National Convention

For other uses, see National Convention (disambiguation).

National Convention Convention nationale
French First Republic
Autel de la Convention nationale or Autel républicain François-Léon Sicard Panthéon de Paris, France, 1913
History
Established	20 September 1792
Disbanded	2 November 1795
Preceded by	Legislative Assembly
Succeeded by	The Directory

The National Convention (French: Convention nationale) was a single-chamber assembly in France from 21 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 (4 Brumaire IV under the Convention's adopted calendar) during the French Revolution. It succeeded the Legislative Assembly and founded the First Republic after the insurrection of 10 August 1792. The Legislative Assembly decreed the provisional suspension of King Louis XVI and the convocation of a National Convention which should draw up a constitution. At the same time it was decided that deputies to that convention should be elected by all Frenchmen twenty-five years old or more, domiciled for a year and living by the product of their labor. The National Convention was therefore the first French Assembly elected by universal male suffrage, without distinctions of class.

Elections

The election took place from 2 to 6 September 1792 after the election of the electoral colleges by primary assemblies on 26 August. Owing to the abstention of aristocrats and anti-republicans and the fear of victimization the voter turnout in the departments was low – 11.9% of the electorate, compared to 10.2% in 1791 elections in spite of that the number of eligible to vote has doubled. Therefore the impact of universal suffrage had very little effect. On the whole, the electorate returned the same sort of men that the active citizens had chosen in 1791.

In the whole of France, only eleven primary assemblies wished for the retention of the monarchy. Of the electoral assemblies there was not one but tacitly voted for a republic – though only Paris used the word. Among chosen deputies there was not one who had stood for election as a royalist. Though only a million voters went to the polls, there is no good reason to doubt that they represented the will of the five million Frenchmen. Majorities begin revolutions; minorities carry them on.

The Convention held its first sessions in a hall of the Tuileries Palace, then it sat in the Salle du Manège, and finally from 10 May 1793 in that of the Salle des Machines, an immense hall in which the deputies were but loosely scattered. This last hall had the galleries for the public, who often influenced the debate by interruptions or by applause.

The members of the Convention came from all classes of society, but the most numerous were lawyers. Seventy-five members had sat in the National Constituent Assembly, 183 in the Legislative Assembly. The full number of deputies was 749, not counting 33 from the French colonies, of whom only some arrived in time to Paris. Besides these, however, the newly formed [départements] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) annexed to France from 1792 to 1795 were allowed to send deputations.

According to its own ruling, the Convention elected its President every fortnight. He was eligible for re-election after the lapse of a fortnight. Ordinarily the sessions were held in the morning, but evening sessions also occurred frequently, often extending late into the night. Sometimes in exceptional circumstances the Convention declared itself in permanent session and sat for several days without interruption. For both legislative and administrative the Convention used committees, with powers more or less widely extended and regulated by successive laws. The most famous of these committees included the Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security.

The Convention held legislative and executive powers during the first years of the French First Republic and had three distinct periods: Girondin, Montagnard or Jacobin and Thermidorian.

Girondin Convention

«The abolition of the royalty is matter you cannot put off till tomorrow» ( Collot d'Herbois )

The first session was held on 20 September 1792. The following day, amidst profound silence, the proposition was put to the assembly, "That royalty be abolished in France" and was carried with cheers. On the 22nd came the news of the Battle of Valmy. On the same day it was decreed that "in future the acts of the assembly shall be dated First Year of the French Republic". Three days later the corollary was added, to guard against federalism, that "the French republic is one and indivisible". A republic had been proclaimed, but it remained to enact a republican government. The country was little more republican in feeling or practice than it had been before at any time since Varennes. But it must now be a republic, because it no longer has a king.

When the Convention met the military situation was undergoing an extraordinary transformation that seemed to confirm the Girondin prophecies of easy victory. After Valmy the Prussians withdrew to the frontier and in November French troops occupied the left bank of the Rhine. The Austrians, who had besieged Lille in October were defeated by Dumouriez at the Battle of Jemappes on 6 November and evacuated the Austrian Netherlands. Nice was occupied and Savoy proclaimed its union with France. These successes made it safe to quarrel at home.

Girondins and Montagnards

Girondin had been a geographical expression, and Jacobin the name of a club. Now a group of deputies from the Gironde gave their name to a party, and a non-party club began to identify itself with the political opinions of a group of Paris representatives. The Jacobin leaders were men little different from their opponents in origin and upbringing. They believed, as the Girondins did, in the war, the republic, and the Convention. They were no less idealistic, and no more humanitarian. But they had a greater regard for the interests of the common people, they had less respect for political shibboleths, and they had an extra capacity for realistic, and if necessary ruthless experimentation.

Three questions dominated the first months of the Convention: revolutionary violence; the trial of the king; and Parisian dominance of politics.

Antagonism between Paris and the provinces created friction that served as a propaganda and combat weapon. The resistance of the departments to centralization was symbolized by the desire to reduce the capital of the Revolution to its one-eighty-third share of influence. Much of the Gironde wished to remove the Assembly from a city dominated by "agitators and flatterers of the people": it did not at the time encourage an aggressive federalism that would have run counter to its political ambitions.

