Editing Committee of Public Safety (section)

== Origins and evolution ==

=== Social climate of Revolutionary France ===
The [[French Revolution]] brought about an immense shift in society in which citizens desired to bring about a new age of critical rationality, [[egalitarianism]], and patriotism amongst French men.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tackett |first=Timothy |title=The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |year=2015 |isbn=9780674425163 |location=Cambridge, Mas |pages=121}}</ref> Revolutionary ideals were spread throughout France and a belief in [[democracy]] and civilian government was heralded as the new era of French civilization.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tackett |first=Timothy |title=The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |year=2015 |isbn=9780674425163 |location=Cambridge, Mass |pages=121–122}}</ref> 1793 would bring a new republican constitution, drafted by the National Assembly.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tackett |first=Timothy |title=The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |year=2015 |isbn=9780674425163 |location=Cambridge, Mass |pages=245}}</ref> [[French Constitution of 1793|The French Constitution of 1793]] and its subsequent government would bring sweeping reforms to French politics and the French social order. Major reforms included comprehensive education, the recognition of rights for illegitimate children and improved rights for married women.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tackett |first=Timothy |title=The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |year=2015 |isbn=9780674425163 |location=Cambridge, Mass |pages=313}}</ref>

The French Constitution of 1793 outlined the prevailing [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] era ideology of the French government at this stage of the revolutionary period. The constitution outlines a right to the resistance of oppression as well as the right to personal liberty.<ref>{{Cite book |last=The Committee of Constitution |title=The New Constitution of France |publisher=London: Printed for J. Ridgway |year=1793 |location=London |pages=3}}</ref> The equality of all French men is detailed as is the structure of the [[French First Republic|French Republic]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=The Committee of Constitution |title=The New Constitution of France |publisher=London: Printed for J. Ridgway |year=1793 |location=London |pages=4–7}}</ref> The new constitution and the shift into a republican government centered on the National Assembly created the atmosphere for a radicalized governing authority to take power.<ref name="Tackett 2015 251">{{Cite book |last=Tackett |first=Timothy |title=The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |year=2015 |isbn=9780674425163 |location=Cambridge, Mass |pages=251}}</ref> Members of the French common classes such as the [[Sans-culottes|Sans-Culottes]] turned to radicalism and inspired militant activism among the French populace.<ref name="Tackett 2015 251"/>

=== Committee of discussion ===
[[File:Lettre anglaise.jpg|thumb|''Lettre anglaise'' (''English Letter'') dated 29 June 1793 as published by the [[National Convention]] during the [[French Revolution]] (1793) to prove English spying and conspiracy]]

On 5 April 1793, the French military commander and former minister of war General [[Charles François 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 Convention 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 revolts in the [[War in the Vendée|Vendée]], but also by foreign agents who plotted the destruction of the nation from within.<ref name="Belloc210">{{harvp|Belloc|1899|p=210}}.</ref> Dumouriez's defection lent greater credence to this belief. In light of this threat, the [[Girondin]] leader [[Maximin Isnard]] proposed the creation of a nine-member Committee of Public Safety. Isnard was supported in this effort by [[Georges Danton]], who declared: "This Committee is precisely what we want, a hand to grasp the weapon of the [[Revolutionary Tribunal]]".<ref name="Belloc210" />

After a proposal by [[Bertrand Barère]] on 18 March the committee was created on 6 April 1793. Closely associated with the leadership of Danton, it was initially known as the Danton Committee.<ref name="mantel">{{harvp|Mantel|2009}}.</ref> Danton steered the Committee through the [[Days of 31 May and 2 June 1793|31 May and 2 June 1793 ''journées'']] that saw the violent expulsion of the Girondins and through the intensifying war in the Vendée. When the committee was recomposed on 10 July 1793, Danton was not included. Nevertheless, he continued to support the centralization of power by the committee.<ref name="Belloc235">{{harvp|Belloc|1899|p=235}}.</ref>

On 27 July 1793, Maximilien Robespierre was elected to the committee. At this time, the committee was entering a more powerful and active phase, alongside its  partner, the [[Committee of General Security]]. The role of the Committee of Public Safety included the governance of the war (including the appointment of generals), the appointing of judges and juries for the Revolutionary Tribunal,<ref name="Scurr284">{{harvp|Scurr|2006|p=284}}.</ref> the provisioning of the armies and the public, the maintenance of public order and oversight of the state bureaucracy.<ref name="Furet134">{{harvp|Furet|1992|p=134}}.</ref>

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 Terror—for instance, the ''[[levée en masse]]'' passed on 23 August 1793, the [[Law of Suspects]] passed on 17 September 1793 and the [[Law of the General Maximum]] passed on 29 September 1793. The broad and centralized powers of the committee were codified by the [[Law of 14 Frimaire]] (also known as the Law of Revolutionary Government) on 4 December 1793.{{Citation needed|date=September 2017}}

==== Execution of the Hébertists and Dantonists ====
On 5 December 1793, journalist [[Camille Desmoulins]] began publishing ''[[Le Vieux Cordelier]]'' with the approval of Robespierre and the Committee''.<ref name="Furet141">{{harvp|Furet|1992|p=141}}.</ref>'' This newspaper was initially aimed against the ultrarevolutionary [[Hébertist]] faction, whose extremist demands, anti-religious fervor and propensity for sudden insurrections troubled 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.{{citation needed|date=September 2017}}

Consequently, though the Hébertists were arrested and executed in March 1794, the Committees had Desmoulins and Danton arrested as well. [[Herault de sechelles|Hérault de Séchelles]], a friend and ally of Danton, was expelled from the Committee of Public Safety, arrested and tried alongside them. On 5 April 1794, the Dantonists went to the guillotine.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ucumberlands.edu/downloads/academics/history/vol6/AaronPurcell94.html|title=Danton Versus Robespierre: The Quest for Revolutionary Power|website=ucumberlands.edu|access-date=20 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170908221348/http://www.ucumberlands.edu/downloads/academics/history/vol6/AaronPurcell94.html|archive-date=8 September 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Committee of rule ===
[[File:Louis Boilly Robespierre.jpg|thumb|[[Maximilien Robespierre]], member of the Committee of Public Safety]]

The elimination of the Hébertists and the Dantonists made evident the strength of the Committees to control and silence opposition. The creation in March 1794 of a General Police Bureau—reporting nominally to the Committee of Public Safety—served to increase the power of the Committee of Public Safety.

