Discussion 7

Lecture 12

The French Revolution: The Moderate Stage,

1789-1792

Beloved and loyal supporters, we require the assistance

of our faithful subjects to overcome the difficulties in

which we find ourselves concerning the current state of

our finances, and to establish, as we so wish, a constant

and invariable order in all branches of government that

concern the happiness of our subjects and the prosperity

of the realm. These great motives have induced us to

summon the Assembly of the Estates of all Provinces

obedient to us, as much to counsel and assist us in all

things placed before it, as to inform us of the wishes an

grievances of our people; so that, by means of the mutual

confidence and reciprocal love between the sovereign

and his subjects, an effective remedy may be brought as

quickly as possible to the ills of the State, and abuses of

all sorts may be averted and corrected by good and solid

means which insure public happiness and restore to us in

particular the calm and tranquility of which we have so

long been deprived.

Louis XVI's letter regarding the convocation of the Estates

General at Versailles (January 24, 1789)

The aim of every political association is the preservation

of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These

rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to

oppression.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (August

26, 1789)

After all these facts and the impossibility the king found

himself in to do good and prevent the evil which his

committed, is it surprising that the king sought to recover

his liberty and to get himself and his family to safety?

"Declaration of the King Addressed to All the French

About His Flight from Paris" (June 21, 1791)

It is time to teach kings that the silence of the laws about

their crimes is the ill consequence of their power, and not

the will of reason or equity. . . .

Speech of Marquis de Condorcet (December 3, 1792)

We now come to the Revolution itself. We have already

outlined some of the basic causes of the French Revolution as

well as the general features of the ancien regime. It seems

fairly clear that the closed social structure of 18 th

century

France, administrative inefficiency, bankruptcy and the

example of the American Revolution as well as Enlightenment

thought all had their effect on what would indeed occur in the

last decade of the 18 th

century. Above all, a revolutionary

mentality had been created and this alone, perhaps, is what

drove the revolutionaries forward. Our discussion will suggest

that there were actually two revolutions, or two distinct

stages within the Revolution: the moderate stage of 1789-

1792, followed by the radical stage of 1792-1794 (see

Lecture 13).

For centuries, Frenchmen had met in local electoral

assemblies in order to elect deputies for the Estates General.

This was, in theory, a representative institution. However, the

Estates General had not been called into session since 1614.

In July 1788, and because of its unresolved and mounting

financial crisis, Louis XVI called for a meeting of the Estates

General. After electing deputies, the full body was to meet in

June the following year. For the next twelve months following

Louis’ request, each Estate drew up a list of grievances, the

Cahiers de doléances. Among the lists drawn up by the

deputies of the Third Estate were expressed loyalty to Louis,

loyalty to the Church and the sanctity of private property.

Several lists called for a written constitution as well as an

elected Assembly.

As the Estates General prepared to meet, there was a general

consensus of high hope amongst all concerned Frenchmen.

As yet, no one was talking about revolution. The Estates

General met at Versailles on May 5, 1789 and there ensued

an immediate stalemate over procedure. The nobility argued

that the three Estates meet separately and vote as individual

bodies. Since the First and Second Estates were the

privileged orders, they would stand together against the

Third Estate, 2 votes to 1. The Third Estate recognized this

and instead proposed to the nobility and clergy that all

members of the Three Estates would meet as one body and

vote by head. This is an important consideration. The First

and Second Estates were composed of 300 delegates each.

But the Third Estate consisted of more than 600 solidly

middle class deputies from the ranks of government officials,

lawyers, merchants, property owners and other professionals.

Since the Third Estate had the support of liberal minded

priests and members of the nobility, they were almost

assured of a majority.

On June 10, 1789, the Third Estate broke the stalemate. They

invited the First and Second Estates to join them. Some of the

more liberal-minded members of the nobility and clergy did in

fact come over, but the stalemate continued. On June 17,

1789, the Third Estate began the French Revolution by

declaring itself a National Assembly. This was a profoundly

revolutionary act indeed. Days later, now locked out of their

meeting hall, the Third Estate moved to a tennis court and

took the OATH OF THE

TENNIS COURT, which stated

that they would not disband

until a constitution had been

drafted.

Louis ordered the National

Assembly to disband

immediately. A Declaration

sent to the Third Estate from Louis on June 23 expressed the

following demand:

The King wishes that the ancient distinction of the three

Orders of the State be preserved in its entirety, as

essentially linked to the constitution of his Kingdom; that

the deputies, freely elected by each of the three Orders,

forming three chambers, deliberating by Order . . . can

alone be considered as forming the body of the

representatives of the Nation. As a result, the King has

declared null the resolutions passed by the deputies of

the Order of the Third Estate, the 17 th

of this month, as

well as those which have followed them, as illegal and

unconstitutional . . . .

