Hérault de Séchelles, Marie-Jean

Born Sept. 20, 1759, in Paris; died there Apr. 5, 1794. Figure in the French Revolution.

A procureur in the Parliament of Paris on the eve of the revolution, Hérault de Séchelles took part in the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly in 1791 and 1792 and a member of the National Convention from 1792 to 1794. Hérault de Séchelles drafted and edited the declaration of July 11, 1792, that proclaimed “the fatherland in danger.” During the Jacobin dictatorship he was a member of the Committee of Public Safety, where he was in charge of foreign affairs. He helped draw up the democratic constitution of 1793. Accused of treason, he was arrested in March 1794: Hérault de Séchelles was tried and executed with the Dantonists.