1

WORKING OF THE NATIONAL CONVENTION 1792-1795

Subject: History

Submitted to: - Submitted by:-

Dr .Priya Darshini ADHISH PRASAD

Roll no: - 904

Semester: - 2nd

Session: - 2013-18
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am very thankful to everyone who all supported me for I have completed my project effectively
and moreover on time. I am equally grateful to my History faculty: Dr. priya Darshni. She gave
me moral support and guided me in different matters regarding the topic. She had been very kind
and patient while suggesting me the outlines of this project and correcting my doubts. I thank her
for his overall supports. Last but not the least, I would like to thank my friends who helped me a
lot in gathering different information, collecting data and guiding me from time to time in
making this project despite of their busy schedules ,they gave me different ideas in making this
project unique.

Thanking you

ADHISH PRASAD
 3

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that my Project Work entitled “Working of The National Convention 1792-
1795”. Submitted by Mr. ADHISH PRASAD is the record of work carried out during semester-
2nd of First Year B.A. LL.B. Course for the academic year 2013-2018 under my supervision and
guidance in conformity with the syllabus prescribed by Chanakya National Law University.

Place: PATNA. GUIDE

Date:21/04/2014
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION……………………………….…………………………...…………5-6

2. AIMS & OBJECTIVE……………………………….……………..….………………….7

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY……………………………………………………..…..7

4. CHAPTERISATION

i. HISTORICAL CONTEXT FOR THE FRENCH R EVOLUTION………...…..8-9

ii. ELECTION OF THE NATIONAL CONVENTION………………...……....10-11

iii. DIFFERENT CONVENTIONS OR PERIODS ……………….………….…12-25

 GIRONDIN CONVENTION (PERIOD)…………………….....……………12-14
 MONTAGNARD CONVENTION (PERIOD)………………………………15-21
 THERMIDORIAN CONVENTION (PERIOD)…………………..…………22-25

iv. CONCLUSION……………………………………………………..……..…26-28

5. NOTES AND REFRENCES……………………………………………….……………29

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………...….…….30
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INTRODUCTION

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 (Convention nationale) — 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 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 25 years old or more, domiciled for a year
 6

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.1

The Convention was an emergency republic with universal male suffrage. The leading body of
the Convention was the Committee of Public Safety, who worked to suppress dissent and protect
the revolution. The Committee was composed of twelve members, of whom the dominant
individual was Maximilien de Robespierre.

The leadership of the Convention split into two factions: the Montagnards (or "Mountain"), who
was more radical and included Robespierre, and the Girondin, which was more middle class. 2

The Convention had a number of issues to address. First, and perhaps most importantly, they
were actively engaged in war with Prussia and Austria. They instituted the first draft, called
the levee en masse, and a nationalist feeling rose among troops. In 1794, the French army
invaded Austria and was successful.

On 27 July ("9 Thermidor" in the Revolutionary Calendar) 1794, Robespierre himself was
arrested, and was executed the next day. The resulting "Thermidorian Reaction" was a response
to France's swing to the left, during which the government briefly went to the right, and finally
back to the center. The Jacobins and other Montagnards were replaced with the more moderate
Girondins (Bourgeois), and many Montagnard members were executed.

The Convention also needed to address the food problem, and established the "General
Maximum" that controlled bread prices and wages.

Finally, the Convention needed to stop the counter-revolution and write a new constitution.
During a period known as "The Terror," Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety utilized
the newly invented guillotine to kill tens of thousands of counter-revolutionaries. The
Convention successfully wrote a new constitution, establishing a government known as the
Directory as a permanent republic.3
1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Convention, Accessed on 19/O4/2014 at 21:18 IST

2
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/European_History/Revolution_in_France, Accessed on 19/O4/2014 at 21:28 IST
3
nationalconvention.weebly.com/, Accessed on 19/O4/2014 at 23:28 IST
 7

AIMS AND OBJECTIVE

The researcher prime objective is to validate the “Brief idea of National Convention of 1792-
1795”. The aim is to find out its working process, elections, different conventions and its effect
on French Revolution”. And finally the researcher will conclude the research work.
 8

RESEARCH METHODLOGY

The various books and websites are referred for this topic. The sources from which the material
for this research collected are secondary. So the methodology used in the research has been
Doctrinal. No non-doctrinal method has been used by the researcher in this project.

