, and baskets of flowers, and to adorn themselves with the colors of liberty. At exactly eight in the morning an artillery salvo, fired from the Pont Neuf, shall signal the time to proceed to the National Garden. Male and female citizens shall leave from their respective sections in two columns, each six abreast. The men and boys shall be on the right, while the women, girls, and children below the age of eight will be to the left. The square battalion of young boys shall be placed in the center between the two columns. The sections shall be called upon to arrange themselves in such a way that the column of women is not longer than the column of men, in order to avoid disturbing the order which is necessary in a national festival. . . . Upon arrival at the National Garden, the columns of men shall line up in the part of the garden on the side of the terrace called "the Feuillants," while the columns of women and children shall line up on the side of the river terrace, and the square battalions of boys in the wide path in the center. . . . When all the sections have arrived at the National Garden, a delegation shall go to the Convention to announce that everything is ready to celebrate the Festival of the Supreme Being. The National Convention shall arrive by way of the balcony of the Pavilion of Unity to the adjoining amphitheater. They shall be preceded by a large body of musicians, who shall be located on each side of the steps to the entrance. The president, speaking from the rostrum, shall explain to the people the reasons behind this solemn festival, and invite them to honor Nature's Creator. . . . Robespierre spoke as follows: The eternally happy day which the French people consecrates to the Supreme Being has finally arrived. Never has the world he created offered him a sight so worthy of his eyes. He has seen tyranny, crime, and deception reign on earth. At this moment, he sees an entire nation, at war with all the oppressors of the human race, suspend its heroic efforts in order to raise its thoughts and vows to the Great Being who gave it the mission to undertake these efforts and the strength to execute them. Did not his immortal hand, by engraving in the hearts of men the code of justice and equality, write there the death sentence of tyrants? Did not his voice, at the very beginning of time, decree the republic, making liberty, good faith, and justice the order of the day for all centuries and for all peoples? He did not create kings to devour the human species. Neither did he create priests to harness us like brute beasts to the carriages of kings, and to give the world the example of baseness, pride, perfidy, avarice, debauchery, and falsehood to the world. But he created the universe to celebrate his power; he created men to help and to love one another, and to attain happiness through the path of virtue. The Author of Nature linked all mortals together in an immense chain of love and happiness. Perish the tyrants who have dared to break it! Frenchmen, Republicans, it is up to you to cleanse the earth they have sullied and to restore the justice they have banished from it. Liberty and virtue issued together from the breast of the Supreme Being. One cannot reside among men without the other. Generous people, do you want to triumph over all your enemies? Practice justice and render to the Supreme Being the only form of worship worthy of him. People, let us surrender ourselves today, under his auspices, to the just ecstasy of pure joy. Tomorrow we shall again combat vices and tyrants; we shall give the world an example of republican virtues: and that shall honor the Supreme Being more. After this speech, a symphony shall be played. At the same time, the president, armed with the Flame of Truth, shall descend from the amphitheater and approach a monument raised on a circular basin, representing the monster, Atheism. From the middle of this monument, which the president shall set on fire, the figure of Wisdom shall appear. After this ceremony, the president shall return to the rostrum and speak again to the people, who shall answer him with songs and cries of joy. Robespierre spoke again, as follows: He has returned to nothingness, this monster which the spirit of kings has spewed forth over France. Let all the crimes and ills of the world disappear with him. Armed in turn with the daggers of fanaticism and the poisons of atheism, kings still conspire to assassinate humanity. If they can no longer disfigure the Divinity with superstition in order to implicate him in their transgressions, they endeavor to banish him from the earth to reign alone with crime. People, fear no more their sacrilegious conspiracies. They can no more tear the world from the breast of its author than the remorse from their own hearts. You who are wretched, hold up your woeful heads: you can again raise your eyes to the sky with impunity. Heroes of the country, your generous devotion is not a brilliant folly; the minions of tyranny may be able to assassinate