#post-thermidor
Medallion of Robespierre (David d’Angers)
In profile facing to the right, Robespierre’s face has a different expression, moreover [his head] is crowned by an oak crown with the most beautiful effect. David d'Angers could not have paid a more significant homage to the Incorruptible. He remembered that Robespierre had really received an oak crown from the people, and he wanted to consecrate this memory of the heroic times of the Revolution. It was on 30 September 1791, the day when the Constituent Assembly ended its glorious career. At four o’clock the president Thouret rose, and, amidst a religious silence, delivered these words: « The National Assembly declares that it has fulfilled its mission, and that all of its sessions are closed. » The deputies left, and an immense crowd expected them on the terrace of the Tuileries.
« Robespierre », Ernest Hamel wrote, « was well-known and well recognisable, since his portrait was exhibited in the windows of all printsellers. When he appeared, offering his arm to Pétion, then his faithful friend, one surrounded both of them; one embraced them ; and, amidst cries of Long live liberty! Long live the nation!, one placed oak crowns on their heads. A mother, having a very young child in her arms, broke through the crowd, went straight to Robespierre and placed it in his hands, as if she had wanted that this father of liberty blesses, through her child, the new generation [that] had the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of the Revolution. Visibly moved, Pétion and Robespierre sought to evade this triumph, all the more honourable for them as it was completely spontaneous, and attempted to slip away via a bystreet… »
Les portraits de Robespierre (Hippolyte Buffenoir), chapter II, in: Annales révolutionnaires, vol. 1, p. 460.
Source:cautopates
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Response to Le Réveil du Peuple (Year III)
This song is a direct response to Le Réveil du Peuple, which was popular among muscadins, royalists and anti-Jacobins of all shades in Year III. While Le Réveil violently repudiated “the Terror” and reflected the (post-)Thermidorian discourse on the “excesses” of the Revolution, the Réponse au Réveil du Peuple sought a certain rehabilitation of the legacy of Year II, a reaffirmation of revolutionary values and principles.
(This song was sung to the same tune as Le Réveil du Peuple.)
Peuple Français, de qui la gloire / French People, whose glory
Est toujours l'effroi des tyrans, / Is always the terror of the tyrants,
Vois-tu les monstres de la Loire / Do you see the monsters of the Loire
Renaître ici plus dévorans? / Being reborn here, even more devouring?
Entends leurs cris, vois l'insolence / Here their cries, see the insolence
Des muscadins amis des rois; / Of the muscadins, friends of the kings;
Ils voudraient réduire au silence / They want to reduce to silence
Les vrais défenseurs de tes droits. / The true defenders of your rights.
Au sein de la place publique / Amidst the public square
Vois-tu ces bustes renversés? / To you see these smashed busts?
Des martyrs de la république / Hear the wrathful manes
Entends les mânes courroucés! / Of the martyrs of the republic!
Ah! venge tes amis fidèles, / Ah! avenge your faithful friends,
Par les tyrans assassinés! / Assassinated by the tyrants!
Briser leurs palmes immortelles / To break their immortal laurels
C'est nier tes droits profanés. / Is to deny your violated rights.
Suppôts d'une horde flétrie, / Henchmen of a withered horde,
En vain vous seriez triomphans; / You will be triumphant in vain;
Craignez les pleurs de la patrie, / Fear the tears of the patrie,
Le désespoir de ses enfans! / The despair of her children!
Sur vos têtes fondrait l'orage; / The storm on your head had vanished;
Les oppresseurs auraient vécu; / The oppressors would have lived;
Redoutez ceux que votre rage / Fear those whom your rage
A blessés, mais n'a pas vaincu! / Has injured, but not defeated!
Quand nos troupes victorieuses / When our victorious troops
Assurent le commun bonheur, / Assured the common happiness,
Quelles blessures glorieuses / What glorious wounds did you receive
Reçûtes-vous au champ d'honneur? / At the field of honour?
Le lâche, loin de la frontière, / The coward, far from the frontier,
Médite en paix ses attentats, / Meditates upon his attacks in peace,
Sans songer que l'Europe entière / Without thinking that all of Europe
A tremble devant nos soldats. / Has trembled before our soldiers.
