Session of 9 Thermidor at the National Convention
Chairmanship of Collot-d'Herbois
Saint-Just was interrupted by Tallien, and stopped in his reading at the moment where he began the fourth paragraph of his speech.
Saint-Just. «I do not belong to any faction : I will fight them all. They never die but by institutions that will make human pride bend under the yoke of public liberty.
The course of things has meant that this tribune of harangues is perhaps the Tarpeian Rock for he who would come to tell you that certain members of the government have abandoned the route of wisdom. I believed that you were due the truth, offered with caution, and that one cannot break with delicacy the commitment undertaken with one’s conscience to dare everything for the salvation of the patrie.
What language am I going to speak to you? How to describe for you errors that you have no idea of, and how to make understandable the evil that one word can reveal, that one word can correct?
Your Committees of Public Safety and of General Security have charged me with presenting you a report on the commotion that public opinion has just experienced in these latter times. […] »
Tallien [interrupting]. « I demand the floor for a point of order. The orator has begun by saying that he does not belong to any faction. I say the same thing. I only belong to myself, to liberty. It is for it that I will make the truth resound. No good citizen can restrain his tears about the cruel fate to which the res publica is abandoned. One only sees division everywhere. Yesterday, a member of the government isolated himself from it, pronounced a speech in his own name, today another member did the same thing. One still comes to attack each other, to aggravate the ills of the patrie, to throw it into the abyss. I demand that the curtain is completely torn apart. » (One applauds very loudly thrice.)
Billaud-Varenne, interrupting sharply. « I demand the floor for a point of order.
Yesterday, the society of the Jacobins was filled with suborned men, since none of them had a [membership] card ; yesterday, one has developed the intention to slaughter the National Convention in this society. (He rises in a movement of horror.) Yesterday, I have seem men who openly vomited the most atrocious infamies against those who have never deviated from the revolution.
I see within the Montagne one of these men who threatened the representatives of the people. Here he is… (From everywhere one cries: Stop! stop! - The individual is grasped and driven out of the hall amidst loud applauds.)
The moment to tell the truth has arrived…I am surprised to see Saint-Just at the tribune after what has happened. He had promised to the two committees to present his speech to them before reading it to the Convention, and even to suppress it, if it seemed dangerous to them. The assembly would judge the events and the position in which it finds itself badly, if it refused to face that it is between two slaughters. It will perish if it is weak (No, no! cry all members, standing up at the same time and waving their heads. The spectators respond by applauds and cries of long live the Convention! long live the Committtee of Public Safety!)
Lebas demands the floor ; observes to him that it belongs to Billaud-Varenne ; he insists on causing trobule.
Delmas. « I demand that Lebas is called to order. »
This proposition is decreed.
All members. « He shall obey to the decree, or [go] to the Abbayé. »
Billaud: « I demand myself that all men to explain themselves in this assembly. One is very strong when one has justice, probity and the rights of the people [on one’s side]. You will tremble with horror when you will know the situation in which you are, when you will know that the force of the army is confided to parricidal hands ; when you will know that the leader of the National Guard has been denounced at the Committee of Public Safety by the Revolutionary tribunal as an accomplice of Hébert and an infamous conspirator. You will tremble with horror when you will know that those who accuse the government of placing conspirators and nobles at the head of the army, are those who have forced our hand to place the only existing nobles there ; and Layallette, a conspirator in Lille, is a proof for this. You will tremble when you will know that it is the man who, when it was about sending representatives of the people in the departments, did not find twenty members of the Convention who were worthy of this mission on the list that was presented to him. (The assembly murmurs in indignation.) I will say more, one complained that the patriots were oppressed. Certainly, you will have a very strange idea of the denunciation, when you will know that the one of which it makes part is responsible for the stopping of the best revolutionary committee of Paris, the one of the section of Indivisibilité, although only two of its members had been denounced. (New murmurs.)
When Robespierre tells you that he has distanced himself from the committee, because he was oppressed there, he is careful not to let you know everything ; he does not tell you that it is because, after having had his will in the committee for six months, he found resistance there in the moment when he alone wanted to have the decree of 22 Prairial passed ; this decree which, in the impure hands which he had chosen, could be fatal to the patriots. (Murmurs of indignation continue.) Know, citizens, that the president of the revolutionary tribunal openly proposed at the Jacobins yesterday to drive all impure men from the Convention, that is to say, all those whom one wants to sacrifice : but the people is there, and the patriots know how to die in order to save liberty. (Yes, yes!, all members cry. - Loud applause.)
