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{{Redirect|Desmoulins}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Camille Desmoulins
| image = Camille Desmoulins 2.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Portrait of Camille Desmoulins, c. 1790 ([[Musée Carnavalet]])
| office = [[National Convention|Deputy of the National Convention]]
| term_start = 20 September 1792
| term_end = 5 April 1794
| constituency = [[Seine (department)|Paris]]
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1760|3|2|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Guise]], [[Picardy]], [[Kingdom of France|France]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1794|4|5|1760|3|2|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Place de la Révolution]], [[Paris]], [[French First Republic|France]]
| death_cause = [[Guillotine|Execution by guillotine]]
| other_names =
| occupation = Journalist
| known_for =
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Lucile Duplessis]]|29 December 1790}}
| nationality = French
| party = [[The Mountain]]
| otherparty = [[Jacobin Club]]
| signature = CamilleDesmoulinsSignature.jpg
}}
'''Lucie-Simplice-Camille-Benoît Desmoulins''' ({{IPA-fr|lysi sɛ̃plis kamij bənwa demulɛ̃|lang}}; 2 March 1760{{snd}}5 April 1794) was a [[French people|French]] journalist, politician and a prominent figure of the [[French Revolution]]. He is best known for playing an instrumental role in the events that led to the [[Storming of the Bastille]]. Desmoulins was also noted for his radical criticism of the [[Reign of Terror]] as the editor of the journal ''[[Le Vieux Cordelier]]''. He was a schoolmate of [[Maximilien Robespierre]] and a close friend and political ally of [[Georges Danton]], who were the leading figures in the French Revolution.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=99}} Desmoulins was tried and executed alongside Danton when the [[Committee of Public Safety]] reacted against Dantonist opposition.<ref>
{{cite book|last= Beraud|first= Henri
|title= Twelve Portraits of the French Revolution|year= 1928
|publisher= Books for Library Press, Inc.|location= New York
|pages= 145
}}
</ref>
A lawyer by training, Desmoulins was enthralled by the Revolution from its outbreak. On 12 July 1789, shortly after [[Louis XVI]] dismissed his popular finance minister [[Jacques Necker]], Desmoulins delivered an impassioned call to arms to a crowd before the [[Palais-Royal]]. His agitation sparked widespread unrest in Paris, which culminated in the Storming of the Bastille two days later. Through his newfound fame, Desmoulins quickly established himself as a prominent radical pamphleteer. He advocated explicitly in favour of [[republicanism]] and revolutionary violence, and mounted relentless attacks on not only the [[Ancien Régime]], but also once-sympathetic revolutionary figures such as [[Jacques Pierre Brissot]]. His campaigns ultimately contributed to the fall of the moderate [[Girondins|Girondist]] faction and the beginning of the [[Reign of Terror]].
During the Terror, Desmoulins and his close friend and political ally [[Georges Danton]] distanced themselves from [[Maximilien Robespierre]]'s radical [[The Mountain|Montagnards]]. Through his new journal ''Le Vieux Cordelier'', he criticized the excesses of the Revolutionary Government and made pleas for clemency, which enraged Robespierre and eventually led to his downfall. In April 1794, Desmoulins was sentenced to death by the [[Revolutionary Tribunal]] and guillotined alongside Danton and other accused Dantonists.
==Early life==
Desmoulins was born at [[Guise, Picardy|Guise]], in the province of [[Picardy]], northern France. His father, Jean Benoît Nicolas Desmoulins, was a lieutenant-general of the [[bailliage]] of Guise. His mother was Marie-Madeleine Godart, from [[Wiège-Faty]].<ref name=Gallica>{{cite book|title=Dictionnaire des parlementaires français|volume=2|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1130410|page=360|author1=Robert, Adolphe|author2=Cougny, Gaston|language=fr|year=1890}}</ref> Through the efforts of a friend, his father obtained a scholarship for the fourteen-year-old Camille to enter the [[Lycée Louis-le-Grand|Collège Louis-le-Grand]] in [[Paris]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=99}} Desmoulins proved an exceptional student even among such notable contemporaries as [[Maximilien Robespierre]] and [[Louis-Marie Stanislas Fréron]]. He excelled in the study of Classical Literature and Politics, and gained a particular affinity for [[Cicero]], [[Tacitus]] and [[Livy]].<ref>Schama, 380.</ref>
Desmoulins initially pursued a career in law, and succeeded in gaining acceptance as an advocate in the [[parliament of Paris]] in 1785; however, his [[stuttering|stammer]]<ref name=Gallica/> and lack of connections to the Parisian legal community proved obstacles to success in this arena. Thus stymied, he turned towards writing as an alternative outlet for his talents; his interest in public affairs led him to a career as a political journalist.
In March 1789, Desmoulins senior was nominated as deputy to the [[Estates-General of 1789|Estates-General]] from the bailliage of Guise; however, due to illness, he failed to take his seat. Camille Desmoulins, himself limited to the role of spectator at the procession of the Estates-General on 5 May 1789, wrote a response to the event: ''Ode aux Etats Generaux.'' The [[Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau|Comte de Mirabeau]], a powerful political figure within the Estates-General who positioned himself as a bridge between the aristocracy and the emerging reformist movement, briefly enlisted Desmoulins to write for his newspaper at this time, strengthening Desmoulins' reputation as a journalist .<ref name="Hartcup238">Hartcup, 238.</ref>
==Outbreak of the Revolution==
[[Image:Motion faite au Palais Royal par Camille Desmoulins le 12 juillet 1789.jpg|thumb|right|Desmoulins making a call to arms to the crowd near the [[Palais Royal]], on 12 July 1789, by Pierre-Gabriel Berthault (1802)]]
Owing to his difficulties in establishing a career as a lawyer, Desmoulins' position in Paris was a precarious one and he often lived in poverty. However, he was greatly inspired and enthused by the current of political reform that surrounded the summoning of the Estates-General.
In letters to his father at the time, he rhapsodized over the procession of deputies entering the [[Palace of Versailles]], and criticized the events surrounding the closing of the Salle des Menus Plaisirs to the deputies who had declared themselves the [[National Assembly (French Revolution)|National Assembly]]{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=100}}—events which led to the famous swearing of the [[Tennis Court Oath]].
The sudden dismissal of popular finance minister [[Jacques Necker]] by [[King of France|King]] [[Louis XVI of France|Louis XVI]] on 11 July 1789 provided the spark that lit the fuse of Desmoulins' fame. On Sunday 12 July, spurred by the news of this politically unsettling dismissal, Desmoulins leapt onto a table outside the Cafe du Foy (one of many [[Coffeehouse|cafés]] in the garden of the [[Palais Royal]] frequented in large part by political dissidents) and delivered an impassioned call to arms. Shedding his customary stammer in the excitement, he urged the crowd to "take up arms and adopt cockades by which we may know each other",<ref name="Hartcup238" /> calling Necker's dismissal the [[wikt:tocsin|tocsin]] of the [[St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre|St. Bartholomew]] of the patriots. The stationing of a large number of troops in Paris, many foreign, had led Desmoulins and other revolutionaries to believe that a massacre of dissidents in the city was indeed imminent. This was an idea that his audience also found plausible and threatening, and they were quick to join Desmoulins and take up arms in riots that rapidly spread throughout Paris.
The "[[cockade]]s" worn by the crowd were initially green, a color associated with hope, and made at first from the leaves of the trees that lined the Palais Royal.<ref name=Gallica/> However, the color green was also associated with the [[Charles X|Comte d'Artois]], the reactionary and conservative brother of the King, and the cockades, therefore, were quickly replaced by others in the traditional colors of Paris: red and blue. On 14 July, the people of Paris attacked the [[Les Invalides|Hôtel des Invalides]] to seize arms, with Desmoulins among them arming himself with a [[bayonet]] rifle and two pistols, and embarked upon the [[Storming of the Bastille]].<ref name=Gallica/>
==Journalism==
{{More citations needed section|date=July 2020}}
In June 1789, Desmoulins had written a radical pamphlet entitled ''La France Libre'', which Parisian publishers at the time had refused to print.<ref name=Gallica/> The rioting surrounding the [[storming of the Bastille]], however, and especially Desmoulins' personal and publicized involvement in it, altered the situation considerably. On 18 July, Desmoulins's work was finally issued. The politics of the pamphlet ran considerably in advance of public opinion;<ref name=Gallica/> in it, Desmoulins called explicitly for a [[republic]], stating, "... popular and democratic government is the only constitution which suits France, and all those who are worthy of the name of men."<ref>Hammersley, 124.</ref> ''La France Libre'' also examined and criticized in detail the role and [[Divine Right of Kings|rights of kings]], of the [[French nobility|nobility]], and of the [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] [[clergy]].{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}
Desmoulins' renown as a radical pamphleteer was furthered by the publication, in September 1789, of his ''Discours de la lanterne aux Parisiens,'' which featured as its [[epigraph (literature)|epigraph]] a quotation from the [[Gospel of John]]: ''Qui male agit odit lucem'' ("He who does evil hates the light")<ref>{{Bibleverse||John|3:20}}</ref> This was understood to allude to the iron bracket of a lamppost at the corner of the Place de Grève and the Rue de la Vannerie, often used by rioters as a makeshift gallows for anti-revolutionaries and those accused of profiteering. A famous Revolutionary song, [[Ah! ça ira|''Ça ira'']] ("It shall be"), also immortalizes this lantern, in the lines, "Les aristocrates à la lanterne... Les aristocrates, on les pendra!" ("To the lantern with the aristocrats... The aristocrats, we'll hang them!"){{citation needed|date=July 2020}}
The ''Discours de la lanterne'', written from the perspective of the Place de Grève lamppost, was aggressive in its celebration of political violence, and attributed exalted qualities of loyalty and patriotism to the citizens who made up the Parisian mob. This hard-edged fervor found an appreciative audience in Paris, and Desmoulins, as a result of the pamphlet, became known as the "''Procureur-général de la lanterne''" ("the Lanterne [[Prosecutor]]" or "Lanterne Attorney").<ref>{{cite book |last1=Claretie |first1=Jules |title=Camille Desmoulins and His Wife: Passages from the History of the Dantonists Founded Upon New and Hitherto Unpublished Documents |date=1876 |publisher=Smith, Elder & Company |page=272 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iMZnAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA272 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hall |first1=Evelyn Beatrice |title=The Life of Mirabeau |date=1908 |publisher=Smith, Elder, & Co. |page=249 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tf8EAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA249 |language=en}}</ref>
[[File:Camille Desmoulins - Joseph Boze.png|thumb|294x294px|Portrait by [[Joseph Boze]] or one of Boze's daughters, c. 1790]]
In September 1789, Desmoulins issued the first number of a weekly publication, ''Histoire des Révolutions de France et de Brabant'',<ref name=Gallica/> which would run until the end of July 1791. This publication combined political reportage, revolutionary polemics, satire, and cultural commentary; "The universe and all its follies," Desmoulins had announced, "shall be included in the jurisdiction of this hypercritical journal."<ref name="Claretie77">Claretie, 77</ref> The ''Révolutions de France et de Brabant'' proved extremely popular from its first to its last number. Desmoulins became notorious, and was able to leave behind the poverty that had marked his previous life in Paris.
