Georges Jacques Danton

See also: Danton, Georges Danton (homonymy)

Georges Jacques Danton , born with Arcis-on-Paddle the October 26th 1759 - died with Paris the 17 Germinal year II (April 5th 1794), is a revolutionary Politician and French.

Biography

Period preceding the Revolution

Georges Jacques Danton is born with Arcis-on-Paddle on October 26th, 1759; he is the son of Jacques Danton (1722-1762) and his second wife, Jeanne-Madeleine Camut (1729-1813). Hardly one year old, an accident deforms the nose to him and lips, which, added to a Vérole contracted in its youth, will give him an aspect of a great ugliness which however will not leave it without charm.

His/her father dies whereas it is only two years old, leaving his widowed mother and her five brothers and orphan sisters of father. Georges Danton is then put in pension in a nurse. In 1770, Mrs Danton remarie with a spinner of cotton, Jean Recordain. Towards the 10 years age, Georges Danton is placed at the Petit seminar of Troyes, then at the oratoriens of this same city. Its studies are poor there and he refuses to embrace the ecclesiastical career.

In 1780, it arrives at Paris and like wants it the family tradition (grandfather Bailiff, father lawyer), Georges Jacques is directed towards studies of Droit while being made engage in a law firm.

It follows then six months of studies of right to faculty of Rheims then buys its license.

Although registered with the bar of Paris, he often does not plead, preferring with that the frequentation of the coffees. What is useful to him since, in addition to the fact of there côtoyer of many revolutionary futures, it meets there his future wife, Antoinette-Gabrielle Charpentier (1760-1793). It is the girl of a rich person owner of coffee, Jerome-François Charpentier. Its Dot enables him to buy the load of lawyer to the Conseil of the King in 1787. The marriage will be celebrated on June 14th, 1787. They had four children of which two will survive: Antoine Danton, François-Georges Danton.

the Revolution

Beginnings on the political scene and the accession with the capacity

Surprised by the events of 1789, in the obscure and not very easy lawyer position, Danton does not form part of the constituent Assembly It gains there so much the affection and the confidence which it is indefinitely re-elected so much so that the newspapers show Cordeliers of him to be vendus.
In spite of its ugliness, although brutal, shameless and cynical manners, Danton can be prided to have charisma and a certain benevolence, which make clean open characters and sympathetic nerves.

Like chair district of Cordeliers, most active and most revolutionary of the districts of Paris, Danton appears, as of the beginnings of constituent, in all agitations of the capital. One sees it, consequently, taking part in all the popular movements, in particular with that of the October 5th and 6th; it is also seen, at that time, dependant with Mirabeau and attached to the party of the duke of Orleans, whose then Mirabeau thought of making a regent.

Its fame grows rather quickly so that, as of July 1790, it stands as a candidate to the town hall of Paris against Bailly. It failed; but six months afterwards, when the administration of the department of Paris was organized, he was elected member and thus acquired a honourable and well remunerated position by it. It does not suffice nevertheless for its needs, and, as in this moment the faction of Orleans had been completely erased, Danton made a market with the court. It could it of as much better without being compromised, than the patriotic party then fought with eagerness the constitutional ones, directed by Bailly and Lafayette. The lawyer load to the council, that Danton had, and which was worth 10.000 books, was bought to him with 100.000 books.

As from this moment until the fall of the royalty, it did not cease touching considerable sums on the funds of the civil list and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. By its violent exits against the constitutional ones, it preserved at the same time the confidence of the patriots.

The June 21st 1791, in particular, day of the escape of the king with Varenne, it launches against Lafayette, with the meeting of the Jacobins and in the presence of this one, an attack of which nothing equalizes fury, if it is not impudence. II knew, indeed, that Lafayette knew its market with the court, but it also knew that Lafayette could not denounce it without losing the Foreign Minister of Mr. de Montmorin, dependant of friendship with the general. In this moment, moreover, Danton, which could not be satisfied with the lower and precarious position of a secret policeman, worked with the inversion of this royalty which balanced it. The Republican party, from which the escape of the king came to cause the formation, counted it among its most active members. II was one of the principal investigators of the popular movements which took place at that time, and one of the authors of the petition tending to the forfeiture of the king, who was to be signed with the Field-of-March.

One knows the deplorable events which followed; it is known that the constitutional party believed duty to make Terreur and that it resulted from it a bloody collision between the people and the National guard. Danton had been put safe from any accident while leaving for the countryside, the day indicated for the signature of the petition. Legal proceedings nevertheless were brought against him following these days, but they were stopped almost at once by the amnesty voted by the constituent one at the end of its session.

The blow struck at the Champ de Mars had returned some force to the constitutional party. The popular leaders had lost part of their influence, and Danton was not elected at the legislative assembly. But the impression produced by this event was not long in being erased; the revolutionary movement began again with more strength, and Danton, elected substitute of the prosecutor of the commune, at the end of 1791, continued to show the impetuous propagator of it, while also continuing to be made pay by the court of which it still accepted, Friday before August 10th, 50.000 ecus. However it was one of those which worked most actively at this day, which, by reversing the royalty, was to give the capacity to those which had been posed like the chiefs of the movement. Such was, at least, the result, for that which, on August 10th even, was named, by the legislative Assemblée, Ministre for Justice.