Historical Context for the French Revolution

Mid-eighteen century France was formally divided into three legal categories known as Estates.
Included in the First Estate were members of the clergy; in the Second, the nobility; and in the
Third, the rest of the population. Members of the First and Second Estates enjoyed many
privileges – among them, immunity from taxation, a monopoly over offices, and entitlements of
various pensions, all of which had the effect of placing a great burden on the Third Estate to
support the monarchy and clergy.4

By most accounts, the French Revolution began to unfold at the monarchy’s financial crisis. In
1788, King Louis VXI was forced to summon together a representative body, the Estates
General, in order to come up with emergency funds. In preparation for the Estates General,
various writers and activists began to circulate pamphlets that gave a voice to the many members
of the Third Estate. One of the most influential of these pamphlets was written by Joseph
Emanuel Sieyès, entitled, "What is The Third Estate?" Almost overnight, the Third Estate came
to identify itself with the French nation.

The National Constituent Assembly, one of the first ruling bodies of the newly reconstituted
French nation, drafted a document known as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. It

4
http://www.college.columbia.edu/core/content/french-revolution/context, Accessed on 19/O4/2014 at 21:31 IST
 9

was adopted in full in August of 1789, and was considered a first step toward a French
Constitution. The document was prepared and proposed by Marquis de Lafayette, though many
other revolutionary figures played prominent roles. A second declaration, known as
the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1793, was adopted four years later.5

The National Constituent Assembly gave way to the Legislative Assembly in 1791, and the
Legislative Assembly, in turn, was replaced by the National Convention. That body created a
Committee of Public Safety, compromised of twelve men, and headed by Maximilien
Robespierre. As Robespierre grew in power, he became, in effect, the governor of France. His
policies were remarkably effective in stabilizing the volatile French economy and in forming a
French army, and he had a clear vision of the utopian society. “On the Moral and Political
Principles of Domestic Policy” was a speech he gave in defense of these and other views on
February 5, 1794. But it was a period marked by extreme violence: in the five months leading up
to his speech, 269 people had been executed, and 5,434 were in jail awaiting trial. In light of
such a bloody regime, the French citizenry once again revolted, and Robespierre was arrested
and guillotined on July 28, 1794.6

5
Francois Guizot and Madame Guizot de Witt, The National Convention, 1792-1795 , published on2003, pp. 137-
301

6
Chris Harman, A People’s History and the World, Published by Orient Black Swan, Published on 1999, p 97
 10

ELECTION OF THE NATIONAL CONVENTION

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 the universal suffrage had very little effect. On the whole, electorate had
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 no 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 theSalle 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
 11

the Legislative Assembly. The full number of deputies was 749, not counting 33 from the
Colonies, of whom only some arrived in time to Paris. Besides these, however, the newly
formed départements 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 ( Comité de salut
public ) and the Committee of General Security ( Comité de sûreté générale ).

The Convention held legislative and executive powers in France during the first years of
the French First Republic and had three distinct periods: Girondin, Montagnard or Jacobin and
Thermidorian.7

7
François-Alphonse Aulard, The democratic republic, 1792-1795 , Published by C. Scribner's sons, 1910, pp163-165
 12

DIFFERENT CONVENTIONS OR PERIODS OF THE

NATIONAL CONVENTIOB

Girondin Convention (Period)

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 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 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.8
8
www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/404639/National-Convention, Accessed on 19/O4/2014 at 21:35 IST
 13

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 up-bringing. 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 first months of the Conventions: revolutionary violence, the trial of
the king and Paris dominance in the politics.

Antagonism between Paris and the provinces was a 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.9

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 and 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 shrill attacks on the Montagnard leaders soon irritated men who regarded

9
Peter McPhee, A Companion to the French Revolution, Published by Wiley Publication, Published
on 2007, pp177-178
 14

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 were 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 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.