I repeat it, we will all die with honour, because I do not believe that there is a single representative here who wants to live under a tyrant. (No, no!, one cries everywhere ; let the tyrants perish! - The applause continue.) The men who incessantly speak of justice and virtue, at the Convention and at the Jacobins, are those who trample it when they can ; here is the proof for it : A secretary of the Committee of Public Safety had stolen 114,000 livres. I have demanded his arrest, and Robespierre, who incessantly speaks of justice and virtue, was the only one prevented him from being arrested. (New movement of indignation.)
There are, citizens, a thousand other facts that I could cite, and it is us whom he accuses! What! men who are isolated, who don’t know anyone, who spend their days and nights at the committee of public safety, who organize the victories, these men would be conspirators! and those who have only abandoned Hébert when it was no longer possible to them to favour him will be virtuous men! When I denounced Danton at the committee for the first time, Robespierre rose like a madman, saying that he saw my intentions, that I wanted to ruin the best patriots. All of this let me see the hollow abyss under our feet. One must not hesitate to fill it with our corpses, or to overcome the traitors.
One wanted to destroy, to butcher the Convention, and this intention was so real, that one had organised an espionage of the representatives of the people which one wanted to butcher. It is villainous to speak of justice and virtue, when one defies them and when one only becomes enthused when one is stopped or vexed. »
Robespierre rushes to the tribune.
A great number of voices. « Down, down with the tyrant! »
Tallien. « I demanded earlier that one tears apart the veil. With pleasure, I just saw that it is [torn apart] entirely, that the conspirators are unmasked, that they will soon be annihilated, and that liberty will triumph. (Loud applause.) Everything announces that the enemy of the national representation will fall under its blows. We give a proof of our republican loyalty to our nascent republic. I forced myself to remain silent until now, because I knew of a man who approached the tyrant of France, that he had formed a proscription list. I did not want to remonstrate, but I have seen the session of the Jacobins yesterday: I have trembled for the patrie ; I have seen the army of a new Cromwell forming itself, and I am armed with a dagger in order to pierce its breast, if the National Convention did not have the courage to issue a décret d'accusation against him. (Loud applause.)
Let us, republicans, accuse him with the loyalty of courage, in presence of the French people. It is good to enlighten the citizens, and those who frequent the tribunes of the Jacobins are not more fond of Robespierre than any other individual, but to liberty. (Applause.) It is not an individual that I come to attack either. It is the attention of the Convention which I call on this vast conspiracy. I do not doubt that it will take vigorous and prompt measures, that it will remain here permanently in order to save the people ; and, whatever the partisans of the man whom I denounce have said of it, there will be no 31 May, there will be no proscriptions ; the national justice, alone, will strike the scoundrels. (Loud applause.) Since it is the utmost importance that, amidst the dangers that surround the patrie, the citizens shall not be misled ; so that the leaders of the armed force cannot do harm, I demand the arrest of Hanriot and of his staff. Then, we will examine the decree which has been passed only upon the proposal of the man who occupies us. We are no moderates ; but we wish that innocence is not oppressed. We wish that the president of the revolutionary tribunal treats the accused which decency and justice. (New applause.) This is veritable virtue, this is veritable integrity.
Yesterday, a member of the revolutionary tribunal wanted to arouse citizens to insult a representative of the people which has always been on the breach of the revolution. He has been insulted in a society, and the national representation has been debased in his person. Those who have fought La Fayette and all factions that have succeeded each other since, will unite in order to save the Republic. The patriotic writers shall awaken. I call all the old friends of liberty, all the old Jacobins, all the patriotic journalists. They shall contribute with us to save liberty. They will keep their word, their optimism is a guarantor of that to me. One had thrown an eye on me. I would have carried my head on the scaffold, with courage, because I would have told myself, one day will come where my ashes will be raised with the honours [that are] due to a patriot [who is] persecuted by a tyrant. The man who is at the tribune is a new Catiline ; those surrounding him were new Verreses. One will not say that the members of the two committees are my partisans, because I do not know them ; and, since my mission, I have only been overwhelmed with disgust. Robespierre in turn wanted to attack us, isolate us, and at last he would have remained one day alone with men [that are] villainous and spoiled by debauchery who serve him. I demand that we decree the permanence of our sessions, until the sword of the law has assured the revolution, and that we order the arrest of his tools. »
The two propositions of Tallien are adopted amidst loudest applause and cries of long live the Republic.