Représentans d'un peuple libre, / Representatives of a free people,
Renversez les audacieux / Overthrow the audacious [crooks]
Qui veulent rompre l'équilibre / Who want to destroy the equilibrium
Que la loi fait peser sur eux: / That the law makes weigh upon them:
Votre serment est d'être juste, / Your oath is to be just,
De maintenir l'égalité; / To maintain equality;
Et le nôtre, non moins auguste, / And ours, no less august,
De mourir pour la liberté. / [Is] to die for liberty.
Source:Poésies révolutionnaires et contre-révolutionnaires, p. 308ff.
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The Neo-Jacobins (R. Monnier)
After the defeat of the Jacobins, a leftist republican current persisted in the provinces, whose manifestations and intensity varied according to the local power relations and the decree of tolerance shown by the authorities and the government. In the form of a simple struggle for survival, as after the repressions of Prairial Year III and Floréal Year IV, or of the resurgence of a political practice and reaffirmation of an ideology, as in Year IV and Year VII, the permanence of this current until the Consulate demonstrates its vitality. In the regions where royalist agitation was endemic, the republican defence strategy favoured the local Jacobins. Thus, in Toulouse, where they remained in the municipality, they were able to animate the resistance to the Counter-Revolution and to organise the defence of the city which repelled the royalist insurrection in Thermidor, Year VII. The policy of union of the republicans, practices by the Directory in order to face the royalist peril, allowed the Jacobins to reorganise. As under the Revolution, their action concentrated in the clubs. Some of them were recreated in the beginning of Year IV ; the one of the Panthéon is the most famous. After 18 Fructidor the cercles constitutionnels multiplied in the provinces, and in Year VII the Jacobins found themselves at the Manège, which appeared like a resurrection of the club of Year II. While developing the clubs and animating civic festivals, the neo-Jacobins engaged in an intense propaganda in the press and in a campaign of petitions to the Directory and to the Councils. Their action measured up to the successes that were won in the elections of Year VI, in spite of the campaign of the government. The influence of the left intensified in Year VII ; the Jacobins, once more in power after 30 Prairial, secured solid positions in the administration and resumed the offensive on the legislative plan. The military difficulties allowed the Jacobin minority to induce the Councils to vote measures of public safety, the Jourdan Law, the emprunt forcé and the Law of Hostages (10-24 Messidor). This second terror disappeared with the danger for the patrie.
The programme of the neo-Jacobins was limited. Every attempt of radicalisation, every widening of the movement in the direction of the sans-culottes brought about the reaction. For the Jacobins, the price of rallying was the sacrifice of their own political and social objectives. Having abandoned the Constitution of 1793 as subversive, they had to accommodate themselves to the one of Year III, hoping to inflect the institutions in a more democratic sense. Their demands mainly focused on the guarantee of the public liberties and, in the social realm, on a fairer distribution of taxes, the distribution of land to the defenders of the patrie, and a primary education for everyone. No radical criticism of the system, as with Babeuf. Would the defence of the Republic lead them to relying on the people? The Jacobin momentum alarmed the government, which insured itself against the « red peril ». Bonaparte was able to make use of this in order to liquidate the Jacobin opposition after the assassination attempt of 3 Nivôse Year IX, and to rally the bourgeoisie to his personal policy.
Source:Dictionnaire historique de la Révolution française (Albert Soboul)
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Program of the Festival of Liberty (1795)
To be celebrated on 9 and 10 Thermidor of Year IV, in accordance with article I of title IV of the Law of 3 Brumaire.
First day.
On 9 Thermidor, at 5 o'clock in the morning, the solemnity will be announced by a salvo of artillery.
At 6 o'clock, a second salvo will be fired, and a third one at 7 o'clock.
At 10 o'clock in the morning, the twelve Municipalities will go to the site of the Bastille, accompanied by the Civil Authorities of their jurisdiction.
The Central Administration of the Seine Department the Tribunals and the Central Bureau of the Canton of Paris, preceded by a Military Band and accompanied by a Honour Guard, will also go to the site of the Bastille at the same time.
The president of the Central Administration of the Department, after having delivered a speech analogous to the ceremony, will plant a tricolour flag on the remains of this monument of royal despotism, bearing this inscription:
It will never rise again.
During this ceremony, the Military Band will play the patriotic tunes of 1789.
The Procession will then set off, escorted by large detachments of the National Guard and of the Army of the Interior.
The Procession will go to the Place du Carrousel, in front of the National Palace of the Tuileries, following the boulevard until the Porte Denis, the Rues de Cléry and Neuve-Eustache, the Place des Victoires, the Rues Neuve-des-Petits-Champs, de la Loi and Nicaise.
