Thermidor

Maximilien Robespierre and his associates in the Jacobins had been central to the use of Terror and centralisation within the French Revolution.  By 1794 some began to question the direction of the revolution.  The Hébertists who questioned whether the revolution was radical enough in its social achievements were executed in the Spring of 1794.  When the war against Prussia and Austria started to yield success some such as Danton began to question the necessity of the terror.  Danton and the so called Indulgents were rounded up and executed.  Many revolutionaries began to be concerned that that they would be next.

Robespierre had increasingly become concerned at dechristianisation policies and sought to instill a new spiritual movement suitable to the principles of the revolution.  On the 7th May 1794 Robespierre supported a decree in the convention making the Cult of the Supreme Being the official religion of the Republic.  A nation wide Festival of the Supreme Being was held on the 8th of June .  Robespierre who was President of the Convention that week led the procession to the Champ de Mars.  Robespierre at the height of the festivities descended from a huge cardboard and plaster mountain created by David.  Jacques-Alexis Thuriot, was heard saying, "Look at the bugger; it’s not enough for him to be master, he has to be God."  At this point many revolutionaries began to question Robespierre’s ambitions.

There were increasing concerns that Robespierre in the wake of the passing of Law 22 Prairial and the Festival of the Cult of Supreme Being was seeking to become a dictator.  Robespierre appeared at the Convention on 26 July (8th Thermidor, year II) and delivered a two-hour-long speech. The speech was partially a defence of his policies and actions.  However he also stressed that the threat to the revolution had not passed and that there were people in the very convention who were threats to the very principles they had fought for and he had a list of the names of the guilty.  Robespierre however refused to name who he suspected and many feared their name was on his list.

Saint-Just began to give a speech the following day in support of Robespierre. However he was only partially into his speech when Jean-Lambert Tallien interrupted him. Robespierre then attempted to secure the tribune to speak, but was shouted down, soon deputies were calling for his arrest.  As Robespierre struggled to respond one deputy shouted, "The blood of Danton chokes him!"  The convention ordered the arrest of Robespierre his brother Augustin, Couthon, Saint-Just and François Hanriot.  Chaos reigned as troops from the commune marched against the Convention while they in turn called on troops. They were rescued by Hanriot and found refuge at the Hotel de Ville.  However upon being surrounded by troops Augustin Robespierre threw himself out of a window, only to break both of his legs; Couthon was found lying at the bottom of a staircase; Le Bas committed suicide; and another radical shot himself in the head.  Robespierre apparently tried to kill himself with a pistol but managed only to shatter his lower jaw.  Robespierre was arrested and spent the night on a table in the room of the Committee of Public Safety.

On 28 July 1794, Robespierre was led to the guillotine.   As a final indignity the executioner removed the bandage that was holding Robespierre’s jaw in place causing him to scream in pain. His brother Augustin, Couthon, Saint-Just, Hanriot, and twelve other followers, among them the cobbler Antoine Simon, the jailor of Louis-Charles, Dauphin of France, were also executed.

Duchesse De Duras imprisoned at the time discusses the reaction to the events of Thermidor.  Taken from Prison Journals during the French Revolution, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York (1892) p118

The sound of cannon was heard.  The keeper and jailer were in a state of great excitement; their eyes looked haggard and their faces downcast.  We knew nothing of what was passing, but we presumed it must be something frightful.  That evening their countenances seemed more human, and there was a rumour of the death of Robespierre.

The next day the 10th, the inhabitants of houses adjoining the Plessis made from their windows signs of satisfaction.  Our keepers appeared more serene.  We heard cries of joy and clapping of hands in the courtyard; a ,man named Lafond, who had been in close confinement for five months, and of whose existence we had been ignorant had been set at liberty.  This was the dawn of less terrible days for us.  We believed for the first time that we might possibly be released from our tombs.

