Born at Chartres, January 1754; executed in Paris, October 1793.
The thirteenth child of a wealthy innkeeper, Brissot early showed signs
of talent, and his first book, _Théories des Lois criminelles_,
evoked a complimentary letter from the aged Voltaire, to whom the work
was dedicated.
In Paris, Brissot entered a lawyer’s office, where Robespierre was his
fellow clerk. But he soon abandoned law for journalism, and became a
well-known pamphleteer. He visited England, and his book upon English
literature was at one time considered a classic.
On his return from England he was falsely accused of being the author
of a lampoon upon the Queen of France, and imprisoned in the Bastille.
Here he remained four months, but was released by the influence of
Mdme. de Genlis and the Duke of Orleans. He was advised to take refuge
in London. He joined the Abolition of Slavery League, and resolved to
establish a similar League in France under the title of _Les Amis des
Noirs_. He went to America to study the question of slavery.
On his return from America he devoted all his talents and his efforts
to add to the impetus of the French Revolution.
Brissot was elected one of the members for Paris in the National
Assembly. An honest man and a true patriot, he fought against anarchy.
He was an opponent of the massacres of September, and of the King’s
trial.
Constantly attacked by the Robespierre faction, he was arrested at
Moulins; incarcerated in the Abbaye at Paris; condemned to death with
twenty-one of his friends on October 12, 1793, and executed on the
following day.
Brissot was one of the writers who exercised great influence in those
various publications which aided the advance of the French Revolution,
and accelerated that movement. His books on law and legislature, his
innumerable pamphlets, his speeches at the Assembly and Convention,
attest his earnest devotion to the Revolutionary cause in its infancy.