The Committee of Public Safety Revolutionary France: 1793-1794

University of North Carolina Model United Nations Conference (UNCMUNC) 2014 Carolina International Relations Association  

             

Carolina  International  Relations  Association  

 

Welcome from the Committee Directors   Dear Delegates, Welcome to the University of North Carolina Model United Nations Conference! We look forward to what will be a very interesting time as Committee of Public Safety during the French Revolution. But first, we would like to introduce ourselves: Hello! My name is Brendan McBennett and I will be chairing the UNCMUNC 2014 French Revolution committee. I am a sophomore at UNC majoring in Economics and ironically German. Originally I am from Raleigh and this is my fourth year of Model UN since I started coming to UNC’s conferences as a delegate in high school. I am excited to chair the committee this weekend and look forward to meeting all of you and chilling at UNC over the weekend. If you have any questions about debate, the committee or fun stuff to do at UNC, feel free to reach out before the conference starts. Hi everyone! My name is Cecilia Smetana and I am so excited to be your Cochair for the French Revolution committee at UNCMUNC 2014. I am a sophomore majoring in Global Studies and Communications, and minoring in Arabic. I was born in Florida, but have spent the past fifteen years of my life in North Carolina. This is my first year being involved in a Model United Nations conference, so if any of you are also beginners at this you are not alone! I am excited to be working with you all on what will hopefully be a successful and entertaining committee, and I look forward to getting you know you better throughout the weekend! Hi everyone! My name is Neil Davis, and I’m thrilled to be the Crisis Director for

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the French Revolution committee at UNC MUNC 2014. I’m a freshman here originally from Connecticut, but I moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina over the summer. I used to be the Vice President of the Model United Nations at my high school and attended MUN conferences at Dartmouth College and Fairfield University. I’m looking forward to what we believe will be a very entertaining committee! During the session, we want it to be a more liberal committee. By that, we mean we don’t want to restrict you all in how you want to control the course of the discussion, as long as it remains in the time period. We don’t want to see people trying to develop nuclear technology in the 18th century, for instance. Otherwise, this is your world, a world that shapes itself because of your decisions. We strongly support this freedom, and hope that you will have a lot of fun influencing Revolutionary France. With that, we can’t wait for this conference to start! Vive La France! Sincerely, Brendan McBennett [email protected] Cecilia Smetana [email protected] Neil Davis [email protected]

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Table of Contents History………………………………………………………………………………….……………………………………....5 Economics..…………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………….10 Military...……………………………………………………………………………….……………………………………..12 Religion...………………………………………………………………………….….……….…………………………….17 Law….……………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………..19 Foreign Policy…...………………………………………………………………………………………………………..20 Internal Politics..….……………………………………………………………………………………………………..22 Character Biographies.………………………………………………….……………………………………………..26 Committee Description and Advice from our Chair and Co-Chair ………………………………33 Advice from our Crisis Director………………………………………..………………………………………….35

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History Over the first three quarters of the 18th century, France fought wars with Russia, Prussia, and Great Britain. After fighting in these wars, France ended up losing Canada and establishments in India as well as gaining a significant debt. Upon seeing that British colonists in North America had declared independence in 1776, France decided to help the colonists as a form of revenge against the British. The prospective gains in trade and territory seemed appealing at the time, but after the colonists gained complete independence, they still kept close political and economic ties with the British, leaving France without any gains in territory or trade. This left France in continued debt and functioning merely on borrowed money. As the King’s regime retained control over France’s finances, the revolution was in part a means to free the tax money from being used to pay off debt by rejecting the obligations of the old regime. The French Revolution began with the first Assembly of Notables. The beginning of the assembly threatened the end of the monarchy. Lomenie de Brienne was then appointed Director General of Finances due to Charles Alexandre de Calonne’s failures and tried to solve the financial crisis and plan for a meeting of the Estates-General. The Estates-General was a three part body of representatives: the clergy known as the First Estate, the nobility, known as the Second Estate, and the rest of French society, known as the Third Estate. After de Brienne’s failure to come to a solution for the crisis, Jacques Necker replaced him as Director General of Finances. As resolutions were being contemplated, France continued to suffer through famine and financial difficulties, and the meeting of the Estates General was set to 4    

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convene in 1789. By the end of 1788, payments from the Treasury were suspended, and the population of the Third Estate was doubled, making France the most populated country in Europe. In 1789, the Estates General convened, but even though the Third Estate was allowed more representation due to its large population, the Parliament of Paris invoked an archaic rule stating that each estate may only be granted one vote. Due to this rule, the First and Second Estates were able to overrule the Third Estate, leading to growing resentment toward nobility and clergy, as well as the church and monarchy as a whole. The Third Estate consisted of people from a wide variety of socioeconomic statuses, from laborers to near-nobility, making a universally acceptable solution impossible. Disagreements amongst the masses persisted until Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès wrote the pamphlet entitled, “What is the Third Estate?” The pamphlet gave the Third Estate confidence that using their large size they could fight for their rights. On June 17, the Third Estate broke away from the Estates General and created the National Assembly. They also gave themselves the right of taxation. By creating the National Assembly, they established national sovereignty, disqualifying the legitimacy of the monarchy. Originally, the Third Estate had only been looking for less taxation and more liberty; however, the lack of acknowledgement from the First and Second Estates spurred a revolution. On June 20, the National Assembly took the Tennis Court Oath, vowing not to disperse until a constitution had been written. Based off of the American Bill of Rights, the new Declaration of Rights encompassed two principles: that men are born free with equal rights and that the state exists to preserve citizens’ rights. The Declaration lacked many important

