Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793

Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793
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.
Due to its impact and importance, the insurrection stands as one of the three great popular insurrections of the French Revolution, following those of 14 July 1789 (the storming of the Bastille) and 10 August 1792. The principal conspirators were the Enragés: Claude-Emmanuel Dobsen and Jean-François Varlet. Jean-Nicolas Pache and Pierre Gaspard Chaumette led the march on the Convention.
Background
During the government of the Legislative Assembly (October 1791–September 1792), the Girondins had dominated French politics.
After the insurrection of 10 August and the start of the newly elected National Convention in September 1792, the Girondin faction (c. 150) was larger than the Montagnards (c. 120), the other main faction of the Convention. Most ministries were in the hands of friends or allies of the Girondins, and the state bureaucracy and the provinces remained under their control.
The Convention was expected to deliver a new constitution, as the 10 August insurrection had rejected the Constitution of 1791. However, by the spring of 1793, the Convention was instead dealing with civil war, imminent invasion, difficulties, and dangers. The nation's economic situation was also deteriorating rapidlyby the end of the winter, grain circulation had stopped completely, and grain prices had doubled. Against Saint-Just's advice, vast quantities of assignats were still being put in circulation, and by February 1793, they had fallen to 50 percent of their face value. The depreciation provoked inflation and speculation.
Military setbacks against the First Coalition, Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine and General Dumouriez's defeats and the War in the Vendée in March 1793 drove many republicans towards the Montagnards and away from the Girondins. The Girondins were forced to accept the creation of the Revolutionary Tribunal and Committee of Public Safety.
While the inability of the Gironde to fend off all those dangers became evident, the Montagnards, in their determination to "save the Revolution", were gradually adopting the political program proposed by the popular militants. Authority was passing into the hands of the 150 Montagnards delegated to the départements and armed forces. The Gironde saw its influence decline in the interior, and the number of anti-Brissot petitions increased by late March 1793.
Toward the crisis
On 5 April, the Jacobins, presided over by Jean-Paul Marat, sent a circular letter to popular societies in the provinces inviting them to ask for the recall and dismissal of those députés who had voted that the decision to execute the King be referred back to the people. This move targeted the Girondins, whose votes to not immediately execute the King were seen as anti-revolutionary. In response, on 13 April, Girondin Marguerite-Élie Guadet proposed that Marat be charged for having, as president of the club, signed that circular. The proposal was passed by the Convention by 226 votes to 93, with 47 abstentions, following a heated debate. On the 15th, 35 of the 48 Paris sections reponded with a petition to the Convention couched in threatening terms against the 22 prominent Girondins. Marat's case was passed to the Revolutionary Tribunal, where Marat offered himself as "the apostle and martyr of liberty", and he was triumphantly acquitted on 24 April.
After this failure, the Gironde turned its attack on the Paris Commune. On 17 May Camille Desmoulins's pamphlet, L'Histoire des Brissotin, was read at the Jacobin club describing them as enemies of the people; Guadet denounced the Commune, describing them as "authorities devoted to anarchy, and greedy for both money and political domination". He proposed that they be quashed immediately. The Commission of Twelve, composed entirely of Girondins, was set up to look into the matter. On 24 May, the commission ordered the arrest of Jacques Hébert for article in the Père Duchesne, alongside other popular militants including Varlet and Dobsen, president of the Cité section. These unpopular measures brought on the final crisis.
On 25 May, the Commune demanded that the arrested patriots be released. In reply, Girondin Maximin Isnard, presiding over the Convention, launched into a bitter and threatening diatribe against Paris reminiscent of the Brunswick Manifesto, saying,
On 26 May, after a week of silence, Robespierre delivered one of the most decisive speeches of his career. He openly called at the Jacobin Club "to place themselves in insurrection against corrupt deputies". Isnard declared that the convention would not be influenced by any violence and that Paris had to respect the representatives from elsewhere in France. The Convention decided Robespierre would not be heard. (During the whole debate Robespierre sat on the gallery.) The atmosphere became extremely agitated. Some deputies were willing to kill if Isnard dared to declare civil war in Paris; the president was asked to give up his seat. The Convention caved to pressure and released Varlet and Dobsen on the 27th, only three days after their arrest. On 28 May a weak Robespierre excused himself twice for his physical condition but attacked in particular Brissot of royalism. He referred to 25 July 1792 where their points of view split. Robespierre left the convention after applause from the left side and went to the town hall. There he called for an armed insurrection against the majority of the convention. "If the Commune does not unite closely with the people, it violates its most sacred duty", he said. In the afternoon the Commune demanded the creation of a Revolutionary army of sansculottes in every town of France, including 20,000 men to defend Paris. 29 May was occupied in preparing the public mind, according to historian François Mignet.
