against the Jacobin government, the convention set up the committee of Public safety.
“The Committee shall talk in secret; it shall be responsible for watching over the work of
the government …under the critical circumstances it is authorised to take measures to
defend the revolution against internal and external enemies” (The Reign of Terror). The
Jacobins had full control of this committee. Maximilien Robespierre, the leader of the
committee passed out a law: The law of Suspects, in which people would be sent to
prison with trial but without asking for evidence. Getting rid of them seemed like a
way to help France recover, “To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to
forgive them is cruelty” (Principles on Political Morality). They treated suspects very
cruelly in very broad terms. It made “Terror the order of the day”. Second most
important to the committee of Public Safety was the Community of General Security.
This community was the one who applied laws to the terror. They were the main reason
why so many innocent people had died due to the law of suspects. Another effective law
created was the “law of Prairial”, which was created in order for the process of trial to
speed up. Defense counsels were no longer needed and sentences were meant to be
shorter when in trial. It would be either death or they could be discharged. This period
of time was known as the “Great Terror.”
The methods that the Jacobins used when they took over as government
resulted in the terror. They used the guillotine as an image of holding supreme power.
They terror was meant to help stop the revolution but instead it was known as a helping
hand to the revolution. The members who suffered from the guillotine, measured up to
over 12,000 citizens. The main citizens that suffered were not merely the first and
second society, but were mainly the peasants and the urban workers. The Jacobins used
hideous reasons for killing innocent people. An example would be when Marie Plaisant,
seamstress, convicted of having exclaimed that she was an aristocrat and that she did
not care a fig for the nation, was condemned to death and executed the same day(The
Reign of Terror) .Another example would be when a woman “was charged with the
crime of having wept at her husband’s execution…she was condemned to sit for hours
under the blade which shed upon her, drop by drop the blood of her dead
husband…before she was released by death…”(The Reign of Terror). The mortality rate
of the peasants reached up to 7878 out of the 12, 00 guillotined. Those who had faced
tribunal were treated in a much harsher manner. Another weapon used was the cannon
balls. The Jacobins had ordered 300 people to be executed by cannon fire instead of the
guillotine for it was too slow for them. Also in the Nantes, 2000 people were towed into
the middle of the river and sunk. Nobles, who tried to flee and then return back to
France, had been executed.
Robespierre as the leader of the Jacobin group helped a great deal in making a
great extent to the extent of the Jacobins Terror. Robespierre saw no room for mercy in
Terror and he believed that the country could be saved by dictatorship. “Terror is only
justice: prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue; it is less a
distinct principle than a natural consequence of the general principle of democracy,
applied to the most pressing wants of the country” (Principles of Political Mortality). The
Terror seen through the eyes of citizens meant nothing to Robespierre. Robespierre
attacked the Hebertists because of their belief as an anti-Christian. Robespierre as the
main leader took advantage. He controlled the Jacobins moves and used methods such
as the guillotine to kill people either guilty or non-guilty. He felt that “pity was treason”
(Maximilien Robespierre). He felt that getting rid of people who were against his ideas
should be executed. Due to this, the Jacobins reacted, which led to the terror.
The significance of the organization, the methods that the Jacobins used when
they were in control and Robespierre’s tactics shows exactly to what extent were the
Jacobins responsible for the terror. All the methods that the Jacobins used caused
resentment among the citizens of France. So the Jacobins were really responsible for the
terror that had completely changed France.