you, but it is not in their power to annihilate you completely. Man, whoever you are, you can again think well of yourself. You can attach your transitory life to God himself and to immortality. Let nature thus regain all its magnificence, and wisdom all its empire. The Supreme Being is not destroyed. It is wisdom, above all, that our guilty enemies want to drive from the Republic. To wisdom alone does it belong to consolidate the prosperity of empires; it is for her to guarantee the fruits of our courage. Let us therefore associate her with all our enterprises. Let us be serious and discreet in all our deliberations, as men who determine the interests of the whole world. Let us be ardent and obstinate in our anger against sworn tyrants, imperturbable in the heat of danger, patient in our work, terrible during setbacks, modest and vigilant in success. Let us be generous toward those who are good, compassionate toward the unfortunate, inexorable toward the wicked, just toward everyone. Let us not count on unalloyed prosperity, on triumph without obstacles, or on anything that depends upon the fortune or perversity of another. Let us depend only on our constancy and our virtue. Alone, but infallible guarantors of our independence, let us crush the ungodly union of kings still more by our force of character than by the force of our arms. Sortable Date 1794-06-08 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived La Convention nationale, réimpression faite textuellement sur le moniteur original, vol. 21 (Paris, 1842), 683–84 (from the Gazette nationale, no. 262, 22 Prairial, an II [10 June 1794]). Description An account of the resource Adapting the established strategy of staging public pageantry to win support for a political cause, Robespierre organized a "Festival of the Supreme Being" in the summer of 1794. Having recently eliminated his adversaries Hébert and Danton, Robespierre delivered the keynote speech. In it he explained his idea for a civic religion worshipping a deist "supreme being" while resisting the more extreme tendency of some to eliminate spirituality outright through an atheistic "cult of reason." Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 436 Title A name given to the resource Religion: The Cult of the Supreme Being Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/436/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 8, 1794 Religion Text Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The regeneration of the French people and the establishment of the Republic has necessarily led to the reform of the vernacular era. We could no longer count the years during which kings oppressed us as an era during which we had lived. The prejudices and lies of both the throne and the church sullied each page of the calendar we were using. You have reformed this calendar and replaced it with another where time is calculated in exact and symmetrical measurements. This is not sufficient. Long usage of the Gregorian calendar has filled the people's memory with a considerable number of images that they have long revered, and which today remain the source of their religious errors. It is therefore necessary to replace these visions of ignorance with the realities of reason, and this sacerdotal prestige with nature's truth. We understand nothing except through images. In the most abstract analysis, in the most metaphysical combination of ideas, our understanding only progresses by means of images, our memory uses and depends only on them. Therefore, if you want the methodology and cohesion of this calendar to easily be understood by the people, and to engrave itself rapidly in their memory, you must use images in your new calendar. . . . What if at each moment of the year, the month, the decade, and the day, the glances and thoughts of the citizens fell upon a picture of farming, or nature's bounty, or an aspect of the rural economy? You could not doubt the fact that this would be a big step in moving the nation toward a system of agriculture, and that each citizen would feel nothing but love for the real and true gifts of nature he enjoys. For centuries, the people felt this love for imaginary objects, alleged saints whom they could not see, let alone know. I will go even further and say that priests could only give substance to their idols by attributing to each of them direct influence over matters of tangible interest to the people: This is how Saint John came to grant harvests while Saint Mark protected the vineyards. If arguments were required to demonstrate the irresistible power that images have on human intelligence, I would not need to enter into metaphysical analyses. I would find adequate proof in the theory, doctrine, and practice of priests. Take, for example, priests, whose universal and definitive goal is, and always will be, to subjugate mankind and enslave it under their dominion, instituted the practice of commemorating the dead. They did so to inspire disgust in us for earthly and worldly