, the seat of the Committee of Public Safety and General Police Bureau.
Joachim Vilate lived there in an apartment. Drawing in brown ink (1814) ) in the
Vendée,
Maine, the south of Normandy or the eastern part of Brittany defending a Catholic church. Artist unknown The French government confronted significant internal challenges as the provincial cities rebelled against the more radical revolutionaries in Paris. Marat and Le Peletier were assassinated, instilling fear in Robespierre and other prominent figures for their own safety. Corsica formally seceded from France and sought protection from the British government. In July, France teetered on the brink of civil war, besieged by aristocratic uprisings in
Vendée and Brittany, by
federalist revolts in Lyon,
Le Midi, and Normandy, and confronted with hostility from across Europe and foreign factions.
June–July 1793 At the end of June, Robespierre launched an attack on
Jacques Roux, portraying him as a foreign agent, which led to Roux's expulsion from the Jacobin Club. On 13 July, the day Marat was assassinated, Robespierre voiced support for
Louis-Michel le Peletier's proposals to introduce revolutionary concepts into schools.
August 1793 On 4 August, the Convention
promulgated the
French Constitution of 1793. However, by the end of August, the rebellious cities of Marseille, Bordeaux, and Lyon had not yet accepted the new Constitution. French historian Soboul suggests that Robespierre opposed its implementation before the rebellious
départements had acknowledged it. By mid-September, the Jacobin Club proposed that the Constitution should not be published, arguing that the
general will was absent, despite an overwhelming majority favouring it. On 21 August, Robespierre was elected as president of the Convention. Two days later, on 23 August
Lazare Carnot was appointed to the committee and the provisional government introduced the
Levée en masse against the enemies of the republic. Couthon proposed a law punishing any person who sold
assignats at less than their
nominal value with twenty years imprisonment in chains. Robespierre was particularly concerned with ensuring the virtue of public officials.
September 1793 On 4 September, the sans-culottes once again stormed the Convention, demanding stricter measures against rising prices, even though the circulating
assignats had doubled in the preceding months. They also called for the establishment of a system of terror to eradicate counter-revolution. During the session on 5 September, Robespierre yielded the chair to
Jacques Thuriot, as he needed to attend the Committee of Public Safety to supervise the report on the constitution of the revolutionary army. During that day's session, Barère, representing the Committee of Public Safety, introduced a decree that was promptly passed, establishing a paid armed force of 6,000 men and 1,200 gunners "tasked with crushing counter-revolutionaries, enforcing revolutionary laws and public safety measures decreed by the National Convention, and safeguarding provisions." On 11 September, the authority of the Committee of Public Safety was extended for one month. Robespierre threw his support behind Hanriot in the Jacobin Club and voiced opposition to the appointment of
Lazare Carnot on 23 August to the committee, citing Carnot's non-membership in the Jacobin Club and his refusal to endorse the events of 31 May. Thuriot resigned on 20 September due to irreconcilable differences with Robespierre, becoming one of his more vocal opponents. The
Revolutionary Tribunal underwent reorganisation, being divided into four sections, with two sections always active simultaneously. On 29 September, the Committee introduced the
price controls, particularly in the area supplying Paris. According to historian
Augustin Cochin, shops were emptied within a week due to these measures.
October 1793 's execution by guillotine on 16 October 1793 On 3 October, Robespierre perceived the Convention as split into two factions: those aligned with the people, and those he deemed conspirators. He defended seventy-three Girondins "as useful", but over twenty were subsequently brought to trial. He criticised Danton, who had declined a seat on the Committee of Public Safety, advocating instead for a stable government capable of resisting the Committee's directives. Danton, who had been dangerously ill for a few weeks, withdrew from politics and departed for
Arcis-sur-Aube. By 8 October, the Convention resolved to arrest Brissot and the Girondins. On 10 October, the Convention officially recognised the Committee of Public Safety as the supreme "
Revolutionary Government", a designation that was solidified on 4 December. Despite the overwhelming popularity of the Constitution and its drafting, which bolstered support for the Montagnards, the Convention indefinitely suspended it on 10 October until a future peace could be achieved. The verdict on the former queen was delivered by the jury of the Revolutionary Tribunal on 16 October at four o'clock in the morning, and she was guillotined at noon. Courtois reportedly discovered Marie-Antoinette's will among Robespierre's papers, concealed beneath his bed. on 31 October 1793 On 25 October, the Revolutionary government faced accusations of inaction. Several members of the Committee of General Security, aided by , were dispatched to quell active resistance against the Revolution in the provinces. Robespierre's landlord,
Maurice Duplay, became a member of the Revolutionary Tribunal. On 31 October, Brissot and twenty-one other Girondins were guillotined.
