"Women are so vain," he added, contemplating with rapt attention the enamel-like polish on his own fingernails.
So besides being extremely sadistic ["born torturer of the souls of men" đ], Robespierre's major characterization in The Elusive Pimpernel, a sequel to The Scarlet Pimpernel, is that he is very clean and well-groomed.
So scary.
đ„°
I apologize to my community for disregarding all wise advice and logic and listening to The Scarlet Pimpernel on YouTube & now The Elusive Pimpernel; terrible books but VERY good motivation to write something better!
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English French Revolution books are failing us hard when they don't explain that when Robespierre talks about virtue he's often talking about corruption, politicians' dishonesty & disregard for the people's wishes & needs, & literal treason. Not saying they weren't super judging each other for being less-than-virtuous in other ways, too, but now reading his actual speeches it's hard not to see it like
Robespierre: Your representatives are corrupt and putting you in severe danger
I've made and deleted so many posts over the last week or so because I just don't know how to process my feelings of watching Max & B snap at each other in the Robespierre v. Girondins deathmatch. I keep getting stuck in this part on May 28, 1793
"Just listen to the passage I am about to read to you; you will see that all these maneuvers aim to re-establish despotism; listen, and soon you will know the man who dared to write it."
The passage Robespierre reads from is the exact speech I've complained about, in which B: 1) pivots to defending the monarchy after weeks of taking a leading role in attacking it, 2) warns about war if the monarchy is attacked (which still strikes me as one of the most hypocritical positions B could've possibly taken up) and 3) threatens the people who are agitating against it. Max reads this excerpt:
" 'We are told of a third faction, a faction of regicides, which seeks to create a dictator and establish the Republic. This idea will no doubt seem paradoxical, but it is true. There is no better means of perpetuating monarchy than regicide. No, no, it is not through the shocking slaughter of an individual that monarchy will ever be abolished. The restoration of monarchy in England was the result of the execution of Charles I. It outraged the people and brought them to the feet of his son. [MY note: Brissot is extremely oversimplifying the English Civil Wars & interregnum]
"If, therefore, these regicidal republicans exist, one must admit that they are very foolish republicans indeed, the sort whom kings ought to pay for making republicanism forever detestable.
"Be that as it may, if this party of regicides exists, if there are men who now seek to establish the Republic upon the ruins of the Constitution, the sword of the law must strike them just as it strikes the active friends of the two Chambers and the counter-revolutionaries of Coblenz.' "
As far as I can understand from this section [pages & Google Translate below], the Girondins keep shouting Robespierre down about the date of Brissot's quoted speech (July 25, 1792) because it was before August 10, Robespierre too was defending the Constitution at the time, and that Constitution protected the authority of the monarchy.
But the date sticks out to me, too, because it is right in the middle of that period of June-July 1792 where the Girondins seemed to: 1) be playing to/using the people's anger against the monarchy, 2) trying hard to throw blame for the war problems onto the king & off themselves, 3) and then withdrawing their support of the people. It also sticks out to me because their later commentary (e.g Brissot's To His Constituents, which I'm still reading), focuses heavily on the period after August 10 & the September Massacres, condemning the extreme actions and trying to hold the people accountable â frankly completely understandable â but also obscuring the fact that their threats and antagonism toward the people long predated that time.
I don't really have a point or conclusion; I agree entirely that the Girondins were catastrophic and unreliable politicians, but it's tough to see the fight play out. Sometimes they seem well-intentioned, and I can't argue against Brissot's stance on the violence of the previous year. But I also can't argue with Max's condemnation of his antagonistic and hypocritical attitudes & actions in the Legislative Assembly. It's just hard to watch things fall apart.
Pages from the Archives Parlementaires volume LXV, p. 495:
the Google Translated version[sorry]:
[Robespierre] Just listen to the passage I am about to read to you; you will see that all these maneuvers aim to re-establish despotism; listen, and soon you will know the man who dared to write it.
"We are told of a third faction, a faction of regicides, which seeks to create a dictator and establish the Republic. This idea will no doubt seem paradoxical, but it is true. There is no better means of perpetuating monarchy than regicide. No, no, it is not through the shocking slaughter of an individual that monarchy will ever be abolished. The restoration of monarchy in England was the result of the execution of Charles I. It outraged the people and brought them to the feet of his son.
