Dare, Dare Again, Always Dare
Georges Jacques Danton (1759–94)
(1792)
Born in 1759, died in 1794; led the
attack on the Tuileries in 1792; implicated in the “September Massacres”;
helped to organize the Revolutionary Tribunal; Member of the Committee of
Public Safety; overthrown by Robespierre.
IT is gratifying
to the ministers of a free people to have to announce to them that their
country will be saved. All are stirred, all are excited, all burn to fight. You
know that
One portion of our people
will proceed to the frontiers, another will throw up intrenchments, and the
third with pikes will defend the hearts of our cities.
At such a moment this National Assembly
becomes a veritable committee of war. We ask that you concur with us in
directing this sublime movement of the people, by naming commissioners who will
second us in these great measures. We ask that any one refusing to give
personal service or to furnish arms shall be punished with death. We ask that a
set of instructions be drawn up for the citizens to direct their movements. We
ask that couriers be sent to all the departments to notify them of the decrees
that you proclaim here. The tocsin we are about to ring is not an alarm signal;
it sounds the charge on the enemies of our country. To conquer them we must
dare, dare again, always dare, and
Note 1. Delivered in
the National Assembly on September 2, 1792. Translated for this edition by
Scott Robinson. Danton’s speeches offer a notable exception among the speeches
of the orators of the French Revolution, in that they were delivered without
previous preparation. The other orators carefully wrote out and read their
speeches and then had them printed, “but Danton,” says Mr. Stephens, “always
improvised; he never drew up a report or published a single speech.” For the text
of Danton’s speeches we have to rely entirely on the reports in the Moniteur.
Note 2.
from "The World's Famous
Orations" Continental