Committee of Public Safety

For other uses, see Committee of Public Safety (disambiguation).

The Committee of Public Safety (French: Comit de salut public), created in March 1793 by the National Convention and then restructured in July 1793, formed the de
facto executive government in France during the Reign of
Terror (17931794), a stage of the French Revolution.
The Committee of Public Safety succeeded the previous
Committee of General Defence (established in January
1793) and assumed its role of protecting the newly established republic against foreign attacks and internal rebellion. As a wartime measure, the Committeecomposed
at rst of nine, and later of twelve, memberswas given
broad supervisory powers over military, judicial, and legislative eorts. It was formed as an administrative body
to supervise and expedite the work of the executive bodies of the Convention and of the government ministers
appointed by the Convention. As the Committee tried
to meet the dangers of a coalition of European nations
and counter-revolutionary forces within the country, it
became more and more powerful.

Lettre anglaise (English Letter) dated 29 June 1793 as published

by the French National convention during the Revolution (1793).
This document was used to prove English spying and conspiracy.

tion did not accede to his leadership. News of his defection caused alarm in Paris, where imminent defeat by
the Austrians and their allies was feared. A widespread
belief held that revolutionary France was in immediate
peril, threatened not only by foreign armies and by recent
In July 1793, following the defeat at the Convention of
anti-revolutionary revolts in the Vende, but also by forthe moderate Republicans (or "Girondists"), the promieign agents who plotted the destruction of the nation from
nent leaders of the radical JacobinsMaximilien Robewithin.[1]
spierre and Saint-Just were added to the Committee.
The power of the Committee peaked between August The betrayal of the revolutionary government by Du1793 and July 1794, under the leadership of Robespierre. mouriez lent greater credence to this belief. In light
In December 1793, the Convention formally conferred of this threat, the Girondin leader Maximin Isnard proexecutive power upon the Committee, and Robespierre posed the creation of a nine-member Committee of Public Safety. Isnard was supported in this eort by Georges
established a virtual dictatorship.
Danton, who declared, This Committee is precisely what
The execution of Robespierre in July 1794 represented
we want, a hand to grasp the weapon of the Revolutionary
a reactionary period against the Committee of Public
Tribunal.[1]
Safety. This is known as the Thermidorian Reaction,
as Robespierres fall from power occurred during the The Committee was formally created on 6 April 1793.
Revolutionary month of Thermidor. The Committees Closely associated with the leadership of Danton, it was
[2]
inuence diminished, and it was disestablished in 1795. initially known as the Danton Committee. Danton
steered the Committee through the 31 May and 2 June
1793 journes that resulted in the fall of the Girondins,
and through the intensifying war in the Vende. How1 Origins and evolution
ever, when the Committee was recomposed on 10 July,
Danton was not included. Nevertheless, he continued to
support the centralization of power by the Committee.[3]
1.1 Committee of discussion
On 27 July 1793, Maximilien Robespierre was elected to
the Committee. At this time, the Committee was entering a more powerful and active phase, which would see
it become a de facto dictatorship alongside its powerful
partner, the Committee of General Security. The role
of the Committee of Public Safety included the gover-

On 5 April 1793, the French military commander and

former minister of war General Charles Franois Dumouriez defected to Austria, following the publication
of an incendiary letter in which he threatened to march
his army on the city of Paris if the National Conven1

ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION

nance of the war (including the appointment of generals),

the appointing of judges and juries for the Revolutionary
Tribunal,[4] the provisioning of the armies and the public, the maintenance of public order, and oversight of the
state bureaucracy.[5]
The Committee was also responsible for interpreting and
applying the decrees of the National Convention, and thus
for implementing some of the most stringent policies of
the Terrorfor instance, the leve en masse, passed on 23
August 1793, the Law of Suspects, passed on 17 September 1793, and the Law of the Maximum, passed on 29
September 1793. The broad and centralized powers of
the Committee were codied by the Law of 14 Frimaire
(also known as the Law of Revolutionary Government)
on 4 December 1793.
1.1.1