However, even as the period later known as the 'Terror' reached its height and with it the committee's political power, discord was growing within the revolutionary government. Members of the Committee of General Security resented the aggressive behavior of the Committee of Public Safety and particularly the encroachment of the General Police Bureau upon their own brief.<ref name="Scurr331">{{harvp|Scurr|2006|p=331}}.</ref> 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.<ref name="Scurr340">{{harvp|Scurr|2006|p=340}}.</ref> On 21 May 1794 the revolutionary government decided that the judicial system would be centralised, with almost all 
the [[revolutionary Tribunal|tribunals]] in the provinces closed and all the capital trials held in Paris.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=9lWNCwAAQBAJ&dq=government+decided+that+the+Terror+would+be+centralised&pg=PR14-IA87 The French Revolution: From Enlightenment to Tyranny by Ian Davidson, p. xiv]</ref>

The [[Law of 22 Prairial]], proposed by the committee and enacted by the convention on 10 June 1794, went further in establishing the control of the Revolutionary Tribunal and above it the Convention and Committees of Public Safety and General Security. The law enumerated various forms of public enemies, required their denunciation, and severely limited the legal recourse available to those accused. The punishment for all crimes covered under this law was death; from its inception to its removal, more people were condemned to death in Paris than in the entire previous history of the Revolutionary Tribunal.<ref name="Scurr328">{{harvp|Scurr|2006|p=328}}.</ref> However, this statistic is accentuated by the fact that, as noted previously, all capital trials and sentences were carried out in Paris rather than being scattered across the provinces.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hazan |first=Eric |title=A People's History of the French Revolution |date=2014 |publisher=Verso |location=Paris, France |pages=384}}</ref>

Robespierre, a fervent supporter of the theistic [[Cult of the Supreme Being]], found himself frequently in conflict with anti-religious Committee members [[Collot d'Herbois]] and [[Billaud-Varenne]]. Moreover, Robespierre's increasingly extensive absences from the Committee due to illness (he all but ceased to attend meetings in June 1794) created the impression among some members that he was isolated and out of touch. [[Charlotte Robespierre]] reported in her memoirs that Robespierre had come into conflict with several of the representatives on mission due to their excessive use of violence, which likely also led to the unity of the Committee devolving.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Robespierre |first=Charlotte |title=Memoirs of Charlotte Robespierre |pages=Ch. 5}}</ref>

=== Fall of the Committee and aftermath ===
[[File:Comité-salut-public.JPG|thumb|Comité de Salut public, An II]]

When it became suspected in mid-July 1794 that Robespierre and Saint-Just were planning to strike against their political opponents [[Joseph Fouché]], [[Jean-Lambert Tallien]] and [[Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier]] (the latter two 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 [[Bertrand Barère]] attempted to keep the peace between the Committees of Public Safety and General Security. However, Robespierre delivered a speech to the National Convention on 26 July 1794 in which he emphasized the need to "purify" the Committees and "crush all factions".<ref name="Madelin418">{{harvp|Madelin|1916|p=418}}.</ref> 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.

On the following day, 27 July 1794 ([[9 Thermidor]] according to the [[French Republican calendar|Republican calendar]]), Saint-Just began to speak before the Convention. <!-- deleted "perhaps planning to denounce Collot, BV, and other members of the CSP" (paraphrased) because we have record of the speech he tried to give and it was not about that. -->However, he was almost immediately interrupted by Tallien and by Billaud-Varenne, who accused him of intending to "murder the Convention".<ref name="Madelin422">{{harvp|Madelin|1916|p=422}}.</ref> Barère, Vadier and [[Stanislas Fréron]] joined the accusations against Saint-Just and Robespierre. The Convention ordered the arrest of Robespierre, his brother [[Augustin Robespierre|Augustin]], and Saint-Just, along with that of their supporters, including [[Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas|Philippe Le Bas]] and [[Georges Couthon]].

A period of intense civil unrest ensued, during which the members of the Committees of Public Safety and General Security were forced to seek refuge in the convention. The Robespierre brothers, Saint-Just, Le Bas and Couthon ensconced themselves in the {{lang|fr|[[Hôtel de Ville, Paris|Hôtel de Ville]]|italic=no}}, attempting to incite an insurrection. Ultimately, faced with defeat and arrest, Le Bas committed suicide, while Saint-Just, Couthon, and Maximilien and Augustin Robespierre were arrested and guillotined on 28 July 1794.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.loyno.edu/~history/journal/1983-4/mcletchie.htm|title=Maximilien Robespierre, Master of the Terror|website=loyno.edu|access-date=20 September 2017}}</ref>

The ensuing period of upheaval, dubbed the [[Thermidorian Reaction]], saw the repeal of many of the previous year's most unpopular laws and the restriction of the Committees of General Security and Public Safety. The Committees ceased to exist under the [[Constitution of the Year III]] (1795), which marked the beginning of the [[French Directory|Directory]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2017}}