Jean-Jacques Bréard

During his time on the Committee of Public Safety, Bréard was sent on mission to Brest to manage the organization of a more effective coastal defense in the vital naval town. When Jean Bon Saint-André departed from Brest for a brief period, Bréard was left in charge, and succumbed to the demands of his overzealous and unruly followers. He authorized the formation of a Revolutionary Tribunal during the beginning of the Terror, despite Saint André’s opposition. He was bullied by the local Jacobin Club into placing Jacobin allies, many of them incompetent and inexperienced, into offices carrying responsibility. Bréard also dispatched activist groups into neighboring districts to indoctrinate the local people with their radical brand of republicanism, including the corrupt agitator Dagorne.[2] In September 1793, a planned naval mutiny was uncovered, and Bréard ordered the imprisonment of thirty members of the fleet. A full investigation into the mutiny did not commence until Saint André arrived back five days later.[3] When Saint André returned to Brest he mitigated Bréard’s more radical measures, and returned emphasis to construction and other infrastructure projects.[4] Bréard was originally replaced in his post at Brest by Laignelot, who favored implementing even more radical measures. Laignelot was subsequently reproached by Saint André.[5] However, as France shifted to an offensive posture in preparation for a planned naval invasion of Britain, some harsh policies remained in place to prevent insurrection or instability.

Although Bréard was originally a member of the Montagnard faction, he supported the Thermidorian Reaction that began with Robespierre’s downfall in July 1794. He outlasted the collapse of the Committee of Public Safety and Robespierre’s faction, and served in the Conseil des Anciens (Council of Ancients) as a deputy of Charente-Inférieure from 1795 to 1798. He also supported the coup of Brumaire 18 in 1799, orchestrated by Abbé Sieyès, by which the Directory was overthrown and replaced with the French Consulate, with General Napoleon Bonaparte at the helm.[6]

Bréard was nominated to the Corps Législatif in 1799, and served as President of the Corps Législatif for two weeks from January 6, 1801, to January 21, 1801. He worked as an administrator of the Paris post office, was banished in 1816 after the Restoration, and did not return to France until 1830. He died on January 2, 1840, in Paris.[7]