Committee of General Security

You've argued that the revolution was not inevitable, that it came out of choices people made, not out of anything fated.

By late 1793, the convention still made the law, but committees drawn from it, above all the Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security, held sweeping executive and police powers, and the new constitution had been set aside until the peace.

Did that concentration of authority allow the choices that led to the terror easier to make, or was the decisive cause the war and the civil war inside France?

Oh, uh, the, the, the decisive, uh, cause of what we, what we call the terror, uh, is, in my, my view, the force of circumstance, is the extraordinary military situation that, uh, France found itself in by the middle of 1793, uh, being invaded on all sides by European powers, but also having to confront, um, armed counter-revolution inside France as well.

They've got a meeting today, and it's going to be especially tense.

Everyone knows that because they've got a joint meeting in the diary with the Committee of General Security, which is the other big committee.

It runs the police and the Revolutionary Tribunal.

And on this committee, General Security, the two dominant figures are called Marc-Guillaume Vadier and Andre Amar.

They are very keen on the de-Christianization campaign, and they were very scornful of the Festival of the Supreme Being.

They have no time for it at all.

And just generally, the Committee of General Security has become very resentful in recent months.

They feel that the Committee of Public Safety are taking over a lot of their powers and responsibilities, that they're treating them as underlings, not as equals.

After the flight to Varan, there is this kind of conservative backlash that's associated with the activities of Antoine Barnave, a man who had been considered one of the more radical revolutionaries in the summer of 1789, but has increasingly come to be seen as a conservative by the spring of 1791, and who has been very involved.

He's the spokesman for the colonial committee that had introduced the pro-slavery law in May of 1791.

So he is very aggrieved about The limited success that the anti-slavery people had had in May 1791, and he leads the effort to get that law of May 1791 repealed at the last moment in the National Assembly.

So we go to the next phase of the revolution in the Legislative Assembly, and the balance sheet for the National Assembly is that nothing has been done about slavery, about the rights of free people of color.

And they have all their arguments about the economic importance of the colonies.

They win over quite a few allies among the Montagnards.

They become very buddy-buddy with the deputy Amar, who is on the other great committee, the Committee of General Security.

And they can essentially go to him and say, we want so-and-so arrested, and Amar will do his best to do that.

Travelling in two groups of three to increase their chances of success, word reached Paris that three men from Saint-Domingue had landed in Brittany and were destined for the convention.

The well-connected colonial lobby responded with haste, going as far as to drafting the arrest decree which could be issued by the Committee of General Security.

Yes, you heard that right.

Colonial lobbyists were so enmeshed with the Jacobin government that they were told by Amar to draft an arrest warrant for him to sign.

Within the committee, the delegation found support.

By chance, Robespierre was ill, meaning that the man perhaps most likely to be suspicious of Girondin plots and foreign conspiracies was conveniently absent from the committee's meetings.

While impossible to know, it appears that the Committee of Public Safety pressured the Committee of General Security to release the detained men.

The former also scolded the colonial lobbyists for working to have the Saint-Domingue delegation imprisoned.

So to remind people, the Montagnards have been running the roost since the summer, and their power is embodied now in these two committees.

So you have the Committee of Public Safety, which directs policy, and the Committee of General Security, which controls the police and the Revolutionary Tribunal.

Now, there is a new constitution.

There is a new democratic constitution, but it has been placed on hold.

He sounds a wrong 'un.

Yeah, terrible name.

He asked to see Robespierre and Saint-Just, and they met him, and they met him along with the Committee of General Security, the police committee.

And Fabre said to them, "I have sensational information about the foreign plot to undermine the revolution." He said, "I have uncovered this network of spies and f- basically financiers, speculators, Spanish, Belgian, Austrian, Czech, Prussian, loads of different names.

During the month of July, a series of actions by Robespierre also angered his allies and enemies alike.

included his outburst on the 1st of July that there was a conspiracy against him, the exclusion of various members of the Jacobin Clubs, and his insistence that the Committee of General Security should remain subordinate to the Committee of Public Safety.