Billaud-Varennes. « The men that the Convention comes to strike are not those who deserve its indignation most. It is someone called Boulanger, a conspirator with Hébert, who has openly spoke out, at the time of the conspiracy of the latter, at the Cordeliers. This man has also conspired with Dumorier [sic] ; he was the friend of Danton ; and it was Dumas who had thrown him out amidst the Jacobins in order to prevent Collot-d'Herbois from speaking. It was this Dumas who, after having roused counter-revolutionaries, wanted to make Collot appear like a conspirator, so that he could not tear apart the veil ; this Dumas, whose complete faction has emigrated, who is accused of having dined with his brother on the day before his emigration, and against whom there are proofs of most atrocious perfidy at the Jacobins! Thus, I demand the arrest of Dumas, of Boulanger, of Dufraise. »
The arrest is decreed. (Applause.)
Delmas. « According to the facts that were just denounced, it is impossible to not believe that Hanriot has had the dexterity to surround himself with conspirators. His assistants and his aides-de-camp have to be totally suspect. I demand their arrest. »
This proposition is decreed. (Applause.)
Robespierre insists on taking the floor.
« Down, down with the tyrant! », all members shout once more.
Multiple voices. Barrère! Barrère!
Robespierre. « I demand the floor. »
The same members. « No, down with the tyrant! » - Robespierre wants to take the floor ; his voice gets lost amidst the redoubled cries down with the tyrant!
The Convention decrees that Barrère will be heard.
Barrère, in the name of the committee of public safety. « Citizens, one of my colleagues, returning from the army of the North, has reported to the committee that an enemy officer, made prisoner in the last action that had delivered Belgium to us, had said : « All your successes are nothing : we no less expect from them to negotiate peace with one party, whichever it may be, with a fraction of the Convention, and to soon change the government. »
Saint-Just had brought to us, as instructed, these news. This moment, predicted by the Austrian officer, would it not have come for the party of the foreign [powers] and for the enemies of the interior, if you did not take vigorous measures ?
The two committees can no longer hide this truth : the government is attacked, its members are covered by blames and insults, their relations are stopped ; public confidence is suspended, and one has put those on trial who put tyranny on trial.
One speaks of the persecution of patriots ; but do the committees not also have to speak out against the same oppression? And since a few days, one rouses against the citizens from all sides, one misleads them against the revolutionary government : do the English, the Austrians want anything else?
One seeks to produce movements within the people, or to seize the national power amidst a prepared crisis, and one knows that the free state, where great crises have not been predicted, is, in each storm, in danger of perishing.
There is only you, citizens, who, from these same crises, were able to draw a new way to maintain the revolutionary government. The same occasion has appeared to you civic courage today, and you have seized it. You cannot doubt it : without the combined committees, the revolutionary government and the Republic would have been shattered long ago.
Regard what has happened within the last eighteen months : without the centrality of the government, France would have been subjugated by kings : liberty would have been destroyed forever, and the best patriots slaughtered.
Thus, who would wish to remove from the Republic the resource and the institutions that have saved it so many times? and those who make endeavours against these institutions, are they not enemies of the people? Ah! one does may not think that, after having overthrown some ardent and pure patriots, some men could reign over the public affairs : it is not by speeches that one governs ; it is not by incessant complaints that one builds a Republic.
The committees are the shield, the asylum, the sanctuary of the central government, of the unique government, of the revolutionary government : as long as they will survive, it is impossible that the royalty rises, that the aristocracy breathes, that crime dominates, that the Republic is not triumphant.
One wants to destroy all those who have energy or intelligence ; one wants to destroy everyone who is pure and truly republican ; and these proposals do not come from the revolutionary tribunal, which fulfils its duty, but from some members of this tribunal, whose patriotism you have to judge today.
It is necessary to judge several individuals who exercise important functions ; there are only violent initiatives who make it necessary to unveil so many truths to you, because the government then no longer has any other secret than the one of saving the Republic, and this secret belongs to the people. The established form is altered, the activity of the government is suspended, the liberty of the citizens is compromised, public security is weakened, opinion is unsteady.