"If, therefore, these regicidal republicans exist, one must admit that they are very foolish republicans indeed, the sort whom kings ought to pay for making republicanism forever detestable.
"Be that as it may, if this party of regicides exists, if there are men who now seek to establish the Republic upon the ruins of the Constitution, the sword of the law must strike them just as it strikes the active friends of the two Chambers and the counter-revolutionaries of Coblenz."
Now I leave these criminal men to complete their odious career. I surrender this tribune to them. Let them come here to distill their poisons; let them come here to fan the flames of civil war; let them maintain correspondence with the enemies of the fatherland; let them finish their careerâthe nation will judge them. Let all that is most cowardly, most vile, and most impure upon the earth triumph and reduce to slavery a nation of twenty-five million people who wished to be free. I regret that the weakness of my voice does not permit me to expose all their plots. It is for the republicans to cast them back into the abyss of shame. (Repeated applause from the galleries and the Mountain.)
Buzot asks permission to reply to Robespierre.
Several members (on the Right): No, no, it is useless.
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I just finished school and when I hugged the younger people I'll never see again instead of saying my name they called me Robespierre they said thing like "I'll miss you Robespierre" or others said "you'll always be my favourite Communist" "I'll always be a leftist I promise"
I think I left a pretty good impressionnn (â â§â âœâ âŠâ )
@misscalming I guess this one can be for you⊠đ
The first known meeting between Robespierre and Danton is one we know about through the notes the former prepared against the latter, meant to serve as groundwork for the indictment Saint-Just was to write against him and his alleged faction:
I remember an anecdote to which I attached too little importance at that time: In the first months of the Revolution, finding myself at dinner with Danton, Danton reproached me for spoiling the good cause, by digressing from the line where Barnave and the Lameths marched, who then began to deviate from the popular principles
These notes, which were published for the first time in 1843, provide a lot of insight regarding all the things Robespierre felt about Dantonâs personality, actions and political views during the five years that followed. It is however hard to tell just how much of them are to be interpreted as what he truly felt as things weâre going down, and how much of them are afterthoughts he came up with once arrived at the conclusion Danton has in fact been a conspirator for a considerable amount of time.
The next connection Iâve found between the two is from June 20 1790, when both are recorded to have been present for yet another dinner, this one held on the anniversary and in commemoration of the Tennis Court Oath, together with among others Romme, Desmoulins, Charles de Lameth and Barnave. On December 25 the very same year Danton and Robespierre also both signed the wedding contract of their mutual friend Desmoulins, alongside twelve others. Only Robespierre was however present for the actual wedding ceremony held two days later.
Danton and Robespierre at first operate in different places â Danton at the Cordelier district and Robespierre at the Jacobin club and the National Assembly. In September 1790, Danton does however come to join the jacobins, where he soon becomes a frequent speaker. He and Robespierre often speak during the same sessions and on the same topic, such as on June 21 1791 where both swore to die for the homeland following the royal familyâs flight, and July 13 and 15 of the same year when both are involved in a discussion on the kingâs inviobility.
It is however not as often they are recorded to have mentioned the otherâs name. The first instance of this occurs on March 30 1791, after Danton has just scolded Collot dâHerbois for having inserted praise of a newly elected minister in one of the clubâs minutes while serving as secretary. According to him, someone part of the executive power can no longer be a friend of liberty, and praising someone like that is therefore only something slaves would do. Right after this, Robespierre does however step in, underlining that while he knows Danton to be a good citizen and agrees that it was wrong of Collot to insert praise, he thinks a person appointed agent of the executive power can still be a patriot. Something similar also occurs on March 4 1792, when Danton proposed the club reject a sum of 1445 livres to be donated to the soldiers of ChĂąteau-vieux, considering the fact 110 of these livres had been a gift from the royal family and accepting the money would mean honoring them. Robespierre opposed this, explaining that while âthere is something true and generous in M. Danton's observations, and these observations are not unworthy of his patriotism,â they should still accept the donation, as they need to focus on the bigger picture. He had his way.
