Bertrand Barère

Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac (, 10 September 175513 January 1841) was a French politician, freemason, 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. 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

Betrand 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. Barére attended parish school when he was a child, and by the time he was of age, his brother, Jean-Pierre, became a priest.<sup>[3]</sup> 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. 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. 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. 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. 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."

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." 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. 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". 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. 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 believed in unity through "diversity and compromise." He outlined his new faith in the fatherland, which replaced the national state religion, Catholicism.

Finally, aggressive representatives on mission, including Joseph Fouche, had been recalled to Paris to face scrutiny for their actions in the countryside and all feared for their safety.

In this atmosphere, Barère attempted to forge a compromise between these splintering factions. On 4 Thermidor, Barère offered to help enforce the Ventose Decrees in exchange for an agreement to not pursue a purge of the National Convention. These decrees, a program of property confiscation that had seen little support in the previous four months, were received with cautious optimism by Couthon and Saint-Just.

However, the following day, at a joint meeting of the Committees, Robespierre once again proclaimed his dedication to purging the Committees of potential, though unnamed, enemies. Saint-Just declared in negotiations with Barère that he was prepared to make concessions on the subordinate position of the Committee of General Security.

Thermidor crisis (July 1794)

Robespierre continued down this path until 8 Thermidor when he gave a famous oration alluding to multiple threats within the National Convention. A bitter debate ensued until Barère forced an end to it.

The final pieces of the plot fell into place that night. Laurent Lecointre was the instigator of the coup,  assisted by Barère, Fréron, Barras, Tallien, Thuriot, Courtois, Rovère, Garnier de l’Aube and Guffroy. (Fouché was no longer involved and had hidden.) Each one of them prepared his part in the attack. On 9 Thermidor, as Saint-Just rose to give his planned speech, he was interrupted by Tallien and Billaud-Varenne. After some denunciations of Robespierre, a cry went up for Barère to speak.

A possibly apocryphal tale held that as Barère rose to speak he held two speeches in his pocket: one for Robespierre and one against him. Here Barère played his role in 9 Thermidor, by submitting a bill that would blunt the ability of the Paris Commune to be used as a military force. According to Barère, the committees asked themselves why there still existed a military regime in Paris; why all these permanent commanders, with staffs, and immense armed forces? The committees have thought it best to restore to the National Guard its democratic organization. The day after Robespierre's death, Barère described him as the "tyrant" and "the Terror itself".

Arrest

Nevertheless, Barère was still questioned on the grounds of being a terrorist. Before Barère was sentenced to prison, "Carnot defended him on the ground that [Barère] was hardly worse than himself." However, the defense proved ineffective. On 2nd Germinal of the year III (22 March 1795), the leaders of Thermidor decreed the arrest of Barère and his colleagues in the Reign of Terror, Jean Marie Collot d'Herbois and Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne.

thumb|220px|Deportation of former members of the Committee of Public Safety, Barère, Billaud-Varenne and Collot, the day after the insurgency of 12th of Germinal (1st April 1795), causes violent unrest in Paris

The Court hearings continued until being interrupted by the Insurrection of 12 Germinal, Year III (1 April 1795). After the insurrection was dealt with, the Assembly voted the deportation of Collot, Billaud, and Barere to Guiana without further ado. Significant disturbances occurred in Paris on the day of deportation.

Barère was sentenced for his betrayal of Louis XVI (by voting to execute him), for being a traitor to France, and for being a terrorist.

The three prisoners were moved to the island of Oléron in preparation for being transported to French Guiana. Barère's increasing depression while in prison led him to write his own epitaph. While the other two prisoners were sent to Guiana, Barère still remained at Oléron.

Meanwhile, the political developments in Paris resulted in the decision to put him on trial again. He was moved to Saintes, Charente-Maritime, where he spent four months awaiting trial. Eventually, the Convention decided without trial to confirm the old sentence of deportation.

Escape from prison

When Barère learned about this, his cousin, Hector Barère, and two other people helped him escape prison. Although Barère was reluctant to escape, his friends believed that he should leave at the earliest opportunity.

According to his own later memoirs, the original plan was to escape over the garden walls or from the dormitory with the help of a long rope-ladder. This plan soon proved impossible as it was discovered that the garden was out of Barère's reach and that the dormitory was closed.

The escape plan was soon reconfigured, as it was decided that Barère would escape by the cloister and garden of the convent. Barère escaped on 4 Brumaire IV (26 October 1795), with the help also of a local man named Eutrope Vanderkand. He went to Bordeaux, where he lived in hiding for several years.

In early 1798 (while still in hiding), he was elected to the Directory's Council of Five Hundred from his native Hautes-Pyrénées, but he was not allowed to take his seat.

In April 1799, the Directory issued an order for his arrest, so he left Bordeaux and hid out in Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine near Paris.

Amnesty

On 24 December 1799, Napoleon issued an amnesty for some politicians of both the right and the left, including Barère. Under the First Empire, he was engaged in literary work. It was rumoured that he served as a confidential informant for Napoleon. Starting in 1803, he published an anti-British magazine, Le Mémorial anti-britannique, subsidized by the government. This publication continued until 1807.

In February 1814, he moved back to his native region of France.

He became a member of the Chamber of Deputies during the Hundred Days on 1815.

When the final restoration of the Bourbons took place on 8 July 1815, he was banished from France for life "as a regicide". Barère then withdrew to Brussels, where he lived until 1830.

He returned to France and served Louis Philippe under the July Monarchy until his death on 13 January 1841. The last surviving member of the revolutionary Committee of Public Safety, his memoirs were published posthumously in four volumes by Hippolyte Carnot in 1842 and reviewed for English readers at exhaustive length (80 pages) by Thomas Babington Macaulay.

An English translation was published in 1896:

Vol I
Vol II
Vol III
Vol IV

Notes

References

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