The politics of the ''Révolutions de France et de Brabant'' were anti-royalist and pro-Revolutionary. The newspaper celebrated the Revolutionary zeal of "patriots" from the battlefields of [[Brabant Revolution|Brabant]] to the Cordeliers district in Paris, home to the well-known and powerful revolutionary [[Cordeliers|Club des Cordeliers]], which Desmoulins joined in February 1790<ref name=Gallica/> and soon became a prominent member, and also criticized the excesses and inequities of, among a wide range of targets, the aristocratic regime. The savagery with which Desmoulins attacked those with whom he disagreed drew lawsuits, criticism, and reciprocal attacks. His previous friendships with powerful figures such as the Comte de Mirabeau and [[Malouet|Baron Malouet]], suffered. Both men, angered by what they perceived as libellous statements, declared that Desmoulins should be denounced and Malouet "went so far as to ask that Camille be certified insane." The ''[[Les Actes des Apotres|Actes des Apôtres]]'', the equally savage royalist newspaper that served as the ''Révolutions''' opposite number, engaged in a continual war of insults with the ''Révolutions,'' and particularly with Desmoulins, whom it dubbed, in a satirical poem, "''l'ânon des moulins''" (the little jackass of the windmills).<ref name="Claretie91">Claretie, 91</ref>
Upon the death of the Comte de Mirabeau in April 1791, Desmoulins (to whom Mirabeau had, at one time, been a great patron and friend) countered the predominantly sentimental and forgiving eulogies that appeared in the Parisian press by publishing a brutal attack in which he declared the late Mirabeau to be the "god of orators, liars, and thieves."<ref name="Claretie104">Claretie, 104</ref> This presaged later about-face attacks against prominent and once-sympathetic Revolutionary figures, such as [[Jacques Pierre Brissot|Jean Pierre Brissot]], by Desmoulins.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}
On 16 July 1791, Desmoulins appeared before the [[Paris Commune (French Revolution)|Paris Commune]] as the head of a group petitioning for the deposition of Louis XVI, who had, in June of that year, briefly [[Flight to Varennes|fled Paris]] with his family before being captured and escorted back to the city. The flight of the king had caused civil unrest, and the petition, presented a day before the anniversary of the [[Fête de la Fédération]], contributed to this agitation. On July 17, a large crowd that had gathered at the [[Champs de Mars]] in support of the petition was fired upon by military forces under the command of the [[Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette|Marquis de Lafayette]], an incident which became known as the [[Champs de Mars Massacre]]. Accounts differ as to whether or not Desmoulins was present at the Champs de Mars; in the subsequent upheaval, [[Writ|warrants for the arrest]] of himself and Georges Danton were issued. Danton fled Paris, and Desmoulins, though he remained in the city, and spoke on several occasions at the [[Jacobin Club]], decreased his journalistic activities for a time.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}
Early in 1792, following a bitter quarrel with [[Jacques Pierre Brissot|Jean Pierre Brissot]] over a legal case which Desmoulins had taken up and discussed in several broadsheets, Desmoulins published a pamphlet, ''Jean Pierre Brissot démasqué'', which attacked Brissot savagely and personally.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=100}} In it, Desmoulins claimed that the invented verb ''brissoter'' had taken on the meaning "to cheat," and accused Brissot of betraying republicanism. The case constructed against Brissot in this pamphlet was expanded and used to terrible and destructive effect in Desmoulins' later publication of 1793, ''Fragment de l'histoire secrète de la Révolution'' (also known as the ''Histoire des Brissotins''), in which the [[Girondist]] political faction, of which Brissot was a prominent member, was accused of traitorous and counter-revolutionary activities. This "history," produced in response to calls by Brissot and his followers for the dissolution of the Paris Commune and of the Jacobins, contributed to the arrest and execution of many Girondist leaders, including Brissot himself, in October 1793. Desmoulins intensely regretted his role in the death of the Girondists; present at their trial, he was heard to lament, "O my God! my God! It is I who kill them!" He was seen to collapse in the courtroom when the public prosecutor pronounced the sentence of death.<ref name="Claretie248">Claretie, 248</ref>
In the summer of 1793, [[Arthur Dillon (1750–1794)|General Arthur Dillon]], a royalist and close friend of Desmoulins and his wife, was imprisoned. In an openly published ''Lettre au General Dillon'', Desmoulins went far beyond the politically delicate act of defending Dillon, and attacked powerful members of the [[Committee of Public Safety]] - notably [[Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just|Saint-Just]] and [[Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne|Billaud-Varenne]].{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}
Beginning 5 December 1793, Desmoulins published the journal for which he would be best known and most celebrated: ''[[Le Vieux Cordelier]]''. Even the title of this short-lived publication spoke of conflict with the current regime, implying that Desmoulins spoke on behalf of the "old" or original members of the Club des Cordeliers, in opposition to the more radical and extreme factions that had now come into power. In the seven issues that comprised the ''Vieux Cordelier'', Desmoulins condemned the suspicion, brutality, and fear that had come to characterize the Revolution, comparing the ongoing [[Reign of Terror|Revolutionary Terror]] to the oppressive reign of the Roman emperor [[Tiberius]] and calling for the establishment of a "Committee of Clemency" to counter the climate of mercilessness fostered by the Committee of Public Safety. In the fourth number of the journal, Desmoulins addressed Robespierre directly, writing, "My dear Robespierre... my old school friend... Remember the lessons of history and philosophy: love is stronger, more lasting than fear."<ref name="Scurr 298">Scurr, 298</ref> The perceived counter-revolutionary tone in these calls for clemency led to Desmoulins' expulsion from the Club des Cordeliers and denunciation at the Jacobins, as well as, ultimately, to his arrest and execution.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}
==Political career, ''Le Vieux Cordelier'', and downfall==
[[Image:Le Vieux Cordelier n° 3.jpg|thumb|right|Third issue of Desmoulins' ''Le Vieux Cordelier'']]
Desmoulins took an active part in the [[10th of August (French Revolution)|10 August 1792 attack]] on the [[Tuileries Palace]]. Immediately afterwards, as the [[Legislative Assembly (France)]] crumbled and various factions contended for control of the country, he was appointed Secretary-General to Georges Danton, who had assumed the role of [[List of Justice Ministers of France|Justice Minister]]. On 8 September, 1792, he was elected as a deputy from Paris to the new [[National Convention]]. He was affiliated with [[The Mountain]], and voted for the establishment of the [[First French Republic|Republic]] and the [[execution of Louis XVI]]. His political views were closely aligned with those of Danton and, initially, Robespierre.
