demanding war were great and honest revolutionaries who knew that their weapons held the destiny of a world. Louvet, in the National Assembly, called for war, pronouncing on that occasion the magnificent words: "Yes, war, long live war! France shall take to arms at once! You say that the coalition of all the tyrants against us is a fact! So much the better for the world. At once, as quickly as lightning, let the thousands of soldiers who are citizens take arms against all the fortresses of feudalism. Let their victorious advance be terminated only by the end of slavery. We shall surround the palaces with bayonets, but into each lowly hut we shall bring a translation of the Rights of Man!"[1]
In the heat of an impassioned speech, Robespierre on one occasion defined the enthusiasm of the French Revolution in the following terms: "Indeed, gentlemen, it does state this absolute irresistible feeling, this profound aversion to tyranny, this enthusiasm for the oppressed, this great and profound love for mankind, without which no revolution can be anything else than a frightful crime annihilating a previous crime. Yes, indeed, we have the ambition to found the first republic in the world; we have the ambition to produce that which no man has ever produced before."[2]
No doubt the feelings of the Girondiste Louvet
- ↑ Jean Jaurs: Histoire Socialiste.
- ↑ A. Mathiez: Pourquot sommes-nous Robespierristes?