Execution of the Hbertists and Dantonists

On 5 December 1793, journalist Camille Desmoulins began publishing Le Vieux Cordelier, a newspaper initially
aimedwith the approval of Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety[6] at the ultra-revolutionary
Hbertist faction, whose extremist demands, anti- Maximilien Robespierre, spokesman and a radical voice behind
religious fervor, and propensity for sudden insurrec- the leadership of the Committee of Public Safety
tions were problematic for the Committee. However,
Desmoulins quickly turned his pen against the Committee
of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security,
comparing their reign to that of the Roman tyrants chronicled by Tacitus, and expounding the "indulgent" views of
the Dantonist faction.
Public Safety and enacted on 10 June 1794, went further
Consequently, though the Hbertists were arrested and in establishing the iron control of the Revolutionary Triexecuted in March 1794, the Committee of Public Safety bunal and, above it, the Committees of Public Safety and
and the Committee of General Security ensured that General Security. The law enumerated various forms of
Desmoulins and Danton were also arrested. Hrault de public enemies, made mandatory their denunciation, and
Schellesa friend and ally of Dantonwas expelled severely limited the legal recourse available to those acfrom the Committee of Public Safety, arrested, and tried cused. The punishment for all crimes under the Law of
alongside them. On 5 April 1794, the Dantonists went to 22 Prairal was death. From the initiation of this law to
the fall of Robespierre on 27 July, more people were conthe guillotine.
demned to death than in the entire previous history of the
Revolutionary Tribunal.[8]

1.2

Committee of rule

The elimination of the Hbertists and the Dantonists, in

the opinion of historian Franois Furet, had denitively
closed the book on a collegial executive: Robespierre
was, in fact, the head of the Republics government.[7]
Certainly the strength of the committees had been made
evident, as had their ability to control and silence opposition. The Law of 14 Frimaire was enacted in December
1793 to centralize and consolidate power within the Committee of Public Safety. The creation, in March 1794, of
a General Police Bureaureporting nominally to the
Committee of Public Safety, but more often directly to
Robespierre and his closest ally, Louis Antoine de SaintJustserved to increase the power of the Committee of
Public Safety, and of Robespierre himself.
The Law of 22 Prairial, proposed by the Committee of

However, even as the Terror reached its height, and with

it the Committees political power, discord was growing
within the revolutionary government. Members of the
Committee of General Security resented the autocratic
behavior of the Committee of Public Safety, and particularly the encroachment of Robespierres General Police Bureau upon their own brief.[9] Arguments within
the Committee of Public Safety itself had grown so violent that it relocated its meetings to a more private
room to preserve the illusion of agreement.[10] Robespierre, a fervent supporter of the theistic Cult of the
Supreme Being, found himself frequently in conict with
anti-religious Committee members Collot d'Herbois and
Billaud-Varenne. Moreover, Robespierres increasingly
extensive absences from the Committee due to illness (he
all but ceased to attend meetings in June 1794) created
the impression that he was isolated and out of touch.

1.3

Fall of the Committee, and aftermath

When it became evident, in mid-July 1794, that Robespierre and Saint-Just were planning to strike against their
political opponents Joseph Fouch, Jean-Lambert Tallien, and Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier (the latter two
of whom were members of the Committee of General
Security), the fragile truce within the government was
dissolved. Saint-Just and his fellow Committee of Public Safety member Barre attempted to keep the peace
between the Committees of Public Safety and General
Security; however, on 26 July, Robespierre delivered a
speech to the National Convention in which he emphasized the need to purify the Committees and crush all
factions.[11] In a speech to the Jacobin Club that night,
he attacked Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne, who
had refused to allow the printing and distribution of his
speech to the Convention.

Bertrand Barre de Vieuzac, representative of

Hautes-Pyrnes (imprisoned, escaped guillotine to
live in hiding)
Jean-Franois Delmas, representative of HauteGaronne
Jean-Jacques Brard, representative of CharenteInfrieure
Pierre-Joseph Cambon, representative of Hrault
(forced to live in hiding)
Georges Danton, representative of Paris proper
(guillotined)
Jean-Antoine Debry, representative of Aisne, later
replaced by Robert Lindet, representative of Eure
upon resignation

On the following day, 27 July 1794 (or 9 Thermidor according to the Revolutionary calendar), Saint-Just began
to deliver a speech to the Convention in which he had
planned to denounce Collot d'Herbois, Billaud-Varenne,
and other members of the Committee of Public Safety.
However, he was almost immediately interrupted by Tallien and by Billaud-Varenne, who accused Saint-Just of
intending to murder the Convention.[12] Barre, Vadier,
and Stanislas Frron joined the accusations against SaintJust and Robespierre. The arrest of Robespierre, his
brother Augustin, and Saint-Just was ordered, along with
that of their supporters, Philippe Le Bas and Georges
Couthon.