In the fall of 1793, as terror became "the order of the day," Desmoulins began to speak less and less at the Convention.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=[[Hervé Leuwers|Leuwers]] |first=Hervé |title=Camille et Lucile Desmoulins |publisher=Fayard |year=2018 |pages=284–285}}</ref> When he did speak, he was one of the few voices calling for clemency; on October 16, 1793, he was one of the rare voices to speak up after the Convention ordered the arrest of all citizens of governments the Republic was at war with, asking for an exception for Dutch who had been prescribed by their government.<ref name=":0" /> Desmoulins also assisted in creating the first draft of the Civil Code and pushed for its implementation.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Leuwers |first=Hervé |title=Camille et Lucile Desmoulins |publisher=Fayard |year=2018 |pages=280–281}}</ref>
Desmoulins also spoke in support of a measure proposed in August 1793 that would have given spouses an equal right to administer property. In opposition to Conventionnels who argued for the "natural superiority" of the male sex, Desmoulins condemned the [[Marital power|puissance maritale]], according to which women were legal nonentities under the guardianship of their husbands, calling it "the creation of despotic governments."<ref name=":1" /> Later that month, Desmoulins argued in favor of no-fault divorce, denouncing a draft article enumerating limited grounds for divorce on the ground that divorce should be freely available at the request of either spouse – a measure that would not be revived in France in full until 1985.<ref name=":1" />
The first number of''[[Vieux Cordelier]]'' appeared on December 5, 1793. Although it was dedicated to Robespierre along with Danton and called them both friends, it marked the start of a rift between Desmoulins and Robespierre. Initially directed, with Robespierre's approval, against the excesses of the ultra-radical [[Hébertists|Hébertist]] faction, the journal rapidly expanded and intensified its criticisms of the Committee of Public Safety and the Revolutionary Tribunal. Desmoulins appealed to Robespierre to help steer these institutions in a more moderate direction. On 20 December, Robespierre had proposed the formation of a commission "to examine all detentions promptly and to free the innocent," an idea shot down by Billaud-Varenne,<ref name="McPhee 179">McPhee, 179</ref> and Desmoulins "seized on this and called for something more dramatic: a committee of clemency" to put an end to the Terror.<ref name="Scurr 298">Scurr, 298</ref>
In the ''Vieux Cordelier'', especially the third and fourth numbers, Desmoulins criticized the Terror, argued in favor of clemency for prisoners, and demanded the return of freedom of the press:<blockquote>Certain people apparently believe that liberty, like children, needs to go through cries and tears to get to maturity; on the contrary, it is the nature of liberty that, to enjoy it, we need only desire it. A people is free as soon as it wishes to be, it entered upon its full rights on the 14th of July. Liberty has neither old age nor infancy; she has but one age, that of strength and vigour; otherwise, those who are being killed for the republic would be as stupid as the fanatics in la Vendée who are being killed for the delights of heaven which they will not enjoy. [...] No, this liberty which I worship is not an unknown deity. We are fighting in defense of the good things which she puts into the possession of those who invoke her: these good things are the Declaration of Rights, the sweetness of Republican maxims, fraternity, holy equality, and the inviolability of principles. These are the footprints of the goddess, these are the signs by which I distinguish the nations among whom she dwells.
And by what other sign would you wish that I recognize this divine liberty? This liberty, be it but an empty name? Is it only an actress of the Opera, la Candeille or la Maillard paraded about with a red cap on, or that statue, forty-six feet high, that David proposes? If by liberty you do not mean, as I do, principles, but only a bit of stone, then never has there been an idolatry more stupid and more costly than ours.
Oh my dear fellow citizens! Shall we so far debase ourselves as to fall at the feet of such divinities? No, this Liberty descended from Heaven is not a nymph of the Opera, not a red cap, a dirty shirt, or rags and tatters. Liberty is happiness, reason, equality; she is justice, she is embodied in the Declaration of Rights, in your sublime Constitution. Would you have me acknowledge her, fall at her feet, spill my blood for her? Open the prisons of those two hundred thousand citizens whom you call “suspects,” for in the Declaration of Rights there was no prison for suspected persons, but only for felons. Suspicion has no prison, it has the public prosecutor; there are no suspected persons but those who are accused of crime by the law. Do not believe that this measure would be fatal to the Republic, it would be the most revolutionary step you have ever taken.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Camille |first=Desmoulins |date=1793 |title=Le Vieux Cordelier No. IV |journal=}}</ref> </blockquote>Desmoulins used a variety of arguments to support his proposal, including pragmatic arguments and historical analysis, making especially heavy use of parallels to Ancient Rome: <blockquote>"You wish to exterminate all your enemies by the guillotine! But was there ever greater folly? Can you kill one person on the scaffold without making yourselves ten more enemies amongst his family and his friends? [...]
I am of a very different opinion from those who claim that it is necessary to leave Terror on the order of the day. I am confident, on the contrary, that liberty will be assured and Europe conquered so soon as you have a Committee of Clemency. This committee will complete the Revolution, for clemency is itself a Revolutionary measure, the most effective of all when it is wisely dealt out.
Let imbeciles and rascals call me moderate, if they want. I am certainly not ashamed not to be more outraged than M. Brutus; yet this is what Brutus wrote: ''You would do better, my dear Cicero, to put more effort into cutting short the civil wars than in losing your temper and pursuing your personal resentments against the vanquished."''<ref name=":2" /></blockquote>Desmoulins also argued fervently in favor of renewed freedom of the press, stating that "if freedom of the press existed in a country where the most absolute despotism unites all powers in a single hand, it alone would suffice to act as a counterweight."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Desmoulins |first=Camille |title=Le Vieux Cordelier No. III}}</ref> He criticized the extreme repression of freedom of the press in revolutionary France:<blockquote>What journalist in France would dare point out the errors of our committees, our generals, the Jacobins, the ministers, or the Commune the way the opposition does to those of the British ministry? Am I, a Frenchman, I, Camille Desmoulins, not as free as an English journalist? The very idea makes me indignant. Let no one tell me that we are in a revolution and that freedom of the press must be suspended during a revolution. Isn’t England, isn’t all of Europe, also in a state of revolution? Are the principles of freedom of the press less sacred in Paris than in London? [...] Can it be that when on one side servitude and venality hold the pen, and on the other freedom and virtue, that there is the least danger that the people, the judge of this combat, could pass to the side of slavery? To even fear such a thing is to insult human reason! Can reason fear a duel with stupidity? I repeat: Only counter-revolutionaries, only traitors, only Pitt, could have an interest in prohibiting unlimited freedom of the press in France; freedom and truth can never fear the pen of servitude and lies.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Desmoulins |first=Camille |title=Le Vieux Cordelier No. I |year=1793}}</ref></blockquote>In his fourth number, Desmoulins addressed Robespierre directly: '''"'''O! my dear Robespierre! O my old school friend! you whose eloquent words posterity will reread! Remember the lessons of history of philosophy: that love is stronger, more enduring than fear; that admiration and religion were born of generosity; that acts of clemency are the ladder of pride, as was said by Tertullien, by which members of the Committee of Public Safety have risen to the skies; men never climb thither on stairs of blood."<ref name=":2" />
On 7 January 1794, the Jacobin Club sought to expel Desmoulins from its number. Robespierre, initially seeking to protect Desmoulins, suggested as an alternative that the offending issues of the ''Vieux Cordelier'' be publicly burnt. Desmoulins' response,"''Brûler n'est pas répondre''" ("Burning is not answering"), echoed the cry of [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]], the influential philosopher whose work was central to Robespierre's own vision of the Republic.<ref name="Scurr 299">Scurr, 299</ref> Robespierre responded to this by calling Desmoulins a "spoilt child" and saying that: "Camille, that if you weren't Camille, we wouldn't have so much indulgence for you. We treat you like a lost child, and you dare to complain. [...] Well, since he wishes it, let him be covered in ignominy."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Robespierre |first=Maximilien |title=Oeuvres complètes |year=1910}}</ref> Despite this, Desmoulins refused to renounce the ''Vieux Cordelier''.
Meanwhile, the participation of Danton's personal secretary, [[Fabre d'Églantine]], in a financial scam with the East India Company became exposed and he was arrested for corruption and forgery.<ref name="Scurr301">Scurr, 301</ref> This scandal cast doubt on Danton and his allies, and Robespierre now supported the expulsion of Desmoulins from the Jacobin club. After the condemnation and execution of the Hébertists in March 1794, the energies of the Montagnards (especially of Saint-Just) turned to the elimination of the ''indulgent'' faction headed by Danton and voiced by Desmoulins. They were accused of corruption and counter-revolutionary conspiracy, charges were brought before the Committee of Public Safety, and arrest warrants including for Desmoulins were finally issued on 31 March.
==Trial and execution==
[[File:Procès de Danton, Desmoulins, Chabot.jpg|thumb|Desmoulins and Danton before the [[Revolutionary Tribunal]]]]
Danton, Desmoulins, and many other actual or accused Dantonist associates were tried from April 3 through 5th before the [[Revolutionary Tribunal]]. The trial was less criminal in nature than political, and as such unfolded in an irregular fashion. When asked his name and age, Desmoulins responded with: "Benoît Camille Desmoulins, age of thirty-three – the age of Jesus, a critical age for patriots."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Leuwers |title= |pages=329}}</ref> The accused were prevented from defending themselves by a decree of the National Convention.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=100}} This fact, together with confusing and often incidental denunciations (for instance, a report that Danton, while engaged in political work in Brussels, had appropriated a carriage filled with several hundred thousand livres of table linen)<ref name="Claretie313">Claretie, 313</ref> and threats made by prosecutor [[Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville]] (Desmoulins' cousin) towards members of the jury, helped to ensure a guilty verdict. Additionally, the accused were denied the right to have witnesses appear on their behalf, though they had submitted requests for several—including, in Desmoulins' case, Robespierre. The verdict was passed in the absence of the accused, who had been removed from the courtroom to prevent unrest among the trial's observers. Their execution was scheduled for the same day.