The trial of the king

Main article: Trial of Louis XVI

«Louis must die so that the nation may live» ( Maximilien Robespierre )

The trial of Louis XVI

From the opening of the Convention the Girondins showed no inclination to bring the king to trial. They were more interested in discrediting Paris and its deputies. And their decision to hound the Jacobins was not merely a choice of priorities; they genuinely wanted to spare the king. But in reality the Convention had to declare him guilty if it wanted to avoid damning 10 August 1792, its own existence, and the proclamation of the Republic. "If the king is not guilty, then those who have dethroned him are" – as Robespierre has reminded on 2 December. Once the Convention recognized Louis's guilt it could hardly refuse to pronounce the death penalty against a person who had summoned the aid of foreign powers and whom the sans-culottes considered responsible for the ambush at the Tuileries.

The discovery of the iron chest in the Tuileries 20 November 1792 made the trial inevitable. Documents found in this secret chest proved without any doubt the treachery of Louis XVI.

The trial began on 10 December. The Montagnards put the debate on the ideological level. Louis XVI was classified as an enemy, alien to the body of the nation and as "usurper". Balloting began on 14 January 1793. Each deputy explained his vote at the rostrum. The vote against the king was unanimous. There was to be no popular referendum as Girondins hoped. The fatal vote started on 16 January, and continued until the next day. Of the 721 deputies present, 387 declared themselves for the death penalty, 334 were opposed. Twenty-six deputies voted for death on condition that he was reprieved. On 18 January the question of reprieve was put to a vote: 380 votes were cast against; 310 for. Each time the Girondins had split.

Main article: Execution of Louis XVI

On the morning of 21 January the Convention ordered the entire National Guard to line both sides of the route to the scaffold. Louis was beheaded at the Place de la Revolution.

With few exceptions, the French people accepted the deed in silence, but it made a profound impression. Execution of the king aroused pity and exalted royalist convictions, yet it seems undeniable that monarchical sentiment was dealt a severe blow – a king had been put to death like any ordinary man; royalty lost, never to recover, the supernatural quality that even the Revolution had not yet eradicated. Within the nation, "voters" and "appellants" swore undying hatred of each other; abroad, the rest of Europe decreed a war of extermination against regicides.

The crisis and fall of the Gironde

The Assembly began harmoniously enough, but within a few days the Girondins launched a bitter attack on their Montagnard opponents. Conflict continued without interruption until the expulsion of the Girondin leaders from the Convention on 2 June 1793. The Girondins could at first rely on the votes of a majority of the deputies, many of whom were alarmed as well as scandalized by the September massacres. But their insistence on monopolizing all positions of authority and their attacks on the Montagnard leaders soon irritated men who regarded party as faction. One by one able deputies such as Couthon, Cambon, Carnot, Lindet and Barere began to gravitate towards the Montagnards, while the majority – the Plain, as it was called – held itself aloof from both sides.

Girondins were convinced that their opponents aspired to a bloody dictatorship, while the Montagnards believed that Girondins were ready for any compromise with conservatives, and even royalists, that would guarantee their remaining at power. The bitter enmity soon reduced the Convention to a state of vociferous paralysis. Debate after debate degenerated into verbal brawl from which no decision emerged. The political deadlock, which had repercussions all over France, eventually drove men to accept dangerous allies, royalists in the case of Girondins, sans-culottes in that of the Montagnards.

Thus the struggle within the Convention continued without results. The decision was to come from outside.

Journées des 31 Mai 1er et 2 Juin 1793

Ever since the king's trial, the sans-culottes had been constantly assailing the "appealers" (appelants), and quickly came to desire their expulsion from the Convention. If this were achieved, the government could recover the energy to enable it to deal with the aristocratic plot by arresting suspects and establishing a revolutionary tribunal. Military setbacks from the First Coalition, Dumouriez's treason and the war of Vendée, which began in March 1793 were all used as arguments by Montagnards and sans-culottes to portray Girondins as soft and demand exceptional measures which Girondins were reluctant to adopt. The Girondins were forced to accept the creation of the Committee of Public Safety and Revolutionary Tribunal. Social and economic difficulties exacerbate tensions. The final showdown was precipitated by Jean-Paul Marat's trial and the arrest of sectional activists.

On 25 May the Commune demanded that arrested patriots to be released. In reply, Isnard, who was presiding over the Convention, launched into a bitter diatribe against Paris which was infuriatingly reminiscent of the Brunswick Manifesto: "If any attack made on the persons of the representatives of the nation, then I declare to you in the name of the whole country that Paris would be destroyed". On the next day the Jacobins declared themselves in a state of insurrection. On 28 May the Cite section called the other sections to a meeting in order to organize the insurrection. On 29 May the delegates representing thirty-three of the sections formed an insurrectionary committee of nine members.

Main article: Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793

On 2 June, eighty thousand armed sans-culottes surrounded the Convention. After an attempt of deputies to exit collided with guns, the deputies resigned themselves to declare the arrest of twenty-nine leading Girondins. In this way the Gironde ceased to be a political force. It had declared war without knowing how to conduct it; it had denounced the King but had shrunk from condemning him; it had contributed to the worsening of the economic crisis but had swept aside all the claims made by the popular movement.

Montagnard Convention

«Unité, Indivisibilité de la République; Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité ou la mort» ( Summer 1793 )

Scarcely had the Gironde been eliminated when the Convention now under Montagnard leadership, found itself caught between two threats. For while forces of counter-revolution were gaining new impetus from the federalist revolt, the popular movement, roused to fury by high prices, was increasing the pressure it exercised on the government. Meanwhile the Government was proving incapable of controlling the situation. In July 1793 the nation appeared to be on the point of falling apart.