Thursday, 30 May
Delegates representing 33 of the sections met at the Évêché (the Bishop's Palace behind the Notre-Dame de Paris) declared themselves in a state of insurrection against the aristocratic factions and the oppression of liberty. A committee of nine, including Varlet and Dobsen, was appointed to lead the revolt. Most of the committee members were comparatively young men and little known. More notable members included Varlet, who had made his name as an agitator; Jean Henri Hassenfratz, who had held an important post in the War Office; Dobsen, who had been foreman of the jury in the Revolutionary Tribunal; and Alexandre Rousselin, who had edited the Feuille du salut public. However, the committee also included otherwise ordinary citizens, such as the printer Marquet, who presided over the Central Committee; its secretary Tombe; the painter Simon of the Halle-au-Blé section; the toy-maker Bonhommet, of Auray; an usher from Montmartre; Crepin the decorator; Caillieaux the ribbon-maker; and the déclassée aristocrat Duroure. These unknown Frenchmen purported to be the voice of the people; they were all Parisians and not novices in revolution.
On the same day, several new members were added to the Committee of Public Safety: Saint-Just, Couthon, and Hérault de Seychelles. The Department of Paris gave its support to the movement, and in name of the sections François Hanriot was appointed "Commandant-General" of the Parisian National Guard by the vice-president of the Convention. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the tocsin in the Notre-Dame was rung, in the streets barriers were erected and the city gates were closed. The insurrection was directed by the committee at the Évêché (the Bishop's Palace Committee).
Friday, 31 May
At six o'clock in the morning, the delegates of the 33 sections, led by Dobsen, fired the alarm-gun, presented themselves at the Hôtel de Ville, showed the full powers with which the members had invested them, and suppressed the Commune, whose members had retired to the adjourning room. The revolutionary delegates provisionally reinstated the Commune in its functions, dissolved the general council of the Commune, and immediately reconstituted it, requiring members to take a new oath. Jean-Nicolas Pache, the mayor was dismissed or refused? They ordered the arrest of LeBrun-Tondu, Etienne Clavière and Jean-Marie Roland.
The insurgent committee, which was now sitting at the Hôtel de Ville, dictated to the Commune, now reinstated by the people, what measures it was to take. It secured the nomination of François Hanriot, Commandant of the battalion of the Jardin des Plantes, as sole commander-in-chief of the National Guard of Paris. It was decided that the poorer National Guards who were under arms should receive pay at the rate of 40 sous a day. The assembly of the Parisian authorities, summoned by the departmental assembly, resolved to cooperate with the Commune and the insurrectionary committee, whose numbers were raised to 21 by the addition of delegates from the meeting at the Jacobins. Hanriot's first care was to seize key positions—the Bassin de l'Arsenal, the Place Royale, and the Pont Neuf. Next, the barriers were closed and prominent suspects arrested.
The Conseil-General ordered that the tocsin in the Notre-Dame should stop ringing. The sections were very slow in getting under way, as the workers were at their jobs. Hanriot ordered a cannon fired on the Pont-Neuf as a sign of alarm. When the Convention assembled, Georges Danton rushed to the tribune, allegedly saying,
Around ten in the morning, 12,000 armed citizens appeared to protect the Convention against the arrest of Girondin deputies.
At about five o'clock in the afternoon, petitioners from the sections and the Commune appeared at the bar of the Convention. They demanded that 22 Girondin deputies and members of the Commission of Twelve be brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal, a central revolutionary army be raised, the price of bread be fixed at three sous a pound, nobles holding senior rank in the army be dismissed, armories be created for arming the sans-culottes, the departments of France be purged, suspects be arrested, the right to vote provisionally be reserved to sans-culottes only, and a fund be set apart for the relatives of those defending their country and for the relief of the aged and infirm.
