A terrorist's rhetoric: Citizen Lequinio's “de l'éloquence”

Joseph‐Marie Lequinio (1775–1813), an obscure provincial lawyer who secured numerous political offices and powerful Jacobin friends during the French Revolution, wrote an impassioned book purporting to be a philosophy for maintaining revolutionary ideals. A chapter and scattered passages from his Les Préjugés détruits are translated here. Bitterly condemning eloquence, Lequinio attempted to rationalize for the public a simplistic dialectic based on truth, reason, and philosophy. Arguing that oratory is the weapon of charlatans and the scourge of liberty, he proposed that eloquence give way to the printed word, which allows time for reflection.