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concepts, including economic freedom and the rights of assembly and petition, but it was a very liberal document for France at the time. A constitution was finished in 1791, which filled the gaps left by the Declaration of Rights. On June 27, King Louis XVI ordered the clergy and the nobles to join the National Assembly, but soon after, the king increased the number of mercenaries outside Paris in fear of the Third Estate. The increase of soldiers angered the people further and led to growing civil unrest. On July 7, the National Assembly ratified and implemented the constitution. On July 11, the king dismissed Jacques Necker, which was taken none too kindly due to the people’s confidence in Necker. On July 14, 1789, the Bastille prison fell and its weapons were taken. The people demanded that the gunpowder in the prison be surrendered, only to have guards fire upon them. It is estimated that around 100 people died. On July 16, Necker was reinstated due to pressure from the National Assembly. On July 20, the Great Fear broke out in the countryside, leading to peasants violently rising up against landlords for weeks. The name came from the peasants’ fear of retaliation from the nobility. On August 4, feudalism, venality, and privileges were abolished and on August 26, the Declaration of Rights was published. The Women’s March upon Versailles, October 5 to 6, ended with the forced movement of the royal family from Versailles to Paris and a declaration by the National Assembly of inseparability from the king, whose power was greatly diminished. On November 2, church property was nationalized in order to solve and stabilize the financial crisis. The clergy was dissatisfied with nationalization of church property, its lack of voice and the increasing separation of church and state. On December 9 the National Assembly voted to dissolve traditional provincial boundaries, laying the way for a new

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system of revolutionary departments or states. On December 19, treasury notes, based on the value of church property, started to replace paper money, but these treasury notes were unfortunately continually devalued. 1790 was a critical year for the revolution. On February 13, religious orders were abolished. Members of the clergy who wished to live a secular life were given a pension while others were sent to monasteries. The abolishment resulted from overwhelming disapproval of decadent monastic life. Charity and teaching orders were not abolished, but the banning of religious orders set up obstacles to new members from entering the clergy. On June 19, aristocratic titles were abolished. On July 12, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy was passed. This constitution stated that all church officers were to be elected like civil servants, which indicated the establishment of the Gallican Catholic Church. July 14 marked the first anniversary of the Revolution. In October, the king, unhappy with the revolution, secretly tried to converse with foreign powers find a means to end it. On November 27, all public officials were required to swear an oath of loyalty to the New France. In 1791, the people started to realize that the structure set by the National Assembly was not stable. The policies that were put in place to foster the equality of the people were also ruined employment opportunities and weakened all of the Estates. The democrats were starting to gain strength as other factions weakened and people began protesting against the lack of minimum wage. The printers began to strike, which gave others the motivation to do so. The democrats continually tried to get their voices heard in order to gain more electoral equality and state power. Le Chapelier was afraid of this happening and took measures into his own hands by

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banning trade unions, assuming that the king would stand by him; however, the king did not. On June 20, the King fled to Varennes in hopes of gaining foreign support. In fear of war, the National Assembly broke all treaties between France and the rest of Europe. On August 27, Austria and Prussia issued the Declaration of Pillnitz, intended to warn revolutionaries. Austria and Prussia wanted the reinstatement of the monarchy, worrying about king and the effect the Revolution would have on their own citizens. On September 14, the king approved the National Assembly’s constitution, which established a constitutional monarchy. The constitution placed most of the control in the grasp of the middle class. Within the Legislative Assembly, put in place to keep the king and his ministers in check, there were two divisions. The Jacobins wanted to do away with the constitutional monarchy and have France be a republic, while the Girondins wanted the constitutional monarchy to remain and were more sympathetic towards the king. With tensions between the two factions rising, the sans-culottes, a group of poor French people seeking the end of nobility and privilege, started gaining power. In 1792, tensions that had started building in 1791 reached their peaks. On April 20, the Legislative Assembly, intimidated by the Declaration of Pillnitz, declared war against Austria under the influence of Brissot, the Girondin leader. Austria and Prussia were prepared for war and already had troops ready. The French army was unprepared, and after a humiliating defeat, the king dismissed Brissot from his position. On August 10, a mob of Jacobins and sans-culottes stormed Tuileries and captured the king and his family. In doing so, they brutally massacred hundreds of the Swiss Guard mercenaries who were tasked with the protection of the monarch. Then

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on September 2, they killed prisoners because of talk of counterrevolutionaries in the prisons. After these events, the French realized what the sans-culottes were capable of and how dangerous they could be. The issue drew attention to the Legislative Assembly’s own shortcomings and mistakes: going to war without an organized army, factionalism, and inability to keep public order in Paris. On September 22, delegates for a National Convention were elected to rule the country. Their first effort was to abolish the monarchy, and from then on, France was a republic. In 1793, the National Convention’s next effort was to execute King Louis XVI. However the execution did not eliminate France’s internal and external threats. Austria and Prussia were pressing onto French land, and the peasants were not fit to fight as an army. On April 6, the National Convention created the Committee of Public Safety to protect France from the threats. At this point, France’s economic, military, and religious standing was in jeopardy, and its politics and foreign policy were affecting its economy.

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Economics France in the 18th century was an important economic player in Europe. Its population in 1787 exceeded 28 million, it was second in world trade to only Britain, and it had high levels of land under cultivation, industrialization and GNP. Despite solid economic potential, the French government in the late 18th century was consistently short on money. Both King Louis XVI and his predecessor, Louis XV, spent lavishly, financing the building of the palace of Versailles. France took out foreign loans to fund the American Revolution and the Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War) and racked up a large national debt. Maintaining the army and navy came at considerable cost, and by the end of the American Revolution, France found its international credit abysmal. By 1789, an estimated 50% of France’s state expenditures were devoted solely to servicing debt obligations. In addition, the France’s rigid class structure, limited bureaucratic positions to the upper classes, made the collection of taxes difficult and non-progressive. The First and Second Estates were exempt from direct taxation, and thus any attempt to raise taxes led to an unfair shifting of tax burdens onto the peasants. France under King Louis used a system of tax-farming, where the right to collect taxes was contracted out to private collectors, making it vulnerable to rampant abuse. Peasants were required to pay a 10% tithe to the church, a 5% property tax, taxes on their land and the number of people in their family, plus taxes to their individual nobles for use of their land and amenities. Since farmers around Paris ate around 80% of what they grew, any shortage of harvest would leave people hungry. A hailstorm in 1788 destroyed crops, leading to France’s worst harvest in forty years. The scarcity of 10    