Letters from Helen Maria Williams on Robespierre.  Taken from Letters Written in France, Broadview Literary Texts, Ormskirk (2002) p179

Paris once more reassumes a gay aspect, the poor again have bread, and the rich again display the appendages of wealth.  The processions of death which once darkened the streets, are now succeeded by carriages elegant in simplicity, though not decorated with the blazonry of arms, or the lace of liveries.  The cheerfulness habitual to Parisian physiognomy, again lights up its reviving look; and the quick step, the joyous smile, the smart repartee, the airy gesture, have succeeded the dismal reserve, and the trembling circumspection which so ill-suited the national character.  With the careless simplicity of children who after the rigours of school hasten to their sports; the Parisians, shaking off the hideous remembrance of the past, fly to the scenes of pleasure……..

Barère on the events of Thermidor.  Taken from Memoirs of Bertrand Barère Volume 2, H. S. Nichols, London (1896) p179-181

Saint-Just came stealthily to the tribune and read a speech to the Convention, in which he had the cowardice to attack the members of the committee in their absence, without any of the members being forewarned of the denunciation to reply to it. Tallien interrupted the speech for a moment, the only service he did that day, for which he wished to assign to himself all the honours. Robespierre, more curled and powdered than usual, is in his place near the tribune. He watches the effect the discourse is to produce. When Saint-Just denounces the opinions and works of the committee, the astonishment and indignation caused by so much cowardice and injustice produce murmurs in the Assembly. Tallien—who knows perfectly that he is one of the eighteen proscribed deputies, whose accusation is to be discussed on that day after the attack directed against the committee, which defended the lives of these eighteen deputies — with equal ingenuity and courage, profits by the first moment of public disapprobation to complain that Saint-Just is attacking the members of the committee in their absence, and demands that the speech be suspended till they be warned to come into the Assembly at once.That was the only thing Tallien did on the 9th of Thermidor. This simple fact was then too well known to the public to attribute to him the great influence which the agents of Coblenz and his contra- revolutionary friends have sought to give him since.

After the usher of the Convention had informed us, we all went to the meeting. I was by no means the last. I was asked to combat these ambitious dictators. On entering the hall I obtain permission to speak on measures of general safety. Saint-Just wishes to submit his discourse to the committee, but several deputies demanded the continuation of the reading, and afterwards that it be signed by its author, and deposited on the table to be a part of the minutes. After these preliminaries I mount the tribune. I was going to present the decree on the armed force of the sections when Robespierre ran and stood at my side, politely asking to speak to what was called the centre of the Assembly. He counted on this majority, which has always been a great force in number and inertia. This time the immobility of this quarter showed me that they were observant, awaiting the manifestation of the Assembly and of the galleries which had been crowded from five o'clock that morning. There were murmurs and signs of approbation, but their cause was unknown. They seemed to wish for order, and to depend on some object or individual. These great assemblies must be seen when agitated by unusual events or by strong passions to get an idea of the fluctuation of opinions and versatility of wishes. At last, in this tumultuous uncertainty, several cried out, "Down with the tyrant ! Hear Barere!" These cries, instead of hushing the tumult, increased it. At last I got a hearing. They show that the accusation of tyranny struck the head of Robespierre, and that I got a hearing by a unanimous and contrary sentiment….

Robespierre, hat in hand, again addresses the Assembly from the bar in front of the tribune, and begs to be heard before the reporter of the committee begins to speak. The cries, " Down with the tyrant ! Let Barere speak ! " …. Whilst I was speaking, my brother, who was behind the president's chair, observed Robespierre's movements. He was always agitated in the tribune. My brother and his neighbours feared that he would attempt to take my life, so violent was his fit of anger and convulsion….. This man was barbarous with the sword of the law or the iron of the revolution, but not man to man. I continued my reports, and Robespierre stayed in the tribune. He still hoped to get a hearing. A part of the Assembly was still doubtful. I was always reheard. Then I presented this proclamation….

Scarcely was the decree of proclamation voted, when a crowd demanded Robespierre's impeachment, and his descent to the bar for self-defence ; others wanted his arrest. These two motions suddenly changed the indifference of the centre into a movement conformable to that of the upper benches of the Mountain. Then I saw Robespierre, Couthon, and Saint-Just beaten. Public opinion abandoned them. They were arrested and impeached. The Assembly, astonished or perhaps frightened at its own courage and decrees, separated at five o'clock, adjourning till nine in the evening.