The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-04-16

@> y years younger
I HI ~ than Mirabeau, be-
%S0i tween whom and
himself history
90 has drawn many
- parallels and like
nesses. While yet the revolution was at
its height, the French people, both friends
and enemies of the popular cause, discov-
cred in Danton the natural successor of the
dead Mirabeau. The former rose as the
latter sank below the horizon; the manner
of the man was such as to point him out as
the necessary captain of the revolutionary
forces
Danton was lawyer. He had prepared
himself somewhat for his profession before
leaving his childhood's home in Cham
payne and going to Paris. AT the outbreak
of the revolution we discover him at the
capital, happily married, leading cheer
full life, a diligent student of men and af-
fairs, practicing with success in the courts.
The assembling of the states general found
him thirty years of age, but not partici
pant-except by sympathy and occasional
speech-in the prevailing movement. At
this time, however, he plunged into the
tide and swan. Men saw him and began
to wonder at the strength of his stroke
lle VIII NdJeEs 1Sll away LIOLl Ills arms
and breast as from the fins of a monster of
the sea. He became a power outside of
the states general and the first assembly,
advocating and promoting the same cause
which the Democrats advocated and pro-
NOTED in the Hall of the Menus and the
Sale de Manage
Now it was that q party sprang up in
Paris, audacious in its advocacy of popular
1ina,.+1- ba ~ ~
as high as the throne of France. A great
club, known as the Club of the Cordeliers,
was formed as the focus and life center of
this party, and of this club the focus and
life center was Danton. Not, however, IN
til the early part of 1890 did the voice of
this son of thunder begin to be heard above
the roar of the revolution. Already the
Bastile had fallen. Already the king and
court had been compelled to remove from
the security and quiet of Versailles to the
insecurity and tumult of the Tuileries.
Paris was volcano, spouting fire and
smoke. The throne itself began to quake,
but was steadied for season by the power
full hand of Mirabeau
In April of 1871 that Hercules of the peo-
pie and friend of order suddenly died, and
for a short season the great parties into
which the French nation had been divided
crouched down, each in its place, tigeriike,
with fiery eyeballs, waiting to spring in
death grapple upon the other. In this in
terval, including the latter part of 1871 and
the beginning of the next year, no leader
appeared, but at the latter date Danton
arose, and with mighty outstretched arm
Above the rest,
In shape and gesture proudly eminent
Stood like a tower.
Young as he was he was hailed as chief
by the audacious party which had deter
mined upon the destruction of the mon
archy. At length. in 1892 the assembly
declared war against Austria, and while
the internal volcano of revolution con-
tinued to spout, a narrowing rim of fire
and conquest was seen along the north
eastern border of France Every patriot
must now ask himself the question, 'Does
not this king of ours, this Louis Capet,
with his Austrian wife, desire the success
Of the enemy3 Would he not gladly see us
all slain with foreign swords in order that
he may recover his feudal rights, and Marie
Antoinette still wear her high head and
ostrich plumes in the Hall of Mirrors at
Versailles" Such questions could have
but one answer. Paris arose and made a
rush for the Tuileries. The place was taken,
the royal family expelled, the Swiss
guards in their red coats slain or scat
tered; and as the great equestrian statue
of Louis XIV was turned over, the populace
found inscribed on the bottom of the hinder
horseshoe, august 18th, 1692"-a hundred
years ago, lacking two days!
OF the storming of the Tuileries and of
the virtual overthrow of the monarchy
Danton is believed to have been the princi-
pal inspiring cause. Certainly history, as
against all men, was in the field; but of
human wills Danton's was the most effect
i've in the deed. His mind now began to
corruscate and flash wild lightning through
the dun smoke of the arena His eloquence
astonished all men, His passion for the
patriot cause burned like a furnace
Though the Austrians were on the border
aye, had broken in the border-and
though the fires of a wild revolution were
flaming, not only in Paris, but in all the
cities of France, this young giant, now but
thirty-three years of age, placed himself
with barred breast in the thunder blast and
defed the storm. He openly declared that
audacity, fearlessness, contempt of death
and promotion of the revolution at all
hazards were the only remedies. While
Brunswick and the Austrian army came
on, Danton stood in his place and cried
out, 81 nous fault de raudace, ct encore de
Paudace, ct toajours de laudace''-that is,
"Now we must have audaity, and more
audacity. and audacitv foreverr' The peo-
pie caught the echo, and the phrase passed
into history as the key word of the French
revolution
When the French monarchy toppled
down, Danton was at the fore along with
Roland and the men of the Gironde. He
was a member of the executive committee
when the Austrian successes on the frontier
threw Paris into frenzy of rage and vim
dictiveness. 1t was at this juncture that
the first great measure Of terror was
adopted, or rather adopted itself, in the
massacre of the prisoners and suspects in
the Partisan jails. The event in itself was
one of the most monstrous atrocities of
human history. But still there was a
method in the madness, and Danton him.
self is said to have been responsible for the
method.
This was the theory of that appalling
butchery: The Austrians are gnawing into
the vitals of our France. The king and
the kings party wish the Austrians to sue
coed, to triumph over us, to destroy us
These men in the prisons are loyalists and
enemies of the republic. They are friends
of Louis and the Austriens. We will kill
them as measure of terror. We will let
in upon them the fierce Sansculottes and
not one of them all shall escape our venge.
A,1c+ ,i rr-sl1 hon, = III