Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just () (25 August 1767 – 28 July 1794), usually known as
Saint-Just, was a
French revolutionary and
military leader. Closely allied with
Robespierre, he served with him on the
Committee of Public Safety, becoming heavily involved in the
Reign of Terror and was executed with him after the events of
9 Thermidor.
Biography
Louis de Saint-Just was born at
Decize (
Nièvre), in the former
Nivernais province of
France, the eldest child of Louis Jean de Saint-Just de Richebourg (1716-1777), a retired French cavalry officer, and Marie-Anne Robinot (1736-1791), the daughter of a notary. He had two younger sisters. The family later moved to
Oise in the
Île de France province in northern France, and, in 1776, settled in
Blérancourt (
Aisne), in former
Picardie province, also in northern France. A year after the move, Louis' father died leaving his mother with the three children. She gave up all vanity and saved every penny to give her son an education. From 1779 to 1785, Saint-Just attended the
Oratorian school at
Soissons, in Picardie. In 1786, he ran away from home, taking a portion of his mother’s silver to Paris. Following this, she had him sent to a reformatory (
maison de correction) in Paris from September 1786 to March 1787. In October 1787, he went to the School of Law at
Rheims, before returning the following year to Blérancourt, where he lived until September 1792.
In May 1789, he published twenty
cantos of licentious verse (after the fashion of the time) under the title of
Organt au Vatican. The poem was strongly critical of the monarchy and the
Roman Catholic Church.
He was elected lieutenant-colonel of the
National Guard of the
Aisne, and sought to become a member of his district’s electoral assembly.
In 1790, he wrote to
Maximilien Robespierre for the first time, asking him to consider a local petition. The letter was filled with praise, beginning: “You, who uphold our tottering country against the torrent of despotism and intrigue, you whom I know, as I know God, only through his miracles—it is to you, Monsieur, that I address myself.” Through their correspondence, the two became friends. With Robespierre's support, Saint-Just became deputy of the
département of Aisne to the
National Convention. He gave his first speech, a condemnation of
Louis XVI, on 13 November 1792. This gained him attention, and he soon became a prominent figure of
The Mountain. His close friendship with Robespierre became known to the Convention, the
Jacobin Club, and the people, and he was dubbed the "St. John of the Messiah of the People" (
saint Jean du Messie du peuple).
Involvement in the Revolution
Saint-Just supported the
Revolution from its outbreak, and became involved in local political affairs. In his earlier years, he boasted about the current government (constitutional monarchy) and showed great political knowledge beyond that of most young men his age. The treason of the King changed his mind, as it did many others and he was one of the main driving forces which brought the king's death. “As for me I see no middle ground: this man must reign or die! He oppressed a free nation; he declared himself its enemy; he abused the laws: he must die to assure the repose of the people, since it was in his mind to crush the people to assure his own. Did he not, before the fight, pass his troops in review? Did he not take flight instead of preventing them from firing? What did he do to stop the fury of his soldiers?”(Curtis38). He spoke these words at the trial of the king.
When the
Girondists (
Girondins) were banished from the Convention on 30 May 1793, Saint-Just was elected to the Committee of Public Safety. In the autumn of that same year, he was sent on a mission to oversee the army in the critical area of
Alsace. He proved himself a man of decisive action, relentless in demanding results from the generals as well as sympathetic to the complaints of run-of-the mill soldiers. He repressed local opponents of the Revolution but did not agree in the mass executions ordered by some of the other deputies on the mission. Upon his return to the Convention, in year II (1793-1794) of the
French Republican Calendar, Saint-Just was elected president. He persuaded the Convention to pass the radical
Ventôse Decrees, under which confiscated lands were to be distributed to needy patriots. These were the most revolutionary acts of the French Revolution, because they took from one class for the benefit of another. He also joined with Robespierre in supporting the execution of the
Hebertists and
Dantonists. During the same period, Saint-Just drafted
Fragments sur les institutions républicaines, proposals far more radical than the constitutions he had helped to frame; this work laid the theoretical groundwork for a communal and egalitarian society. Sent on mission to the army in Belgium, he contributed to the victory of
Fleurus on 26 June 1794, which gave France the upper hand against the Austrians. These months were the high point of his career. But his rise to power had wrought a remarkable change in Saint-Just's public personality. He became a cold, almost inhuman fanatic; even more daring and outspoken than his idol Robespierre. “The vessel of the Revolution can arrive in port only on a sea reddened with torrents of blood,” Saint-Just once declared to the Convention. He, rather than Robespierre, showed himself to be the forerunner of the
totalitarian rulers of the 20th century when he said on another occasion, “You have to punish not only the traitors, but even those who are indifferent; you have to punish whoever is passive in the republic, and who does nothing for it.” In this way, Saint-Just saw social passivity to be the real threat to society.
