Jean-Pierre-André Amar or Jean-Baptiste-André Amar (May 11, 1755 – December 21, 1816) was a French political figure of the

Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

and Freemason.

Life

Early activities

Born in a rich family of cloth merchants in

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

, Amar was the son of the former Director of the Mint. He became a lawyer for the local '' parlement'' in 1774. In 1786, he purchased the title of '' Trésorier de France'' for the tax region of the

Dauphiné The Dauphiné (, ) is a former province in Southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of Isère, Drôme and Hautes-Alpes. The Dauphiné was originally the Dauphiné of Viennois. In the 12th centu ...

, which gave him a title in the

French nobility The French nobility (french: la noblesse française) was a privileged social class in France from the Middle Ages until its abolition on June 23, 1790 during the French Revolution. From 1808 to 1815 during the First Empire the Emperor Napol ...

, for 200,000 ''

livres The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France. The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 gr ...

''. In 1789, he was one of the founders of the Grenoble patriotic society, which in December of that year published the first edition of ''La Vedette des Alpes''. In 1790, Amar was elected vice-president of the Grenoble directory, and became a deputy to the

National Convention The National Convention (french: link=no, Convention nationale) was the parliament of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for the rest of its existence during the French Revolution, following the two-year Nationa ...

for the ''

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

'' of Isère, and joined

The Mountain The Mountain (french: La Montagne) was a political group during the French Revolution. Its members, called the Montagnards (), sat on the highest benches in the National Convention. They were the most radical group and opposed the Girondins. Th ...

, voting in favor of

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

during his trial.

Prominence

Sent on mission with Jean-Marie-François Merlino to

Ain Ain (, ; frp, En) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Named after the Ain river, it is bordered by the Saône and Rhône rivers. Ain is located on the country's eastern edge, on the Swiss border, where ...

and Isère in early 1793, he oversaw the '' levée en masse'' of 300,000 soldiers brought about by the outbreak of the

French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars (french: Guerres de la Révolution française) were a series of sweeping military conflicts lasting from 1792 until 1802 and resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted France against Britain, Austria, Prussia ...

and he made widespread arrests of "counter-revolutionaries". After the ousting of the

Girondist The Girondins ( , ), or Girondists, were members of a loosely knit political faction during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnard ...

s from the Convention in late May and early June 1793, Amar joined the

Committee of General Security The Committee of General Security () was a parliamentary committee of the French National Convention which acted as police agency during the French Revolution. Along with the Committee of Public Safety it oversaw the Reign of Terror. The Committe ...

on 13 September. He was, with

Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier (17 July 1736 – 14 December 1828) was a major French politician of the French Revolution. He is sometimes called the "Great Inquisitor", for his active participation in the Reign of Terror. During this time, he was i ...

, one of its most influential members. He was noted for his attacks on the

s and his order in October 1793 to arrest the 46 deputies who had protested against the violence of The Mountain. He also argued against women’s rights by stating women “are hardly capable of lofty conceptions and serious cogitation”. In doing so he kept them from gaining political rights.

Liquidation Scandal

In November 1793 the Convention charged him, together with

Fabre D'Eglantine Fabre or Fabré is a surname of Occitan French origin, and a given name. Notable people with the name include: * André Fabre (born 1945), French thoroughbred horse racing trainer * Cándido Fabré, Cuban musician, songwriter and singer * Cath ...

, with investigating the Liquidation Scandal. Amar's investigations uncovered the fact that Fabre himself had been deeply involved in the fraud. The arrest of Fabre on 13 January 1794 helped precipitate the power struggle between his ally

Danton Georges Jacques Danton (; 26 October 1759 – 5 April 1794) was a French lawyer and a leading figure in the French Revolution. He became a deputy to the Paris Commune, presided in the Cordeliers district, and visited the Jacobin club. In August ...

and Robespierre. On 16 March Amar presented his report on the Liquidation Scandal to the Convention, and on 31 March Amar was one of the Committee Members who signed the decree for the arrest of Danton. However, Robespierre was sharply critical of Amar's report, which presented the scandal as purely a matter of fraud. Robespierre insisted that it was a foreign plot, demanded that the report be re-written, and used the scandal as the basis for rhetorical attacks on the foreign powers he believed were involved. On 23 July 1794 Robespierre attacked Amar by name at a joint session of the Committees for his handling of the Liquidation Scandal. Amar was involved in the

Thermidorian Reaction The Thermidorian Reaction (french: Réaction thermidorienne or ''Convention thermidorienne'', "Thermidorian Convention") is the common term, in the historiography of the French Revolution, for the period between the ousting of Maximilien Robespie ...

from its very beginning.

Later life

Arrested himself as a former partisan of Terror (April 2, 1795), he benefitted from an

amnesty Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, ''amnestia'', "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power offici ...

on October 26. Amar then opposed the establishment of the French Directory in November, and in February 1796 he presented a petition from 'Patriots of '89' urging the re-establishment of price controls on basic foods. The Directory refused to consider it. He took part in the

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agre ...

Gracchus Babeuf The Gracchi brothers were two Roman brothers, sons of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus who was consul in 177 BC. Tiberius, the elder brother, was tribune of the plebs in 133 BC and Gaius, the younger brother, was tribune a decade later in ...

early in 1796; tried by the Court in

Vendôme Vendôme (, ) is a subprefecture of the department of Loir-et-Cher, France. It is also the department's third-biggest commune with 15,856 inhabitants (2019). It is one of the main towns along the river Loir. The river divides itself at the ...

, he was

acquitted In common law jurisdictions, an acquittal certifies that the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as criminal law is concerned. The finality of an acquittal is dependent on the jurisdiction. In some countries, such as the ...

on May 26. He retired from public life, and lived most of his remaining years in Isère and

Savoie Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè'' or ''Savouè-d'Avâl''; English: ''Savoy'' ) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Southeastern France. Located in the French Alps, its prefecture is Chambéry. In 2019, Savoie had a population ...

, discovering devotional

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ...

based on the works of

Emanuel Swedenborg Emanuel Swedenborg (, ; born Emanuel Swedberg; 29 March 1772) was a Swedish pluralistic-Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, ''Heaven and Hell'' (1758). Swedenborg had a ...

. When the Bourbon dynasty returned to power, he was not banished like other members of the ConventionChronicle of the French Revolution p.663 Longman Group 1989 He died in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

Notes

Sources

Albert Soboul Albert Marius Soboul (27 April 1914 – 11 September 1982) was a historian of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. A professor at the Sorbonne, he was chair of the History of the French Revolution and author of numerous influential ...

, ''Dictionnaire historique de la Révolution française,'' PUF 1989. * Jean Tulard, Jean-François Fayard et Alfred Fierro, ''Histoire et dictionnaire de la Révolution française. 1789–1799,'' éd. Robert Laffont, coll. « Bouquins », Paris, 1987,1998 étail de l’édition* ''Archives parlementaires de 1787 à 1860: recueil complet des débats législatifs et politiques des Chambres françaises''. First series, 1787 à 1799. Tomes LV, LVI, LVII, LX, LXI, LXII, LXV, LXVI, LXIX, LXX et LXXI. * ''Documents historiques sur les origines de la Révolution dauphinoise de 1788'' Grenoble, 1888, p. 76–90 for relation to Freemasony. {{DEFAULTSORT:Amar, Jean-Pierre-Andre 1755 births 1816 deaths Politicians from Grenoble Deputies to the French National Convention 18th-century French lawyers French untitled nobility People involved in the Conspiracy of the Equals French Freemasons People of the Reign of Terror Presidents of the National Convention