In the big discussion of war and peace that started in late November 1791, Danton and Robespierre at first stood united. On December 14 1791, both of them cautioned against war and proposed the jacobins should follow the Legislative Assemblyâs discussion of it closely. Two days later, December 16, right after Brissot had held his very first speech in favour of the idea at the club, Danton, while praising the speaker as an excellent patriot, objected to the thought of a war right at the moment â âI want us to have war; it is essential. We must have war. But above all, we have to exhaust the means that could save us from it.â Then on December 30, after Brissot had just finished his second speech on the subject, Danton and Robespierre both demanded a change be made to a passage when it got printed. Following this moment, it would however appear like Danton abandons the question. From the notes Robespierre prepared two years later, we can suspect he felt a bit abandoned, as he there accuses Danton of having âsupported [the girondinsâ] opinion regarding the declaration of war. Then, pressed by the reproach of patriots, whose usurped confidence he didnât want to lose, he seemed to say a word for my defense and announced that he carefully watched the two parties and withdrew to silence.â Robespierre also claims Danton at the same time in a private meeting had told Legendre: âSince he (Robespierre) wants to ruin himself, let him ruin himself, we do not have to share his fate,â words which Legendre in his turn then had reported to Robespierre.
On May 10 1792, three weeks after war had been declared, Danton did however defend Robespierre when the latter got drowned in murmurs at the jacobins when trying to spek in favour about a motion to only let members who had payed their subsidy enter the hall:
I requested the floor for a simple point of order. The more I approve of M. Robespierre's motion, the more I believe a discussion of it would be worthwhile. M. Robespierre has never exercised anything but the despotism of reason here; it is therefore not love of the homeland, but base jealousy, indeed all the most harmful passions, that incite his adversaries against him with such violence. Well then, gentlemen, it is important for all of us to completely confound those who propose resolutions so egregious to the majesty of the people. (Applause.)
In the night between August 9 and 10 1792, the Tuileries Palace was stormed, and the following day Danton was made Minister of Justice. On August 14, we find the following letter from him to Robespierre (the first of two conserved between them), offering him a job at the Revolutionary Tribunal. As can be seen, it is written in a rather warm tone, though Danton still addresses Robespierre in vouvoiement:
I ask you, my dear friend, to do me the pleasure and to render this service to the public good, to accept a few hours of work per week in the council of justice of which I have appointed you a member. It will only be three times a week and for part of the morning that we will assemble. I have given you three colleagues worthy of you. This is not a position as a public official, but only one more way for your heart and your talents to fight the enemies of liberty and above all to follow the cause of the unfortunate.
Robespierre would however come to decline this offer, probably since he already was occupied at the Paris Commune.
Dantonâs reconciliation attempts had been in vain, as the hostilty between girondins and montagnards showed up almost immediately after the opening of the Convention on September 21. There, Danton, Robespierre and Marat were soon met with attacks of forming a so called âtriumvirateâ and having masterminded the September massacres together. They all denied this to have been the case. Danton and Robespierre did however come to adapt the same view of the massacres as a tragic neccessity, on February 4 1793 Robespierre is recorded to have â[recalled] what Danton said about the days of September 2nd and 3rd, and he proves that they were the necessary continuation of the memorable August 10th.â
They also continued to back each other up at the Convention and jacobin club. On September 25, Robespierre supported a motion put forward by Danton that proposed the death penalty for anyone wanting to destroy the unity of France. On October 28, he held a speech at the jacobins in which he called Danton â[a deputy] known for the great services he has rendered the Revolution.â After the speech was over, Danton, who presided over the session, ordered for it to be sent not only to the sister clubs but to âall interested parties.â One day later, October 29, when girondin Louvet came forward with a prepared denounciation speech against Robespierre, shouting âIt is I who accuse you!â Danton stepped in and told the president to âplease allow the speaker to continue, and I too will request the floor after him, it is time to sort all of this out.â Finally, in number 1 (September-October 1792) of his new journal Lettres de Maximilien Robespierre Ă ses commettans, Robespierre wrote that â[Dantonâs] talent is perfectly complemented by the strength of his voice and his athletic vigor.â
In her memoirs (1834), Charlotte Robespierre tells us her brother and Danton, while never super close, had âgood friendly relationsâ with each other, even if the big differences in their personalities meant they were held together only by âlove for the homeland.â Charlotte claims to have witnessed their discussions on several occasions â âthey conversed with a great outpouring of their hearts; their conversations almost always focused on the republicâ â and that the trial of the dethroned Louis XVI which started on December 3 1793 occupied them a great deal, with the two concerting âthat the monarch who had betrayed France with such perfidy could not enjoy impunity, and would receive the punishment for his crimes.â In his notes against Danton, Robespierre does however contradict his sister somewhat, claiming instead that Danton âdidnât want the death of the tyrant; he wanted that one settled for banishing him,â and that it was only the force of public opinion that determined him to on January 16 1793 vote for death regardless.