Unjust rulers and free peoples are two antipodes, absolute opposites ; enormous reputations and equal men cannot co-exist for a long time ; false concerns and real works do not function together : it is necessary to serve the patrie modestly for it and not for us.
By expecting that the two committees refute, with as much intelligence as energy, the facts that concern it in the speech of Robespierre, they have examined the measures which public tranquillity requires in the circumstances wherein personal passions have thrown them. They have firstly regarded the means which the aristocracy, joyful about recent events, can employ in Paris ; this aristocracy, which all our efforts can’t seem to extinguish, and which hides in the mud when it is not in blood, the aristocracy has fermented since yesterday with an activity which only resembles the counter-revolutionary movement.
Who has thus wanted to raise his parricide hopes? On whom can it carry its means? on some nobles [that are] placed in the public force, one some unpunished Hébertists, on some counter-revolutionary soldier. Yes, citizens, you have sensed their resources, and you come to do justice to this ambitious soldiers.
The committees have wondered why there still exists, in the middle of Paris, a military regime, similar to the one which existed in the times of the kings ; why [there are] all of these incessant commanders, with staff, of an immense armed force. The popular regime of the national guard had set up chefs de légion, each commanding in turn. The committees have thought that it was necessary to return its democratic organisation to the national guard : in consequence, they propose to decree the suppression of the commandant général, and that each chef de légion shall command in their turn.
The mayor of Paris and the national agent of the Commune have to fulfil their duty in this moment, their fidelity and their debt towards the people : let us hope that they will fulfil it. It is up to them to be responsible, on their heads, for the security of the representatives of the people and to the troubles which aristocratic parties want to arouse, every time that they catch sight of some alteration in the spirit of the National Convention.
The committees have thought that, in the current state where public opinion finds itself, and in the crisis wherein we are, it was necessary to address a proclamation to the citizens. In a free country, some traits of light are enough, and the reason of the people seizes it immediately, defends its veritable defenders, and supports its rights.
This is the project for the decree:
The National Convention, after having heard the report of the Committees of Public Safety and of General Security, decrees :
Article 1. All grades [that are] superior to the one of chef de légion are suppressed.
The National Guard will take back its original organisation ; consequently, each chef de légion will command in his turn.
2. The mayor of Paris, the national agent, and the one who will be in charge of commanding the National Guard, will ensure the security of the national representation : they will be responsible, on their head, of all the troubles which could occur in Paris.
The present decree will immediately be sent to the mayor of Paris. » This decree is adopted.
Barrère den reads the following proclamation:
The National Convention to the French People.
« Citizens, amidst the most significant victories, a new danger threatens the Republic; it is especially great, as public opinion is weakened, and as a part of the citizens lets itself be led to the abyss by the ascendant of some reputations.
The works of the Convention are infertile, the courage of the armies becomes nil, if the French citizens weigh up a few men and the patrie. Personal passions have usurped the rank of the public good, some leaders of the armed force seem to threaten the national authority.
The revolutionary government, object of the hate of the enemies of France, is attacked in our midst; the forms of republican power touch their ruin ; the aristocracy seems to triumph, and the royalists are ready to reappear.
Citizens, do you want to lose six years of the revolution, of sacrifices and of courage within one day? do you want to return under the yoke which you have smashed? no, no doubt. The National Convention will not cease for one moment to watch over the rights of public liberty. Thus, it invites the citizens of Paris, to the aid of their reunion, of their intelligence, of their patriotism for the preservation of the precious trust which the French people has confided to it ; so that they primarily watch over the military authority, always ambitious, and often usurping. Liberty is nothing in the country where the military is in charge of the civil life.
If you do not support the national representation, the constituted authorities are without subordination and the armies without direction ; the victories become a curse, and the French people is delivered to all furies of the interior divisions and to all vengeances of tyrants. Hear the voice of the patrie, instead of combining your cries with the ones of the malevolent, of the aristocrats and of the enemies of the people, and the patrie will again be saved once more.
The National Convention decrees that the present proclamation will be printed immediately and sent to all sections of Paris, to all communes and to the armies of the Republic. »
- One resumes the discussion.
