Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac (, 10 September 175513 January 1841) was a French politician, freemason,Histoire des journaux et des journalistes de la révolution française (1789–1796) By Léonard Gallois journalist, and one of the most prominent members of the National Convention, representing the Plain (a moderate political faction) during the French Revolution. The Plain was dominated by the radical Montagnards and Barère as one of their leaders supported the foundation of the Committee of Public Safety in April and of a sans-culottes army in September 1793. According to Francois Buzot, Barère was responsible for the Reign of Terror, like Robespierre and Louis de Saint-Just.Mémoires sur la Révolution Française by François Buzot In spring 1794 and after the Festival of the Supreme Being, he became an opponent of Maximilien Robespierre and joined the coup, leading to his downfall.
Early life Bertrand Barère was born in Tarbes, a commune, part of the Gascony region. The name Barère de Vieuzac, by which he continued to call himself long after the abolition of feudalism in France, originated from a small fief belonging to his father, Jean Barère, who was a lawyer at Vieuzac (now Argelès-Gazost). Barère's mother, Jeanne-Catherine Marrast, was of the old nobility.Gershoy 1962, p. 4. Barére attended parish school when he was a child, and by the time he was of age, his brother, Jean-Pierre, became a priest. Jean-Pierre would later earn a spot in the Council of Five Hundred alongside the very men who discarded any notion of accepting Bertrand Barére as a member.
After finishing parish school, Barère attended a college before delving into his career in revolutionary politics. In 1770, he began to practice as a lawyer at the Parlement of Toulouse, one of the most celebrated parliaments of the kingdom. Barère practiced as an advocate with considerable success and wrote some small pieces, which he sent to the principal literary societies in the south of France. His fame as an essayist was what led to his election as a member of the Academy of Floral Games of Toulouse in 1788. This body held a yearly meeting of great interest to the whole city, at which flowers of gold and silver were awarded for odes, idyls, and eloquence. Although Barère never received any of these bounties, one of his performances was mentioned with honor. At the Academy of Floral Games of Montauban, he was awarded many prizes, including one for a panegyric on King Louis the XII, and another for a panegyric on Franc de Pompignan. Shortly after, Barère wrote a dissertation on an old stone with three Latin words engraved on it. This earned him a seat in the Toulouse Academy of Sciences, Inscriptions, and Polite Literature.
In 1785, Barère married a young lady of considerable fortune. In one of his works titled Melancholy Pages, Barère proclaims that his marriage "was one of the most unhappy of marriages." In 1789, he was elected deputy by the estates of Bigorre to the Estates-General – he had made his first visit to Paris in the preceding year. Barère de Vieuzac at first belonged to the constitutional party, but he was less known as a speaker in the National Constituent Assembly than as a journalist. According to François Victor Alphonse Aulard, Barère's paper, the Point du Jour, owed its reputation not so much to its own qualities as to the depiction of Barére in the Tennis Court Oath sketch. The painter Jacques-Louis David illustrated Barère kneeling in the corner and writing a report of the proceedings for posterity.
Political career (1789–93) Barère was elected to the Estates-General in 1789 and elected judge of the Constituent Assembly in 1791.
Soon after the king's flight to Varennes (June 1791), Barère joined the republican party and the Feuillants. However, he continued to keep in touch with the Duke of Orléans, whose natural daughter, Pamela, he tutored. After the Constituent Assembly ended its session, he was nominated one of the judges of the newly instituted Cour de cassation from October 1791 to September 1792.
In September 1792 he was elected to the National Convention for the département of the Hautes-Pyrénées. Barère served as presiding officer in the National Convention and chaired the trial of Louis XVI in December 1792–January 1793. He voted with The Mountain for the king's execution "without appeal and without delay," and closed his speech with: "the tree of liberty grows only when watered by the blood of tyrants."
He was a member of the Constitution Committee that drafted the Girondin constitutional project in February 1793. On 18 March Barère proposed to establish a Committee of Public Safety. On 7 April, Barère was elected to the Committee of Public Safety.Gershoy 1962, p. 156. A member of "The Plain," who was unaligned with either The Mountain or the Girondins, he was the first member elected to the Committee of Public Safety and one of two members (with Robert Lindet), who served on it during its entire existence. In this role he utilized his eloquence and popularity within the convention to serve as the voice of the committee. Of 923 orders signed by the Committee of Public Safety in the fall of 1793, Barère was the author or first signatory on 244, the second most behind Carnot, with the majority of his orders dealing with police activities.Palmer, 1949, p. 109. The majority of the Plain was formed by independents as Barère, Cambon and Carnot but they were dominated by the radical Mountain.