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bread drove its price up, and in the harsh winter of 1788-89, these conditions led people to riot. Clergy and nobles were exempt, for the most part, from all of these taxes, and used their positions of power to maintain their status at all costs. This left finance ministers with a disaster: an empty treasury, no international credit to take out more loans, and the only choices for taxation being the already-starved and overworked peasants or the obstinate and unyielding nobility and clergy. Several finance ministers, notably Turgot and Necker, attempted to reform the financial system to no avail. In an attempt to mitigate this financial damage, Louis XVI appointed Charles de Calonne as controller general of finances. Finding the financial systems in disrepair, Calonne called a meeting (the Assembly of Notables), and attempted to persuade the nobility to agree to across-the-board tax increases, a plan that failed completely and led to his dismissal from his position. Necker, after continuing to press for taxation on the clergy and nobility, would also be dismissed, to widespread popular outrage. These decisions of Louis and his counselors to fire the most ardent financial reformers created widespread conspiracy theories that they were in fact deliberately overtaxing and starving the peasantry in order to increase their personal authority. Although the most crushing financial burden fell upon the peasantry, it was the bourgeoisie class that had the biggest influence in fomenting revolution. While they were, as a class, very wealthy, they had no titles of nobility, leaving them subject to the same taxes as the peasantry. As vocal critics of the monarchy and its failed economic policies, the bourgeoisie began a movement that soon had the overtaxed peasants following.

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Military The military of the ancien regime was rooted in the well-trained and highly professional regular army and navy established by Louis XIV in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Louis XIV’s army had been the greatest in Europe, but the 75 years between his death and the outbreak of the Revolution experienced a decline of the French army. Between 1763 and 1789, as France’s financial crisis worsened, the army was dramatically reduced in size to reduce expenditures. Upon the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789, the army consisted of at most 156,000 men. They were organized into 104 “line” infantry regimens, 12 light infantry regiments, 25 cavalry regiments, and 7 artillery regiments (one regiment is roughly 1,000 men). The French Navy, meanwhile, consisted of 71 ships of the line, 64 frigates, 45 corvettes, and 14,000 marines, based mainly at the ports of Brest, Toulon, and Rouchefort. As with other European armies during this period, the ranks of the French royal army featured a clear dichotomy between officers and enlisted soldiers. The officer ranks were filled with aristocratic young men who bought their commissions and promotions; thus, companies were “owned” by their captains and regiments by their colonels. Enlisted men, on the other hand, were drawn from the lowest categories of society. They were not conscripted but rather “volunteered,” albeit often only after a considerable degree of manipulation and coercion, involving enlistment bonuses, alcohol, and sometimes outright kidnapping. From the beginning of the Revolution, the King’s authority over the military began to dissolve. During the various riots, soldiers often deserted their posts to join the rioters; even members of the King’s elite guard regiment joined the mob during 12    

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the storming of the Bastille. In the summer of 1790, the army was “rocked by a wave of troop mutinies that shattered the officers’ authority,” (Blaufarb, 75) caused by grievances over withheld pay and general agitations against the officers’ authority. Many mutineers even formed their own revolutionary committees. The National Assembly stemmed the tide of mutiny through a combination of recognizing the soldiers’ grievances and suppressing further mutinies. Yet the officers’ authority again came under attack in 1791, when they were forced to swear a new public oath to the King and State. With the King’s attempt to flee in June 1791, many officers began to resign or leave the country, leading to further doubts of their authority and a new wave of mutinies. Many of the émigrés who fled began to organize into a counterrevolutionary army in Austria. Eventually, between one and two-thirds of the officer corps left their positions during the Revolution. At the same time, the Assembly and later the Convention began to rapidly expand the army. Throughout 1791, calls for National Guard volunteers and drafts raised the size of the army to 220,000 men by the outbreak of war in 1792. By 1793, this figure had expanded to 300,000 men (roughly 300 regiments). Powers established by the Convention to appoint new officers also helped replace the officers lost to resignation and emigration. The Convention or the Committee of Public Safety has not yet, however, instituted a common universal draft into the army. Moreover, the navy has largely been neglected since the outbreak of the Revolution. The Convention dissolved the Fleet Gunners’ Corps, causing training in naval gunnery to effectively cease, and has generally ignored the technical and logistical investments required to maintain the navy.

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In 1791, foreign powers began to threaten intervention, seeking to maintain some vestige of Louis XVI’s authority. In August 1791, King Freidrich Wilhelm II of Prussia and the Emperor Leopold II of Austria issued the joint Pillnitz Declaration, pledging action against France if the King and Queen’s safety was endangered. This declaration, however, only served to further erode Louis’ position and increase the Assembly’s desire for war, as it suggested that he was assembling a coalition of foreign powers to reverse the Revolution. Prussia and Austria then concluded a formal alliance in February 1792. Finally, Jacobins and Girondin, led by Brissot and the new Foreign Minister Charles Dumouriez, were able to convince the Assembly to declare war on Austria on April 20, 1792. Prussia responded by declaring war on France. The desire to spread Republican liberty to Europe through force of arms played a much of a role in this decision, as did the desire to defend against AustroPrussian aggression. The French forces were divided between three fronts: the Alsace in the south, the Marne in the center, and the Belgian frontier (then the Austrian Netherlands) in the north. Yet the army, still suffering from the breakdown of order from the mutinies and the new levies in the National Guard not yet fully integrated with the old line army, proved unprepared for war. French forces advanced into Belgian but were defeated by the Austrians at Tournai, leading to the murder of the defeated general by a mob. The Prussian army crossed the Rhine and captured the fortress of Verdun in August, and prepared to advance on Paris, but were defeated by the French army under the command of Dumouriez at Valmy on September 10 and forced to retreat across the Rhine, a victory that served as a turning point for the Revolution.