riches so that they could enjoy more of these riches themselves, and make us dependent on them through the myth and imagery of purgatory. You can see here their skill in seizing upon men's imagination and controlling it to suit their purposes. But they didn't choose to act out this farce in a pleasant setting, one joyous and fresh, which would have made us cherish life and its pleasures. Instead they chose November 2nd to lead us to the tombs of our fathers. They chose a time when the nice days are over, the sky is sad and gray, the earth's colors are fading and the falling leaves fill our soul with melancholy and sadness. At that time of year, making use of nature's farewells, they took hold of us, to lead us through Advent and their endless number of so-called holy days, through all that they had insolently conjured up that was meant to be mystical for the predestined (in other words, for imbeciles) and terrifying for the sinner (in other words, for the clear-sighted). Priests, these men who appeared to be enemies of human passion and its sweetest sentiments, wanted to turn these to their own advantage. . . . The Commission that you named to make the new calendar more sensible and easier to learn, therefore believed that it could achieve this goal if it succeeded in using names to strike the imagination and using nature and a succession of images to teach. The main idea upon which we have based our proposal is to use the calendar to consecrate the agricultural system, to lead the nation back to it, highlighting periods and times of the year with clear or tangible signs taken from agriculture and the rural economy. The more the memory is presented with fixed points of reference, the more easily it remembers. We have therefore developed the idea of giving each month of the year a characteristic name that depicts its unique temperature and the types of agricultural produce in season at that time. And that would, at the same time, suggest to which of the four seasons that make up the year it belongs. This latter effect is achieved by four endings, each given to three consecutive months, that produce four different sounds indicating the seasons in which they belong. . . . Thus the names of the months are: AUTUMN Vendémiaire (Vintage) Brumaire (Fog) Frimaire (Frost) WINTER Nivôse (Snow) Pluviôse (Rain) Ventôse (Wind) SPRING Germinal (Buds) Floréal (Flowers) Prairial (Meadow) SUMMER Messidor (Harvest) Thermidor (Heat) Fructidor (Fruit)As I have mentioned, the effect of these names is such that by merely saying the name of the month one will clearly feel three things and how they are connected: the type of season; the temperature; and the state of vegetation. Sortable Date 1793-10-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Jacques Guillaume, ed., Procès-Verbaux du Comité d'instruction publique de l'Assemblée legislative, vol. 2 (Paris, 1891), 440–41, 582–84, 697–99, 701. Description An account of the resource A reformed calendar was a goal of the revolutionaries who sought to remake not only the political system and the social order, but also the very experience of life. To rid the calendar of the malign influence of Christianity as a bulwark of tradition, in the fall of 1793 the Convention set up a committee to draft a new secular, rational calendar. Headed by the Dantonist Philippe–François Fabre d’Eglantine, the committee filed the report excerpted below in October 1793. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 435 Title A name given to the resource The Calendar Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/435/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource October 1793 Laws Text Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document . . . Here we are on the edge of the cliff and we are carrying on like drunkards. We step into every trap they set for us . . . rather than uniting like brothers, we are eating each other's eyes out. . . . Imbeciles that we are, we do not look with good faith of the Republic and try to save it. . . . The English have vomited up on the shores of heretofore Brittany all the refractory priests, all the émigrés, all the villains who had fled the land of liberty and taken refuge in London. . . . Former bishops seek their glory from God who only a few years ago they didn't believe in. . . . Crapulous monks . . . run from village to village in the Vendée . . . armed with daggers and crucifixes. . . . Idiots armed with pikes, hatchets, and knives, hearing the voice of their priests, march furiously; magistrates of the people are trampled underfoot; patriots have their throats slit and their children are massacred on their mothers' breasts; their daughters are raped; their cities and villages are reduced to ashes, and their land inundated with blood. . . . The brave sans-culottes of the Department of Hérault, wanting to save the Republic, have taken an oath to march against the rebels by leading all citizens to carry arms and to make the rich pay the costs of this campaign. Nearly