Historical Figure
Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
d. 1794
French revolutionary politician (1767–1794)
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Biography
Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just, sometimes nicknamed the Archangel of Terror, was a French revolutionary, political philosopher, member and president of the French National Convention, a Jacobin club leader, and a major figure of the French Revolution. The youngest person elected to the National Convention, he was a member of the Mountain faction and a steadfast supporter and close friend of Robespierre. He was swept away in Robespierre's downfall on 9 Thermidor, Year II.
In Their Own Words (5)
It is not enough, citizens, to have destroyed the factions, it is necessary now to repair the evil that they have done to the country.
Speech to the National Convention (April 15, 1794). [Source: Oeuvres Complètes de Saint-Just, Vol. 2 (2 vols., Paris, 1908), p. 367] , 1794
What produces the general good is always terrible or seems bizarre when begun too soon ... The Revolution must stop itself at the perfection of public happiness and liberty through the laws.
Fragment 3 (1794). [Source: Saint-Just, Fragments sur les institutions républicaines] , 1794
It is time that we labored for the happiness of the people. Legislators who are to bring light and order into the world must pursue their course with inexorable tread, fearless and unswerving as the sun.
Travaillons enfin pour le bonheur du peuple, et que les legislateurs qui doivent éclairer le monde prennent leur course d'un pied hardi, comme le soleil. , 1792
I have not found a single good man in government; I have found good only in the people.
On declaring the Minister of War, Charles François Dumouriez, a traitor (March 1793). [Source: David William Bates, Enlightenment aberrations: error and revolution in France (Cornell University Press, 2002), p. 169] , 1793
Those who make revolutions by halves do nothing but dig their own tombs.
(January 1793) [Source: Oeuvres Complètes de Saint-Just, vol. 1 (2 vols., Paris, 1908), p. 414] , 1793
Timeline
The story of Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, told in moments.
Elected to the National Convention at 25, the youngest deputy. Too young to have served in the earlier assemblies. He'd written to Robespierre as a fan. Now he sits beside him.
Delivers the speech condemning Louis XVI. "One cannot reign innocently." The line lands. He argues the king should be tried not as a citizen but as an enemy. The Convention votes for execution.
Authors the Ventose Decrees, proposing to confiscate property from enemies of the Revolution and redistribute it to the poor. The most radical economic legislation of the Revolution. It's never fully implemented.
Guillotined alongside Robespierre in the Thermidorian Reaction. He was 26. He'd tried to give a speech to the Convention that morning. They shouted him down. He said nothing on the scaffold.
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