About

Born at Verdun to a family of Vaudois origin, Jean-Nicolas Pache rose through the naval administration and royal service before becoming minister of war in October 1792. He replaced much of the ministry’s staff and helped establish a central purchasing board intended to coordinate supplies for the War, Interior and Marine ministries. Dumouriez and deputies allied with Brissot accused his administration of leaving the Army of Belgium poorly supplied. Elected mayor of Paris in February 1793, Pache led the deputation that presented the Convention with a petition from the Paris sections demanding the expulsion of twenty-two deputies on 15 April. He remained mayor during the insurrection of 31 May to 2 June, although his personal part in organising it remains uncertain. In June, he ordered the formula “Unity and indivisibility of the Republic, liberty, equality, fraternity or death” painted on Parisian public buildings. Arrested on 10 May 1794, he remained imprisoned until the amnesty of October 1795. He later settled at Thin-le-Moutier in the Ardennes, where he died in 1823.