Jean-François de Lacroix or Delacroix (; 3 April 1753 – 5 April 1794) was a French politician and member of the
Committee of Public Safety
The Committee of Public Safety () 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. Supplementing the Committee of General D ...
. He was known as "Lacroix of
Eure-et-Loir
Eure-et-Loir (, locally: ) is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers. It is located in the region of Centre-Val de Loire. In 2019, Eure-et-Loir had a population of 431,575.
Anet
Anet () is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of north-central France. It lies 14 km north-northeast of Dreux between the rivers Eure and Vesgre, the latter flowing into the former some 4 km n ...
near
Dreux
Dreux () is a Communes of France, commune in the Eure-et-Loir Departments of France, department in northern France.
Geography
Dreux lies on the small river Blaise (river), Blaise, a tributary of the Eure (river), Eure, about 35 km north of Cha ...
where he served the tax judge. In 1782 he married Marie-Louise de La Barre, daughter of Nicolas Landes. Landes Barre, a tax attorney and justice of the Bailiwick of Water and Forestry of the Principality of Anet who bore him a son, Jean Born in Anet, the 28 February 1783. In his unpublished notes, Count Espinchal said he had married "rich" and "die of grief was his first wife."
From magistracy to the Jacobins
He became attorney general trustee of
Eure-et-Loir
Eure-et-Loir (, locally: ) is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers. It is located in the region of Centre-Val de Loire. In 2019, Eure-et-Loir had a population of 431,575.Jacobin Club
The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality () after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club () or simply the Jacobins (; ), was the most influential List of polit ...
he was pressed by
Charles Lameth
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...
to join the club of the Feuillants. Affiliated to the Jacobin Club he remained opposed to the old regime policies. Tall and handsome, he befriended Georges-Jacques Danton and they shared the expensive lifestyle, supported in part by government contracts, including one with François Lanchères who ran a large company of military transports and whom the Minister of War
Narbonne
Narbonne ( , , ; ; ; Late Latin:) is a commune in Southern France in the Occitanie region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It is located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and was ...
had entrusted to supply artillery horses.
In the legislature, Jean-François Lacroix raised various motions against royal ministers, the court and the king and he was said to have been the first who described the parties of the Assembly using the terms "right, middle, left" to refer to the liberal, moderate and radical divisions of the assembly. On 6 October 1791, he asked the Vice President of the Assembly to be called to order after he described
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...
as "sovereign" and two days later he attacked the minister Montmorin, causing his resignation.
On 5 February 1792 he named Louis XVI as the cause of all troubles in refusing to sanction the decrees relating to non-juring priests and on 13 March asked for the confiscation of property of emigrants.
Madame Roland
Marie-Jeanne "Manon" Roland de la Platière (Paris, March 17, 1754 – Paris, November 8, 1793), born Marie-Jeanne Phlipon, and best known under the name Madame RolandOccasionally, she is referred to as Dame Roland. This however is the except ...
, in her Memoirs, advanced very serious charges of duplicity.
From entry into the Committee to execution
He entered the
Committee of Public Safety
The Committee of Public Safety () 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. Supplementing the Committee of General D ...
and spoke strongly against the
Girondins
The Girondins (, ), also called Girondists, were a political group during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnards, they initiall ...
contributing to the Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793. It was a way to deceive and chase away the suspicions of the Jacobins, who asked him to explain his missions to Dumouriez in Belgium and the dilapidations of which he was accused. To avoid having to justify sums newly fallen into his wallet, he married his new mistress setting up for himself, 4 June 1793, with the notary Viennot at Vincennes, a dowry of 350,400 pounds. Mme. Roland, very well informed, said that this business of justifying the source of funds found an appeasement with the elimination of the Girondins so much longed for; "There exist," she wrote from prison, "in the hands of the former Chairman of the Department of Eure, two letters of Lacroix, formerly tax judge at Anet. As for one of them, it makes a bid of five hundred thousand pounds for some of the national assets. For the other, it withdraws his bid and gives his withdrawal based on the decree which requires Members to justify the growth in their assets since the Revolution. But this decree has not run since the inconvenient twenty-two (Girondins) were expelled."
Before having to make a serious accounting, he still could, with his friend Danton, propose and bring to a vote on 16 Pluviose Year II (4 February 1794) the
abolition of slavery
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world.
The first country to fully outlaw slavery was France in 1315, but it was later used in its colonies. T ...
of blacks in the colonies, saying that the Convention should not "dishonor itself by a long discussion", and so the Convention passed the law by
acclamation
An acclamation is a form of election that does not use a ballot. It derives from the ancient Roman word ''acclamatio'', a kind of ritual greeting and expression of approval towards imperial officials in certain social contexts.
Voting Voice vot ...
. He also caused to be decreed on 19 Ventose Year II (9 March 1794), the arrest of slave-owning white settlers present in France who were intriguing against the execution of the decree.