Democracy Thwarted in The Revolution of September 1797

1 Democracy Thwarted In The Revolution of September 1797
In Gaston Maugras, Memoirs of Marquise de Custine, we read:

On the 18th Fructidor (September 4 [1797]) the troops of General Angerau took possession of the Tuilleries, where the councils were sitting; more than half the recent elections were declared null and void ; two directors Carnot and Barthlemy, were imprisoned, with more than sixty deputies, and deported to [New] Guina [South America].1
Maugras is describing the sad re-emergence of Ro espierrist Jacobinism in 1796-1797. The French people had previously made clear that they detested the Mountain party of Robespierre. They proved this by the Civil War of 1793. They demonstrated this again in the overthrow of the Mountain in 1794-1795. And they proved this again in the elections of 1797 where anti-Robespierrists won a decisive majority. Wiht the gradual repression of Mountain-party Jacobinism, France underwent a rebirth. In this time, anyone who could be associated in the past with the Jacobin clubs was treated as a fallen and disgraced citizen, to be pitied and not trusted. Barras, however, since he arrested Robespierre to make his own coup which failed, was trusted as one of the several Directors the chief executive committee who led France. Forgotten or ignored was Barras past as a Jacobin terrorist at Toulon. As his cousin wrote in 1798, Bar1. (1912), supra, at 217. Illuminati of Bavaria 1
Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com)
Democracy Thwarted In The Revolution of September 1797
ras was in turn officer, Republican, Jacobin, and at last Terrorist. . . .2 Finally, Talleyrand bribed one of the Directors to leave, and thereby was able to put Sieys on the Directory with Barras. Up to that time, Barras had tried to move the nation toward the Mountain policies once more between 1795-1797. When the elections of 1797 appointed too many moderates who would stall revival of the Mountain system, Barras simply cancelled the election results. As a result of the revolution of September 4, 1797, France descended into darkness once more. The French of 1794-1796 did not realize that they left far too many old unprincipled men in government.
Enlightened Thinking in 1795-1797 Which Embodied The Tactics of This Coup dEtat
The inspiration for Barras coup of 1797, and later the imposition by Barras of a dictator (Napoleon) in1799, and with this the revived plan of world domination had its blueprints in a book entitled Perpetual Peace; A Philosophical Sketch.3 It was written by Immanuel Kant, a famous philosopher, who had it printed in 1795. Kant was one of the intellectuals of the time whom the successor head of the Illuminati
2. Moritz von Kaisenberg, Ed. The Memoirs of the Baroness Cecile de Courtot, Lady-in-Waiting to the Princess de Lamballe, Princess of Savoy-Carignan (translated from the German by Jessie Haynes) (N.Y.: Henry Holt & Co., 1900) at 118 (letter of 3d Frimaire, Year VII [1798] by Edme). 3. Kant, Zum ewigen Frieden. Ein philosphischer Entwurf (Liberal Arts Press, 1957). When Kant wrote this work, there was a Congress of Basel meeting to arrange peace among Germany, Spain, and France. This might have been the prompting for his work. Illuminati of Bavaria 2
Enlightened Thinking in 1795-1797 Which Embodied The Tactics of This Coup
after J.C. Bode died in 1793 Reinhold strongly supported.4 It provides us startling examples of Macchiavelian amorality. Sieys, the architecht of the revolution of 1797-1799 with Talleyrand, indeed read the French translation of Perpetual Peace in 1796. After reading it, Sieys wrote Kant praising him and asked him to comment upon a proposed French Constitution that he and Talleyrand were secretly planning to introduce for France.5 Kant's book outlined the plan of world government and how one would use military dictatorship to do it. Reading the horrible ideas of Kants shows us in bold print how totally unscrupulous were those sharing this particular agenda. First, in Perpetual Peace, Kant recommends the abolishment of all standing armies. The world should enact a law of world citizenship . . . of a universal state of men.6 A single common legislation should also be created.7 A federal "league of nations" should be created within which
4. It is unknown whether Kant was an Illuminatus. He and Weishaupt had an open public row on issues of philosophy, focused on Kants idealism and Weishaupts realism. Regardless, we know that Kants works were published through the good offices of two prominent members of the Illuminati Goethe and Karl August, Duke of Weimar. They provided the publishing facilities for his controversial works on religion. Kant was otherwise unable to find a publisher. See footnote 32, infra. Also, it appears Nicolai alias "Lucian" in the Illuminati at Berlin did know Kant. He even apparently introduced Mirabeau to Kant when Mirabeau was in Berlin in 1786. Claude Manceron, Age of the French Revolution Vol. IV, Toward the Brink 1785-1787 (N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1989) at 323. Finally, Kants greatest promoter was Reinhold. [cite] Reinhold became the successor leader over the Illuminati at the death of J.C. Bode in 1793. (Terry Melanson, Perfectibilists (2008) at ____.) 5. Luc Ferry, "Kant," Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution, supra, at 960. 6. . Kant, Perpetual Peace, supra, at 10-11 n. 1. 7. . Kant, Perpetual Peace, supra, at 11. Illuminati of Bavaria 3
disputes would be settled by each state pleading their cause before a Tribunal.8 Here was the central idealistic doctrine of the Illuminati put in print. Kant continued. The laws of such a world government must be so strong that if ones private intentions conflict with them, they will check one's public conduct to such a degree of extirpation as if one had no such intentions.9 Herein lies a suggestion of a police state. Only in a police state can the law be structured to remove any anti-social thoughts. Kant next taught that the morality that will bring this one world system into being is a one world religion. There is "only one religion valid for all men and in all ages." Kant concluded that the different religious textsthe Koran, Bible, Zendavesta, and Vedawere nothing else than accidental vehicles of religion, thus changing with times and places.10 To accomplish this universal religion, we can count on nothing but force. Here, the Illuminatis second central tenet