November 1793 On the morning of 14 November,
François Chabot allegedly barged into Robespierre's room, dragging him from bed with accusations of counter-revolution and a foreign conspiracy. Chabot waved a hundred thousand livres in assignat notes, claiming that a group of royalist plotters had given it to him to buy votes. Chabot was arrested three days later; Courtois urged Danton to return to Paris immediately. On 25 November, the remains of the
Comte de Mirabeau were removed from the
Pantheon and replaced with those of
Jean-Paul Marat. Robespierre initiated this change upon discovering that Mirabeau had secretly conspired with the court of Louis XVI in his final months. At the end of November, under intense emotional pressure from Lyonnaise women, who protested and gathered 10,000 signatures, Robespierre proposed the establishment of a secret commission to examine the cases of the Lyon rebels and investigate potential injustices.
December 1793 On 3 December, Robespierre accused Danton in the Jacobin Club of feigning an illness to emigrate to Switzerland. Danton, according to him, showed too often his vices and not his virtue. Robespierre was stopped in his attack. The gathering was closed after applause for Danton. On 4 December, by the
Law of Revolutionary Government, the independence of departmental and local authorities came to an end when extensive powers of the Committee of Public Safety were codified. Submitted by Billaud and implemented within 24 hours, the law was a drastic decision against the independence of deputies and commissionaires on a mission; coordinated action among the sections became illegal. On 5 December, the journalist
Camille Desmoulins launched a new journal, . He defended Danton, attacked the de-Christianisers, and later compared Robespierre with
Julius Caesar as dictator. Robespierre made a counterproposal of setting up a Committee of Justice to examine some of the cases under the
Law of Suspects. Seventy-three deputies who had voted against the insurrection on 2 June were allowed to take their seats in the Convention. Robespierre denounced the "de-Christianisers" as foreign enemies. The
Indulgents mounted an attack on the Committee of Public Safety, accusing them of being murderers. Desmoulins addressed Robespierre directly, writing, "My dear Robespierre... my old school friend... Remember the lessons of history and philosophy: love is stronger, more lasting than fear." On 25 December, provoked by Desmoulins' insistent challenges, Robespierre produced his "Report on the Principles of Revolutionary Government". Robespierre replied to the plea for an end to the Terror, justifying the collective authority of the National Convention, administrative centralisation, and the purging of local authorities. He said he had to avoid two cliffs: indulgence and severity. He could not consult the 18th-century political authors, because they had not foreseen such a course of events. He protested against the various factions that he believed threatened the government, such as the Hébertists and Dantonists. Robespierre strongly believed that the strict legal system was still necessary: Robespierre would suppress chaos and anarchy: "the Government has to defend itself" [against conspirators] and "to the enemies of the people it owes only death". According to
R. R. Palmer and
Donald C. Hodges, this was the first important statement in modern times of a philosophy of
dictatorship. Others see it as a natural consequence of political instability and conspiracy.
