DANTON, George-Jacques, born at Arcis-sur-Aube on the 28th October 1759, was, at the epoch of the revolution, advocate to the council of the king, and one of the most terrible enemies of the authority to which a little before he appeared to have attached his fortune. Nature seems to have fitted this man for the part which he chose for himself. In appearance, in figure, and in voice, he might well have passed for an incarnate representative of a malignant but mighty fiend. Of colossal stature and extraordinary strength, with a countenance deeply marked by the small-pox, a flat and wry nose, protruding lips, and little sparkling eyes, he had an ardent and audacious look; whilst his rude and powerful voice made the public halls resound with its harsh thunder, and his diction, full of gigantesque figures and violent apostrophes, terrified those whom it failed to overpower. Mirabeau, who wanted persons of this description, in order to frighten the court and produce the first shocks of the revolution, employed Danton, as a sort of forge-blast, to inflame the popular passions. Ever since the year 1789, he had been the principal chief of the Parisian populace, in fact a true fish-market king. When the capital had been divided into districts, he was chosen to preside over that of the Cordeliers; and this portion of Paris immediately became the rendezvous of the most furious revolutionists;—in its assemblies all authorities were attacked, and all principles perverted. But this local anarchy did by no means satisfy the wishes of Danton. For, as the tribune of the district was accessible to all the citizens, there occasionallyappeared in it reasonable men, who forcibly combated his extravagances; and hence, in order to ensure the development of his system, he required auxiliaries disposed rather to go beyond than to fall short of his intentions. With this view he established the club of the Cordeliers, compared to which, that of the Jacobins was a collection of moderate and rational persons. Hitherto the district had only attacked monarchical institutions; but the new club had for its object to subvert, even to its foundations, the whole fabric of society. About the same time Danton took under his protection the infamous Marat, whose journal corrupted the populace, and stimulated them to the commission of every kind of excess; he withdrew that diseased miscreant from the agents of the police, afforded him an asylum, and employed him as often as he had occasion for any seditious movement, or for spreading some denunciation necessary to his designs. But it was not only in district assemblies nor in the clubs that Danton domineered; he was to be seen in the streets and in the public places, in the midst of tumultuous assemblages, haranguing the multitude, often with vehemence, and sometimes with gaiety. He had not, like many others, declared for the revolution on speculative grounds. His views were far less elevated. Devoted to sensual indulgences, he belonged to that class of intriguers who seek to bring on great civil commotions in order thereby to arrive at fortune; and sometimes he made no mystery of his intentions in this respect.

But it was not till the flight and return of Louis XVI. from Varennes that he began to make himself generally feared. On that occasion he put himself at the head of the assemblage in the Champ-de-Mars, which demanded the trial and punishment of the king. This first essay, however, proved unsuccessful; Danton was ordered to be arrested; and being at the same time pursued for debt, he durst not appear openly at the elections. But he had nevertheless the audacity to go to canvass for votes; and when an officer named Damien attempted to seize him, the poor man was himself arrested for having violated the national sovereignty. The populace, who watched over the safety of their chiefs, wished to massacre the officer; and Danton was named deputy attorney-general of the commune of Paris, in the face of the laws, and even of the constituent assembly itself, to which this nomination was a manifest outrage. At length the constitutional advisers of Louis XVI. seeing that they could not overpower Danton, or rather that they durst not attempt it, resolved to purchase him; but the persons charged with the negociation having estimated his services at too low a price, were consequently treated with disdain; he haughtily rejected their propositions, and had the incredible audacity, in one of his discourses to the commune, to signify, that if the terms proposed had not been accepted, it was only because they were below his pretensions. In order, however, to silence some rumours which were circulated against him, he now showed himself fiercer than ever against royalty, and contributed more than any other individual to the revolution [7:7:620]of the tenth of August. The real republicans still confined themselves to mere declamations; they were undecided what course they should follow, and they dared not push matters to extremities. It was Danton who struck the decisive blow, after having prepared all the means necessary to render it effectual. Some days before the catastrophe, Pétion, major of Paris, had caused to be lodged in the house of the Cordeliers, and recommended to its benevolence, that horde of ruffians who, under the name of the Marseillais, had traversed France, to the number of six hundred, declaring openly, wherever they went, that they were going to Paris to murder the king. Danton received them, entertained them, gave them the necessary instructions, provided them with suitable auxiliaries, and arranged with them the attack of the Tuilleries; and it was, in fact, by means of these vagabonds that the oldest and most powerful monarchy of Europe was, at a moment of weakness and terror, overthrown.