Constitution 1793

Main article: French Constitution of 1793

Constitution du Peuple Française du 6 Messidor l'an I (24 June 1793)

During the month of June the Montagnards played for time. Yet it did not overlook the peasants. It was to these latter that the revolution of 31 May (like those of 14 July and 10 August) brought a substantial and permanent profit. On 3 June the sale of the property of emigres, in small parcels and payable in ten years, was decreed; on the 10th, the optional, division of common lands by head; and on 17 July, the abolition, without compensation, of all that remained of manorial rights.

The Montagnards attempted to reassure the middle classes by rejecting any idea of terror, by protecting property rights, and by restricting the popular movement to very narrowly-circumscribed limits. It was a delicate balance to achieve, a balance that was destroyed in July by the worsening of the crisis. The Convention rapidly approved the new constitution, hoping to clear itself of the charge of dictatorship and calm the anxieties of the départements.

The Declaration of Rights which precedes the text of the Constitution solemnly reaffirmed the nation's indivisibility and the great principles of freedom of the press, equality and resistance to oppression. It went far beyond the Declaration of 1789, adding to it the right to public assistance, work, education and insurrection. No man could impose his will on others. All political and social tyranny was abolished. Although the montagnards had refused to be led further down the road to democracy, the Constitution became the bible of all democrats.

The chief aim of the Constitution was to ensure the preponderant role of the deputies in the Convention, which was seen as being the essential basis for political democracy. The Legislative Assembly was to be elected by direct vote cast for a single member; deputies were elected on receiving a simple majority of the votes cast, and the assembly would sit for one year. The executive council of 24 members was chosen by the Legislative Assembly from among the 83 candidates chosen by the departments on the basis of universal suffrage, and in this way ministers were made responsible to the representatives of the nation. The exercise of national sovereignty was widened through the institution of the referendum – the Constitution was to be ratified by the people, as were laws in certain precisely-defined circumstances.

The Constitution was submitted for popular ratification and adopted by huge margin of more than 1,801,918 for to some 17,610 against. The results of the plebiscite were made public on 10 August 1793, but the application of the Constitution, the text of which was placed in the sacred ark and laid in the debating-chamber of the Convention, was postponed until peace had been made.

Federalist revolt, war and counter-revolution

La Mort de Marat
Jacques-Louis David, 1793, Brussels

Indeed, the Montagnards faced dramatic circumstances – federalist insurrection, war in Vendée, military failures, worsening economic situation. Despite everything, a new civil war could not be avoided. By the middle of June, about sixty departments were in more or less open rebellion. Fortunately the frontier departments had remained faithful to the Convention. The rising was widespread rather than deep. It was essentially the work of the departmental and district administration. The communes, which were more popular in composition, showed themselves in general lukewarm or hostile; and federalist leaders, in spite of their sound phrases, lacked faith in their cause and soon became divided among themselves. Sincere republicans among them could not fail to be uneasy about the foreign invasion and the Vendée. Those who were seeing themselves rejected by the people, sought support from the moderates, the Feuillants and even from the aristocrats.

July and August were bad months on the frontiers. Within three weeks Mainz, the symbol of previous successes, capitulated to the Prussians and Austrians captured fortresses of Conde and Valenciennes and invaded northern France. Spanish troops crossed the Pyrenees and began advancing on Perpignan. The Piedmontese took advantage of the diversion of republican forces at Lyons in order to invade France from the East. In Corsica Paoli's revolt expelled the French from island with British support. British troops opened the siege of Dunkirk in August and in October the Allies invaded Alsace. The military situation had become desperate.

In addition there were other incidents which compounded the fury of the revolutionaries and convinced them that their opponents had abandoned all restraints of civilized behavior. On 13 July, Charlotte Corday murdered sans-culotte idol Jean-Paul Marat. She had been in touch with Girondin rebels in Normandy and they were believed to have used her as their agent.

The lack of forethought displayed by the Convention during first few days was redeemed by its vigor and skill in organizing measures of repression. Warrants were issued for the arrest of the rebellious Girondin leaders, the members of the revolting departmental administration were deprived of their office.

The regions in which the revolt was dangerous were precisely those in which a large number of royalists had remained. There was no room for a third party between the Mountain, which was identified with the Republic, and royalism, which was the ally of the enemy. If the federalist revolt, which was the expression of the resentment of defeated politicians, had succeeded, it would certainly have led to a monarchist restoration. The royalist insurrection in the Vendée had already forced the Convention to take a long step in the direction of the Terror – that is to say, the dictatorship of the central power and the suppression of liberties. The Girondin insurrection now prompted it to take a decisive step in the same direction.

Revolutionary government

«The provisional government of France is revolutionary until there is peace» ( The decree of 10 December 1793 )

La Marseillaise par François Rude

The Constituent Assembly had legislated through its commissions. The Convention governed by means of its committees. Two of them were of essential importance: Public Safety and General Security. The second, which had formidable powers, is less well known than the first, which was the true executive authority and was armed with immense prerogatives. It dated from April, but its composition was thoroughly reshuffled during the summer 1793.

The summer of 1793 saw sans-culotte disturbances reach the peak, under a double banner: price-fixing and terror. On top of this came the news of unprecedented treason: Toulon and its squadron had been handed over to the enemy. In the name of the wretched poverty of the people, the leaders of the Enraged, Jacques Roux at their head, called for a planned economy from a Convention which had no liking for the idea. But the revolutionary logic of the mobilization of resources by national dictatorship was infinitely more powerful than economic doctrine. In August, a series of decrees gave the authorities discretionary powers over the production and circulation of grain, as well as ferocious punishments for fraud. "Granary of plenty" were prepared, to stock corn requisitioned by authorities in each district. On 23 August the decree on the levée en masse turned able-bodied civilians into soldiers.

