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Robespierre Biography

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ROBESPIERRE, Maximilien Marie Isidore (1758–94). A leader of the French Revolution. He was born at Arras, May 6, 1758, the eldest of four children. After some time spent in the college at Arras, Maximilien was given a scholarship by the Bishop of Arras which enabled him to complete his education in the Lycée Louis-le-Grand at Paris. His brilliant career as a student gave him a reputation which proved of no little value upon his return to Arras in 1781 to begin the practice of his profession. His patron, the Bishop, appointed him criminal judge of the diocese of Arras in March, 1782, but he soon resigned the place rather than pronounce a death sentence. His literary tastes secured him an election to the Academy of Arras in 1783, and led him to compete, though with slight success, for prizes offered by the provincial academies. The summons of the States-General aroused him as it did hundreds of his fellows to political activity. Taking the popular side, he wrote pamphlets, engaged in discussions, and above all took care to look after his own fortunes. He was elected fifth deputy of the Third Estate of the Province of Artois.

Entering the States-General at the age of 31, he was almost unknown. Always adopting the popular and radical view, he spoke frequently, with such care in preparation and with such earnestness of manner that he soon overcame the defects of a shrill voice, small stature, pale nervous face, and twitching eyes partly concealed by greenish glasses. His former school friend, Camille Desmoulins, took pleasure in acting as the self-appointed press agent of the brilliant young radical, and the pages of the Révolutions de France et de Brabant made the name of Robespierre familiar throughout France. Mirabeau also noted him, but until the death of Mirabeau he, like others, was overshadowed by the greatest of the Revolutionists. It was not until May, 1791, that Robespierre began to exercise a real influence. In that month he pronounced his discourse favoring the abolition of the death penalty, and carried his unwise motion excluding from the future Legislative Assembly all members of the Constituent Assembly. During the summer of 1791 he opposed Barnave, Duport, and Lameth in the conservative revision of the constitution of 1791. During these two years, however, Robespierre's most important activity was not in the Assembly, but in the Jacobin Club. (See Jacobins.) He set about making himself the acknowledged head of the club and the leader of the people of Paris. His triumph was made complete when the conservatives were forced to withdraw from the club and organize themselves as the Feuillants (q.v.). His success in winning the Parisian populace to his support was demonstrated on Sept. 30, 1791, at the adjournment of the Constituent Assembly, when he and Pétion were crowned by the people as the true and incorruptible patriots. For a few months he held the office of public prosecutor, which he resigned because of the Girondist attacks. In his defense he started a journal called Le Défenseur de la Constitution, continued as Lettres à mes Commettants after the opening of the Convention. Still the leading exponent of the radical views, he used his position in the Jacobin Club to antagonize the Girondists, especially in their war policy. Marat was opposing the war as contrary to the interest of the state; Robespierre's grounds were rather humanitarian. Though a demagogue who was daily swaying the people of Paris by his eloquence in the Jacobin Club, he was not a man of action, and remained quiescent while the bolder spirits like Danton and Santerre directed the movement of June 20 and of Aug. 10, 1792, and it was only after the success of the latter day that he appeared at the city hall to take his place as a member of the insurrectionary Commune. No direct guilt attaches to Robespierre for the great crime of the Parisian mob, the prison massacres of September; still he was at that moment the popular hero and leader, and was a few days later elected as the first deputy from Paris in the new National Convention.

In the Convention Robespierre was the recognized leader of the radical popular party, now known as the Montagnards, and from the first was denounced by the Girondists as a blood-thirsty demagogue. Of great importance was his famous speech on the King's trial, in which he carefully and clearly stated the logical position of the Convention and proclaimed: "Louis ought to perish rather than a hundred thousand virtuous citizens; Louis must die, that the country may live." By this speech and by his attitude throughout the trial Robespierre completely outgeneraled the Girondists, whom he forced to take what for them was an illogical position and vote for the execution of the King. His generalship, which took advantage of the mistakes and personal dislikes of the Girondists, also won to his side Danton, Billaud-Varenne, and the other strong men of action. Taking advantage of these circumstances, Robespierre in one of his characteristic speeches arraigned the Girondists on April 10, 1793. It was a struggle to the death, but its outcome was certain from the moment that Danton and his followers joined Robespierre. The coup d’état of May 31 and June 2 was the work of the men of action, but the victory was that of Robespierre.

