The World's Best Orations
Format: Paperback
ISBN13: 9780217136914
Paperback|9780217136914
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PIERRE VICTURNIEN VERGNIAUD (1753-1793) 'dealist, poet, philosopher, and philanthropist, capable of all the virtues, Vergniand, the greatest of the French Girondists, was forced by circumstances to become a revolutionary leader at a time when, on one side and the other, he was opposed by a ruthlessness of which he was incapable, manifesting itself through crimes which to him were unimaginable in advance of their commission. When the absolutism of royalty and that of the mob exerted each against the other all the enormous forces of the malevolence of centuries of injustice, he attempted to establish liberty and, through its uplifting power, to put France and the world on a higher plane of civilization. The attempt ended for him with the scaffold. But it did not end so for France, and he may rightly be classed as chief among the founders of the existing Girondist Republic. Born at Limoges, May 3ith, 1753, from a family in good circumstances, Vergniaud while still a youth wrote a poem which attracted the attention of Turgot who became his patron and promoted his education. After beginning the practice of law he was drawn into politics at the opening of the Revolution. Entering the Legislative Assembly in October 1791, he showed such power as an orator that leadership was thrust on him in spite of himself. He was at first in favor of constitutional monarchy, but the plots of the court with foreign enemies of the new order in France made him a republican. The Girondists followed him with courage and confidence, while the Jacobins eagerly took advantage of his attacks on their enemies to excuse meditated crimes which, when they became overt, he viewed with the deepest abhorrence. He was not willing, however, to trust wholly to moral and intellectual forces, and, although he ...
| ISBN-13 | 9780217136914 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0217136915 |
| Weight | 2.32 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 9.00 x 6.00 x 1.60 In |
| List Price | $34.51 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Pages | 728 pages |
| Publisher | |
| Published On | 2009-08-01 |
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