As for the external policy of France, “I know” he said “only one means of resisting Europe: to oppose to her the genius of freedom” (Béraud97). He did not want the military to be made up of slaves, he wanted free men to fight for France. Saint-Just proposed that, through its committees, the National Convention should direct all military movements and all branches of the government (report of 10 October 1793). Under this policy, Saint-Just, along with friend and fellow deputy
Philippe Le Bas, was dispatched to
Strasbourg to command military operations. Saint-Just's experience with
terror in Paris guided him in dealing with suspected
treason in Alsace. In Strasbourg, he repressed the excesses of
Jean-Georges Schneider, who, as public prosecutor of the
revolutionary tribunal of the
Lower Rhine, had ruthlessly applied the Terror in Alsace. Schneider was sent to Paris and guillotined.
Saint-Just succeeded in inspiring the
Army of the Rhine and Moselle. Taking a lead role in the fight, he saw the frontier secured and the German
Rhineland invaded. He returned to Paris in January 1794. He was instrumental in the downfalls of the
Hébertists and the
Dantonists. Later, he served with the
Army of the North, where he gave generals the choice of victory over their enemies or trial by revolutionary tribunal; he organized a unit specially charged with eliminating
deserters. Once more he saw success, and
Belgium was gained for France by May 1794.
Robespierre and Saint-Just shared the ideals of
Enlightenment and some even say that Saint-Just was superior to Robespierre in many ways, political and otherwise. Anything Robespierre wanted to get done, Saint-Just was sent to do it. At the end of May, Robespierre recalled Saint-Just to the capital, but he soon departed again with the army until 28 June. According to
Barère, on 23 July Saint-Just proposed
dictatorship as the remedy for society’s disorder. This report, however, is highly questionable: as a leader of the
Thermidorian Reaction, his testimony is suspect, and it has been argued (Fayard, p. 311) that this alleged policy is not at all typical of Saint-Just. At the famous sitting of 27 July 1794 (
9 Thermidor), Saint-Just gave his defence of Robespierre. While he tried to present his report as that of the committees of
General Security and Public Safety, he had actually refused to show it to them the previous day. He was loudly interrupted by his fellow committee members, and the sitting ended with an order for Robespierre's arrest. The following day, twenty-one men, including Saint-Just and Robespierre, were guillotined.
Death of Saint-Just
The fate of Saint-Just is inextricably linked to that of Robespierre — his mentor and close personal friend. Owing to the retribution that Robespierre demanded from the Convention and the blood that was spilled as a result of his revolutionary rhetoric — and that of others, the people and the Convention had become disillusioned and, understandably, afraid for themselves. As Robespierre himself had done many times before with those who had threatened the progress and purity of the Revolution, the Convention had no alternative but to sentence Robespierre and his close colleagues to death. The idealistic fervour of the Revolution had reached its peak. The prestige of Robespierre was rapidly diminishing: his “revolutionary fantasy” was hated by many; he was blamed for the terrible path that the Terror had taken. The Committee could not simply impeach Robespierre and his colleagues: that would create weakness in its then strong position. Consequently, the Committee 'rationalised' Robespierre, Saint-Just and
Couthon: they had become liabilities and politically redundant.
