Robespierre on Political Morality

It is worthwhile to study this 1794 speech by Maximilien Robespierre, the French Revolutionary leader most responsible for that 9-month totalitarian regime known as the Reign of Terror. Compare Robespierre's speech to the essay by Herbert Marcuse - Repressive Tolerance - that was featured a few posts ago.

Sample:

If virtue be the spring of a popular government in times of peace, the spring of that government during a revolution is virtue combined with terror: virtue, without which terror is destructive; terror, without which virtue is impotent. Terror is only justice prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue; it is less a distinct principle than a natural consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing wants of the country.

It has been said that terror is the spring of despotic government. Does yours then resemble despotism? Yes, as the steel that glistens in the hands of the heroes of liberty resembles the sword with which the satellites of tyranny are armed. Let the despot govern by terror his debased subjects; he is right as a despot: conquer by terror the enemies of liberty and you will be right as founders of the republic. The government in a revolution is the despotism of liberty against tyranny. Is force only intended to protect crime? Is not the lightning of heaven made to blast vice exalted?

Get the whole hog here:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1794robespierre.html