Robespierre First Person Position Paper

							First Person Position Paper: Robespierre

           by Aaron Cutright
      Throughout the French revolution I held some high positions in government . For one, I

was a leader of the Jacobin, a radical political organization whose goal was to change

government. I was also a leader of the Committee of Public Safety, and became a ruler of the

nation. I am Robespierre and I was later called a dictator, but I was actually just a ruler who

was trying to build France as a republic of virtue.




      To begin, I did exactly what my job was. I was the leader of the Committee of Public

Safety and my job was to protect France from its enemies. I protected France well, as there

were no invasions which was most likely due to the majority of France referring to me as a

dictator and my leadership as the Reign of Terror. The other way that I upheld this duty was

by killing the leaders of any group that opposed me. I had the leaders tried in the afternoon,

and climbing the scaffolding in the evening as they made their way to the guillotine.



      Then, the political group I used to be in charge of, the Jacobin, was accused of being

too radical by the people. I may have been a bit drastic in my choices as leader to so that I

could one day rule France, which could be why we were viewed as radicals. But each of my

decisions that were called radical were often very logical. For instance, when I created a new

calendar from France and excluded Sunday, I was defending France from its own inhabitants .

People often tried to base their reason for revolution in religion, but by making it so they had

no time to practice their religion I was also lowering the chance of a French revolution and

helping to stabilize France's economy more.
       Consequently, I was accused of imposing a dictatorship onto France and a Reign of

Terror in doing so. My reasons for the terror imposed were completely justified, though, for the

basis of popular government in time of revolution is both virtue and terror. Without one the

government will crumble or succumb to the revolutions being presented to it. Since terror and

virtue are linked in this way, I claim that terror is nothing more than justice which flows from

virtue. Often times, the population of France was divided in its feeling toward me and this is

also a reason why I killed off so many of the officials that opposed me.




       Ultimately, I was a very strong ruler for France. Although I was seen as a harsh and

occasionally even a tyrannical leader at times, I had motives that were intended for the

improvement and protection of France as a country. One of these major improvements was

the end of the monarch rule in France so that it could return to being a republic of virtue .

Unfortunately I was executed for being seen as a terrible ruler who caused many

unnecessary deaths and if I had not been, I would have continued to improve until it became

a major country overall in the world.
                                        Works Cited

Maximilien Robespierre Biography: Reign of Terror – French Revolution. Age of the Sage.
Web. http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/historical/biography/maximilien_robespierre.html

Forrest, A. Robespierre, the War and its Organization. Cambridge University Press. 1999.
Print.