Antoine Joseph Gorsas (24 March 17527 October 1793) was a French publicist and politician.

Biography

Gorsas was born at

Limoges Limoges (, , ; oc, Lemòtges, locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region ...

(Haute-Vienne), the son of a shoemaker. He established himself as a private tutor in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, and presently set up a school for the army at Versailles, which was attended by commoners as well as nobles. In 1781 he was imprisoned for a short time in the Bicêtre on an accusation of corrupting the morals of his pupils, his real offence being the writing of satirical verse. These circumstances explain the violence of his anti-monarchical sentiment. At the opening of the states-general he began to publish the ''Courrier de Versailles à Paris et de Paris a Versailles'', in which appeared, on 4 October 1789, the account of the banquet of the royal bodyguard. Gorsas is said to have himself read it in public at the Palais Royal, and to have headed one of the columns that marched on

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

. He then changed the name of his paper to the ''Courrier des quatre-vingt-trois départements'', continuing his incendiary propaganda, which had no small share in provoking the popular insurrections of June and August 1792. During the September massacres he wrote in his paper that the prisons were the centre of an anti-national conspiracy and that the people exercised a just vengeance on the guilty. On 10 September 1792 he was elected to the convention for the department of Seine-et-Oise, and on 20 January 1793 was elected one of its secretaries. He sat at first with

the Mountain The Mountain (french: La Montagne) was a political group during the French Revolution. Its members, called the Montagnards (), sat on the highest benches in the National Convention. They were the most radical group and opposed the Girondins. Th ...

, but having been long associated with

Roland Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...

and

Brissot Jacques Pierre Brissot (, 15 January 1754 – 31 October 1793), who assumed the name of de Warville (an English version of "d'Ouarville", a hamlet in the village of Lèves where his father owned property), was a leading member of the Girondins du ...

, his agreement with the Girondists became gradually more pronounced; during the trial of

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

he dissociated himself more and more from the principles of the Mountain, and he voted for the king's detention during the war and subsequent banishment. A violent attack on

Marat Marat may refer to: People *Marat (given name) *Marat (surname) **Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793), French political theorist, physician and scientist Arts, entertainment, and media *''Marat/Sade'', a 1963 play by Peter Weiss * ''Marat/Sade'' (fil ...

in the ''Courrier'' led to an armed raid on his printing establishment on 9 March 1793. The place was sacked, but Gorsas escaped the popular fury by flight. The facts being reported to the convention, little sympathy was shown to Gorsas, and a resolution (which was evaded) was passed forbidding representatives to occupy themselves with

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

. On 2 June he was ordered by the convention to hold himself under arrest with other members of his party. He escaped to

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

to join Buzot, and after the defeat of the Girondists at Pacy-sur-Eure he found shelter in

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...

. He was imprudent enough to return to Paris in the autumn, where he was arrested on 6 October and guillotined the next day.

Notes

References

* This work in turn cites: ** ''Moniteur'', No. 268 (1792), Nos. 20, 70 new series 18 (1793) ** M Tourneux, ''Bibl. de l'hist. de Paris'', 10,291 seq. (1894) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gorsas 18th-century French journalists Deputies to the French National Convention French people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution People from Limoges 1752 births 1793 deaths