On 5 September, Parisians tried to repeat the revolt of 2 June. Armed sections again encircled the Convention to demand the setting up of an internal revolutionary army, the arrest of suspects and a purge of the committees. It was probably the key day in the formation of the revolutionary government: the convention yielded, but kept control of events. It put Terror on the agenda on 5 September, on 6th elected Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne to the Committee of Public Safety, on the 9th created the revolutionary army, on the 11th decreed the Maximum for grain and fodder (general controls for prices and wages on the 29th), on the 14th reorganized the Revolutionary Tribunal, on the 17th voted the law on suspects, and on the 20th gave the local revolutionary committees the task of drawing up lists of them.

The dictatorship of the Convention and the committees, simultaneously supported and controlled by the Parisian sections, representing the sovereign people in permanent session, lasted from June to September. It governed through a network of institutions set up haphazardly since spring in March, the Revolutionary Tribunal and representatives on missions in the departments; followed the next month by Convention's representatives to the armies, also armed with unlimited powers; enforce acceptance of assignat as the sole legal tender, price controls for grain and the forced loan of billion livres from the rich.

At last France saw a government take shape. Danton resigned from it on 10 July. Couthon, Saint-Just, Jeanbon Saint-Andre, and Prieur of the Marne formed a nucleus of resolute Montagnards who rallied Barrere and Lindet, then successfully added Robespierre on 27 July, Carnot and Prieur of Cote-d'Ore on 14 August, and Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne on 6 September. They had a few clear ideas to which they clung: to command, to fight, and to conquer. Their work in common, the danger, the taste of and pride in power created solidarity that made the Committee an autonomous organism.

The committee was always managed collegially, despite the specific nature of the tasks of each director: the division into "politicians" and "technicians" was a Thermidorian invention, intended to lay the corpses of the Terror at the door of the Robespierrists alone. Many things, however, set the twelve committee members at loggerheads; Barrere was more a man of the Convention than of the committee, and was a link with the Plaine. Rober Lindet had qualms about the Terror which, by contrast, was the outstanding theme of Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne, latecomers to the committee, forced on it by the sans-culottes in September; unlike Robespierre and his friends, Lazare Carnot had given his support only provisionally and for reasons of state to a policy concessions to the people. But the situation which united them in the summer 1793 was stronger than those differences of opinion. The Committee must set itself above all, and choose those popular demands which were most suitable for achieving the Assembly's aims: to crush the enemies of the Republic and dash the last hopes of the aristocracy. To govern in the name of the Convention, at the same time controlling it, and to restrain the people without quenching their enthusiasm — this was a gamble.

The ensemble of institutions, measures and procedures which constituted it was codified in a decree of 14 Frimaire (4 December) which set the seal on what had been the gradual development of centralized dictatorship founded on the Terror. In the center was the Convention, whose secular arm was Committee of Public Safety, vested with immense powers: it interpreted the Convention's decrees and settled their methods of application; under its immediate authority it had all state bodies and all civil servants (even ministers would disappear in April 1794); it directed military and diplomatic activity, appointed generals and members of other committees, subject to ratification by the Convention. It held responsibility for conducting war, public order and the provisioning of the population. The Commune of Paris, famous sans-culotte bastion, was neutralized by coming under its control.

The economy

Administrative and economic centralization went hand in hand. The stage of siege forced France into autarky; to save the Republic the government mobilized all the nation's productive forces and reluctantly accepted the need for a controlled economy, which it introduced extemporaneously, as the emergency required. It was necessary to develop war production, revive foreign trade, and find new resources in France itself; and time was short. Circumstances gradually compelled it to assume the economic government of the country. Along with organization of the army, this was the most original feature of its work.

All material resources were subjected to requisitioning. Farmers surrendered their grain, fodder, wool, flax, hemp. Artisans and merchants gave up their manufactured products. Raw materials were carefully sought out – metal of all kinds, church bells, old paper, rags and parchments, grasses, brushwood, and even household ashes for manufacturing of potassium salts, and chestnuts for distilling. All businesses were placed at the disposal of the nation – forests, mines, quarries, furnaces, forges, tanneries, paper mills, large cloth factories and shoe making workshops. The labor of men and the value of things were subject to price controls. No one had a right to speculate at the cost of Patrie while it was in danger. Armaments caused more concern. As early as September 1793 efforts were made to create a large factory in Paris for rifles and sidearms. A special appeal was made to scientists. Monge, Vandermonde, Berthollet, Darcet, Fourcroy perfected metallurgy and manufacture of arms.

Only to the wage earners did the Maximum seem thoroughly advantageous. It increased wages by one-half in relation to 1790, and commodities by only one-third. But since the Committee did not ensure that it was respected (except for bread), they would have been duped had they not been benefiting from the favorable conditions that a great war always offers the labor force. Still Paris became calmer, because the sans-culottes were gradually finding ways to subsist; the levée en masse and the formation of the revolutionary army were thinning their ranks; many now were working in arms and equipment shops, or in the bureaux of the committees and ministries, which were expanded enormously.

