On the Principles of Political Morality
mohammad
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. ...
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Source: Modern History SourceBook, Paul Halsall August 1997;
First Published: 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).