French statesman
Pierre-Joseph Cambon
(
French pronunciation:
[pj??
?oz?f
k??b??]
, 10 June 1756 ? 15 February 1820) was a French statesman. He is perhaps best known for speaking up against
Maximilien Robespierre
at the National Convention, sparking the end of Robespierre's reign.
Born in
Montpellier
, Cambon was the son of a wealthy cotton merchant. In 1785, his father retired, leaving Pierre and his two brothers to run the business, but in 1788 Pierre entered politics, and was sent by his fellow-citizens as deputy suppliant to the
Estates-General
, where he was mostly a spectator. In January 1790 he returned to Montpellier, was elected a member of the municipality, co-founded the
Jacobin Club
in that city, and on the
flight to Varennes
of
King
Louis XVI
in 1791, he drew up a petition to invite the
National Constituent Assembly
to proclaim a
Republic
?the first in date of such petitions.
Elected to the
Legislative Assembly
, Cambon was viewed as independent, honest, and talented in the financial domain. He was the most active member of the committee of finance and was often charged to verify the state of the
treasury
. His analytical skills were recorded in his remarkable speech of 24 November 1791.
It was Cambon who made the initial suggestion for the state debt to be "rendered republican and uniform" and it was he who proposed to convert all the contracts of the creditors of the state into an inscription in a great book, which should be called the "Great Book of the Public Debt".
[1]
This proposal was implemented in 1792 when the
Great Book of the Public Debt
was created as a consolidation of all the states debts.
[2]
[3]
He held his distance from political clubs and even factions, but nonetheless defended the new institutions of the state. On 9 February 1792, he succeeded in having a law passed confiscating the possessions of the
emigres
, and tried to arrange the
deportation
of
non-juring priests
to
French Guiana
. He was the last president of the Legislative Assembly.
Re-elected to the
National Convention
, Cambon opposed the pretensions of the
Paris Commune
and the proposed grant of money to the municipality of
Paris
by the state. On 15 December 1792, he persuaded the convention to adopt a proclamation to all nations in favour of a
universal republic
. In the year after he denounced
Jean-Paul Marat
's placards as inciting to murder, summoned
Georges Danton
to give an account of his ministry, supervised the furnishing of military supplies to the
French Revolutionary Army
, and was a strong opponent of
Charles Francois Dumouriez
, in spite of the general's great popularity.
Cambon incurred the hatred of the
theist
Maximilien Robespierre
(see
Cult of the Supreme Being
) by proposing the suppression of the pay to the clergy, which would have meant the
separation of church and state
. His authority grew steadily.
Although he took part in toppling
Robespierre
in July 1794, Cambon was targeted and pursued by the
Thermidorian Reaction
, and had to live in hiding in Montpellier. During the
Hundred Days
, he was a deputy to the lower chamber, but only took part in debates over the budget. Proscribed by the
Bourbon Restoration
in 1816, he died at
Saint-Josse-ten-Noode
, near
Brussels
.
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Adolphe Thiers
, George Thomas,
Frederic Shoberl
.
The History of the French Revolution
, Vickers, 1845
p. 329
- ^
Staff.
The New Encyclopædia Britannica
Encyclopædia Britannica, 1986
ISBN
0-85229-443-3
,
ISBN
978-0-85229-443-7
. p. 758
- ^
Florin Aftalion,
Martin Thom
(contribution and translation),
The French Revolution
, Cambridge University Press, 1990,
ISBN
0-521-36810-3
,
ISBN
978-0-521-36810-0
pp. 143,144
References
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