After this event, Danton was appointed minister of justice by the legislative assembly, which had now lost all authority, and decreed whatever he required of it. Even Robespierre, afterwards so powerful, durst not as yet venture to show himself; and Danton stood alone on the field of battle, surrounded only by a small number of friends. He began by causing the barriers to be shut, and decreeing domiciliary visits in order to discover those who were known to be attached to the party of the court. These searches were made in the middle of the night, and a crowd of persons, chiefly belonging to the most distinguished classes, were hurried to prison, where a dreadful fate awaited them. An extraordinary tribunal was instituted, and the first victims were sent to the scaffold; but, formidable as were the men who composed it, this tribunal still procccded too slowly for the taste of the popular leaders, who required numerous executions, and proceedings more rapid and terrible. On the morning of the 2d September 1792, intelligence arrived that the Prussians, commanded by the Duke of Brunswick, and having with them two brothers of the king, and a great number of emigrants, had entered the territory of France and taken possession of Lorgwy and Verdun. This news threw the capital into the most violent agitation. Danton immediately repaired to the committee of the commune, and, having convoked the committee of public safety, whose members all belonged to the club of the Cordeliers, had a long conference with them. The prisoners were then deprived of all instruments and moveables which might have been used by them in their own defence; whilst those detained for debt, and some other persons who were fortunate enough to interest the popular leaders, were released. This being done, the terrible minister of justice proceeded to the bar of the national assembly, gave an account of the progress of the enemy, and required that a general arming should be instantly decreed, that the tocsin should be sounded, and that all citizens able to bear arms should be summoned to the Champ-de-Mars, to be there enrolled and formed into military cohorts, to march against the tyrants and their satellites. The deputy Vergniaux, in a vehement harangue, enumerated the menaces of the Duke of Brunswick, and converted the demand of the minister into a motion, which was unanimously agreed to.

But scarcely had this decree passed, when alarm and terror spread all over the capital. At the lugubrious sound of the tocsin, and the hollow roll of the générale, the furious multitude shouted “to arms,” insulting and menacing all who did not participate in their frenzy; whilst the emissaries of the clubs and of the committee of the commune declared loudly, that before marching against the enemy, it was necessary to exterminate the “scélérats” of the interior, and particularly the prisoners seized in the course of the domiciliary visits. These unhappy men, foreseeing their fate, supplicated the individual charged with the superintendence of the prisons to save their lives; and, to his eternal honour, that person courageously undertook to do his utmost in order to provide for their safety. He repaired to the hotel where the ministers were assembled, and first addressed himself to Danton, giving an account of the movements which were observed around the prisons, with the alarm of the prisoners, and representing to the colossal terrorist that it particularly belonged to him, as minister of justice, to afford them protection. Danton, however, repulsed the application in language worthy of a revolutionary Moloch. With a bellowing tone of voice, and a gesture appropriated to the expression, he exclaimed, in words which we shall not translate, “Je me f... bien des prisonniers; qu’ils deviennent ce qui pouront;” and went away grinning a diabolical smile at his own sanguinary brutality. It was equally by his orders or with his approbation that the persons who had been sent to the high court of Orleans were brought back to Versailles, and there massacred. It was under his countersign that the odious circular issued by the committee of the commune of Paris was sent into the departments to invite the “patriots” to repeat in the provinces the executions of September in the capital. These dreadful massacres produced the effect which their authors had expected from them. Terror froze every heart. In the greater number of the departments, as well as in Paris, the enemies of the royal authority alone obtained suffrages at the elections; and all public functions were performed by the most furious of this class.

Danton quitted the ministry of justice in order to discharge the duties of a deputy to the convention, to which he had been called by the electors of Paris, hoping to exercise there the same ascendency as he had done over the clubs and the people of the capital; but he carried along with him a double source of discord and enmity, namely, his crimes and his success. Although he was in fact the real founder of the republic, yet the true republicans were necessarily his adversaries. This class of revolutionists, amongst whom were several who to fine talents united elevated sentiments, did not choose that the republic, which was the object of their wishes, should from its very birth be attainted by crimes so horrible and so monstrous as the executions of September; and they warmly demanded the punishment of those who had committed them, or had been accessary to their commission. On the other hand, the dark jealousy of Robespierre observed with uneasiness that Danton divided with him the favour of the populace, and possessed at least equal influence in the convention; and from this time accordingly he meditated Danton’s destruction.

