The Plain La Plaine | |
|---|---|
| Main leaders | Félix-Julien-Jean Bigot de Préameneu Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès Lazare Carnot |
| Main members | François-Antoine de Boissy d'Anglas Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès |
| Founded | 6 September 1791 |
| Dissolved | 2 November 1795 |
| Headquarters | Tuileries Palace,[ citation needed ] Paris |
| Newspaper | Journal des débats [ citation needed ] |
| Ideology | Liberalism Republicanism |
| Political position | Centre |
| Colors | Grey |
The Plain (French : la Plaine), also known as the Marsh (French : le Marais), was the majority of independent deputies in the National Convention during the French Revolution. They were the most moderate and the most numerous group (around 400 deputies) of the National Convention, as they sat between the Girondins on their right and the Montagnards (the Mountain) on their left. Their name arises from the fact their benches were by the debating floor, lower down from the Montagnards. Its members were also known as Maraisards, or derogatorily Toads (French : crapauds du Marais) as toads live in marshes.
Coming mostly from the liberal and republican bourgeoisie, the Plain was attached to the political conquests of 1789 and to the work of the French Revolution and wanted the union of all republicans. In practice, this group was very heterogeneous as it included noblemen and clericals like Henri Grégoire, François Antoine de Boissy d'Anglas, Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès, and Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès; at the same time, some of its members like Bertrand Barère, Pierre-Joseph Cambon, Lazare Carnot, and Georges Couthon joined the Montagnards in the spring of 1793.
At the time of the Montagnards' seizure of power (the days of 31 May and 2 June 1793), their centrist position at the National Convention remained ambiguous. While the Plain deputies tried to play the role of mediators, they admitted the merits of the public safety measures voted with their support, or even their impetus, for several months; however, most of them demonstrated their hostility towards Maximilien Robespierre on 9 Thermidor, Year II, by rallying the instigators of the plot who were representatives on a mission recalled to Paris (Paul Barras, Joseph Fouché, Louis-Marie Stanislas Fréron, and Jean-Lambert Tallien).
The Plain and Marsh names come from their position, which was compared with the geographical areas of plain and marsh and by opposition to the Montagnards. The newspaper L'Ami du peuple is credited with having invented the term Marsh in reference to the Plain. Its members were sometimes disdainfully called by their adversaries the "toads of the Marais". Pierre Joseph Duhem, a Montagnard deputy, was quoted as saying: "The toads of the Marais are raising their heads! So much the better; it will be easier to cut them off." [1] [2]
The origin of the name continues to be debated. If the name Girondins to describe the group of Jacques Pierre Brissot's followers is simply explained by their geographical origin, those of the Montagnards and the members of the Plaine continue to raise questions because several interpretations are possible. The most widespread consists of sticking to the letter of the terms used: the Montagnard deputies sat on the left on the highest benches of this assembly, hence the reference to the Mountain, and those of the Plaine on the lower benches. This classification is already present in an ancient text that many revolutionaries read, the "Life of Solon" from the Parallel Lives , where Plutarch (taking up the texts of Herodotus and Aristotle) describes the political divisions in Ancient Athens in these terms: "The Hill-men favoured an extreme democracy; the Plain-men an extreme oligarchy; the Shore-men formed a third party, which preferred an intermediate and mixed form of government, was opposed to the other two, and prevented either from gaining the ascendancy." [nb 1] Biblical and evangelical references are also present because the Mountain is perceived as a new Mount Sinai (with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen as a new Decalogue), with further references to the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus. [3]
During its existence, the Plain represented centrist positions; [4] however, it was not static and evolved. The Plain was more centrist starting from the National Convention that began in 1792 and ended in 1795, and during this time the Plain's independent deputies represented its largest group. [5] [6] [7] It was initially part of the left-wing groups. During the 1791 French legislative election, it included a majority of 350 moderate constitutionalists, one of which consisted of more than 250 Feuillants, divided into Fayettists and Lametists, and a left-wing made up of 136 Jacobin deputies, including several provincial politicians (including Armand Gensonné, Marguerite-Élie Guadet, and Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud, originally from Gironde, hence the name of the Girondins, with a small group of more advanced democrats (Lazare Carnot, Georges Couthon, and Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet). [8] [9]
None of Revolutionary France's three main political groups was an organized political party. While the Montagnards and the Girondins consisted of individuals with similar views and agendas who socialized together and often coordinated political plans, the Plain consisted of uncommitted delegates that did not adhere to a single ideology, [10] were not part of any political club, [11] and lacked leadership. [11] They constituted the majority of delegates to the Convention at 389 of 749, [10] and voted with the Girondins or the Montagnards depending on the persuasiveness of arguments on single issues, [7] current circumstances, and mood of the National Convention. They initially sided with the Girondins; [10] by 1793, many backed the Montagnards in executing Louis XVI and inaugurating the Reign of Terror. [10] The January 4 address, made by Plain member Bertrand Barère, [7] is credited in part for rallying undecided fellow members against the king. [12]