Robespierre was not a member of the first Committee of Public Safety and was not one of the original members of the second or Great Committee of Public Safety, but was chosen to replace Gasparin, who resigned July 27, 1793. With the other members he was continued on the committee until his arrest exactly one year later on the fateful 9th Thermidor. The name of Robespierre has ever been almost synonymous with the committee, and both Robespierre and the other members gave currency to the notion that he ran the committee; but as a matter of fact the other members were the workers and never allowed Robespierre to interfere with them, and finally overthrew him because he attempted to make his reputed control of the committee a reality. Virtually the Great Committee of Public Safety (see French Revolution) was a semiofficial ministry, of which Robespierre was Prime Minister without portfolio. He was the most valuable man on the committee, for, though he did none of the routine work and rarely appeared at its sessions, he was the one member who was known outside of the Convention and who had a national reputation; he was the ideal patriot, the "virtuous," the "incorruptible," and under his ægis the steady, clear-headed, industrious men of action toiled quietly, relentlessly, successfully to save France from the foes and perils that beset her. The notion of Robespierre as a bloodthirsty demon who daily breathed forth threatenings and slaughter is a total misconception; the truth is that the committee was convinced that the only way to accomplish its task of saving France was by a government of terror which should silence or destroy every foe of the nation. To the working members of the committee like Carnot and Billaud-Varenne the Terror was simply a business affair; to Robespierre it was a necessary preparation for the reign of virtue foreshadowed in the gospel according to Jean Jacques Rousseau, whose prophet he was. Robespierre was neither the dictator of the committee nor yet its dupe. He consciously assumed his share of the responsibility for its acts, he defended its policies in set speeches in the Convention and before the Jacobin Club, and he personally carried through the Convention one of the acts which contributed most to make the Terror an orgy of blood—the decree of Oct. 29, 1793, by which after a trial of three days it was made possible for the jury of the Revolutionary Tribunal to declare that they were convinced of the guilt of the accused even though they had not heard the defense.

In personal life and principle a Puritan, in religion a deist, in all things a true believer in Rousseau, this he preached, for this he labored, and in preparation for this he would destroy the vicious. With the aid of Camille Desmoulins and Danton, who also detested the extravagances of the Hébertists, he was able to send Hébert and 18 others to the guillotine after a trial that was a parody of justice. Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and the Dantonists were the next victims, because they laughed at the notions of Rousseau, because they saw that the Terror had done its work and that the time had come to exercise clemency, and because Danton was a possible rival to be feared both by Robespierre and by the committee. On April 5, 1794, Danton perished, a victim of his own greatness and of the injustice and fanaticism of his enemies, the men who were most indebted to him. After the death of Danton and his friends the work of destroying the victims went on more rapidly, and after Couthon had carried the outrageous decree of June 10 accelerating the procedure of the Revolutionary Tribunal, 200 victims a week were sacrificed to the guillotine. In the meantime Robespierre was busy inaugurating his reign of virtue by instituting the Worship of the Supreme Being. On May 7 he delivered his famous speech in the Convention on the relation of religion and morality to republican principles, after which the Convention decreed a festival of the Supreme Being, which took place on June 8 with Robespierre, then President of the Convention, acting as the pontiff of the new religion.

One more hecatomb of victims would clear away the remaining leaders who stood in the way of the reign of virtue. At these, some of whom were his associates in the committee or in the Convention, Robespierre planned to strike. After a prolonged absence from the Convention and the committee, Robespierre appeared in the Convention on July 26, 1794, and delivered one of his carefully prepared speeches intended to preface and justify the destruction of his foes. The next day Saint-Just, his fearless and vigorous supporter, appeared in the tribune to secure the passage of the measure of proscription. Stormy scenes followed, but at last the intended victims, Barras, Tallien, and the men of action from the committee, with the skillful aid of Barère (q.v.), secured the arrest of Robespierre, and his younger brother Augustin, Couthon, Saint-Just, and Le Bas. All was not over, however, for Henriot with the National Guards of Paris rescued Robespierre and his friends and installed them at the city hall. Had Robespierre been able to decide quickly and act quickly, he might still have won; but indecision and inactivity gave his foes time to act and to attack him in the city hall. In the affray Robespierre shot himself or was shot in the jaw, his brother leaped from the window and broke his leg, and Le Bas committed suicide. The Convention reassembled and declared Robespierre and his friends and Henriot and the members of the Commune of Paris outlaws. This was the famous revolution of the 9th Thermidor. On the next day these men were all brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal and identified and immediately guillotined.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XX (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 46-47.