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Dumouriez proceeded to lead a new invasion of Belgium and win the battle of Jemmapes, capturing Brussels on November 8. After the execution of Louis XVI in January 1793, the war vastly expanded, with Spain and Naples joining the “First Coalition” against France and the Assembly declaring war on the United Kingdom and the Dutch Republic on February 1. Dumouriez invaded the Netherlands, but was forced to withdraw after being defeated by an Austrian force at Neerwinden in March. After attempting to convince his defeated forces to join the Coalition in a march on Paris, Dumouriez fled to the Austrian lines. The Austrians, with British support, have since laid siege to the city of Valenciennes on the Belgian border. 25,000 enemy troops are engaged in the siege, while an additional 30,000 are in the theatre. The new members of the Coalition have also brought the war to new fronts: in April, a Spanish army crossed the eastern Pyrenees, and has since captured the fort of Bellegarde; while in May, the British Royal Navy initiated a blockade of France’s ports. Also in March 1793, domestic insurrection against the Revolution began in France, in the western Department of the Vendée. The uprising in this highly rural, traditional region was sparked by resentment against the draft and the new restrictions placed on the Clergy. The uprising began as hordes of armed peasants, which often massacred town-dwelling civilians who they perceived as friendly to the Revolution. Yet as arms depots were captured, the rebels quickly formed themselves into the “Grand Royal and Catholic Army.” Over 45,000 troops were deployed to the Vendée by the end of March, yet have so far only suffered a defeat, after a column of 2,000 men was ambushed by a larger rebel force.

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Most recently, another insurrectionary movement has taken hold of many of the major commercial cities of France. On May 29, the same day as the arrest of the leading Girondin in Paris, “moderate” politicians and citizens with the support of the National Guard stormed the city hall of Lyon, France’s second-largest city, and arrested Joseph Chalier, the local Jacobin administrator. Similarly, anti-Jacobin uprisings occurred in May and June in the western port city of Bordeaux and the southern port cities of Toulon and Marseille. An uprising may also be brewing in Caen on the northwest coast. These rebels dub themselves the “federalists,” consisting largely of Girondin and alienated Jacobins who oppose the increasingly authoritarian and anti-free market behavior of the Convention and the Committee of Public Safety in Paris.

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Religion When the French Revolution broke out in 1789, Catholicism was the official religion of France. However, over the course of the Revolution there was a sharp decline in Catholic practice. In the eighteenth century, philosophers and intellectuals of the Enlightenment heavily criticized the Church. While many religious ideas and beliefs still remained in play, the Church itself was under attack for its influence and power. Most of these philosophers and intellectuals wanted reform, but their criticism led to growing outrage and dissatisfaction among commoners. There was also the matter of trust. Many people felt they were being lied to and cheated due to the many scandals involving the Church and members of the clergy. These scandals often involved financial corruption. To meet these concerns, the Revolutionary governments took radical steps to limit the power of the clergy. From late 1789 to early 1790, the Assembly nationalized all church property; this did not result in immediate confiscation, but it placed it under the state’s purview for tax purposes and potential use. Later in 1790, the Assembly passed a law known as the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which formally placed the clergy under the authority of the state. The most publicly controversial provision of this law was a requirement for all clergy to swear an oath of loyalty to the state, which many saw as subversive to their religious duties. Those clergy that refused to swear the oath were known as “refractory” clergy, and while they were officially forbidden to preach and replaced, many continued to maintain their congregations in secret. These provisions have led to immense resistance from France’s most pious Catholics, particularly peasants from rural departments, and is a 17    

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major cause of the current revolt in the Vendee. Additionally, the faith of Christianity has been directly challenged by quasi-religions such as Deism (belief in an abstract god in the form of natural law), and the Cult of Reason (effectively atheism), which have found popularity amongst the revolutionaries, particularly the Jacobins.

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Law The National Convention immediately enacted a number of radical legal and social reforms. For example, the revolutionaries wanted positions in the military and the government to be awarded based on merit and performance, rather than membership of the nobility as under Louis. This was important because previously only aristocrats could hold these kinds of positions. In addition, the Convention passed many new laws, designed to make the political system more progressive with a vision of a near complete revision of French society. They created holidays and remade the calendar into sets of ten-day weeks. It abolished many of the privileges of the wealthy and in place, pursued an agenda of equal citizenship for all. On August 26,1789, the National Assembly issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen which provided general statement of the revolution’s goals and values. The declaration, which was influenced by the Enlightenment ideals of the time, spoke for the natural rights of all human beings. Provisions included declaring all citizens equal before the law and making marriage a civil contract. A majority of the new laws introduced during this time period went about empowering the public and redefining the status of individuals and the land they lived on.

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Foreign Policy Beginning in 1792, the French revolution and other revolutionary wars at the time caused an imbalance of power among the European nations. After the beginning of the French Revolution, France experienced a “revival” of rivalries with Austria and Great Britain, creating the desire to expand its power to include the “second and third powers of Western Europe.” This expansion was not to establish an empire, as Napoleon would do several years later, but to create a series of republics, called the Sister Republics. France had long sought hegemony in Western Europe, fighting long wars under Louis XIV to expand its borders. With the new conquests of the revolution, France was able to create its first “Sister Republic”—the Batavian Republic in the United Provinces (the Netherlands) and the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium). The potential exists for the creation of additional Sister Republics in Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and even further afield. Many revolutionaries argue that French rule is needed to reconstitute these territories on a republican model. This focus on expansionism often takes precedence over the internal domestic affairs of France. However, the recent attempts at expansion have proved no easy task. France has met much resistance, and is presently at war with Austria, Prussia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Thus, there is also a more dire need to create Sister Republics: protection. These territories are needed serve as “buffers” from the armies of other nations, and to provide financial support for France’s own military efforts. It is hoped that potential new conquests will drive France’s enemies away from its borders and out of Western Europe. In all, France’s foreign policy war simultaneously defensive and offensive or 20    

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even “exploitive” during the early revolutionary period. It specifically created republics and made its allies for military purposes, to impede invading forces and support its own military regime. Although France focused on expanding and protecting its power and ideals, it in turn ignored some of the domestic issues at the time. Revolutionary France was obtaining strength on the outside, but also crumbling on the inside.

