Editing Committee of Public Safety (section)

=== 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}}