Although at this time much more criminal than his rival, Danton was nevertheless of a disposition less exclusively wicked. He was one of those proud beings who, conceiving themselves called to regulate the destinies of states, think that all crimes become lawful actions, provided they tend to ensure the success of grand designs; but he would not have committed useless crimes, and it may be said of him that he ceased to be criminal from the moment when he had no longer any pretension to figure as a statesman. Even at the first sitting of the convention, he wished to re-establish order and to inspire confidence, by demanding that all property should be guaranteed by a solemn decree. More tolerant than other persons who had not to reproach themselves with the same excesses, he said he was afraid of rendering liberty hateful by too rigorous an application of what he was pleased to call “philosophical principles.” On several occasions he even took upon himself the defence of religious worship; and it is not [7:7:621]altogether improbable that this terrible man would have become prudent and moderate, had he not been forced to repel the attacks directed against his party. Roland, his colleague in the ministry, hoping to render himself agreeable to the people by proving that he had not shared in the peculations which had recently taken place, gave an account of his conduct in office, and caused placards containing his official exposition to be affixed to the corners of the streets. Danton, on the other hand, being unable to parade so much honesty, pretended that the ministers were only responsible as a whole, and could not render an account except collectively. This doctrine prevailed, and Roland fell under the axe of the guillotine.

Danton voted for the death of Louis XVI.; but it was not apparently a judgment which he wished to pronounce. In answer to one of the familiars who, in conversation, represented to him that the convention had done wrong in putting the king on his trial, “You are right,” said Danton; “therefore we will not judge him, we’ll kill him.” The new republic was already tormented with the most violent discords, which, notwithstanding all his audacity, occasioned Danton great uneasiness. He foresaw inevitable catastrophes, and dreaded that he and his associates would not be able much longer to command events. “The metal boils,” said he; “but the statue of liberty is not yet cast. If you do not watch the furnace, you will be all burned.”

On his return from Belgium, whither he had been sent with Lacroix to superintend the armies and revolutionize the country, he was warmly accused of peculation, particularly by Marat. He treated Marat with contempt, and silenced his accusers; but he could never efface the impression which this denunciation had made. After the check which the armies experienced at Aix-la-Chapelle, Danton returned to Paris to give an account of the state of things, and to prepare the necessary means of defence. These were terror and levies en masse. In the clubs and in the sectional assemblies, the cry to arms was continually resounded; and to supply the place of the massacres of September, which being too complete could not be renewed, Danton caused Chaumette, then one of his partisans, to demand the formation of a revolutionary tribunal. Towards the close of the struggle which terminated in the events of the 31st May 1793, Danton hesitated what part to take. The popularity of Robespierre disturbed him; but the declared determination of the moderate republicans to bring the authors of the massacres of September to punishment did not occasion him less alarm. At the moment of the crisis, Μ. de Meilhan, who belonged to the latter party, endeavoured to draw him over by flattering his pride. Danton listened to him with attention, looked for an instant undecided, then, reflecting on the danger to which he would expose himself, and the influence which he would lose by a change of system, he merely replied, with reference to the republicans, “They have not confidence;” and entered the hall of the convention, where, mingling with those who were rushing blindly into a new revolution, he invoked without success the vengeance of the laws against Henriot, who had outraged the convention, and appeared to desire its dissolution. After the 3lst of May, Danton demanded that the committee of public safety should be erected into a provisional government; and, in order to prevent all suspicion, he refused to become a member of that body.

Less verbose than Robespierrein his popular cajoleries, Danton nevertheless sought to attach the multitude by means which must have appeared to him much more effectual. He attacked all the laws of the maximum, and especially the tax on grain; and as the sectional assemblies of Paris had been deserted, terror having kept away some, and the necessity of labour others, he caused a decree to be passed, ordaining that each citizen who attended these assemblies should receive an indemnity of forty sous. From this time they were inundated by crowds of the lowest populace, prepared to believe whatever was told them, and to do whatever they were desired. One of their first acts was to demand that Danton should be added to the committee of public safety; and although he affected to refuse, he ended by consenting to form one of that body. In the month of November 1793, he attacked the extravagant festivals of Reason, which the schismatic Cordeliers dared to celebrate, even in the very bosom of the convention. “When shall we cause these mummeries to cease ?” said he. “We have not wished to destroy superstition in order to establish atheism.” Robespierre joined him in overthrowing a faction which threatened both alike; and soon afterwards the principal founders of the worship of reason parted with their heads on the scaffold.

