Jean-Marie Claude Alexandre Goujon

Jean-Marie Claude Alexandre Goujon (April 13, 1766 – 1795) was a French journalist, lawyer, and statesman of the French Revolution. He was the brother-in-law of Pierre François Tissot.

Biography

Early life

Born in Bourg-en-Bresse, the son of a postmaster, he went to sea as a boy, lived on Mauritius, and saw fighting when he was twelve years old. In 1790, he settled at Meudon, near Paris, and began to complete his education. As "procureur-général-syndic" of the "départment" of Seine-et-Oise, in August, 1792, he had to ensure adequate supplies of food for the inhabitants.

Convention

In the National Convention, which he entered on the death of Marie Jean Hérault de Séchelles, he affiliated with The Mountain. Goujon conducted a mission to the Armies of the Rhine and the Moselle, showing himself to be quite moderate, and was a consistent advocate of peace within the Republic. Nevertheless, he was a determined opponent of other moderate and reactionary forces, which he denounced in the Jacobin Club and in The Mountain after his recall to Paris, following the outbreak of the Thermidorian Reaction (July 27, 1794).

He was one of those who protested against the readmission of Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai and other survivors of the Girondist party to the Convention in March 1795; and, when the populace invaded the legislature on the 1 Prairial Year III (May 20, 1795) and compelled the deputies to legislate in accordance with their desires, he proposed the immediate establishment of a special commission which should assure the execution of the proposed changes and assume the functions of the various committees.

Downfall

The failure of the insurrection involved the fall of those deputies who had supported the demands of the populace. Before the close of the sitting, Goujon, with Gilbert Romme, Jean-Michel Duroy, Adrien Duquesnoy, Pierre Bourbotte, Pierre-Aimable de Soubrany, and others were put under arrest by their colleagues, and on their way to the "château" of Taureau in Brittany, had a narrow escape from a mob at Avranches.

They were brought back to Paris for trial before a military commission on June 17, and, although no proof of their complicity in organizing the insurrection could be found —they were, in fact, with the exception of Goujon and Bourbotte, strangers to one another— they were sentenced to death. In accordance with a pre-arranged plan, they attempted suicide on the staircase leading from the courtroom, with a knife which Goujon had successfully concealed. Romme, Goujon and Duquesnoy succeeded, but the other three merely inflicted wounds which did not prevent their being taken immediately to the guillotine. With their deaths, The Mountain ceased to exist as a party.

References

*1911 "In turn, it cites as references:"
** "Defense du représentant du peuple Goujon", Paris: undated; includes the letters and a hymn written by Goujon during his imprisonment.
** Jules Arsène Arnaud Claretie, "Les Derniers Montagnards, histoire de l'insurrection de Prairial an III d'après les documents", 1867.
** Jean Maurice Tourneux, "Bibliographie de l'histoire de Paris pendant la Rév. Fr.", vol. i pp.422-425, Paris: 1890.