It is known that the French Revolution (1789-1799) became the landmark of what was called, from the 19th century onwards, the “Contemporary Age”. This event became iconic for several reasons, including: 1) having changed the concept of “revolution”, which previously had a “conservative” semantic content, indicating the permanence of the traditional structure of power (derived from astronomical terminology, that is, revolution is even if translation, the time it takes the Earth to complete the movement around the Sun.), but it started to assume a sense of radical transformation of structures policies; 2) having raised the bourgeoisie to the status of a social group with effective political legitimacy.
The radicality of the French Revolution became more vehement at the time of the so-called National Convention, in which the participation of the Jacobins in the process of institution of the revolutionary regime. You Jacobin speeches in the French Revolution, especially those of Maximilian de Robespierre
, played a crucial role in the process of inciting and organizing the masses of sansculottes (the so-called “without shorts”, people with no ties to the traditional aristocracy). Orators like Robespierre managed to channel revolutionary violence and transform it into the “terror machine” that became active from the year 1793, especially after the execution of the King Louis XVI.In December 1792, Robespierre sought to establish the foundation of the Republic through a revolutionary government guided by the institution of “Horror”. The revolutionary terror was highlighted by the speaker, who saw himself as the incarnation of the “people's will”, of the whole of citizens who, contrary to what occurred under the absolutist regime, saw themselves as the very body of the State, of the Nation. For the “terror” to be applied and “to secure the interests of the Revolution”, it was necessary to convince the members of the Convention to support a strong State, capable of repress any attempt to impede the revolutionary process, making it understood that those who were against the revolution would be against the people French.
On December 28, 1792, Robespierre addressed the rostrum and told the citizens, understood as “founders of the Republic”:
“Founders of the Republic, according to these principles, you could long ago judge, in soul and conscience, the tyrant of the French people. What is the reason for a further postponement? Would you like to attach new evidence against the accused? Do you want to hear witnesses? This idea hasn't entered the minds of any of us yet. You would doubt what the nation strongly believes. You would be foreigners to our revolution and, instead of punishing the tyrant, you would be punishing the nation itself.”[1]
King Louis XVI, the object of discussion by the speaker, would be executed the following month, in January 1793, at the guillotine. The threat and incitement to channel violence against the symbols of the Absolutist State was softened by the appeal to defend the nation, the revolution and the “French people”. Later, in the same speech, Robespierre continued:
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“Citizens, betraying the cause of the people and our own conscience, abandoning the country to all the disorders which the slowness of this process must excite, is the only danger that we must fear. It is time to overcome the fatal obstacle that has held us back for so long at the beginning of our career. So, without a doubt, we will march together towards the common goal of public happiness. Thus, the hateful passions, which so often simmer in this sanctuary of freedom, will give way to love for the public good, to the holy emulation of the friends of the country. All projects of enemies of public order will be vexed.”[2]
Here we can see the emulation (conscious imitation) of religious rhetoric: the revolution was understood as a process history in which martyrs acted, who sacrificed themselves for the country, for the people, for progress, for the “salvation of the Nation". This discourse, which aimed to legitimize the use of violence, was accentuated in Robespierre's rhetoric when his companion, the also Jacobin Marat, was murdered by the aristocrat Marie-Anne Charlotte of Corday d'Armont. At the time of Marat's death in the summer of 1793, Robespierre told the citizens:“May the sword of the law fall, may its murderers, its accomplices, may all conspirators perish. Let their blood be shed to satisfy the soul of the martyr of freedom. We demand it in the name of outraged national dignity.” [3]
The “martyrdom of Marat”, as understood by the Jacobins, further accentuated the action of revolutionary terror, leading to the guillotine hundreds of people considered “enemies of the French people”. Marat was the object of worship and veneration, being seen as a “Saint of the Revolution”, which resulted in the conversion of political practice into a kind of ideological sect. This obsessive and relentless hue of the Jacobins even had a very strong impact on thinkers of the time, especially those who opposed the French Revolution, such as the Scottish philosopher Edmund Burke.
*Image credits: Shutterstock and MarkauMark
GRADES
[1] ROBESPIERRE. “Robespierre's parliamentary speech of December 28, 1792”. In: GUMBRECHT, Hans Ulrich. The functions of parliamentary rhetoric in the French Revolution - Preliminary studies for a historical pragmatics of the text. (trans. Georg Otte). Belo Horizonte: Editora UFMG, 2003. P. 156
[2] Idem. P. 157
[3] Idem. P. 108.
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes