page_title: Jean-Marie Calès
section_title: Representative on mission
hierarchical_section_title: Jean-Marie Calès / Biography / Under the National Convention / Representative on mission
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Un représentant du peuple en mission. Longtemps identifiée comme un portrait de Jean-Baptiste Milhaud attribué à David, cette peinture est aujourd'hui sans attribution certaine.
context_page_description: Jean-Marie Calès was a French physician and politician in the period of the French Revolution. He was born on October 13, 1757 in Cessales and died on April 13, 1834 in Liège.
context_section_description: On June 15, 1793, Calès was appointed Representative on mission, an extraordinary envoy of the National Assembly for maintaining law and order in the départements and armies. He was sent several times between 1793 and 1795, notably in the Ardennes and the Marne (on June 17, 1793) to ensure the supply of military troops. During his mission, he delivered a resounding « Speech » at the Champ de Mars of Sedan on August 10, 1793, which was printed and placarded in that city. This speech began with these exalted words: 
  « What a spectacle for the universe! What a day for a man worthy of being free! What a moment for a heart that has long groaned under the chains of an unworthy slavery, sighing for the delights of liberty. »
  He met then in this city his future wife Madame Marie-Sylphide Anne Poupardin (1768-1828), widow of the negociant Gabriel-Étienne Poupardin du Rivage d'Orléans. She belonged to a family of industrialists of Protestant origin, owned a manufacture in Sedan, which gave her a certain ease, and had two children. Calès married her in October 1793.
  However, after four months of mission, on October 19, 1793, both Calès and his colleague Jean-Baptiste Perrin des Vosges were called back to Paris, because being considered as « too moderate ». In reality, this recall followed slanderous denunciations issued by members of the Popular Society of Sedan, as well as by the mayor of the city, Vassant, who accused them of having too much frequented the high society of Sedan (with as proof in support, the new wealthy wife of Calès). However, the two representatives were defended by the deputies of the Ardennes and by the general-council of the commune of Charleville, who demanded to the Convention (in a eulogistic address read during the session of September 27, 1793) that « the infamous calumniators of these deputies should be delivered to the revolutionary tribunal ». The accusations, thus, were not pursued. Calès and Perrin published then a « Report » of this mission, made to the Convention and printed.
caption: Représentant en mission (painting attributed to Jacques-Louis David)
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