Editing Georges Danton (section)

===1792===
On 9 August 1792, Danton returned from Arcis. In the evening before the [[storming of the Tuileries]], he was visited by Desmoulins, his wife, and Fréron. After dinner, he went to the Cordeliers and preferred to go to bed early. It seems he went to the [[Hôtel de Ville, Paris|Maison-Commune]] after midnight.<ref>N. Hampson (1978) Danton, pp. 72–73</ref> Faced with the [[Paris Commune (1789–1795)|insurrectionary Commune]] which relied on the insurgent sections and which held Paris, the Legislative Assembly had no choice but to suspend [[Louis XVI]] and replace him with a provisional Executive Council of six members composed of former Girondin ministers ([[Jean-Marie Roland de la Platière|Roland]] in the Interior, [[Joseph Marie Servan de Gerbey|Servan]] in the War, [[Étienne Clavière|Clavière]] in Finance, [[Gaspard Monge|Monge]] in the Navy and [[Pierre Henri Hélène Marie Lebrun-Tondu|Lebrun]] in Foreign Affairs). The Girondins, hostile to revolutionary Paris, needed a popular man committed to the insurgents to liaise with the insurrectional Commune and had Danton appointed to Minister of Justice the next day; he appointed [[Fabre d'Églantine|Fabre]] and Desmoulins as his secretaries.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chisholm |first=Hugh |title=Fabre d'Églantine, Philippe François Nazaire |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1911 |edition=10th |pages=118}}</ref> More than a hundred decisions left the department within eight days. On 14 August, Danton invited Robespierre to join the Council of Justice, which Robespierre declined to do. <!--He appointed [[Pierre-Guillaume Seron]] as his secretary.-->

Danton seems to have dined almost every day at the Rolands'.<ref>N. Hampson (1978) Danton, p. 76</ref> On 28 August, the Assembly ordered a curfew for the next two days.<ref>[[Jean Massin]] (1959) Robespierre, pp. 133–134</ref> At the behest of Danton, thirty commissioners from the sections were ordered to search in every suspect house for weapons, munition, swords, carriages and horses.<ref>S. Schama, p. 626</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QTg_AAAAcAAJ&q=28+AOUT&pg=PA417|title=Collection Complète des Lois, Décrets, Ordonnances, Réglements, et Avis du Conseil-d'État|date=24 May 1824|publisher=A. Guyot|via=Google Books|access-date=13 March 2023|archive-date=28 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928235204/https://books.google.com/books?id=QTg_AAAAcAAJ&q=28+AOUT&pg=PA417|url-status=live}}</ref> By 2 September, between 520 and 1,000 people were taken into custody on the flimsiest of warrants. The exact number of those arrested will never be known.<ref>S. Loomis, p. 77</ref>

