Maximilien+Robespierre

** Maximilien de Robespierre **

3rd estate Orator, head of the Board of Public Safety, and prominent member of the Jacobian Club. citizen of France born the 6th of May, 1758 I, Maximilien, was born on the sixth of may, 1758, in the town of Arras. My mother died when I was six, while in childbirth, shortly after, my grieving father left us, and we have received no further word from him. I hope it is not hard to see why I found it hard to fit in with the other schoolchildren there, who found much enjoyment in trivial games and entertainment while I delt with more serious matters. In 1789, I was elected to the Estates General. Early on though, It was my time spent in the Society of Friends of the Constitution, which became known as the Jacobin Club, due to the meetings being held in a Jacobin Convent, which contributed most to my reputation. There, I slowly became the most prominent speaker, and before long I found myself in a very strong position, with myself at the head of the most respectable association in France. I found a new home in this society, composed of those who, like myself had a passion for enlightened thought. As I gave my speeches, I found myself deeply influenced by Rosseau, to whom I had paid a visit just months before his death. Indeed, some have even said that my speeches are a reflection of his Ideals. While I do respect him, I hope I am looked upon as more then merely a proponent of his ideas. In my speeches I voiced my anger that while people quickly flocked to the ideals of the enlightenment when it suited them, they soon lost their path, and returned to follow such base ideals as money and power. If I could have, I would have denounced them all, but I was forced to refrain from disturbing those tyrants who call upon the mobs to silence those who dare disturb their idleness. I had to gain support for myself in that unstable time by speaking so as to strike a balance between risking offending my own party, and risking offending those who held power. I could never denounce some one as an enemy of the state until they were already dead or on their way to the guillotine. After the september massacres though, a course of actions were set into action which placed my party and I without rival, over France. When the blood ceased to flow, only Danton, Marat, and myself remained, and through his own actions, Marat was eliminated by a young Charlotte Corday, Leaving only Danton to be my competitor for enlightened France. Though we had worked together for long, little aside from our rivalry with the Girondists bound us together. It seemed conflict was inevitable, and history shows what occured next. But let us speek a moment of Danton, Though his power amung the people was great, he had failings. His speeches were motivated not by thought but by anger, and he was driven first to agreement, then hostility with my party because of it, although no one could tell where he would direct his fury next. Once, he found himself at the verge of denouncing his own party in support of my own! I can't recall this without thinking of his last words "Show my head to the people, it is worth seeing" Indeed, his speeches were worth hearing, but his power would have collapsed in on itself surely, with disaster perhaps, even without aid from outside.

John Schwarz