Maximilien Robespierre: “On the Moral and Political Principles of Domestic Policy”

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

Robespierre begins by stating that after a period of factional infighting, the National Convention had decided on a new “domestic” policy. It had achieved this through a “love of the good” and an “awareness” of the “country's needs.” For Robespierre, this incorruptible government had attempted something new in history, and he wanted to clearly set out the “aim of the revolution” for all to see, so that their principles might be judged. This aim was the “peaceable enjoyment of liberty and equity” and the “reign” of “eternal justice” through laws that would create a happy people. This goal would be realized not only through the removal of an absurd monarchy but also through the creation of a virtuous republic. Society's ills could be remedied only through a “democratic or republican” government: “a state in which the sovereign people, guided by laws which are its own work, itself does all it can do well, and through delegates all it cannot do itself.” This meant that the new French revolutionary government acted in the interests of all the people (not just the king and the nobility) and that the government representatives had a duty to act in the best interests of the people. According to Robespierre, these best interests were to consolidate the Revolution's democratic principles during the ongoing “storms” of the revolutionary process.

To consolidate the democratic principles for the people of France, government had to use the ancient Greek notion of the love of country and law while promoting a love of equality and virtue in government. Government must avoid the “weakness, vice, prejudice” of royalty by purifying “morals and customs” through the “maintenance of equality and the development of virtue.” Robespierre warns against the “excessive energy” of factions within the Revolution and the potential for it to turn into a “weakness” that might return France to the royal ways of the past. France did not simply face a return to the past; it was also fighting both internal and external enemies. The internal enemies, moderates and ultra-revolutionaries, frequently deceived the people about the intentions of the National Convention and wished either to destroy government (and thereby France) or to return her to monarchy. The external enemies were states such as England, Prussia, and Austria, which saw an opportunity to defeat a weakened France in turmoil and avenge the execution of the king. Robespierre argues that these enemies wanted to tyrannize France and destroy its democratic government.

According to Robespierre, to repel the intentions of these enemies it was not enough for government to defend itself in the courtrooms; it must exact a swift and severe justice. To save and secure French sovereignty and create strength, the government representatives had to utilize the “moral and political” principles of republican government. While the people needed only to love itself, government representatives had to sacrifice their interests for the people's interests to ensure public order, virtue, and liberty, thereby calming the “tempest” of the revolution while protecting France from its enemies. To combat the “tempest” required “virtue and terror.” Robespierre argues that terror is “nothing other than justice, prompt severe, inflexible; it is therefore an emanation of virtue.” Terror, for Robespierre, is a “general principle of democracy” used by a country when urgently required, and it was needed at this time in order to secure the Revolution and democratic government for the people of France.