On Sunday 2 September, at about 13:00, Danton, as a member of the provisional government, delivered a speech in the assembly: "We ask that anyone refusing to give personal service or to furnish arms shall be punished with death".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/decouvrir-l-assemblee/histoire/grands-discours-parlementaires/danton-2-septembre-1792|title=Danton (2 septembre 1792) – Histoire – Grands discours parlementaires – Assemblée nationale|website=www2.assemblee-nationale.fr|access-date=24 May 2023|archive-date=12 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230312155705/https://www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/decouvrir-l-assemblee/histoire/grands-discours-parlementaires/danton-2-septembre-1792|url-status=live}}</ref> "The [[wikt:tocsin|tocsin]] we are about to ring is not an alarm signal; it sounds the charge on the enemies of our country." He continued after the applause: "To conquer them we must dare, dare again, always dare, and France is saved!".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/hc/continental-europe-380-1906/georges-jacques-danton|title=Georges Jacques Danton|date=10 October 2022|website=Collection at Bartleby.com|access-date=24 May 2023|archive-date=24 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230524191325/https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/hc/continental-europe-380-1906/georges-jacques-danton|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k54946638|title=Discours de Danton / édition critique par André Fribourg|first=Georges-Jacques (1759–1794) Auteur du texte|last=Danton|date=24 May 1910|via=gallica.bnf.fr|access-date=4 February 2020|archive-date=5 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105214810/https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k54946638|url-status=live}}</ref> His speech acted as a call for direct action among the citizens, as well as a strike against the external enemy.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v31/n15/hilary-mantel/he-roared |first=Hillary |last=Mantel |author-link=Hillary Mantel |magazine=[[London Review of Books]] |volume=31 |issue=15 |date=6 August 2009 |title=He Roared |access-date=4 February 2020 |archive-date=22 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190522002318/https://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n15/hilary-mantel/he-roared |url-status=live }}</ref> <!--In reality, Danton was probably speaking of boldness needed in fighting the war but some French citizens took it as boldness needed in fighting within France to those who were viewed as "traitors" and killing occurred all over the streets.<ref>http://westerncivguides.umwblogs.org/2011/09/25/jacobins-vs-girondins-during-the-french-revolution/ {{Bare URL inline|date=May 2022}}</ref>  --> Many believe this speech was responsible for inciting the [[September Massacres]]. It is estimated that around 1,100–1,600 people were murdered. [[Madame Roland]] held Danton responsible for their deaths.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PaN4DwAAQBAJ&dq=charlotte+corday+marat+responsible+september+massacre&pg=PA97|title=Tracing the Heroic Through Gender|first1=Carolin|last1=Hauck|first2=Monika|last2=Mommertz|first3=Andreas|last3=Schlüter|first4=Thomas|last4=Seedorf|date=9 October 2018|publisher=Ergon Verlag|isbn=9783956504037|via=Google Books|access-date=13 March 2023|archive-date=28 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928235208/https://books.google.com/books?id=PaN4DwAAQBAJ&dq=charlotte+corday+marat+responsible+september+massacre&pg=PA97|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fIZBE5JmbJUC&q=Massacre+poisened&pg=PT98|title=The Giant of the French Revolution: Danton, A Life|first=David|last=Lawday|date=6 July 2010|publisher=Open Road + Grove/Atlantic|isbn=9780802197023|via=Google Books|access-date=13 March 2023|archive-date=28 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928235201/https://books.google.com/books?id=fIZBE5JmbJUC&q=Massacre+poisened&pg=PT98|url-status=live}}</ref> Danton was also accused by the [[French historians]] [[Adolphe Thiers]], [[Alphonse de Lamartine]], [[Jules Michelet]], [[Louis Blanc]] and [[Edgar Quinet]]. However, according to [[Albert Soboul]], there is no proof that the massacres were organized by Danton or by anyone else, though it is certain that he did nothing to stop them.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Georges-Danton/Dantons-Committee-of-Public-Safety|title=Georges Danton – Committee of Public Safety, Indulgents, and Terror &#124; Britannica|website=www.britannica.com|access-date=4 February 2020|archive-date=4 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200204104915/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Georges-Danton/Dantons-Committee-of-Public-Safety|url-status=live}}</ref>

He did intervene, however, in protecting Roland and Brissot from an arrest warrant from the Supervisory Committee of the Commune on 4 September, opposing Marat by having the mandates removed, and was complicit in the escape of [[Adrien Duport]], [[Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord|Talleyrand]], and [[Charles Malo François Lameth|Charles de Lameth]]. On 6 September, he was elected by his section, "[[Théâtre Français]]", to be a deputy for the convention, gathering on 22 September. Danton remained a member of the ministry, although holding both positions simultaneously was illegal. Danton, Robespierre, and Marat were accused of forming a [[triumvirate]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Robespierre |first1=Maximilien |last2=Laponneraye |first2=Albert |last3=Carrel |first3=Armand |title=Oeuvres |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iSMVAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA98 |publisher=Worms |year=1840 |page=98 |access-date=4 February 2020 |archive-date=7 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231107223241/https://books.google.com/books?id=iSMVAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA98#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> On 26 September, Danton was forced to give up his position in the government; he stepped down on 9 October.

At the new [[National Convention]] on 4 October 1792, Danton proposed to declare that the fatherland was no longer in danger, asking only to renounce extreme measures. He measured the risks posed to the Revolution by fratricidal quarrels between Republicans. He preached conciliation and calls the Assembly several times to "holy harmony". “It was in vain that we complained to Danton about the Girondine faction", wrote Robespierre, "he maintained that there was no faction there and that everything was the result of vanity and personal animosities". But the attacks from the Girondins concentrated on him, Marat and Robespierre—the “triumvirs”—accused of aspiring to dictatorship. Danton defends Robespierre at the end of October by declaring that "all those who talk about the Robespierre faction are, in my eyes, either prejudiced men or bad citizens", but dissociates himself from Marat by pronouncing "I don't like the individual Marat. I say frankly that I have experiences his temperament: he is volcanic, cantankerous and unsociable." The Girondins attacked Danton for his management of the secret funds of the Ministry of Justice. Roland, Minister of the Interior, scrupulously gave his accounts but Danton would not. Harassed by Brissot, he only escaped through weariness of the Convention and for months the Girondins shouted “And the accounts?" to interrupt him at the podium. Meanwhile, his influence began to decline in favor of Robespierre as the real leader of the Mountain.

[[File:Alfred Loudet - Marat.jpg|thumb|Imaginary meeting between Robespierre, Danton and Marat (illustrating [[Victor Hugo]]'s novel ''[[Ninety-Three]]'' ) by Alfred Loudet]]