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Pierre Gaspard Chaumette (1763 - April 13, 1794) was a French politician of the Revolutionary period.
Biography
Early activities
Born in Nevers France, May 24, 1763, his main interest was botany and science. Chaumette studied medicine at the University of Paris in 1790, but gave up his career in medicine at the start of the Revolution. Chaumette began his political career as a member of the Jacobin Club, he was also a spokesman for the Sans Culotte; later in the war he became a prominent member of the Montagnard's. He became one of the orators of the club of the Cordeliers, and contributed anonymously to the Revolutions de Paris. In August of 1792 Chaumette became the Chief Procurator of the Commune of Paris; on October 31, 1792 he was elected President of the Commune and was re-elected in the Municipal on December 2 of that same year. As member of the insurrectionary Commune during the insurrection of August 10, 1792, he was delegated to visit the prisons, with full power to arrest suspects. He was accused later of having taken part in the September Massacres, but proved that at that time he had been sent by the provisional executive council to Normandy to oversee a requisition of 60,000 men. Returning from this mission, he spoke eloquently in favour of the French Republic.
Presidency of the Commune
His conduct, oratorical talent, and the fact that his private life was considered beyond reproach, all made him influential, and he was elected president of the Commune, defending the municipality at the bar of the National Convention on October 31, 1792.
Re-elected in the municipal elections of December 2, 1792, he was soon given the functions of procoureur of the Commune, and contributed with success to the enrollments of volunteers in the by his appeals to the population of Paris. Chaumette was one of the instigators in the attacks of May 31 and of June 2, 1793 on the Girondists, carrying out a virulent and intransigent attack.
Chaumette held a strong opinion about the fate of Louis XVI after his fall. He was greatly outspoken in his demand for the king's blood. Chaumette’s thesis was that as long as Louis XVI went unpunished prices would remain high, and shortages and the profiteering that created them, which he assumed to be the work of the royalists, would go unchecked. Chaumette ultimately was one of the men to vote in favor of the former king's execution. (5)
He demanded the formation of a Revolutionary Army, and repeatedly demanded the extermination of all traitors to the Revolution. He was widely known to be strongly opposed to women actively participating in politics. He was radically involved in the attempt to de-Christianize France during the Revolution. He attempted to eradicate outward signs of religion, to close churches, and to prohibit public worship.(4) Chaumette was convinced that Christianity and counterrevolution were one and the same.(2) He promoted the worship of Reason,and was even involved in the organization of the Festival of Reason, and on November 10, 1793, presented the "goddess" to the Convention in the guise of an actress. On November 23, Chaumette obtained a decree closing all the churches of Paris, and placing the priests under strict surveillance; however, two days later he obtained from the Commune the free exercise of worship. Chaumette was so passionately involved in the de-Christianization process that he even publicly changed his name from Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette to Anaxagoras Chaumette. He stated his reason for changing his name that, “I was formerly called Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette because my god-father believed in the saints. Since the revolution I have taken the name of a saint who was hanged for his republican principles.”(3)
Downfall
He wished to save the Hébertists through a new insurrection, and fought against Maximilien Robespierre (who, as a promoter of the Cult of the Supreme Being, had provoked the fall of Hébertists). His revolutionary decree promulgated by the Commune on his demand was overthrown by the Convention. Robespierre had him accused with the Hébertists; Chaumette was arrested, imprisoned in the Luxembourg Palace, sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal, and guillotined.
Legacy
Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette was most noted, not for his accomplishments, but for his radicalist ideas and violent extremism. Like so many other leaders of the French Revolution; Chaumette took advantage of the situation to gain power; once in power he took advantage of his position. He strongly advocated violence on all accounts and is infamous for his constant calling for more blood-letting. It was these radical ideas that led to his downfall.
Chaumette left some printed speeches and fragments, and memoirs published in the Amateur d'autographes. His memoirs on the events of August 10 were published by François Victor Alphonse Aulard, preceded by a biographical study.
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help)
1. Andress, David. The Terror. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.
2. Jaher, Frederic Cople. The Jews and the Nation: Revolution Emancipation, State Formation, and the Liberal Paradigm in America and France. New York: Princeton University Press, 2002.
3. Jervis, William Henley. The Gallican Church and the Revolution. France: K. Paul, Trench, & Co, 1882.
4. Jones, Colin. The Great Nation. Chicago: Columbian University Press 2002
5. Jordan, David P. The King’s Trial: The French Revolution vs. Louis XVI. California: University of California Press, 2004.
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