Revolution — Part 1
Photo by Alex Holyoake on Unsplash
While we hope to never experience a revolution in our lifetime in America, it is important that we understand and learn from the revolutions of history. For part 1 of my series on revolutions, we are going to look at one of the defining revolutions in history — The French Revolution of 1789. Many today wrongly believe that the French Revolution was a success. By all measures, it was rather an abject failure, delaying France’s adoption of Democracy by more than one hundred years. This movement, which in many ways began as a noble cause in support of liberty and the freedom of man, brought about France's notorious reign of terror. This was the direct result of the Jacobin movement of the revolution, led by Maximillian Robespierre. The immediate legacy of ensuing chaos was the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte and the death of millions of Frenchmen.
In order to understand the Jacobin movement, it is necessary to examine its context within the French Revolution as well as the philosophical origins of the Revolution. This is not an easy task. It would take many volumes to fully record the events in France in 1789. But it is my hope that the following concise history of the French Revolution and Jacobin movement will give us a new filter to look at revolution and its consequences in a society:
The Revolution officially began with the Storming of the Bastille on July 14th 1789. In the midst of an economic crises with over 50% unemployment in the urban areas, the people of France were ripe for change. The Storming of the Bastille was just the beginning of the release of pent-up anger that the people of France had for their Monarch King Louis XVI. Prior to the storming, a National Assembly had convened to begin the work of proposing a new constitution to limit the power of the monarch. On August 26th of that year, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was presented to the National Assembly. This seminal declaration was the work of the famous General Marquis de Lafayette who had fought along with General Washington to win the war of independence in the US. Very much influenced by his friend Thomas Jefferson, Lafayette was an advocate of democratic republicanism, and a staunch supporter of the freedom of the individual. His document purported that
Men are born and remain free and equal in rights…. and the free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom…
Even amidst Lafayette’s effort to enact changes in France from an absolute monarchy to more of a democratic republic, he still very much respected King Louis XVI. Lafayette thought it necessary to maintain some power in the King as a figurehead — with that power being very limited. This was necessary to maintain order and to not disrupt the deep cultural heritage that the monarch had represented for centuries.
Photo by Stephanie LeBlanc on Unsplash
Despite the many positive reforms that Lafayette spearheaded, his views were not shared by the majority of the representatives in the National Assembly. Many opposed Lafayette, and thought he was not radical enough. One of staunchest opposition groups within the assembly was the Jacobins. This “club”, as they called themselves, was a radical movement very much opposed to the Monarch. Despite this opposition from competing “clubs” within the Assembly, by July 1790, Lafayette was head of the National Guards and was one of the more highly admired men in France. He received much respect for his many successes in keeping the order and squelching countless uprisings.
Even with the strong support from Lafayette in the assembly, King Louis XVI still rightfully feared for his life. On the night of June 20, 1791, the king attempted to flee France for Austria. His endeavor was unsuccessful, resulting in his capture in the small town Varrenes. With the advent of this failed attempt, the Jacobins blamed Lafayette, whom they accused of conspiring with the king. Lafayette, defending himself from this wrong accusation and sensing the rising popularity and power of the Jacobins, denounced the Jacobins as radicals in a letter to the Assembly. In Response, the Jacobins, whose power was greatly increasing by the day, denounced Lafayette as a traitor and an enemy to the republic. These repeated accusations of the Jacobins eventually stuck in the minds of the people and the representatives. Because of the now visceral hatred eschewed towards Lafayette, he fled to Austria on August 19th 1792. With one of their main rivals now deposed, the Jacobins were considerably closer to having complete control of France.
Photo by Léonard Cotte on Unsplash
In early 1793, the Jacobins, led by Maximilian Robespierre wrested control of France from the other completing “clubs”. They immediately began implementing radically progressive legislation. The Jacobin’s actions stemmed from Robespierre’s (and other leaders in the movement) fundamental belief that the rights of the ‘People’ supersede the rights of the individual. This view was quite opposed to what Lafayette had worked so arduously to accomplish. Where Lafayette maintained that the liberty and freedom of the individual were God-given rights, Robespierre believed that
The people is always worth more than the individual…. The people is sublime, but individuals are weak.
With this belief, Robespierre and his fellow Jacobins, regarded it as righteous to remove those individuals who didn’t agree with ‘the people’. In order to bring about peace for the majority, they sought to
Smother the internal and external enemies of the Republic or perish with it; now in this situation, the first maxim of your policy ought to be to lead the people by reason and the people's enemies by terror.
The man and group whom Lafayette had warned against for years was now in power.
Photo by Jason Blackeye on Unsplash
With this newfound power came a very dark period in western history — the reign of terror. This terror was morally justified in the eyes of the Jacobins as Robespierre succinctly expressed:
There are only two parties in France: the people and its enemies. We must exterminate those miserable villains who are eternally conspiring against the rights of man….[W]e must exterminate all our enemies.
During this 10 months of absolute terror, Robespierre and the Jacobins ruthlessly murdered over fifty thousand people, including priests, political opponents, as well as King Louis XVI. The King famously told the crowd
I die innocent of all the crimes imputed to me. I pardon the authors of my death, and pray God that the blood you are about to shed will never fall upon France.
These words preceded the king’s death by the debased form of execution all too commonly used by the Jacobins — the guillotine.
Photo by discoverwalks.com
The death of their enemies was only a part small of what the Jacobins yearned to accomplish. They proceeded to declare war on the Christian church, which they sought to replace with a new state church. This was dubbed by Robespierre as The Cult of Supreme Being. That the state was that very Supreme Being, was exactly their intention. With Christianity out of the picture, which deemed men as fallen and perfection in this present life as unattainable, the “new man” was possible. The nation, finally devoid of the God of the Bible, could now reach the ideal “perfection” that the Jacobins had long wanted. As part of this replacement, the Jacobins nationalized church property throughout France. They also took part in the destruction of much of the church property throughout the country and ultimately, the murder of thousands of Christian priests.
When looking back on the inauspicious credentials of the Jacobins, one sees that this ‘club’ was not always predisposed towards terror. In fact, they originally supported many of the reforms that Lafayette brought about early in the Revolution. While in power, even amidst the atrocities that they were committing, they did legislate some positive laws including the abolition of slavery. But they continued to grow more and more radical. A common theme early in the history if this ‘club’ was to charge those anyone who disagreed with them liars, or calumniators. One of their first targets was Lafayette. Another target was the journalist Camille Desmoulins. Prior to Camille’s beheading, he claimed
that he himself had fallen victim to the most atrocious calumny
It didn’t take long for the Jacobins to begin adopting more radical methods. Their policy eventually advanced into lèse-nation — imprisoning any figure whose speech was deemed ‘offensive’. With Robespierre and the Jacobin’s later ascent to power, systematic terror ensued. This terror, which resulted in the death of over fifty thousand people, is the primary legacy of the Jacobins. Besides this, many historians say that ultimately the consequence of this revolution was that democracy in France was delayed for over 100 years.
To be continued…