Modern History Sourcebook:
Maximilien Robespierre:
On the Principles of Political Morality, February 1794
Citizens, Representatives of the People:
Some time since we laid before you the principles of our exterior
political system, we now come to develop the principles of political
morality which are to govern the interior. After having long pursued
the path which chance pointed out, carried away in a manner by
the efforts of contending factions, the Representatives of the
People at length acquired a character and produced a form of government.
A sudden change in the success of the nation announced to Europe
the regeneration which was operated in the national representation.
But to this point of time, even now that I address you, it must
be allowed that we have been impelled thro' the tempest of a revolution,
rather by a love of right and a feeling of the wants of our country,
than by an exact theory, and precise rules of conduct, which we
had not even leisure to sketch.
It is time to designate clearly the purposes of the revolution
and the point which we wish to attain: It is time we should examine
ourselves the obstacles which yet are between us and our wishes,
and the means most proper to realize them: A consideration simple
and important which appears not yet to have been contemplated.
Indeed, how could a base and corrupt government have dared to
view themselves in the mirror of political rectitude? A king,
a proud senate, a Caesar, a Cromwell; of these the first care
was to cover their dark designs under the cloak of religion, to
covenant with every vice, caress every party, destroy men of probity,
oppress and deceive the people in order to attain the end of their
perfidious ambition. If we had not had a task of the first magnitude
to accomplish; if all our concern had been to raise a party or
create a new aristocracy, we might have believed, as certain writers
more ignorant than wicked asserted, that the plan of the French
revolution was to be found written in the works of Tacitus and
of Machiavel; we might have sought the duties of the representatives
of the people in the history of Augustus, of Tiberius, or of Vespasian,
or even in that of certain French legislators; for tyrants are
substantially alike and only differ by trifling shades of perfidy
and cruelty.
For our part we now come to make the whole world partake in your
political secrets, in order that all friends of their country
may rally at the voice of reason and public interest, and that
the French nation and her representatives be respected in all
countries which may attain a knowledge of their true principles;
and that intriguers who always seek to supplant other intriguers
may be judged by public opinion upon settled and plain principles.
Every precaution must early be used to place the interests of
freedom in the hands of truth, which is eternal, rather than in
those of men who change; so that if the government forgets the
interests of the people or falls into the hands of men corrupted,
according to the natural course of things, the light of acknowledged
principles should unmask their treasons, and that every new faction
may read its death in the very thought of a crime.
Happy the people that attains this end; for, whatever new machinations
are plotted against their liberty, what resources does not public
reason present when guaranteeing freedom!
What is the end of our revolution? The tranquil enjoyment of liberty
and equality; the reign of that eternal justice, the laws of which
are graven, not on marble or stone, but in the hearts of men,
even in the heart of the slave who has forgotten them, and in
that of the tyrant who disowns them.
We wish that order of things where all the low and cruel passions
are enchained, all the beneficent and generous passions awakened
by the laws; where ambition subsists in a desire to deserve glory
and serve the country: where distinctions grow out of the system
of equality, where the citizen submits to the authority of the
magistrate, the magistrate obeys that of the people, and the people
are governed by a love of justice; where the country secures the
comfort of each individual, and where each individual prides himself
on the prosperity and glory of his country; where every soul expands
by a free communication of republican sentiments, and by the necessity
of deserving the esteem of a great people: where the arts serve
to embellish that liberty which gives them value and support,
and commerce is a source of public wealth and not merely of immense
riches to a few individuals.
We wish in our country that morality may be substituted for egotism,
probity for false honour, principles for usages, duties for good
manners, the empire of reason for the tyranny of fashion, a contempt
of vice for a contempt of misfortune, pride for insolence, magnanimity
for vanity, the love of glory for the love of money, good people
for good company, merit for intrigue, genius for wit, truth for
tinsel show, the attractions of happiness for the ennui of sensuality,
the grandeur of man for the littleness of the great, a people
magnanimous, powerful, happy, for a people amiable, frivolous
and miserable; in a word, all the virtues and miracles of a Republic
instead of all the vices and absurdities of a Monarchy.
We wish, in a word, to fulfill the intentions of nature and the
destiny of man, realize the promises of philosophy, and acquit
providence of a long reign of crime and tyranny. That France,
once illustrious among enslaved nations, may, by eclipsing the
glory of all free countries that ever existed, become a model
to nations, a terror to oppressors, a consolation to the oppressed,
an ornament of the universe and that, by sealing the work with
our blood, we may at least witness the dawn of the bright day
of universal happiness. This is our ambition, - this is the end
of our efforts....
Since virtue and equality are the soul of the republic, and that
your aim is to found, to consolidate the republic, it follows,
that the first rule of your political conduct should be, to let
all your measures tend to maintain equality and encourage virtue,
for the first care of the legislator should be to strengthen the
principles on which the government rests. Hence all that tends
to excite a love of country, to purify manners, to exalt the mind,
to direct the passions of the human heart towards the public good,
you should adopt and establish. All that tends to concenter and
debase them into selfish egotism, to awaken an infatuation for
littlenesses, and a disregard for greatness, you should reject
or repress. In the system of the French revolution that which
is immoral is impolitic, and what tends to corrupt is counter-revolutionary.