The Third Estate, stood by their solemn oath and refused to

yield to Louis’ demands.

In an effort to reach some kind of compromise, on June 27,

Louis ordered the clergy and nobility to join the Third Estate.

Of course, some members of both Estates had already done

so but the vast majority refused. I suppose Louis figured that

he could control the Third Estate if it were simply a part of a

larger body, but his plan clearly back-fired. The Third Estate

would not compromise and the First and Second Estate would

not conceive of lowering themselves to the same collective

body as the Third Estate. Instead, the nobility joined with

Louis against the National Assembly. Louis went on to order

the army to station themselves near Paris and Versailles, just

in case. Although not one shot had yet been fired, the French

Revolution had begun.

By the beginning of July, Paris had

reached a high level of tension. After

all, the convocation of the Estates

General had aroused hope for much-

needed reform. But meanwhile, the

price of bread was soaring. For

example, in August 1788, 50%of a

peasant or urban worker’s income

went toward the purchase of bread.

By July 1789, this figure had risen to 80%. To compound the

situation, there was a growing fear of an aristocratic plot

against the National Assembly. On July 14 th

, between eight

and nine hundred Parisians, mostly women, gathered in front

of that medieval fortress, the Bastille. They were looking for

weapons and gunpowder. They stormed the prison – 98 were

killed and 73 wounded. Although the Bastille contained no

hoped-for weapons, the FALL OF THE BASTILLE served, and

has always served, as a great symbol of the Revolution itself.

To many, it seemed there was now no turning back.

As a result of this journee, the aristocrats fled the country

and Louis decided to withdraw his troops from Paris. Keep in

mind, the events that we have been discussing thus far,

occurred in Paris alone. Something very different took place

in the countryside. The peasants believed that the Estates

General would solve some of their more pressing problems.

After all, they had already sent their list of grievances to

Versailles. If Louis only knew their plight, then he would take

care of them. But by June 1789, the peasants had become

restless and violent. As the price of bread continued to soar

and its supply decreased, the peasants began to attack food

convoys on their way to Paris. The peasants also refused to

pay taxes, tithes and manorial dues to their landlords, whom

they held responsible for their economic plight. By the end of

July, the peasants began to burn down the houses of their

landlords and with them, the records of their obligations to

their lords. The ancien regime was being destroyed by the

will of the people. But why did the peasants turn violent? A

rumor began to spread that the aristocrats had organized an

army to kill the peasants. This was only a rumor, but the

Great Fear, as this episode is known, led the peasants to take

arms against an imaginary foe. The Great Fear worked to the

advantage of the Parisian reformers and provided the

National Assembly with the opportunity to criticize

aristocratic privilege. So, on AUGUST 4, 1789, French

aristocrats surrendered their special privileges by decree

(ratified August 11, 1789). This journee marks of destruction

of the remnants of feudalism.

On the night of August 4, several members of the Assembly

drew up a key document of the French Revolution – this was

the DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND THE CITIZEN.

On August 26, the Declaration was formally adopted by the

National Assembly. A moral document through and through,

the Declaration outlined man’s natural rights. The purpose of

such a Declaration was to rally the country and to add

support to the National Assembly.

The representatives of the French

people, organized as a National

Assembly, believing that the

ignorance, neglect, or contempt of

the rights of man are the sole cause

of public calamities and of the

corruption of governments, have

determined to set forth in a solemn

declaration the natural, unalienable,

and sacred rights of man, in order

that this declaration, being

constantly before all the members

of the Social body, shall remind

them continually of their rights and duties; in order that

the acts of the legislative power, as well as those of the

executive power, may be compared at any moment with

the objects and purposes of all political institutions and

may thus be more respected, and, lastly, in order that the

grievances of the citizens, based hereafter upon simple

and incontestable principles, shall tend to the

maintenance of the constitution and redound to the

happiness of all.

Barely 300 words in length, it could be printed cheaply on

one side of a single sheet of paper. The Declaration appeared

all over France and was subsequently translated into every

major European language. As a symbol, it became the gospel

of the new French social order.

Louis accepted neither the decrees of August 4 nor the

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. However, on

October 5, 1789, several hundred Parisian men and women

marched the twelve miles to Versailles in order to protest the

lack of bread to Louis and the National Assembly. At the same

time, 20,000 Paris Guards loyal to the Revolution set out to

join the mob gathered at Versailles. Louis had no choice but

to promise bread and return to Paris with the protesters. Louis

was now the captive of the people. He promised bread. He

approved the decrees of August 4 including the Declaration of

the Rights of Man and the Citizen.