The army of the Year II

Main article: French Revolutionary Army

«Surprise them like a flash of lightning and smash them like a thunderbolt» ( Lazare Carnot )

During the summer the requisition of the levy was completed and by July the total strength of the army reached 650,000. The difficulties were tremendous. The war production just started in September. The army was in the middle of the purge. In the spring of 1794 the amalgamation was undertaken. Two battalions of volunteers joined one battalion of regulars to constitute a demi-brigade, or regiment. At the same time the command was reconstituted. The purge ended with most of the nobles excluded. The new generation reached the highest ranks, and the War College (Ecole de Mars) received six young men from each district to improve the staff. Army commanders were to be appointed by the Convention.

What gradually emerged was a military command unequaled in quality: Marceau, Hoche, Kleber, Massena, Jourdan, and a host of others, backed by officers who were sound both in their abilities as soldiers and in their sense of civic responsibility.

For the first time since antiquity a truly national army marched to war, and for the first time, too, a nation succeeded in arming and feeding great number of soldiers – these are the novel characteristics of the army of the Year II. The technical innovations resulted chiefly from its very mass as well the strategy was developed from it. Old system of cordons lost its prestige. Moving between the armies of the Coalition, the French could maneuver along interior lines, deploy part of their troops along the frontiers, and take advantage of inaction of any one of their enemies to beat the others. Acting in masses, and overwhelming the foe by sheer numbers – such were Carnot's principles. They were still untried, and not until Bonaparte appeared did they enjoy any great success.

The Terror

Main article: Reign of Terror

«That which constitutes a Republic is the total destruction of that which opposes it» ( Saint-Just )

Though the Terror was organized in September 1793, it was not really introduced until October, and that as a result of pressure from the popular movement. New chapter of the Revolutionary Tribunal was opened after 5 September: it was divided in four sections; the Committees of Public Safety and General Security were to propose the names of judges and jurymen; Fouquier-Tinville stayed as public prosecutor, and Herman was nominated president.

The great political trials began in October. The queen was guillotined on 16 October. A special decree stifled the defense of 21 Girondins, including Vergniaud and Brissot, and they perished on the 31st.

At the summit of the apparatus of the Terror sat the Committee of General Security, the state's second organ, consisting of twelve members elected each month by the Convention, and vested with security, surveillance and police functions, over civil and military authorities as well. It employed a large staff, headed the gradually constituted network of local revolutionary committees, and applied the law on suspects by sifting through the thousands of local denunciations and arrests which it then had to try.

It struck down the enemies of the Republic whoever and wherever they were. It was socially indiscriminate and politically perspicacious. Its victims belonged to the classes which hated the Revolution or lived in the regions where rebellion was most serious. "The severity of repressive measures in the provinces," wrote Mathiez, "was in direct proportion to danger of revolt."

Thus deputies sent as "representatives on mission" by the Committee of Public Safety, armed with full powers, reacted according to both local situation and their own temperaments: Lindet pacified the Girondin west in July without a single death sentence; in Lyon, some months later, Collot d'Herbois and Joseph Fouche relied on frequent summary executions by shooting because the guillotine was not working swiftly enough.

Fall of the factions

As late as September journees there were clearly emergence of two distinct wings among revolutionaries. First was those who later called Hebertists – although Hebert himself was never the leader of a party – were preaching a war to the death and adopted program of the Enragés, because the sans-culottes approved it. If they preferred agreement with the Montagnards, so long as they could hope to control the Convention through them. They dominated the Cordeliers, filled Bouchotte's bureaux, and could carry the Commune with them. Another arose as a response to increasing centralization of the Revolutionary Government and dictatorship of the Committees – Dantonists; and centered around deputies of the Convention: Danton, Delacroix, Desmoulins as most notable among them.

Putting the needs of national defense above all other considerations the Committee of Public Safety had no intentions of giving in to the demands of either the popular movement or the moderates. For the claims of the popular movement would be jeopardized revolutionary unity, while the demands of the moderates would have undermined both the controlled economy, so essential if support were to guarantee to the war effort, and the Terror which ensured the obedience of all to its decrees. But how could they obtain a balance between the contradictory demands? The policy of Revolutionary Government was that of maintaining a position half-way between moderates ( citras ) and the extremists ( ultras ).

But at the end of the winter 1793 the shortage of foodstuff took a sharp turn for the worse. The Hebertists incited sans-culottes to demand stringent measures and at first the Committee did prove conciliatory. The Convention voted 10 million for relief, on 3 Ventose Barere presented new general Maximum and on the 8th Saint-Just obtained a decree confiscating the property of suspects and distributing it among the needy (Ventose decrees). The Cordeliers Club felt that if it increased the pressure, it would triumph once and for all. It was talk of insurrection, though it was, probably, as a new demonstration like the one in September. But the Committee decided on 22 Ventose Year II (12 March 1794) to have done with the Hebertists. To Hebert, Ronsin, Vincent, and Momoro it added the refugees Proli, Cloots and Pereira, so as to present them as parties to the "foreign plot". All were executed on 4 Germinal (24 March). Then the Committee turned to the right, several members of which were implicated in financial corruption. The Convention was bullied into lifting parliamentary immunity of nine deputies. On 5 April Danton, Delacroix, Desmoulins, Philippeaux were executed.

The trials of germinal transformed the whole political situation. The sans-culottes were stunned by the hebertists' execution. All their positions of influence fell one after another: the Revolutionary Army was disbanded, the inspectors of food-hoarding were dismissed, Bouchotte lost the War Office, the Cordeliers Club was reduced to frightened impotence and the Government pressure brought about closing 39 popular societies. The Commune was purged and filled with Committee nominees. With the execution of the Dantonists for the first time the majority of the Assembly went in terror of the Government which it had created.

