Jean-Marie Claude Alexandre Goujon

Jean Marie Claude Alexandre Goujon (13 April 1766, Bourg-en-Bresse – 17 June 1795, Paris)[1] was a politician of the French Revolution.

The young Jean-Marie Goujon abandoned his studies after his father encountered financial difficulties, going first to Dieppe and then Saint-Malo to join the Navy.

Goujon took part in the early days of the revolution, helping to seize weapons after the dismissal of Necker and becoming a member of the council of the Légion du Châtelet.

In this he showed that the government's liberal economic policy had important social consequences: "The unlimited freedom of the grain trade is incompatible with the existence of our Republic.

He concluded by calling for land reform, with a maximum farm size of 120 acres (0.49 km2), and the central management of essential supplies, with its members elected by the people.

On 5 Brumaire Year II (26 October 1793) Goujon became one of its three commissioners, and played a major role in this post in establishing the fixed prices that were to be enforced under the general maximum.

On 20 Pluviôse Year III (8 February 1795) he responded to the arrest of Gracchus Babeuf and the closure of political clubs by proposing a decree against those who attacked the rights of man and the constitution.

On 18 Ventôse (8 March) he was the only deputy with sufficient courage to vote against the readmission to the Convention of Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai and other survivors of the Girondin party, who he felt would be too much inclined to avenge old wrongs.

[7] On 1 Germinal (21 March) he fought against the police bill proposed by Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès, and when Jean-Lambert Tallien attacked the Constitution of Year I, Goujon threatened him with the anger of the people.

When the populace invaded the legislature on the 1 Prairial Year III (20 May 1795), he proposed the immediate establishment of a special commission to ensure delivery of the changes demanded by the insurgents and assume the functions of the various committees.

Before the close of the sitting, Goujon, with Gilbert Romme, Jean-Michel Duroy, Adrien Duquesnoy, Pierre Bourbotte, Pierre-Aimable de Soubrany, and others were placed under arrest by their colleagues.

Camille Desmoulins praised Goujon's letter proposing marriage to Lise Cornery, with its patriotic sentiments, as an example of upright citizenship.