But this understanding could not be of long duration. Robespierre was not one of those men who hate in vain. Camille Desmoulins, the friend of Danton, had ventured to compare the measures then pursued with those which had been employed by Tiberius, and to exhibit proofs in a pamphlet entitled Le Vieux Cordelier, wherein he published various passages from Tacitus, which certainly went to show that a perfect similitude existed between the decrees of the convention and those of the Roman emperor. Robespierre rebuked him sharply, and abandoned him to the vengeance of the chiefs of his party, whom he had turned into ridicule. Danton took the part of Desmoulins, and counselled him not to be alarmed at the severity of the reproof administered by Robespierre, who could no longer tolerate any opposition to his will. He also wished to defend Fabre d’Eglantine, his intimate adviser, who had been accused of malversation; but he was unable to save his brother peculator, and ought to have learned by this check that he himself would soon be attacked. In fact the struggle now commenced between these redoubted rivals; and those who dreaded the consequences attempted to bring them together. They met at dinner, but parted in greater alienation than ever, “It is right,” said Danton, addressing Robespierre, “that the royalists should be put down; but the innocent ought not to be confounded with the guilty, and we should only strike when the blow will be useful to the republic.” “Eh! who has told you,” replied Robespierre, knitting his eye-brows fiercely, “that any innocent man has perished ?” “ I must show myself,” said Danton, in retiring; “there is not a moment to be lost.” Nevertheless, instead of acting he hesitated. Westermann, his principal agent, pressed him to strike, and promised assistance. Danton merely answered, “He dares not.” But before braving him, Robespierre had taken his measures, and the giant who had overturned the throne was arrested in bed on the night of the 31st March 1794, without offering the least resistance. Lacroix, his friend, was arrested the same night, and both were conducted to the Luxembourg. Danton, on entering, politely saluted the numerous detenus who had crowded around in order to see him. “Gentlemen,” said he, “I had hopes of soon bringing about your liberation; but here I am myself among you; and I no longer know how all this will end.” Some deputies wished to remonstrate against this arrest; but Robespierre appeared in the tribune, and having indignantly asked who they were that dared to take the part of the conspirator, and the immoral man with whose crimes the people were about to be made acquainted, they all remained silent. Danton and Lacroix were confined in separate cells, but sufficiently near to be able to converse, and to be overheard by the other detenus. Lacroix threw out some reproaches against Danton, accusing him of indolence and carelessness. “It is this,” said he, “which has ruined [7:7:622] us.” They then conversed gaily on the fate which awaited them, and which they appeared to deride. When brought before the revolutionary tribunal, four days after their arrest, they scarcely deigned to answer the interrogatories put to them by the president, and during the discussion they amused themselves with rolling pellets of bread, and darting them at the noses of the judges and the jury. Danton, whilst occupied in forming these missiles, merely observed, “Mon individu sera bientôt dans le neant ; mais mon nom est déjà dans la posteritél' The tribunal, terrified at their audacity, consulted the committees of government on the subject, and the latter gave orders to put the prisoners hors des debats, that is, to condemn them at once, without further hearing. This decision threw Danton into an inexpressible rage, and he launched out into imprecations against those by whom he had been proscribed. “It was I,” cried he on entering the chamber of the condemned, “it was I who caused this infamous tribunal to be instituted; I ask pardon of God and man for having done so. I leave every thing,” added he, “in a frightful hodgepodge; no one understands any thing of government: besides, they are all brothers of Cain; Brissot would have caused me to be guillotined as well as Robespierre.” The sight of the apparatus of punishment did not in the slightest degree discompose him; he mounted the fatal cart with unshaken firmness; his head was high, and his looks full of pride; and he seemed still to command the populace. Nevertheless, before submitting himself to the executioner, he seemed for an instant to be softened, if not overcome. “Oh, my well-beloved! oh, my wife,” cried he, “I shall never see you more.” Then rousing him abruptly, he shouted, “Be thyself, Danton; no weakness ;” after which he rapidly ascended the scaffold, and said to the executioner, “You will show my head to the people; it is worth the trouble.” He died on the 5th April 1794, at the age of thirty-five. (Biographie Universelle.') (a.)