8. . Kant, Perpetual Peace, supra, at 18. 9. . Kant, Perpetual Peace, supra, at 30. A slightly tamer translation appears in Kant, On History (Ed. Lewis White Beck) (Trans. L.W. Beck, R.A. Anchor, & E.L. Fackenheim) (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merril, 1963) at 112, yet the meaning is still the same. 10.Kant, Perpetual Peace, supra, at 31 and n. 7. In 1792 the University of Jena at the urging of Goethe and Karl August published Kants thesis on religion and law. Kant claimed that law does not depend on the idea of another Being over him to apprehend his duty, nor of an incentive, other than the law itself ... Hence, for its own sake morality does not need religion at all. (Will & Ariel Durant, Rousseau and Revolution (N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1967) at 545 (quoting Religion within the Limit of Reason Alone by Kant).) Prayer to obtain Gods grace is superstitious illusion, Kant said. Id., at 546. Kants philosophy also recommended that children should be made to work early as the best discipline. Children should be taught moral lessons, stressing the concept of duty, not religion. (Durant, Rousseau and Revolution, supra, at 548-49.) Illuminati of Bavaria 4
was taughtthe nothingness of all religions and the use of government to force a religion of naturalism. This was Kants endorsement of the Cloots phase of the 1793 revolution. Kant then openly proposed the concept of a dictatorship in a single vanguard state as the one which could bring such a World Republic about. This state would have so impressed law on the minds of its subjects that it could allow the withering away of its state machineryto the extent, of course, that the people now formed a cohesive thinking unit. A state may exercise a republican rule, even though by its present constitution it has a despotic sovereignty until gradually the people become susceptible to the influence simply of the idea of the authority of law (as if it possessed physical power) and thus is found fit to be its own legislator . . . . Thus, the dream is to use such a great degree of force that people are so impressed with the "law" that one day they have no need of government or religion to maintain their good behavior. In other words, Kant outlines in clearest terms the maxims of the despotic rule which he advocated. He provides a revolutionary program that befits Nazi-like monsters, not philosophers. He says the next revolutionary governments military leaders should follow these maxims, which we quote verbatim in their shocking entirety. Kant explicitly calls for these maxims to be followed to achieve the despotic sovereignty to user in world peace by a revolutionary vanguard state:
1. Seize every favorable opportunity for usurping the right of the state over its own people or over a neighboring people . . .; 2. What you have committed, deny that it is your fault for instance that you have brought your people to despair and hence to rebellion...;
Illuminati of Bavaria
3. Divide et impera. That is, if there are certain privileged persons in your nation who have chosen you as their chief, set them at variance with one another and embroil them with the people. Show the latter visions of greater freedom, and all will soon depend upon your untrammelled will . Or if it is foreign states that concern you, it is pretty safe means to sow discord among them so that, by seeming to protect the weaker, you can conquer them one after another ; 4. The rights of men must be held sacred, however much sacrifice it may cost the ruling power;11 5. A maxim which I cannot divulge without defeating my own purpose must be kept secret if it is to succeed; 6. The rights of the people are injured; no injustice befalls the tyrant when he is deposed. There can be no doubt on this point . . . . The ruler and people, or nation do each other no injustice by violence and fraud they make war on each other, although they do commit injustice in general in that they they refuse to respect the concept of right, which alone could establish perpetual peace; and 7. [R]ebellion . . . if openly acknowledged . . . [and] publishing the maxim of its intention to revolt . . . would make its own purpose impossible. Therefore, it would have to be kept secret.12
11.This may be a veiled reference to the need to spill blood to protect the dictatorship of the people.
We thus see that Kant proposed that the end justifies the means. The dictatorship of the sovereign people should be deceptive and cunning to stay in power. If a "tyrant" is in power (that is a government that is not a dictatorship of the "sovereigns") then a "secret" movement to overthrow him is justified, using duplicity as its assistant. Once established as a nation, this peoples Republic (Kants own name for this dictatorship) would sow discord amongst neighbors and take over one after another until the world government dreamed of by Kant is fulfilled. Kant further taught that wars of conquest will teach opponents to accept unification into a world government. And revolutions can prepare the way for conquest by peoples Republics and are thus acceptable, but they take time to prepare. Kant says when ruler and people war against each other, there is no injustice in this except the delay in reaching perpetual peace. "Each gets what he deserves when they destroy each other. But enough of the race," Kant preached, "still remains to let this game continue into the remotest ages in order that posterity, some day, might take these perpetrators as a warning example . . . While with advancing civilization reason grows pragmatically in its capacity to realize ideas of law . . . [and] humanity [is thereby] . . . improved."13
12.Kant, Zum ewigen Frieden. Ein philosphischer Entwurf. (English translation) (Liberal Arts Press, 1957) at 40, 45, 47, 48. It is interesting to see how other later translations softened and apparently altered this translation. This is apparent reading Kant, On History (Ed. Lewis White Beck) (Indianopolis: Bobbs-Merril, 1963) at 130. As to point six, for example, the Beck translation, in part, is: "Nevertheless, it is in the hightest degree illegitimate for the subjects to seek their rights in this way." The older translation has a much tamer statement that revolting citizens "do commit injustice in general" by revolting which Kant otherwise provides excuses for. The Beck translation thus alters the meaning by making it appear Kant is more against revolution than he is for it. Another translation of what apparently started as number five has been altered into oblivion. The Beck translation is "All maxims which stand in need of publicity in order not to fail their end agree with politics and right combined." Id. at 134. 13.. Kant, Perpetual Peace, supra, at 45-46. Illuminati of Bavaria 7