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 was used as
an argument by Montagnards and sans-culottes to picture 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 Marat's trial
and 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 the 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.
 15

On 2 June 80,000 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 29 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.10

Montagnard Convention (Period)

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.11

TheReign of Terror, 1793-179512

The Committee of Public Safety came under the control of Maximilien Robespierre, a lawyer,
and the Jacobins unleashed the Reign of Terror (1793-1794). According to archival records, at
least 16,594 people died under the guillotine or otherwise after accusations of counter-
revolutionary activities. A number of historians note that as many as 40,000 accused prisoners
may have been summarily executed without trial or died awaiting trial.

On 2 June 1793, Paris sections — encouraged by the enragés ("enraged ones") Jacques Roux and
Jacques Hébert — took over the Convention, calling for administrative and political purges, a
low fixed price for bread, and a limitation of the electoral franchise to "sans-culottes" alone.
With the backing of the National Guard, they managed to convince the Convention to arrest 31
Girondin leaders, including Jacques Pierre Brissot. Following these arrests, the Jacobins gained

10
www.sparknotes.com › ... › The French Revolution (1789–1799, Accessed on 19/O4/2014 at 21:38 IST
11
https://vfeurohistory.wikispaces.com/.../TH20-06+Radical+Phase-Nationa..., Accessed on 19/O4/2014 at 22:28
IST
12
www.preceden.com/timelines/1900-french-revaloution, Accessed on 19/O4/2014 at 22:38 IST
 16

control of the Committee of Public Safety on 10 June, installing the revolutionary dictatorship.
On 13 July, the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat — a Jacobin leader and journalist known for his
bloodthirsty rhetoric — by Charlotte Corday, a Girondin, resulted in further increase of Jacobin
political influence. Georges Danton, the leader of the August 1792 uprising against the King,
undermined by several political reversals, was removed from the Committee and Robespierre,
"the Incorruptible", became its most influential member as it moved to take radical measures
against the Revolution's domestic and foreign enemies.

Meanwhile, on 24 June, the Convention adopted the first republican constitution of France,
variously referred to as the French Constitution of 1793 or Constitution of the Year I. It was
progressive and radical in several respects, in particular by establishing universal male suffrage.
It was ratified by public referendum, but never applied, because normal legal processes were
suspended before it could take effect.

In Vendée, peasants revolted against the French Revolutionary government in 1793. They
resented the changes imposed on the Roman Catholic Church by the Civil Constitution of the
Clergy (1790) and broke into open revolt in defiance of the Revolutionary government's military
conscription. This became a guerrilla war, known as the War in the Vendée. North of the Loire,
similar revolts were started by the so-called Chouans (royalist rebels).

After the defeat at Savenay, when regular warfare in the Vendée was at an end, the French
general Francois Joseph Westermann penned a letter to the Committee of Public Safety stating

“There is no more Vendée. It died with its wives and its children by our free sabres. I have just
buried it in the woods and the swamps of Savenay. According to the orders that you gave me, I
crushed the children under the feet of the horses, massacred the women who, at least for these,
will not give birth to any more brigands. I do not have a prisoner to reproach me. I have
exterminated all. The roads are sown with corpses. At Savenay, brigands are arriving all the time
claiming to surrender, and we are shooting them non-stop... Mercy is not a revolutionary
sentiment."

However, some historians doubt the existence of this document and others point out that the
claims in it were patently false - there were in fact thousands of (living) Vendean prisoners, the
revolt had been far from crushed, and the Convention had explicitly decreed that women,
 17

children and unarmed men were to be treated humanely. It has been hypothesized that if the
letter is authentic, that may have been Westermann's attempt to exaggerate the intensity of his
actions and his success, because he was eager to avoid being purged for his incompetent military
leadership and for his opposition to sans-culotte generals (he failed to avoid that, since he was
guillotined together with Danton's group).

The revolt and its suppression (including both combat casualties and massacres and executions
on both sides) are thought to have taken between 117 000 and 250 000 lives (170 000 according
to the latest estimates). Because of the extremely brutal forms that the Republican repression
took in many places, certain historians such as Reynald Secher have called the event a
"genocide". This description has become popular in the mass media, but it has attracted much
criticism in academia as being unrealistic and biased.

Facing local revolts and foreign invasions in both the East and West of the country, the most
urgent government business was the war. On 17 August, the Convention voted for general
conscription, the levée en masse, which mobilized all citizens to serve as soldiers or suppliers in
the war effort.