In a letter to his wife from the Luxembourg Prison, Desmoulins wrote, <blockquote>[I]t is marvellous that I have walked for five years along the precipices of the Revolution without falling over them, and that I am still living; and I rest my head calmly upon the pillow of my writings... I have dreamed of a Republic such as all the world would have adored. I could never have believed that men could be so ferocious and so unjust.<ref name="Claretie303">Claretie, 303</ref></blockquote>
As Desmoulins was taken to the scaffold, he was informed of his wife's arrest and went mad. It took several men to get him to the [[Tumbrel|tumbril]]. He struggled and tried to plead with the mob, ripping his shirt in the process. Lucile was also soon to be slated for execution and died only eight days later.<ref>{{cite book|last=Andress|first=David|title=The Terror|url=https://archive.org/details/terror00andr|url-access=registration|year=2005|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|location=New York|isbn=978-0-374-53073-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/terror00andr/page/275 275]}}</ref> Of the group of fifteen who were guillotined together on 5 April 1794, including [[Marie Jean Hérault de Séchelles]], [[Fabre d'Églantine|Philippe Fabre d'Églantine]] and [[Pierre Philippeaux]], Desmoulins died third, and Danton last. Desmoulins and his guillotined associates were buried in the [[Errancis Cemetery]], a common place of interment for those executed during the Revolution. In the mid-19th century, their skeletal remains were transferred to the [[Catacombs of Paris]].<ref>Beyern, B., Guide des tombes d'hommes célèbres, Le Cherche Midi, 2008, 377p, {{ISBN|978-2-7491-1350-0}}</ref>
==Family==
[[File:Desmoulins.jpg|thumb|Camille Desmoulins, his wife Lucile and their son Horace-Camille, c. 1792]]
On 29 December 1790 Desmoulins married [[Lucile Duplessis]], whom he had known for many years.<ref>{{cite book|last=Beraud|first=Henri|title=Twelve Portraits of the French Revolution|year=1928|publisher=Books for Library Press, Inc.|location=New York|pages=144}}</ref> Lucile's father long denied permission for the marriage, believing that the life of a journalist could not support any sort of family. Among the witnesses to the marriage were Robespierre, Brissot, and [[Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve]]. The wedding took place at the [[Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris|Saint-Sulpice Church]] in Paris. The Desmoulins' only child, Horace Camille, was born on 6 July 1792.<ref>Claretie, p. 171.</ref>
Lucile Desmoulins was arrested mere days after her husband and condemned to the guillotine on charges of [[Conspiracy (political)|conspiring]] to free her husband from prison and plotting the "ruin of the Republic." She was executed on 13 April 1794, the same day as the widow of [[Jacques Hébert]]. In a last note to her mother she wrote, "A tear falls from my eyes for you. I shall go to sleep in the calm of innocence. Lucile."<ref>{{cite book|last=Beraud|first=Henri|title=Twelve Portraits of the French Revolution|year=1928|publisher=Books for Library Press, Inc.|location=New York|pages=155}}</ref>
Horace Camille Desmoulins was raised by Adèle and Annette Duplessis (the sister and mother of Lucile, respectively), who successfully petitioned the {{ill|Comité de législation|fr}} in February 1795 for the suspension of the sale of his father's belongings.<ref>{{cite book|last= Fleischmann|first= Hector|title=La Guillotine en 1793 - D'après des documents inédits des Archives nationales|year=2016|publisher=Collection XIX|location=Paris}}</ref> He married Zoë Villefranche and they had four children. He was later [[pension]]ed by the French government, and died in 1825 in [[Haiti]].
==In popular culture==
Camille Desmoulins is among the central characters in the following works of fiction:
* ''[[A Place of Greater Safety]]'' (1992) by [[Hilary Mantel]]
* ''[[The Gods Are Thirsty (Tanith Lee)|The Gods Are Thirsty]]'' (1996) by [[Tanith Lee]]
* ''[[Danton (1983 film)|Danton]]'' (film; 1982) dir. [[Andrzej Wajda]]
* ''[[The Danton Case]]'' (play; 1929) by [[Stanislawa Przybyszewska]]
* ''[[La Révolution française (film)|La Révolution française]]'' (film/miniseries; 1989)
* ''A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians'' (2020) by H.G. Parry
There is also a scene in ''[[Jefferson in Paris]]'' (film; 1995) where Camille Desmoulins makes his famous call to arms in the start of the French revolution.
[[Vincent Cassel]] plays the part of Desmoulins.
==See also==
* [[Félix Charpentier]]. Sculptor of bronze statue of Camille Desmoulins in the place d'Armes in Guise
==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}
==References==
{{commons|Camille Desmoulins}}
* Andress, David. ''The Terror: The Merciless War for Freedom in Revolutionary France.'' New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004.
* Claretie, Jules. ''Camille Desmoulins and His Wife: Passages from the History of the Dantonists.'' London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1876.
* Doyle, William. ''The Oxford History of the French Revolution''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
* Gilchrist, J.T., and Murray, W.J. ''The Press in the French Revolution: Selection of Documents taken from the Press of the Reovolution for the years 1789-1794''. Melbourne: Cheshire, 1971.
* Hartcup, John. "Camille Desmoulins", ''History Today'' 25-4 (1975), p. 238-245.
* Hammersley, Rachel. "Camille Desmoulin’s ‘Le Vieux Cordelier’. A Link Between English and French Republicanism" ''History of European Ideas'' 27 (2001).
* Linton, Marisa, ''Choosing Terror: Virtue, Friendship and Authenticity in the French Revolution''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
* Methley, Violet. ''Camille Desmoulins: A Biography.'' New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1915.
* [[Schama, Simon]]. ''[[Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution]]''. New York: Vintage Books, 1990.
* Scurr, Ruth. ''Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution''. New York: Owl Books, 2006.
* Whaley, Leigh. "Revolutionary Networking 1789-1791," p. 41-51 in ''Revolutionary Culture, Politics and Science''. Belfast: Queen's University, 1996.
* McPhee, Peter.''Robespierre: A Revolutionary Life''. Yale University Press, 2012.
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Desmoulins, Lucie Simplice Camille Benoist |volume=8 |pages=99–101}} This gives the following references:
** [[Jules Arsène Arnaud Claretie|J. Claretie]], ''Œuvres de Camille Desmoulins avec une étude biographique ... etc.'' (Paris, 1874), and ''Camille Desmoulins, Lucile Desmoulins, étude sur les Dantonistes'' (Paris, 1875; Eng. trans., London, 1876)
** [[François Victor Alphonse Aulard|F. A. Aulard]], ''Les Orateurs de la Législative et de la Convention'' (Paris, 1905, 2nd ed.)
** G. Lenôtre, "La Maison de Camille Desmoulins" (''Le Temps'', March 25, 1899).
==External links==
* {{Librivox author |id=11901}}
{{French Revolution navbox}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Desmoulins, Camille}}
[[Category:1760 births]]
[[Category:1794 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Aisne]]
[[Category:Deputies to the French National Convention]]
[[Category:18th-century French lawyers]]
[[Category:18th-century French journalists]]
[[Category:Lycée Louis-le-Grand alumni]]
[[Category:Newspaper editors of the French Revolution]]
[[Category:French people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution]]
[[Category:Regicides of Louis XVI]]
[[Category:Executed revolutionaries]]
[[Category:French revolutionaries]]
[[Category:French pamphleteers]]' |
New page wikitext, after the edit (new_wikitext ) | '{{Short description|18th-century French journalist, politician, and revolutionary}}
{{Redirect|Desmoulins}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Camille Desmoulins
| image = Camille Desmoulins 2.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Portrait of Camille Desmoulins, c. 1790 ([[Musée Carnavalet]])
| office = [[National Convention|Deputy of the National Convention]]
| term_start = 20 September 1792
| term_end = 5 April 1794
| constituency = [[Seine (department)|Paris]]
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1760|3|2|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Guise]], [[Picardy]], [[Kingdom of France|France]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1794|4|5|1760|3|2|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Place de la Révolution]], [[Paris]], [[French First Republic|France]]
| death_cause = [[Guillotine|Execution by guillotine]]
| other_names =
| occupation = Journalist
| known_for =
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Lucile Duplessis]]|29 December 1790}}
| nationality = French
| party = [[The Mountain]]
| otherparty = [[Jacobin Club]]
| signature = CamilleDesmoulinsSignature.jpg
}}
'''Lucie-Simplice-Camille-Benoît Desmoulins''' ({{IPA-fr|lysi sɛ̃plis kamij bənwa demulɛ̃|lang}}; 2 March 1760{{snd}}5 April 1794) was a [[French people|French]] journalist, politician and a prominent figure of the [[French Revolution]]. He is best known for playing an instrumental role in the events that led to the [[Storming of the Bastille]]. Desmoulins was also noted for his radical criticism of the [[Reign of Terror]] as the editor of the journal ''[[Le Vieux Cordelier]]''. He was a schoolmate of [[Maximilien Robespierre]] and a close friend and political ally of [[Georges Danton]], who were the leading figures in the French Revolution.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=99}}
A lawyer by training, Desmoulins was enthralled by the Revolution from its outbreak. On 12 July 1789, shortly after [[Louis XVI]] dismissed his popular finance minister [[Jacques Necker]], Desmoulins delivered an impassioned call to arms to a crowd before the [[Palais-Royal]]. His agitation sparked widespread unrest in Paris, which culminated in the Storming of the Bastille two days later. Through his newfound fame, Desmoulins quickly established himself as a prominent radical pamphleteer. He advocated explicitly in favour of [[republicanism]] and revolutionary violence, and mounted relentless attacks on not only the [[Ancien Régime]], but also once-sympathetic revolutionary figures such as [[Jacques Pierre Brissot]]. His campaigns ultimately contributed to the fall of the moderate [[Girondins|Girondist]] faction and the beginning of the [[Reign of Terror]].
During the Terror, Desmoulins and his close friend and political ally [[Georges Danton]] distanced themselves from [[Maximilien Robespierre]]'s radical [[The Mountain|Montagnards]]. Through his new journal ''Le Vieux Cordelier'', he criticized the excesses of the Revolutionary Government and made pleas for clemency, which enraged Robespierre and eventually led to his downfall. In April 1794, Desmoulins was sentenced to death by the [[Revolutionary Tribunal]] and guillotined alongside Danton and other accused Dantonists.