By losing its source of power the committees found itself at the mercy of the Convention. Having compelled the Convention to deliver the Girondins and Dantonists, it believed it had a safe majority. It was wrong. The Convention never forgave it these sacrifices. The Committee was as mediator between the Assembly and the sans-culottes from which it had acquired its strength. By breaking with the sans-culottes it freed the Assembly, and to complete its destruction, it had only to split internally.

Thermidor

«The Revolution has grown cold; all its principles are weakened; there remains only red caps worn by intriguers» ( Saint-Just )

9 Thermidor

The Jacobin dictatorship could only hope to remain in power so long as it was dealing successfully with a national emergency. As soon as its political opponents had been destroyed, and its foreign enemies defeated, it would lose the chief force that kept it together. But its fall need not have been so rapid, but for other more specific and more intimate causes.

So long as it remained united The Committee was virtually invulnerable, but it had scarcely attained the apogee of its power before signs of internal conflict appeared. The Committee of Public Safety had never been a homogeneous body. It was a coalition cabinet. Its members were kept together less by comradeship or common ideals than by calculation and routine. The press of business which at first prevented personal quarrels also produced tired nerves. Trifling differences were exaggerated into the issues of life and death. Small disputes estranged them from one another.

These capable and honest men were authoritarians. Carnot, in particular, was irritated by the criticisms directed at his plans by Robespierre and Saint-Just, who, exhausted by work and over-excited by the danger, restrained themselves with difficulty. Robespierre, whose health was weakening, proved irritable, and did not forgive easily. Being amiable and gentle among friends, but cold and distant elsewhere. Dispute followed dispute. Bickering broke out on the Committee of Public Safety, with Carnot describing Robespierre and Saint-Just as "ridiculous dictators" and Collot making veiled attacks on the Incorruptible. From the end of June until 23 July Robespierre ceased to attend the Committee.

Realizing the danger of fragmentation they attempted a reconciliation. Saint-Just and Couthon favored it, but Robespierre doubted sincerity of his enemies. It was he who brought about the fatal intervention of the Convention. On 8 Thermidor, Year II (26 July 1794), he denounced his opponents, and demanded that "unity of government" be realized. When called upon to name those whom he was accusing, however, he refused. This failure destroyed him, for it was assumed that he was demanding a blank cheque. This night uneasy alliance was formed from threatened deputies and members of The Plain. On the next day, 9 Thermidor, Robespierre and his friends were not allowed to speak, and their indictment was decreed. The men of extreme left played the leading roles: Billaud-Varenne, who attacked, and Collot d'Herbois, who presided.

On hearing the news the Paris Commune, loyal to the man who had inspired it, had called for an insurrection and released the arrested deputies in the evening and mobilized two or three thousand militants. The night of 9 – 10 Thermidor was one of great confusions in Paris, as Commune and Assembly competed for the support of the sections and their troops. The Convention proclaimed that the rebels were henceforth outlaws; Barras was given the task of mustering an armed force, and the moderate sections gave this their support. The National Guardsmen and artillerymen assembled outside the Hotel de Ville were left without instructions and little by little they dispersed and left the square deserted. Around two o'clock in the morning column from Gravilliers section led by Léonard Bourdon burst in the Hotel de Ville and arrested insurgents.

On the evening of 10 Thermidor (28 July 1794), Robespierre, Saint-Just, Couthon and nineteen of their political allies were executed without trial. On the following day it was the turn of a large batch of seventy-one men, the largest mass execution in the entire course of the Revolution.

Thermidorian Convention

Whatever reasons Thermidorians had behind 9 Thermidor: personal feud with Robespierre, personal safety, vengeance, events after went beyond the intentions of the conspirators. Evidently the remaining members on the Committees counted on staying in office and currying on the Jacobin dictatorship, as though nothing more had happened than a party purge.

Thermidorian Reaction

Main article: Thermidorian Reaction

They were speedily undeceived. Robespierrists might go out and Dantonists come in: Convention had recovered its initiative and would put an end, once and for all, to the dictatorial committees government which had ousted it from power. It was decreed that no member of governing committees should hold office for more than four months. Three days later the Prerial Law was repealed and Revolutionary Tribunal shorn of its abnormal powers. Commune was replaced with commission des administrateurs civils from the ranks of the Conventions. In November the Jacobin club was closed. Not merely anti-Robespierrist but anti-Jacobin reaction was in full flood. At the beginning of September Billaud, Collot and Barere left comite de salut public: by the end of the year they were in prison.

Thus the stability of the government was undermined. Next came the concentration of power, another revolutionary principle. Identification of Committee of Public Safety with executive was carved up on 7 Fructidor (24 August), restricting it to its former domain of war and diplomacy. The Committee of General Security kept its control over the police. There was now to be a total of sixteen committees. Conventionnels, while aware of the dangers of fragmentation, were even more worried by its experience of monopoly of powers. In few weeks Revolutionary Government was dismantled.

These measures affected, finally, the instruments of the Terror and opened numerous breaches in the apparatus of repression. The law of 22 Prairial was repealed, the prisons were opened and "suspects" were released: 500 in Paris in a single week. A few public trials were staged — including those of Carrier, held responsible for the mass-drowning at Nantes, and Fouquier-Tinville, notorious as the public prosecutor of the Great Terror of the late spring and summer of 1794 – after which the Revolutionary Tribunal was quietly put aside.