Vadier. « Until 22 Prairial, I had not opened the eyes on this astute person that was able to take all masks, and who, when he could not save his tools, sent them to the guillotine himself. Everybody knows that he has openly defended Bazire, Chabot and Camille Desmoulins, and that he has unleashed the ignominy on the report of the Committee of General Security.
On 22 Prairial, the tyrant, for me, that is the name that I give hm, (Loud applause.) has himself passed a law which institutes the revolutionary tribunal; he has written it with his own hand ; he had charged the vigilant Couthon with bringing this decree to the Convention and to have it passed, even without having read it. He complains that one oppresses the patriots. It is to him, on the contrary, that this reproach applies, he who is responsible for the imprisonment of the purest revolutionary committee; he who, in order to carry out the arrests which he desired, has instituted his general police.
The committee of government which directs the army has done its duty, and the victories which the Republic wins are also the fruit of the compression of the enemies of the interior, and this compression is the work of the committee of general security. Do you know why he has slandered it? it was in order to divide the two committees, in order to suffocate opinion, in order to prevent that any patriot speaks and rises against tyranny. If this tyrant particularly speaks to me, it is because I have made a report on fanaticism which he did not like : here is the reason. There was under the mattress of the mother of God a letter addressed to Robespierre. This letter announced to him that his mission was predicted in Ezekiel ; that it was to him that one owed the reinstatement of the religion that he removed from the priests. One did him the honour of a new cult. In the documents which I have received since, there is a letter from someone called Chénon, a notary in Geneva, who is at the head of the visionaries. It proposes a supernatural constitution to Robespierre. (Laughter.)
Would you believe that, after the decree that you have passed after my report, it pleased Robespierre, with his full power and authority, to say to the public accuser : « You will not judge this drug addict. »
He returned with the pieces of the process to me a folder of other pieces that say that this woman is an old madwoman who has been contained at the Salpêtrière for always having done the same thing : nonetheless, this woman, whom one regarded as a mannequin, was always at the house of the ci-devant duchess of Bourbon ; and, in order to prove to you how much this man tyrannized the public accuser, it is enough to inform you that the latter visited me to tell me that he could not manage to have this affair judged. »
Bourdon de l'Oise. « Robespierre has prevented, since 26 Frimaire, the execution of the décret d'accusation against Lavalette, and he has sacrificed six patriots of Lille. »
Vadier. « To hear Robespierre, he is the unique defender of liberty: he despairs, he will leave everything, he is of a rare modesty (Laughter.) and his perpetual chorus is: I am oppressed; I am not allowed to speak; and he is the only one who speaks usefully, because his will is always fulfilled. He says: such a [person] conspires against me, who is the friend of the Republic par excellence, therefore he conspires against the Republic. This logic is new.
He still had another way to offend the patriots. He gave a spy to several deputies. For my account, he had attached someone called Tachereau to me, who had rare attention and kindness for me. He followed me everywhere, even to the restaurant where I was invited, without having been called there. This Tacheareau knew by heart and incessantly repeated all speeches of Robespierre to me. When I knew that the parents of the prisoners occupied the antechamber at his house, I banned him from coming to my house ; in order to take revenge for this, he denounced and caused the arrest of a man who was well-disposed towards me. This is how these good patriots came to an agreement. » (Laughter.)
Tallien. « I demand the floor in order to bring the discussion back to its true point. »
Robespierre. « I will know well how to return it there. » Robespierre prepares to speak; but he is forced to give in to the murmurs, to the cries of the assembly which does not want to hear him.
Tallien. « Citizens, in this moment it is not on particular facts that I have to draw the attention of the Convention. The facts which one has said are undoubtedly important, but there is no member in this Assembly who could not present as many of them, who could not complain about a tyrannical act.