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Internal Politics King Louis XVI attempted to confront his massive national debt imposing a land tax that all French citizens would be subject to. To garner support for this proposition, Louis XVI assembled the Estates General, made up of representatives of all socioeconomic classes. His decision came to haunt him by making clear that the aristocratic individuals could still outvote the middle and lower classes, which constituted 98% of the total population. While there was considerable support for legal reform, many individuals with monopolies on power were reluctant to give up their dominant position. This increased resentment of the upper class and resulted in the Tennis Court Oath in which those of the middle and lower class pledged to realize constitutional changes. The King eventually agreed to their demands, but tensions continued to rise given rumors of a military coup. Interestingly the same leftists who forced the King’s hand found themselves denounced as moderates by 1791-1792. Tensions climaxed with the run on the Bastille fortress by rioters, which marked the beginning of the revolution. This uprising inspired peasants and the agrarian poor throughout France to respond similarly. Critical mass had been achieved and the relatively wealthy bourgeoisie who led the Tennis Court Oath could count on backing from lower classes which made up the vast majority of the population. Again, pressure from rioters and the occupation of the King’s residence at Versailles forced him to make concessions and succumb to the terms of the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen which replaced the current ruling power with a bureaucracy established in liberal democratic ideals, including freedom of speech, equality, and a ruling group based on representation. 22    

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However, the final constitution was a much more conservative arrangement, giving the King royal veto power as well as the right to designate ministers. Radicals such as Maximilien de Robespierre, Camille Desmoulins and Georges Danton did not favor such an arrangement, and continued to rally for more radical change in government and the removal of Louis XVI. Promoters of the original constitution, such as the National Assembly and Commune of Paris now found themselves the centerpieces of revolt and turmoil and subject to accusations of a new group of revolutionaries. It was in this time that the expression “the Revolution eats its own children” was developed. In 1791, Louis XVI tried unsuccessfully to flee France giving radicals ammunition to push for a national referendum and the replacement of the National Assembly with a Convention that would have the power to remove the King. By this time the Sans Culottes and Paris Commune were becoming in essence radical paramilitary groups capable of driving the Revolution forward and challenging the authority of elected politicians. Turmoil continued with the attack of the Paris National Guard on those in favor of a French republic and the eventual the arrest of Louis XVI and the royal family, his trial and execution. Parisian politics by the summer of 1793 were very complicated and what are briefs on three important political bodies and a detailed discussion of the two factions in the Convention, Girondists and Montagards. Sans Culottes: Associated with low class laborer revolutionaries. Often soldiers, many politicians claimed to speak for the Sans Culottes who had no such background. Jacobins: A group of intellectual revolutionary chapters originating in Paris and spreading throughout France. Good speakers rose through the Jacobin ranks and often became important political figures.

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  Paris Commune: The city government of Paris which has proved itself an effective mobilizer of people and a challenge at times to the national authority.

Convention politics are currently divided between two main factions or parties: the Girondists and the Montagnards or “The Mountain” (as they sat on the highest benches at the back of the Assembly/Convention). The Montagards were composed largely of Jacobins, and by the creation of the Committee of Public Safety the Montagnards and the Jacobins had become almost interchangeable. The Girondists have been labeled as right-wing and moderate, while Montagnards or Jacobins have been labeled as left-wing and radical. Although both groups were firmly republican and opposed to the monarchy, the Girondin were more accepting of the traditional elite, more supportive of a free market economy, and favored a dispersion of government authority (Federalism) while the Jacobin were often violently hostile towards old elites, more likely to support redistributionist economic policies that favored the lower classes, and defended a strong central government in Paris. A third faction worthy of mention is of course the royalists, but at this point in the revolution they have effectively been purged from the government and are a force of limited significance outside of the Vendee revolt. At the moment, however, the Jacobin are on the verge of overpowering the Girondin in the Convention and in Paris. The Committee of the Public Safety, largely a creation of the Jacobin and staffed largely by Jacobins, has proved a major step in this direction, although it remains yet to be seen how it will use its expanded powers. In May, the Girondin also severely damaged their credibility by arresting Marat and Herbert and trying Marat in front of the Revolutionary Tribunal, where the largelyJacobin panel acquitted him. Furthermore, the growing Federalist insurrection is 24    

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believed to have close ties to the Girondin leadership in Paris, and has contributed to the demise in their reputation. However, even if the Jacobin seize decisive control of the Convention, the Girondin may be able to rely on the support of the Federalist militias in other areas of France, and may potentially ally with the royalists in the Vendee or even foreign powers. The supporters of the Jacobin, on the other hand, are mainly concentrated amongst the urban mobs and militias of Paris, where their economic policies have won them loyal support.

For further reading: http://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/frenchrev/section1.rhtmlhttp://www .sparknotes.com/history/european/frenchrev/summary.html http://www.history.com/topics/french-revolution/page2 http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/chap4d.html

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Character Biographies Characters marked with a star are the 12 members of the Committee of Public Safety. Other characters are various powerful outside figures of the time. There will be no difference in power of committee and non-committee members. Pierre-Louis Prieur (called Prieur de la Marne), Representative of Marne* Pierre Louis Prieur, like many other members of the Committee was a lawyer turned politician. He helped organize the revolution in his home district of the Marne where he still serves a as judge, public prosecutor, and vice president of a criminal tribunal. His efforts got him elected to the Convention in 1792. In the next year, he served often as a “representative on mission.” He traveled widely, especially around the frontiers of France organizing defenses against foreign invasions, particularly at Chalons, Verdun and in the north to Brittany. His home district of the Marne, near the eastern frontier, served historically as a training ground for the military. By the time he was appointed to a seat on the Committee, he had become a close friend and supporter of Robespierre, and a loyal Jacobin who had firmly denounced the monarchy and the federalists. Prieur was also a lifelong Freemason.

Maximilien de Robespierre, representative of Paris* Maximilien de Robespierre was a member of the Committee of Public Safety during the Reign of Terror in France. He was very intelligent early on in life, learning how to read and write by the age of eight and attending the middle school of Arras in France. Robespierre received a scholarship from the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris and studied law there until the age of 23. After practicing law for several years and frequently working pro-bono for the poor, he was elected as a deputy of the Third Estate when the Estates General were convened, and was later elected to the Assembly and the Convention, where he became a leader of the Jacobin faction. Influenced by the philosophies of Rouessau, Robespierre believed that the people of France were fundamentally good and could govern and advance the nation through direct democracy. He saw advancing the virtue of the people and the nation as the duty of such as government. However, during his time at the Committee, Robespierre also believed it was just and necessary to use acts of terror on the population to curb counterrevolutionaries and maintain democracy.

Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac, representative of Hautes-Pyrénées* Bertrand Barere de Vieuzac was a journalist, lawyer, and politician who became a member of the Jacobin faction upon his appointment to the Committee of Public Safety. Before the revolution, he served as a lawyer in the parliament or local assembly of Toulouse, and published a small paper known as the Point du Jour. Although his family was part of France’s nobility, he was an ardent Republican given credibility because activity in the early efforts of the Revolution. He first served on the National Assembly, later on the Court of Cassation and the Constitution Committee and finally on the Committee of Public Safety. Shortly before his 26    

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  latest appointment, he voted for the King’s execution, closing his argument with the line “the tree of liberty grows only when watered by the blood of tyrants.” His department, HautesPyrenees, was in southwestern France on the border with Spain.

Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet, representative of Eure* Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet began his career as a lawyer and became known through his appointments to the positions of deputy to the Legislative Assembly, and later the Convention. Lindet was involved with the Girondists- a very powerful but increasingly moderate faction in the Convention. Lindet, however, grew closer to the Jacobins as he endorsed putting an end to the monarchy and he was not shy about advertising these sentiments, producing in 1792 a list of King Louis XVI’s supposed crimes and calling for his execution without appeal. Lindet was important in the formation of the Revolutionary Tribunal and a key figure in Commission of Twenty-One and the trial of Louis XVI. He claimed that his republican ideals and distrust of the monarchy represented the greater ideologies of the middle class population in France at the time.

Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot, representative of Pas-de-Calais* Lazare Nicholas Marguerite Carnot attended the College d’Autun as well as Mezieres School of Engineering, where he became acquainted with Benjamin Franklin. He is well known in the academic worlds of physics as well as mathematics. When he was twenty, he joined the Prince of Conde’s engineer corps as a lieutenant, where he continued to study mathematics. His expertise did not go unnoticed: in the same year that Carnot was awarded admission to a literary society for a piece called Essay on Machines, he became a captain in the army. His commoners’ background prevented him from rising beyond this rank in the royal army, however. When the revolution began, Carnot entered French politics and was elected to the Convention in 1791. While in the Legislative Assembly he joined the Committee for Public Instruction and strongly advocated for the equal education of all French citizens. However, Carnot’s attempted education reforms were sidelined by the turmoil of the revolution. Carnot traveled and worked closely with the military and was instrumental in assembling the French Revolutionary Army and making it a success. He does not formally identify with a political faction, but he is one of the more moderate members of the Committee, preferring to focus on technocratic military affairs.

Claude-Antoine Prieur-Duvernois (former Prior of Côte-d’Or), representative of Côte-d'Or* Claude-Antoine Prieur-Duvernois was a French military engineer and a politician. He was vital to the standardization of weights and measures and was part of the Legislative Assembly as well as the National Convention. Prior to being on the Committee of Public Safety, Prieur was sent as a representative for missions and was arrested in Normandy, and later released when rebel forces fell in Vernon. As a member of the Committee of Public Safety, Prieur was in charge of the provisions of munitions for troops in the French Revolution. He organized the manufacturing of the weapons as well as in charge of the use of all weapons in the wars. 27    

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  Friend to Lazare Carnot, who took care of military operations, he took care of anything related to armament and also directed the nationalization of war industries. He did not take part in the conspiracy against Robespierre even though he supported Carnot in his problems with Saint-Just and Robespierre’s opinions on conduct in the war. Like Carnot, he is generally a moderate focused on defense policy, although he is also a clear supporter of revolutionary terror.

Georges Couthon, representative of Puy-at-Dôme* Couthon was a French Lawyer and politician known for his service as a deputy on the Convention during the French Revolution. He was elected to the Committee of Public Safety in 1793. He holds some resentment for the Girondists because they refused him a desired subcommittee appointment and has become increasingly critical of their policies as part of the Jacobin faction. He was diagnosed with meningitis in 1792 and has used his disorder in order to gain the attention of the Convention. Couthon maintains a close relationship with Robespierre, but has been known to echo and change his opinions for political purposes.

Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne, representative of Paris* Billaud-Varenne was an instrumental figure in the period known as the Reign of Terror. The representative of Paris, his father was similarly a member of the Parlement of Paris. Before the Revolution, he spent time as a lawyer, professor, comedic playwright, a student at an oratory school, and again a lawyer, eventually serving in the Parlement himself. In 1789, he published a three-volume work, Despotisme des Ministres de la France, and adopted the ideals of the Revolution. In 1790 he joined the Jacobin faction and became a strong advocate of punitive action against the royalty and highly distributive economic policies. He rose to prominence as a member of the Assembly and later through his position on the Committee of Public Safety, where he worked closely with Georges Danton and Maximilien Robespierre.

Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles, representative of Seine-at-Oise* Marie-Jean Herault was a French attorney, judge, and politician. He made his debut as a lawyer at the Chatelet of Paris, the city’s civil and criminal court. At the age of twenty, he became the King’s Advocate in the Chatelet. After the Revolution began he was also elected as a Deputy for Paris to the General Assembly. There, he served on several committees, and was eventually elected as the Assembly’s President in 1792. Despite his aristocratic background, Herault gravitated towards the Jacobin faction, and he worked closely with Georges Danton. In 1792, he was elected to the National Convention, and would briefly serve as its President. Most recently, as a member of the Committee of Public Safety, he has displayed a great interest in diplomatic affairs.

André Jean Bon Saint André, representative of Lot* Saint-André was originally a Protestant minister who became a politician and supporter of the Revolution, and served as deputy to the National Convention. He grew up and served as a minister in southwestern France, and would be elected to the Convention as a deputy of the 28    

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  Department of Lot within that region. As a Protestant in Catholic-dominated-France, he was inspired to support the Revolution by the proclamation of liberty of worship. In the Convention he became a member of the Jacobin faction, as a member of the Committee of Public Safety he became responsible for the construction of guillotines and keeping in contact with France’s main armies in the east.

Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just, representative of Aisne* Saint-Just studied at Reims and received a law degree in April 1788. Still an obscure lawyer in a town near Paris at the start of the Revolution, he rose to prominence as the commander of his local revolutionary militia, and entered into contact with Desmoulins and Robespierre, the later with whom he would develop a close friendship. He also became a prolific writer of social and political theory and published L’Espirit de la Revolution et de la Constitution de France in 1791, one of the most comprehensive pieces on the purpose and goals of the revolution. In 1792, he was elected as the youngest deputy to the National Convention, where he joined the Jacobin faction. He led the argument for the execution of the King, and in 1793 he wrote the draft of the Republic’s new constitution, which would be ratified by the Convention and lead to his appointment to the Committee of Public Safety. His writings have a large following, especially in the Jacobin clubs, and his speaking abilities are perhaps unparalleled.

Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois, representative of Paris* Jean-Marie Collot d’Herbois was a former actor and playwright, who first became active in the revolution by organizing “civic feasts” in 1789. In 1791, he became popular through publishing L’Almanach du Pere Gerard, which advocated for a constitutional monarchy. His political views soon became more radical, and he became a member of the Commune of Paris who participated in the insurrection of August 1792. He was elected to the National convention as a deputy for Paris in 1792, where he joined the Jacobin faction and was the first to demand the full abolition of the monarchy and voted for the execution of the King. He later focused on attacking the Girondin—in which he proved to be strong-tempered and sometimes cruel—and advocating for redistributionist economic policies. Collot himself, in contrast to the lawyers and bourgeoisie of the Committee, is from a relatively poor family, and for that reason considers himself a true man of the people. In June, he was made President of the Convention, and shortly after was added to the Committee of Public Safety, where he functions as a general secretary.

Georges Danton, representative of Paris Danton was born to a respectable family in northeastern France, and first became involved in the Revolution when he became president of the Cordeliers club, which was an early advocate of true republicanism. He served as a member of the Assembly, the Paris Commune, the Convention, and eventually one of the first members of the Committee of Public Safety. Danton advocated peace treaties with France’s foreign enemies and used his newspaper The Old Cordelier to advance his views. He later played a central role in the 29    

UNCMUNC 2014: Committee Of Pubic Safety

  creation of the Revolutionary Tribunal and the Committee of Public Safety, suggesting that it was the appropriate body to wield the Tribunal’s powers. While he is a member of the Jacobin faction, he can be considered a center of power unto himself, separate from the Committee and the Convention because of his large following in the people of Paris. He is also relatively moderate amongst the Jacobins, having demonstrated his past willingness to work with the Girondin.

Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier, representative of Ariege Vadier was born into considerable wealth and served in the army under king Louis XV, where he took part in the Seven Years War in the 1750s. After the war, he obtained large tracts of land in his family’s home province of Ariege, and eventually became a local magistrate. He was elected to the Assembly in 1791 and the Convention in 1792. He was a committed Jacobin who supported the execution of the King and frequently denounced the Girondin. In 1793, he became a member and eventually de-facto leader of the Committee of General Security, second only to the Committee of Public Safety in executive power by 1793. Through his membership in this committee, he greatly influenced the Revolution. During the Reign of Terror, Vadier used his positions to work sometimes with and sometime against the wishes of the larger Committee.

Jacques Herbert, representative of Orne Jacques Herbert was a political journalist and member of the Cordeliers Club with Danton. He was also the chief spokesman for the Parisian Sans Culottes, the main Jacobin militia. Herbert served as a representative to the Revolutionary Commune and helped plan the insurrection that overthrew the Assembly and established the Convention. Herbert operates the newspaper Le Père Duchesne and is considered the most radical Revolutionary figure of any significance at the time, even amongst his fellow Jacobins. “Herbertist” became an adjective used to describe political leanings far to the left. He and his followers favored dechristainization, the extensive application of revolutionary terror, and direct state intervention to redistribute wealth in the economy and prevent the “hoarding” of basic commodities. Like Danton, he himself formed a center of power outside of the Committee.

Antoine Quentin Fouquier de Tinville Fouquier de Tinville, who originally worked as a lawyer and a police clerk, became the effective judicial leader judicial leader of the Reign of Terror after being appointed Public Prosecutor of the Revolutionary Tribunal when it was created in March 1793. He holds radical Jacobin views, and as prosecutor has frequently used his political authority rather than legal evidence to secure convictions of suspected counter-revolutionaries. He himself is not a deputy of the Convention, but will serve on the Committee of Public Safety in his context as chief Public Prosecutor.

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Rear Admiral Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse Admiral Villaret was a naval commander during the French Revolution. He volunteered to join the Navy in 1784 after he had killed a member of the king’s bodyguard in a duel. In 1778 Villaret commanded the Dauphine in the Indian Ocean as the lieutenant de frégate. During France’s involvement in the American Revolutionary War between 1781 and 1783, Villaret commanded several vessels in battle, with his most notable battle being against the HMS Sceptre in April of 1783. It was a three hour engagement that ended with his surrender. Nonetheless, Villaret was promoted in 1792 and again in 1793 because of a lack of senior officers and contre admirals during the French Revolution. During that time, Villaret served in the French colony Saint-Domingue, blockaded the coast of Vendée, and successfully accomplished an important mission to allow a convoy to send grain to Brest. He has recently been promoted to command the 25-ship fleet at Brest.

General Charles Edward Jennings de Kilmaine General Kilmaine, also known as "Brave Kilmaine," was a career army officer of Irish origin. Kilmaine moved with his family to France from Ireland at the age of 11. As a teenager he joined the French army as an officer cadet, eventually campaigning with Rochambeau's army in support of the American Revolution. He retired from the army in 1971 during the revolution, but rejoined at the insistence of the Marquis de Lafayette in 1792 when war broke out. He commanded troops at the victories of Valmy and Jemappes, and contributed significant sums of his private finances to fund the army's supplies as it advanced into Belgium. After the defeat at Neerwinden and the defection of Dumouriez, Kilmaine was appointed second-in-command of the Army of the North, and most recently as been promoted to commander-in-chief. As a career soldier, he has remained relatively apolitical, and the political views he does express are known to be relatively moderate.

Jacques Pierre Brissot, representative of Paris Brissot is at this time a highly controversial figure in French politics. He leads the moderate, Girondist faction in the Convention which opposed the execution of King Louis and which favors among other things the establishment of a constitutional monarchy. His education is as a lawyer but over time he has become an influential member of the Convention and an expert on foreign politics. He led the movement to declare war on Britain and Austria and as a result carries some of the blame for France’s early military defeats. By serving as chief editor of the newspaper Patriote français for the last three years, Brissot has become a mastermind of propaganda, especially skillful at using foreign wars to fuel nationalism and support for the Republic. However, his position is precarious. His power has not gone unnoticed by the Sans Culottes, Montagards and other more radical revolutionary groups. There is talk of the arrest and trial of him and his faction within the Convention and he must tread carefully as France shifts to the left now that the Committee has power.