Nearly all those elected to the Committee for Public Safety in 1793 were members of the Plain, including the popular Barère. [13] Later in 1794, disaffected Montagnards members led by Jean-Lambert Tallien made a pact with Plain leaders Julien-François Palasne de Champeaux, François Antoine de Boissy d'Anglas and Pierre-Toussaint Durand de Maillane to end the Reign of Terror, [14] [15] [16] ultimately inaugurating the Thermidorian Reaction. Other notable members in 1792 included Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, [7] Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès, Antoine Claire Thibaudeau, Henri Grégoire, Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai, Louis Gustave le Doulcet de Pontécoulant, Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux, dramatist Marie-Joseph Chénier, and Jacques-Antoine Dulaure who later sat with the Girondins. [17] Pierre Claude François Daunou who associated with the Girondins has also been regarded as part of the Plain. [17]
| Legislative Assembly | |||||
| Election year | No. of overall votes | % of overall vote | No. of overall seats won | +/– | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1791 | 1,978,000 (1st) | 46.3 | 345 / 745 | New | |
| National Convention | |||||
| 1792 | 1,747,200 (1st) | 51.9 | 389 / 749 |  44 | |
| Legislative Body | |||||
| 1795 | Did not participate | Did not participate | 200 / 750 |  189 | |
The Reign of Terror was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, anticlerical sentiment, and accusations of treason by the Committee of Public Safety. While terror was never formally instituted as a legal policy by the Convention, it was more often employed as a concept.
Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac was a French politician, freemason, journalist, and one of the most prominent members of the National Convention, representing the Plain during the French Revolution. The Plain was dominated by the radical Montagnards and Barère as one of their leaders supported the foundation of the Committee of Public Safety in April and of a sans-culottes army in September 1793. According to Francois Buzot, Barère was responsible for the Reign of Terror, like Robespierre and Louis de Saint-Just. In spring 1794 and after the Festival of the Supreme Being, he became an opponent of Maximilien Robespierre and joined the coup, leading to his downfall.
Georges Jacques Danton was a leading figure in the French Revolution. A modest and unknown lawyer on the eve of the Revolution, Danton became a famous orator of the Cordeliers Club and was raised to governmental responsibilities as the French Minister of Justice following the fall of the monarchy on the tenth of August 1792, and was allegedly responsible for inciting the September Massacres. He was tasked by the National Convention to intervene in the military conquest of Belgium led by General Dumouriez, and in the spring of 1793 supported the foundation of a Revolutionary Tribunal, becoming the first president of the Committee of Public Safety.
The Society of the Friends of the Constitution, renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club or simply the Jacobins, was the most influential political club during the French Revolution of 1789. The period of its political ascendancy includes the Reign of Terror, during which well over 10,000 people were put on trial and executed in France, many for political crimes.
Jacques Pierre Brissot, also known as Brissot de Warville, was a French journalist, abolitionist, and revolutionary leading the faction of Girondins at the National Convention in Paris. The Girondins favored exporting the revolution and opposed a concentration of power in Paris. He collaborated on the Mercure de France and the Courier de l'Europe, which sympathized with the insurgents in the American colonies.
The Girondins, or Girondists, were a political group during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnards, they initially were part of the Jacobin movement. They campaigned for the end of the monarchy, but then resisted the spiraling momentum of the Revolution, which caused a conflict with the more radical Montagnards. They dominated the movement until their fall in the insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793, which resulted in the domination of the Montagnards and the purge and eventual mass execution of the Girondins. This event is considered to mark the beginning of the Reign of Terror.
The National Convention was the constituent assembly of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for its first three years during the French Revolution, following the two-year National Constituent Assembly and the one-year Legislative Assembly. Created after the great insurrection of 10 August 1792, it was the first French government organized as a republic, abandoning the monarchy altogether. The Convention sat as a single-chamber assembly from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795.
The Mountain was a political group during the French Revolution. Its members, called the Montagnards, sat on the highest benches in the National Convention. The term, first used during a session of the Legislative Assembly, came into general use in 1793. By the summer of 1793, that pair of opposed minority groups divided the National Convention. That year, the Montagnards were influential in what is commonly known as the Reign of Terror.
The sans-culottes were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the Ancien Régime. The word sans-culotte, which is opposed to "aristocrat", seems to have been used for the first time on 28 February 1791 by Jean-Bernard Gauthier de Murnan in a derogatory sense, speaking about a "sans-culottes army". The word came into vogue during the demonstration of 20 June 1792.