Kant concludes: after many revolutions, with all their transforming effects, the highest purpose of nature, a cosmopolitan existence, will at last be realized within which all the original capacities of the human race may be developed.14 Hence, Kant preached a sort of millennium where perpetual peace would be established by wars and revolutions leading men to wisely select his solution of world government. Most illuminating on these passages is that Kant elsewhere originated the idea of a will to power that Hitler infamously borrowed in Mein Kampf. Kant taught the necessity of abandoning reliance upon ones judgment of what is right or wrong. Arendt explains how the faculty of judgment of right and wrong had no place in Kants moral philosophy. Instead, Kant said practical reason is identical with the will and only the will lays down the law for each individual. It is the will that utters commands; it alone speaks in imperatives. Judgmentreflection on moralityby contrast is weak for it arises from merely contemplative pleasure or inactive delight.15 Only what one willed was right; all power rested in each individual to tap into this will to power and action. In this context Kant preached the advantage of ruthlessness and war:
[W]hat is that which is, even to the savage, an object of the greatest admiration? It is a man who shrinks from nothing, who fears nothing, and therefore does not yield to danger... Even
14. Kant, Kant's Political Writings (ed. Hans Reiss) (Trans. H.B. Nisbet) (Cambridge, England: At the University Press, 1971) at 184 (quoting Kants The Contest of the Faculties). 15. Kant, Introduction to Metaphysics of Morals, section 1; see Kants Critique of Practical Reason and Other Works on the Theory of Ethics (Trans. Thomas Kingsmill Abbott) (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1898) at 267, as discussed in Hannah Arendt, Lecture on Kant's Political Philosophy (Ed. Ronald Biener) (The University of Chicago Press, 1982) at 15. Illuminati of Bavaria 8
in the most highly civilized state this peculiar veneration for the soldier remains . . . because even [here] it is recognized that his mind is unsubdued by danger. Hence . . . in the comparison of a statesman and a general, the aesthetical judgment decides for the latter. War itself . . . has something sublime in it . . . . On the other hand, a long peace generally brings about a predominant commercial spirit and, along with it, low selfishness, cowardice, and effeminacy, and debases the disposition of the people.16
Preparation for war has many advantages, Kant says. In Hitlerian style he said they include the "motive for developing all talents serviceable for culture to the highest possible pitch."17 And Kant believed intelligence was determined by race.18 In this work, we see Kant, the enlightened philosopher, in many respects is the originator of the notion of race purity and race-war.19 Some commentators when confronted by the embarrassing passages in Perpetual Peace or Critique of Judgment try to downplay Kants advocation of immoral activity. By not quoting him in any depth, they prevent the reader from realizing where Kant stood on these principles.
16.Kant, Critique of Judgment (Trans. J.H. Bernard) (1951), section 28, quoted by Hannah Arendt, Lecture on Kant's Political Philosophy , supra, at 53. 17. Kant, Critique of Judgement, section 28, quoted in Arendt. 18. Mosse, Toward the Final Solution, supra, at 31 citing Immanuel Kant, "Von den Verschiedenen Racen der Menschen," Kants Werke, Akademie-Textausgabe, Vol. II Vorkritische Schriften (Berlin: 1968), II, at 431, 432. 19.Kant may be understood implicitly to suggest that breeding people for purity just as some do with German shepard dogs, and firing them with a warrior mentality, will bring culture to its highest possible pitch. Illuminati of Bavaria 9
For example, Luc Ferry vaguely admits Kant in Perpetual Peace dispassionately saw "the idea of political progress in the wholly amoral interplay of particular interests." Luc Ferry concludes from this, "No doubt Kants deepest feelings about the French Revolution were rooted in this idea of a history that tends toward the better through the action of imperfect (selfish) individuals."20 Ferry is suggesting that Kant was a social scientist who explained the revolutionary future would emerge from conflicting clashes without specific intent, at an amoral level, which would bring about his visionary new world order. However, such a summary ignores Kants own viewpoint and his advocacy of someone to follow these amoral maxims (quoted above) to bring about his envisioned new world order. Contrary to Ferrys tepid view of Kants goals, Kant was providing a manifesto for the future revolution. He is advocating and blessing amoral maxims to achieve one world government. Ferrys view is an overly kind reading of Kant. Others claim Kant was satirizing amorality. For example, Hannah Arendt regarded the Perpetual Peace as intended to be understood in "an ironical tone." She claims this is so because Kant did not take his political ideas "too seriously." Arendt cites as proof a letter of Kants of October 15, 1795. In this letter, Kant says the book Perpetual Peace includes his "reveries" (dreams).21 From this Arendt deduces a half-serious or cynical tone to the book. However, such evidence is far too trite to claim the book Perpetual Peace is not to be taken as a serious work of Kants. All political manifestos express the dreams of the author. This vague letter should not have been construed to mean Kant was not serious about the maxims in Perpetual Peace. In fact, in Perpetual Peace, we never hear a syllable
20.Luc Ferry, "Kant," A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution, supra, at 963. 21. Arendt, Lecture on Kant's Political Philosophy, supra , at 7. Illuminati of Bavaria 10
Impact of Kants Amoral Maxims
that is ironic, humorous, or cynical. Kants Perpetual Peace uses a serious scholarly tone with the very apparent purpose of meaning exactly what it says. And this book was designed as a manifesto for the enlightened "republicans" of his era who would follow his prescriptions to gain power to inaugurate a system of world peace based on world government that was precisely the crucial point of the entire book. It is inescapable that the maxim portion of the book was a serious message or manifesto for a group that Kant knew would want guidelines for their revolutionary plans.
Impact of Kants Amoral Maxims

