Editing Committee of Public Safety (section)

=== 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>