The French Revolution, vol 2 | Page 5

with their good sense, atone for
their weakness by their energy, stand at the helm alongside of them,
and even employ force and throw them overboard, so that the ship may
be saved, which, in their hands, is drifting on a rock.[3] Such, in fact, is
the doctrine of the popular party. This doctrine is carried into effect
July 14 and October 5 and 6, 1789. Loustalot, Camille Desmoulins,
Fréron, Danton, Marat, Pétion, Robespierre proclaim it untiringly in the
political clubs, in the newspapers, and in the assembly. The
government, according to them, whether local or central, trespasses
everywhere. Why, after having overthrown one despotism, should we
install another? We are freed from the yoke of a privileged aristocracy,
but we still suffer from "the aristocracy of our representatives."[4]
Already at Paris, "the population is nothing, while the municipality is
everything". It encroaches on our imprescriptible rights in refusing to
let a district revoke at will the five members elected to represent it at
the Hôtel-de-Ville, in passing ordinances without obtaining the
approval of voters, in preventing citizens from assembling where they
please, in interrupting the out-door meetings of the clubs in the Palais
Royal where "Patriots are driven away be the patrol." Mayor Bailly,
"who keeps liveried servants, who gives himself a salary of 110,000
livres," who distributes captains' commissions, who forces peddlers to
wear metallic badges, and who compels newspapers to have signatures
to their articles is not only a tyrant, but a crook, thief and "guilty of
lése-nation." -- Worse are the abuses of the National Assembly. To
swear fidelity to the constitution, as this body has just done, to impose
its work on us, forcing us to take a similar oath, disregarding our
superior rights to veto or ratify their decisions,[5] is to "slight and scorn
our sovereignty". By substituting the will of 1200 individuals for that of
the people, "our representatives have failed to treat us with respect."
This is not the first time, and it is not to be the last. Often do they
exceed their mandate, they disarm, mutilate, and gag their legitimate

sovereign and they pass decrees against the people in the people's name.
Such is their martial law, specially devised for "suppressing the
uprising of citizens", that is to say, the only means left to us against
conspirators, monopolists, and traitors. Such a decree against
publishing any kind of joint placard or petition, is a decree "null and
void," and "constitutes a most flagrant attack on the nation's rights."[6]
Especially is the electoral law one of these, a law which, requiring a
small qualification tax for electors and a larger one for those who are
eligible, "consecrates the aristocracy of wealth." The poor, who are
excluded by the decree, must regard it as invalid; register themselves as
they please and vote without scruple, because natural law has
precedence over written law. It would simply be "fair reprisal" if, at the
end of the session, the millions of citizens lately deprived of their vote
unjustly, should seize the usurping majority by the threat and tell them:
"You cut us off from society in your chamber, because you are the
strongest there; we, in our turn, cut you off from the living society,
because we are strongest in the street. You have killed us civilly - we
kill you physically."
Accordingly, from this point of view, all riots are legitimate.
Robespierre from the rostrum[7] excuses jacqueries, refuses to call
castle-burners brigands, and justifies the insurgents of Soissons, Nancy,
Avignon, and the colonies. Desmoulins, alluding to two men hung at
Douai, states that it was done by the people and soldiers combined, and
declares that: "Henceforth, -- I have no hesitation in saying it -- they
have legitimated the insurrection;" they were guilty, and it was well to
hang them.[8] Not only do the party leaders excuse assassinations, but
they provoke them. Desmoulins, "attorney-general of the Lantern,
insists on each of the 83 departments being threatened with at least one
lamppost hanging." (This sobriquet is bestowed on Desmoulins on
account of his advocacy of street executions, the victims of
revolutionary passions being often hung at the nearest lanterne, or street
lamp, at that time in Paris suspended across the street by ropes or
chains. - (Tr.)) Meanwhile Marat, in the name of principle, constantly
sounds the alarm in his journal:

"When public safety is in peril, the people must take power out of the
hands of those whom it is entrusted . . . Put that Austrian woman and
her brother-in-law in prison . . . Seize the ministers and their clerks and
put them in irons . . . Make sure of the mayor and his lieutenants; keep
the general in sight, and arrests his staff. . . The heir to the throne has
no