On the Place du Carrousel a pyre will be erected, upon which the attributes of Royalty and Feudality will be placed.
When the Central Administration of the Seine department will arrive in front of the pyre, the Procession will stop and the President will ignite this pyre.
He will then plant a tricolour flag, bearing this inscription:
10 AUGUST 1792 ; the Monarchy is abolished in France, it will never rise again.
During this ceremony, the Military Band will play the Marseillaise and Le Chant du Départ.
The Procession will again set off for the Champ de la Réunion, by the following way:
Place du Carrousel, Guichet du Carrousel, Le Quai, the Pont National, the Rue de Grenelle, the Place des Invalides and the Avenue of the Military Academy.
The Procession will cross the field, following the embankments on the right up to the hillock ; goint back alongside the embankments on the left, it will return to the hillock in a straight line.
The Music Conservatory will play a symphony, after which the Central Administration of the Department will descend to the foot of the hillock, where, on a pyre, the symbols and attributes of anarchy will be placed.
The President will ignite the pyre ; and during his ceremony, the Conservatory will perform analogous songs and symphonies.
Then the Central Administration of the Department and a part of the Procession will go to the Military Academy, in order to go in front of the Directory.
At one o'clock, the Directory will descend onto the Champ de la Réunion, directly go to the hillock and will take its place there.
The President will deliver a speech, after which he will ignite the sacred fire of Liberty on the Altar of the Patrie. Then the Music Conservatory will sing the Hymn to Liberty, lyrics by Rouget de Lille [sic], music by Pleyel.
The Directory will then take the oath to defend the Constitution of the Year III.
This oath will be repeated by the Constitutional Authorities and by the entire Procession.
A general salvo of artillery and a salvo of grapeshot and of bombs, mingling with the sound of drums and trumpets, will announce the performance of the oath and the end of the ceremony.
The Procession will return to the Military Academy.
In the afternoon of this day, orchestras placed on the Champ de la Réunion will play dance music until the night.
Second day.
This day will consist,
Of races on foot and on horseback, which will take place at 5 o'clock in the evening on the Champ de la Réunion. Prices will be awarded to the winners ;
Of a concert performed on the Champs-Élysées, at seven o'clock ;
Of a firework and of dances and illumination on the great square of the Champs-Élysées.
The present Program will be printed and sent to all Constitutional Authorities, in order to serve as notification letters. […]
The General Director of Public Instruction,
Ginguené.
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On Robespierre’s conspiracy (Rouget de Lisle)
Laudatory hymn, On the conspiracy of Robespierre and the revolution of 9 Thermidor, presented to the National Convention on 18 Thermidor.
Aux prodiges de la Victoire / Someone else shall devote his songs
Qu’un autre consacre ses chants / To the miracles of Victory,
Que ses vers mâles et touchants / His energetic and touching verses
Célèbrent les fils de la gloire ; / Shall celebrate the sons of glory ;
En vain leur courage indompté / In vain, their untamed courage
Nous gagnait cent et cent batailles ; / Won hundreds of battles for us ;
Le crime au sein de nos murailles / Crime, within our walls,
Allait tuer la Liberté! / Came to kill Liberty!
Chantons la Liberté, / Let us extol Liberty,
Couronnons sa statue. / Let us crown its statue.
Comme un nouveau Titan / Like a new Titan
Le crime est foudroyé: / Crime is struck down:
Relève, relève ta tête abattue, / Raise, raise your bowed head,
Ô France! à tes destins / Oh, France! God himself
Dieu lui-même a veillé. (bis) / Has watched over your destiny.
Dans l’abîme avec quelle adresse / In the abyss, how skillfully
Les monstres savaient t’attirer! / Can the monsters lure you!
Ils sont prêts à te dévorer, / They are ready to devour you,
Leur regard encor te caresse ; / Their gaze still caresses you ;
Le pur langage des vertus / The pure language of the virtues
Est sur leurs lèvres mensongères ; / Is on their dishonest lips ;
Leurs âmes sont les noirs repaires / Their souls are the dark lairs
Où tous les forfaits sont conçus! / Where all infamies are conceived!