Capacity and popularity

Here a new period of the life of Danton starts.

Called with the government, become completely independent by the richness which its place and by the fall of those ensured to him which had balanced it, invested public confidence and of an almost dictatorial revolutionary capacity opposite the disorganization of the regular capacities, it had to then assume fully the mission with which it was charged.

Danton was minister only August 10th with the September 21st 1792, by one fact of the facts to know the Massacres of September. Its position on these massacres remained very evasive.

The September 2nd 1792, day of the beginning of the massacres, it made a speech in front of the legislative Assemblée ending in this formula remained in the memories: “of the audacity, still of the audacity, always of the audacity”.

Mountain deputy with Convention, at the sides of Robespierre, Saint-Just and Marat, it tried to reconcile the Montagne and the the Gironde but, after having surprised deputies of Gironde excavating its office, it claimed the head of Jacques-Pierre Brissot and approved the arrest of the Girondins.

Directing Committee of public hello of the April 6th to the July 10th 1793, it was considered moderated too much with regard to the executions (ten condemned to died to the maximum), then was eliminated from the Committee and was replaced by Maximilien de Robespierre.

The party of Lenient and end

It returned to its birthplace, Arcis-on-Paddle, in the country house of his mother. Meanwhile it remaria with Louise Sébastienne Gély, the blessing of the abbot of Keravenant, refractory Priest escaped of the massacre of the Carmelite friars…

Ghost of its retirement to the autumn 1793, after the arrest of his friends compromised in the scandal of the liquidation of the Company of the Indies, in particular Fabre d' Églantine, eager to negotiate a peace with united monarchies, it claimed the end of the revolutionary government and Terror, although it had him even contributed to his setting in place.
Gathering around him others moderate, the Lenient , it launched out in a double campaign against the Enragés, then the Hébertistes, with the assistance, initially, of Robespierre, and against the revolutionary government.

After the execution of Hébertistes, the Committees of public hello and general security ordered its arrest, like that several of the members of its group. He was judged by the revolutionary Tribunal of the 13 to 16 germinal year II (2 with the April 5th 1794) with his friends compromised in the scandal of the Compagnie of the Indies - that he pretended not to know - and marked, in addition, to have covered the embezzlements of the general Dumouriez and expressed its innocence bruyamment:

My voice, which so many times was made hear for the cause of the people, to support and defend its interests, will not have a sorrow to push back calumny. Would the cowards who calumniate me dare to attack me opposite? That they are shown, and soon I will cover them themselves with the ignominie, of the opprobrium which characterize them! I said it, and I repeat it: my residence is soon in, nothing, and my name in the Pantheon! … My head is there; she answers of all! … The life is to me with load, it delays me to be delivered about it!

In front of this resistance, and following the denunciation of a conspiracy of the prisons, a decree of Convention allowed bâcler the lawsuit. Condemned to dead by the revolutionary Tribunal, it was guillotine with Camille Desmoulins, the April 5th 1794.

Quotations

Policies doesn't

  • one carry the fatherland with the sole of its shoes?
  • After the bread, education is the first need for people.
  • Of the audacity, still of the audacity, always of the audacity and the fatherland will be saved , formula (perhaps most famous…) who finished the speech in front of the legislative Assemblée the September 2nd 1792, day of the beginning of the Massacres of September.
  • I ask that one save the blood of the men sentence launched in front of Convention, whereas he preached indulgence by claiming the end of the Terreur

Others

  • I leave the policy to insane, my only madness is you ; words which it would have slipped with the ear of Louise Sébastienne Gély, the day of their marriage.
  • It is singular, the verb “guillotiner” cannot be combined in all its times. One can say: “I will be guillotine”, “You will be guillotine”, but one cannot say: “I was guillotine”.
  • My residence will be soon in nothing, as for my name, you will find it in the Pantheon of the History.
  • nature gave me the rough aspect of freedom.
  • We will become all poets, we will do everything worms…
  • As for me, I laugh myself at it. I enjoyed the revolution well; I made noise well on the ground; I enjoyed my life well; let us sleep!
  • You do not have testicles, Robespierre! You are eunuque!
  • Si still I could give my legs to Couthon and my testicles with Robespierre, all would still go very well… Danton, of its prison of the Caretaker's lodge, its execution day before.
  • Idiotic , you will not prevent our heads from kissing yourself in the basket! Bazire wanting to embrace it before going up in the cart leading them to the torment, Danton pushed back its faithful and companion of died by rétorquant this sentence to him.
  • Robespierre, I involve you with me! Your house will be shaven, one will sow salt there! Sentence howled by Danton, whereas it passed in front of the house of Robespierre, a few moments before going up on the scaffold.
  • You will show my head with the people, it is worth the sorrow well of it! Sentence launched to the torturer Sanson, before perishing on the scaffold.

Concerning

  • Danton, Hun with the size of Goth, nose camus, nostrils with the wind, seamed flat parts, face of gendarme mixed of cynical and cruel prosecutor (...) , (Chateaubriant, Memory of In addition to Tomb, IX, 4)

Representations

Random links:The Amazon (horsemanship) | Prométhée or the poem of fire | Mbala Mbuta | Crow with white nozzle | Strange deaths