XV. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FIRST COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC

SAFETY.

By Prof. HENRY E. BOURNE, of Western Reserve University.

The National Convention met September 21, 1792, to offer the French people a new constitution. Like its predecessors, the Constituent and Legislative Assemblies, it left to a body, then called the Provisional Executive Council,' over which it had no immediate control, the real work of administration. But from the very first there were serious conflicts between this Council and the commissioners 3 sent from the Convention to reorganize the armies. The Convention itself also, and its committees, early encroached upon executive functions, and by orders and counter orders gravely obstructed the routine work of the Government. Civil and military officers instinctively adapted themselves to the situation, and began to address letters and dispatches directly to the Convention. So great was the evil that the Council by formal decree, October 29, forbade such contempt of its authority on the part of those who were legally its subordinates. Attacked thus on all sides, and unequal to the struggle, the Council by the end of the year came to be "plus occupé à se défendre qu'à agir, et quand il agissait, il ne manquait pas de se retrancher derrière quelque moyen de sauver sa responsabilité." At least one statesman of the Republic had anticipated this condition of things. Danton, realizing "que rester ministre n'était

4

'Aulard, Recueil des actes du Comité de salut public, 1: LXVILXXV, 1-5.

2 Aulard, 1:6, 16, 28, 37, et passim.

3 Called from April 11, 1793, représentants en mission. (Aulard, 3:193, note 1.) Formal name, Représentants de la nation, députés par la Convention nationale à (3:64. Cp. 1: LIV-LXVI.) In this article the shorter names representatives, commissioners, or deputies will be used. The same usage is found in Cambon's report, July 11, 1793. (Moniteur, 17:100.)

* Aulard, 1: 207-208.

5 Barère, Mémoires, 2: 309.

qu'un moyen de se perdre,"1 and obliged to choose between the ministry of justice and a seat in the Convention, chose the Convention.

But the Council itself was at fault. The ministry of war, that department which, under the circumstances, was all im portant, was managed by Pache, the humble servant of the Paris municipality, though "plus funeste à la République que tous les généraux de la coalition." Roland, the minister of the interior, was frequently absent from the Council. Evidently such feebleness in its government might soon be fatal to a nation which had promised to rescue the oppressed peoples of Europe," perhaps even against their will, and which was soon, for one reason or another, to stand face to face with the scandalized, frightened, and greedy monarchies of England and the Continent.

The first serious step toward a remedy of the evil was taken January 1, 1793, when, on a motion by Kersaint, a Girondin, a committee of General Defence was decreed, composed of three members from each of several important committees already formed. This new Committee had no powers beyond what might be inferred from its general duty of working with the Executive Council upon measures demanded by the approaching campaign and the existing state of affairs. Its records show that it was in no sense a government, for it did not adopt any decrees until late in its career. The sessions of the Committee were occupied, as Barère recalled, in endless deliberations. Without either unity of thought or energy of action, it

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Mémoires sur la Révolution, par D. J. Garat: in Buchez et Roux, Histoire parlementaire de la Révolution française, 18:448. Cp. A. Sorel, L'Europe et la Révolution française, 3:76.

2 Sorel, 3: 245, 248.

3 Decree of November 19, 1792: "La Convention nationale déclare, au nom de la nation française, qu'elle accordera fraternité et secours à tous les peuples qui voudront recouvrer leur liberté," etc. (Moniteur 14:517.) 4 Decree of December 15. (Aulard, 1:331–333.)

"Its best known members were three prominent Girondists, Boyer-Fonfrède, Brissot, and Gensonné; also Dubois-Crancé and Sieyès; and four of the first Committee of Public Safety, Bréard, Barère, Cambon, and GuytonMorveau.

6 Aulard, 1: 389.

7 Sorel, 3:380: "

ce comité ne présentait qu'un moule encore

flottant et flasque de gouvernement."

8 Barère says of it in his Mémoires: "Il n'y avait nulle énergie; la délibération divaguait sans cesse

*. Les généraux n'obéissaient

pas à un comité toujours délibérant et toujours divisé." (2:309.)

could neither command the respect of the generals' nor organize effectually the work assigned the commissioners. Had energetic measures been determined upon they could not have been kept secret, because the sessions were open to members of the Convention as well as to numerous secretaries and clerks.3

Evidently such a committee was unfitted to cope with the multiplying dangers of France. March 5 a dispatch was read that the Prussians had raised the siege of Maestricht. This event doomed the project for the invasion of Holland and weakened the Republic's position in Belgium. As the extent of the danger became known, the excitement in Paris and in the Convention was intense. March 9 a Revolutionary Tribunal was decreed, an institution which was terrible "pour dispenser le peuple de l'être." On the following day further letters from the northern frontier gave Robespierre an opportunity to attack the actual system of government, which, he intimated, left a barrier between the Council and the Convention, preventing all unity of action, and the results of which were an increasing number of enemies and a decreasing body of sympathizers. He wanted the execution of the laws assigned to a "commission fidèle." In the course of this discussion Cambacérès put the matter with the greatest definiteness. "Tous les pouvoirs vous ont été confiés," said he, "vous devez les exercer tous; il ne doit y avoir aucune séparation entre le corps qui délibère et celui qui fait exécuter." Danton vigorously supported

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1 When Dumouriez presented himself January 13 with certain schemes, according to his story, "on entama des disputes très frivoles et très ignorantes; tous parlaient à la fois, et l'on se sépara après une séance de trois heures sans avoir rien éclairci." Quoted by Gros, Le Comité de Salut public, 20.