Chantons la Liberté…
Longtemps leur audace impunie / For long, their unpunished audacity
Trompa notre crédulité: / Fooled our credulity:
En invoquant la Liberté, / While invoking Liberty,
Ils préparaient la tyrannie ; / They prepared tyranny ;
Le jour, ils maudissaient les rois, / By day, they cursed the kings,
Leurs entreprises sacrilèges ; / [And] their sacrilegious undertakings ;
Et la nuit ils creusaient des pièges, / And by night, they set up traps,
Tombeaux du peuple et de ses droits./
Tombs of the people and of its rights.
Chantons la Liberté…
Voyez-vous ce spectre livide / Can you see this pale spectre
Qui déchire son propre flanc? / Which tears up its own flank?
Enivré, tout souillé de sang, / Intoxicated, sullied with blood,
De sang il est encore avide ; / He is still avid for blood ;
Voyez avec quel rire affreux / See with what terrible laugh
Comme il désigne ses victimes! / How he designates his victims!
Voyez comme il excite au crime / See how he incites
Ses satellites furieux! / His furious satellites to crimes!
Chantons la Liberté…
Ce Dieu que proclamaient leurs bouches,/
This God that their mouths proclaim,
Qu’ils blasphémaient du fond du coeur,/
That they blaspheme from the bottom of their heart,
Du Peuple, Eternel protecteur / The eternal guardian of the People
Contre ses assassins farouches, / Against its savage assassins,
Dieu jette un regard menaçant / God, cast a threatening glance
Sur le tyran, sur ses complices… / On the tyrant, on his accomplices…
C’en est fait, déjà leurs supplices / Once this is done, their ordeals
Laissent respirer l’innocent. / Let the innocent [person] respire.
Chantons la Liberté…
Pars, vole, active renommée, / Go, fly, active reputation, take…
Vole… aux deux bouts de l’Univers, / To the two ends of the Universe,
Du Peuple écrasant ces pervers/
The news of the People crushing these perverts
Que la nouvelle soit semée, / Shall be spread,
Peins-nous Citoyens et Guerriers / Paint us [as] Citizens and Warriors
Terrassant d’un même courage / Striking down, with equal courage,
Les rois dans les champs du carnage, / The kings in the bloody fields
Les factieux dans nos foyers. / [And] the factitious [people] among us.
Chantons la Liberté…
Vous que l’amour de la Patrie / You, whom the love of the Patrie
Arma du poignard de Brutus, / Armed with the dagger of Brutus,
Il faut un triomphe de plus ; / Have to triumph once more ;
Sans lui votre gloire est flétrie. / Without it, your glory is withered.
Jusque dans ses derniers canaux / Dry this fatal flood
Desséchez un torrent funeste ; / Until its last canals ;
Frappez, exterminez le reste / Strike, exterminate the rest
Des traitres et de leurs suppôts. / Of the traitors and their henchmen.
Chantons la Liberté…
L’arbre auguste dont la verdure / The august tree, whose foliage
Défend ton front majestueux, / Defends your majestic face,
Offre désormais à nos vœux / Henceforth offers to our wishes
Une ombre plus douce et plus pure ; / A gentler and purer shadow ;
Des vents contre lui déchaînés / In spite of the unleashed winds,
Bravant l’effort, le souffle immonde, / Braving the effort, the breeze,
Bientôt il couvrira le monde / It will soon cover the world
De ses branchages fortunés. / With its fortunate branches.
Chantons la Liberté…
Source:Hymne dithyrambique Sur la conjuration de Robespierre […].
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The English Surprise (J.-B. M. Louvion, 1795)
To the Decent People of the Entire Country.
This Engraving represents France in the form of an Ostrich, which has had the misfortune in its first egg-laying of producing only monsters such as Marrat [sic], Carrier, Roberspierre [sic], J. Le Bon &c. &c. &c… that the return of Justice of the ninth Thermidor made disappear in a way ; everything makes us hope that it will continue to deliver us from this kind of plague. The Ostrich, more fortunate in its second egg-laying, only presents friends of peace, of universal happiness and of the tranquillity of nations. An Englishman, whose stoutness is a sign of well-nourished existence, occupied with eating, is struck by this favourable change and shows his surprise about this.
JUSTICEsaysMonsters, you are annihilated forever!
THE OSTRICH – May I rectify my faults today.
THE FRENCHMAN – Europe! these are our only wishes.
THE ENGLISHMAN – Goddem! [sic] Go on…
Source: Le Neuf Thermidor ou la surprise angloise
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