Georges Auguste Couthon (22 December 1755 – 28 July 1794) a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 politician and lawyer in the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

. Couthon would befriend Robespierre and serve on the Committee of Public Safety

Committee of Public Safety

The Committee of Public Safety , created in April 1793 by the National Convention and then restructured in July 1793, formed the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror , a stage of the French Revolution...

 with him from 30 May 1793 until his and Robespierre’s deaths in 1794. Couthon would also play an important role in the development of the 22 Prairial.

Background

Couthon was born on December 22, 1755 in Orcet

Orcet

Orcet is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France.-References:*...

 in the province of Auvergne. His father was a notary and his mother was the daughter of a shopkeeper. Couthon, just as the generations of his family before him, found himself the member of the lower bourgeoisie.
Following in his father’s footsteps, Couthon would become a notary. His aspirations would take him away from Orcet and to Paris where he would join the Freemasons in 1790 in Clermont. In 1791, Couthon would become one of the deputies of the Legislative Assembly.

Deputy

In 1791, Couthon traveled to Paris to fulfill his duty as a deputy to the Legislative Assembly

Legislative Assembly (France)

During the French Revolution, the Legislative Assembly was the legislature of France from 1 October 1791 to September 1792. It provided the focus of political debate and revolutionary law-making between the periods of the National Constituent Assembly and of the National Convention.The Legislative...

. He then joined the growing Jacobin Club

Jacobin Club

The Jacobin Club was the most famous and influential political club in the development of the French Revolution, so-named because of the Dominican convent where they met, located in the Rue St. Jacques , Paris. The club originated as the Club Benthorn, formed at Versailles from a group of Breton...

 of Paris. He chose to sit on the Left at the first meeting of the Assembly, but soon decided against associating himself with such radicals as he feared they were "shocking the majority." He was a very proficient speaker, and there is evidence that he exploited his infirmity—he was paralyzed in his lower body, and so used a wheelchair—in order to gain the ear of the Assembly on certain issues.

In September 1792 Couthon was elected to the National Convention

National Convention

During the French Revolution, the National Convention or Convention, in France, comprised the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 . It held executive power in France during the first years of the French First Republic...

. During a visit to Flanders, where he was treating his health, he met and befriended Charles François Dumouriez

Charles François Dumouriez

Charles-François du Périer Dumouriez was a French general during the French Revolutionary Wars. He shared the victory at Valmy with General François Christophe Kellermann, but later deserted the Revolutionary Army and became a royalist intriguer during the reign of Napoleon.-Early life:Dumouriez...

. At the trial of the king he voted for the death sentence

Death Sentence

Death Sentence is a short story by the American science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the November 1943 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the 1972 collection The Early Asimov.-Plot summary:...

 without appeal

Appeal

An appeal is a petition for review of a case that has been decided by a court of law. The petition is made to a higher court for the purpose of overturning the lower court's decision....

. He hesitated for a time as to which party he should join, but finally decided for The Montagnards and the inner group formed around Maximilien Robespierre

Maximilien Robespierre

Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre is one of the best-known and most influential figures of the French Revolution. He largely dominated the Committee of Public Safety and was instrumental in the period of the Revolution commonly known as the Reign of Terror, which ended with his...

 - with whom he shared many opinions, especially on religious issues such as revolutionary dechristianization (to which he was opposed- see Cult of the Supreme Being

Cult of the Supreme Being

The Cult of the Supreme Being 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.- Origins :...

). He was the first to demand the arrest of the proscribed Girondist

Girondist

The Girondists were a political faction in France within the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention during the French Revolution...

s.

Lyon

Growing unrest had been occurring in Lyon in late February and early May. By 5 July 1793 the National Convention determined the city of Lyon to be “in a state of rebellion”, and by September the Committee of Public Safety decided to send representatives to Lyon to end the rebellion. Couthon would be the representative that Lyon would surrender to on 9 October 1793.

On 12 October 1793 the Committee of Public Safety

Committee of Public Safety

The Committee of Public Safety , created in April 1793 by the National Convention and then restructured in July 1793, formed the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror , a stage of the French Revolution...

 would pass a decree which they believed would make an example out of Lyon. The decree specified that the city itself be destroyed. Following the decree, Couthon established special courts that would supervise the demolition of the richest homes in Lyon, leaving the homes of the poor untouched. In addition to the demolition of the city, the decree dictated that the rebels and the traitors were to be executed. Couthon had difficulty accepting the destruction of Lyon and proceeded slowly with his orders. Eventually he would find that he could not stomach the task at hand and by the end of October he would request the National Convention send a replacement. The Republican atrocities began after Couthon was replaced, on 3 November 1793, by Jean Marie Collot d'Herbois.

