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VERGNIAUD, PIERRE VICTURNIEN (1753-1793)
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See also:VERGNIAUD, See also:PIERRE VICTURNIEN (1753-1793) , See also:French orator and revolutionist, was See also:born on the 31st of May 1753 at See also:Limoges. He was the son of a See also:merchant of that See also:town who lost the greater See also:part of his means by See also:speculation. The boy was See also:early sent to the See also:college of the See also:Jesuits at Limoges, and soon achieved distinction. See also:Turgot was then See also:intendant of See also:Limousin. In his presence See also:young Vergniaud on one occasion recited some verses of his own See also:composition. Turgot was struck with the See also:talent they displayed, and by virtue of his patronage Vergniaud, having gone to See also:Paris, was admitted to the college of Plessis. It is impossible to read the speeches of Vergniaud without being convinced of the solidity of his See also:education, and in particular of the wide range of his knowledge of the See also:classics, and of his acquaintance—See also:familiar and sympathetic—with See also:ancient See also:philosophy and See also:history. Duputy, See also:president of the See also:parlement of See also:Bordeaux, with whom Vergniaud became acquainted, conceived the greatest admiration and See also:affection for him and appointed him his secretary. Vergniaud was thereafter called to' the See also:bar (1782). The See also:influence of Duputy gained for him the beginnings of a practice; but Vergniaud, though capable of extraordinary efforts, too often re-lapsed into See also:reverie, and was indisposed for study and sustained exertion, even in a cause which he approved. This weakness appears equally in his See also:political and in his professional See also:life: he would refuse practice if his See also:purse were moderately well filled; he would sit for See also:weeks in the See also:Assembly in listlessness and silence, while the policy he had shaped was being gradually undermined, and then rise, brilliant as ever, but too See also:late to avert the calamities which he foresaw. In 1789 Vergniaud was elected a member of the See also:general See also:council of the See also:department of the See also:Gironde. Being deeply stirred by the best ideas of the Revolutionary See also:epoch, he found a more congenial See also:sphere for the display of his See also:great See also:powers in his new position. About this See also:period he was charged with the See also:defence of a member of the See also:national guard of Brives, which was accused of provoking disorders in the department of La See also:Correze. Abandoning all reserve, Vergniaud delivered one of the great orations of his life, depicting the misfortunes of the peasantry in See also:language of such combined dignity, pathos and See also:power that his fame as an orator spread far and wide.
Vergniaud was chosen a representative of the Gironde to the National Legislative Assembly in See also:August 1791, and he forthwith proceeded to Paris. The Legislative Assembly met on the 1st of See also:October. For a See also:time, according to his See also:habit, he refrained from speaking; but on the 25th of October he ascended the See also:tribune, and he had not spoken See also:long before the whole Assembly See also:felt that a new power had arisen which might See also:control even the destinies of See also:France. This See also:judgment was re-echoed outside, and he' was almost immediately elected president of the Assembly for the usual brief See also:term. Between the outbreak of the Revolution and his See also:election to the Legislative Assembly the political views of Vergniaud had undergone a decided See also:change. At first he had lauded a constitutional See also:monarchy; but the See also:flight of See also: One great blot on his reputation is that step by step he was led on to palliate violence and See also:crime, to the excesses of which his eyes were only opened by the massacres of See also:September, and which ultimately overwhelmed the party of See also:Girondists which he led. The disgrace to his name is indelible that on the 19th of See also: His speeches breathe the very spirit of the See also:storm, and they were perhaps the greatest single See also:factor in the development of the events of the time. On the Toth of August the Tuileries was stormed, and the royal See also:family took See also:refuge in the Assembly. Vergniaud presided. To the See also:request of the king for See also:protection he replied in dignified and respectful language. An extra-See also:ordinary See also:commission was appointed: Vergniaud wrote and read its recommendations that a National See also:Convention be formed, the king be provisionally suspended from See also:office, a See also:governor appointed for his son, and the royal family be consigned to the Luxembourg. Hardly had the great orator attained the See also:object of his aim—the overthrow of Louis as a sovereign—when he became conscious of the forces by which he was surrounded. He denounced the massacres of September—their inception, their horror