Rousseau and Revolution

Rousseau and the Terror 57
Finally, pointing away from the judgement that Rousseau was a decisive
resource for the Terror is the fact that revolutionaries became increasingly
comfortable dismissing him. In October 1793, a speaker at the Convention
denounced the burning of suspect books by noting that Rousseau himself
had dedicated one of his works to the Prince of Orange. In November, the
Convention rejected the idea that Rousseau’s image be affi xed to a new
pendule décimale, opting instead for the martyr Jean-Paul Marat. In January
1794, someone proposed that the widow of Challier – Jacobin martyr in
Lyon – be given the same pension as Rousseau’s widow since Challier had
actually done more for the revolution than Jean-Jacques. 8
By Thermidor, it became easier to criticize Rousseau. The fact is ironic
given the transfer of Rousseau’s remains to the Pantheon in October 1794.
For instance, that month, the Abbé Gregoire could both cite Rousseau as
an authority and then note that while he had said some useful things on
science, his views on the inevitable failure of large republics and how representation
diminishes a people’s freedom – these were questionable. One
last and poignant example will suffi ce to make the point. In September
1794, Rousseau’s widow, Thérèse Levasseur, arrived at the Convention with
two manuscripts the philosopher had given her with instructions delivered
on this deathbed that they remain sealed until 1801. In the subsequent
debate, Barère made the provocative claim that the revolution had in fact
speeded up time; thus, there was no need to wait until the new century.
Others disagreed. But then Jacques-Alexis Thuriot spoke, suggesting that
the manuscripts be sent to the Committee on Public Instruction to determine
their value or ‘danger’. He concluded his proposal that the package
be opened by arguing that ‘the particular will must cede to the general
will’. The irony could not have been lost on those assembled. The manuscripts
were soon read and discussed publicly. Rousseau the author had
been surpassed by the revolution he had helped set in motion. 9
Geneva, festive celebration, aesthetic production, iconic authority – the
picture that emerges of Rousseau in 1793 and 1794 had immediately very
little to do with the violence associated with the Terror. With respect to the
version of the Terror briefl y introduced above – as over-determined chaos
in a democratic void – these strands of revolutionary Rousseauism can be
treated as rather minor or occasional elements. There are obviously exceptions
– in April 1794 Saint-Just called Rousseau a revolutionary – and there
is no doubt that generally speaking Rousseau was an intellectual resource for
the dilemmas and tensions of revolutionary culture. 10 And yet, there is not a
great deal of evidence that the revolutionaries themselves placed Rousseau at
the conceptual center of the Terror’s political violence. Robespierre at times
mentioned Rousseau before he joined the Committee of Public Safety in