Georges Jacques Danton (1759-1794) was a French lawyer, writer, and a talented orator. By taking part in the French Revolution, he became a revolutionary who played a key role in the sudden chain of violent events that changed the political foundations of France. His fiery speeches made the Parisians accept him as their champion of liberty. Danton was minister of justice and a member of the National Convention and the Commitee of Public Safety. Nevertheless, he was accused of corruption and conspiracy against authority; he was sentenced to death and executed by guillotine on April 5, 1794. Danton was a pragmatic man who believed that the Revolution could only succeed if it limited its program to the possible, which meant upholding the rights of property, ending the war as quickly as possible by negotiation, and restoring order through a strong central government.
Georges Danton was born in Arcis-sur-Aube, France, on October 26, 1759, to a respectable family of moderate means. His father was lawyer and court official. He first studied at the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri at Troyes, earning a degree in law at the University of Reims in 1785. He was employed in the office of public prosecutor in Paris. Danton began to take part in the Revolution was as president of the Cordeliers club, which was a center for the popular principle, that France was to be a country of its people under popular sovereignty; they were the earliest to accuse the royal court of being irreconcilably hostile to freedom; and they most vehemently proclaimed the need for radical action. Danton also participated in the storming of the Bastille and the forcible removal of the court from Versailles to the Tuileries.
By the end of 1791 Danton had been elected first deputy prosecutor of the Paris Commune. He spoke out against the distinction between active and passive citizens and thus became one of the first to espouse the modern conception of the legal equality of all citizens. He had become convinced that as long as the monarchy continued to exist the Revolution would be endangered, playing the main role in the conspiracy that led to the overthrow of the monarchy on August 10, 1792. After the establishment of the National Convention, Danton became a member of this ruling body and was soon named minister of justice. On April 6, 1793, he was elected to the newly established Committee of Public Safety and to the Revolutionary Tribunal; he was thus enabled to act as an emergency dictator. Although Danton believed that it was necessary to destroy internal dissent, his diplomatic policies continued to be moderate. He thus alienated the Commune, which began to look to Robespierre and more radical Jacobins for leadership.
After a period of inactivity at his home in Arcis, Danton returned to Paris the following month at the insistence of his friends, who feared Robespierre’s terrorist policies. The increasingly radical demands of the Hébertists, however, were more frightening to Danton, and he lent his support to Robespierre. After the Hébertists had been suppressed, Robespierre moved against Danton, who had called for an end to the Terror. Danton and his followers were arrested and tried for antirevolutionary activity. On April 5, 1794, Georges Jacques Danton was beheaded by guillotine.
