At the start, he comprehended the peculiar character and normal
procedure of the Revolution, that is to say, the useful agency of
popular brutality: in 1788 he had already figured in insurrections.
He comprehended from the first the ultimate object and definite result
of the Revolution, that is to say, the dictatorship of the violent
minority. Immediately after the 14th of July," 1789, he organized in
his quarter of the city[63] a small independent republic, aggressive
and predominant, the center of the faction, a refuge for the riff-raff
and a rendezvous for fanatics, a pandemonium composed of every
available madcap, every rogue, visionary, shoulder-hitter, newspaper
scribbler and stump-speaker, either a secret or avowed plotter of
murder, Camille Desmoulins, Fr?ron, H?bert, Chaumette, Clootz,
Th?roigne, Marat, -- while, in this more than Jacobin State, the model
in anticipation of that he is to establish later, he reigns, as he
will afterwards reign, the permanent president of the district,
commander of the battalion, orator of the club, and the concocter of
bold undertakings. Here, usurpation is the rule there is no
recognition of legal authority; they brave the King, the ministers,
the judges, the Assembly, the municipality, the mayor, the commandant
of the National Guard.
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