The petitioners made their way into the hall and sat down beside the Montagnards. Robespierre ascended the Tribune and supported the suppression of the commissions. When Vergniaud called upon him to conclude, Robespierre turned towards him and allegedly said,
To this Vergniaud did not reply. The Convention suppressed the Commission of Twelve and approved the ordinance of the Commune, granting two livres a day to workmen under arms.
Yet, the rising of 31 May ended unsatisfactorily. That evening at the Commune, Chaumette and Dobsen were accused by Varlet of weakness. Robespierre had declared from the Tribune that the journée of 31 May was not enough. At the Jacobins club, Billaud-Varenne echoed the sentiment, supposedly saying, "Our country is not saved; there were important measures of public safety that had to be taken; it was today that we had to strike the final blows against factionalism". The Commune, declaring itself duped, demanded and prepared a "supplement" to the revolution.
Saturday, 1 June
On Saturday, the Commune gathered almost all day, devoted to the preparation of a great movement to the Vendée, according to historian François Mignet. The National Guard remained under arms. Marat himself repaired to the Hôtel de Ville, Paris and gave, with emphatic solemnity, a "counsel" to the peoplenamely, to remain at the ready and not to quit until victory was theirs. He climbed to the belfry of the town hall and rang the tocsin. The Convention broke the session at six o'clock, at the time when the Commune was to present a new petition against the 22 Girondins. At the tocsin sound, it assembled again, and the petition demanding the arrest of the Girondins was referred to the Committee of Public Safety for examination and report within three days. It ordered |Hanriot to surround the Convention "with a respectable armed force".
In the evening, 40,000 men surrounded the National Palace to force the arrest of the deputies. At 21:00, the Convention, presided over by Henri Grégoire, opened the session. Marat lead the attack on the Girondin representatives, who in January had voted against immediate execution of the King and since then had paralyzed the Convention. Several were accused of corresponding with General Dumouriez, since his defection early April seen as a traitor to the Revolution. The Committee of Public Safety postponed decisions on the accused deputies for three days, even though Marat demanded a decision within a day. Unsatisfied with the result, the Commune demanded and prepared a "Supplement" to the revolution.
During the night of 1–2 June, the insurrectionary committee, by agreement with the Commune, ordered Hanriot to "surround the Convention with an armed force sufficient to command respect, in order that the chiefs of the faction may be arrested during the day, in case the Convention refused to accede to the request of the citizens of Paris". Orders were given to suppress the Girondin newspapers and arrest their editors. The Comité insurrectionnel ordered the arrest of ministers Jean-Marie Roland and Étienne Clavière. That night, Paris changed into a military camp, according to author Otto Flake.
Sunday, 2 June
On Sunday, Hanriot was ordered to march his National Guard from the town hall to the National Palace. The Convention invited Hanriot, who told them all his men were prepared. In the morning, according to historians Louis Madelin and François Mignet, a large force of armed citizens (estimated by some as 80100,000, but by Danton as only 30,000) surrounded the convention with 48 pieces of artillery. "The armed force", Hanriot supposedly said, "will retire only when the Convention has delivered to the people the deputies denounced by the Commune". The Committee of Public Safety did not know how to react. The Girondins believed they were protected by the law, but the people on the galleries called for their arrest. The 300 deputies, confronted on all sides by bayonets and pikes, returned to the meeting hall and submitted to the inevitable. 22 Girondins were seized one by one after some juggling with names. They finally decided that 31 deputies were not to be imprisoned, but only subject to house arrest.
The session of the Convention was opened with bad news: the chief town of the Vendée had just fallen into the hands of rebels, and at Lyons, royalist and Girondin sections had gained control of the Hôtel de Ville after a fierce struggle, in which it was said that eight hundred republicans had perished. In the Convention, Lanjuinais denounced the revolt of the Paris Commune and asked for its suppression. "I demand", he supposedly said, "to speak respecting the general call to arms now beating throughout Paris". He was immediately interrupted by cries of, "Down! down! He wants civil war! He wants a counter-revolution! He defames Paris! He insults the people". Despite the threats, the insults, the clamours of the Mountain and the galleries, Lanjuinais denounced the projects of the Commune and of the malcontents. His courage rose with the danger. "You accuse us", he supposedly said, "of defaming Paris! Paris is pure; Paris is good; Paris is oppressed by tyrants who thirst for blood and dominion". These words were the signal for the most violent tumult. Several Mountain deputies rushed to the Tribune to tear Lanjuinais from it, but he, clinging firmly to it, exclaimed, in accents of the loftiest courage,
He had scarcely concluded when the insurgent petitioners came to demand his arrest and that of his colleagues. "Citizens", one supposedly said, "the people are weary of seeing their happiness still postponed; they leave it once more in your hands; save them, or we declare that they will save themselves". The demand again was referred to the Committee of Public Safety.