It is on the speech [that was] given at the Convention yesterday and repeated at the Jacobins that I draw your attention. It is there that I meet the tyrant ; it is there that I find the whole conspiracy ; it is in this speech that, with truth, justice and the Convention, I wan to find weapons in order to bring him down, this man whose virtue and patriotism were so praised, but whom one has seen, at the memorable time of 10 August, appearing only three days after the revolution; this man who, before being in the committee of public safety, the defender of the oppressed, who, before being at his post, has abandoned it since four décades ; and at which time? When the Army of the North gave great solicitudes to all his colleagues. He has abandoned it in order to come to slander the committees, and all have saved the Patrie. (Loud applause.) Certainly, if I wanted to recount the particular acts of oppression that have taken place, I would note that it was during the time where Robespierre has been charged with the general police that they were committed ; that the patriots of the revolutionary committee of the Indivisibilité section have been arrested. »
Robespierre. « That is false! I… (Murmurs, cries. - Robespierre’s eyes rested on the most ardent Montagnards for a moment ; some turn their head, others remain motionless ; the majority rejects him. Then, speaking to all sides of the assembly: it is to you, pure men, that I speak, and not to the brigands… (Violent interruption.) … For the last time, president of assassins, I demand the floor… » (Noise.) - Collot yields the chair [of the president] to Thuriot.
The president. « You will only have it when its your turn. » (No! no! one hears from all sides… The noise continues; Robespierre exhausts himself in efforts ; his voice dies..)
Garnier de l'Aube. « The blood of Danton chokes him. »
Robespierre. « So it is Danton you want to avenge. » (Noise.)
Louchet. « I demand a décret d'arrestation against Robespierre. » (Applause, at first isolated, soon become unanimous.) My motion is supported; [let us put] the arrest to the vote! (To the vote! to the vote!)
Loseau. « It is constant that Robespierre has been dominating, I demand the decrét d'accusation by that alone. » (From all parts: supported! to the vote.)
Robespierre the Younger. « I am as guilty as my brother: I share his virtues; I want to share his fate. I also demand the décret d'accusation against me. » (Some members seem moved ; the majority, my a movement of indifference, announces that it accepts this generous vote.)
Robespierre wants to speak on the devotion of his brother ; it is impossible for him to make himself heard; then he once more shouts at the president and the entire assembly vehemently.
Charles Duval. « President, is it that one man will be the master of the Convention? (One voice: He has been it for too long!)
Fréron. « Ah! a tyrant is hard to cut down! »
Loseau. « [Let us put] the arrest of the two brothers to the vote. »
Billaud-Varennes. « I have positive facts which Robespierre will not dare to deny. I will at first quote the reproach which he has made to the committee for having wanted to disarm the citizens. »
Robespierre. « I have said that there were scoundrels… » (Murmurs.)
Billaud-Varennes. « I would say that he reproached the committee for having wanted to disarm the citizens. Well ! it was he alone who has given this order. He has accused the government for having made all monuments [that were] dedicated to the Supreme Being disappear ; well! learn that it was by Couthon… »
Couthon. « Yes, I have collaborated. » (New murmurs.)
Several members. « [Put] the arrest to the vote. » - The president puts the arrest to the vote ; it is decreed unanimously.
All members rise and make cries of Long live liberty! long live the Republic! resound in the hall.
Robespierre. « The Republic! it is lost, because the brigands triumph! »
Louchet. « We have heard [the Convention] vote on the arrest of the two Robespierres, of Saint-Just and of Couthon. »
Lebas. « I do not want to share the opprobrium of this decree! I also demand the arrest. » (Diverse movements.)
Élie Lacoste. « I demand the arrest of Robespierre the Younger ; he is one of those who have sounded the tocsin against the committees at the Jacobins. He finished his speech by memorable words: One says that the committees are not corrupted; but, if their agents are [corrupted], the committees are, too. » The arrest of Robespierre the Younger is decreed. (Laud applause.)
Fréron. « Citizens colleagues, the patrie, on this day, and liberty comes to leave its ruins. »
(Robespierre wants to interrupt ; murmurs repel him.)
Fréron. « One wanted to form a triumvirate which would bring the bloody proscriptions of Sulla back ; one wanted to rise over the ruins of the Republic, and the men who held it are Robespierre, Couthon and Saint-Just. »
Several voices. « And Lebas. »
Fréron. « Couthon is a tiger [that is] thirsting for the blood of the national representation. He has dared, by royal passe-temps, to speak in the society of the Jacobins of five or six heads of the Convention. (Yes, yes, one cries from all parts.) This was only the beginning there, and he wanted to make of our corpses as many steps in order to mount the throne. »
Couthon. « I wanted to arrive at the throne, me! »
Fréron. « I also demand the décret d'arrestation against Saint-Just, Lebas and Couthon. »
Élie Lacoste. « I support this proposition. It was me who has said as the first at the committee of public safety that Couthon, Saint-Just and Robespierre formed a triumvirate. Saint-Just went pale and fainted. When he arrived from the army of the North, after he had spoken to us about the state and the position of this army, he reported to us that a Swiss officer, made prisoner, had told him that we should not count on our successes, that the enemy was educated about our resources, and that he expected a division in the government, by the help of which he would negotiate peace with any faction. It is them, the scoundrel, who wanted to produce the division. For some time we were peaceful ; the conspiracies were foiled ; those who had formed them perished under the sword of the law, and the armies had put victory on the order of the day, when these perfidious men have tried to suffocate liberty. I demand the décret d'arrestation against Couthon, Saint-Just and Lebas. » (Adopted.)
