North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1863-03-18
% / & al.
ROBESPIERRE.
By JOHN S. c. ABBOTT.


Among the most remarkable men, devel.
| oped by the French Revolution, there are
few more prominent than Robesperre. HIS
first appearance was in the Assembly Of the
States General. The mobiles and bishops re-
solved to meet in seperate halls, that each of
the sepcrate orders, having two votes, and
the commoner but one, the commons might
be out-Voted, though in the immense maiori-
ty. Were they to meet in one Assembly the
commons could, of course, carry their mea-
sures. The poor were in q state of terrible
distress. The mobiles sent the Archbishop of
AK with very pathetic appeal, urging the
commons, in behalf of the miseries of the peo-
pie, to proceed to business, by consenting to
separation of the three chambers.
Robcspierre, one of the deputies of the
commons, then an unknown young man, pale
and slender, rose and said" Go tell your
colleagues that we are waiting for them here
to aid us in assuaging the sorrows of the peo-
pie. Tell them no longer to retard our work
Tell them that our resolution is not to be
shaken by such a stratagem as this. If they
sympathy for the poor, let them, in imita-
tion of their master, renouce that luxury
which consumes the funds of ndigence, dis
miss those insolent lackeys who attend them,
sell their gorgeous equipage, and with these
superfuites relieve the perishing. We wait
for them here !"
We Dext hear of him earnestly advocating
the abolition of the death penalty. Dr. Gull
lotine had introduced new machine, called
from the inventor, the Guillotine, the infc-
ton of capital punishment, without inflicting
pain. A general burst of laughter was ex-
cited IN the assembly as the doctor said
" With my machine can clip off yonr head
in the twinkle ofan eye, without your feeling
it," 1t may be remarked, in passing, that
many who then smiled, were soon be headed
by the keen axe.
A party arose in France called the Giron-
dlsts-so called because their leaders were
from the department of the Gironde. They
at first were in favor of constitutional mo-
narchy, like that of England. But finding
from the pcrfdy of the King this to be
impossible, they then advocated republic.
There was another party advocating the ex-
treme democratic license, called the Jacob
ms. Robespierre was one of the leaders of
the latter party, He brought an exceeding
ly envenomed bill of accusation against the
Girondists, overwhelmed them in their trial,
and they were all sent to the guillotine,
Robespierre, Danton and Marat, the heads
of the Jacobin party, were now the idols of
France. Charlotte Corday soon plunged her
dagger into the bosom of Marat. Herbert, at
the head of the atheists of Paris, organized a
formidable party Robespierre, at the peril
of his life, threw himself into the breach to
oppose them. "There are men," he said,
&" who, under the pretext Of destroying super
s.itlon, would make religion of atheism
The Legislator who would adopt the system
of atheism is insane. The national conven-
tion abhors such sytem. atheism is Gris-
tocratic. The idea of great being who
watches over oppressed innocence, and who
Furnishes triumphant guilt, is quite popular.
The people, the unfortunate, applaud me. II
God did not erist, 1t acoald behooue men to
inuent him.
The conflict was desperate. Each party
knew that the guillotine was the doom of the
vanquished Herbert and his coadjutors,