Dominique Joseph Garat
| Dominique-Joseph Garat | |
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| Born |
8 September 1749 Ustaritz near Bayonne |
| Died | 9 December 1833 (aged 84) Ustaritz near Bayonne |
| Nationality | French |
| Ethnicity | Basque |
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Dominique Joseph Garat (8 September 1749 – 9 December 1833) was a French writer and politician.
Garat was born at Bayonne, in the French Basque Country. After a good education under the direction of a relation who was a curé, and a period as an advocate at Bordeaux, he came to Paris, where he obtained introductions to the most distinguished writers of the time, and became a contributor to the Encyclopedie méthodique and the Mercure de France. He gained a reputation by an éloge on Michel de l'Hôpital in 1778, and was afterwards crowned three times by the Académie française for éloges on Suger, Montausier and Fontenelle. In 1785 he was named professor of history at the Lycée, where his lectures were as popular as those of Jean-François de La Harpe on literature.
Elected as a deputy to the Estates-General in 1789, Garat rendered important service to the popular cause by his narrative of the proceedings of the Assembly, in the Journal de Paris. His elder brother, Dominique (1735–1799), with whom he is sometimes confused, was also a deputy to the states-general.Georges Danton named him minister of justice in 1792, and in this capacity entrusted to him what he called the commission affreuse of communicating to King Louis XVI his sentence of death. In 1793 Garat became minister of the interior, in which position he proved quite inefficient. Though himself uncorrupt, he overlooked the most scandalous corruption in his subordinates, and in spite of a detective service which kept him accurately informed of every movement in the capital, he failed to maintain order.
At last, disgusted with the excesses which he had been unable to control, he resigned on 15 August 1793. On 2 October he was arrested for Girondist sympathies but soon released, and he escaped further molestation owing to the friendship of Barras and, more especially, of Robespierre. On the 9th Thermidor, however, he took sides against Robespierre, and on 12 September 1794 he was named by the Convention as a member of the executive committee of public instruction.
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