Collot-d'Herbois. « It is a measure which I consider essential, that is to demand that Saint-Just puts speech on the desk which he had to pronounce in order to also contribute to bring about the counter-revolution. » - This proposition is adopted.
Collot. « Citizens, it is true to say it, you come to save the patrie. The sighing patrie, and the breast [that is] almost torn apart, has not spoken to you in vain. Your enemies said that an insurrection of 31 May was necessary again. »
Robespierre the Elder. « He lied about his… »
(The assembly burst in strongest indignation.)
Clausel. « I demand that the bailiffs execute the décret d'arrestation. »
The president. « I have already given the order for that; and while the bailiffs appeared, one refused to obey. »
(To the bar, to the bar, one cries from all parts.)
Loseau. « I remind the Convention that, when it arrested some of its members, it made them go to the bar. I demand that there are no more privileges for them, and that they descend there. »
Several voices. « Yes! yes! to the bar! »
The Convention decrees this proposition.
The individuals [against which the décrets d'arrestation were issued] descend to the bar. (Repeated applause.)
Collot-d'Herbois. « The patrie smiles upon your energy ; its enemies said that an insurrection of 31 May was necessary. No, it was not an insurrection that was necessary, because one hundred thousand were ready to seize the first movement in order to slaughter liberty. They were already very radiant, the partisans of the counter-revolution; but the day will be sinister for them. (Applause.) It was not an insurrection, in their way, that was necessary ; it was an insurrection against tyranny, and that is what you have done. (Loud applause.) It will also have its place in history, this insurrection that has saved the patrie. (New applause.) See, citizens, the fugitive hordes of your enemies, see their appalled armies scatter away ; their last resource was civil war within the Convention, in order to force us to accept a tyrant. But all Frenchmen will perish before compromising with tyranny. Never, never will the French people have a tyrant. (No, no, one cries from all parts. The members of the assembly and the spectators rise simultaneously, crying long live the Republic!)
It was necessary to attempt the dissolution of the national representation, to destroy the government, to bring about civil war. Well! an instrument prepared itself in the shadows. Do you know what this triple instrument was? It was the speech of Robespierre. » (Applause.)
A secretary informs the members of the committee of general security that they are expected in the ordinary place of their session.
They cross the hall amidst the repeated sound of applause.
Collot. « Citizens, you who have heard it, this speech, I ask you, was there anything cleaner to smash the links of confidence, more subtle in order to dissolve the National Convention? Finally, was there anything more inflamed in order to arouse civil war?
That was not enough ; it was even necessary to corrupt the public spirit, to deteriorate morality, to mislead opinion. Ah well! all of this was done ; because in a famous society which resisted the aristocracy until now, which was misled in one moment, but which will soon undoubtedly resume its shine and its energy, in this society which always demonstrated the profoundest veneration for the national representation, which always acknowledged the goodness of its decrees, where the brother always allied in front of his brother, I spoke there yesterday of the sorrows of the patrie ; repellent murmurs made me stay quiet. I spoke of the sweet effusions of friendship, and one only responded to my with threats. I said that I have escaped two [pistol] shots of l'Admiral, and one smiled at me ironically. (Movements of indignation.) Certainly, I was not there with Jacobins. (Applause.) But I am here today. (Repeated applause.) When the true Jacobins were absent yesterday, they will reappear here, when they will see the great work which you have consummated, which great culprits you have punished, the good citizens who did not dare to take his place there will be delighted ; they were sad yesterday, they foresaw the dangers that threatened the patrie ; their soul, the soul of these athletes of liberty, was pulsating ; their heart was oppressed ; but now there is no more oppression. (Loud applause. - Yes! yes! one cries, there is no more oppression.) Nonetheless, one even feared the return of these loyal athletes for today ; one feared this energetic sentiment, which had to wake up the friends of the patrie in all corners of Paris ; yes, one feared it, that is to say the traitors that you have struck ; that is why the speech of Saint-Just had to be delivered today ; the motion which Couthon made at the Jacobins yesterday had to bring the movement forward ; Couthon had demanded that a new purifying vote was made in the society ; he did not disguise that it was necessary to exclude the members of the two committees which this conspirator dared to call traitors. This is why Saint-Just came, against his word that he gave to the two committees, to read the speech which you have interrupted ; it is good in this regard to make some details known ; Saint-Just was at the committee. I arrived there, pulling out knives from beneath, because many of them who accompanied me on the path repeated multiple times in my ears : In two days you will not speak like this, you will pass there ; one said to Dubarran : It is necessary to make him cut the cackle ; and these words were spoken by ordinary accomplices, by the bodyguards of Robespierre.
