My Rise To Power

In the provisional executive government that was formed between the king's dethronement and the opening of the National Assembly (the formal end of the monarchy), I found myself allied with Jean Marie Roland and other members of the Girondist movement. Their strength was soon put to the test. The alarming successes of the Austrians and the surrender of two important fortresses caused panic in the capital; over a thousand prisoners were murdered. At that time, I was accused of directing these September Massacres, but modern scholarship has failed to show this.

The election to the National Convention took place in September 1792; after which the remnant of the Legislative Assembly formally surrendered its authority. The Convention ruled France until October 1795. I was a member; resigning as minister of justice, I took a prominent part in the deliberations and proceedings of the Convention.

 Radical Paris was in my opinion  the only force to which the National Convention could look in resisting Austria and its allies on the north-east frontier, and the reactionaries in the interior.
 "Paris, is the natural and constituted centre of free France. It is the centre of light. When Paris shall perish there will no longer be a republic."

I voted for the death of Louis XVI in January 1793. After the execution had been carried out, I exlaimed "The kings of Europe would dare challenge us? We throw them the head of a king!"
 When all executive power was conferred upon a Committee of Public Safety (6 April 1793), I had been one of the nine original members of that body. I was dispatched on frequent missions from the Convention to the republican armies in Belgium, and wherever I went i infused new energy into the army. I pressed forward the new national system of education, and I was one of the legislative committee charged with the construction of a new system of government.