Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 7.djvu/183

Rh law and in contradiction to the principles of order, liberty, and justice. For it is a principle of right that no citizen shall be censured without having first been heard. This decree of accusation was brought against me by two hundred and ten members of a faction, contrary to the demand of ninety-two members of "the Mountain"; that is to say, by two hundred and ten enemies of the country against ninety-two defenders of liberty. It was issued amid the most scandalous uproar, during which patriots covered the royalists with opprobrium, reproaching them with lack of eivic spirit, with baseness, and with their machinations. It was issued in spite of the most marked manifestations of public opinion, and amid the noise of continuous hootings throughout the tribunes. It was issued in a manner so revolting that twenty members who had been deceived by this faction refused to vote for it, the decree not having been discussed. It was issued while one of them, yielding to the movement of an honest friend, cried out: "I do not vote, and I greatly fear, after all that I have seen, that I have been the dupe of a perfidious cabal."

Originating with a committee of legislation almost entirely composed of my mortal enemies, all of whom were members of the faction, it was drawn with such want of reflection that it bears on its face all the characteristics of dense ignorance, falsehood, madness, fury, and atrocity. At a glance the act may be seen to be filled with