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CHAUMETTE, PIERRE GASPARD (1763-1794)

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 18 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHAUMETTE, See also:PIERRE GASPARD (1763-1794) , See also:French revolutionist, was See also:born at See also:Nevers. Until the Revolution he lived a somewhat wandering See also:life, interesting himself particularly in See also:botany. He was a student of See also:medicine at See also:Paris in 1790, became one of the orators of the See also:club of the See also:Cordeliers, and contributed anonymously to the Revolutions de Paris. As member of the insurrectionary See also:Commune of the loth of See also:August 1792, he was delegated to visit the prisons, with full See also:power to See also:arrest suspects. He was accused later of having taken See also:part in the massacres of See also:September, but was able to prove that at that See also:time he had been sent by the provisional executive See also:council to See also:Normandy to oversee a requisition of 60,000 men. Returning from this See also:mission, he pronounced an eloquent discourse in favour of the See also:republic. His See also:simple See also:manners, easy speech, ardent temperament and irreproachable private life gave him See also:great See also:influence in Paris, and he was elected See also:president of the Commune, defending the See also:municipality in that capacity at the See also:bar of the See also:Convention on the 31st of See also:October 1792. Re-elected in the municipal elections of the 2nd of See also:December 1792, he was soon charged with the functions of See also:procurator of the Commune, and contributed with success to the enrolments of See also:volunteers by his appeals to the populace. Chaumette was one of the ringleaders in the attacks of the 31st of May and of the 2nd of See also:June 1793 on the See also:Girondists, toward whom he showed himself relentless. He demanded the formation of a revolutionary See also:army, and preached the extermination of all traitors. He was one of the promoters of the See also:worship of See also:Reason, and on the loth of See also:November 1793 he presented the goddess to the Convention in the See also:guise of an actress. On the 23rd of the same See also:month he obtained a See also:decree closing all the churches of Paris, and placing the priests under strict surveillance; but on the 25th he retraced his steps and obtained from the Commune the See also:free exercise of worship.

He wished to See also:

save the Hebertists by a new insurrection and struggled against See also:Robespierre; but a revolutionary decree promulgated by the Commune on his demand was overthrown by the Convention. Robespierre had him accused with the Bebertists; he was arrested, imprisoned in the Luxembourg, condemned by the Revolutionary tribunal and executed on the 13th of See also:April 1794. Chaumette's career had its brighter See also:side. He was an ardent social reformer; he secured the abolition of See also:corporal See also:punishment in the See also:schools, the suppression of See also:lotteries, of houses of See also:ill-fame and of obscene literature; he instituted reforms in the hospitals, and insisted on the honours of public See also:burial for the poor. Chaumette See also:left some printed speeches and fragments, and See also:memoirs published in the See also:Amateur d'autographes. His memoirs on the loth of August were published by F. A. See also:Aulard, preceded by a See also:biographical study. CHAUMONT-EN-BASSIGNY, a See also:town of eastern See also:France, See also:capital of the See also:department of Haute-See also:Marne, a railway junction 163 m. E.S.E. of Paris on the See also:main See also:line of the Eastern railway to See also:Belfort. Pop. (1906) 12,089.

Chaumont is picturesquely situated on an See also:

eminence between the See also:rivers Marne and Suize in the See also:angle formed by their confluence. To the See also:west a lofty viaduct over the Suize carries the railway. The See also:church of St-See also:Jean-See also:Baptiste See also:dates from the 13th See also:century, the See also:choir and lateral chapels belonging to the 15th and 16th. In the interior the sculptured See also:triforium (15th century), the See also:spiral See also:staircase in the See also:transept and a See also:Holy See also:Sepulchre are of See also:interest. The lycee and the See also:hospital have chapels of the 17th and 16th centuries respectively. The Tour Hautefeuille (a keep of the 11th century) is the See also:principal relic of a See also:chateau of the See also:counts of See also:Champagne; the See also:rest of the site is occupied by the See also:law courts. In the See also:Place de l'Escargot stands a statue of the chemist Philippe Lebon (1767–1804), born in Haute-Marne. Chaumont is the seat of a See also:prefect and of a See also:court of assizes, and has tribunals of first instance and of See also:commerce, a lycee, training colleges, and a See also:branch of the See also:Bank of France. The main See also:industries are See also:glove-making and See also:leather-dressing. The town has See also:trade in See also:grain, See also:iron, See also:mined in the vicinity, and leather. In 1190 it received a See also:charter from the counts of Champagne. It was here that in 1814 Great See also:Britain, See also:Austria, See also:Russia and See also:Prussia concluded the treaty (dated See also:March 1, signed March 9) by which they severally See also:bound them-selves not to conclude a See also:separate See also:peace with See also:Napoleon, and to continue the See also:war until France should have been reduced within the boundaries of 1792.

End of Article: CHAUMETTE, PIERRE GASPARD (1763-1794)

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