The result was a policy through which the state used violent repression to crush resistance to the
government. Under control of the effectively dictatorial Committee, the Convention quickly
enacted more legislation. On 9 September, the Convention established sans-culottes paramilitary
forces, the revolutionary armies, to force farmers to surrender grain demanded by the
government. On 17 September, the Law of Suspects was passed, which authorized the charging
of counter-revolutionaries with vaguely defined crimes against liberty. On 29 September, the
Convention extended price-fixing from grain and bread to other household goods and declared
the right to set a limit on wages.

The guillotine became the symbol of a string of executions. Louis XVI had already been
guillotined before the start of the terror; Queen Marie Antoinette, the Girondins, Philippe Égalité
(despite his vote for the death of the King), Madame Roland and many others were executed by
guillotine. The Revolutionary Tribunal summarily condemned thousands of people to death by
the guillotine, while mobs beat other victims to death.
 18

At the peak of the terror, the slightest hint of counter-revolutionary thoughts or activities (or, as
in the case of Jacques Hébert, revolutionary zeal exceeding that of those in power) could place
one under suspicion, and trials did not always proceed according to contemporary standards of
due process. Sometimes people died for their political opinions or actions, but many for little
reason beyond mere suspicion, or because some others had a stake in getting rid of them. Most of
the victims received an unceremonious trip to the guillotine in an open wooden cart (the
tumbrel). In the rebellious provinces, the government representatives had unlimited authority and
some engaged in extreme repressions and abuses. For example, Jean-Baptiste Carrier became
notorious for the Noyades ["drownings"] - he organized in Nantes; his conduct was judged
unacceptable even by the Jacobin government and he was recalled.

Another anti-clerical uprising was made possible by the installment of the Republican Calendar
on 24 October 1793. Against Robespierre's concepts of Deism and Virtue, Hébert's (and
Chaumette's) atheist movement initiated a religious campaign to dechristianize society. The
climax was reached with the celebration of the flame of Reason in Notre Dame Cathedral on 10
November.

The Reign of Terror enabled the revolutionary government to avoid military defeat. The Jacobins
expanded the size of the army, and Carnot replaced many aristocratic officers with younger
soldiers who had demonstrated their ability and patriotism. The Republican army was able to
throw back the Austrians, Prussians, British, and Spanish. At the end of 1793, the army began to
prevail and revolts were defeated with ease. The Ventôse Decrees (February–March 1794)
proposed the confiscation of the goods of exiles and opponents of the Revolution, and their
redistribution to the needy.

In the spring of 1794, both extremist enragés such as Hébert and moderate Montagnard
indulgents such as Danton were charged with counter-revolutionary activities, tried and
guillotined. On 7 June Robespierre, who had previously condemned the Cult of Reason,
advocated a new state religion and recommended the Convention acknowledge the existence of
the "Supreme Being".
 19

Thermidorian Reaction13

On 27 July 1794, the Thermidorian Reaction led to the arrest and execution of Robespierre and
Louis de Saint-Just. The new government was predominantly made up of Girondists who had
survived the Terror, and after taking power, they took revenge as well by persecuting even those
Jacobins who had helped to overthrow Robespierre, banning the Jacobin Club, and executing
many of its former members in what was known as the White Terror.

In the wake of excesses of the Terror, the Convention approved the new "Constitution of the
Year III" on 22 August 1795. A French plebiscite ratified the document, with about 1,057,000
votes for the constitution and 49,000 against.The results of the voting were announced on 23
September 1795, and the new constitution took effect on 27 September 1795.

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

13
prezi.com/19f3godct2_v/the-french-revolution/, Accessed on 19/O4/2014 at 22:48 IST
 20

demands? The policy of Revolutionary Government was that of maintaining a position half-way
between moderates ( citras ) and the extremists ( ultras ).14

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).
[55]
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

14
https://sites.google.com/.../post-guillotine-new-forms-of-government-and..., Accessed on 19/O4/2014 at
22:51 IST
 21

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.15

Thermidor16

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

15
Henry Helle, The Bourgeois Revolution in France, 1789-1815, Published on 2001 by Berghahn
Books. Publication, pp 276-78

16
www2.sunysuffolk.edu/westn/frenchrev.htm, Accessed on 19/O4/2014 at 22:58 IST
 22

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(Period)
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.17

17
prezi.com/nwmiik8nrgml/national-convention-1792-1795, Accessed on 19/O4/2014 at 23:28 IST
 23

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).
 24

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.18

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.