February–March 1794 In his
Report on the Principles of Political Morality made on 5 February, Robespierre praised the revolutionary government and argued that both terror and virtue were necessary:
Aulard sums up the Jacobin train of thought: "All politics, according to Robespierre, must tend to establish the reign of virtue and confound vice. He reasoned thus: those who are virtuous are right; error is a corruption of the heart; error cannot be sincere; error is always deliberate." According to the German journalist K. E. Oelsner, Robespierre behaved "more like a leader of a religious sect than of a political party. He can be eloquent but most of the time he is boring, especially when he goes on too long, which is often the case." From 13 February to 13 March, Robespierre had withdrawn from active business on the Committee due to illness. In early March, in a speech at the Cordeliers Club, Hébert attacked both Robespierre and Danton as being too soft. Hébert used the latest issue of to criticise Robespierre. There were queues and near-riots at the shops and in the markets; there were strikes and threatening public demonstrations. Some of the Hébertistes and their friends were calling for a new insurrection. Robespierre managed to acquire a small army of secret agents, which reported to him. A majority of the Committee decided that the ultra-left Hébertists would have to perish or their opposition within the committee would overshadow the other factions due to its influence in the Commune of Paris. Robespierre also had personal reasons for disliking the Hébertists for their "bloodthirstiness" and
atheism, which he associated with the old aristocracy. On the night of 13–14 March, Hébert and 18 of his followers were arrested as the agents of foreign powers. On 15 March, Robespierre reappeared in the Convention. The next day, Robespierre denounced a petition demanding that all merchants should be excluded from public offices while the war lasted. Subsequently, he joined Saint-Just in his attacks on Hébert. The leaders of the "
armées révolutionnaires" were denounced by the Revolutionary Tribunal as accomplices of Hébert. Their armies were dissolved on 27 March. Robespierre protected Hanriot, the commander of the Paris National Guards, and Pache. Around twenty people, including Hébert,
Cloots and
De Kock, were guillotined on the evening of 24 March. On 25 March, Condorcet was arrested, as he was seen as an enemy of the Revolution; he committed suicide two days later. On 29 March, Danton met again with Robespierre privately. On 30 March the two committees decided to arrest Danton and Desmoulins. On 31 March, Saint-Just publicly attacked both. In the Convention, criticism was voiced against the arrests, which Robespierre silenced with "whoever trembles at this moment is guilty."
Legendre suggested that "before you listen to any report, you send for the prisoners, and hear them". Robespierre replied, "It would be violating the laws of impartiality to grant to Danton what was refused to others, who had an equal right to make the same demand." This answer silenced at once all solicitations in his favour. No friend of the Dantonists dared speak up in case he too should be accused of putting friendship before virtue.
April 1794 Danton, Desmoulins, and several others faced trial from 3 to 5 April before the
Revolutionary Tribunal, presided over by
Martial Herman. Described as more politically charged than criminally focused, the trial proceeded in an irregular manner. Hanriot had been informed not to arrest the president and the "public accuser" of the
Revolutionary Tribunal. The accusations of theft, corruption, and the scandal involving the
French East India Company paved the way for Danton's downfall, accusing him of conspiracy with
count Mirabeau,
Marquis de Lafayette, the
Duke of Orléans and
Dumouriez. In Robespierre's eyes, the Dantonists had ceased to be true patriots, instead prioritising personal and foreign interests over the nation's welfare. Fouquier-Tinville asked the tribunal to order the defendants who "confused the hearing" and insulted "National Justice" to the guillotine. Desmoulins struggled to accept his fate and accused Robespierre, the Committee of General Security, and the Revolutionary Tribunal. He was dragged up the scaffold by force. On the last day of their trial, Desmoulins's wife,
Lucile Desmoulins, was imprisoned. She was accused of organising a revolt against the patriots and the tribunal to free her husband and Danton. She admitted to having warned the prisoners of a course of events as in
September 1792, and that it was her duty to revolt against it. Robespierre was not only his school friend but also had witnessed at their marriage in December 1790, together with Pétion and Brissot. When Barras and Fréron paid a visit to Robespierre, they were received in an extremely unfriendly manner. The decree of 8 May suppressed the revolutionary courts and committees in the provinces and brought all political cases for trial in the capital. The police bureau, directed by
Martial Herman, became a serious rival of the Committee of General Security after a month.
Payan, even advised Robespierre to get rid of the Committee of General Security, saying it broke the unity of action of the government. Legal defence was sidelined in favour of efficiency and centralisation, as all assistance for defendants before the revolutionary tribunal was outlawed. The Tribunal transformed into a court of condemnation, denying suspects the right to counsel and offering only two verdicts: complete acquittal or death, often based more on jurors' moral convictions than evidence. Within three days, 156 people were sent in batches to the guillotine, including all the members of
Parlement of Toulouse. == Abolition of slavery ==