23 Prairial
An CCXXXIV
Jacques Pierre Brissot
Property is theft!
This is one of the many famous phrases attributed to Jacques Pierre Brissot, the gifted writer and compelling speaker. As a politician, however, he lacked a sense of pragmatism. He advocated war without considering the consequences. That proved fatal to him. For when military successes failed to materialize, the Revolution became more radical. That was not what Brissot had wanted. He tried to row back. His inconsistency endangered the survival of the young Republic. And Brissot made himself a powerful enemy: Robespierre. The Montagnards had Brissot and his Girondins arrested on 2 June 1793. On 31 October 1793, Brissot mounted the scaffold. The people cried: Vive la République!
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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
Le Moniteur
The last banquet of the Girondins
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