Jacques Hébert

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For other people named Jacques Hébert, see Jacques Hébert (disambiguation).

Jacques Hébert
Cordeliers Club
(1792–1794)
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1792)​
ChildrenVirginie-Scipion Hébert (1793–1830)
Parent(s)Jacques Hébert (?–1766) and Marguerite La Beunaiche de Houdré (1727–1787)
Residence(s)Paris, France
OccupationJournalist, writer, publisher, politician
Signature

Jacques René Hébert (French:

guillotined
.

Early life

Young Jacques Hébert
Hébert arrived in Paris in 1780, at the age of 23.

Jacques René Hébert was born on 15 November 1757 in Alençon, to goldsmith, former trial judge, and deputy consul Jacques Hébert (died 1766) and Marguerite Beunaiche de Houdrie (1727–1787).

Hébert studied law at the College of Alençon and went into practice as a clerk in a solicitor of Alençon, in which position he was ruined by a lawsuit against a Dr. Clouet. Hébert fled first to Rouen and then to Paris in 1780 to evade a substantial one thousand livre fine imposed for charges of slander.[2] For a while, he passed through a difficult financial time and lived through the support of a hairdresser in Rue des Noyers. There he found work in a theater, La République, where he wrote plays in his spare time, but these were never produced. Hébert was eventually fired for theft and entered the service of a doctor. It is said he lived through expediency and scams.

In 1789, he began his writing with a pamphlet La Lanterne magique ou le Fléau des Aristocrates ("The Magic Lantern, or Scourge of Aristocrats"). He published a few booklets. In 1790, he attracted attention through a pamphlet he published, and became a prominent member of the political club of the Cordeliers in 1791.[3]

Père Duchesne

From 1790 until his death in 1794, Hébert became a voice for the working class of Paris through his highly successful and influential journal,

Louis XVI in his newspaper, as opposed to any office he may have held or his roles in any of the Parisian clubs with which he was involved.[7]

These stories encouraged violent behaviors and utilized foul and sexualized language. Père Duchesne's stories were also witty, reflective, and resonated deeply in the poorer Parisian quarters. Street hawkers would yell, "Il est bougrement en colère aujourd’hui le père Duchesne!" ("Father Duchesne is very angry today!").[citation needed]

Although Hébert did not create the image of the Père Duchesne, his use of the character helped to transform the symbolic image of Père Duchesne from that of a comical stove-merchant into a patriotic role model for the sans-culottes.[8] In part, Hébert's use of Père Duchesne as a revolutionary symbol can be seen by his appearance as a bristly old man who was portrayed as smoking a pipe and wearing a Phrygian cap.

Because he reflected both his audience's speech and dressing style, his readers listened to and followed his message. The French linguist and historian

Paris Commune and the ministers of war Jean-Nicolas Pache and, later, Jean Baptiste Noël Bouchotte bought several thousand copies of Le Père Duchesne which were distributed free to the public and troops. This happened again in May and June 1793 when the Minister of War bought copies of newspapers in order to "enlighten and animate their patriotism". It is estimated that Hébert received 205,000 livres from this purchase.[9] The assassination of Jean-Paul Marat on July 13, 1793, who had written the bestselling paper L'Ami du peuple, allowed Le Père Duchesne to become the incontestible best-selling paper in Paris, which also played into the number of copies bought during those months.[12]

"The Indignation of Père Duchesne" (1790)

Hébert's political commentary between 1790 and 1793 focused on the lavish excesses of the monarchy. Initially, from 1790 and into 1792, Le Père Duchesne supported a

nymphomania or attempts to beg her to repent and reverse her wicked ways.[16] With the king's failed flight to Varennes
, his tone significantly hardened.

At the time, many writers and journalists were greatly influenced by the proclamation of martial law on 21 October 1789. It invoked various questions and patterns of Revolutionary thinking and inspired various forms of writing such as Le Père Duchesne. The law prompted multiple interpretations all of which led to what became essential Revolutionary ideals.[17]

In his newspaper, Hébert did not use himself as the prime example of the revolution. He used a mythical character called the Père Duchesne to be able to relay his message in a more subtle way. He was already well known by the people of Paris and only wanted his message to be received directly and clearly by his followers, not his enemies. Père Duchesne was a very strong, outspoken character with extremely high emotions. He constantly felt great anger but also would experience great happiness. He was never afraid to fully display exactly how he was feeling. He would constantly use foul language and other harsh words to express himself.[18][needs copy edit]

"The Great Anger of Père Duchesne" (1792).