all the sections of Paris have applauded this decree and adopted it. . . . Already the Parisian army would be fighting the rebels and the men of 14 July and 10 August would have crushed the villain . . . but damn it, Lafayette's "gentlemen" . . . have gone to all the sectional assemblies to chase out the sans-culottes. With hidden faces, bankers and merchants wearing ribbons sewn into their breeches, with perfumed and curled wigs, have inundated the sections, and . . . the sectional assemblies have become truly chaotic. One hears now only talk of murder and pillage, of slitting the throats of the Mountain, the Jacobins, the Mayor of Paris, the public prosecutor [of the Revolutionary Tribunal], and of burning all the neighborhoods; these are the plots of this rabble of buggers. Bands of such boutique-shoppers . . . have gathered in the gardens of Luxembourg, armed with daggers and pistols, ready to start a civil war. Patriots have been insulted, maltreated by this damned rabble, which has then gone into all the sectional assemblies to stir up trouble. . . . These villains even have the audacity to block the functioning of the presidents and secretaries of several revolutionary committees. . . . In short, they have been making the counterrevolution in the midst of our sections, and the Convention has remained tranquil instead of at last biting with its teeth and helping magistrates of the revolutionary tribunal snuff out these brigands. . . . Brave men of the Mountain who have enough force to deliver France from its last tyrant, what has to happen for you to expel these plotters? . . . And you brave denizens of Saint-Antoine, all you sans-culottes who have annihilated royalty, wake up! Arm yourselves with fence posts if necessary, with catgut, to tie down this cabal which dares raise its head. Chase them back to their caves, these despicable people [gens-foutres] who disturb the sectional assemblies, and who delay your departure [for the front]. If you wait even a few days more, it will be too late. . . . Put the balls in the canon and if they try to hold back, drop them with stones; you will save the fatherland if you escape them, and damn it, you must do it, no matter what. Sortable Date 1794-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Le Père Duchesne, no. 234 (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1794), 2–8. Description An account of the resource The radical journalist Jacques–René Hébert here calls on the sans–culottes of Paris to rise against their enemies in the capital, that is, those who block the work of the sections and revolutionary committees. Afterward, they should march against the forces of counterrevolution in the west. In this passage, Hébert calls on patriots to use violence to overcome their foes, suggesting that self–restraint could be deadly to the Revolution. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 434 Title A name given to the resource The Père Duchesne Supports the Terror Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/434/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1794 Clubs Popular Politics Public Opinion Sans-culottes Text The Terror Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document There is still this difference between the Monarchy and the Republic . . . which is that the reigns of the most cruel emperors, Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, Caligula, Domitien, had pleasant beginnings. Every Queen makes a joyous entrance. The advantage of Republics is that they can improve themselves. These are thoughts by which the patriot first responds to the royalist who is laughing up his sleeve at the present state of France, as if these violent and awful conditions could possibly continue. I hear you, royalist gentlemen, taunting the founders of the Republic under your breath, comparing the present with the time of the Bastille. You are counting on the frankness of my quill, and you take malicious pleasure in watching it as it faithfully sketches out the details of this latest period. But I know how to temporize your joy and enliven the citizens with new desire. Before taking the reader to Breteaux or to the Place de la Révolution, showing him the rivers of blood that flowed during those six months for the eternal freedom of a People of 25 million souls who had not yet been cleansed by liberty and public happiness, I am going to start by bringing my compatriots back to the reigns of the Caesars and to the river of blood, the gutter of corruption and refuse constantly flowing beneath the Monarchy. . . . Historians state that after the siege of Pérouse, and despite the fact that they capitulated, Augustus's response was "You must all perish." Three hundred of the leading citizens were taken to the altar of Julius Caesar, and there, on the Ides of March, had their throats slit. Then the rest of the inhabitants were slaughtered helter-skelter by the sword, and one of the most beautiful cities in Italy was reduced to ashes, as totally