Excerpt from “Robespierre”, J.M. Thompson 1935
Speech to National Assembly, August 22nd, 1791
(Circulated all over the country as a charter of democracy, it went over the old ground between ‘passive’ citizenship and the Rights of Man; it pointed out the abuses to which the [new Censorship Law] measure would lead, the class-privileges it would introduce, the stigma it would inflict on poor patriots, the premium it would place on money-making, and the encouragement it would give to oligarchical corruption.)
“The poor have a stake in the country, as well as the rich. Yes, the poor man might say; ‘the coarse clothes which cover my body, the humble roof beneath which I purchase the right to live in privacy and peace, the modest wages with which I support my wife and children – all this, I allow, does not amount to an estate, a castle, or an establishment; perhaps, on a scale of wealth and luxury, it is nothing at all. Nevertheless, viewed in a human light, it has a value; for it is something of my very own, no whit less sacred than the shining acres of the rich. Why! is not my liberty, my life, the claim of protection or redress for myself, and for those who are dear to me – is not the right to resist oppression, and to give free rein to all the faculties of my mind and my affections – is not each of these first and most precious gifts of nature entrusted, as yours are, to the custody of the laws?’ The rich man, it may be argued, pays more to the state. Yes, but that is only because society allows him to be rich. And if we are to press the point, what is the origin of that excessive inequality of means which concentrates all the wealth of the country in a few hands? Is it not to be found in bad laws, bad governments, and in all the vices of a corrupt society? Or, again, are the poor so unfit for a share of power? ‘Do you honestly believe that a hard and laborious life engenders more vices than softness, luxury, and ambition? Have you less confidence in the honesty of our workmen and artisans, who, by your standard, will hardly ever rank as “active” citizens, than in that of the courtier and the tax-farmer, who, on the same reckoning, will stand six-hundred times as high?
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For my own part, I bear witness to all those whom an instinctively noble and sensitive mind has made friends and lovers of equality, that in general there is no justice or goodness like that of the people, so long as they are not irritated by excessive oppression; that they are grateful for the smallest consideration shown to them, for the least good that is done to them, and even for the evil that is left undone; and that among the poor, and under an exterior that we should call coarse, are found honest and upright souls, and a good sense and energy that one might seek long and in vain among a class that looks down upon them.”
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