My dear Danton,
In this sorrow that alone can break a heart such as yours, if the assurance that you have a tender and devoted friend offers any consolation, then I give it. I love you more than ever, until death. In this moment, I am you. Do not close your heart to an expression of friendship that feels all your pain. Let us weep for our friends and let our deep grief defeat the tyrants who are the cause of all our misfortunes, public and private. I would have come to see you except for the respect in which I hold your first moments of grief.Â
Embrace your friend,Â
Robespierre
In February 1793, Danton went on a mission to Belgium together which Delacroix. They were back in Paris again by early March. On March 10, Robespierre praised their efforts at the Convention:
Remember, citizens, that the Minister of War was misled by the generals' dispatches; remember that if Lacroix and Danton had not come here to reveal important secrets to you, you would still be in profound ignorance of what was happening in Belgium.
In the same intervention, Robespierre asked for an act of accusation to be issued against Stengel, a general deemed responsible for the Austrian taking of  Aldenhoven on March 1. Right after him, Danton did however intervene to propose Stengel and another general only be sent to be held accountable before the Convention.
On March 26 1793, Robespierre and Danton were both elected for the so called Commission of Public Safety, alongside 23 others. The commission, which consisted of both fervent montagnards and fervent girondins, was however off to a rocky start, and already on April 6 it was put to death and replaced by the Committee of Public Safety.
On April 1, Robespierre accused the girondins of âwant[ing] to deprive us of all means of loyal defenseâ by âslander[ing] the patriots and blam[ing] them for all the attacks they are plotting.â He pointed to Danton as an example:
Danton was accused, a pretext was found to slander him because he was too credulous, because he did not take it upon himself to bring charges against Dumouriez, and attempts were made to extend suspicion to all citizens who shared Danton's civic spirit. I must also inform you that, at this very moment, rumors are circulating that the Committee of General Security has arrested Danton. You know with what superiority this patriot crushed his enemies. You know with what energy he uplifted all souls.
On April 10, about two weeks after Dumouriezâs defection, Robespierre excused Dantonâs earlier praise of the general, saying that âit is not surprising that an army commissioner could have been deceived for a moment about Dumouriezâs plans, whom he only saw in his official capacity, in the midst of his army.â Two days later, April 12, he praised him again at the jacobin club:
Danton spoke with a superiority of reason and eloquence that uplifted the spirits of all who heard him, and proposed infallible measures for the public good. Danton proposed placing a price on the heads of the Bourbons, the former Monsieur, and indeed all traitors; he requested that the question raised to destroy one of the most ardent defenders of liberty be referred back to the Committee of Legislation.
The day after that, April 13, Robespierre proposed decreeing the death penalty for anyone who wished to negotiate with the enemy, and was supported by Danton, who nevertheless also underlined this decree could not be given the âscope which its author did not intend to attribute to it.â He therefore proposed the decree state that âthe death penalty is decreed against anyone who who proposes that the Republic compromise with enemies who, as a preliminary step, do not recognize the sovereignty of the people.â This proposal carried through.Â
Robespierre says that new men, patriots of a day, want to lose the people's oldest friends. He cites Danton as an example, whom they slander; Danton, against whom no one has the right to raise the slightest reproach; Danton, whom they will only discredit after proving they have more energy, talent, or love of country. I do not intend to identify with him here to elevate either of us; I cite him only as an example.
