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Georges August Couthon
Georges August Couthon

Georges Auguste Couthon (December 22, 1755 - July 28, 1794) was a French politician and lawyer of the Revolutionary period. Events 1790 - The Turkish fortress of Izmail is stormed and captured by Suvorov and his Russian armies Year 1755 ( MDCCLV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or Events 1540 - Thomas Cromwell is executed at the order of Henry VIII of England on charges of Treason. Year 1794 ( MDCCXCIV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. The French Revolution (1789–1799 was a period of political and social upheaval in the History of France, during which the French governmental structure previously an

Contents

Biography

Deputy

He travelled to Paris in order to fulfill his duty as a deputy to the Legislative Assembly, and immediately joined the Jacobin Club of Paris. During the French Revolution, the Legislative Assembly was the legislature of France from October 1 1791 to September 1792. He chose to sit on the Left at the first meeting of the Assembly, but soon decided against associating himself with such radicals as he feared they were "shocking the majority. "[1] He was a very proficient speaker, and there is evidence that he exploited his infirmity in order to gain the ear of the Assembly on certain issues.

In September 1792 Couthon was elected to the National Convention, and during a visit to Flanders, where he was treating his health, he met and befriended Charles François Dumouriez. Year 1792 ( MDCCXCII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year During the French Revolution, the National Convention or Convention, in France, comprised the Constitutional and legislative assembly Nord (North is a department in the far north of France. It is the country's most populated department Charles François Dumouriez ( January 25, 1739 &ndash March 14, 1823) was a French general of the French Revolutionary Wars At the trial of the king he voted for the death sentence without appeal. Capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the Killing of a person by judicial process as Punishment. In Law, an appeal is a process for requesting a formal change to an official decision He hesitated for a time as to which party he should join, but finally decided for The Mountain and the inner group formed around Maximilien Robespierre - with whom he shared many opinions, especially on religious issues such as revolutionary dechristianization (to which he was opposed- see Cult of the Supreme Being). The Mountain (in French La Montagne) refers in the context of the history of the French Revolution to a political group whose members called Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (maksimiljɛ̃ fʁɑ̃swa maʁi izidɔʁ də ʁɔbɛspjɛʁ ( 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) The Cult of the Supreme Being ( French: Culte de l'Être suprême) was a religion based on Deism devised by Maximilien Robespierre, intended to He was the first to demand the arrest of the proscribed Girondists. The Girondists (in French Girondins, and sometimes Brissotins or "Baguettes" were a political faction in France within the Legislative

Lyons

On May 30, 1793 he became a member of the Committee of Public Safety, and in August was sent as one of the commissioners of the Convention attached to the French Revolutionary Army before the anti-revolutionary Lyons. Events 1416 - The Council of Constance, called by the Emperor Sigismund a supporter of Antipope John XXIII burns Jerome of Prague following Year 1793 ( MDCCXCIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The Committee of Public Safety (Comité de salut public le Haut Comité de la santé publique which is an entirely unrelated present-day institution--> set up by the In the French Revolution, representatives-on-mission were deputies sent by the National Convention to the provinces of France in 1793 The French Revolutionary Army is the term used to refer to the military of France during the period between the fall of the Ancien regime under Louis Wishing to accelerate the progress of the besieging force, he decreed a levée en masse in the département of Puy-de-Dôme, gathered an army of 60,000 men, and commanded them himself on the way to Lyon. Levée en masse (literally "Rise in (a Mass" is defined in Article 4 letter A paragraph 6 of the Third Geneva Convention. In the context of the political and geographic organization of France and many of its former colonies a department (département depaʁtǝmɑ̃ is an Administrative division

When the city was taken, on October 9, 1793, although the Convention demanded its complete destruction, Couthon did not carry out the decree to its full extent. Events 768 - Carloman I and Charlemagne are crowned Kings of The Franks. Year 1793 ( MDCCXCIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common He ordered only a dozen or so of the richest houses be destroyed, and showed moderation in the punishment of the rebels, generally only executing the leaders. The Republican atrocities began after Couthon was replaced, on November 3, 1793, by Jean Marie Collot d'Herbois. The First Republic in France, officially the French Republic (République française was proclaimed on 21 September 1792 during the French Revolution. Events 644 - Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Muslim Caliph, is killed by a Persian slave in Medina. Year 1793 ( MDCCXCIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois ( June 19, 1749 &ndash January 8, 1796) was a French actor dramatist essayist and revolutionary

