The French Revolution, vol 2 | Page 4

Jacobin Party. VII. The Jacobin Chieftains.
CHAPTER IV.
TAKEN HOSTAGE. I. Jacobin tactics and power. II. Jacobin
characters and minds. III. Physical fear and moral cowardice. IV.
Jacobin victory over Girondist majority. V. Jacobin violence against
the people. VI. Jacobin tactics. VII. The central Jacobin committee in
power. VIII. Right or Wrong, my Country.

Preface:
In this volume, as in those preceding it and in those to come, there will
be found only the history of Public Authorities. Others will write that
of diplomacy, of war, of the finances, of the Church; my subject is a
limited one. To my great regret, however, this new part fills an entire
volume; and the last part, on the revolutionary government, will be as
long.
I have again to regret the dissatisfaction I foresee this work will cause
to many of my countrymen. My excuse is, that almost all of them, more
fortunate than myself, have political principles which serve them in
forming their judgments of the past. I had none; if indeed, I had any
motive in undertaking this work, it was to seek for political principles.
Thus far I have attained to scarcely more than one; and this is so simple
that will seem puerile, and that I hardly dare express it. Nevertheless I
have adhered to it, and in what the reader is about to peruse my
judgments are all derived from that; its truth is the measure of theirs. It
consists wholly in this observation: that
HUMAN SOCIETY, ESPECIALLY A MODERN SOCIETY, IS A
VAST AND COMPLICATED THING.
Hence the difficulty in knowing and comprehending it. For the same
reason it is not easy to handle the subject well. It follows that a
cultivated mind is much better able to do this than an uncultivated mind,
and a man specially qualified than one who is not. From these two last
truths flow many other consequences, which, if the reader deigns to
reflect on them, he will have no trouble in defining.
H. A. Taine, Paris 1881.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BOOK FIRST. THE JACOBINS.
CHAPTER I.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NEW POLITICAL ORGAN.
In this disorganized society, in which the passions of the people are the
sole real force, authority belongs to the party that understands how to
flatter and take advantage of these. As the legal government can neither
repress nor gratify them, an illegal government arises which sanctions,
excites, and directs these passions. While the former totters and falls to
pieces, the latter grows stronger and improves its organization, until,
becoming legal in its turn, it takes the other's place.
I.
Principle of the revolutionary party. - Its applications.
As a justification of these popular outbreaks and assaults, we discover
at the outset a theory, which is neither improvised, added to, nor
superficial, but now firmly fixed in the public mind. It has for a long
time been nourished by philosophical discussions. It is a sort of
enduring, long-lived root out of which the new constitutional tree has
arisen. It is the dogma of popular sovereignty. -- Literally interpreted, it
means that the government is merely an inferior clerk or servant.[1] We,
the people, have established the government; and ever since, as well as
before its organization, we are its masters. Between it and us no infinite
or long lasting "contract". "None which cannot be done away with by
mutual consent or through the unfaithfulness of one of the two parties."
Whatever it may be, or provide for, we are nowise bound by it; it
depends wholly on us. We remain free to "modify, restrict, and resume
as we please the power of which we have made it the depository."
Through a primordial and inalienable title deed the commonwealth
belongs to us and to us only. If we put this into the hands of the
government it is as when kings delegate authority for the time being to
a minister He is always tempted to abuse; it is our business to watch
him, warn him, check him, curb him, and, if necessary, displace him.
We must especially guard ourselves against the craft and maneuvers by
which, under the pretext of preserving law and order, he would tie our
hands. A law, superior to any he can make, forbids him to interfere
with our sovereignty; and he does interfere with it when he undertakes
to forestall, obstruct, or impede its exercise. The Assembly, even the

Constituent, usurps when it treats the people like a lazybones (roi
fainéant), when it subjects them to laws, which they have not ratified,
and when it deprives them of action except through their
representatives.[2] The people themselves must act directly, must
assemble together and deliberate on public affairs. They must control
and censure the acts of those they elect; they must influence these with
their resolutions, correct their mistakes