Despite his popularity, Barère was regarded by more extreme revolutionaries as a vacillating politician without true revolutionary ideals. Palmer (1949) analyzed that 'his commitment to the Revolution rather than any distinct faction separated him from other major Revolutionary figures'.Palmer, 1949, p. 31. Jean-Paul Marat used the last edition of his paper Publiciste de la République Française (no. 242, 14 July 1793) to attack Barère directly:
On 1 August, on a report by Barère, the Convention decreed the systematic destruction of the Vendée.Hazan, E. (2014) A People's History of the French Revolution. Chapter: June to October 1793. The 'federalist' uprisings, the Committee of Public Safety, the assassination of Marat, the Enragés and the popular movement, the general maximum On 5 September 1793 Barère incited the French National Convention with a speech glorifying terror and the founding of revolutionary armies by Sans-culottes:
Barère voiced the Committee of Public Safety's support for the measures desired by the assembly. He presented a decree that was passed immediately, establishing a paid armed force of 6,000 men and 1,200 gunners "designed to crush the counter-revolutionaries, to execute wherever the need arises the revolutionary laws and the measures of public safety that are decreed by the National Convention, and to protect provisions." In a proclamation, Barère said:
On 12 October when Hébert accused Marie-Antoinette of incest with her son, Robespierre had dinner with Barère, Saint-Just and Joachim Vilate. Discussing the matter, Robespierre broke his plate with his fork and called Hébert an "imbécile".
Barère voted for the death of the 21 Girondists in October 1793. His role as the chief communicator throughout the Reign of Terror, combined with his lyrical eloquence, led to his nickname: "Anacreon of the Guillotine."Carlyle, 1837, p. 161 He changed his stance when the Hébertists called for another revolution in March 1794; the voluntary Guards and militant Sans-culottes lost influence quickly. He can be seen as a "weathervane" after changing his opinion on the revolutionary armies. In summer he was one of the leading men in the power struggles between The Mountain and The Plain, involved in the downfall of Robespierre.Richard T. Bienvenu (1968) The Ninth of Thermidor, p. 175–176 Barère, an opportunist who cooperated in the tyranny, then described him as "the Terror itself".
Ideas, philosophy After January 1793, Barère began publicly speaking of his newfound faith in "la religion de la patrie".Gershoy 1927, p. 425. He wanted everyone to have faith in the fatherland and called for the people of the Republic to be virtuous citizens. Barère mainly focused on four aspects about "la religion de la patrie" – the belief that a citizen would be consecrated to the fatherland at birth, the citizen should then come to love the fatherland, the Republic would teach the people virtues, and the fatherland would be the teacher to all.Gershoy 1927, p. 427. Barère went on to state that "the Republic leaves the guidance of your first years to your parents, but as soon as your intelligence is developed, it proudly claims the rights that it holds over you. You are born for the Republic and not for the pride or the despotism of families." He also claimed that because citizens were born for the Republic, they should love it above anything else. Barére reasoned that eventually the love for the fatherland would become a passion in everyone and this is how the people of the Republic would be united.
Barère also urged further issues of nationalism and patriotism. He said, "I was a revolutionary. I am a constitutional citizen." He pushed for freedom of press, speech, and thought. Barère felt that nationalism was founded by immeasurable emotions that could only be awakened by participating in national activities such as public events, festivals, and education.Gershoy 1927, p. 426. He believed in unity through "diversity and compromise."
In 1793 and 1794, Barère focused on speaking of his doctrine, which included the teaching of national patriotism through an organized system of universal education, the national widespread of patriotic devotion, and the concept that one owed his nation his services. Barère also stated that one could serve the nation by giving his labor, wealth, counsel, strength, and/or blood. Therefore, all sexes and ages could serve the fatherland.Gershoy 1927, p. 429. He outlined his new faith in the fatherland, which replaced the national state religion, Catholicism. Barère was trying to make nationalism a religion. Besides being concerned for the fatherland, Barère believed in universal elementary education. His influence on education is seen in American schools today as they recite the pledge of allegiance, and teach the alphabet and the multiplication table. Barère believed that the fatherland could educate all. On 27 March on the proposal of Barère the armée revolutionnaire, for seven months active in Paris and surroundings, was disbanded, except their artillery.Le Moniteur Universel 28 March 1793Cobb, R. (1987) The People's Armies, p. 601, 607, 611, 617 During the Festival of the Supreme Being Robespierre was not only criticized by Barère, but also by Vadier, Courtois and Fouché, the other members of the Committee of General Security.
Conflicts within the government
As 1794 progressed, tensions mounted inside the Committee of Public Safety as well as with other committees and the convention's representatives on mission.
Some members of the Committee of Public Safety, such as Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne, had pursued aggressive campaigns of Terror. Another clique on the committee, consisting of Robespierre, Couthon, and Saint-Just believed in their own vision of the direction of the Revolution.
In his memoirs written years later about this time, Barère described the Committee of Public Safety of having at least three factions:
the "experts" consisting of Lazare Carnot, Robert Lindet, and Pierre Louis Prieur; the "high-hands" consisting of Robespierre, Couthon, and Saint-Just; and the "true revolutionaries" consisting of Billaud-Varenne, Collot, and Barère himself.