==Early life==
Desmoulins was born at [[Guise, Picardy|Guise]], in the province of [[Picardy]], northern France. His father, Jean Benoît Nicolas Desmoulins, was a lieutenant-general of the [[bailliage]] of Guise. His mother was Marie-Madeleine Godart, from [[Wiège-Faty]].<ref name=Gallica>{{cite book|title=Dictionnaire des parlementaires français|volume=2|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1130410|page=360|author1=Robert, Adolphe|author2=Cougny, Gaston|language=fr|year=1890}}</ref> Through the efforts of a friend, his father obtained a scholarship for the fourteen-year-old Camille to enter the [[Lycée Louis-le-Grand|Collège Louis-le-Grand]] in [[Paris]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=99}} Desmoulins proved an exceptional student even among such notable contemporaries as [[Maximilien Robespierre]] and [[Louis-Marie Stanislas Fréron]]. He excelled in the study of Classical Literature and Politics, and gained a particular affinity for [[Cicero]], [[Tacitus]] and [[Livy]].<ref>Schama, 380.</ref>
Desmoulins initially pursued a career in law, and succeeded in gaining acceptance as an advocate in the [[parliament of Paris]] in 1785; however, his [[stuttering|stammer]]<ref name=Gallica/> and lack of connections to the Parisian legal community proved obstacles to success in this arena. Thus stymied, he turned towards writing as an alternative outlet for his talents; his interest in public affairs led him to a career as a political journalist.
In March 1789, Desmoulins senior was nominated as deputy to the [[Estates-General of 1789|Estates-General]] from the bailliage of Guise; however, due to illness, he failed to take his seat. Camille Desmoulins, himself limited to the role of spectator at the procession of the Estates-General on 5 May 1789, wrote a response to the event: ''Ode aux Etats Generaux.'' The [[Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau|Comte de Mirabeau]], a powerful political figure within the Estates-General who positioned himself as a bridge between the aristocracy and the emerging reformist movement, briefly enlisted Desmoulins to write for his newspaper at this time, strengthening Desmoulins' reputation as a journalist .<ref name="Hartcup238">Hartcup, 238.</ref>
==Outbreak of the Revolution==
[[Image:Motion faite au Palais Royal par Camille Desmoulins le 12 juillet 1789.jpg|thumb|right|Desmoulins making a call to arms to the crowd near the [[Palais Royal]], on 12 July 1789, by Pierre-Gabriel Berthault (1802)]]
Owing to his difficulties in establishing a career as a lawyer, Desmoulins' position in Paris was a precarious one and he often lived in poverty. However, he was greatly inspired and enthused by the current of political reform that surrounded the summoning of the Estates-General.
In letters to his father at the time, he rhapsodized over the procession of deputies entering the [[Palace of Versailles]], and criticized the events surrounding the closing of the Salle des Menus Plaisirs to the deputies who had declared themselves the [[National Assembly (French Revolution)|National Assembly]]{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=100}}—events which led to the famous swearing of the [[Tennis Court Oath]].
The sudden dismissal of popular finance minister [[Jacques Necker]] by [[King of France|King]] [[Louis XVI of France|Louis XVI]] on 11 July 1789 provided the spark that lit the fuse of Desmoulins' fame. On Sunday 12 July, spurred by the news of this politically unsettling dismissal, Desmoulins leapt onto a table outside the Cafe du Foy (one of many [[Coffeehouse|cafés]] in the garden of the [[Palais Royal]] frequented in large part by political dissidents) and delivered an impassioned call to arms. Shedding his customary stammer in the excitement, he urged the crowd to "take up arms and adopt cockades by which we may know each other",<ref name="Hartcup238" /> calling Necker's dismissal the [[wikt:tocsin|tocsin]] of the [[St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre|St. Bartholomew]] of the patriots. The stationing of a large number of troops in Paris, many foreign, had led Desmoulins and other revolutionaries to believe that a massacre of dissidents in the city was indeed imminent. This was an idea that his audience also found plausible and threatening, and they were quick to join Desmoulins and take up arms in riots that rapidly spread throughout Paris.
The "[[cockade]]s" worn by the crowd were initially green, a color associated with hope, and made at first from the leaves of the trees that lined the Palais Royal.<ref name=Gallica/> However, the color green was also associated with the [[Charles X|Comte d'Artois]], the reactionary and conservative brother of the King, and the cockades, therefore, were quickly replaced by others in the traditional colors of Paris: red and blue. On 14 July, the people of Paris attacked the [[Les Invalides|Hôtel des Invalides]] to seize arms, with Desmoulins among them arming himself with a [[bayonet]] rifle and two pistols, and embarked upon the [[Storming of the Bastille]].<ref name=Gallica/>
==Journalism==
{{More citations needed section|date=July 2020}}
In June 1789, Desmoulins had written a radical pamphlet entitled ''La France Libre'', which Parisian publishers at the time had refused to print.<ref name=Gallica/> The rioting surrounding the [[storming of the Bastille]], however, and especially Desmoulins' personal and publicized involvement in it, altered the situation considerably. On 18 July, Desmoulins's work was finally issued. The politics of the pamphlet ran considerably in advance of public opinion;<ref name=Gallica/> in it, Desmoulins called explicitly for a [[republic]], stating, "... popular and democratic government is the only constitution which suits France, and all those who are worthy of the name of men."<ref>Hammersley, 124.</ref> ''La France Libre'' also examined and criticized in detail the role and [[Divine Right of Kings|rights of kings]], of the [[French nobility|nobility]], and of the [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] [[clergy]].{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}
Desmoulins' renown as a radical pamphleteer was furthered by the publication, in September 1789, of his ''Discours de la lanterne aux Parisiens,'' which featured as its [[epigraph (literature)|epigraph]] a quotation from the [[Gospel of John]]: ''Qui male agit odit lucem'' ("He who does evil hates the light")<ref>{{Bibleverse||John|3:20}}</ref> This was understood to allude to the iron bracket of a lamppost at the corner of the Place de Grève and the Rue de la Vannerie, often used by rioters as a makeshift gallows for anti-revolutionaries and those accused of profiteering. A famous Revolutionary song, [[Ah! ça ira|''Ça ira'']] ("It shall be"), also immortalizes this lantern, in the lines, "Les aristocrates à la lanterne... Les aristocrates, on les pendra!" ("To the lantern with the aristocrats... The aristocrats, we'll hang them!"){{citation needed|date=July 2020}}
The ''Discours de la lanterne'', written from the perspective of the Place de Grève lamppost, was aggressive in its celebration of political violence, and attributed exalted qualities of loyalty and patriotism to the citizens who made up the Parisian mob. This hard-edged fervor found an appreciative audience in Paris, and Desmoulins, as a result of the pamphlet, became known as the "''Procureur-général de la lanterne''" ("the Lanterne [[Prosecutor]]" or "Lanterne Attorney").<ref>{{cite book |last1=Claretie |first1=Jules |title=Camille Desmoulins and His Wife: Passages from the History of the Dantonists Founded Upon New and Hitherto Unpublished Documents |date=1876 |publisher=Smith, Elder & Company |page=272 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iMZnAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA272 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hall |first1=Evelyn Beatrice |title=The Life of Mirabeau |date=1908 |publisher=Smith, Elder, & Co. |page=249 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tf8EAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA249 |language=en}}</ref>
[[File:Camille Desmoulins - Joseph Boze.png|thumb|294x294px|Portrait by [[Joseph Boze]] or one of Boze's daughters, c. 1790]]
In September 1789, Desmoulins issued the first number of a weekly publication, ''Histoire des Révolutions de France et de Brabant'',<ref name=Gallica/> which would run until the end of July 1791. This publication combined political reportage, revolutionary polemics, satire, and cultural commentary; "The universe and all its follies," Desmoulins had announced, "shall be included in the jurisdiction of this hypercritical journal."<ref name="Claretie77">Claretie, 77</ref> The ''Révolutions de France et de Brabant'' proved extremely popular from its first to its last number. Desmoulins became notorious, and was able to leave behind the poverty that had marked his previous life in Paris.