Were Kants unscrupulous maxims ever put into effect? Did someone, following them, try to establish a world government based on subversion of neighboring states and then allying them as sister-republics with friends in control? The answer is "yes." Barras and Sieys were the first to do so as the leaders inside the five-member Directory in 1798. They engineered the rise to power of Barras proteg Napoleon Buonaparte who was hand-picked by Sieys. Napoleon would ruthlessly and unscrupulously seize power over France in 1799. He used blatant fraud and force. Napoleon continued the same plans as Barras and Sieys had unfolded earlier. Napoleon, like his precessors, spread sister republics throughout Europe. Barras and Sieys marched armies to Egypt and the Middle-East to create a world-wide empire.
11
International Wars Ceased As of 1795

As of 1795, the French people sued and obtained peace to stop the international wars of liberation started in Jacobinic times. Prince Henry of Prussia had helped worked out this peace.22
The Jacobin Coups of June and September 1797

By 1797, the Council of Five Hundred and Council of Ancients at Paris no longer had any Mountain sentiment within it. It was dominated by moderate constitutionalists "who were in full revolt against the revolutionary legislation of its predecessors," Bernard says.23 By 1797, the legislature repealed most laws enacted against the nobility, migrs, and the church. There was a move even by Charles Pichegru, President of the Council of Five Hundred and a moderate, to replace the five Directors (who shared Presidential powers) with men they approved. Barthlemy was appointed to the Directory as a major victory for the moderates. In 1797, the elections in France brought into office many who opposed the Directorys course and who were political moderates. They dominated the National Legisla-
22. Memoires of Marquise de Custine, supra , at 170. 23.J.F. Bernard, Talleyrand--A Biography (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1973) at 180. The Constitution of 1795 had overturned most of the Mountain policies. The local assemblies were restored, and the national government was decentralized. The power over the treasury had been restored to the legislature. The Jacobin society was officially outlawed. See Georges Lefebvre, Napoleon: From 18 Brumaire to Tilsit 1799-1807 (Orig. Publ. 1935) (N.Y.: Columbia University Press, 1990) at 4, 36. Illuminati of Bavaria 12
The Jacobin Coups of June and September 1797
ture. However, three directors Le Reveillire-Lepeaux, Rewbell, & Barras plotted to oust the moderates from power. On the very day that it was debated in the Council of Five Hundred (June 18, 1797) whether the finances of state be entirely removed from the Directory and given to the Treasury, Barras convinced General Hoche, in command of the army of the Sambre and Meuse, to send troops to Paris to be used at Barras desire. (Hoche, incidentally, was a Freemason pre-1789).24 When the troops were now at hand, Barras called a Directors meeting, including the two Directors who represented the moderates Barnot and Barthlemy. He claimed he wanted to discuss the latest proposal to transfer ministries into more moderate hands. At this meeting, Barras defied them, announcing his intention to retain Merlin de Douai and Dominique Ramel the two ministers most odious to the moderates. The ministers whom the moderates were happy to have (Bnzach, Cochon, and Petiet) were dismissed by Barras fiat and replaced by men only loyal to Barras.25 Barras then expelled the two most conservative Directors from the ruling Directory of five: Carnot and Barthlemy. Barthlemy was exiled to French Guyana in South America the dry guillotine.26 Delacroix, minister of Foreign Affairs, a moderate, was also dismissed and replaced by Talleyrand. Truguet, the moderate Minister of War, was replaced by General Hoche, the recent traitor to his country, despite a great uproar.27 The next step was to allow exiled radicals like Varlet back into Paris in June 1797.28
24. See Serbanesco, supra, II, at 432. 25. Bernard, Talleyrand, supra, at 181. 26. R.R. Palmer, The Age of Democratic Revolution: A Political History of Europe and America, 1760-1800, supra , at 257. 27. Id. Illuminati of Bavaria 13
Then, Barras followed this with the swift removal en masse of Barras enemies on the moderate wing in the legislature. Barras called upon General Pierre-Franois Angereau to inaugurate the Revolution of September 4, 1797, also known as Eighteenth Fructidor, Year V. (Often, it is misnomered a simple coup dtat, but it was a far cry from that). Talleyrand plotted this with Barras. Angereau was the Commander of the Paris Military District. He was friends with Louis Chrin, the commander of the private guard of the Directory. Hoche, commander of the Army of the Sambre and Meuse, had earlier shifted 9,000 men near Paris on the pretext they were to be used to invade Ireland. On the eve of September 4th, Hoche infiltrated some of this troops into Paris. At dawn, Paris was declared under martial law. The conspirators put up posters about the city warning of a "royalist" plot to overthrow the Republic. Anyone who tried to reinstitute either the Monarchy or the Jacobin Constitution of 1793 was to be shot without trial. (The directors were pretending to fight the extremism of 1793 because this resonated with the beleaguered French.) Edme, Barras cousin, wrote a very illuminating memoir soon thereafter:
Within the last few months we had another Revolution, only this time it started from above instead of below . . . . Then came the 18th of Fructidor, on which day the Directory, witht Barras at their head, put an end to the existing state of things and, assisted by Bonaparte and his soldiers , took the whole controlling power into their hands . . . . . [O]n the morning of the 19th a proclamation appeared at the street corners declaring that the Directory had come upon a Royalist conspiracy
28. R.B. Rose, "Socialism and the French Revolution," John Rylands Library, supra, at 154. Illuminati of Bavaria 14
Terror Restored
set in motion by Pichegru, Barthelemy, and others, all of whom had been arrested.
No one seemed more delighted at this turn of events than Cousin Barras. When a day or two after the coup detat, he came to see me, he rubbed his hands gleefully and said that now his time had come at last! He is the head of the government and, I suppose the most powerful member of the Directory.29
Terror Restored
With Barras in control, the Terror returned. Primarily, this was directed at the power of the moderate group in the Assembly. Lisa Hunt said with some accuracy "the Directory government arrested, expelled, or refused seats to scores of deputies in purges directed against presumed royalists in 1797 . . . ."30 On September 19th, the Directory annulled the election results in forty-nine of the eighty-three departmens of France as well as many elections of local officials throughout France.31 "More than half of the recent elections were declared null and void" writes Gaston Maugras, "with more than sixty deputies deported to Guiana [in South America]."32 Seventeen of the legislative deputies were immediately driven in iron cages to Rochefort. This included
29.Moritz von Kaisenberg, Ed. The Memoirs of the Baroness Cecile de Courtot, Lady-in-Waiting to the Princess de Lamballe, Princess of Savoy-Carignan (translated from the German by Jessie Haynes) (N.Y.: Henry Holt & Co., 1900) at 122 (dated 10 Pluviose, 1798 Letter by Edme, the Duchess). 30. Lisa Hunt, supra, at 130; Dennis Richet, "Coups d'tat," Critical Dictionary, supra, at 15-16. 31. Lisa Hunt, supra, at 158; Dennis Richet, "Coups d'tat," Critical Dictionary, supra, at 16. Illuminati of Bavaria 15
Pichegru. Two directors, Barthlemy and Carnot, joined them. The deputies and directors then embarked on a seven week journey via a scooner until they were interned in prisons in Guiana, South America.33 The new Directory then appointed half of the officeholders. It also enacted laws reminiscent of 1792 against emigrs and priests.34 It reinstituted oaths for priests. These required them to take an oath to "hate royalty and anarchy" or otherwise they would be removed from the pulpit. Those who took it were pejoratively referred to as "hatefuls."35 All the other trappings of the 1793 period of Jacobinism were revived: the calendar, the state-control over education, the seizure and closure of churches, etc.36 The government declared a new terror. Anyone suspected of disloyalty would be deported, and no trial was needed. The Directory could do it by simple administrative order. It was often applied to priests.37 Deputies from the Council came to protest this to General Angereau, but were dispersed by the troops. Upon promulgation of martial law, the deputy Pichegru, the Director Barthlemy, and Amde Willot were arrested. The moderate Director Carnot fled. Barras called small groups of the Council together to annul the election of 1797 that had filled the Councils with moderates.
32. Memoires of Marquise de Custine (Ed. Gaston Maugras), supra, at 217. Richet says fifty-three deputies were removed from office. Maugras may still be accurate if seven others were under arrest at the time of the deportation. See Dennis Richet, "Coups d'tat," Critical Dictionary, supra, at 16. One such deputy was Pichegru. 33. Una Birch, Secret Societies and the French Revolution, supra , at 165;. 34. Dennis Richet, "Coups d'tat," Critical Dictionary, supra, at 16. 35.Mona Ozouf, "Dechristianization," Critical Dictionary, supra, at 30. 36. See page ____, infra. 37. McManners, The French Revolution and the Church, supra , at 120; Mona Ozouf, "Dechristianization," Critical Dictionary, supra, at 30. Illuminati of Bavaria 16
Domestic Policy Under Barras in 1797-1798
General Angereau discovered only one threat of resistance, but he quelled this with his own threat to bring his full army down on the defiant citizens inside Paris. Talleyrand boasted at the end of the day that "Paris is quiet." Angereau reported: "General: my mission is accomplished. The crisis which it was feared would be terrible, has passed off like a holiday."38 Talleyrand in his memoirs notes that the leaders of Barras opponents were "in the course of a few hours, arrested for the most part, charged with plotting against the established government, convicted without being heard, and transported to Cayenne [that is, French Guyana in South America], by virtue of what was then termed a law."39 Talleyrand now as Minister of Foreign Affairs plotted the subversion and overthrow of numerous neighboring states using his state departments diplomatic immunity. France showed the world how to use foreign ambassadors to foment revolutionary movements. This was not because the French people felt this way; it was because Talleyrand determined that he would follow this course.
Domestic Policy Under Barras in 17971798

