Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1881-08-24

nueu buDOTulnhle OFhnCn OF mculCln
) until the opening Of the revolution
practicing among the poorer portion
OF Paris. HIS character, ambition an,
success were essentially those Of th
; charlatan. Marat's features wer
i plain TO grotesqueness, his eyes furtiv
and sly, his thin hair was worn wild
I and his speech was exaggerated an,
extravagant. In his aspect the ludi
crous was blended with the villalnous
The savage and the sneak singularly
and strikiDgly blended in the persol
of Marat, the selfstyled Friend of th,
People.
With the birth of revolution he soor
became prominent, finally attaining
: conspicuous degree of infamy. At frs
! he issued cheap daily print, originally
called lie PuJliciSte PariSien, and after
wards EAmi du Peupie, popular Ii
tie which he himself assumed. 1t i,
known that no falsehood, wilful and
wicked, was too monstrous to be pub.
lished in its pages, no act Of atrocity
too agonizing to be therein advised
and indorsed. 1t was largely owing
to the audacious bounding on of the
faubourgS by Doctor Marat in this un.
principled sheet that the dreadful mas.
sacres of September, 1892, were per.
petrated, cruelties which can never be
too stringently stigmatized in the in.
terests Of humanity. In the midst Of
these horrors Marat, their persistent
instigator, was elected member of
tho Convention, but so well-known
was the part he had played in these
transactions that upon his entrance
into the ball Of assembly the repre-
sentatives and spectators displayed the
utmost adherence as at the presence
of a loathsome and abominable reptile.
History tells us that no one would sit
beside him, and that when he essayed
to speak tumult always arose of op.
position, amid angry threats of vic.
lence. His paper, now lie journal de
Ia Republique, grew more groveling
and blood-thirsty than ever He asked
for the sacrifice Of three hundred thou.
sand souls, and defended this demand
in the convention by declaring that if
refused he would call for more. Dur.
ing the kings trial he was clamorous
for his instant execution, and in his
journal urged on the people to slaugh.
ter two hundred thousand of the adhe.
rents Of the ancient regime. The crea-
ture's cupidity for the extinction of
human life knew no bounds.
In the month of April, 1893, he OBJ
tanned tho enactment of the deadly law
against suspects" and "suspect of be.
ing suspects" most delicate shading
Of suspicion, by virtue, or rather the
uiee whereof, four hundred thousand
persons were illegally imprisoned in
Paris and the provinces and put in
peril of their lives, which barbarity
capped the climax. This inhuman
monster of iniqulty, disgrace to man
kind in its worst phase Of crime, was
the third tyrant Of the triumvirate
which ruled France with rod of iron
and the dirk of midnight murder.
The Jacobins, or Mountain party,
were at the helm of state, red.handed,
bad hearted and hot.headed; and the
Girondists, or moderate party, were
defeated, displaced and wellnigh, if not
wholly, crushed. The Jacobins were
so-called after the Jacobin convent, in
which they at first held their meetings, |
and must be distinguished from the
Jacobites, or adherents of the House
of Stuart in Scotland. The Girondists
were named for tho Province of Gi-
ronde, in the Southwest of France,
whose deputies, Vergniaud, Guadot,
Gensonne, Grangenuvo and Ducos,
acquired great influence in the first
sessions of the Convention, but were
finally overthrown by the unscrupu-
lous wiles Of the Jacobins. The mur.
der Of Marat by Charlotte Corday was
Immediately succeeded by the worst |
excesses ard atrocities of tho Reign of |
Terror; rivers Of blood flowed, il was
alleged, to tho names of the third tri-
umvir NJ. David, ofthe French Acad-
emy, printed the portrait of the la
mented citizen, with gaping wounds
and dying palor; and the picture,
draped in mourning was placed upon
the altar in the Court of Louvre, and
at length hung up in tho Convention.
In fact, he underwent sort OF apoth-
costs. A decree OF the 4th of Novem.
Der ordained TO the mortal remains OF
the great guilotinist the eternal hon.
ors of the Pantheon; hut two years
after, November 8, 1895, they were
ignominiously cast out and spurned
like the bones of dog, and his like.
ness was insultingly torn down from
the walls of the Convention, and this
was the last of him. "The mills of
the gods grind slowly, yet they grind
exceeding small" How did his com.
panions, Robespierre and Danton, fare
in the fatal future of retribution? The
Reign of Murder kept on; the doomed
were inundated; the friends
Of France continued TO be stricken
with CONSERVATION. Conscience, how.
,ver, must some time awaken in the I
most callous reflection would bring
back sense; atonement would eventu.
lily come, in the nature of events, {
when judgment" would inevitably
,vertako Heliogabalus and Caligula as I
I had already Nero, Danton was the !
econd of the triumvirs to die. On
March 10, 1893, he established the {
extraordinary criminal tribunal {
which had the right to make what |
Irrests 1t chose, and from whose dead. s
y decisions there lay no appeal. "Sus.
,ect OF being suspect was then the I
hief charge of the hour, upon which |
nen and women went TO the shambles I
Ike cattle, proof or no proof. In the |
var upon the Gironde, Danton was 9
ctiyely sustained by his rival, Robes.
'ierre, colleague in all cruelty, who ]
,lided past him into prominence and a
'ower serpentlike, swiftly, surely, a
ilently. Remorse or fright seems TO Q
ave seized upon the conscience OF s
)anton, after his purposes ioere Effected, {
nd little human pity and mercy b
eem TO have revisited bis breast. He :
ecame an enemy to tho exercise of Q
he axe and the tragic displays upon r
IS platform, craving rest from excite. b
lent, Indeed, the guillotine was b
rowing rusty and dull with excessive il
Sc. This late trait in Danton's dis. o
osition served to wean from his old d
arty, the Mountain. Other indica. I
ions of returning humanity lcssened o
is influence still moro and called forth !
icreased resentment, until the close
1893 brought the elimination to his
oor. Robespierre, still more sanguin. 81
ry of soul with years and vice, had a
cen elevated by the Jacobins Ia tho @