2 September 1792 · Paris
Danton: Audacity, Always Audacity
The setting
With Prussian and Austrian armies advancing on Paris and the fortress of Verdun falling, the revolutionary minister Georges Danton urged the Legislative Assembly to meet the emergency with boldness rather than fear.
Key passage
Audacity, more audacity, always audacity, and France will be saved.
Speech to the Legislative Assembly, 2 September 1792 ('De l'audace, encore de l'audace, toujours de l'audace').
The full speech
It is gratifying to the ministers of a free people to have to announce to them that their country will be saved. All are stirred, all are excited, all burn to fight. You know that Verdun is not yet in the power of our enemies. You know that its garrison swears to immolate the first who breathes a proposition of surrender.
One portion of our people will proceed to the frontiers, another will throw up intrenchments, and the third with pikes will defend the hearts of
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our cities. Paris will second these great efforts. The commissioners of the Commune will solemnly proclaim to the citizens the invitation to arm and march to the defense of the country. At such a moment you can proclaim that the capital deserves well of all France.
At such a moment this National Assembly becomes a veritable committee of war. We ask that you concur with us in directing this sublime movement of the people, by naming commissioners who will second us in these great measure's. We ask that any one refusing to give personal service or to furnish arms shall be punished with death. We ask that a set of instructions be drawn up for the citizens to direct their movements. We ask that couriers be sent to all the departments to notify them of the decrees that you proclaim here. The tocsin we are about to ring is not an alarm signal; it sounds the charge on the enemies of our country. To conquer them we must dare, dare again, always dare, and France is saved!
Text: Wikisource, from The World's Famous Orations (1906). The text is in the public domain; the Wikisource transcription is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
What followed
Revolutionary armies turned back the invaders at Valmy later that month, and the monarchy was abolished. Danton himself was sent to the guillotine in 1794, during the Terror he had helped to unleash.