Committee of General Security

Overview

The Committee of General Security was the policing and internal-security body that operated beside the Committee of Public Safety during the Terror.

Current Profile

By late 1793, the source assigns the committee responsibility for policing and links it to the Revolutionary Tribunal. In March 1794 it joined the Committee of Public Safety in approving Danton’s arrest, although two members refused to sign. Its role shows that revolutionary repression was distributed across overlapping bodies rather than commanded by one individual or one undifferentiated committee.

Key Characteristics

• It handled policing and internal security within revolutionary government.
• It operated alongside rather than inside the Committee of Public Safety.
• It was institutionally connected to the Revolutionary Tribunal.
• It participated in the decision to arrest Danton and his allies.
• Internal refusal to sign shows that committee action was not unanimous.

Evidence

Police and tribunal role

• 710. The Terror: Death at the Guillotine (Part 4) distinguishes the committee’s policing and tribunal responsibilities from the policy direction of the Committee of Public Safety.

Danton arrest

• 710. The Terror: Death at the Guillotine (Part 4) says the two governing committees approved Danton’s arrest on 29 March while recording two refusals to sign.

Qualifications

• The source supplies a focused institutional role, not a complete history of membership, jurisdiction, or rivalry between committees.
• Participation in the arrest decision does not establish identical motives or equal responsibility for every member.
• The exact allocation of control over the tribunal remains source-scoped.

What Changed

• A canonical profile now separates internal policing and arrest authority from the public-safety committee’s wider policy role.

Relationships

• Committee of Public Safety - parallel governing body that joined it in approving Danton’s arrest.
• Revolutionary Tribunal - political court linked to its internal-security function.
• Georges Danton / 丹东 - former revolutionary leader whose arrest it approved.
• Emergency Institutions to Terror - institutional accumulation illustrated by overlapping executive, police, and judicial bodies.
• Revolutionary Purge Security Dilemma - later fear generated inside the governing apparatus by repeated elite purges.