Between July 1794 and June 1798, the French economy freed from 1793 policies of price controls went through a phenomenal economic expansion.40 Rather than preserve this blessing, the Directors intensified foreign wars and sought conquests, thereby draining the treasury and requiring new taxation.
38. Bernard, Talleyrand, supra, at 193. 39. Bernard, Talleyrand, supra, at 192. 40.. Id. at 229. Illuminati of Bavaria 17
First, after the September 4, 1797 Revolution, the laws of the Terror was restored, with particular emphasis on repressing free speech. Maugras says "all the emergency laws [of the Terror] were reinforced, and it became almost impossible to leave France or to enter it."41 Free speech was also crushed. A news report in England described in February 1798 the situation: "Liberty of the Press is now so completely crushed by the power of arbitrary transportation; and the wanton recurrence to this new Terror so frequent, as to banish entirely from the French journals all observations and conjectures on the public occurrences of their own or other countries, except such as obviously flatter the views, and coincide with the sentiments of the Directory."42 The Revolutions Marsellaise returned as a military anthem. And in January 1798, the Directory policy was to ignore the ban on celebrating the murder of Louis XVI. In fact, according to indendent news services by foreign correspondents, in January 1798 the directory government used "coercion and pressure" to have this anniversary honored at Paris.43
Restored Persecution of Religion & Creation of A Civil Religion

Regarding religion, after September 4, 1797, the Directory returned to the policies of 1793 as well. As mentioned already, after Robespierre had fallen, the French legislature on September 18, 1794 revoked the infamous decree
41. Memoires of Marquise de Custine (Ed. Gaston Maugras), supra, at 218. 42.The Anti-Jacobin (1798), supra, I, p. 458 (news story of February 5, 1798 from Paris). 43.The Anti-Jacobin or Weekly Examiner (1798), supra, at 460 (report of February 5, 1798 from Paris). Illuminati of Bavaria 18
Restored Persecution of Religion & Creation of A Civil Religion
known as the Civil "Constitution" of the Clergy. It also terminated the state-subsidy that held the church as a vassal. The priests had only to swear loyalty to the Republic. Religious freedom reigned once more. However, when Barras and Talleyrand accomplished their revolution from above of 1797 and destroyed the Constitution, the Directory renewed "the anti-clerical and anti-Christian persecution and propagandathe worst since 1794."44 The Directory began to sell off churches once more for state revenue, re-imposed the ten day week known as the Decadi (which was designed to wipe out Sunday worship), forbade by law all public religious observances (such as Christmas and Easter parades), and required the Church buildings be used to celebrate services on the 10th day where the new state religion of "theophilanthropy" had to be preached from the pulpit. And from 1797 to 1798, the Directory ordered 8,000 priests to be deported. Also religious publications were banned.45 The Directorys attitude is exemplified best by its vigorous persecution of anyone who took work off on Sunday (and presumably Jews who took off Saturday).46 Once more, "Sunday had to be a working day, with the dcadi as the holiday."47 The Directory expected and required all teachers, students, and public officials to attend these state festivals of "Theophilantropy" at the "temples" where the laws were read, patriotic songs were sung, and so on. Yet, the majority
44. Palmer, supra, II at 247. 45. Emmet Kennedy, A Cultural History of the French Revolution, supra , at 353. 46. Georges Lefebvre, Napoleon: From 18 Brumaire to Tilsit 1799-1807 (Orig. Publ. 1935), supra, at 37; Una Birch, Secret Societies and the French Revolution, supra, at 166; Emmet Kennedy, A Cultural History of the French Revolution, supra, at 353. The Director of the new religion was Louise-Marie La Revelllire-Lpeaux. See Kennedy, id. at 352. 47. McManners, The French Revolution and the Church, supra , at 120. Illuminati of Bavaria 19
of the French refused to attend.48 The Minister of the Interior circulated a "Manuel des Thophilanthropes" to explain the new religion of France. The new religions goal was to encourage morality. The altar was decorated with flowers and fruit to match the season. The government gave the "Cult of Thophilosophy" official funding (which it gave to no other religious group). The ceremonies are reported by those in attendance as a place of laughing, bravos and clapping as if one was at a theater. The Directory ordered the Catholic Church buildings would also have to be at the service of this state religion on every Decadi (tenth day in the revived revolutionary calendar). All emblems of the Christian faith were covered in black veils during these ceremonies. And fifteen churches were reconsecrated "temples dcadaires."49 The Directory then attacked the revived Churchschool system. The schools had to be closed unless there was instruction on "civic virtue" to the satisfaction of the ideologues at Paris.50 For those schools that the state supported, no teaching of any religious charachter could be made. On October 8, 1798, the instruction went out: "You must exclude from your teaching all that relates to dogmas or rites of any religion or sect whatever."51 The purpose of the 1793 Jacobins in promoting public school education all along over private education revealed itself by this intolerance. Of course, public schools should not support any religion, although it surely should be able to
48. Emmet Kennedy, A Cultural History of the French Revolution, supra , at 352. 49. Una Birch, Secret Societies and the French Revolution, supra , at 16768. 50. Emmet Kennedy summarized the rapid changes, saying the elections "were annulled in the coup dtat of 18 fructidor of Year V (4 September 1797), [and there was a] new wave of republican legislationon schools, on priests, and on the dcadi." See Emmet Kennedy, A Cultural History of the French Revolution (1989), supra at 352. 51.. Durant, The Age of Napoleon, supra, at 127. Illuminati of Bavaria 20
Theophilosophy: The New Civil Religion
teach what are the maxims and beliefs of religions. However, the revived Commune-Mountain policies of 1793 proved that one purpose behind seizing the church property where schools used to operate at no cost to the public, while blocking the tithe that supported the church, left the people with need to rely upon state for education. In this manner, religious eduction would decrease and the new Thophilosophy religion would be promoted. It was insidious, but a real dilemma to the French people. Then to make matters worse, under the Directory, the Catholic Pope was captured. He was deported to France as a prisoner. The pope was kept by the Directory in a dungeon until two years later when he died.
Theophilosophy: The New Civil Religion

