Looked at objectively, Louis XVI probably did deserve the guillotine (by this point he had been caught inviting foreign armies into France to crush the revolution, and was clearly guilty of treason). And yet, rather than cold justice, how much more appealing is Paine's urge for humanity. "If, on my return to America, I should employ myself on a history of the French Revolution, I had rather record a thousand errors on the side of mercy, than be obliged to tell one act of severe justice."
Given that within the year, the French Revolution would spiral out of control and start to eat its own children, think how much different history could have been if Paine's simple appeal to mercy had been listened to.
For that matter, given, how many subsequent revolutions in world history have followed the French model, think how different world history could have been if this advice had been followed.
The Sandinista Thomas Borge is another positive example [LINK HERE]. One can only hope that in the future revolutions, history follows the examples of Paine and Borge.
Thomas Paine SPEECH IN THE CONVENTION, JANUARY 19, 1793.
(Read in French by Deputy Bancal.)Very sincerely do I regret the Convention’s vote of yesterday for death.
Marat [interrupting]: I submit that Thomas Paine is incompetent to vote on this question; being a Quaker his religious principles are opposed to capital punishment. [Much confusion, quieted by cries for “freedom of speech,” on which Bancal proceeds with Paine’s speech.]
I have the advantage of some experience; it is near twenty years that I have been engaged in the cause of liberty, having contributed something to it in the revolution of the United States of America. My language has always been that of liberty and humanity, and I know that nothing so exalts a nation as the union of these two principles, l under all circumstances. I know that the public mind of France, and particularly that of Paris, has been heated and irritated by the dangers to which they have been exposed; but could we carry our thoughts into the future, when the dangers are ended and the irritations forgotten, what to-day seems an act of justice may then appear an act of vengeance. [Murmurs.] My anxiety for the cause of France has become for the moment concern for her honor. If, on my return to America, I should employ myself on a history of the French Revolution, I had rather record a thousand errors on the side of mercy, than be obliged to tell one act of severe justice.
(PS--I've used this quote once before on this blog, although I mangled it slightly because at the time I had trouble tracking down the exact words and was just quoting from memory. And I've also used it here. So I'm repeating myself, but I think it's worth repeating.)
Link of the Day
No comments:
Post a Comment