Georges Jacques Danton

Georges-Jacques Danton, also known as Jorge Danton (Arcis-sur-Aube, October 26, 1759-guillotined in Paris, on April 5, 1794), was a French lawyer and politician who played a decisive role during the French Revolution and whose appeasing spirit was attacked by the different parties in conflict. He is considered by some historians as the main force behind the fall of the Old Regime and the establishment of the First French Republic, on the day of August 10, 1792.

He was one of the first leaders of the Jacobin Club along with Robespierre and one of the first to join the Committee of Public Safety. He was finally arrested by order of the latter and sentenced to the guillotine accused of corruption and mercy towards the enemies of the Revolution.

Early Years

He was born in Arcis-sur-Aube, Champagne, as one of four children of a respected but not wealthy prosecutor. As a child, he was gored by a bull while, according to the ancient custom of the region, he was suckled by a cow, then he was run over by a herd of pigs and suffered from smallpox, all of which would leave marks and scars on his face. Law at the Faculty of Reims and, after graduating, he enrolled in a law firm in Paris. More than the law firm, he frequented the cafes, which helped him to meet several future revolutionaries: Camille Desmoulins and Marat among them, as well as his future wife, Antoinette Gabrielle Charpentier (1760-1793). Antoinette was the daughter of a prosperous owner of a very respectable café, and her dowry allowed Danton to buy the position of lawyer in the King's Council in 1787. The marriage took place on June 14, 1787. They had four children of whom two survived: Antoine and François Georges Danton and she died giving birth to the fourth, stillborn.

French Revolution of 1789

When the French Revolution began in 1789, he enthusiastically entered politics and became the vanguard of Parisian radicalism. His speeches were often intense, but he tended to act cautiously. Despite being a generous, kind person and with great ideological flexibility, serious suspicions fell on him that he accepted bribes from the monarchists.

In July 1790, he founded the Society for the Rights of Man and the Citizen , better known by the club of Les Cordeliers . He was elected a member of the National Convention, in which he was immediately attacked by moderate deputies, known as the Girondins, who considered him a radical and a dangerous rival. Danton attempted to conciliate with his opponents, but his efforts were rebuffed.

Statue of Georges-Jacques Danton in Tarbes.

A member of the Commune, he led the republican agitation that led to the execution of protesters on the Champ de Mars on July 17, 1791. Danton fled and took refuge in England.

On his return, in November 1791, he was elected substitute for the attorney of the Paris Commune and, after participating in the insurrection of August 1792, he was appointed Minister of Justice. Due to his condition as a member of the Commune, and forming part, at the same time, of the Council of the Government, Danton becomes the man with the most power in France. ^{[citation needed ]} He had barely entered the revolutionary administration in Paris when Louis XVI's attempt to escape to Varennes made him support requests to establish the Republic.

In November 1792 he was sent by the Convention to Belgium, so he was not present at the trial hearing against Louis XVI, but when the sentence was passed he voted for the king's death, thus supporting Robespierre. He defended the annexation of Belgium to the Republic.

Public Safety Committee

As president of the «Society for the Rights of Man and of the Citizen», the Club des Cordeliers and for his abilities as a speaker he is gaining great popularity. According to one biographer, "Danton's height was colossal, his appearance athletic, his features strongly marked, rude and unpleasant, his voice shook the domes of the corridors", despite his unattractive physique and cynical speech, Danton possessed such brilliant charisma and oratory that he managed to sympathize with everyone.

In January 1793, he votes in favor of the execution of Louis XVI, despite having previously proposed his banishment. In March 1793, he participated in the creation of the revolutionary tribunal, which Danton himself had presided over since July ^{[citation needed ]} . In April he entered the Committee of Public Safety, executive body of the first French Republic.

Danton - who had supported the creation and granting of special powers to the Committee of Public Safety - was opposed to what he considered a dictatorship and the bloody repression that the committee launched against all kinds of dissidents (known as the "Terror").. Arguing that the military victories won by the revolutionary armies in 1793 made emergency measures unnecessary, he organized a political campaign in favor of clemency and the application of the Constitution.

Thus he will enter into open opposition with Robespierre, not so much because of his convictions, which they have in common, but because of the form. Danton tries to pacify the country and reach an understanding between the Girondins and the Jacobins; he opposes the continuation of the Terror, supporting the group called the "indulgent" and defends the claims of the sans-culottes , advising against the execution of Marie Antoinette.

The break between the "Dantonists" and the Jacobins was consummated at the end of the year 1793, a period in which Robespierre tried to maintain the political balance of his government by confronting the most radical as well as the most moderate. The Jacobins accuse Danton of embezzlement and of having sold out to the royalists, and he finds himself involved, along with his friend and deputy Fabre d'Églantine, in the scandal of the liquidation of the India Company. Because of all this, Danton finds himself in danger and once again flees, taking refuge in Arcis-sur-Aube.

On March 30, 1794, fifteen days after the execution of the «Hébertists», Danton, Desmoulins and Fabre are arrested on the accusation of being «enemies of the Republic»^{[citation required]}, according to the complaint filed by Saint-Just.

He is sentenced to death and guillotined on April 5, 1794. His last words were: «Do not forget, above all do not forget to show my head to the people; it's worth it», he also managed to say: «The only thing I regret is leaving before that rat Robespierre».

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