Editing Reign of Terror (section)

== Terror of the day ==
In the summer of 1793, leading politicians in France felt a sense of emergency between the widespread civil war and counter-revolution. [[Bertrand Barère]] exclaimed on 5 September 1793 in the National Convention: "Let's make terror the order of the day!"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shusterman |first=Noah |title=The French Revolution |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-4294-3291-0 |pages=176–205 |chapter=The federalist revolt, the Vendée, and the start of the Terror (Summer 1793–fall 1793) |doi=10.4324/9780429432910-7 |s2cid=225258435}}</ref> This quote has frequently been interpreted as the beginning of a supposed "system of Terror", an interpretation no longer retained by historians today. Under the pressure of the radical ''sans-culottes'', the Convention agreed to institute a revolutionary army but refused to make terror the order of the day. According to French historian [[Jean-Clément Martin]], there was no "system of terror" instated by the Convention between 1793 and 1794, despite the pressure from some of its members and the ''sans-culottes''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Martin |first=Jean-Clément |title=La machine à fantasmes |date=2014 |publisher=Vendémiaire |isbn=978-2-3635-8029-0 |location=Paris |pages=86–118 |language=fr}}</ref> The members of the Convention were determined to avoid street violence such as the [[September Massacres]] of 1792 by taking violence into their own hands as an instrument of government.<ref name="History Today">{{Cite journal |last=Linton |first=Marisa |date=August 2006 |title=Robespierre and the terror: Marisa Linton reviews the life and career of one of the most vilified men in history. |url=http://www.historytoday.com/marisa-linton/robespierre-and-terror |url-status=live |journal=[[History Today]] |volume=8 |issue=56 |page=23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180930160214/http://www.historytoday.com/marisa-linton/robespierre-and-terror |archive-date=30 September 2018 |access-date=28 April 2017}}</ref> The monarchist [[Jacques Cazotte]] who predicted the Terror was [[Guillotine|guillotined]] at the end of the month.

What [[Maximilien Robespierre]] called "terror" was the fear that the "justice of exception" would inspire the enemies of the [[French First Republic]]. He opposed the idea of terror as the order of the day, defending instead "justice" as the order of the day.<ref>Hervé Leuwers, ''Robespierre'', Paris, Fayard, 2014</ref> In February 1794 in a speech he explains why this "terror" was necessary as a form of exceptional justice in the context of the revolutionary government:
{{Blockquote|sign=|source=|If the basis of popular government in peacetime is virtue, the basis of popular government during a revolution is both virtue and terror; virtue, without which terror is baneful; terror, without which virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing more than speedy, severe and inflexible justice; it is thus an emanation of virtue; it is less a principle in itself, than a consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing needs of the {{Lang|fr|patrie}} <small>[homeland, fatherland]</small>.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Halsall |first=Paul |date=1997 |title=Maximilien Robespierre: On the Principles of Political Morality, February 1794 |url=https://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1794robespierre.asp |access-date=5 March 2016 |publisher=[[Fordham University]] |archive-date=6 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161206084206/http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1794robespierre.asp |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="History Today"/>}}

[[Marxism|Marxist]] historian [[Albert Mathiez]] argues that such terror was a necessary reaction to the circumstances.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mathiez |first=Albert |title=La Révolution Française |publisher=Librairie Armand Colin |year=2011 |isbn=978-7-1000-7058-4 |language=fr |trans-title=The French Revolution}}</ref> Others suggest there were additional causes, including ideological<ref>{{Cite book |last=Furet |first=Francois |title=A Deep-rooted Ideology as Well as Circumstance |page=224}}</ref> and emotional.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tackett |first=Timothy |title=The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution |publisher=[[Belknap Press]]: An Imprint of [[Harvard University Press]] |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-6747-3655-9}}</ref>