Jacques Pierre Brissot
Property is theft!
— this phrase is attributed to Jacques Pierre Brissot. Grand words. He was a gifted writer and a compelling speaker, but not a pragmatic politician. Brissot advocated war against the monarchies of Europe, yet he did not know how to conduct it. When military success failed to materialise, the Revolution radicalised. That was not what Brissot had intended. He attempted to retreat from his earlier position. In doing so, he endangered the young Republic and made himself a powerful enemy: Robespierre. The Montagnards had Brissot and his Girondist allies arrested on 2 June 1793. On 31 October 1793, Brissot walked his final path to the scaffold. The crowd cried: Vive la République!
JK
1789 - 1799
- January 15, 1754 · Born in Chartres.
- 1780 · Publication of
Philosophical Inquiries into the Right of Property and Theft
. - May 1789 · First issue of Le Patriote Français. The journal is published until June 1793.
- August 1791 · Deputy for the city of Paris in the Legislative Assembly.
- December 1791 · Brissot passionately advocates war against the monarchies of Europe.
- September 1792 · Elected deputy for the department of Eure-et-Loir to the National Convention.
- January 1793 · Brissot initially opposes the death penalty for the king, but ultimately votes for death subject to a popular consultation.
- March 1793 · Brissot declares in the National Convention that the time has come to end the Revolution and prevent anarchy. In doing so, he and his group, the Girondists, become enemies of the Montagnards around Robespierre.
- June 2, 1793 · Under pressure from the Paris Commune, the Convention orders the arrest of Brissot and the Girondists. The Montagnards thereby gain dominance within the Convention.
- October 24, 1793 · Opening of the trial against twenty-one Girondist deputies.
- October 31, 1793 · Execution of twenty Girondists, including Brissot, on the Place de la Révolution in Paris.
Quotes
A people who, after ten centuries of slavery, has won its freedom needs war. War is necessary to consolidate liberty.
Brissot, 16 December 1791
I thought Monsieur Brissot had saved me!
Louis XVI, after the pronouncement of his death sentence, January 1793
Rather death than slavery, that is the motto of the French.
Song of the Girondists on the way to the guillotine, 31 October 1793
Talk to Brissot
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External links
Le Moniteur
Primidi, 2e décade de Brumaire, l'an 2 de la République, une et indivisible
(November 1, 1793)
The last banquet of the Girondins
