Page:Voices of Revolt - Volume 1.djvu/31

 Rh demanded the destruction of tyranny within, before a single soldier should be permitted to leave the frontiers of France. We shall see later how Robespierre himself defended France, and how he became the organizer of the offensive and defensive wars of the Revolution. But no doubt it redounds in no little measure to the honor of Robespierre that precisely the representative of the revolutionary democracy in the French Revolution, precisely he who stands for this democracy, this Revolution, and this radicalism, was an advocate of peace to the last extremity.

The generation that lived in the year 1789 entered the Revolution without any ready-made plan. The aspirations and desires of the entire country about the middle of the eighteenth century are contained in the Cahiers which were written for use on May 5, 1789, for the convoking of the States General to Versailles, in the various cities and boroughs of France. In none of these thousands of complaints and petitions, which contain numerous plans of reform, does the word "republic" occur as much as even once.

In a general way, the representatives of the third estate desired a legalization of their political rights.