They recognize each other by this sign
that, "each would be hung in case of a counter-revolution,"[8] laying
it down "as an incontestable fact that, should a single aristocrat be
spared, all of them would mount the scaffold."[9] They are naturally
wary and they stick together: in their clique "everything is done on
the basis of good fellowship;"[10] no one is admitted except on the
condition of having proved his qualifications "on the 10th of August
and 31st of May."[11] And, as they have made their way into the
Commune and into the revolutionary committees behind victorious
leaders, they are able, through the certificates of civism which these
arbitrarily grant or refuse, to exclude, not only from political life
but, again, from civil life, whoever is not of their party.
"See," writes one of Danton's correspondents,[12] "the sort of persons
who easily obtain these certificates, - the Ronsins, the Jourdans, the
Maillards, the Vincents, all bankrupts, keepers of gambling-hells and
cut-throats. Ask these individuals whether they have paid the
patriotic contribution, whether they regularly pay the usual taxes,
whether they give to the poor of their sections, to the volunteer
soldiers, etc.
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