Danton

I
"Dare, Dare Again, Always Dare"*
(1792)

At such a moment this National Assembly becomes a veritable committee of war. We ask that you concur with us in directing this sublime movement of the people, by naming commissioners who will second us in these great measures. We ask that any one refusing to give personal service or to furnish arms shall be punished with death. We ask that a set of instructions be drawn up for the citizens to direct their movements. We ask that couriers be sent to all the departments to notify them of the decrees that you proclaim here. The tocsin we are about to ring is not an alarm signal; it sounds the charge on the enemies of our country. To conquer them we must dare, dare again, always dare, and France is saved!

*Delivered in the National Assembly on September 2, 1792. Translated for this edition by Scott Robinson. Danton’s speeches offer a notable exception among the speeches of the orators of the French Revolution, in that they were delivered without previous preparation. The other orators carefully wrote out and read their speeches and then had them printed, "but Danton," says Mr. Stephens, "always improvised; he never drew up a report or published a single speech." For the text of Danton’s speeches we have to rely entirely on the reports in the Moniteur.