The destruction of the system of revolutionary government eventually brought about the end of the Economic Terror. Maximum was relaxed even before 9 Thermidor. Now nobody any longer believed in it. Because black market was plentifully supplied, the idea took hold that price control equaled scarcity and that free trade would bring back abundance. It was generally supposed that prices would rise but that then they would fall as a result of competition. This illusion was to be shattered in the winter. Formally the Convention put the end to the maximum on 4 Nivose Year III (24 December 1794).

The abandonment of the controlled economy provoked a frightful catastrophe. Prices soared and the rate of exchange fell. The Republic was condemned to massive inflation and its currency was ruined. In Thermidor, Year III, assignats were worth less than 3 percent of their face value. Neither peasants nor merchants would accept anything but cash. The debacle was so swift that economic life seemed to come to standstill.

The crisis was greatly aggravated by famine. Peasants, finally, stopped bringing any produce, because they did not wish to accept assignats. The government continued to provision Paris, but was unable to supply the promised rations. In provinces local municipalities resorted to some sort of regulations, provided not direct coercion in obtaining provisions. The misery of rural day laborers, abandoned by everyone, was often appalling. Inflation ruined creditors to the advantage of debtors. It unleashed an unprecedented speculation.

At the beginning of spring, scarcity was such that more unrest appeared almost everywhere. Paris was active again.

Crushing of the popular movement

«Bread and Constitution of 1793» ( journees rallying slogan )

Journée du 1er Prairial de l'an III

Discontent increased along with the shortages. On 17 March delegation from faubourgs Saint-Marceau and Saint-Jacques complained that: «We are on the verge of regretting all the sacrifices that we have made for the Revolution». Police law was passed which lay down the death penalty for use of seditious language. Arms were distributed to the "good citizen", the faithful nucleus of the National Guard. The trial of strength was approaching.

Main article: Insurrection of 12 Germinal

On 10 Germinal all the sections called their general assemblies. The political geography of Paris emerged clearly from this. Convention debate was centered on two issues: the fate of Barere, Collot, Billaud, Vadier and the implementation of the constitution 1793. While in the sections of the center and the west formal addresses called for the punishment of the "Four" and passed over the food shortages, the sections of the east and the faubourgs demanded measures to deal with the grain crisis, the implementation of the constitution of 1793, the reopening of the popular societies and the release of the imprisoned patriots.

On the morning of 12 Germinal (1 April) crowds gathered on the Ile de la Cite and, pushed aside palace guards, burst into the chamber where the Convention met. Amidst the uproar, spokesmen of the sections outlined people's grievances. Reliable battalions of National Guard were called and demonstrators, lacking arms and leaders, were forced to withdraw. For the most people it was the constitution of 1793 – seen as liberating utopia – which represented the solution to all evils. There were others who openly regretted the passing of "the reign of Robespierre".

Main article: Insurrection of 1 Prairial

But it was not the end. A new explosion was on the horizon. Insurrection was being openly prepared. On 1 Prairial (20 May 1795) the tocsin sounded in the faubourgs Saint-Antoine and Marceau. The armed battalions arrived at Place du Carousel and entered the sitting chamber. After an hour of uproar, L'Insurection du People was read. In chaos, none of the ringleaders thought of implementing the key item of the program: the overthrow of the government.

Remainder of the Montagnards, The Crest ( la Crête de la Montagne ), managed to obtain the passage of favorable to rebels decrees. But at 11:30 p.m. two armed columns entered the chamber and cleared out the rioters. The next day insurgents repeated the same mistakes and after receiving promises from the deputies to take speedy measures against the famine, returned to the sections.

On 3 Prerial the government assembled loyal troops, chasseurs and dragoons, national guardsmen, selected from those "who had fortune to preserve" — 20,000 men in all. Faubourg Saint-Antoine was surrounded and on 4 Prerial surrendered and was disarmed. Uncertainty about how to react and hesitancy in action, lack of revolutionary leadership had doomed the popular movement to throw away its last chance in battle.

4 Prerial Year III is one of the crucial dates of the revolutionary period. The people had ceased to be a political force, participants in history. They were now no more than victims or spectators. This is the date which should be taken as the end of the Revolution. Its mainspring was now broken.

Constitution 1795

Main article: French Constitution of 1795

«A middle way between royalty and anarchy» ( Antoine Thibaudeau )

Constitution de la République Française du 5 Fructidor l'an III (22 août 1795)

The victors now could set up new constitution, the task National Convention was originally elected for. The Commission of Eleven (Daunou, Lanjuinais, Boissy d'Anglas, Thibaudeau and La Révellière – most notable members) drafted a text which would reflect the new balance of forces. It was presented on 5 Messidor (23 June) and passed on 22 August 1795 (5 Fructidor of the Year III).

New constitution went back to the constitution of 1791 as to the dominant ideology of the country. Equality was certainly confirmed, but within the limits of civil equality. Numerous democratic rights of constitution 1793 – the right to work, to relief, to education – were omitted. The Convention wanted to define rights and simultaneously reject both the privilege of the old order and social leveling.

The constitution went back to the distinction between active and passive citizen. Only citizen over twenty-five years old, disposing of an income of two hundred days of work, were eligible to be electors. This electoral body, which held the real power, included 30,000 people, half as much as in 1791. Guided by the recent experience, institutions were set up to protect the Republic from two dangers: the omnipotence of an assembly and dictatorship.