Louis-Bernard Guyton-Morveau, representative of

Cte d'Or

Thermidorian Reaction, saw the repeal of many of

the Terrors most unpopular laws and the reduction
in power of the Committees of General Security and
Public Safety. The Committees ceased to exist under the
Constitution of 1795, which marked the beginning of
the Directory.

Andr Jeanbon Saint Andr, representative of Lot

(arrested but released)

Jean-Baptiste Treilhard, representative of Seine-atOise

Jean-Franois Delacroix, representative of Eure-atLoir (guillotined)

After Robespierres election to the Committee on 27

July 1793, the Committee increased its membership
to twelve. The list below represents the Committees
membership from the addition of Collot d'Herbois and
Billaud-Varenne in September 1793 through the arrest of
A period of intense civil unrest ensued, during which Hrault de Schelles in March 1794.
the members of the Committees of Public Safety and
General Security were forced to seek refuge in the Con Maximilien de Robespierre, representative of Paris
vention. The Robespierre brothers, Saint-Just, Le Bas,
(guillotined)
and Couthon ensconced themselves in the Htel de Ville,
attempting to incite an insurrection. Ultimately, faced
Bertrand Barre de Vieuzac, representative of
with defeat and arrest, Le Bas committed suicide. SaintHautes-Pyrnes (imprisoned)
Just, Couthon, and Maximilien and Augustin Robespierre
were arrested and guillotined on 28 July.
Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet, representative of Eure
(denounced and tried)
The ensuing period of upheaval, dubbed the

Composition

The Committee was initially composed of nine members,

all selected by the National Convention for one month at
a time, without term limits. Its rst members, instated on
6 April 1793, were as follows, in order of election.

Georges Couthon, representative of Puy-at-Dme

(guillotined)
Marie-Jean Hrault de Schelles, representative of
Seine-at-Oise (guillotined)
Pierre-Louis Prieur (called Prieur de la Marne), representative of Marne
Louis Antoine Lon de Saint-Just, representative of
Aisne (guillotined)
Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot, representative of
Pas-de-Calais

5
Claude-Antoine Prieur-Duvernois (former Prior of
Cte-dOr), representative of Cte-d'Or
Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne, representative of
Paris (arrested and exiled)
Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois, representative of Paris
(arrested and deported)

REFERENCES

Palmer, R.R. (September 1941). Fifty Years of the

Committee of Public Safety. Journal of Modern
History 13 (3): 375397. JSTOR 1871581.
(1970). Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the
Terror in the French Revolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-05119-4.
Schama, Simon (1989). Citizens: A Chronicle of the
French Revolution. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

See also
Commissioners of the Committee of Public Safety
Committee of General Security
National Convention
Historiography of the French Revolution
Revolutionary Tribunal
Reections on the Revolution in France

Notes

[1] Belloc (1899), p. 210.

[2] Mantel (2009).
[3] Belloc (1899), p. 235.
[4] Scurr (2006), p. 284.
[5] Furet (1992), p. 134.
[6] Furet (1992), p. 141.
[7] Furet (1992), p. 142.
[8] Scurr (2006), p. 328.
[9] Scurr (2006), p. 331.
[10] Scurr (2006), p. 340.
[11] Madelin (1916), p. 418.
[12] Madelin (1916), p. 422.

References
Belloc, Hillaire (1899). Danton: A Study. New
York: Charles Scribners Sons.
Furet, Franois (1992). Revolutionary France,
17701880. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Madelin, Louis (1916). The French Revolution.
New York: G.P. Putnams Sons.
Mantel, Hilary (6 August 2009). He Roared. London Review of Books 3 (15): 36. Retrieved 16 January 2010.

Scurr, Ruth (2006). Fatal Purity: Robespierre and

the French Revolution. New York: Owl Books.

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