Leclerc, Theophile

Leclerc, Théophile 

Born December 1771 in Montbrison; year and place of death unknown. Active in the Great French Revolution; one of the enragés and a member of the Cordelier Club.

Leclerc participated in the revolutionary movement in Martinique (1790–91) and Lyon (early 1793) and in the popular uprising in Paris from May 31 to June 2, 1793. Beginning July 20, 1793, he demanded, in the pages of his newspaper L’Ami du peuple, an improvement in the conditions of the urban poor and an intensification of the struggle against the counterrevolution, calling for the use of revolutionary mass terror. In August 1793 Leclerc submitted a draft plan for nationalizing the trade in vital consumer goods. He insisted on the the expulsion of the representatives of the Marais and the Dantonists from the Convention and supported the reelection of the members of the Convention in September 1793. Leclerc was in prison from April to August 1794.