Constitution 179519

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
18
www.clas.ufl.edu/users/dgeggus/htnrevn.htm, Accessed on 19/O4/2014 at 23:38 IST
19
www.walmart.com/ip/History-of-Modern-World/22568829, Accessed on 19/O4/2014 at 23:48 IST
 25

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 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″.
 26

CONCLUSION

After going through various books, online materials and other data sources, the researcher has
concluded that, The National Convention was the highest legislative and executive organ of the
First Republic in France. It was in existence from Sept. 21, 1792, to Oct. 26, 1795.

It was elected after the popular uprising revolt of Aug. 10, 1792, which overthrew the monarchy
and forced the Legislative Assembly to change the system of electoral qualifications and decree
the convocation of a national congress. Two-stage elections to the convention, in which all men
(excluding domestic servants) over the age of 21 were eligible to vote, were held. There were
three groups of deputies to the convention: the Girondins, who tried to hold back the forward
movement of the revolution; the Jacobins, who tried to further the revolution; and the Plaine,
who supported whoever was more powerful at any given moment.

The history of the National Convention is divided into three periods. During the first period,
control belonged to the Girondins. However, in the trial of Louis XVI, a slim majority overruled
the Girondins and supported the Jacobin proposal on the execution of the former king (January
1793) and approved the Law of the Maximum (May 1793), which instituted government limits
on prices. The popular uprising of May 31-June 2, 1793, drove the Girondins from power and
gave full power to the Jacobins.

The Jacobin convention was the supreme organ of the Jacobin dictatorship. The dictatorship
carried out the most important tasks of the revolution (organizing the national forces to defeat the
counterrevolution, liquidating feudal relationships in the countryside, and adopting a democratic
constitution in 1793). The National Convention and its subordinate committees, including the
Committee of Public Safety and Committee of General Security, formed the revolutionary
government of the Jacobins. The National Convention of this period received the high evaluation
 27

of V. I. Lenin, who wrote: “a convention . . . must have the courage, the capacity, and the
strength to strike merciless blows at the counterrevolutionaries instead of compromising with
them”.

The Thermidorian coup (July 1794) began the Thermidorian Convention, which in the interest
of the counterrevolutionary big bourgeoisie liquidated the basic social and democratic gains of
the Jacobins and prepared the way for transition to the regime of the Directory.

The Convention had therefore been elected by small minority of the population, but those who
were the most determined. That explains the ambiguity of the word "popular" when it is applied
to this period: "popular" the French Revolution was certainly not in the sense of participation by
the people in public affairs.
But if the word "popular" is taken to mean that revolutionary policy was formed under pressure
from the sans-culotte movement and organized minorities, and received an egalitarian impetus
from them, then yes, the Revolution had well and truly entered its "popular" age.

During the early meetings of the Convention the deputies had sat indiscriminately, where they
pleased. But it was noticed that, as the quarrel between Jacobins and Girondins developed, they
grouped themselves to the right and left of the President's chair, whiles the extreme Jacobins
found a place of vantage in the higher seats at the end of the hall, which came to be called the
Mountain ( La Montagne ).

As opposed to the English Revolution, the French Revolution killed not only the king of France,
but royalty itself. In this sense, even if the Conventionnels had only transformed into a national
tragedy what the last century of absolutism had already marked out as inevitable, they had
accomplished their aim: to strip royalty from the nation's future. By executing the king, they had
severed France's last ties with her past, and made the rupture with the ancient regime complete.