Revolutionary role

Following Louis's failed

Champ de Mars massacre by troops under the Marquis de Lafayette. This put him in the revolutionary mindset, and Le Père Duchesne adopted a populist style, deliberately opposed to the high-minded seriousness and appeal to reason expressed by other revolutionaries, to better appeal to the Parisian sans-culottes. His journalistic voice expressed separation from and violent opposition to cultured elites in favor of a popular political allegiance to radical patriotic solutions to controlling the economy and winning the war.[19] Le Père Duchesne began to attack prominent political figures like Lafayette, head of the National Guard; the deceased Comte de Mirabeau, a prominent orator and statesman; and Jean Sylvain Bailly, mayor of Paris. In a 1793 speech to the public, Hébert stated his beliefs regarding Lafayette. He noted that there were two Père Duchesnes who opposed each other deeply. The Père Duchesne that he said he identified with was the "honest and loyal Père Duchesne who has pursued traitors", while the Père Duchesne he had nothing to do with "praised Lafayette to the heavens".[20]

As a member of

Girondin
faction.

In April–May 1793 he, along with

Special Commission of Twelve, a Girondin commission which was designed to investigate and prosecute conspirators. At the urging of the Twelve, on 24 May 1793, he was arrested. However, Hébert had been warned in time, and, with the support of the sans-culottes, the National Convention was forced to order his release three days later. Just four days after that, his anti-Girondin rhetoric would help lead to their ousting in the Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June. On 28 August 1793, he proposed to the Jacobins to write an address taking up the demands of the enrages, and to have it taken to the Convention by the Jacobins, the 48 sections and the popular societies, a suggestion greatly applauded by Billaud-Varenne and others, ignoring Maximilien Robespierre
's warning against a riot "which would fill the aristocrats with joy".

During all this, Hébert met his wife Marie Goupil (born 1756), a 37-year-old former nun who had left convent life at the Sisters of Providence convent at Rue Saint-Honoré. Marie's passport from this time shows regular use.[citation needed] They married on 7 February 1792, and had a daughter, Virginie-Scipion Hébert (7 February 1793 – 13 July 1830).[21] During this time, Hébert had a luxurious, bourgeois life. He entertained Jean-Nicolas Pache, the mayor of Paris and Minister of War, for weeks, as well as other influential men, and liked to dress elegantly and surround himself with beautiful objects such as pretty tapestries—an attitude that can be contrasted to that of Paris Commune president Pierre Gaspard Chaumette. Where he got the financial resources to support his lifestyle is unclear; however, there are Jean-Nicolas Pache's commissions to print thousands of issues of Le Père Duchesne and his relationship to Delaunay d'Angers, mistress and wife of Andres Maria de Guzman.[who?] In February 1793, he voted with fellow bourgeois Hébertists against a Maximum Price Act, a price ceiling on grain, on the grounds that it would cause hoarding and stir resentment.

Dechristianization

priesthood.[25] On 21 October 1793, a law was passed which made all suspected priests and all persons who harbored them liable to death on sight.[25]

On 10 November 1793, dechristianization reached what many historians consider the climax of the movement when the Hébertists moved the first Festival of Reason ("Fête de la Raison"), a civic festival celebrating the

Notre Dame and reclaimed the cathedral as a "Temple of Reason".[23] On 7 June, Robespierre, who had previously condemned the Cult of Reason, advocated a new state religion and recommended that the Convention acknowledge the existence of a singular God. On the next day, the worship of the deistic Supreme Being was inaugurated as an official aspect of the Revolution. Compared with Hébert's somewhat popular festivals, this austere new religion of Virtue was received with signs of hostility by the Parisian public.[citation needed
]

Clash with Robespierre, arrest, conviction, and execution

After successfully attacking the Girondins, Hébert in the fall of 1793 continued to attack those whom he viewed as too moderate, including Georges Danton, Pierre Philippeaux, and Maximilien Robespierre, among others. When Hébert accused Marie Antoinette during her trial of incest with her son, Robespierre called him a fool ("imbécile") for his outrageous and unsubstantiated innuendos and lies.[26]

The government was exasperated and, with support from the Jacobins, finally decided to strike against the

Billaud-Varenne
. The order was to arrest the leaders of the Hébertists; these included individuals in the War Ministry and others.

In the

Madeleine Cemetery. His widow was executed twenty days later on 13 April 1794, and her corpse was disposed of in the Errancis Cemetery
.

The importance of Hébert's execution was known by everyone involved in the revolution, including the Jacobins. Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, a prominent Jacobin leader, noted that following his execution, "the revolution is frozen",[29] demonstrating how central Hébert and his followers, a large portion of sans-culottes, were to the longevity and success of the revolution.