It was not until February 1 that the commissioners began to address letters to the committee. The second letter was dated February 7. After this the letters become more frequent.

3 See Barère's remark in the Convention March 8. (Moniteur, 15:647.) + Moniteur, 15:624.

4

Danton's March 10 speech. (Moniteur, 15:683.) Danton thought that if there had been such a tribunal in September, 1792, there would have been no September massacres.

6 Moniteur, 15:674, 675.

Moniteur, 15:681.

His words were: "Déployons tous les moyens de la puissance nationale, mais ne mettons la direction de ces moyens qu'entre les mains d'hommes dont le contact nécessaire et habituel avec vous, vous assure l'ensemble et l'exécution des mesures que vous avez combinées pour le salut public." (Moniteur, 15:683.)

Cambacérès, and demanded warningly of the deputies who could protect them, if they weakly refused the burden imposed upon them, from the wrath and vengeance of a suffering people. Danton's real plan became apparent on the following day when he urged that the "Convention se reserve la faculté de prendre partout, et même dans son sein des ministres." Here was a scheme much wiser than Robespierre's idea of a special committee, a scheme which Robespierre supported to the extent of arguing that it be thoroughly discussed. Danton's main interest in the reorganization of the ministry came from his conviction that only a strong government could bring victory out of defeat. Had he succeeded in carrying through his idea, a ministry responsible to the Convention and controlled by it might have been created, which would have saved France from the worst excesses of the Terror, and laid a foundation in experience for a stable constitution.

Vague perils, largely theoretical, and, perhaps, personal jealousies defeated this plan, as they had defeated Mirabeau's plan, November, 1789. Although the Convention had been intrusted with supreme power, and although it had largely absorbed all the functions of the Executive Council, its majority, including several leaders of the Left or Mountain, thought liberty would somehow be saved if the appearance of a separation of powers was maintained. Certainly a council which dared to act only when screened behind decrees of the Convention or orders from its committees was not a responsible body. The most violent opposition to Danton's scheme came from the Girondists, who suspected that their political enemies,

1 Moniteur, 15: 686. Danton added: "Quel est celui d'entre vous qui ne sent pas la nécessité d'une plus grande cohésion, de rapports plus directs, d'un rapprochement plus immédiat, plus quotidien entre les agents du pouvoir exécutif révolutionnaire, chargé de défendre la liberté contre toute l'Europe, et vous," etc. Von Sybel (Revolutionszeit, 2:243-245), is not convincing when he explains that Robespierre's support was due to a bargain between him and Danton, Danton agreeing to promote the Revolutionary Tribunal if Robespierre would help in the reorganization of the executive.

2 Cambon suggested the value, July 11, of organizing the new Committee of Public Safety in such a way as "à essayer d'une manière indirecte le nouveau plan de constitution." (Moniteur, 17:102.)

3 Thuriot, Moniteur, 16: 75, and as late as August the majority of the second Committee of Public Safety adhered to the same idea. See report of Hérault-Séchelles, Moniteur, 17: 309. Saint-Just in Moniteur, 16: 215.

"quelques hommes d'une grand ambition, et d'une grand audace," "ces tyrans-brigands," meant to get hold of the Council, and through it to turn the Republic into "le sujet très fidèle et le tributaire très soumis d'un ville orgueilleuse, d'un dictateur insolent, ou d'une oligarchie sanguinaire." Rumor went into details, and said Danton was to take charge of foreign affairs and Cambacérès was to have the ministry of justice.2

1

Had the Girondists been sound statesmen or even good politicians they would not have offered such a frightened opposition to Danton. There were not lacking indications in his speech that he was anxious to bury party hatred and combine with the true friends of France, on whatever benches of the Convention they sat. Instead of saving themselves from the dictatorship by this action, these alarmists simply hastened it on, as Robespierre prophesied 3 in his first speech on the question. Nor did they permanently stave off the confusion of the powers they were so anxious to avoid, for the Committee of Public Safety, organized within a month, was just such a combination. Moreover, though the Committee was, to a certain degree, responsible to the Convention, it was much less so than a council of ministers selected partly from the Convention would probably have become.

Naturally, the Committee of General Defence, discredited by this whole debate, sent in its resignation, which was not, however, accepted at once. Meanwhile the perils threatening

La Revellière-Lépaux, Moniteur, 15:686-687. Cp. Buzot's remarks, Moniteur, 15: 681. Bancal gave the coup de grâce with a quotation from Rousseau: "Celui qui commande aux hommes ne doit pas commander à la loi; celui qui commande à la loi ne doit pas commander aux hommes." (Moniteur, 15:687.)

Le Patriote français, No. MCCCVIII; Buchez et Roux, 25:65. DuboisCrancé was to be minister of war; Jean Bon Saint-André, minister of marine; Fabre-d'Eglantine, minister of interior; Collot-d'Herbois, minister of contributions. Thuriot was also mentioned in connection with the ministry of justice. But Danton had taken a solemn oath not to accept a position in the ministry as long as he remained a member of the Convenvention. (Moniteur, 15: 686.)

3 Moniteur, 15: 675. Without a strengthening of the executive, said he, "Vous errerez toujours de révolutions en révolutions, et vous conduirez enfin la République à sa perte." Cp. Quinette's words, March 22, Moniteur, 15:773. It is interesting to note that Von Sybel adopts strictly the Girondin view of Danton's proposition, though he offers no substantial proofs. (Von Sybel, 2:242.)

* Moniteur, 15:690, and Aulard 2;334. The reporter of the Committee declared that it was "presque entièrement désorganisé."