Similarities Between Abbé Sieyès And Robespierre

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Continuities of Thought Between Abbé Sieyès and Robespierre

In the years leading up to the French Revolution in 1789, political thinkers and writers like Bishop’s secretary Abbé Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès and Committee for Public Safety member’s Maximilien Robespierre help to shape the revolution’s directions, and even the direction toward “The Terror.” Abbé Sieyès wrote “What is the Third Estate? Everything.” in 1789, at the dawn of the revolution. The “Report on the Principles of Political Morality” was a speech delivered on behalf of The Committee for Public Safety by Robespierre on 5 February 1794, close to the end of the Terror. Both these historical documents have continuities. Abbé Sieyès, “What Is the Third Estate?” and Maximilien Robespierre’s
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Robespierre supports this assertion that every person, no matter their former estate, “is obliged to sacrifice his interest to the interest of the people, and his pride in power to equality.” Robespierre and Abbé Sieyès both share a strong bias against any individual wishing to keep his or her privlidges, but still be in communion with the revolution. However, Robespierre makes it clear, “the French are the first people of the world who have established real democracy, by calling all men to equality and full rights of citizenship; and there, in my judgment, is the true reason why all the tyrants in league against the Republic will be vanquished.” The Ancien Regime and Estates system left deep scars in French society, and those continued to linger even after the revolution in 1789. Abbé Sieyès and Robespierre have strong continuities between their works that suggest a France for the French, where everyone is equal. As for the roots of terror, Robespierre (being the

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