born March 2, 1760, Guise, France
died April 5, 1794, Paris
French journalist influential in the French Revolution.
Though a stammer had impeded him as a lawyer, he suddenly emerged as an inspiring orator when the Revolution began, inciting the storming of the Bastille. In his pamphlets and newspapers he campaigned for the deposition of the king and the establishment of a republic. Elected to the National Convention, he joined other Montagnard s in a struggle against the Girondin s. Later he and Georges Danton became leaders of a moderate faction, the Indulgents. After attacking the Committee of Public Safety's Reign of Terror , he was guillotined along with other Dantonists.