Later in the month of July, Robespierre withdrew from the Committee of Public Safety.

Then, on the 26th of July, the man who had become known as the incorruptible delivered what would be his final speech to the convention.

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billot collot and the members of the committee of general safety who had been attached to the old commune and were partisans of the worship of reason had taken offence at the cultus of the supreme being you and your supreme being billot was heard to say in a stage aside on the occasion are beginning to bore me it was now therefore a case of out caesar out nullus with robespierre chapter twenty one the it had become a matter of life and death to robespierre to overthrow the hostile members of the committees and get himself recognized as a dictator st just tried it on behalf of his friend several times with the public safety but without effect st just by the way was probably the most sincere and enthusiastic of all the followers of robespierre not yet twenty-five years of age he had made a great mark on the revolution his large poetic eyes his tall and dignified figure his long dark hair had obtained for him the nickname of the apocalyptic it was necessary to take action without delay the whole of the committee of general security and the majority of the committee of public safety were against robespierre the convention therefore had to be tried and failing the convention an insurrection proclaimed headed by the jacobins and the commune the latter bodies were prepared some time beforehand to resort to force if necessary to the ends of their champion and a conspiracy was actually formed the leaders of which were st just couthon who together with robespierre constituted the so-called triumvirate the mayor fleuriot the national agent payan dumas the president and cofinal the vice-president of the revolutionary tribunal st just had been recalled in great haste by robespierre from his mission with the army of the north and when apprised of the state of affairs he advised an immediate coup this however was impracticable the convention had to be sounded first otherwise the pretext for rising was wanting accordingly early on the twenty sixth of july eighth of termidor robespierre repaired to the assembly and opened the sitting with a long and dexterous speech denouncing the committees and defending himself in the name of the national sovereignty he wound up by recommending a general purification all round of the committees and of the convention robespierre sat down amid absolute silence not a sound or word of applause greeted his challenge presently a member lecointre rose and moved the printing in circulation of the harangue this was at once vigorously resisted but was eventually carried the members of the two committees hitherto silent now took up the challenge they attacked robespierre in turn the upshot was that the decree for the printing and circulation of the discourse was virtually rescinded being referred to the committee for examination robespierre surprised at the unwonted resistance left the sitting discouraged but without despairing of the situation in the evening he repaired to the jacobins when he re-read the discourse of the morning and here it was of course greeted with tumultuous applause the committees on their side kept together all night nothing was omitted during these momentous hours by either party to ensure victory on the moro the committees and the mountain negotiated successfully with the plain to bring about common action in the assembly before noon the following day july twenty seventh ninth termidor members were to be seen encouraging each other in the corridors the sitting was opened by st just he had scarcely begun his speech attacking the committees when he was interrupted and denounced by the ex-commissioner tallien who demanded that the veil should be withdrawn from the conspiracy tallien was supported on all sides billot varenne then spoke of packed meetings of jacobins of threats against the representatives etc at this point of billot's speech the whole convention rose and swore to defend the national sovereignty amid the applause of the public in the galleries all eyes were now turned towards robespierre who finally made a dash at the tribune before he could speak however the cry of down with the tyrant resounded throughout the hall in an uncompromising speech then demanded the arrest of henriot the commander of the reconstituted armed force of paris billot the arrest of other partisans of robespierre measures which were at once acceded to robespierre repeatedly attempted to defend himself but his voice was always drowned with shouts of down with the tyrant and by the ringing of the president's bell he turned to the plain he turned to the public in the galleries there was no response from either finally he sank down on a seat exhausted and foaming at the mouth the blood of danton chokes the wretch cried a member of the mountain robespierre's arrest was demanded on all sides his brother augustin robespierre couthon lebas and st just all claimed to share his fate and were finally all given into the hands of the gendarmerie the moment this became known at the hotel de ville where the mayor payan and henriot were assembled with the commune orders were given for the barriers to be closed the sections assembled the tocsin sounded the general beaten and the insurrection proclaimed the cannoneers were ordered to repair to the place de greve by the hotel de ville and the revolutionary committees were sent for to take the oath of insurrection the arrested deputies had meanwhile been released by their partisans on their way to the prisons and brought in triumph to the hotel de ville the jacobins who declared themselves in permanent session formed a subordinate centre of insurrection henriot who then rushed through the streets pistol in hand calling on the people to rise was seized by two deputies and was being brought to the committees when he was liberated by coffinal at the head of two hundred cannoneers of whom henriot himself at once took the command placing them in position round the convention the assembly which had adjourned for a couple of hours had now reassembled it was seven o'clock citizens said the president now is the time for us to die at our post The fairs did certainly look hopeless for the convention.

