reign of terror
...lution and to the interests of the common people. Radical groups demanded that the government put an end to the hoarding and speculating in grain. They wanted the death penalty for hoarders and the government to control the rising prices of butter, soap, and other necessities. Jean-Paul Marat helped the people making their demands heard but soon became an enemy to many people. Charlotte Corday was a supporter of the Girondins and wanted to punish the sansculotte. She told Marat that she had information about counterrevolutionaries and was permitted to visit him. After she finished giving Marat the names of the counterrevolutionaries he exclaimed, “They will soon be guillotined.” . With that Charlotte Corday stabbed Marat in the chest and was dead before anyone could reach him. Corday was stopped before she was able to leave the house and was condemned to the guillotine. Her last words were “I condemned one man in order to save a hundred thousand”. . With Marat’s death, Robespierre was left as the main leader of the committee. However, many people believed that Marat’s death was a part of a plot to overthrow the Revolution. Robespierre then began to create a stronger prosecution against enemies inside and outside the country. Unsuccessful generals were brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal for treason and were executed. More troops were ordered into provinces to destroy the royalists and the rebels. In August of 1793, all men woman and children were drafted to fight in the war effort. Still the radicals were not satisfied. The convention allowed a law to be passed known as the Law of Suspects. This allowed the Revolutionary Tribunal to punish anyone they found guilty of being an enemy of the revolution. This condemned people who were relatives to émigrés, anyone who spoke or wrote anything opposing of the revolution, or showed any sympathy for those who were being punished, even if they were relatives. The Jacobin’s demand soon became known as “Let terror be the order of the day.” The Terror affected every aspect of life. Snuffboxes were decorated with little guillotines and women wore little jeweled guillotine pins. Children even had a game in which they chopped off the heads of their dolls. The guillotine was soon known to be a daily event. Every morning people were brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal and by the afternoon, two-wheeled wooden carts carried the condemned to the public square where they would be beheaded. At first, aristocrats and counterrevolutionaries faced the tribunal but the committee later brought charges up against hoarders of food, people who disliked the committee members, and women who cried when they saw their husbands guillotined. The committee thought of them as being disloyal to the Revolution. Robespierre believed that virtue was necessary to the ideal revolutionary state and that virtue without terror would be disastrous. Therefore, he thought that people against the Revolution should be punished by the Terror which would enhance the goals of the Revolution. Watch committees were doing their job as well. They brought thousands of suspects to the tribunal daily. The overloaded tribunal began to try prisoners in groups of up to fifty. Justice was abandoned, leaving only terror. In Lyons, representatives of the Terror found the guillotine too inefficient. Several hundred prisoners were killed at once with canon fire. In another province, two thousand were placed on barges in the middle of the river, and then the barges were sunk. Prisons became crowded and unsanitary. Many died before being tried. In November 1793, Danton returned to Paris after a vacation in his country home. He had been appalled by the excessive killing and asked the government to be “sparing of the human blood.” . Robespierre became suspicious and decided that Danton was plotting against him. He later announced that Danton was part of a foreign plot and was dangerous to society. On March 30, an arrest order was made for Danton and was sent to the guillotine on April 3. Robespierre believed a national religion was necessary to support the virtues of the Revolution. He realized that a festival was the best way to get the people’s attention and support for his religion known as the Cult of the Supreme Being. The same month the Cult of the Supreme Being was introduced, a decree was passed known as the Law of 22 Prairial. This broadened the definitions of crimes that could be committed. Prosecutors worked long hours writing the lists of accused people that would be sent to the guillotine. Prisons were once again overflowing with innocent people. Citizens lived in a constant state of panic, fearing that they may be charged with committing a crime they didn’t remember. Meanwhile, French armies were recapturing French territory and pushing into Spain. The Committee of Public Safety and the Reign of Terror were originally established to address the military emergency but the Revolution’s enemies wer...