erased from the surface of the earth as Herculanum. . . . As soon as comments became state crimes, from there it is but one step to turn simple looks, sadness, compassion, sighs, even silence, into crimes. Soon it would be a crime of lese-majesty or counterrevolution for a town to raise a monument to its own who were killed at the siege of Modena, even though fighting for Augustus himself, but because Augustus fought with Brutus, and Nursia shared the fate of Pérouse . . . a counterrevolutionary crime was committed by the journalist Cremutius Cordus for having called Brutus and Cassius the last Romans. A counterrevolutionary crime was committed by one of Cassius's descendants for having a portrait of his ancestors in his home. A crime of counterrevolution was committed by Mamercus Scaurus for having written a tragedy in which there were verses that could be interpreted in two different ways. A counterrevolutionary crime was committed by Torquatus Silanu, for having expenses . . . A counterrevolutionary crime was committed for having taken off one's pants without emptying one's pockets, and for keeping a coin with a royal likeness on it in your coat, which showed a lack of respect for the sacred image of the tyrants. A counterrevolutionary crime was committed by complaining about the unfortunate times, since that was the government's job. A counterrevolutionary crime was committed by not calling upon the divine inspiration of Caligula. For failing to have done that, a large number of citizens were whipped to shreds, sent to the mines or to the animals, and some were even cut in half. A counterrevolutionary crime was committed by the mother of the Consul Fusius Geminus for having cried at the fateful death of her son. You should show joy at the death of one's friend or relative if you do not want to expose yourself to danger. Under Nero, several people close to some whom he had killed went to render homage to the gods, and they were cheerful. At least you should seem content, open and calm. You were afraid that seeming to be afraid would make you guilty. Everyone gave homage to the tyrant. If a citizen was popular, he was a rival to the Prince, which could spark a civil war. Suspicious. Did you therefore shun popularity? Did you stay home by the fire? This retired life made you noticeable and made you respected. Suspicious. Were you rich? There was imminent peril that the People would be corrupted by your generosity. Suspicious. Were you poor? Why? Invincible Emperor, you must watch that man more closely. There is no more enterprising person than he who has nothing. Suspicious. Were you of a somber nature? Melancholy or unkempt? What was bothering you was that the general economy was doing well. Suspicious. . . . Finally, had you made a name for yourself during the war? There is no one more dangerous than he who is talented, and there is something to be said for a General who is inept. If the latter is a traitor, he can deliver the army over to the enemy, but most of them will return. But if a victorious officer of Corbulon and Agricola are treasonous then not a single life would be saved. The best action would be to get rid of him. At least, your Highness, could you not spare yourself the trouble by quickly separating him from the Army? Suspicious. We can believe that it used to be much worse if we were a grandson or ally of Augustus. One day we could have a claim to the throne. Suspicious. And unlike here, all these suspects of the Emperor did not leave to go to Madelonettes, or Ireandais, or Sainte-Pélagie (names of prisons). The Prince gave them orders to send for their doctor or apothecary, and in the next twenty-four hours they were to pick the type of death that would be the most pleasing for them. . . . The death of so many innocent and commendable citizens seems less a calamity than the insolence and outrageous fortune of their killers and denouncers. Every day, the untouchable informer made his triumphant entry into the house of the dead, reaping an impressive inheritance. All these denouncers adorned themselves with the best names, calling themselves Cotta, Scipion, Regulus, or Cassius Severus. Informing was the only way to succeed, and Regulus was named Consul three times for his denunciations. Also, everyone threw themselves into a career that had such great perquisites that were so easy to come by. And to distinguish oneself by an illustrious debut and to develop his group of informers, Marcus Serenus brought charges against his elderly father who was already in exile. After that, he was proud to be called Brutus. As go accusers, so go judges. The courts, protectors of life and property, became butcheries, where confiscation and torture became just euphemisms for theft and murder. . . . Do not let the royalists come and tell me that this description does not allow us to draw conclusions. The reign of Louis XVI did not resemble those of the Caesars. If it did not resemble them, it is because here tyranny had lain for a long time