In the middle of September 1793, Danton left Paris for his country house in Arcis-sur-Aube. Illness was the official reason, but according to Dominique-Joseph Garat, anguish over what was soon to happen with the girondins also played a role. In Memoirs of the revolution; or, an apology for my conduct, in the public employments which I have held (1795), Garat recalls going home to Danton and finding him sick. âIt only took me two minutes to see that his illness was above all a deep pain and a great dismay at everything that was coming. âI won't be able to save themâ, were the first words out of his mouth, and, as he uttered them, big tears strolled down his face.â Garat claims he later also went to discuss the upcoming girondin trial with Robespierre, who on the other hand showed no signs of mercy or empathy. In his own notes, Robespierre would indeed go on to accuse Danton of having âmade every effort in order to save Brissot and his accomplices. He opposed their punishment.â
I ask you to make your charges against him more specific. No one speaks? Well then, in that case I will do it. Danton! You (tu) are accused of having emigrated; they say that you went to Switzerland; that your illness was feigned in order to conceal your flight from the people; they say that your ambition was to be regent under Louis XVII; that at a certain date everything had been prepared for proclaiming it; that you were the chief of the conspiracy; that neither Pitt, nor Coburg, nor England, nor Austria, nor Prussia was our real enemy, but that you alone were, that the Mountain was composed of your accomplices, that we should not concern ourselves with the agents sent by foreign powers; that the conspiracies were fables that should be despised; in short, that he must be slayed.
The Convention knows that I have disagreed with Danton; that, at the time of Dumouriez's betrayals, my suspicions preceded his. I reproached him then for not being more incensed by that monster. I reproached him for not having pursued Brissot and his accomplices with sufficient speed, and I swear that these are the only reproaches I made to him...Â
Danton! Don't you know that the more courage and patriotism a man possesses, the more the enemies of the public good strive for his downfall? Don't you know, and don't all of you know, citizens, that this method is infallible? And who are these slanderers? Men who appear free from vice [sic], and who have never shown any virtue. Ah! If the defender of liberty were not slandered, it would be proof that we would no longer have priests or nobles to fight. The enemies of the homeland seem to heap praise upon me exclusively; but I reject it. Do you think that alongside these praises recounted in certain newspapers, I don't see the knife with which they tried to slaughter the homeland?
From the very beginning of the Revolution, I learned to distrust all masks. The cause of the patriots is one, like that of tyranny; they are all united. I may be mistaken about Danton; but, as a family man, he deserves nothing but praise. In political matters, I observed him: a difference of opinion between him and me made him scrutinize him carefully, sometimes angrily; and, if he did not always agree with me, would I conclude that he betrayed his homeland? No; I saw him always serve it zealously.
After Robespierre was finished, Merlin de Thionville picked up his suggestion everyone should say what they truly thought about Danton, hailing him as a patriot and saviour of the revolution. Other than him, no one else spoke up, and Momoro concluded this meant no one had anything to accuse him of. The session therefore ended with Danton getting drowned in applause and embraced by Fourcroy, the current president of the club.
Danton:Â Camille mustnât be frightened by the rather severe lessons Robespierreâs friendship has just given him. Citizens, let justice and cold-headedness always preside over our decisions. In judging Camille, be careful to not strike a deadly blow against liberty of the press
Robespierre did however reflect negatively on this intervention in his notes, writing that Danton had âdared, at the Jacobins, to demand in [the numbersâ] favour the liberty of the press, when I proposed for them the honours of burning.â
Robespierre mentions a different meeting in his notes against the indulgents, that would have taken place at his house and included him, Danton and the Convention deputy Laignelot, who kept âstubbornly silentâ throughout the whole interview. It is however less clear if this too was a planned meeting mutually agreed upon, or if Danton just unexpectedly showed up at Robespierreâs house. Regardless, Robespierre writes that Danton during this visit talked about Desmoulins âwith contempt,â attributing âhis deviancesâ to âa vice that is private and shameful, but absolutely foreign to the Revolution.â Danton also made an effort to cry, that apparently turned out to be âpowerless and ridiculous.â This could be the same meeting Convention deputy Duhem is referring to, when he on October 22 1794 told the jacobins that, âfour days before his arrest, Danton had another meeting with Maximilien about their conspiracy.â That would give us a date for this encounter as well.
