Talk:Maximilien Robespierre

An event mentioned in this article is a July 28 selected anniversary

This has clearly been defaced in some recent edits and needs to be cleaned and restored. --65.183.251.28 19:27, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Abolition of the Death Penalty?

According to this wiki article [1], Robespierre introduced legislation to abolish the death penalty in 1791, about 2 years before sending the royals to the guillotine, and about 3 years before Robespierre got his own. If it's true, I'm surprised it hasn't been noted in the article due to the drastic dramatic irony. Has the National Constituent Assembly agreed, the Terror possibly wouldn't have been (perhaps it would have eventually sometime later), and Robespierre wouldn't be a historically stereotypical pariah. Is there any validity to the abolition story, and if so what's the details and sources of information so the article could be updated accordingly. Jessikins 23:44, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Maxime did indeed advocate the abolition of the death penalty in 1791. I have a copy of the speech, if anyone is interested; I think it's one of his best. However, there's not as much irony as you would think in the eventual coming the Terror - even in his 1791 speech, he specifies that, more or less, if it's a life-or-death situation, one has a right to kill in order to live. It seems clear to me that at the time he was thinking about it in the context of individuals, but the delicate situation of France in 1793-1794 does seem to fit the bill, nevertheless:

"Outside of civil society, when a relentless enemy comes to attack my life, or when, twenty times repulsed, he returns again to lay waste to the field that I have cultivated with my hands, either I must perish or I must kill him because I can only oppose my own strength against his, and the law of natural defense vindicates and approves me." - Maximilien Robespierre, "On the Abolition of the Death Penalty." Read before the National Assembly on May 30, 1791. Extract taken from the book The French Revolution: A Document Collection, put together by Laura Mason and Tracey Rizzo.

Also, this is merely a quibble, but I'm not quite fond of your saying that HE sent the royals to the guillotine. It was an act of the National Convention as a whole, not of one man. Sorry - I'm just absurdly sensitive when it seems like people get the mindset that Maxime was the be all and end all of the revolution, for better or for worse. As he himself once said, "Obliging persons have been found to attribute to me more good than I have done in order to impute to me mischief in which I had no hand."

-A young Jacobine--24.208.91.146 17:38, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

What to put in the infobox

Right now the infobox lists one of Robespierre's offices to have been "Deputy for the Third Estate of the Estates-General." I was wondering if there is a more specific title by which membors of that body were called. Also, I have listed his religion as Cult of the Supreme Being due to his prominace in advocating it, but I'm not sure if it should simply be changed to Deism. YankeeDoodle14 05:33, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

So! Even you may now see why many Wikipedians spurn these as 'disinfoboxes'. Even very primitive lives rarely fit into a suit of categories. Disinfoboxes are mostly for those marginally unprepared to deal with text. Listing Robespierre's religion as Cult of the Supreme Being, simply to fill a box, will raise smiles. --Wetman 08:31, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I gather that you dissapprove of infobox from your post. I'm not quite so sure what you mean by, "So! Even you may now see why many Wikipedians spurn these as 'disinfoboxes'," as I don't recall ever having disputed the merit of infoboxes with you before.

It remains a fact, however unfortunate it may be, that many Wikipedians do not do more than skim any given article for general details. As this is the case it is important to achieve the greatest degree of accuracy that is possible.

If it is your opinion that Cult of the Supreme Being is not the best choice for this article, then I will differ and let the infobox read (as it now does), "Deism (Cult of the Supreme Being." YankeeDoodle14 04:19, 17 August 2007 (UTC)