In 1798, the Directory revived the 1793 policy of compulsory military service.52 Then in October 1798, all places of Christian worship were abolished at Paris. The churches were renamed Temples for use only by Theophilosophy. Parishes were abolished and new "Wards" were set up with a Temple in each Ward. For example, the Church of Philip du Roule was renamed Concord. The Church of St. Roche was renamed Genius. St. Eustache became Agriculture. And so on.53 This was again too much for the French to bear.
52.. Id. at 34. 53. Hon. Robert Clifford, Application of Barruel's Memoirs of Jacobinism to the Secret Societies and Ireland and Great Britain by the Translator of that Work (London: E. Booker, 1798), Preliminary Observations. Illuminati of Bavaria 21
Pestalozzi Hired By The Directory To Sell The Revolution

To defend these revived 1793 policies, the Directory had to go outside France. In Switzerland lived the educationalist Pestalozzi who had not written anything for ten years. However, the Directory apparently could find no one else willing to do the job. So under the radicalized Directory, Pestalozzi became the editor of an official journal designed to spread the knowledge of "revolutionary principles."54 Pestalozzi was an old Illuminatus of Weishaupts.55
The Nation Revolts

Predictably, just as in 1792-1793, the French people rose in revolt again to such policies. The Directory then agressively enforced a new Reign of Terror. This is called the Second Terror. A police state atmosphere fell over France. The Directory made it impermissible once again to even leave the country. Those who were abroad were presumed to be suspect emigrs and their property was seized just as the Jacobins had done in 1792-93.56 In the Vende, Barras cleverly took precautions to kill off the leadership of the old antiJacobin uprisings before he even attempted the coup of 1797. In 1796, Hoches armies under control of the Directory went into the Vende and repressed reaction to some of the radical changes that Barras was already implementing. They arrested Charette and Stofflettwo old Generals of the Vende resistance of 1793and executed them in early 1796.57
54.H. Holman, Pestalozzi (N.Y.: Longman, Green & Co., 1908) at 68. 55. See Chapter Seven, Vol. I. 56. Memoires of Marquise de Custine (Ed. Gaston Maugras), supra, at 201, 218. Illuminati of Bavaria 22
Reaction to Oppression of Religion
Killing leaders, however, could not kill the spirit of the people. In 1797, the civil revolt spread against the oppressive Directory policies. Lefebvre notes: "Religious worship in secret continued and the ringing of church bells and religious processions remained the subject of numerous conflicts."58 The disaffection was strongest, as it was in 1793, in the Vende of the northwest. Outbreaks of violence directed by peasants against the state burst out.