Weaknesses, vices, prejudices are the road to monarchy. Carried
away, too often perhaps, by the force of ancient habits, as well
as by the innate imperfection of human nature, to false ideas
and pusillanimous sentiments, we have more to fear from the excesses
of weakness, than from excesses of energy. The warmth of zeal
is not perhaps the most dangerous rock that we have to avoid;
but rather that languour which ease produces and a distrust of
our own courage. Therefore continually wind up the sacred spring
of republican government, instead of letting it run down. I need
not say that I am not here justifying any excess. Principles the
most sacred may be abused: the wisdom of government should guide
its operations according to circumstances, it should time its
measures, choose its means; for the manner of bringing about great
things is an essential part of the talent of producing them, just
as wisdom is an essential attribute of virtue....
It is not necessary to detail the natural consequences of the
principle of democracy, it is the principle itself, simple yet
copious, which deserves to be developed.
Republican virtue may be considered as it respects the people
and as it respects the government. It is necessary in both. When
however, the government alone want it, there exists a resource
in that of the people; but when the people themselves are corrupted
liberty is already lost.
Happily virtue is natural in the people, [despite] aristocratical
prejudices. A nation is truly corrupt, when, after having, by
degrees lost its character and liberty, it slides from democracy
into aristocracy or monarchy; this is the death of the political
body by decrepitude....
But, when, by prodigious effects of courage and of reason, a whole
people break asunder the fetters of despotism to make of the fragments
trophies to liberty; when, by their innate vigor, they rise in
a manner from the arms of death, to resume all the strength of
youth when, in turns forgiving and inexorable, intrepid and docile,
they can neither be checked by impregnable ramparts, nor by innumerable
armies of tyrants leagued against them, and yet of themselves
stop at the voice of the law; if then they do not reach the heights
of their destiny it can only be the fault of those who govern.
Again, it may be said, that to love justice and equality the people
need no great effort of virtue; it is sufficient that they love
themselves....
If virtue be the spring of a popular government in times of peace,
the spring of that government during a revolution is virtue combined
with terror: virtue, without which terror is destructive; terror,
without which virtue is impotent. Terror is only justice prompt,
severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue; it is
less a distinct principle than a natural consequence of the general
principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing wants of
the country.
It has been said that terror is the spring of despotic government.
Does yours then resemble despotism? Yes, as the steel that glistens
in the hands of the heroes of liberty resembles the sword with
which the satellites of tyranny are armed. Let the despot govern
by terror his debased subjects; he is right as a despot: conquer
by terror the enemies of liberty and you will be right as founders
of the republic. The government in a revolution is the despotism
of liberty against tyranny. Is force only intended to protect
crime? Is not the lightning of heaven made to blast vice exalted?
The law of self-preservation, with every being whether physical
or moral, is the first law of nature. Crime butchers innocence
to secure a throne, and innocence struggles with all its might
against the attempts of crime. If tyranny reigned one single day
not a patriot would survive it. How long yet will the madness
of despots be called justice, and the justice of the people barbarity
or rebellion? - How tenderly oppressors and how severely the oppressed
are treated! Nothing more natural: whoever does not abhor crime
cannot love virtue. Yet one or the other must be crushed. Let
mercy be shown the royalists exclaim some men. Pardon the villains!
No: be merciful to innocence, pardon the unfortunate, show compassion
for human weakness.
The protection of government is only due to peaceable citizens;
and all citizens in the republic are republicans. The royalists,
the conspirators, are strangers, or rather enemies. Is not this
dreadful contest, which liberty maintains against tyranny, indivisible?
Are not the internal enemies the allies of those in the exterior?
The assassins who lay waste the interior; the intriguers who purchase
the consciences of the delegates of the people: the traitors who
sell them; the mercenary libellists paid to dishonor the cause
of the people, to smother public virtue, to fan the flame of civil
discord, and bring about a political counter revolution by means
of a moral one; all these men, are they less culpable or less
dangerous than the tyrants whom they serve? . . .
To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them
is cruelty. The severity of tyrants has barbarity for its principle;
that of a republican government is founded on beneficence. Therefore
let him beware who should dare to influence the people by that
terror which is made only for their enemies! Let him beware, who,
regarding the inevitable errors of civism in the same light, with
the premeditated crimes of perfidiousness, or the attempts of
conspirators, suffers the dangerous intriguer to escape and pursues
the peaceable citizen! Death to the villain who dares abuse the
sacred name of liberty or the powerful arms intended for her defence,
to carry mourning or death to the patriotic heart....
From M. Robespierre, Report upon the Principles of Political
Morality Which Are to Form the Basis of the Administration of
the Interior Concerns of the Republic (Philadelphia, 1794).
This text is part of the Internet Modern History Sourcebook.
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(c)Paul Halsall Aug 1997
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