Leadership of the Convention and Thermidor

Following his departure from Lyon Couthon returned to Paris, and on 21 December was elected president of the Convention. He contributed to the prosecution of the Hébertists

Hébertists

The Hébertists were an ultra-revolutionary political faction associated with the populist journalist Jacques Hébert. They came to power during the Reign of Terror and played a significant role in the French Revolution....

, and was responsible for the Law of 22 Prairial

Law of 22 Prairial

The Law of 22 Prairial, also known as the loi de la Grande Terreur, the law of the Reign of Terror, was enacted on June 10, 1794 . It was proposed by Georges Auguste Couthon and lent support by Robespierre...

, which in the case of trials before the Revolutionary Tribunal

Revolutionary Tribunal

The Revolutionary Tribunal was a court which was instituted in Paris by the Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders, and eventually became one of the most powerful engines of the Reign of Terror....

 deprived the accused of the aid of counsel or of witnesses for their defence, on the pretext of shortening the proceedings.

During the crisis preceding the Thermidorian Reaction

Thermidorian Reaction

The Thermidorian Reaction was a revolt in the French Revolution against the excesses of the Reign of Terror. It was triggered by a vote of the Committee of Public Safety to execute Maximilien Robespierre, Antoine Louis Léon de Saint-Just de Richebourg and several other leading members of the Terror...

, Couthon showed considerable courage, giving up a journey to Auvergne in order, as he wrote, that he might either die or triumph with Robespierre and liberty. Robespierre had disappeared from the political arena for an entire month because of a supposed nervous breakdown, and therefore did not realize the situation in the Convention had changed. His last speech seemed to indicate that another purge of the Convention was necessary, though he refused to name names. In a panic of self-preservation, the Convention called for the arrest of Robespierre and his affiliates, including Couthon, Saint-Just

Louis de Saint-Just

Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just , usually known as Saint-Just, was a military and political leader during the French Revolution. The youngest of the deputies elected to the National Convention in 1792, Saint-Just rose quickly in their ranks and became a major leader of the government of the French...

 and Robespierre's own brother, Augustin Robespierre

Augustin Robespierre

Augustin Bon Joseph de Robespierre was the younger brother of French Revolutionary leader, Maximilien Robespierre....

. Couthon was guillotine

Guillotine

The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...

d on 10 Thermidor

Thermidor

Thermidor was the eleventh month in the French Republican Calendar. The month was named after the French word thermal which comes from the Greek word "thermos" which means heat....

 alongside Robespierre, although it took the executioner fifteen minutes (amidst Couthon's screams of pain) to arrange him on the board correctly due to his paralysis.

Legacy

Couthon, during the course of the French Revolution, had transitioned from an undecided young deputy to a strongly committed law maker. Aside from his actions in Lyon, it is perhaps the creation of the 22 Prairial, and the number of individuals who would be executed due to the law, which has become his lasting legacy. According to the 22 Prairial, individuals accused of a crime would be taken to a Revolutionary Tribunal that would choose between two outcomes, the first would be innocence and the second would be death. Trials would quickly move through the tribunal because those on trial would not have access to an attorney nor would they be able to have witnesses speak on their behalf. Couthon believed that the 22 Prairial was essential because a political crime was far more heinous than a traditional crime. A political crime was an attack on “the existence of free society”, whereas a traditional crime was merely an attack on the individual. Following the acceptance of Couthon’s new decree, executions increased from 134 people in early 1794 to 1,376 people between the months of June and July in 1794. In total close to 20,000 people were legally executed according to the 22 Prairial.

The executions of alleged counter-revolutionaries was certainly nothing new, and seemed absolutely necessary at the time of these crises. Execution by guillotine

Guillotine

The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...

 was, in fact, viewed as humane (when compared to the methods employed by the French monarchy) and was seen as rendering every man equal in death. However, time passed and the internal and external threats were eventually suppressed. Yet more and more possibly innocent people charged on flimsy evidence were being executed, and many began to see this radical government as unnecessary and in fact tyrannous. In the end, the "National Razor" (as the guillotine was so aptly called) ended up eradicating the very ones who had put it to such frequent use.

Unfortunately, the Terror did not stop with the execution of Robespierre and his triumvirate of Couthon and Saint-Just. France, still in disarray and confusion, continued the executions and even went into a stage of reaction against the virtue held so dear to the heart of Robespierre and revolutionaries. What was once scorned (silk stockings and short pants called culottes

Culottes

Culottes is a word that originated in French. Historically, "culottes" referred to the knee-breeches commonly worn by gentlemen of the European upper-classes from the late Middle Ages or Renaissance through the early nineteenth century. This style of tight pants ending just below the knee was first...

) was now being paraded by prisoners set free from the prisons of Paris. It was in these times that a prominent general would come to the fore and create one the mightiest armies Europe had seen at that time: Napoleon Bonaparte.