At the end of his life, Robespierre gave a famous speech on 26 July 1794 (Thermidor 8): “It has been said too often that the greatest mistake made by Robespierre in his speech of Thermidor 8 was his failure to name any of the men at whom his denunciations were leveled” (Bruun128).
When the Jacobin club was taken, Robespierre was shot, his jaw shattered. Saint-Just was found beside Robespierre attempting to minister to him. Robespierre, semi-conscious, did not respond. Saint-Just went with his guards in silence and alone.
Robespierre and his fellow idealogues were guillotined the following day, 28 July 1794 (10 Thermidor). Saint-Just accepted his death with resignation.
Character
In contrast to the manner of early antics such as "Organt au Vatican", Saint-Just assumed a stoical manner throughout his adult life. In combination with his devotion to a "tyrannical and pitilessly thorough" policy, as described by the
Encyclopaedia Britannica, this was a lifelong characteristic.
Camille Desmoulins once said of Saint-Just: "He carries his head like a Holy Sacrament." "And I," replied Saint-Just, "will make him carry his like a
Saint Denis." The threat was not vain: Desmoulins accompanied Danton to the scaffold.
Camus and Saint-Just
Saint-Just is discussed extensively in
Albert Camus's philosophical essay of 1951,
The Rebel. His actions during the course of the Revolution are examined in the context of Camus's analysis of the progression of rebellion and revolution towards enlightenment and freedom throughout history. His fierce advocacy of the execution of Louis XVI and his philosophical treatises on the nature of the Revolution in speeches to the Assembly, are both used by Camus to illustrate how the downfall of the Bourbon monarchy was brought about and from what basis the political ideology of the Revolution grew. Camus claims Saint-Just "introduced
Rousseau's ideas into the pages of history" and incorporates Saint-Just and his ideals into his humanist study of the progression of humanity towards enlightened
liberalism and democratic
pluralism; and the traps and mistakes that have ensnared previous revolutionary attempts towards this goal.
Saint-Just and his fellow Jacobins are lauded as 'Regicides'; with Camus attributing the gradual decline of absolute monarchy that spread throughout Europe following the French Revolution and the resultant growth of popular representation and democracy to the philosophical and political developments initiated and executed by Saint-Just and his fellow Jacobins.
The theological implications of Saint-Just's rhetoric are also discussed by Camus, in successfully arguing for the King's execution, Saint-Just destroyed the façade of monarchical divine right and ensured that kings could never again enjoy such unchecked power as the Bourbons did. Camus identifies Saint-Just's successful advocacy of the execution of Louis XVI as the Nietzschean
Twilight of the Idols.
However, Camus also holds Saint-Just as a cautionary
parable, a lesson in how revolutions, their ideals, and the idealists that lead them can descend into
despotism and
tyranny. He discusses how Saint-Just and his fellow Jacobins would not compromise their ideals to accommodate the will of the common people, the
sans-culottes, and so brought about the Jacobin Terror and their eventual downfall in the events of the
Thermidorian Reaction.
Fictionalized accounts
- He is also a minor character in both manga and anime version Rose of Versailles by Riyoko Ikeda, in which he's portrayed as a radical murderer much before the Revolution started, killing nobles and rebelling against Robespierre himself. He is also the nickname inspired for the character Asaka Rei in another Ikeda manga/anime, called "Oniisama e...". Since Rei's beauty and strong male personality resembles the man himself, she is dubbed "Saint-Just-sama" by her classmates and peers. The real Saint-Just's back story is explained in an episode where Rei's friend Nanako studies up on him to learn more about the enigmatic girl's personality.
- In Neil Gaiman's story "Thermidor", presented in the 29th issue of The Sandman comic series, St. Just is involved in attempting to arrest/kill Johanna Constantine and destroy the living head of Orpheus, as part of the Revolution's aims to eradicate the religions and superstitions of the past. His plans backfire, as he is exposed to the song of Orpheus - a song of the fate of tyrants. After this hearing, Saint-Just is so overwrought and disturbed, his skill with words fails him, leading to the debacle on 9 Thermidor and his eventual tyrant's fate.