The politics of the ''Révolutions de France et de Brabant'' were anti-royalist and pro-Revolutionary. The newspaper celebrated the Revolutionary zeal of "patriots" from the battlefields of [[Brabant Revolution|Brabant]] to the Cordeliers district in Paris, home to the well-known and powerful revolutionary [[Cordeliers|Club des Cordeliers]], which Desmoulins joined in February 1790<ref name=Gallica/> and soon became a prominent member, and also criticized the excesses and inequities of, among a wide range of targets, the aristocratic regime. The savagery with which Desmoulins attacked those with whom he disagreed drew lawsuits, criticism, and reciprocal attacks. His previous friendships with powerful figures such as the Comte de Mirabeau and [[Malouet|Baron Malouet]], suffered. Both men, angered by what they perceived as libellous statements, declared that Desmoulins should be denounced and Malouet "went so far as to ask that Camille be certified insane." The ''[[Les Actes des Apotres|Actes des Apôtres]]'', the equally savage royalist newspaper that served as the ''Révolutions''' opposite number, engaged in a continual war of insults with the ''Révolutions,'' and particularly with Desmoulins, whom it dubbed, in a satirical poem, "''l'ânon des moulins''" (the little jackass of the windmills).<ref name="Claretie91">Claretie, 91</ref>
Upon the death of the Comte de Mirabeau in April 1791, Desmoulins (to whom Mirabeau had, at one time, been a great patron and friend) countered the predominantly sentimental and forgiving eulogies that appeared in the Parisian press by publishing a brutal attack in which he declared the late Mirabeau to be the "god of orators, liars, and thieves."<ref name="Claretie104">Claretie, 104</ref> This presaged later about-face attacks against prominent and once-sympathetic Revolutionary figures, such as [[Jacques Pierre Brissot|Jean Pierre Brissot]], by Desmoulins.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}
On 16 July 1791, Desmoulins appeared before the [[Paris Commune (French Revolution)|Paris Commune]] as the head of a group petitioning for the deposition of Louis XVI, who had, in June of that year, briefly [[Flight to Varennes|fled Paris]] with his family before being captured and escorted back to the city. The flight of the king had caused civil unrest, and the petition, presented a day before the anniversary of the [[Fête de la Fédération]], contributed to this agitation. On July 17, a large crowd that had gathered at the [[Champs de Mars]] in support of the petition was fired upon by military forces under the command of the [[Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette|Marquis de Lafayette]], an incident which became known as the [[Champs de Mars Massacre]]. Accounts differ as to whether or not Desmoulins was present at the Champs de Mars; in the subsequent upheaval, [[Writ|warrants for the arrest]] of himself and Georges Danton were issued. Danton fled Paris, and Desmoulins, though he remained in the city, and spoke on several occasions at the [[Jacobin Club]], decreased his journalistic activities for a time.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}
Early in 1792, following a bitter quarrel with [[Jacques Pierre Brissot|Jean Pierre Brissot]] over a legal case which Desmoulins had taken up and discussed in several broadsheets, Desmoulins published a pamphlet, ''Jean Pierre Brissot démasqué'', which attacked Brissot savagely and personally.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=100}} In it, Desmoulins claimed that the invented verb ''brissoter'' had taken on the meaning "to cheat," and accused Brissot of betraying republicanism. The case constructed against Brissot in this pamphlet was expanded and used to terrible and destructive effect in Desmoulins' later publication of 1793, ''Fragment de l'histoire secrète de la Révolution'' (also known as the ''Histoire des Brissotins''), in which the [[Girondist]] political faction, of which Brissot was a prominent member, was accused of traitorous and counter-revolutionary activities. This "history," produced in response to calls by Brissot and his followers for the dissolution of the Paris Commune and of the Jacobins, contributed to the arrest and execution of many Girondist leaders, including Brissot himself, in October 1793. Desmoulins intensely regretted his role in the death of the Girondists; present at their trial, he was heard to lament, "O my God! my God! It is I who kill them!" He was seen to collapse in the courtroom when the public prosecutor pronounced the sentence of death.<ref name="Claretie248">Claretie, 248</ref>
In the summer of 1793, [[Arthur Dillon (1750–1794)|General Arthur Dillon]], a royalist and close friend of Desmoulins and his wife, was imprisoned. In an openly published ''Lettre au General Dillon'', Desmoulins went far beyond the politically delicate act of defending Dillon, and attacked powerful members of the [[Committee of Public Safety]] - notably [[Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just|Saint-Just]] and [[Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne|Billaud-Varenne]].{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}
Beginning 5 December 1793, Desmoulins published the journal for which he would be best known and most celebrated: ''[[Le Vieux Cordelier]]''. Even the title of this short-lived publication spoke of conflict with the current regime, implying that Desmoulins spoke on behalf of the "old" or original members of the Club des Cordeliers, in opposition to the more radical and extreme factions that had now come into power. In the seven issues that comprised the ''Vieux Cordelier'', Desmoulins condemned the suspicion, brutality, and fear that had come to characterize the Revolution, comparing the ongoing [[Reign of Terror|Revolutionary Terror]] to the oppressive reign of the Roman emperor [[Tiberius]] and calling for the establishment of a "Committee of Clemency" to counter the climate of mercilessness fostered by the Committee of Public Safety. In the fourth number of the journal, Desmoulins addressed Robespierre directly, writing, "My dear Robespierre... my old school friend... Remember the lessons of history and philosophy: love is stronger, more lasting than fear."<ref name="Scurr 298">Scurr, 298</ref> The perceived counter-revolutionary tone in these calls for clemency led to Desmoulins' expulsion from the Club des Cordeliers and denunciation at the Jacobins, as well as, ultimately, to his arrest and execution.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}
==Political career, ''Le Vieux Cordelier'', and downfall==
[[Image:Le Vieux Cordelier n° 3.jpg|thumb|right|Third issue of Desmoulins' ''Le Vieux Cordelier'']]
Desmoulins took an active part in the [[10th of August (French Revolution)|10 August 1792 attack]] on the [[Tuileries Palace]]. Immediately afterwards, as the [[Legislative Assembly (France)]] crumbled and various factions contended for control of the country, he was appointed Secretary-General to Georges Danton, who had assumed the role of [[List of Justice Ministers of France|Justice Minister]]. On 8 September, 1792, he was elected as a deputy from Paris to the new [[National Convention]]. He was affiliated with [[The Mountain]], and voted for the establishment of the [[First French Republic|Republic]] and the [[execution of Louis XVI]]. His political views were closely aligned with those of Danton and, initially, Robespierre.
In the fall of 1793, as terror became "the order of the day," Desmoulins began to speak less and less at the Convention.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=[[Hervé Leuwers|Leuwers]] |first=Hervé |title=Camille et Lucile Desmoulins |publisher=Fayard |year=2018 |pages=284–285}}</ref> When he did speak, he was one of the few voices calling for clemency; on October 16, 1793, he was one of the rare voices to speak up after the Convention ordered the arrest of all citizens of governments the Republic was at war with, asking for an exception for Dutch who had been prescribed by their government.<ref name=":0" /> Desmoulins also assisted in creating the first draft of the Civil Code and pushed for its implementation.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Leuwers |first=Hervé |title=Camille et Lucile Desmoulins |publisher=Fayard |year=2018 |pages=280–281}}</ref>
Desmoulins also spoke in support of a measure proposed in August 1793 that would have given spouses an equal right to administer property. In opposition to Conventionnels who argued for the "natural superiority" of the male sex, Desmoulins condemned the [[Marital power|puissance maritale]], according to which women were legal nonentities under the guardianship of their husbands, calling it "the creation of despotic governments."<ref name=":1" /> Later that month, Desmoulins argued in favor of no-fault divorce, denouncing a draft article enumerating limited grounds for divorce on the ground that divorce should be freely available at the request of either spouse – a measure that would not be revived in France in full until 1985.<ref name=":1" />
The first number of''[[Vieux Cordelier]]'' appeared on December 5, 1793. Although it was dedicated to Robespierre along with Danton and called them both friends, it marked the start of a rift between Desmoulins and Robespierre. Initially directed, with Robespierre's approval, against the excesses of the ultra-radical [[Hébertists|Hébertist]] faction, the journal rapidly expanded and intensified its criticisms of the Committee of Public Safety and the Revolutionary Tribunal. Desmoulins appealed to Robespierre to help steer these institutions in a more moderate direction. On 20 December, Robespierre had proposed the formation of a commission "to examine all detentions promptly and to free the innocent," an idea shot down by Billaud-Varenne,<ref name="McPhee 179">McPhee, 179</ref> and Desmoulins "seized on this and called for something more dramatic: a committee of clemency" to put an end to the Terror.<ref name="Scurr 298">Scurr, 298</ref>
In the ''Vieux Cordelier'', especially the third and fourth numbers, Desmoulins criticized the Terror, argued in favor of clemency for prisoners, and demanded the return of freedom of the press:<blockquote>Certain people apparently believe that liberty, like children, needs to go through cries and tears to get to maturity; on the contrary, it is the nature of liberty that, to enjoy it, we need only desire it. A people is free as soon as it wishes to be, it entered upon its full rights on the 14th of July. Liberty has neither old age nor infancy; she has but one age, that of strength and vigour; otherwise, those who are being killed for the republic would be as stupid as the fanatics in la Vendée who are being killed for the delights of heaven which they will not enjoy. [...] No, this liberty which I worship is not an unknown deity. We are fighting in defense of the good things which she puts into the possession of those who invoke her: these good things are the Declaration of Rights, the sweetness of Republican maxims, fraternity, holy equality, and the inviolability of principles. These are the footprints of the goddess, these are the signs by which I distinguish the nations among whom she dwells.
And by what other sign would you wish that I recognize this divine liberty? This liberty, be it but an empty name? Is it only an actress of the Opera, la Candeille or la Maillard paraded about with a red cap on, or that statue, forty-six feet high, that David proposes? If by liberty you do not mean, as I do, principles, but only a bit of stone, then never has there been an idolatry more stupid and more costly than ours.
Oh my dear fellow citizens! Shall we so far debase ourselves as to fall at the feet of such divinities? No, this Liberty descended from Heaven is not a nymph of the Opera, not a red cap, a dirty shirt, or rags and tatters. Liberty is happiness, reason, equality; she is justice, she is embodied in the Declaration of Rights, in your sublime Constitution. Would you have me acknowledge her, fall at her feet, spill my blood for her? Open the prisons of those two hundred thousand citizens whom you call “suspects,” for in the Declaration of Rights there was no prison for suspected persons, but only for felons. Suspicion has no prison, it has the public prosecutor; there are no suspected persons but those who are accused of crime by the law. Do not believe that this measure would be fatal to the Republic, it would be the most revolutionary step you have ever taken.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Camille |first=Desmoulins |date=1793 |title=Le Vieux Cordelier No. IV |journal=}}</ref> </blockquote>Desmoulins used a variety of arguments to support his proposal, including pragmatic arguments and historical analysis, making especially heavy use of parallels to Ancient Rome: <blockquote>"You wish to exterminate all your enemies by the guillotine! But was there ever greater folly? Can you kill one person on the scaffold without making yourselves ten more enemies amongst his family and his friends? [...]
