Jean-Paul Marat 1793

Letter to the Convention


Written: July 2, 1793;
Source: La Correspondance de Marat, recueillie et annotée par Charles Vellay, Ed. Fasquelle, Paris, 1908;
Translated: for marxists.org by Mitch Abidor.


July 2,1793
Citizen Colleagues:

What is your Committee of Public Safety thinking about? Is it sleeping, or does it refuse to act? Ten days ago I demanded that the measures you took against the established authorities in Evreux be taken against those of Lyons. You referred my demand to the Committee, and it has remained silent. These measures would return to order the aristocrats of the department of the Rhone-et-Loire, as they did with those of the Eure. Today, when these traitors no longer recognize the authority of the National Assembly there only remains the deploying of the national forces to return them to their obligations. I thus propose that after outlawing the administrative bodies of this department you call against them the brave sans-culottes of the Cantal, Puy-de-Dome, the Ain, and the Haute-Loire if they refuse to submit within a week.

The enclosed letter, whose author I know, will prove that you don’t have a moment to lose if you want to prevent the assassination of a hundred unfortunate patriots.

Marat