Hébertists

The Hébertists were a radical revolutionary political group associated with the populist journalist Jacques Hébert. They came to power during the Reign of Terror and played a significant role in the French Revolution.

The Hébertists were ardent supporters of the dechristianization of France and of extreme measures in service of the Terror, including the Law of Suspects enacted in 1793. They favoured the direct intervention of the state in economic matters in order to ensure the adequate supply of commodities, advocating the national requisition of wine and grain.

The leaders went to the guillotine on March 24, 1794.

The rise in power of the Hébertists can be largely attributed to the popularity of Hébert's newspaper, Le Père Duchesne. This newspaper, which purported to present the frank opinions of "Père Duchesne," a fictional working-class furnace-maker, had a large following amongst the sans-culottes. The government-funded distribution of Le Père Duchesne to the French armies, a policy arranged by the Hébertist Minister of War Jean Bouchotte in 1793, widened support and sympathy for Hébertist ideas.

On May 24, 1793, the newly appointed Commission of Twelve ordered the arrest of Hébert, who had been using Le Père Duchesne to incite violence against members of the Girondin faction. The tremendous public outcry and civil unrest which ensued rapidly resulted in Hébert's release; however, rioting continued, culminating in a series of insurrections. On May 31, a large crowd of sans-culotte agitators surrounded the National Convention in an attempt to force its accession to their demands: the dissolution of the Commission of Twelve, the arrest of a list of Girondin deputies, a tax on the rich, and the restriction of suffrage to sans-culottes. The Commission was abolished, but on June 2, the crowds - now supported by National Guard forces headed by Hébertist and newly appointed Commandant-General François Hanriot - returned. Hanriot threatened to set fire to the Convention if the offending Girondin deputies were not expelled. Ultimately, the arrest of twenty-nine Girondins was decreed, marking the end of the Girondin faction's political power.

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