18 Ventôse
An CCXXXIV
Committee of Public Safety
Exhausted men sit together at a table. It is long past midnight, and the room is only dimly lit by candles. Each man is bent over his papers. An eerie silence prevails. One hears only the scratching of pens. Soon the men begin to argue, so loudly that the noise carries into the street. Then they reach an agreement and adopt a decision that determines the life or death of many people. They sit down again and write. The Committee of Public Safety (Comité de salut public) consisted of twelve men endowed with extensive powers by the Convention. It was the central organ of government during the period of the Reign of Terror in Year II of the Republic. The Committee of Public Safety met in the Pavillon de Flore, a wing of the Tuileries Palace, directly on the banks of the Seine.
JK
1793 - 1795
- April 6, 1793 · On the proposal of Barère, the National Convention establishes a
Committee of Public Safety
. It is granted extensive powers and a budget of 100,000 livres for secret expenditures. - July 1793 · Danton leaves the Committee of Public Safety. Robespierre later takes his place.
- September 1793 · Until July 1794, the composition of the committee remains unchanged with one exception (the so-called Great Committee of Public Safety of Year II): Robespierre, Saint-Just, Couthon, Billaud-Varenne, Collot d'Herbois, Carnot, Barère, Lindet, Prieur de la Marne, Prieur de la Côte d'Or, Jeanbon Saint-André. Hérault de Séchelles (the exception) is arrested in December 1793.
- October 10, 1793 · The government is declared
revolutionary until peace
. The Committee of Public Safety receives almost dictatorial powers. - December 4, 1793 · The Law of 14 Frimaire, Year II strengthens the centralization of power and the authority of the Committee of Public Safety over local administrations.
- April 1794 · The Committee of Public Safety establishes its own police bureau to oversee the state administration. This leads to serious conflicts with the Committee of General Security.
- July 27, 1794 · 9 Thermidor. The members of the Committee of Public Safety Robespierre, Saint-Just and Couthon are arrested and executed the following day.
- July 31, 1794 · Six members of the Committee of Public Safety are newly elected. Thereafter, the committee loses its personnel continuity; at least three members must be re-elected each month.
- August 24, 1794 · The Convention distributes executive powers among sixteen committees. The powers of the Committee of Public Safety are now limited to war and foreign policy.
- October 26, 1795 · Together with the Convention, the Committee of Public Safety is dissolved. Executive power passes to the Directory.
Quotes
The moment has come to establish the temporary despotism of liberty in order to destroy the despotism of kings.
Marat on the Committee of Public Safety, 6 April 1793
The Convention alone governs, and it alone must govern. We are the outpost of the Convention; we are the arm it allows to act, but we are not the government.
Bertrand Barère
Because I possess one twelfth of its authority in the Committee of Public Safety, I am called a dictator.
Maximilien Robespierre, July 1794
Le Moniteur
Le 21 du 1er mois
de l'an 2 de la république française
(October 12, 1793)
Emblem of the Committee of Public Safety
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