I am of a very different opinion from those who claim that it is necessary to leave Terror on the order of the day. I am confident, on the contrary, that liberty will be assured and Europe conquered so soon as you have a Committee of Clemency. This committee will complete the Revolution, for clemency is itself a Revolutionary measure, the most effective of all when it is wisely dealt out.
Let imbeciles and rascals call me moderate, if they want. I am certainly not ashamed not to be more outraged than M. Brutus; yet this is what Brutus wrote: ''You would do better, my dear Cicero, to put more effort into cutting short the civil wars than in losing your temper and pursuing your personal resentments against the vanquished."''<ref name=":2" /></blockquote>Desmoulins also argued fervently in favor of renewed freedom of the press, stating that "if freedom of the press existed in a country where the most absolute despotism unites all powers in a single hand, it alone would suffice to act as a counterweight."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Desmoulins |first=Camille |title=Le Vieux Cordelier No. III}}</ref> He criticized the extreme repression of freedom of the press in revolutionary France:<blockquote>What journalist in France would dare point out the errors of our committees, our generals, the Jacobins, the ministers, or the Commune the way the opposition does to those of the British ministry? Am I, a Frenchman, I, Camille Desmoulins, not as free as an English journalist? The very idea makes me indignant. Let no one tell me that we are in a revolution and that freedom of the press must be suspended during a revolution. Isn’t England, isn’t all of Europe, also in a state of revolution? Are the principles of freedom of the press less sacred in Paris than in London? [...] Can it be that when on one side servitude and venality hold the pen, and on the other freedom and virtue, that there is the least danger that the people, the judge of this combat, could pass to the side of slavery? To even fear such a thing is to insult human reason! Can reason fear a duel with stupidity? I repeat: Only counter-revolutionaries, only traitors, only Pitt, could have an interest in prohibiting unlimited freedom of the press in France; freedom and truth can never fear the pen of servitude and lies.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Desmoulins |first=Camille |title=Le Vieux Cordelier No. I |year=1793}}</ref></blockquote>In his fourth number, Desmoulins addressed Robespierre directly: '''"'''O! my dear Robespierre! O my old school friend! you whose eloquent words posterity will reread! Remember the lessons of history of philosophy: that love is stronger, more enduring than fear; that admiration and religion were born of generosity; that acts of clemency are the ladder of pride, as was said by Tertullien, by which members of the Committee of Public Safety have risen to the skies; men never climb thither on stairs of blood."<ref name=":2" />
On 7 January 1794, the Jacobin Club sought to expel Desmoulins from its number. Robespierre, initially seeking to protect Desmoulins, suggested as an alternative that the offending issues of the ''Vieux Cordelier'' be publicly burnt. Desmoulins' response,"''Brûler n'est pas répondre''" ("Burning is not answering"), echoed the cry of [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]], the influential philosopher whose work was central to Robespierre's own vision of the Republic.<ref name="Scurr 299">Scurr, 299</ref> Robespierre responded to this by calling Desmoulins a "spoilt child" and saying that: "Camille, that if you weren't Camille, we wouldn't have so much indulgence for you. We treat you like a lost child, and you dare to complain. [...] Well, since he wishes it, let him be covered in ignominy."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Robespierre |first=Maximilien |title=Oeuvres complètes |year=1910}}</ref> Despite this, Desmoulins refused to renounce the ''Vieux Cordelier''.
Meanwhile, the participation of Danton's personal secretary, [[Fabre d'Églantine]], in a financial scam with the East India Company became exposed and he was arrested for corruption and forgery.<ref name="Scurr301">Scurr, 301</ref> This scandal cast doubt on Danton and his allies, and Robespierre now supported the expulsion of Desmoulins from the Jacobin club. After the condemnation and execution of the Hébertists in March 1794, the energies of the Montagnards (especially of Saint-Just) turned to the elimination of the ''indulgent'' faction headed by Danton and voiced by Desmoulins. They were accused of corruption and counter-revolutionary conspiracy, charges were brought before the Committee of Public Safety, and arrest warrants including for Desmoulins were finally issued on 31 March.
==Trial and execution==
[[File:Procès de Danton, Desmoulins, Chabot.jpg|thumb|Desmoulins and Danton before the [[Revolutionary Tribunal]]]]
Danton, Desmoulins, and many other actual or accused Dantonist associates were tried from April 3 through 5th before the [[Revolutionary Tribunal]]. The trial was less criminal in nature than political, and as such unfolded in an irregular fashion. When asked his name and age, Desmoulins responded with: "Benoît Camille Desmoulins, age of thirty-three – the age of Jesus, a critical age for patriots."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Leuwers |title= |pages=329}}</ref> The accused were prevented from defending themselves by a decree of the National Convention.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=100}} This fact, together with confusing and often incidental denunciations (for instance, a report that Danton, while engaged in political work in Brussels, had appropriated a carriage filled with several hundred thousand livres of table linen)<ref name="Claretie313">Claretie, 313</ref> and threats made by prosecutor [[Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville]] (Desmoulins' cousin) towards members of the jury, helped to ensure a guilty verdict. Additionally, the accused were denied the right to have witnesses appear on their behalf, though they had submitted requests for several—including, in Desmoulins' case, Robespierre. The verdict was passed in the absence of the accused, who had been removed from the courtroom to prevent unrest among the trial's observers. Their execution was scheduled for the same day.
In a letter to his wife from the Luxembourg Prison, Desmoulins wrote, <blockquote>[I]t is marvellous that I have walked for five years along the precipices of the Revolution without falling over them, and that I am still living; and I rest my head calmly upon the pillow of my writings... I have dreamed of a Republic such as all the world would have adored. I could never have believed that men could be so ferocious and so unjust.<ref name="Claretie303">Claretie, 303</ref></blockquote>
As Desmoulins was taken to the scaffold, he was informed of his wife's arrest and went mad. It took several men to get him to the [[Tumbrel|tumbril]]. He struggled and tried to plead with the mob, ripping his shirt in the process. Lucile was also soon to be slated for execution and died only eight days later.<ref>{{cite book|last=Andress|first=David|title=The Terror|url=https://archive.org/details/terror00andr|url-access=registration|year=2005|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|location=New York|isbn=978-0-374-53073-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/terror00andr/page/275 275]}}</ref> Of the group of fifteen who were guillotined together on 5 April 1794, including [[Marie Jean Hérault de Séchelles]], [[Fabre d'Églantine|Philippe Fabre d'Églantine]] and [[Pierre Philippeaux]], Desmoulins died third, and Danton last. Desmoulins and his guillotined associates were buried in the [[Errancis Cemetery]], a common place of interment for those executed during the Revolution. In the mid-19th century, their skeletal remains were transferred to the [[Catacombs of Paris]].<ref>Beyern, B., Guide des tombes d'hommes célèbres, Le Cherche Midi, 2008, 377p, {{ISBN|978-2-7491-1350-0}}</ref>
==Family==
[[File:Desmoulins.jpg|thumb|Camille Desmoulins, his wife Lucile and their son Horace-Camille, c. 1792]]
On 29 December 1790 Desmoulins married [[Lucile Duplessis]], whom he had known for many years.<ref>{{cite book|last=Beraud|first=Henri|title=Twelve Portraits of the French Revolution|year=1928|publisher=Books for Library Press, Inc.|location=New York|pages=144}}</ref> Lucile's father long denied permission for the marriage, believing that the life of a journalist could not support any sort of family. Among the witnesses to the marriage were Robespierre, Brissot, and [[Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve]]. The wedding took place at the [[Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris|Saint-Sulpice Church]] in Paris. The Desmoulins' only child, Horace Camille, was born on 6 July 1792.<ref>Claretie, p. 171.</ref>
Lucile Desmoulins was arrested mere days after her husband and condemned to the guillotine on charges of [[Conspiracy (political)|conspiring]] to free her husband from prison and plotting the "ruin of the Republic." She was executed on 13 April 1794, the same day as the widow of [[Jacques Hébert]]. In a last note to her mother she wrote, "A tear falls from my eyes for you. I shall go to sleep in the calm of innocence. Lucile."<ref>{{cite book|last=Beraud|first=Henri|title=Twelve Portraits of the French Revolution|year=1928|publisher=Books for Library Press, Inc.|location=New York|pages=155}}</ref>
Horace Camille Desmoulins was raised by Adèle and Annette Duplessis (the sister and mother of Lucile, respectively), who successfully petitioned the {{ill|Comité de législation|fr}} in February 1795 for the suspension of the sale of his father's belongings.<ref>{{cite book|last= Fleischmann|first= Hector|title=La Guillotine en 1793 - D'après des documents inédits des Archives nationales|year=2016|publisher=Collection XIX|location=Paris}}</ref> He married Zoë Villefranche and they had four children. He was later [[pension]]ed by the French government, and died in 1825 in [[Haiti]].