Bicameral legislature as a precaution against sudden political fluctuations was proposed: the Council of Five Hundred with rights to propose laws and Council of the Ancients, 250 deputies, with powers to accept or reject proposed laws. Executive power was to be shared between five Directors chosen by the Ancients from the list drawn by Five Hundred. One of the Directors to renew each year with reelection after five years. As one of the practical precautions, no military were allowed in 60 miles of sitting assembly and it could relocate in case of danger. Directory still retained great power, including emergency powers to curb freedom of the press and freedom of association.

The Constitution generally was accepted favorably, even by those on the right, who were hopeful for the upcoming elections and even more happy to get rid of legislative body so hated by them.

But how to make sure that the new elected body will not overturn the constitution as it was before with Legislative Assembly? Thermidorians done it on 5 Fructidor (22 August) by a vote for a decree on "formation of new legislative body". Article II stipulated: "All members presently active in the Convention are re-eligible. Election assemblies may not take fewer than two-thirds of them to form the legislative body". That was the famous law of the Two-Thirds.

Vendemiaire

Main article: 13 Vendémiaire

Napoleon Bonaparte quelling of the Royalist revolt 13 Vendémiaire
In front of the Église Saint-Roch, rue Saint-Honoré.

On 23 September the results were announced: the constitution was accepted by 1,057,390 votes, with 49,978 against. The Two-Thirds decrees obtained only 205,498 votes in favor and 108,754 against.

But the Convention had not taken into account those Paris sections who were against Two-Thirds decrees and failed to provide precise vote figures: forty-seven Parisian sections had rejected the decrees. Eighteen of the Paris sections contested the result. The Lepeletier section issued a call to insurrection. By 11 Vendemiaire seven sections were in state of revolt, sections which were the base of the Convention since 9 Thermidor and now won by the far right if not royalist. The Convention declared itself en permanence. The conventionnels knew the score. They knew the art of insurrection by heart and to bring down muscadins was easier than the sans-culottes. Five members including Barras were appointed to deal with the crisis. A decree of 12 Vendemiaire (4 October) repealed the former disarmament of the former terrorists and appeal to sans-culottes was issued.

The uprising developed on the night of 12 – 13 Vendemiaire, with the complicity of General Menou, commander of the Army of the Interior. The major part of the capital was in the hands of the rebels, some 20,000 or so, an insurrectional central committee was formed and Convention besieged. Barras had recruited a young unemployed general, a former Robespierrist: Napoleon Bonapart, among other generals – Carteaux, Brune, Loison, Dupont. Future Maréchal, captain Murat managed to seize the cannons from the Camp of the Sablons, and the rebels, lacking any artillery, were thrown back and dispersed.

Moderate repression ensued and White Terror in the south was stopped. On 4 Brumaire Year IV, just before breaking up, the Convention voted a general amnesty for "deeds exclusively connected with the Revolution".

Legacy

The article on the Convention in the famous enduring edition of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica concludes, "The work of the Convention was immense in all branches of public affairs. To appreciate it without prejudice, one should recall that this assembly saved France from a civil war and invasion, that it founded the system of public education (Museum, [École Polytechnique] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [École Normale Supérieure] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [École des langues orientales] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [Conservatoire] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)), created institutions of capital importance, like that of the [Grand Livre de la Dette publique] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), and definitely established the social and political gains of the Revolution." By a decree of 4 February 1794 (16 pluviôse) it also ratified and expanded to the whole French colonial empire the 1793 abolition of slavery on Saint-Domingue by civil commissioners Sonthonax and Polverel, though this did not affect Martinique or Guadeloupe and was abolished by the law of 20 May 1802.

See also

• Fall of the French monarchy
• Girondist
• The Mountain
• Georges Danton
• Maximilien Robespierre
• Marat
• Ministers of the French National Convention

Sources

• Andress, David (2006). The Terror: the merciless war for freedom in revolutionary France. Farrar: Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-27341-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Aulard, François-Alphonse (1910). The French Revolution, a Political History, 1789–1804, in 4 vols. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bouloiseau, Marc (1983). The Jacobin Republic: 1792–1794. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-28918-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Dupuy, Roger (2005). La République jacobine. Terreur, guerre et gouvernement révolutionnaire (1792—1794). Paris: Le Seuil, coll. Points. ISBN 2-02-039818-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Furet, François (1996). The French Revolution: 1770–1814. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd. ISBN 0-631-20299-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Greer, Donald (1935). Incidence of the Terror During the French Revolution: A Statistical Interpretation. Peter Smith Pub Inc. ISBN 978-0-8446-1211-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hampson, Norman (1988). A Social History of the French Revolution. Routledge: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-7100-6525-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Jordan, David (1979). The King's Trial:Luis XVI vs. the French Revolution. Berkely: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-04399-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lefebvre, Georges (1962). The French Revolution: from its Origins to 1793. Vol. vol. I. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-08599-0. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lefebvre, Georges (1963). The French Revolution: from 1793 to 1799. Vol. vol. II. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-02519-X. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lefebvre, Georges (1964). The Thermidorians & the Directory. New York: Random House. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Mathiez, Albert (1929). The French Revolution. New York: Alfred a Knopf. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rude, George (1988). The French Revolution. New York: Grove Weidenfeld. ISBN 1-55584-150-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Soboul, Albert (1974). The French Revolution: 1787–1799. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-47392-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Thompson, J. M. (1959). The French Revolution. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Woronoff, Denis (1984). The Thermidorean regime and the directory: 1794–1799. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-28917-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• Presidents of the National Convention: 1792–1795
• National Convention pamphlets and documents from the Ball State University Digital Media Repository