The petitioners went out shaking their fists at the Convention and shouting, "To arms!" Strict orders were given by Hanriot forbidding the National Guard to let any deputy go in or out. In the name of the Committee of Public Safety, Plains member Bertrand Barère proposed a compromise: the 22 and the 12 would not be arrested but instead be called upon to voluntarily suspend the exercise of their functions. Arrested Girondins Maximin Isnard and Claude Fauchet obeyed on the spot. Others refused. While this was going on, Charles-François Delacroix, a deputy of the Mountain, rushed into the Convention, hurried to the Tribune, and declared that he had been insulted at the door, that he had been refused egress, and that the Convention was no longer free. Many of the Mountain expressed their indignation at Hanriot and his troops. Danton said it was necessary to vigorously avenge this insult to the national honour. Barère proposed that the members of the Convention present themselves to the people. "Representatives", he supposedly said, "vindicate your liberty; suspend your sitting; cause the bayonets that surround you to be lowered".
At the prompting of Barère, the whole Convention, minus the left of the Montagne, started out, led by the president, Hérault de Séchelles, and attempted to exit through the wall of steel with which they were surrounded. On arriving at a door on the Place du Carrousel, they found Hanriot on horseback, saber in hand. "What do the people require?", Hérault de Séchelles supposedly asked, adding, "The convention is wholly engaged in promoting their happiness". "Hérault", Hanriot supposedly replied, "the people have not risen to hear phrases; they require twenty-four traitors to be given up to them". "Give us all up!", those who surrounded the president supposedly cried. Hanriot then turned to his people and gave the order, "Canonniers, a vos pieces!" ("Cannoneers, to your guns!"). Two pieces were directed upon the Convention, who, retiring to the gardens, sought an outlet at various points, but found all the issues guarded.
The deputies walked round the palace, repulsed by bayonets on all sides, only to return and submit. A screaming Marat forced the deputies to go back to the hall. The next day, the interior minister Garat forced Danton to disavow the events from the evening before. On the motion of Couthon, the Convention voted for the suspension and house arrest (arrestation chex eux) under the guard of a gendarme of 29 Girondin members, together with ministers Clavière and Lebrun-Tondu.
Aftermath
Thus, the struggle which had begun in the National Convention ended in the triumph of the Montagnards. The Girondins ceased to be a political force. They had declared war without knowing how to conduct it, denounced the King but shrunk from completely condemning him, contributed to the worsening of the economic crisis, and swept aside all claims made by the popular movement.
The 31 May insurrection soon came to be regarded as one of the great journées of the Revolution. It shared with 14 July 1789 and 10 August 1792 the honor of having a ship of the line named after it. But the results of the crisis left all the participants dissatisfied. Danton's hopes of last-minute compromise had been shattered. Although the Montagnards had succeeded in averting bloodshed, the outrage at the Convention would set the provinces on fire in the Federalist revolts. But the Montagnards now had a chance to govern the country and to infuse new energy into national defense.
Though for the popular movement, most of the demands presented to the Convention were not achieved, the insurrection 31 May – 2 June 1793 inaugurated a new phase in the Revolution. On 3 June the convention decided to split up the land belonging to Émigrés and sell it to farmers, a maximum on grain prices was introduced, a revolutionary army would be organized, and every citizen would be armed. Robespierre attended a meeting of the Jacobin club to support a decree ending slavery. In the course of summer 1793, governmental power moved into the provisional Committee of Public Safety, and the Jacobin First Republic began its offensive against the enemies of the Revolution.
The trial of the 22 began before the Revolutionary Tribunal on 24 October 1793. The verdict was a foregone conclusion. On 31 October, they were borne to the guillotine. It took 36 minutes to decapitate all of them, including Charles Éléonor Dufriche de Valazé, who had committed suicide the previous day upon hearing the sentence he was given.
Notes
References
Sources
French Revolution
1793 events of the French Revolution
Military coups in France
18th-century coups d'état
Peasant revolts