Leadership of the Convention and Thermidor

Couthon returned to Paris, and on December 21 was elected president of the Convention. Events 69 - The end of the Year of the four emperors: Following Galba, Otho and Vitellius, Vespasian He contributed to the prosecution of the Hébertists, and was responsible for the Law of 22 Prairial, which in the case of trials before the Revolutionary Tribunal deprived the accused of the aid of counsel or of witnesses for their defence, on the pretext of shortening the proceedings. The Hébertists were the partisans of Jacques Hébert, the radical revolutionary journalist in the Legislative Assembly and National Convention during The Law of 22 Prairial, also known as the loi de la Grande Terreur, the law of the Reign of Terror, was enacted on June 10 1794 (22 Prairial The Revolutionary Tribunal (Tribunal révolutionnaire was a Court which was instituted in Paris by the Convention during the French Revolution

During the crisis preceding the Thermidorian Reaction, Couthon showed considerable courage, giving up a journey to Auvergne in order, as he wrote, that he might either die or triumph with Robespierre and liberty. The Thermidorian Reaction was a revolt in the French Revolution against the excesses of the Reign of Terror. Robespierre had disappeared from the political arena for an entire month because of a supposed nervous breakdown, and therefore did not realize the situation in the Convention had changed. His last speech seemed to indicate that another purge of the Convention was necessary, though he refused to name names. In a panic of self-preservation, the Convention called for the arrest of Robespierre and his affiliates, including Couthon, Saint-Just and his own brother, Augustin Robespierre. [2] Couthon was guillotined on 10 Thermidor alongside Robespierre, although it took the executioner fifteen minutes (amidst screams of pain from prisoner) to arrange him on the board correctly due to his paralysis. The guillotine ( pronounced /ˈgijətin/ or /ˈgɪlətin/ in English in French was a device used for carrying out executions by Decapitation. [3]

Legacy

Because of his paralysis, Couthon was not able to go on many missions for the Revolution, as much as he would have enjoyed bringing Revolutionary justice down upon the heads of the counter-revolutionary rebels. He was therefore almost always in Paris, becoming an anchor for the Committee of Public Safety along with Robespierre and Saint-Just. Although the extraordinary measures taken by the Committee of Public Safety seem radical and at some times excessive, they do not in fact seem so when viewed through the eyes of revolutionaries themselves. Through Couthon's almost constant correspondence, one is able to understand that to these men, the actions taken were necessary for the survival of the Revolution. It was seen (and rightly so) that the Revolution was hanging on a delicate thread constantly being frayed by external forces (mainly invasion and war with Austria and Prussia) as well as internal threats (Federalist and Vendéean Rebellions). The persistent and relentless circulation of conspiracies, so popular during this time, did not help matters.

The executions of alleged counter-revolutionaries was certainly nothing new, and seemed absolutely necessary at the time of these crises. Execution by guillotine was, in fact, viewed as humane (when compared to the methods employed by the French monarchy) and was seen as rendering every man equal in death. However, time passed and the internal and external threats were eventually suppressed. Yet more and more possibly innocent people charged on flimsy evidence were being executed, and many began to see this radical government as unnecessary and in fact tyrannous. In the end, the "National Razor" (as the guillotine was so aptly called) ended up eradicating the very ones who had put it to such frequent use.

Unfortunately, the Terror did not stop with the execution of Robespierre and his triumverate of Couthon and Saint-Just. France, still in disarray and confusion, continued the executions and even went into a stage of reaction against the virtue held so dear to the heart of Robespierre and revolutionaries. What was once scorned (silk stockings and short pants called cullotes) was now being paraded by prisoners set free from the prisons of Paris. It was in these times that a prominent general would come to the fore and create one the mightiest armies Europe had seen at that time: Napoleon Bonaparte.

References

  1. ^ Bruun, Geoffrey. “The Evolution of a Terrorist: Georges Auguste Couthon. ” Journal of Modern History 2, no. 3 (1930), http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00222801%28193009%292%3A3 %3C410%3ATEOATG%3E2. 0. CO%3B2-9.
  2. ^ Jones, Colin. The Longman Companion to the French Revolution. London: Longman Publishing Group, 1990.
  3. ^ Lenotre, G. Romances of the French Revolution. Translated by George Frederic William Lees. New York: William Heinemann: 1909.

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