The fall of Robespierre had consequences unforeseen by his destroyers.
Long kept mute by fear, the mass of the nation found a voice and
demanded a total change of government. When once the reaction against
Jacobin tyranny had begun, it was impossible to halt. Great numbers of
prisoners were set at liberty. The Commune of Paris was abolished and
the office of commandant of the National Guard was suppressed. The
Revolutionary Tribunal was reorganized, and thenceforwards condemnations
were rare. The Committees of Public Safety and General Security were
remodelled, in virtue of a law that one-fourth of their number should
retire at the end of every month and not be re-eligible until another
month had elapsed. Somewhat later the Convention declared itself to be
the only centre of authority, and executive business was parcelled out
among sixteen committees. Most of the representatives on mission were
recalled, and many office-holders were displaced. The trial of 130
prisoners sent up from Nantes led to so many terrible disclosures that
public feeling turned still more fiercely against the Jacobins; Carrier
himself was condemned and executed; and in November the Jacobin Club was
closed. In December 73 members of the Convention who had been imprisoned
for protesting against the violence done to the Girondins on the 2nd of
June 1793 were allowed to resume their seats, and gave a decisive
majority to the anti-Jacobins. Soon afterwards the law of the Maximum
was repealed. A decree was passed in February 1795 severing the
connexion of church and state and allowing general freedom of worship.
At the beginning of March those Girondin deputies who survived came back
to their places in the Convention.
Parties in the Assembly after Thermidor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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