The three men sent to Puy-de-Dôme had been specifically granted unlimited powers by the Convention. The 14th of Frimaire being still in the future, they could do as they saw fit. They could make arrests, create revolutionary courts, conduct trials, erect guillotines. They could nullify, extend or curtail the force of any law. They could issue decrees and proclamations on any subject. They could fix prices, requisition goods, confiscate property, collect taxes. They could purge any existing government body, or, if they chose, dissolve government bodies altogether, replacing them with committees
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