The Paris Commune during the French Revolution was the government of Paris from 1789 until 1795. Established in the Hôtel de Ville just after the storming of the Bastille, it consisted of 144 delegates elected by the 60 divisions of the city. Before its formal establishment, there had been much popular discontent on the streets of Paris over who represented the true Commune, and who had the right to rule the Parisian people. The first mayor was Jean Sylvain Bailly, a relatively moderate Feuillant who supported constitutional monarchy. He was succeeded in November 1791 by Pétion de Villeneuve after Bailly's unpopular use of the National Guard to disperse a riotous assembly in the Champ de Mars.
François Hanriot was a French Sans-culotte leader, street orator, and commander of the National Guard during the French Revolution. He played a vital role in the Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793 and subsequently the fall of the Girondins. On 27 July 1794 he tried to release Maximilien Robespierre, who was arrested by the Convention. He was executed on the next day – together with Robespierre, Saint-Just and Couthon – by the rules of the law of 22 Prairial, only verifying his identity at the trial.
Legislative elections were held in France at the end of August and in September 1792 to elect deputies to the National Convention. Primary elections to elect members of electoral colleges were held in August, with the electoral colleges subsequently voting from 2 to 19 September. The elections established the nation's first government without the monarch, Louis XVI. On 20 September the Convention gathered for the first time.
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre was a French lawyer and statesman, widely recognized as one of the most influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. Robespierre fervently campaigned for the voting rights of all men and their unimpeded admission to the National Guard. Additionally, he advocated the right to petition, the right to bear arms in self-defence, and the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. He was a radical Jacobin leader who came to prominence as a member of the Committee of Public Safety, an administrative body of the First French Republic. His legacy has been heavily influenced by his actual or perceived participation in repression of the Revolution's opponents, but is notable for his progressive views for the time.
François Louis Michel Chemin des Forgues was a French politician, and Foreign Minister.
During the French Revolution, the Extraordinary Commission of Twelve was a commission of the French National Convention charged with finding and trying conspirators. It was known for short as the Commission of Twelve and its formation led to the revolt of 2 June 1793, the fall of the Girondins and the start of the Reign of Terror.
The insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793, during the French Revolution, started after the Paris commune demanded that 22 Girondin deputies and members of the Commission of Twelve should be brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal. Jean-Paul Marat led the attack on the representatives in the National Convention, who in January had voted against the execution of the King and since then had paralyzed the convention. It ended after thousands of armed citizens surrounded the convention to force it to deliver the deputies denounced by the Commune. The insurrection resulted in the fall of 29 Girondins and two ministers under pressure of the sans-culottes, Jacobins, and Montagnards.
The Federalist revolts were uprisings that broke out in various parts of France in the summer of 1793, during the French Revolution. They were prompted by resentments in France's provincial cities about increasing centralisation of power in Paris, and increasing radicalisation of political authority in the hands of the Jacobins. In most of the country, the trigger for uprising was the exclusion of the Girondins from the National Convention after the Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793. Although they shared common origins and political objectives, the revolts were not centrally organised or well-coordinated. The revolts were put down by the armies of the Convention over the following months. The Reign of Terror was then imposed across France to punish those associated with them and to enforce Jacobin ideology.
Jean-Baptiste Clauzel was a French politician. In 1790, he was elected mayor of his hometown. In 1791, his countrymen sent him to sit in the Legislative Assembly where he was very discreet. In 1792, he was re-elected to the Convention by the department of Ariege, when he sided with the Mountain. At the trial of Louis XVI in January 1793, this supposed royalist voted for the king's death without the possibility of a suspended sentence (sursis or of an appeal of the people. He did not vote for the impeachment of Jean-Paul Marat while claiming to be "far from approving all the principles of the Revolution espoused by his fanatic friend." Despite his opposition to the Girondins, he voted for the maintenance of their members' allowances to those under arrest. He served as a representative on mission to the Army of the Pyrenees from the end of August 1793 when he was recalled to Paris. He was among those who organized the downfall of Maximilien Robespierre. After 9 Thermidor Year II he joined the Committee of General Security, and supported the closing of the Jacobin Club. An active Thermidorian, he was extremely active during the insurrection of the 1st Prairial. He denounced and arrested the last Montagnards and called for the arrest of Bertrand Barère, Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne and Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois. Returning to the army of the Pyrenees, he found it disgracefully disorganized and unable to fight.
{{cite thesis}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)Allouche, Élie (2005). 99 questions sur la Révolution française. Montpellier: CRDP de Montpellier.Allouche, Élie (2008). Cours d'Histoire de France. Paris: Vuibert.
