Page 1768 - les-miserables

CHAPTER II

THE ROOT OF THE MATTER

There is such a thing as an uprising, and there is such
a thing as insurrection; these are two separate phases of
wrath; one is in the wrong, the other is in the right. In dem-
ocratic states, the only ones which are founded on justice, it
sometimes happens that the fraction usurps; then the whole
rises and the necessary claim of its rights may proceed as far
as resort to arms. In all questions which result from collec-
tive sovereignty, the war of the whole against the fraction
is insurrection; the attack of the fraction against the whole
is revolt; according as the Tuileries contain a king or the
Convention, they are justly or unjustly attacked. The same
cannon, pointed against the populace, is wrong on the 10th
of August, and right on the 14th of Vendemiaire. Alike in
appearance, fundamentally different in reality; the Swiss
defend the false, Bonaparte defends the true. That which
universal suffrage has effected in its liberty and in its sov-
ereignty cannot be undone by the street. It is the same in
things pertaining purely to civilization; the instinct of the
masses, clear-sighted to-day, may be troubled to-morrow.
The same fury legitimate when directed against Terray and

1768 Les Miserables