I therefore arrived at the Committee ; my eyes fell on Saint-Just ; I energetically revealed what had just happened ; he saw how moved I was, he was marmoreal. I coldly announced this report to the committee, wherein he did not hide that multiple members were accused, nonetheless without daring to propose the décret d'accusation against them, because he was reluctant. Do you know what this report was based on? On all tales of the spies of Robespierre. There was one noteworthy of them in my case. It claimed that I had I had uttered one word or another in a café, and everyone knows that I don’t set foot in any café ; another claimed that I had told Fouché to prepare a décret d'accusation against Robespierre ; that Fouché had told someone that, if Robespierre agreed to change his conduct towards him, he would unveil the whole intrigue ; now, I have not seen Fouché for two months since public opinion was suspended on his account. We said to Saint-Just that it was necessary to pronounce the facts at the Convention, if they were true ; but that it was necessary to examine them before, in order to not cause trouble. We decided with him that we would send after Fouché, so that he would explain himself in his presence. We left Saint-Just at five o'clock in the morning ; he was supposed to return at eleven o'clock. He did not keep his word. The two committees were assembled. Fouché was called there ; Rulh [sic] questioned him : he declared that he had not seen me for two months, and that he found me severe towards him. There are many other infamies in this report. This is why I demanded that it was put on the desk. This second volume of the speech of Robespierre would have been read at the Jacobins on this evening, and we do not know what would have arrived at the festival tomorrow. [Note: the festival which the Convention was supposed to celebrate on the next day, 10 Thermidor, was the transfer of the ashes of Agricola Viala to the Panthéon.] It would maybe have been a day of mourning; it will be, on the contrary, a day of triumph. (Applause.)
Your committees will make a particular report on this conspiracy to you, and it will not be difficult to convince you that something [that is] favourable to the cause of fallen tyrants was preparing here. It will not be difficult to prove that they assembled in order to conspire.
Note, citizens, that those who came to call for the law, are those who violate it with impunity. Note that Robespierre’s brother, in defiance of the order which told him to leave for the army of Italy, has remained here despite the dispositions of this campaign.
Saint-Just has been called from the Army of the North twice, by Robespierre, in order to raise an act of accusation against the courageous men who opposed the despotism of these new tyrants.
I will say it, these were the veritable proscriptions of Sulla ; because it was not about enemies of the people here ; it was about outlawing those who did not want to obey to one individual or another. I will cite a fact that will prove that Robespierre, who has only been speaking of Marat for some time, has always detested this steady friend of the people. At the funeral festival of Marat, Robespierre spoke for a long time at the tribune that was raised in front of the Luxembourg [Palace], and the name of Marat did not leave his mouth once ; can the people believe than one loves Marat when one declares testily that one does not want to be likened to him. No, no matter how often these hypocrites speak of Marat, of Challier, they loved neither Marat, nor Challier ; Challier, whose conduct I have seen, whose virtues I have cherished, admired and respected! The people knows this well ; it is in the virtues of the private life than one recognizes the public virtues. » (Applause.)
Fayau. « I demand the floor for a fact. One of the commissioners of a section demanded guns from the manager of a workshop in order to arm the young people of this section with them at the festival tomorrow. The guns have been refused. (Applause.) »