alongside pleasure and rested upon the strength of the chains that our fathers wore for fifteen hundred years and because they believed that there was no more need of terror. Terror, as Machiavelli said, is only an instrument of despots, and an all-powerful instrument upon simpler souls, those timid and made for slavery. And today, with the People awoken and the sword of the Republic drawn against the Monarchies, let the Royals return to France. It is then that these medals of tyranny, so well crafted by Tacitus and which I just placed under the noses of my compatriots, shall be the living image of what evil they will have to suffer for fifty years. But must we look so far for examples? The massacres of the Champ de Mars and Nancy, what Robespierre recounted the other day at the Jacobins, the horrors that the Austrians committed at the borders, the English at Gênes, and the Royalists at Fougères and in the Vendée. The violence of the parties clearly shows that despotism which returned, furious amidst its destroyed possessions, can only become stronger by ruling like the Octaviuses and Neroes. In this duel between liberty and slavery, and in the cruel alternative to a defeat a thousand times more bloody than our victory, "exaggerating the Revolution was less perilous, and worth more than to stay on this side," as Danton said. But it was necessary, first and foremost, for the Republic to ensure its destiny on the field of battle. Sortable Date 1793-12-15 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Le Vieux Cordelier, 25 Frimaire Year II (15 December 1793), 1–8. Translated by Exploring the French Revolution project staff from original documents in French found in John Hardman, French Revolution Documents 1792–95, vol. 2 (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1973), 186–193. Description An account of the resource Despite the consolidation of power in the hands of the Committee of Public Safety and the creation of Revolutionary Tribunals across France to eliminate traitors to the Republic, the Convention continued to worry about conspiracies even among its political allies. By the end of 1793, the Committee of Public Safety feared the activities of those calling for an acceleration of the Revolution, notably followers of Jacques–Réné Hébert, as well as those who sought to moderate it, known as "Indulgents" and led by Georges Danton. This latter point of view was expressed by Danton’s ally Camille Desmoulins in the newspaper The Old Cordelier, which made use of Roman history to warn that a republic could be undermined from within by "evil emperors"—by which Desmoulins implied the leadership of the Committee of Public Safety. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 433 Title A name given to the resource Revolution Devours Its Own—Le Vieux Cordelier Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/433/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource December 15, 1793 Clubs Popular Politics Public Opinion Sans-culottes Text The Terror Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document During her interrogation, [Marie] Antoinette maintained almost invariably a calm and self-assured demeanor. During the first few hours, she kept running her fingers along the arm of her chair in an absent-minded way as if she were playing the pianoforte. When she heard her sentence pronounced, no trace of emotion appeared on her face and she left the court without uttering a word or addressing the judges or the public. It was then half-past four in the morning on the 25th day of the first month [of the revolutionary calendar] (16 October, old style) when she was led back to the condemned cell in the prison of the Conciergerie. At five o'clock recall was sounded in every section and by seven, the armed forces were at their posts. Cannons were placed at the ends of the bridges in the squares and at the crossroads from the Palace all the way to the Place de la Revolution. By ten o'clock, numerous soldiers were patrolling the streets. At eleven o'clock, Marie Antoinette, the widow Capet, wearing a white morning dress, was led to the scaffold in the same manner as other criminals. She was accompanied by a constitutional priest dressed as a layman, and was escorted by numerous detachments of mounted and dismounted police. Sortable Date 1793-10-16 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Le Moniteur, no. 36 (27 October 1793), 145–46. Description An account of the resource At the conclusion of her trial, the Queen was found guilty and sentenced to death. The newspaper of record, the Moniteur, reports the Queen’s response to the verdict and her execution the next morning with a good deal of sympathy and respect. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 432 Title A name given to the resource Execution of the Queen (16 October 1793) Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/432/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource October 16, 1793 Monarchy Text The Terror Women