==In popular culture==
Camille Desmoulins is among the central characters in the following works of fiction:
* ''[[A Place of Greater Safety]]'' (1992) by [[Hilary Mantel]]
* ''[[The Gods Are Thirsty (Tanith Lee)|The Gods Are Thirsty]]'' (1996) by [[Tanith Lee]]
* ''[[Danton (1983 film)|Danton]]'' (film; 1982) dir. [[Andrzej Wajda]]
* ''[[The Danton Case]]'' (play; 1929) by [[Stanislawa Przybyszewska]]
* ''[[La Révolution française (film)|La Révolution française]]'' (film/miniseries; 1989)
* ''A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians'' (2020) by H.G. Parry
There is also a scene in ''[[Jefferson in Paris]]'' (film; 1995) where Camille Desmoulins makes his famous call to arms in the start of the French revolution.
[[Vincent Cassel]] plays the part of Desmoulins.
==See also==
* [[Félix Charpentier]]. Sculptor of bronze statue of Camille Desmoulins in the place d'Armes in Guise
==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}
==References==
{{commons|Camille Desmoulins}}
* Andress, David. ''The Terror: The Merciless War for Freedom in Revolutionary France.'' New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004.
* Claretie, Jules. ''Camille Desmoulins and His Wife: Passages from the History of the Dantonists.'' London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1876.
* Doyle, William. ''The Oxford History of the French Revolution''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
* Gilchrist, J.T., and Murray, W.J. ''The Press in the French Revolution: Selection of Documents taken from the Press of the Reovolution for the years 1789-1794''. Melbourne: Cheshire, 1971.
* Hartcup, John. "Camille Desmoulins", ''History Today'' 25-4 (1975), p. 238-245.
* Hammersley, Rachel. "Camille Desmoulin’s ‘Le Vieux Cordelier’. A Link Between English and French Republicanism" ''History of European Ideas'' 27 (2001).
* Linton, Marisa, ''Choosing Terror: Virtue, Friendship and Authenticity in the French Revolution''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
* Methley, Violet. ''Camille Desmoulins: A Biography.'' New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1915.
* [[Schama, Simon]]. ''[[Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution]]''. New York: Vintage Books, 1990.
* Scurr, Ruth. ''Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution''. New York: Owl Books, 2006.
* Whaley, Leigh. "Revolutionary Networking 1789-1791," p. 41-51 in ''Revolutionary Culture, Politics and Science''. Belfast: Queen's University, 1996.
* McPhee, Peter.''Robespierre: A Revolutionary Life''. Yale University Press, 2012.
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Desmoulins, Lucie Simplice Camille Benoist |volume=8 |pages=99–101}} This gives the following references:
** [[Jules Arsène Arnaud Claretie|J. Claretie]], ''Œuvres de Camille Desmoulins avec une étude biographique ... etc.'' (Paris, 1874), and ''Camille Desmoulins, Lucile Desmoulins, étude sur les Dantonistes'' (Paris, 1875; Eng. trans., London, 1876)
** [[François Victor Alphonse Aulard|F. A. Aulard]], ''Les Orateurs de la Législative et de la Convention'' (Paris, 1905, 2nd ed.)
** G. Lenôtre, "La Maison de Camille Desmoulins" (''Le Temps'', March 25, 1899).
==External links==
* {{Librivox author |id=11901}}
{{French Revolution navbox}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Desmoulins, Camille}}
[[Category:1760 births]]
[[Category:1794 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Aisne]]
[[Category:Deputies to the French National Convention]]
[[Category:18th-century French lawyers]]
[[Category:18th-century French journalists]]
[[Category:Lycée Louis-le-Grand alumni]]
[[Category:Newspaper editors of the French Revolution]]
[[Category:French people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution]]
[[Category:Regicides of Louis XVI]]
[[Category:Executed revolutionaries]]
[[Category:French revolutionaries]]
[[Category:French pamphleteers]]' |
Unified diff of changes made by edit (edit_diff ) | '@@ -25,11 +25,5 @@
}}
-'''Lucie-Simplice-Camille-Benoît Desmoulins''' ({{IPA-fr|lysi sɛ̃plis kamij bənwa demulɛ̃|lang}}; 2 March 1760{{snd}}5 April 1794) was a [[French people|French]] journalist, politician and a prominent figure of the [[French Revolution]]. He is best known for playing an instrumental role in the events that led to the [[Storming of the Bastille]]. Desmoulins was also noted for his radical criticism of the [[Reign of Terror]] as the editor of the journal ''[[Le Vieux Cordelier]]''. He was a schoolmate of [[Maximilien Robespierre]] and a close friend and political ally of [[Georges Danton]], who were the leading figures in the French Revolution.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=99}} Desmoulins was tried and executed alongside Danton when the [[Committee of Public Safety]] reacted against Dantonist opposition.<ref>
-{{cite book|last= Beraud|first= Henri
-|title= Twelve Portraits of the French Revolution|year= 1928
-|publisher= Books for Library Press, Inc.|location= New York
-|pages= 145
-}}
-</ref>
+'''Lucie-Simplice-Camille-Benoît Desmoulins''' ({{IPA-fr|lysi sɛ̃plis kamij bənwa demulɛ̃|lang}}; 2 March 1760{{snd}}5 April 1794) was a [[French people|French]] journalist, politician and a prominent figure of the [[French Revolution]]. He is best known for playing an instrumental role in the events that led to the [[Storming of the Bastille]]. Desmoulins was also noted for his radical criticism of the [[Reign of Terror]] as the editor of the journal ''[[Le Vieux Cordelier]]''. He was a schoolmate of [[Maximilien Robespierre]] and a close friend and political ally of [[Georges Danton]], who were the leading figures in the French Revolution.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=99}}
A lawyer by training, Desmoulins was enthralled by the Revolution from its outbreak. On 12 July 1789, shortly after [[Louis XVI]] dismissed his popular finance minister [[Jacques Necker]], Desmoulins delivered an impassioned call to arms to a crowd before the [[Palais-Royal]]. His agitation sparked widespread unrest in Paris, which culminated in the Storming of the Bastille two days later. Through his newfound fame, Desmoulins quickly established himself as a prominent radical pamphleteer. He advocated explicitly in favour of [[republicanism]] and revolutionary violence, and mounted relentless attacks on not only the [[Ancien Régime]], but also once-sympathetic revolutionary figures such as [[Jacques Pierre Brissot]]. His campaigns ultimately contributed to the fall of the moderate [[Girondins|Girondist]] faction and the beginning of the [[Reign of Terror]].
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23 => 'http://mak.bn.org.pl/cgi-bin/KHW/makwww.exe?BM=1&NU=1&IM=4&WI=9810700743505606',
24 => 'http://id.bnportugal.gov.pt/aut/catbnp/153280',
25 => 'https://wikidata-externalid-url.toolforge.org/?p=8034&url_prefix=https://opac.vatlib.it/auth/detail/&id=495/102045',
26 => 'https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd118677969.html?language=en',
27 => 'https://www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/sycomore/fiche/(num_dept)/12253',
28 => 'https://trove.nla.gov.au/people/807529',
29 => 'https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6cr6xxc',
30 => 'https://www.idref.fr/033406065'
] |
Links in the page, before the edit (old_links ) | [
0 => 'http://catalogo.bne.es/uhtbin/authoritybrowse.cgi?action=display&authority_id=XX904994',
1 => 'http://uli.nli.org.il/F/?func=find-b&local_base=NLX10&find_code=UID&request=987007275692805171',
2 => 'http://data.bibliotheken.nl/id/thes/p070438536',
3 => 'http://id.worldcat.org/fast/182033/',
4 => 'http://mak.bn.org.pl/cgi-bin/KHW/makwww.exe?BM=1&NU=1&IM=4&WI=9810700743505606',
5 => 'http://id.bnportugal.gov.pt/aut/catbnp/153280',
6 => 'https://nla.gov.au/anbd.aut-an35035112',
7 => 'https://trove.nla.gov.au/people/807529',
8 => 'https://opac.kbr.be/LIBRARY/doc/AUTHORITY/14163805',
9 => 'https://books.google.com/books?id=iMZnAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA272',
10 => 'https://books.google.com/books?id=tf8EAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA249',
11 => 'https://aleph.nkp.cz/F/?func=find-c&local_base=aut&ccl_term=ica=xx0011223&CON_LNG=ENG',
12 => 'https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd118677969.html?language=en',
13 => 'https://www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/sycomore/fiche/(num_dept)/12253',
14 => 'https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb12427485j',
15 => 'https://data.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb12427485j',
16 => 'https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1130410',
17 => 'https://www.idref.fr/033406065',
18 => 'https://id.loc.gov/authorities/n85242196',
19 => 'https://data.nlg.gr/resource/authority/record149403',
20 => 'https://d-nb.info/gnd/118677969',
21 => 'https://archive.org/details/terror00andr',
22 => 'https://archive.org/details/terror00andr/page/275',
23 => 'https://isni.org/isni/0000000110221657',
24 => 'https://librivox.org/author/11901',
25 => 'https://bible.oremus.org/?passage=John%203:20&version=nrsv',
26 => 'https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6cr6xxc',
27 => 'https://wikidata-externalid-url.toolforge.org/?p=8034&url_prefix=https://opac.vatlib.it/auth/detail/&id=495/102045',
28 => 'https://viaf.org/viaf/19768884',
29 => 'https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q249313#identifiers',
30 => 'https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n85242196/'
] |
Whether or not the change was made through a Tor exit node (tor_exit_node ) | false |
Unix timestamp of change (timestamp ) | '1684895554' |