Orders were almost immediately given by Henriot to fire when, strange to say, the cannoneers who, up to this time, had been with the insurgents hesitated, wavered, and finally refused to comply.

In the hands of those two hundred cannoneers lay the fate of France.

Henriot hurried off to the Hôtel de Ville.

It was now the turn of the convention to take the aggressive.

the response of the sections to the call of the commune was not altogether satisfactory the fact is the movement of the last two days had been sudden even for paris and had developed out of a quarrel inside the government with which the general public were imperfectly acquainted besides this robespierre's unpopularity had now become general though the sections assembled at nine o'clock they confined themselves to sending messages to the commune asking for further information while the assembled sections were discussing the matter in the various wards of the city delegates from the convention arrived apprising them of the real position of affairs they now no longer hesitated but arming themselves immediately proceeded not to the place de greve but to the tuileries where they were naturally received with great enthusiasm a small body with a few pieces of artillery having been left as a guard to the convention the remainder then marched off to attack the head center of the insurrection the hotel de ville the crowds which had assembled outside at the sound of the tocsin had gradually dispersed finding the sections did not arrive and the space was now much thinned emissaries from the convention proclaimed the outlawry of the insurgents upon which all that remained went home the armed sections now arrived from the tuileries occupied all the outlets and set up a prolonged shout of long live the convention the insurgents saw at once that all was lost robespierre shot himself but only succeeded in breaking his jaw his brother threw himself from the third story lebas killed himself with a pistol couthon mangled himself with a knife cofinal pitched henriot from the window into the common sewer and managed to escape st just alone awaited his fate with dignity and calmness it was now about one o'clock in the morning the conspirators were conducted first to the committee of general security robespierre lay on a litter suffering horribly exposed to the jeers and taunts of the bystanders who upbraided him with all his crimes they were afterwards taken to the prison of the conciergerie and brought up thence the next day before the revolutionary tribunal with others of their associates they were of course condemned and were executed the same evening at six o'clock immense crowds hooting and jeering thronged the streets to see the tumbrils as they passed uncomplimentary references to the supreme being and to the prospective immortality of robespierre's soul were not wanting a halt was made before the house where robespierre had lodged all eyes were turned on him in his supreme being blue coat and the jeers and invectives grew louder the sullen hatred which had been growing for weeks past suddenly found vent at the time of his fall he probably had scarcely two or three hundred real followers in all paris instead of mitigating or abolishing the terror at the moment when the danger of invasion being past it had no longer any solid backing in public opinion he had chosen to exacerbate it only too obviously for his own ambitious purposes thus he speedily degenerated from the most popular to the most hated man in all france the battle of fleurus on the twenty sixth of june had secured for france the reconquest of belgium and destroyed the last remaining chance of foreign invasion and hence all but the blind followers of the system were determined to be rid of the terror the national extremity which gave rise to it having passed away Robespierre was the last to ascend the scaffold.

As Samson the executioner wrenched off the bloody linen which bound up his jaw, a horrible yell escaped him.