Forced to abide by the calendar of 1793, the people again tried to resist use of it. Lambert, a deputy from the Cote dOr said, after visiting eight eastern departments: "Everywhere I observed that the general mass of people would never familiarize itself with our dcadaire system . . . a continual object of derision; that Sundays and feast days are observed more regularly than ever, for the sole reason that they depend on religious principles." If one claimed to be "apostles of reason," that is the state messenger of the new religion of theolanthropy, Lambert says the people "look at you with all your pompous phrases either as charlatans . . . or as insane people whose brain is delirious and more worthy of pity than of anger."59
57. Franois Furet, "Chouannerie," A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution, supra, at 5; Franois Furet, "Vende," A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution, supra, at 169. 58. Id. at 92. 59. Charles Lambert, Sur la libert des cults (Paris: An III [1795?] and Lambert les collgues, en rponse diffrentes objections sur la libert des cultes (n.p.: An III [1795?]) quoted in Emmet Kennedy, A Cultural History of the French Revolution (1989), supra, at 352. Illuminati of Bavaria 23
Refounding of Jacobin Clubs Called Constitutional Circles
To counter the rising of the people against 1793 policies, the Directory encouraged and permitted the outlawed Jacobin clubs to start up. This meant Barras and his allies were no longer enforcing the laws which banned these perniscious fascists. Soon the Jacobins were sponsoring meetings, public banquets to influence the populace, and demonstrations.60 They called themselves the Constitutional Circles. They were, nevertheless, still as unpopular as their Mountainled Jacobin forerunners. There is no secret about the connection of these societies to the old Jacobins. Typically, the founders of particular Constitutional Circle societes were old members of the Jacobins of 1793. For example, at Bordeaux, an old Jacobin named Pierre Balguerie, an official from the Directory, and three of his family started up a Constitutional Circle. He was joined by another old Jacobin of 1790-94, Soulignac. With the purges of 1797, they became executives of the new Central Municipal Bureau of Bordeaux, ruling this predominantly anti-Mountain city. Both Balguerie and Solignac publicly praised the coup of September 1797 that ousted the so-called royalists from office, and they followed suit in Bordeaux.61 Just as in May of 1793, the renewed Jacobin societies assisted Barras on 18 Fructidor (September 5, 1797) carry out the expulsion by force from the Legislature of fifty-three moderate deputies. In the election of 1798, the revived Jacobins boasted of this political terrorism. A typical Jacobin pamphlet of 1798this one was proclaimed at Amienssaid
60. Michael L. Kennedy, The Jacobin Club in the French Revolution: The First Years (Princeton: 1982) at 210-23; Isser Woloch, Jacobin Legacy: The Democratic Movement under the Directory (Princeton: 1970) at 241-271. 61. Lisa Hunt, supra, at 204, citing Gaston Ducaunns, Ville de Bordeaux: Inventaire-Sommaire des Archives municipales: Priode rvolutionnaire (1789-an VIII [1800]) (4 vols.) (Bordeaux: 1896-1929) at III, 66 and 76-77. Illuminati of Bavaria 24
the Jacobins should resort to the campaign tactics of seizing the power in electoral assemblies of verifying voters, and then disqualify those they did not like:
Already, the Royalists in their sinister haunts are preparing lists of candidates for the electors, for the legislative councils, the administrations, and the courts. They want to resuscitate those who were crushed by the republican club on 18 Fructidor [the date of the anti-right coup in the legislature]. What should therefore be your task at the opening of the primary assemblies? Here it is: from the first session, weed out, if I can use this term, the voters; examine with attention those who wish to exercise this honorable function . . . . Read on the brow of those who present themselves as voters, and you will see the men who are unfaithful to their engagements pale . . . . It is essential to name energetic men who profess our principles and share our sentiments. We need pronounced characters, strong souls, muscular and athletic spirits. 62
The Jacobins were ready to stage election fraud and dirty tricks. The same writer soon thereafter openly urged his fellow citizens to spread the new Jacobins known as the Constitutional Circle. He wrote, "What are you waiting for, then, before organizing Constitutional Circles? Hurry up! It is there that you will find the arms for crushing the reactors [les racteurs]: unite, be useful, support each other."63 Here was the first known use of the term reactionary by a radical revolutionary to demean the opposition to tyranny done in the name of progress. These defenders of liberty
62. Caron-Berquier, Aux Amis de la Rpublique (1798), quoted in Lisa Hunt, supra, at 129. 63. Lisa Hunt, supra, at 130. Illuminati of Bavaria 25
of speech and religion, and true democracy, could not be seen as freedom fighters; rather, the radical revolutionaries had to portray them as a party of reaction. Soon the Jacobins achieved their former presence in every community. An agent for the Ministry of Interior under the Barras-controlled Directory wrote in 1798 that
there are in every canton a certain number of energetic and virtuous men who are sincerely attached to the Republic. They retain all the influence necessary to neutralize the efforts of the malicious [that is, their opponents] and to direct choices in the sense of the Revolution.64
For example, at Le Mans in 1798 the Constitutional Circle every 10th day went to a new suburb and started up a new club. Each club focused on election candidates for the national legislature. In early 1798, the Constitutional Circle at Poitiers, the capital of the Vienne Department, had 600 members, and several connected clubs in smaller neighboring towns.65 Yet, the Directory recognized how precarious were their position with the people. In April 1799, an official report concluded that only 8 out of over 60 Departments of France could be considered reliable: Creuse, Meurthe, HauteSane, Hautes-Pyrnes, Finistre, Jura, Haute-Garonne, and Pyrnes-Orientales. Only two large cities were in these departments: Nancy and Toulouse.66 That means, 52 out of
64. Lisa Hunt, supra, at 140. 65. Lisa Hunt, supra, at 143. 66.Flix Rocquain, LEtat de la France au 18 brumaire (Paris: 1874) at 380 (quoting "Rsume des comptes-rendus au Ministre de l'Intrieur par les Commissaires du Directoire xcutif prs les administrations centrales des dpartments, pendant le mois de floral an VII [1799]"), quoted in Lisa Hunt, supra, at 141. Illuminati of Bavaria 26
60 departments of France were opposed to the Directoryan overwhelming percentage. The elections of 1798 and 1799 confirmed this.67 In a letter to Mme. Custine from a friend on June 2, 1798, we see a contemporary picture of France under the revived 1793 policies by the Barras-controlled Directory.
As regards the political situation of France I will speak only of domestic affairs. There is certainly a general discontent and no one likes the Government; the republican madness has died away among the element known as the people.68
In the summer of 1799, the Directory tried to renew conscription. This only provoked again, as it had in 1793, massive demonstrations in opposition. At Amiens, for example, the people cried, "Down with the Jacobins, down with the Administration, down with the beggars, long live the King, long live Louis XVIII."69 Again Commissioners from the Directory went to the countryside and arrested citizens suspected of opposing the Directory. Deputies in the Legislature were arrested and deported. As an example of the subtle return of the tactics of the Terror, in 1797, the Commissioners began to proclaim in
67. On May 11, 1798, the Directory disqualified 106 deputies and dismissed 200 administrative employees. The next elections of March 1799 were a disaster for the Directory who now constituted the Directory. Of 79 incumbent deputies who they sponsored, 43 were rejected by the voters. Then the people defeated 39 of 64 new candidates who were proposed by the Directory. 68. Memoires of Maquise de Custine, supra , at 229. 69. A. Dubois, Notes historiques sur Amiens, 1789-1083 (Amiens: 1883); Albric de Calonne, Histoire de la ville d'Amiens (3 vols.) (Amiens: 1899-1900), Vol. II; F.I. Darsy, Amiens et la dpartment de la Somme pendant la Rvolution: Episodes historiques (2 vols.) (Amiens: 18781883) I, at 181. Illuminati of Bavaria 27
totalitarian language from the past that no one could wear expensive clothes or otherwise they would be suspect of counter-revolution:
On learning of the triumph of the Republic and Constitution of Year III over the ROYALIST CONSPIRATORS and of their escape from the rage of those who wished to destroy them, it is obviously permitted to every good citizen to show his joy . . . . Let taste and propriety preside over your dress; RENOUNCE THESE SIGNS OF RALLYING, THESE COSTUMES OF REVOLT, WHICH ARE THE UNIFORMS OF AN ENEMY ARMY.70
More Machiavellian Tactics Than In 1793

