Jacques Brissot

Jacques Brissot, called de Warville (1754-1793), French reformer, one of the leaders of the Girondins or moderate Republicans, during the French Revolution. Born in Chartres, Jacques Pierre Brissot was a reform-minded lawyer and journalist before the Revolution. In 1784 he was imprisoned in the Bastille for criticizing the government; he later went to England and the United States, where he was active in the movement to abolish slavery. Returning to France at the outbreak of the Revolution, he founded the newspaper Le Patriote Français, which became the leading organ of the Girondins, also known as Brissotins. In 1791 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly, where he advocated war as a means of spreading the Revolution. As a member of the assembly's legislative committee, Brissot was chiefly responsible for the decision to declare war on Austria in 1792. He was executed with other Girondin leaders during the Reign of Terror.