Bertrand Barère

Early life

Betrand Barère was born in Tarbes, a commune part of the Gascony region. The name Barère de Vieuzac, by which he continued to call himself long after the abolition of feudalism in France, originated from a small fief belonging to his father, Jean Barère, who was a lawyer at Vieuzac (now Argelès-Gazost). Barère’s mother, Jeanne-Catherine Marrast, was of old nobility. Barére attended parish school when he was a child, and by the time he was of age, his brother, Jean-Pierre, became a priest.^[3] After finishing school, Barère attended a college before he began his career in revolutionary politics. He began to practice as a lawyer at the parlement of Toulouse in 1770, and soon earned a reputation as an orator. However, his fame as an essayist was what led to his election as a member of the Academy of Floral Games of Toulouse in 1788.

He married at the age of thirty. Four years later (1789), he was elected deputy by the estates of Bigorre to the Estates-General — he had made his first visit to Paris in the preceding year. Barère de Vieuzac at first belonged to the constitutional party, but he was less known as a speaker in the National Constituent Assembly than as a journalist. According to François Victor Alphonse Aulard, Barére's paper, the Point du Jour, owed its reputation not so much to its own qualities as to the depiction of Barére in the Tennis Court Oath sketch. The painter, Jacques-Louis David, illustrated Barère kneeling in the corner and writing a report of the proceedings for posterity.

With the Girondists and The Mountain

Soon after the king’s flight to Varennes, Barère joined the republican party and the Feuillants. However, he continued to keep in touch with the Duke of Orléans, whose natural daughter, Pamela, he tutored. After the Constituent Assembly ended its session, he was nominated one of the judges of the newly instituted Cour de cassation from October 1791 to September 1792.

Although Barère was elected to the Estates-General in 1789 and elected judge of the Constituent Assembly in 1791,^[4] his real career did not begin until he was elected to the National Convention for the département of the Hautes-Pyrénées in 1792.^[5] He was a member of the Constitution Committee that drafted the Girondin constitutional project and also became a member of the Committee of Public Safety in 1793. It turned out that Barère was extremely useful in reporting the plans of the Committee to the Convention.^[5] His career took off when he served as presiding officer in the National Convention and chaired the trial of Louis XVI. ^[7] He voted with The Mountain for the king's execution "without appeal and without delay," and closed his speech with a memorable sentence: “the tree of liberty grows only when watered by the blood of tyrants.”^[8]

Betrand Barère was appointed to the Committee of Public Safety on April 7, 1793. He soon became involved in foreign affairs and joined Robespierre's faction, the Jacobin Club, where he played an important role in the second Committee of Public Safety after July 17, 1793. He voted for the death of the Girondists at the beginning of the Reign of Terror. He consequently became active in the power struggles between The Mountain and others, and became mediator to all.

After the execution of King Louis XVI, Barère began publicly speaking of his newfound faith in "la religion de la patrie". He wanted everyone to have faith in the fatherland, and called for the people of the Republic to be virtuous citizens. Barère mainly focused on four aspects about "la religion de la patrie"- the belief that a citizen would be consecrated to the fatherland at birth, the citizen should then come to love the fatherland, the Republic would teach the people virtues, and the fatherland would be the teacher to all. Barère went on to state that "the Republic leaves the guidance of your first years to your parents, but as soon as your intelligence is developed, it proudly claims the rights that it holds over you. You are born for the Republic and not for the pride or the despotism of families." He also claimed that because citizens were born for the Republic, they should love it above anything else. Barére reasoned that eventually the love for the fatherland would become a passion in everyone and this is how the people of the Republic would be united.^[10]

Barère also urged further issues of nationalism and patriotism. He said, "I was a revolutionary. I am a constitutional citizen." He pushed for freedom of press, speech, and thought. Barère felt that nationalism was founded by immeasurable emotions that could only be awakened by participating in national activities such as public events, festivals, and through education. He believed in unity through "diversity and compromise."

In 1793 and 1794, Barère focused on speaking of his doctrine, which included the teaching of national patriotism through an organized system of universal education, the national widespread of patriotic devotion, and the concept that one owed his nation his services.^[12] Barère also stated that one could serve the nation by giving his labor, wealth, counsel, strength, and/or blood. Therefore, all sexes and ages could serve the fatherland. He outlined his new faith in the fatherland, which replaced the national state religion, Catholicism. Barère was trying to make nationalism a religion. Besides being concerned for the fatherland, Barère believed in universal elementary education. His influence on education is seen in American schools today as they recite the pledge of allegiance, and teach the alphabet and the multiplication table.^[9] Barère believed that the fatherland could educate all.

Jean-Paul Marat used the very last edition of his paper Publiciste de la République Française (no. 242, 14 July 1793) to attack Barère directly:

'There is one whom I regard as the most dangerous enemy of the Nation: I mean Barère... I'm convinced that he plays both sides of every issue until he sees which one is coming out ahead. He has paralysed all vigorous efforts; he enchains us in order to strangle us.'

Thermidor, prison, and later life

Barère was also known to have attacked Maximilien Robespierre by calling him "a pygmy who should not be set on a pedestal". During the Thermidorian Reaction (27 July 1794), after some initial hesitation, he drew up the report outlawing Robespierre, which turned up to be ultimately decisive. Some have considered him one of the main conspirators behind the Thermidorian Reaction.

Unfortunately, Barère was still questioned on the grounds of being a terrorist. Before Barère was sentenced to prison, "Carnot defended him on the ground that [Barère] was hardly worse than himself." However, the defense proved ineffective. Nonetheless, in Germinal of the year III (March 21 to April 4, 1795), the leaders of Thermidor decreed the arrest of Barère and his colleagues in the Reign of Terror, Jean Marie Collot d'Herbois and Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne.

Barère was sentenced for his betrayal of King Louis XVI (by voting to execute him), for being a traitor to France, and for being a terrorist. He was imprisoned in Oléron as he was being transported to French Guiana. Barère's increasing depression while in prison led him to write his own epitaph

Barère was in prison for two years before the National Convention decided they were going to retry him for death by the guillotine. When Barère found out that he was being retried, someone helped him escape from prison and went to Bordeaux, where he lived in hiding for several years.

In 1795, he was elected to the Directory's Council of Five Hundred, but he was not allowed to take his seat. However, Barère served Napoleon. Under the First Empire, he was used as a secret agent by Napoleon, for whom he carried on a diplomatic correspondence.

Some time afterward, Napoleon placed Barère back in prison, but Barère escaped again. He became a member of the Chamber of Deputies during the Hundred Days, but was a royalist in 1815. However, once the final restoration of the Bourbons was achieved, he was banished from France for life "as a regicide". Barère then withdrew to Brussels, where he lived until 1830. He returned to France and served Louis Philippe under the July monarchy until his death on January 13, 1841. He was the last surviving member of the Committee of Public Safety.