Influence

It is difficult to completely ascertain the extent to which Hébert's publication Le Père Duchesne impacted the outcomes of political events between 1790 and 1794. French revolutionary historians such as Jean-Paul Bertaud, Jeremy D. Popkin, and William J. Murray each investigated French Revolutionary press history and determined that while the newspapers and magazines that one read during the revolution may have influenced their political leanings, it did not necessarily create their political leanings. One's class, for example, could be a significant determinant in directing and influencing one's political decisions. Therefore, Hébert's writings certainly influenced his audience to often dramatic extent, but the sans-culottes were but one element in a complex political mix, meaning that it is difficult to determine in what ways his writing changed the political outcomes of the French Revolution.[30] That being said, his wide readership and voice throughout the Revolution means that he was a significant public figure, and Le Père Duchesne's ability to influence the general population of France was indeed notable.

Gallery

References

  1. ISBN 0-19-822781-7
    . See p.227."
  2. ^ Colwill, Elizabeth. "Just Another 'Citoyenne?' Marie-Antoinette on Trial, 1790-1793". History Workshop (28): 63–87.
  3. ^ Chisholm 1911.
  4. ^ Sonenscher, Michael. "The Sans-culottes of the Year II: Rethinking the Language of Labour in Revolutionary France". Social History Vol. 9 No. 3 (1984): 326.
  5. JSTOR 10.5749/j.cttts898.6
    .
  6. ^ Hébert, Jacques-René (1790). "The Reawakening of Père Duchesne". Père Duchesne. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  7. ^ McNamara, Charles B. (1974). THE HEBERTISTS: STUDY OF A FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY "FACTION" IN THE REIGN OF TERROR, 1793-1794 (PhD). Fordham University.
  8. JSTOR 4288925
    .
  9. ^ a b Gilchrist, John Thomas (1971). The Press in The Press in the French Revolution. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 21.
  10. ^ Landes, Joan. "More than Words: The Printing Press and the French Revolution". Review of Revolution in Print: The Press in France, by Robert Darton, Daniel Roche; Naissance du Journal Revolutionnaire, by Claude Labrosse, Pierre Retat; La Revolution du Journal, by Pierre Retat; Revolutionary News; The Press in France, by Jeremy D. Popkin. Eighteenth-Century Studies Vol. 25 No. 1 (1991): 85–91.
  11. ^ Colwill, Elizabeth. "Just Another 'Citoyenne?' Marie-Antoinette on Trial, 1790-1793". History Workshop (28): 63–87.
  12. ISBN 0-19-822781-7
    . See p.250: "Hébert’s Père Duchesne, written in the oath-strewn vernacular, became the undisputed best-selling paper in Paris once Marat was silenced."
  13. ^ Colwill, Elizabeth. "Just Another 'Citoyenne?' Marie-Antoinette on Trial, 1790-1793". History Workshop (28): 63–87.
  14. doi:10.1093/hwj/28.1.63
    .
  15. ^ Colwill, Elizabeth. "Just Another 'Citoyenne?' Marie-Antoinette on Trial, 1790-1793". History Workshop (28): 63–87.
  16. ^ Kaiser, Thomas. "Who’s Afraid of Marie-Antoinette? Diplomacy, Austrophobia, and the Queen." French History, Vol. 14 No. 3 (2000): 241–271.
  17. ISSN 0003-4436
    .
  18. ISBN 978-1-349-00528-4
    .
  19. ^ Colwill, Elizabeth. "Just Another 'Citoyenne?' Marie-Antoinette on Trial, 1790-1793". History Workshop (28): 63–87.
  20. ISBN 978-1-629-63406-7
    .
  21. JSTOR 41925452
    .
  22. ^ Chartier, Roger (1991). The Cultural Origins of the French Revolution. Duke University Press. pp. 105–106.
  23. ^
    ISBN 9780691048970
    .
  24. S2CID 162297115
    . Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  25. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7876-4004-0
    .
  26. ^ Joachim Vilate (1795) Causes secrètes de la révolution du 9 au 10 thermidor, p. 12-13
  27. ^ Doyle (1989); p.270. |"The trial took place on 21–4 March, its result a foregone conclusion. Among those who went to the scaffold with Pere Duchesne on the afternoon of the twenty-fourth were Vincent, Ronsin, and the leader of section Marat, Momoro."
  28. ^ Page 27 BBC History Magazine, September 2015
  29. ISBN 978-1-629-63406-7
    .
  30. JSTOR 286493
    .
  • Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hébert, Jacques René" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 167. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, in turn, gives the following references:
    • Louis Duval, "Hébert chez lui", in La Révolution Française, revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine, t. xii. and t. xiii.
    • D. Mater, J. R. Hibert, L'auteur du Père Duchesne avant la journée du 10 août 1792 (Bourges, Comm. Hist. du Cher, 1888).
    • François Victor Alphonse Aulard, Le Culte de la raison et de l'être suprême (Paris, 1892).

External links

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