Benjamin Deschanel (died 29 July 1794) was a politician of the French Republic who was a leader of the Jacobin Club. Deschanel was a member of the Committee of Public Safety under Maximilien Robespierre and took over the last people of the club after Robespierre's death on 28 July, but he was killed in the "Jacobin Raid" by a mob of supporters of Anne-Josephe Theroigne de Mericourt.
Biography[]
Benjamin Deschanel was born in Paris, France to a bourgeois family. Deschanel became a friend of Maximilien Robespierre while acting as a lawyer under the Kingdom of France, and the two became members of the Jacobin Club, a radical group of French revolutionaries. Deschanel aided Robespierre in the execution of the French Revolution and became one of the members of the Jacobin-dominated Paris Commune of the French Republic, taking part in many executions of counter-revolutionaries during the Reign of Terror of 1792-1794. Over 41,000 French people were killed by guillotine or firing squad during one of the bloodiest eras of human history, with most of them being accused of being counter-revolutionary or reactionary.
Downfall[]
Deschanel's death
On 27 July 1794, the National Convention had enough of the madness of Robespierre and ordered his arrest. They stormed the Hotel de Ville and captured Robespierre and much of the Jacobin leadership, guillotining them a day later in the "Thermidorian Reaction". Deschanel was back at the Jacobin hideout, and the day after Robespierre's execution, Anne-Josephe Theroigne de Mericourt gathered a large crowd of counter-revolutionaries outside of the hideout and demanded an end to the Jacobin terror. She was whipped by the Jacobins, and Deschanel ordered his fellow leaders to escape with him into the secret tunnel network that could let them escape. However, two members of the Assassin Order killed all of the Jacobin guards and Deschanel was killed in the tunnels while trying to flee. The Jacobin Club never did regain power, and the Reign of Terror ended.