1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Camus, Armand Gaston

CAMUS, ARMAND GASTON (1740–1804), French revolutionist, was a successful advocate before the Revolution. In 1789 he was elected by the third estate of Paris to the states general, and attracted attention by his speeches against social inequalities. Elected to the National Convention by the department of Haute-Loire, he was named member of the committee of general safety, and then sent as one of the commissioners charged with the surveillance of General C. F. Dumouriez. Delivered with his colleagues to the Austrians on the 3rd of April 1793, he was exchanged for the daughter of Louis XVI. in November 1795. He played an inconspicuous rôle in the council of the Five Hundred. On the 14th of August 1789 the Constituent Assembly made Camus its archivist, and in that capacity he organized the national archives, classified the papers of the different assemblies of the Revolution and drew up analytical tables of the procès-verbaux. He was restored to the office in 1796 and became absorbed in literary work. He remained an austere republican, refusing to take part in the Napoleonic régime.