He moreover reduces the absurd notions of the fanatics to a practical
measure: "A mobilization en masse, yes, but with order" by at once
calling out the first class of conscript, all men from eighteen to
twenty-five years of age; the arrest of all 'suspects', yes, but not
to lead them against the enemy; "they would be more dangerous than
useful in our armies; let us shut them up; they will be our hostages."
-- He also proposes employment for the delegates who are only in the
way in Paris and might be useful in the provinces. Let us make of
them "various kinds of representatives charged with animating
citizens. . . Let them, along with all good citizens and the
constituted authorities, take charge of the inventories of grain and
arms, and make requisitions for men, and let the Committee of Public
Safety direct this sublime movement. . . . All will swear that, on
returning to their homes, they will give this impulse their fellow
citizens." Universal applause; the delegates exclaim in one voice, "We
swear!" Everybody springs to his feet; the men in the tribunes wave
their hats and likewise should the same oath. -- The scheme is
successful; a semblance of popular will has authorized the staff of
officials, the policy, the principles and the very name of Terror. As
to the instruments for the operation they are all there ready to be
back into action. The delegates, of whose demands and interference
the "Mountain" is still in dread, are sent back to their departmental
holes, where they shall serve as agents and missionaries.[46] There is
no further mention of putting the Constitution into operation; this
was simply a bait, a decoy, contrived for fishing in turbid waters:
the fishing ended, the Constitution is now placed in a conspicuous
place in the hall, in a small monument for which David furnished the
design.[47] -- The Convention, now, says Danton, "will rise to a sense
of its dignity, for it is now invested with the full power of the
nation." In other words, artifice completes what violence has begun.