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Jerome Petion de Villeneuve, representative of Eure-et-Loir Jerome Petion de Villeneuve is known for being the mayor of Paris from 1791-1792. Little is known about him until later in his life, when he became actively involved in the fields of politics and writing. He attended law school and attempted to succeed in the field of literature with the publication of his first essay, Sur les moyens de prevenir l’infanticide. While the essay was not as successful as de Villeneuve had hoped, his following works, Les Lois Civiles and Essais sur le marriage showed his more revolutionary side by publicly supporting the marriage of priests. Later writings of his cited the prevalence of corruption in France. In his political career, de Villeneuve was part of the Estates General, the Constituent Assembly, and finally the Convention, where he identified with the Jacobins. He was elected President of the Criminal Tribunal of Paris in 1791, and in that same year was chosen to help retrieve the king back from Varennes. He and Robespierre were then known as heroes and rewarded with civic crowns by the public. He eventually served as Mayor of Paris from Nov. 1791 to Oct. 1792, during which time he permitted citizens to rush the Tuileries, and also called for the dethronement of the king. He then returned to the Convention and was eventually selected as an original member of the Committee of Public Safety.  

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Committee Description and Advice from our Chair and Co-Chair Our Parliamentary Procedure & Chair Philosophy and Advice We’re going to operate under relaxed parliamentary procedure to streamline debate and make it more suited for a crisis committee. Here are the basics: Motions: When a particular form of debate has ended, delegates have the chance to motion for how the next bit of time will be used. We’ll take 3 motions at a time and then start voting on the most disruptive of the motions first. Motions pass with simple majority. Below are common but not exhaustive motions: Ø Moderated Caucus: It is the default debate. It begins with a total time and an amount of time per speaker, for example “9 minute moderated caucus with 45 second speaking time.” The chair calls on speakers until the time of the moderated caucus has elapsed, in the example above after 12 speakers. The person who motioned for the moderated caucus has the right to speak first. Typically moderated caucuses have a theme such as “construction of the fleet” and are a good way to narrow debate. Ø Unmoderated Caucus: Delegates are allowed to walk around the room, talk, write, leave or do whatever they want for a specific amount of time. Ø Introduce Directives on the Floor: A delegate can motion to have one, some or all of the directives at the front of the room read. We pass the directives back to their main authors who read them aloud. Ø Voting Procedure: A delegate can motion to move into voting procedure for one, some or all of the directives on the floor. Passing directives requires a simple majority of votes. This motion can be made with 1 or 2 speakers for and against. With two speakers for and against, one person speaks for, one against, one for etc. Ø Round Table: Round tables are good occasionally at the beginnings of sessions and when we move to a new topic. Everyone gets to speak in order about his or her opinions on the topic at hand. Round tables will be used if the majority of the people have something to say. Points: Points are requests of the chair or other delegates, which fall outside of parliamentary procedure. Typical points are points of inquiry, clarification, personal privilege, order etc. This is what we’re looking for on parliamentary procedure. We’re not going to be very controlling of the debate, and most of the time it will operate in flexible moderated caucus. 33    

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Directives: We’re going to try to streamline directives and how they function in committee. You can write a directive at any time. Once it has 3 signatures including yourself it can be passed up to the front to be introduced and voted on. We strongly encourage mergers of directives, especially when there are a lot on the floor. We’re going to have a stapler for merged directives. Simply circle which clauses in the two original directives will constitute the merger. We do not give out points or favor delegates based on quantity of directives produced. Chairs’ Advice: Cecilia and Brendan’s Big Three 1. Try to keep track of what other people are doing and what they could do. Doing things in group is better than going it on your own: even with crisis 2. If you have a good and realistic idea, roll with it. We will work with you and change up our plans to fit it in. But always have a backup. 3. There is no set formula to doing well. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses as a delegate. We’re going to be impressed by the most active, adaptable and creative delegates. The best delegates are people who are good leaders but also strong participants. Chair Notes on Timeline*** Committee will start in July 1793 when the COPS is restructured and gains its current membership. Anything after this has not happened yet and may or may not come to pass based on your decisions. Anything before July 1793 can be assumed to be history.

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Advice from our Crisis Director This committee will feature a high volume of crises, generated by both the crisis staff based on outside events and the committee’s actions, and by delegates who use their portfolio powers to organize their own crises. Delegates are encouraged to be as inventive in using their portfolio powers and generating crises as is within the bounds of reason. Additionally, delegates are encouraged to use the resources of the crisis staff, as they can provide valuable information and set up meetings with key individuals outside of the COPS. Delegates may use the following methods to contact the crisis staff (all such notes should be labeled to “crisis” and include the delegate’s name and position): All of these notes will be kept secret, but delegates should be mindful that other delegates have the potential to uncover such information through powers of investigation. Ø Information Request: addressed to the crisis staff, requesting information about a given topic. Please request a reasonable degree of detail (i.e. “does our army on the Marne front have sufficient gunpowder?” as opposed to “how many tons of gunpowder a day is our army on the Marne front consuming?”). Ø Private Communique: addressed to an individual outside of the COPS (a member of the Convention, a commander of one of France’s armies, the Austrian Foreign Minister, etc.). The crisis staff will reply to such communiques impersonating the individual it is addressed to, and can also meet with delegates as that individual. Ø Portfolio Power: addressed to the crisis staff, uses a delegate’s personal powers to unilaterally take action (can also be done jointly with other delegates). Should be written as a directive to make it explicitly clear what is to be done. As far as advice, I will mainly echo what Cecelia and Brendan offered. There is no set formula for success, but collaboration and realistic yet creative ideas will usually go far. The only crisis-specific advice I will offer is to be patient and take time to develop your plans. Our staff can only handle some many notes and implement a limited number of crises, so it is the best-developed plans that we will be able to focus on.

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