and the future to which they pointed—in language so vivid and powerful that it raised for a time the See also:spirits of the Girondists, while on the other See also:hand it aroused the fatal opposition of the Parisian leaders. The questions whether Louis XVI. was to be judged, and if so by whom, were the subject of protracted debate in the Convention. They were of absorbing See also:interest to Paris, to France and to See also:Europe; and upon them the Girondist See also:leader at last, on the 31st of December 1792, See also:broke silence, delivering one of his greatest orations, probably one of the greatest combinations of See also:sound reasoning, sagacity and eloquence which has ever been displayed in the See also:annals of French politics. He pronounced in favour of an See also:appeal to the people. He pictured the consequences of that See also:temper of vengeance which animated the Parisian See also:mob and was fatally controlling the policy of the Convention, and the prostration which would ensue to France after even a successful struggle with a See also:European See also:coalition, which would spring up after the See also:murder of the king. The great effort failed; and four days afterwards something happened which still further endangered Vergniaud and his whole party. This was the See also:discovery of a See also:note signed by him along with Gaudet and See also:Gensonne and presented to the king two or three weeks before the loth of August. It contained nothing but sound and patriotic suggestions, but it was greedily seized upon by the enemies of the Gironde as See also:evidence of See also:treason. On the 16th of January 1793 the See also:vote began to be taken in the Convention upon the See also:punishment of the king. Vergniaud voted early, and voted for See also:death. The action of the great Girondist was and will always remain inscrutable, but it was followed by a similar See also:verdict from nearly the whole party which he led. On the 17th Vergniaud presided at the Convention, and it See also:fell to him, labouring under the most painful excitement, to announce the fatal result of the voting. Then for many weeks he sank, exhausted, into silence. When the institution of a revolutionary tribunal was proposed, Vergniaud vehemently opposed the project, denouncing the tribunal as a more awful See also:inquisition than that of See also:Venice, and avowing that his party would all See also:die rather than consent to it. Their death by stratagem had already been planned, and on the loth of March they had to go into hiding. On the 13th Vergniaud boldly exposed the See also:conspiracy in the Convention. The antagonism caused by such an attitude had reached a significant point when on the loth of April See also:Robespierre himself laid his accusation before the Convention. He fastened especially upon Vergniaud's See also:letter to the king and his support of the appeal to the people as a See also:proof that he was a moderate in its then despised sense. Vergniaud made a brilliant extemporaneous reply, and the attack for the moment failed. But now, See also:night after night, Vergniaud and his colleagues found themselves obliged to change their See also:abode, to avoid assassination, a See also:price being even put upon their heads. Still with unfaltering courage they continued their resistance to the dominant See also:faction, till on the and of June 1793 things came to a See also:head. The Convention was surrounded with an armed mob, who clamoured for the " twenty-two." In the midst of this it was forced to continue its deliberations. The See also:decree of accusation was voted, and the Girondists were proscribed. Vergniaud was offered a safe See also:retreat. He accepted it only for a day, and then returned to his own dwelling. He was kept under surveillance there for nearly a month, and in the early days of July was imprisoned in La Force. He carried See also:poison with him, but never used it. His See also:tender affection for his relatives abundantly appears from his See also:correspondence, along with his See also:pro-found See also:attachment to the great ideas of the Revolution and his See also:noble love of country. On one of the walls of the Carmelite See also:convent to which for a See also:short time the prisoners were removed Vergniaud wrote in letters of See also:blood: "Potius mori quamfoedari." Early in October the Convention brought forward its See also:indictment of the twenty-two Girondists. They were sent for trial to the Revolutionary tribunal, before which they appeared on the 27th of October. The See also:procedure was a See also:travesty of See also:justice. Early on the See also:morning of the 31st of October 1793 the Girondists were conveyed to the See also:scaffold, singing on the way the Marseillaise and keeping up the See also:strain till one by one they were guillotined. Vergniaud was executed last. He died unconfessed, a philosopher and a patriot. See See also:Gay de See also:Vernon, Vergniaud (Limoges, 1858) ; and L. de Verdiere, Biographic de Vergniaud (Paris, 1866). (T. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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