Finally, Robespierre also threw shade on Dantonâs moral qualities, claiming he surrounded himself with ârascalsâ and tolerated âvicious living,â had quipped that public opinion is a whore and posterity a folly, that his most solid virtue was the one which he practiced with his wife every night, and that what rendered their cause weak was the fact that the severity of their principles frightened a lot of people.Â
Robespierre then handed these notes over to Saint-Just, who began constructing an act of accusation with the title Rapport sur la confirmation ourdie pour obtenir un changement de dynastie. After finishing the first draft, Saint-Just handed it back to Robespierre, who  annotated it and suggested some additions.Â
On March 30 1794, Robespierre, alongside seventeen others, signed the arrest warrant for deputies Danton, Desmoulins, Philippeaux and Delacroix. If weâre to believe the pamphlet à Maximilien Robespierre aux enfers (1794) by Taschereau de Fargues and Paul-Auguste-Jacques (who in their turn claimed to have gotten the anecdote from Committee of General Security member Vadier), Robespierre and Saint-Just had wanted the implicated men to be present in the Convention when the report against them got read, after which they would be arrested, fearing that arresting them beforehand was an approach that âsooner or later would be seen as reprehensible.â Their colleagues did however manage to convince that would be too risky of a move to make.
In the morning of March 31, as news of the nightly arrests started to spread, the deputy Delmas mounted the rostrum of the Convention and asked that the members of the two government committees be invited to immediately present themselves there, a proposal which was adopted. Legendre then followed, asking that before any report was read the four arrested deputies should be taken there as well so that they could explain themselves and be either accused or absolved by the Convention â âCitizens, I declare that I think Danton to be as pure as myself, and I don't think anyone can accuse me of an act that offends the most scrupulous integrityâŠâ When Legendreâs proposal was drowned in murmurs, president Tallien called for order, evoking liberty of opinion, and Legendre could keep talking, reminding the Convention of Dantonâs past services and warning them that they were making a mistake. Immediately after this, Fayau opposed Legendreâs motion, citing the fact one should not look at peopleâs past action but at what they are doing here and now. After him, Robespierre took to the floor and firmly cemented that none of what Legendre had suggested would be happening, and that this was âa question of knowing whether the interests of a few ambitious hypocrites should prevail over the interests of the French people.â Robespierre did not shy away from admitting he had once been close with the now imprisoned Danton, but that such bonds meant nothing once someone proved themselves to be an enemy (Moniteur, number 192, page 775-776):
In the tumult that followed when Robespierre a month later was himself overthrown, Billaud-Varennes  is recorded to have exclaimed: âthe first time I denounced Danton to the committee, Robespierre rose like a madman and declared that he saw my intentions, that I wanted to lose the best patriots.â (Moniteur, number 311, page 1272) Billaud did however not specify exactly when this denounciation had taken place, nor if he had suggested to actually arrest and execute Danton or just that the committee ought to keep an eye on him.
The famous claim that someone would have shouted âThe blood of Danton chokes you!â to Robespierre, whereupon the latter would have replied âSo it is Danton you want to avenge. Cowards, why didnât you defend him?!â does however, interestingly enough, not show up in any minutes documenting the session in question. According to 9-thermidor.com, its first attested apperence is in fact from a whole year later, when the pamphlet Histoire de la conjuration de Maximilien Robespierre(1795) attributes it to the deputy Garnier de l'Aube and has it go as follows: âYouâre not going to speak, the blood of Danton is falling back on your head, it flows into your mouth, it chokes you!â No alleged reply from Robespierre is included. The idea that some of Robespierreâs last recorded words were about Danton does in other words appear to be just as much of a myth as the idea some of Dantonâs last words were about RobespierreâŠ
Contemporary descriptions of the relationship that I could not fit in anywhere elseÂ
After his death, Robespierre left only a fifty-franc assignat and mandates from the Constituent Assembly which he had disdained to collect. Danton said of Robespierre:Â He is afraid of money.
Notes historiques sur la Convention nationale, le Directoire, l'Empire et l'exil des votants (1893) by Marc-Antoine Baudot, page 261.