Born at Tarbes, September 10, 1755; died January 15, 1841.
He studied law and was advocate to the Parliament of Toulouse. Later
he returned to Tarbes, from whence he eventually went as Deputy to the
States-General. Here he soon took a prominent place, defending the
liberty of the press; and brought forward successfully numerous motions
as to the confiscation of Crown lands and the declarations of the
rights of citizens.
The National Assembly being dissolved, Barrère became a member of the
Tribunal of Cassation, and in 1792 Deputy for the Department of the
Upper Pyrenees. He publicly defended the September massacres on the
ground of their being a necessity to save the State. He was elected
President of the Convention of December 1792, his first act being to
press for the immediate judgment of “Louis the Traitor,” as he termed
the King, saying that “the tree of Liberty would never flourish until
it had been watered by the blood of kings.” He voted the death of
Louis XVI. without respite, and later in the year brought forward a
project of ostracism against the Duke of Orleans and the Ministers
Roland and Pache.
The triumph of the _Montagne_ over the Girondins caused Barrère to
join forces with the former. Terror for his own life made him ruthless
in the destruction of the lives of others.
He became in July 1793 a member of the Committee of Public Safety,
and, soon after, chief of that body, and its principal acts were
carried out by his order and at his instigation. By his command the
royal tombs at St. Denis were destroyed, Paoli declared a traitor, the
expulsion of those English who arrived in France after July 14, 1789,
decreed, as well as instant confiscation of all property belonging to
the _émigrés_. He caused the Château de Caen to be razed to the
ground, sent troops to punish Lyons, created a revolutionary army,
and promulgated the decree, “Terror is the order of the day.” He also
planned the speedy execution of the Queen, and proposed that every
Frenchman who had not already made his declaration of adhesion to the
Republic should be transported, and all persons accused of spreading
false news brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal. He implored the
Assembly to treat with the utmost severity all enemies of the nation,
saying: “Have pity on them to-day and they will massacre you to-morrow.
It is only the dead who cannot return.”
Until the fall of Robespierre, Barrère was his lieutenant and obedient
servant; but after the _coup d’état_ against Robespierre,
Barrère was violent and condemnatory against the “conspirator whose
projects had up to then been veiled in mystery.” Nevertheless,
Barrère did not succeed in escaping; he was arrested, with Callot,
D’Herbois and Billaud, on March 2, 1795. He and they were condemned to
transportation, but later on Barrère obtained a re-trial of his case,
and was removed to another prison, from which he succeeded in making
his escape. He evaded re-arrest until the law of amnesty for political
prisoners was passed. He remained in obscurity till 1815, when, during
“the hundred days,” he was elected a Deputy.
After the second Restoration he was banished as a regicide, and retired
to Brussels, where he resided until 1830, when he returned to France
and there remained until his death, at the age of eighty-six years, in
1841.