Gare L Explosion 1794 by Varlet Gare L Explosion 1794 by Varlet On October 6, 1794, Varlet published a sixteen page pamphlet entitled Gare L Explosion. 1 Behold the Explosion! In this same work, Varlet exposed the inner players within Robespierre s Committee of Public Safety who worked for tyranny against the Rights of Man. Varlet said Billaud-de-Varennes, one of the CPS leaders, was mendacious and wore a mask. 2 He said Billaud usurped the May 31, 1793 insurrection started by Varlet and then used the terror to prolong their power. 3 Those who were complicitous, making possible the reign of Robespierre, emperor and highpriest were Billaud, Collot d Herbois, Amar, Vadier, Dacos, Montaut, Carrier, and Barrère. 4 These men were responsible for turning the days of May 31st to the 2d of June into the origin of oppression within the revolutionary government. 5 Thus, while Varlet said he was called to the committee of insurrection in that period, I was induced thereby to serve the most odious of tyrannies, and for that I will give a frank explanation. 6 With the fall of the Brissotins, there was conceived in advance a secret where the false insurgents substituted Robespierre for Brissot; in place of federalism, a dictatorship, decorated by the name of public safety. 7 Varlet says that when I saw these deputies held under arrest, I retired, and I 1. Jean François Varlet, Gare l explosion (s.n. 1794). Some have called it the earliest anarchist manifesto in continental Europe. 2. Jean François Varlet, Gare l explosion (s.n. 1794) at 5. 3. Jean François Varlet, Gare l explosion (s.n. 1794) at 5. 4. Jean François Varlet, Gare l explosion (s.n. 1794) at 5. 5. Jean François Varlet, Gare l explosion (s.n. 1794) at 6. 6. Jean François Varlet, Gare l explosion (s.n. 1794) at 6. 7. Jean François Varlet, Gare l explosion (s.n. 1794) at 6. Introduction 1
gave up all functions,...and withdrew totally from the revolutionary government, which I saw my duty was now to combat. 8 All I wanted was an insurrection, pure and simple. 9 Despotism had passed from the palaces of kings to the table of a committee...they had given my country a change of costume. 10 [8] The sacred principles without our declaration of rights are superior to decrees. The path to...our liberty is by placing respect to the mass of delegates of the people...live the rights of the sovereign people! Respect for the National Convention! Down with the usurpers! Perish the revolutionary government rather than a single principle! What a social monstrosity, this chief work of Machiavellianism was the revolutionary government. Slaves submit to the strongest hand. Weak servants of the court [9] move their chairs to help all tyrannies. A kind of bipedal egoist...venal writers who give the people journalistic poison; fanatics; idolators of error; intolerant persons who when they see the crime over there claim they have no opinion [and] thereby prostrate themselves as dupes of the revolutionary government. These authors made a pretext to legitimize dictatorship. In the name of public safety, they believed in an infinite number of 8. Jean François Varlet, Gare l explosion (s.n. 1794) at 6-7. 9. Jean François Varlet, Gare l explosion (s.n. 1794) at 7. 10.Jean François Varlet, Gare l explosion (s.n. 1794) at 7. Introduction 2
Gare L Explosion 1794 by Varlet dictators so as to serve as correspondents to the Committee of Public Safety. [T]hey made accusations of numerous conspiracies, parading in front of the Homicidal Tribunal, a merciless accuser without affording any means of defense; the criminal conscience of the juries was everyday transparent; the ears only heard bellow one cry: Death! Death! The Temple of Justice represented an atrium of cannibals, and yet these monsters spoke of humanity. [10] The citizens were despoiled of their rights; they unhappily trembled and were silent before their tyrants. Citizens, those jealous to know the laws of your government, you should demand to know precisely the definition of the revolutionary government among its partisans, being licentious without being free, ferocious but lacking energy, which is what explains this beautiful invention. [Varlet now quotes a CPS decree of which he was apparently personally aware]: Two-thirds of the citizens are villains: the enemies of liberty. They ought to be exterminated. Terror is the Supreme Law. 11 It is the instrument to aid us. It is an object of veneration. Destruction must be constantly the order of the day. If the sword ceases to operate, if the executioners do not serve as fathers of their country, liberty is at risk. [Liberty] wants to reign over a pile of cadavers, watered by the blood of its enemies. Introduction 3
[11] The revolutionaries cry against moderation. I very much love moderation when it renders me human, tolerant, and reflective. Oh well! Then I am a moderate! I have therefore earned the hatred of a great many patriots of today...but I esteem them no less. [14] The Society of the Jacobins denatured by their ringleaders, is at the mercy of the ambitious, who from there dominate the entire people...this society has come to the point of being a conspiratorial government, food for factions, and degraded by intrigues. Its vice is having two people within its assembly: the people who run things who speak inside the hall and the people who do not run things, the true people, the public, who are mute among the tribunes. Another no less significant vice is the admission of deputies [15] within this society. The people themselves are not elevated, but these messengers preponderate by coming to the Jacobins to become the chiefs of a party. They wish to organize another 9th of Thermidor against the national convention. Republicans! You are sleeping! In 24, 25 departments these tyrannical revolutionaries 11. Deux tiers de citoyen son des scélérats, ennemis de la liberté: il faut exterminer. La terreur es la suprême loi. This implied the depopulation plan. Mercier confirmed this quote in Le nouveau Paris (Paris: 1797), which context is clearly lifted from Varlet, saying I do not exaggerate the point that they had the audacity to think two thirds of France were villains, and they ought to exterminate sixteen million Frenchmen in order to render them free. See Louis-Sébastien Mercier, Je Suis un Modéré, Paris pendant la Révolution (reprinted by Poulet-Malassis, 1862) at 229-30. Introduction 4
Gare L Explosion 1794 by Varlet disseminate at all points, [but you] are ignorant of what is taking place there. You are sleeping! The Republic is in the irons!... To arms!...pen in hand!...audacity against audacity! Here you must attack, harass and press vigorously the enemy, and do not give it rest...let s DARE!...You are obliged to save your country! Perils and obstacles overcome with courage...tremble tyrants who are masked by popularity... [16] Live the rights of the sovereign people! Respect for the Convention Nationale! Down with usurpers! Perish the revolutionary government rather than a single principle! Introduction 5
Introduction 6