How did Robespierre and the Committee of Public safety deal with opponents of the Government?

Question

What was the effect of their policies?

Answer 1

They beheaded them

Answer 2

>>Historians disagree on Robespierre's role in the Terror. Some say that he was a minor player in the Committee of Public Safety. Babeuf and Philippe Buonarroti have tried to absolve him by saying he acted only for reasons of practical expediency. Robespierre has often been regarded as the dominant force on the committee. Louis-Sébastien Mercier coined the term "Sanguinocrat" to describe Robespierre. However, after his death many of his colleagues tried to save themselves by blaming him.

Robespierre believed that the Terror was a time of discovering and revealing the enemy within Paris, within France, the enemy that hid in the safety of apparent patriotism. [5] Because he believed that the Revolution was still in progress, and in danger of being sabotaged, he made every attempt to instil in the populace and Convention the urgency of carrying out the Terror. In his Report and others, he brought tales and fears of traitors, monarchists, and saboteurs throughout the Republic and also the Convention itself.

Robespierre saw no room for mercy in his Terror, stating that "slowness of judgements is equal to impunity" and "uncertainty of punishment encourages all the guilty". Through out his Report on the Principles of Political Morality, Robespierre assailed any stalling of action in defence of the Republic. In his thinking, there was not enough that could be done fast enough in defence against enemies at home and abroad. It is easy to call Robespierre paranoid in his persecution of his contemporaries, but as he states, his actions are geared towards the preservation of the Revolution. Having such a deep learning of Rousseau and the teachings of reason and the social contract, Robespierre believed that it was his duty as a public servant to push the revolution forward, and that the only rational way to do that was to defend it on all fronts. The Report isn't so much a call for blood as it is a call for the legislative arm of the French Republic to fulfil its end of the social contract and serve the people. Along with his promotion of Terror, the Report also expounds many of the original ideas of the 1789 Revolution. Ideas of political equality, suffrage, and abolition of privilege are as much a part of Robespierres' ethos as was the Terror. Despite executing a good number of his fellow revolutionaries, Robespierre was still one of them in his theory, even if his practice was questionable.

In Paris, Robespierre increased the activity of the Terror: no one could accuse him of being a moderate. He hoped that the Convention would pass whatever measures he might dictate. To secure his aims, another ally on the Committee, Couthon, introduced and carried on June 10 the drastic Law of 22 Prairial. Under this law, the Tribunal became a simple court of condemnation without need of witnesses. The result of this was that until Robespierre's death, 1,285 victims were guillotined in Paris.

Legacy:

Maximillien Robespierre is still a controversial figure. His defenders, such as Albert Soboul, viewed most of the measures of the Committee for Public Safety necessary for the defense of the Revolution and mainly regretted the destruction of the Hébertists and other enragés.

Robespierre’s main ideal was to ensure the virtue and sovereignty of the people. He disapproved of any acts which could be seen as exposing the nation to counter-revolutionaries and traitors, and became increasingly fearful of the defeat of the Revolution. He instigated the Terror and the deaths of his peers as a measure of ensuring a Republic of Virtue; but his ideals went beyond the needs and wants of the populous of France. He became a threat to what he had wanted to ensure and the result was his downfall.[2]

The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica sums up Robespierre as a bright young theorist out of his depth in the matter of experience:

"A well-educated and accomplished young lawyer, he might have acquired a good provincial practice and lived a happy provincial life had it not been for the Revolution. Like thousands of other young Frenchmen, he had read the works of Rousseau and taken them as gospel. Just at the very time in life when this illusion had not been destroyed by the realities of life, and without the experience which might have taught the futility of idle dreams and theories, he was elected to the states-general."

"At Paris he wasn't understood till he met with his audience of fellow disciples of Rousseau at the Jacobin Club. His fanaticism won him supporters; his singularly sweet and sympathetic voice gained him hearers; and his upright life attracted the admiration of all. As matters approached nearer and nearer to the terrible crisis, he failed, except in the two instances of the question of war and of the kings trial, to show himself a statesman, for he had not the liberal views and practical instincts which made Mirabeau and Danton great men. His admission to the Committee of Public Safety gave him power, which he hoped to use for the establishment of his favourite theories, and for the same purpose he acquiesced in and even heightened the horrors of the Reign of Terror. It is here that the fatal mistake of allowing a theorist to have power appeared:

"Billaud-Varenne systematized the Terror because he believed it necessary for the safety of the country; Robespierre intensified it in order to carry out his own ideas and theories. Robespierre's private life was always respectable: he was always emphatically a gentleman and man of culture, and even a little bit of a dandy, scrupulously honest, truthful and charitable. In his habits and manner of life he was simple and laborious; he was not a man gifted with flashes of genius, but one who had to think much before he could come to a decision, and he worked hard all his life."<<

Answer 3

They dealt with vocal opponents by accusing them of being traitors to the revolution, usually leading to the guillotine.  There was a reason that time period was known as "The Terror".  It was thought that Robespierre had went too far and he was eventually guillotined himself.