Barras, Talleyrand and Siyes were now holding the strings of government in their hand. They were not going to repeat the mistakes of 1793 massive terror which helped stir the backlash against the government. This time they would use trickery, stealth, a police state, government benefits, and a military dictatorship to stop counter-revolution. In a letter of June 2, 1798 by a friend to Mme. de Custine, we learn that the Directory was now trying to gain support by patronage and welfare benefits. Although from July 1794-1797 France had incredible commercial re-emergence as a result of a free market, the Directory moved the nation stealthily and by force toward state socialism. On June 2, 1798, this friend observed a letter to Mme. Custine:
70. Lisa Hunt, supra, at 52 (quoting a commissioner to the Isre Department in an official proclamation). Illuminati of Bavaria 28
More Machiavellian Tactics Than In 1793
The people are discontented but not unhappy, for they have never been richer ... the Government is not thought sufficiently strong to guarantee their possession of what they hold . . . . A change in Government would be welcomed, but as the people are not in distress they will show no energy to bring about a change.... [N]ever have the poverty-stricken been so cared for and never have working people been better off . . . . [A]ll with incomes below a thousand francs, receive from the Government three quarters of bread daily and one and a half pounds of meat every ten days ; in Paris there are two hundred thousand persons on this list71 . . . . Nothwithstanding the countless armies raised and the requisitions of every kind, the land is better cultivaed than ever before. Produce is so dear that no plot of land is left vacant . . . . Commerce is so vigorous that its mainspring breaks every three months and is replaced by some new form.72
But state socialism came at a price. The "administrative expenses [are] so vast that no taxes, however, enormous could even cover the cost of collecting them." (Sound familiar?) Also, "there is a vast bureaucracy with salaries of a magnificence exceeding all dreams. Everyone can find some place in a Government office."73 These were the ideas of Kant put into practice. They simply had to find the right man to implement the doctrines of Kant to make it work. That would wait for Napoleonnot even a Frenchman but an Italian-speaking Corsican.
71. 72. 73.
In 1789, the city only had 850,000 citizens. Memoires of Maquise de Custine, supra , at 229. Id. 29
Conclusion
Immediately after the coup of 1797, France underwent a profound change. Its rulers resurrected the policies and tactics from 1793. This time they acted prudently so as not to incite a huge reaction. They also cut off the heads of the potential leaders of reaction before enacting some of the most likely inflammatory changes. Yet, Barras proved the perfect social engineer. Barras redistributed wealth in a manner that created a huge state machinery where more and more people depended upon the state for a livelihood. As Barras and his Directory tightened the noose, the Directory kept saying that they would not allow the Jacobins to rise up again and take power, which secretly they were helping their likes take power and were trying to quickly silence opponents before anyone knew what was happening. The next chapter examines the foreign policy of the French Directory under Barras from 1796-1798. This study will further prove that Barras was reviving unquestionably the policies of 1793-94 to the great chagrin of the French people.
30

Democracy Thwarted in The Revolution of September 1797

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Democracy Thwarted in The Revolution of September 1797

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

1 Democracy Thwarted In The Revolution of September 1797

In Gaston Maugras, Memoirs of Marquise de Custine, we read:

Democracy Thwarted In The Revolution of September 1797

Enlightened Thinking in 1795-1797 Which Embodied The Tactics of This Coup

Democracy Thwarted In The Revolution of September 1797

Enlightened Thinking in 1795-1797 Which Embodied The Tactics of This Coup

Democracy Thwarted In The Revolution of September 1797

Enlightened Thinking in 1795-1797 Which Embodied The Tactics of This Coup

Democracy Thwarted In The Revolution of September 1797

Enlightened Thinking in 1795-1797 Which Embodied The Tactics of This Coup

Democracy Thwarted In The Revolution of September 1797

Impact of Kants Amoral Maxims

Impact of Kants Amoral Maxims

Democracy Thwarted In The Revolution of September 1797

International Wars Ceased As of 1795

The Jacobin Coups of June and September 1797

The Jacobin Coups of June and September 1797

Democracy Thwarted In The Revolution of September 1797

Democracy Thwarted In The Revolution of September 1797

Domestic Policy Under Barras in 1797-1798

Domestic Policy Under Barras in 17971798

Democracy Thwarted In The Revolution of September 1797

Restored Persecution of Religion & Creation of A Civil Religion

Restored Persecution of Religion & Creation of A Civil Religion

Democracy Thwarted In The Revolution of September 1797

Theophilosophy: The New Civil Religion

Theophilosophy: The New Civil Religion

Democracy Thwarted In The Revolution of September 1797

Pestalozzi Hired By The Directory To Sell The Revolution

The Nation Revolts

Reaction to Oppression of Religion

Reaction to Oppression of Religion

Democracy Thwarted In The Revolution of September 1797

Refounding of Jacobin Clubs Called Constitutional Circles

Reaction to Oppression of Religion

Democracy Thwarted In The Revolution of September 1797

Reaction to Oppression of Religion

Democracy Thwarted In The Revolution of September 1797

More Machiavellian Tactics Than In 1793

More Machiavellian Tactics Than In 1793

71. 72. 73.

Democracy Thwarted In The Revolution of September 1797

You might also like