Maximilien Robespierre

At Arras he defended the poor, argued against the death penalty, and resigned a judge's post rather than sign one. In Paris he spoke for the unrepresented and for Rousseau's principle: sovereignty belongs to the people and cannot be handed to a king, a chamber, or a party. They called him the Incorruptible because no bribe was ever found that worked on him — and because, like Rousseau's citizen, he seemed to want only the public good.

That is exactly the danger his life demonstrates. A corrupt tyrant can be bought off; a sincere one cannot be argued off. When he came to believe the Republic's enemies were everywhere, no self-interest stayed his hand — because there was none.

In February 1794 he told the Convention that the Revolution's engine was virtue in peacetime and virtue armed with terror in war — terror being only prompt, severe, inflexible justice. Rousseau had described a sovereign people; Robespierre appointed the Committee to act in its name, and the guillotine to enforce it.

The mechanism feeds on itself. Every purge proves the conspiracy was real — look how many were found — and narrows the band of the acceptable further. In June 1794 the Law of 22 Prairial removed defense counsel and broadened the capital charge to ‘enemy of the people.’ Six weeks later the Convention arrested him rather than wait to be named.

Every revolution after him has had to answer the same question he poses: if the people are sovereign, who speaks for them before they speak — and what happens to whoever is declared outside the general will?