The revolutionaries turned soldiers did not forget their attachments. Hoche had been a
Maratist, Kleber and Marceau praised the activity of Carrier, and Bonaparte attached himself to
the Robespierre brothers. So many years later, even men like Marmont and Soult were moved
with emotion by the memory of the shining hours they had known in the service of the
"Indivisible Republic".
 28

Based on recent figures of the Terror:

17,000 victims names distributed according to specific geographical areas: 52% in the
Vendee, 19% in the south-east, 10% in the capital and 13% in the rest of France.
Distinction is between zones of turmoil and an insignificant proportion of quite rural
areas. Between departments, the contrast becomes more striking. Some were hard hit, the
Loire-Inferieure, the Vendee, the Maine-et-Loire, the Rhone and Paris. In
six departments no executions were recorded; in 31, there were fewer than 10; in 32,
fewer than 100; and only in 18 were there more than 1,000. Charges of rebellion and
treason were by far the most frequent grounds for execution (78%), followed by
federalism (10%), crimes of opinion (9%) and economic crimes (1.25%). Artisans,
shopkeepers. wage-earners and humble folk made up the largest contingent (31%),
concentrated in Lyons, Marseilles and neighboring small towns. Because ofvendeens,
peasants are more heavily represented (28%) than the federalist and merchant
bourgeoisie. Nobles (8.25%) and priests (6.5%), who would seem to have been relatively
spared, actually provided a higher proportion of victims than other social categories. In
the most sheltered regions, they were the only victims.
Furthermore, the "Great Terror" is hardly distinguishable from the rest. In June and July
1794, it accounted for 14% of executions, as against 70% from October 1793 to May
1794, and 3.5% before September 1793. if one adds executions without trial and deaths
in prison, a total of 50,000 seems likely, that is 2 per 1,000 of the population.

Yet an unoficial Terror-in-reverse continued. In the provinces the Terror assumed violent
and vicious form. In the Lyonnais, the Company of Jesus flung the bodies of its victims,
men and women, into the Rhone, and prisoners were massacred wholesale in gaol or on
their way to prison, while in other cities, bands of so-called Companies of Jehu and the
Sun indiscriminately murdered "terrorists", "patriots of 89" and — most eagerly of all —
purchasers of former Church properties. Such excesses were deplored in Paris, but the
Convention and its Committees were powerless to contain forces that they had
themselves done much to unleash.
 29

NOTES AND REFRENCES

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Convention
2. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/European_History/Revolution_in_France
3. nationalconvention.weebly.com/
4. http://www.college.columbia.edu/core/content/french-revolution/context
5. Francois Guizot and Madame Guizot de Witt, The National Convention, 1792-1795

6. Chris Harman, A People’s History and the World

7. François-Alphonse Aulard, The democratic republic, 1792-1795
8. www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/404639/National-Convention
9. Peter McPhee, A Companion to the French Revolutio,Published by Wiley Publication
10. www.sparknotes.com › ... › The French Revolution (1789–1799
11. https://vfeurohistory.wikispaces.com/.../TH20-06+Radical+Phase-Nationa...
12. www.preceden.com/timelines/1900-french-revaloution
13. prezi.com/19f3godct2_v/the-french-revolution/
14. https://sites.google.com/.../post-guillotine-new-forms-of-government-and...

15. Henry Helle, The Bourgeois Revolution in France, 1789-1815

16. www2.sunysuffolk.edu/westn/frenchrev.htm
17. prezi.com/nwmiik8nrgml/national-convention-1792-1795
18. www.clas.ufl.edu/users/dgeggus/htnrevn.htm
19. www.walmart.com/ip/History-of-Modern-World/22568829
 30

BIBLIOGRAPHY

WEBSITES:-

1. http://en.wikipedia.org
2. http://en.wikibooks.org

3. nationalconvention.weebly.com
4. http://www.college.columbia.edu
5. www.britannica.com

6. www.sparknotes.com
7. https://vfeurohistory.wikispaces.com
8. www.preceden.com
9. prezi.com
10. https://sites.google.com
11. www2.sunysuffolk.edu
12. prezi.com
13. www.clas.ufl
14. www.walmart.com

BOOKS:-

1. The National Convention, 1792-1795, By Francois Guizot and Madame Guizot de Witt,
published on2003
2. A People’s History and the World, by Chris Harman, Published by Orient Black Swan,
Published on 1999
3. The democratic republic, 1792-1795 , François-Alphonse Aulard, Published by C.
Scribner's sons, 1910
 31

4. A Companion to the French Revolutio, by Peter McPhee, Published by Wiley

Publication, Published on 2007
5. The Bourgeois Revolution in France,1789-1815,by Henry Helle, Published on 2001 by
Berghahn Books. Publication