With the conclusion of the OCTOBER

DAYS the King and the National

Assembly left Versailles for Paris. By

the end of 1789, Louis had made

several concessions to the National

Assembly, none of which he sincerely

intended to keep. The people of Paris and the French

countryside loved their king as a child loves his father. Louis

was not to blame for the misfortunes of France, instead, his

evil ministers were held responsible. So, by bringing Louis to

Paris, it was hoped he would be less influenced by his evil

and corrupt ministers. But on June 20, 1791, Louis XVI did

something which earned him the general distrust of most

French subjects. He planned to raise an army and crush the

revolution. He appealed to Leopold II, the brother of Marie

Antoinette, who promised Louis Austrian troops if Louis could

reach Montmédy and mobilize a sizable French force. Louis

did not intend to leave France except as a last resort.

At ten o'clock on the night of June 20, a berline, or heavy

coach, drawn by four horses, pulled up at the south end of

the Tuileries. At intervals until 11:30,

the coach picked up members of the

royal family, all of whom were

dressed in disguise -- Louis as a valet,

Marie Antoinette as a children's

governess. It had been planned that

as Louis passed through major cities

and towns that his troops would be

nearby. If he kept on schedule, Louis ought to arrived at

Montmédy the following day. But it was not to be. Louis

began to treat this serious occasion as an excursion -- he

ordered extra stops so that he could sup on his favorite meals

and on one occasion he was recognized at Ste.-Ménéhould by

an old soldier, Jean-Baptiste Drouet.

Drouet rode ahead to the small village of Varennes and with

the help of the locals, blocked the bridge across the Meuse

River. At midnight, Louis' berline was stopped at the bridge

and Louis immediately admitted who he was. The royal party

was treated to dinner and treated with utmost respect. Of

course, all the church bells began to ring and by morning,

10,000 peasants were in the streets of Varennes. Finally, at 6

A.M. on June 22, representatives of the National Assembly

arrived on the scene, escorted by the National Guardsmen.

Three day later, the royal family was back at the Tuileries.

Louis was now a prisoner of the Revolution and an enemy of

the Revolution. With the FLIGHT TO VARENNES, the National

Assembly began to wonder just how possible a limited

monarchy really was, or if indeed it was now even necessary.

Regardless, between the October Days of 1789 and

September 1791, the National Assembly busied itself with

reforms meant to dismantle the ancien regime. They

accomplished this with six basic reforms

1. the abolition of special privileges of the nobility through

the legalization of equality (August 4, 1789)

2. they made their statement of human rights with the

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (August

4, 1789)

3. they subordinated Church to State. In November 1789,

the National Assembly confiscated all Church property.

And in early 1790, they passed the CIVIL CONSTITUTION

OF THE CLERGY which reduced the power of the bishops.

The clergy was now selected and paid by the State

4. in September 1791, the National Assembly drew up a

constitution, something it had been trying to do since

June 1789. The constitution of 1791 specified such liberal

ideas as a limited monarchy and full equality before the

law

5. the National Assembly also made every effort to replace

the inefficient and uncoordinated provinces with 83 new

administrative units nearly equal in size. A standardized

system of courts was introduced, the sale of judicial

offices was abolished, citizen-filled juries were introduced

and torture was abolished

6. in terms of economic reforms, the National Assembly

adopted a uniform system of weights and measures, guild

restrictions were abolished and customs on goods

transported within the country were eliminated

By the end of September 1791, the National Assembly

announced that its work was done. In many ways, the

Constitution of 1791 seemed to fulfill the promises of reform

which had been first uttered by the men of 1789. All

Frenchmen could now be proud that the following rights had

been secured: equality before the law, careers open to talent,

a written constitution, and parliamentary government

With this in mind, there was a sizeable faction within the

National Assembly who were so satisfied that they claimed

the Revolution to be at an end, since its primary aims had

been achieved. But, revolutionary times are unpredictable. By

1792, the Revolution moved in a more radical and violent

direction. This radical direction was neither desired nor

anticipated by the men of 1789. Why the Revolution became

radical is interesting and there are basically two reasons why

it did so. First, a counter-revolution, loyal to Church and King,

was led by the noble and the clergy and supported by

staunch Catholic peasants. Because this counter-revolution

threatened the changes of the revolutionaries, the

revolutionaries had to resort to more drastic measures than

hitherto imagined. Second, the economic, social, and political

discontent of the urban working classes also propelled the

Revolution in the direction of radicalism. These were the

small shop-keepers, artisans and wage earners. These were

the sans-culottes (see Lecture 13), men who defined

themselves not only by their trade but also by the clothes

they wore. They wore trousers or pants as opposed to the

knee-britches of their social superiors. The sans-culottes had

played a role in revolutionary events since 1789, but they

had, as a class, received few gains. As one historian has

written:

The sans-culottes saw that a privilege of wealth was

taking the place of a privilege of birth. They foresaw that

the bourgeoisie would succeed the fallen aristocracy as

the ruling class.