DANTON, GEORGE JAMES, born at Arcia-sur-Aube, October 26, 1750, wee one of the most remarkable characters among the leaders of the first French Revolution. He was educated for the bar, and was pursuing the peaceful avocation of a king's counsel wheu the first shocks of the great political earthquake called him upon the revolu tionary arena. Denton was gifted by nature with those faculties which qualify a man for the dangerous office of a political agitator. He wan tall arid muscular, his features were harsh and striking, and his voice resembled the roaring of breakers or the growling of the thunder. He was ambitious and bold ; his eloquence, the offspring of nn impassioned imagination, th ,ugh without the charms of rhetorical elegance and philosophical depth, was overwhelming by its vehemence. His energy, activity, and courage were unbounded: he seemed to be the very incarnation of the revolutionary spirit. It is no wonder that such a man soon became the leader of popular commotione and the terror of all who dared to oppose him.
In 1790, supported by the revolutionary club of the Cordeliers, founded by himself, he presented to Louis XVI. the petition of the forty-eight sections of the town of Paris against the king's ministers, accusing them of having lost the confidence of the nation. In 1791 he was elected member of the departmental administration of the Seine. After the imprisonment of Louie at Vareunes, be was the prime mover of the popular assemblage of the Champs de Mars, in which he called for the dethronement of the king. On the 8th of August 1791, he presented himself before the legislative assembly, and with unprecedented audacity told the representatives of France that their refusal to declare the throne vacant would he the signal for a general insurrection. The fate of Louis was decided, and Denton being elected minister of justice, became the head of that body of six men who were intrusted with absolute executive power. In this capacity he showed himself blood-thirsty, ambitious, vindictive, and it ie said venal ; but he was also courageous and skilful in conducting public affairs at a time when every step was attended with danger.
When the Prussian army had cutered France, and consternation began to spread in all quarters, when the leaders of the republican party were at a loss what to do to avert the impending hurricane, Dantou ascended the tribune, and addressing the convention iu one of the most impassioned speeches ever uttered by a popular leader, he ended with these eventful words :—" The country is in danger; to avert the crisis one thing only is needful—boldness, incessant bolduess, nothing but boldness." These words acted like a spell upon the French nation; within a few weeks fourteen republican armies stood upon the field of battle, and repelled with unexampled bravery the aggression of the allied forces.
If Dantou had turned his energies ouly against the enemies of his country, his memory might have passed unsullied to posterity ; but he allowed his wild passions to rage against his fellow-citizens; and moat of the horrors of the French Revolution, particularly those of the days of September, were originated, supported, or encouraged by him. After the abolition of royalty Denton gave up the office of minister of justice for that of a president in the constituent committee and in that of Public Safety. While discharging these functions ho prepared public opinion for the decapitation of the kiug. When the tribunal whose business it was to pass the sentence of death was sitting, Denton was absent ; but he returned in time to vote for the king's execution. Like Sieyee, he gave no reasou for his vote.
In the meantime the people of Paris, or rather the party which was headed by the clubs of the Jacobins, had chosen another leader, who iu his private conduct was the opposite of Denton, and in his political views his moat powerful antagonist. This was Robeepierre, a man of singular character, who combined with great personal purity and dis interestedness a stern, profound, uncompromising political character, and the most inveterate malignity towards all who crossed his path or wounded his intense self-love. Denton, though more free in his private life, was kind and generous in temper, frank, unreserved, and unselfish, aud if there be truth iu tho assertion of his enemies that he sought to turn to his own pecuniary advantage the opportunities afforded by his position, it is certain that he could have done so but to a small extent and with little success, for he lived in comparative poverty, and left almost nothing for his family at his death. But there can be little doubt that he was a self-indulgent man, and his manner of life was one likely to be especially offensive to a man of austere habits like Robeepierre, who from the first hated as well as envied him. On the other hand, Denton shrunk with something like dread from Robespierre. He had lost his old energy and decisiou, or could not put them forth in a personal contest. Robespierre was never more thoroughly in earnest. Foreseeing that if he continued in the capital there must come a struggle the issue of which could not in the present State of affairs be doubtful, Denton withdrew from the theatre of political action, stigmatising his rival by the name of "ultra-revo lutionist" lie had married a young wife, and he was easily persuaded by her to seek happiness in domestic privacy. When summoned to give an account of his financial administration, he refused to submit to such examination, unless his five colleagues were also compelled to do the same, and retired to his native place. Efforts were made to bring about a reconciliation between Robespierre and Denton, and the two master-spirits of the revolution met, but there was no friendliness on eituer side. Robeepierre reproached Denton with malvereation, and Damon retorted by charging Robespierre with his cruelties: aud they parted avowed and irreconcilcable enemies. The friends of Denton urged him to strike the first blow or to seek safety by flight. He refused bath. lie knew, he said, that his death was resolved on, but he would neither fly nor turn executioner. He was denounced by St. Just as a traitor before the Comitei de Salut Public, aud arrested on the night of the 31st of March 1794. He was carried before the Revolutionary Tribunal on the 2nd of April, along with Desmoulins, Chabot, and twelve others of the Daatuuists. The trial was of course a mere mockery; Denton spoke loudly, and on the pies that he was endeavouring to excite the populace he was ordered to be silent; uo wit/mares were called against him, his own witneeses were refused to be heard, and he and al his companions were declared to be guilty.
They were executed on the 5th of April. Denton, only for a moment shaken by the recollection of hie young wife, died with undaunted courage. lie belonged to the school of the French materialists, and did not believe in the immortality of the soul. "Soon," said he to the executioner, " I shall fell back into my original uothiugnees; yet my name shall live for ever in the pautheon of history."