The Committee of General Security () was a

parliamentary committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

of the French

National Convention The National Convention (french: link=no, Convention nationale) was the parliament of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for the rest of its existence during the French Revolution, following the two-year National ...

which acted as police agency during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

. Along with the

Committee of Public Safety The Committee of Public Safety (french: link=no, Comité de salut public) was a committee of the National Convention which formed the provisional government and war cabinet during the Reign of Terror, a violent phase of the French Revolution. S ...

it oversaw the

Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...

. The Committee of General Security supervised the local police committees in charge of investigating reports of

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

, and was one of the agencies with authority to refer suspects to the

Revolutionary Tribunal The Revolutionary Tribunal (french: Tribunal révolutionnaire; unofficially Popular Tribunal) was a court instituted by the National Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders. It eventually became one of the ...

for trial and possible execution by

guillotine A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at th ...

. The Committee of General Security was established as a committee of the

in October 1792. It was designed to protect the

Revolutionary Republic A revolutionary republic is a form of government whose main tenets are popular sovereignty, rule of law, and representative democracy. It is based in part on the ideas of Whig and Enlightenment thinkers, and was favored by revolutionaries duri ...

from its internal enemies. By 1794 the committee became part of the opposition to

Maximilien Robespierre Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman who became one of the best-known, influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. As a member of the Esta ...

and the Committee of Public Safety, and was involved in the

9 Thermidor The Coup d'état of 9 Thermidor or the Fall of Maximilien Robespierre refers to the series of events beginning with Maximilien Robespierre's address to the National Convention on 8 Thermidor Year II (26 July 1794), his arrest the next day, and ...

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

''. On 4 November 1795, along with the end of the National Convention, the Committee of General Security dissolved.

Origins and evolution

On 2 October 1792, the National Convention created the Committee of General Security from its predecessors: the Search Committee (Comité des recherches) and the Committee of Surveillance (Comité de Surveillance). The committee was not large and never exceeded 16 members. The committee's main responsibility was the internal security of France and to protect the Republic from both external and internal enemies. One way of ensuring the security of France was through the passport system. Through this system the members of the committee had the knowledge of who was entering France and where they were going. The committee had the authority to decide who was sent to the Revolutionary Tribunal for judgment during the Reign of Terror. Once the evidence was fully considered in an individual case the members of the committee made the decision on the innocence or guilt of the suspect, which determined if that person would be released or sent to the Tribunal. Throughout, the existence of the committee it contributed to a large number of people being sent to the guillotine. On March 29, 1794, the committee ordered twenty-four former members of the parlements of Paris and

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

to be sent to the Tribunal, where they were subsequently executed. Shortly after, another twenty-eight people that were a part of the Farmers-General, were investigated by the committee and sent to the Tribunal for trial. After the trial the men were found guilty and executed. A proposal of Danton on 13 September 1793 marked a turning point in the composition of the committee: from then on its members were appointed directly by the Committee of Public Safety and were no more than twelve in number. The regulation of 19 October 1793 stated that the committee should sit every day from eight o'clock until eleven o'clock in the evening, later if circumstances required that. The

Law of 14 Frimaire The Law of 14 Frimaire was passed on 4 December 1793, during the French Revolution, in which power became centralized and consolidated under the Committee of Public Safety. It stopped representatives on-mission from taking 'action' without the aut ...

(4 December 1793), voted on the report of

Billaud-Varenne Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne (; 23 April 1756 – 3 June 1819), also known as Jean Nicolas or by his nickname, the Righteous Patriot, was a French personality of the Revolutionary period. Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne was an instrumental fi ...

, restored a degree of equality between the two committees. On 16 April 1794 the Committee of Public Safety received the power to search and to bring the accused before the Revolutionary Tribunal, in the same way as the Committee of General Security. The Committee of General Security and the Committee of Public Safety worked alongside one another. Their responsibilities became overlapping which caused tensions between the two groups. The

Law of 22 Prairial The Law of 22 Prairial, also known as the ''loi de la Grande Terreur'', the law of the Great Terror, was enacted on 10 June 1794 (22 Prairial of the Year II under the French Revolutionary Calendar). It was proposed by Georges Auguste Couthon but ...

year II (10 June 1794) deepened this rivalry as it enabled the two committees to send the accused directly before the Revolutionary Tribunal. The law was introduced to the public without consultation from the Committee of General Security, which, in turn, doubled the number of executions permitted by the Committee of Public Safety. On 22 and 23 July the two committees met in a plenary session. Saint-Just declared in negotiations with Barère to be prepared to make concessions on the subordinate position of the Committee of General Security. Couthon agreed with more cooperation between the two committees. For Robespierre, the Committee of General Security had to remain subordinate to the Committee of Public Safety. Both committees were responsible for suppressing counterrevolution, but ended targeting each other. The tensions grew and contributed to the downfall of Robespierre. One example of the rising tension was when two members of the Committee of General Security,

Jean-Pierre-André Amar Jean-Pierre-André Amar or Jean-Baptiste-André Amar (May 11, 1755 – December 21, 1816) was a French political figure of the Revolution and Freemason. Life Early activities Born in a rich family of cloth merchants in Grenoble, Amar was the so ...

and

Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier (17 July 1736 – 14 December 1828) was a major French politician of the French Revolution. He is sometimes called the "Great Inquisitor", for his active participation in the Reign of Terror. During this time, he was i ...

, participated in the 9 Thermidor coup against Robespierre. During the same time at the National Convention, Vadier also used false accusations implementing Catherine Théot in a plot to overthrow the Republic, which was also connected to Robespierre and the

Cult of the Supreme Being The Cult of the Supreme Being (french: Culte de l'Être suprême) was a form of deism established in France by Maximilien Robespierre during the French Revolution. It was intended to become the state religion of the new French Republic and a re ...

. The Committee of General Security had more than 160 employees on the eve of the

. The Committee of General Security dissolved with the end of the National Convention in November 1795.

Prominent members

The Committee of General Security had a significant number of members : though there were numerous members of the Convention elected in the committee between over its three-year history from 2 October 1792-November 4, 1795 it numbered only 12 at the start of the

. *

Jean-Paul Marat Jean-Paul Marat (; born Mara; 24 May 1743 – 13 July 1793) was a French political theorist, physician, and scientist. A journalist and politician during the French Revolution, he was a vigorous defender of the ''sans-culottes'', a radical ...

Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...

Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas (4 November 1764, Frévent, Pas-de-Calais – 28 July 1794, Paris) was a French politician and revolutionary. Biography The son of a notary, intendant to the prince de Rache, avocat to the parliament of 1789, co ...

Jean-Henri Voulland Jean-Henri Voulland (11 October 1751, Uzès, Gard – 23 February 1801, Paris) was a politician of the French Revolution. Originating from a Protestant family, he originally studied law. One of his offices was as deputy for Gard in the National C ...

* Pierre Joseph Duhem * Élie Lacoste *

Joseph-Nicolas Barbeau du Barran Joseph-Nicolas Barbeau du Barran (3 July 1761, Castelnau-d'Auzan – 16 May 1816, Assens, Vaud canton) was a French politician. He was deputy to the French National Convention and a member of the Chambre des représentants de France during the ...

References

Sources

Le Comité de sûreté générale (1792-1795) par Emilia Cadio
{{Authority control 1791 events of the French Revolution 1792 events of the French Revolution 1793 events of the French Revolution 1794 events of the French Revolution 1795 events of the French Revolution 1791 establishments in France 1795 disestablishments French National Convention