My Early Life

I was born in Arcis-sur-Aube in northeastern france, on october 26, 1759, I was born into a respectable yet not wealthy family. I was  given a good education which helped in my career as an advocate of france. My first appearance in the revolution was marked as becoming the president of the Cordeliers club, witch was one of the many clubs formed during the time of the revolution, the Cordeliers like many other clubs were a centre for the "popular priciple" that France was to be a country of its people under popular sovereignty, the Codeliers were some of the earliest to acuse the royal court of being irreconcilably hostile to freedom, and proclaimed the need for radical action.

I was involved in the storming of the Bastille and the forcible removal of the court from Versailles to the Tuileries. In spring of 1790 I supported the arrest of Jean-Paul Marat. That autumn I was selected as commander of My district battalion of the National Guard. In the beginning of 1791 I was elected administrator of the département of Paris.

In June 1791, the King and Queen made a disastrous attempt to flee from the capital. They were forced to return to the Tuileries Palace, which effectively became their prison. The popular reaction was intense, and those who favored a constitutional monarchy, of whom the leader was Lafayette, became excited. A bloody dispersion of a popular gathering, known as the massacre of the Champ de Mars (July 1791), kindled resentment against the court and the constitutional party. I was, in part, behind the crowd that gathered, and fearing counter-revolutionary backlash, fled to England for the rest of the summer.

The National Constituent Assembly completed its work in September 1791. But I was not elected to its successor, the short-lived Legislative Assembly, and My party was only able to procure for me a subordinate post in the Paris Commune.

In April 1792, the Girondist government; still functioning as a constitutional monarchy; declared war against Austria.Parisian distrust for the court turned to open insurrection. On 10 August 1792, the popular forces marched on the Tuileries; the king and queen took refuge with the Legislative Assembly. My Role in this uprising was unclear. I may have been at its head; this view is supported because on the morning after the effective fall of the monarchy, I became minister of justice. This sudden rise from the subordinate office which I held in the commune is a demonstration of his power within the insurrectionary party.