11.1 The French Revolution: The Moderate Phase, 1789 - 1792

The Fall of the Bastille, July 14, 1789

The years 1789 - 1792 were the years of the moderate phase of the French Revolution. During this time the new bourgeois-dominated National Assembly would attempt to reconstruct the social, economic, and political fabric of French society. Through its reforms the Old Regime would be ended in France forever. Yet while carefully dismantling the old order, the Revolution unleashed new forces that the moderates could not control.

While the National Assembly at Versailles began the work of creating a new government for France, events in the city of Paris would have impact on the future direction of the Revolution. On July 13, 1789, the leading bourgeois citizens, fearing that the king might use force to disperse the National Assembly, acted to save their interests and protect the Revolution. They formally proclaimed themselves to be the Paris Commune, a new and revolutionary city government that replaced the old royally-appointed officials.

The Commune immediately ordered the formation of a militia, called the National Guard, made up of armed men from each of the city's sixty districts. The National Guard was authorized to maintain public order in the city and resist any attempt by the royal army to end the Revolution. Its commander was the hero of the American Revolution, the Marquis de Lafayette. The formation of the Commune aroused great popular enthusiasm particularly from the city's economically distressed working class. When the Commune ordered that the arms and munitions stored in various arsenals around the city be seized, the working class "mob" enthusiastically took to the streets.

On July 14 the Commune ordered that the arms reputedly stored at the Bastille be seized. The Bastille, located in one of the city's poorest working class districts, was a massive and ancient stone fortress dating from the Middle Ages. In recent years it had been used as a royal prison and, because of its association with royal oppression, was a hated symbol of the Old Regime. The new National Guard, supported by a large and angry crowd of Parisian poor, marched to the Bastille and demanded its surrender. When the commander of the fortress refused, the mob attacked. The small defending garrison bravely resisted, but the opposing force was overwhelming in its determination to take the fortress. Promised protection from the mob, the commander surrendered. The Bastille had fallen. The exuberant mob poured into the fortress to seize its arms and free its prisoners. (Instead of the expected hundreds of prisoners, there were only seven). The unfortunate commander was murdered and his severed head was joyously paraded through the streets.

The fall of the Bastille became the significant event of the Revolution. Symbolically, it marked the beginning of the Revolution as a revolution for all the people, not for just some of the people. Bastille Day, July 14, has become France's National Day.

The fall of the Bastille marked the beginning of a new direction for the Revolution. Popular outrage and anger, so long frustrated and controlled by the traditions and conventions of the Old Regime, had made itself evident. The expectations of the lower classes, both urban and rural, would have to be understood and dealt with by the bourgeoisie in control of the decision-making. The fall of the Bastille also very effectively demonstrated that the city of Paris was going to be instrumental in the future direction and outcome of the Revolution.

Bowing to the new reality, Louis XVI ordered the troops recently summoned to Versailles withdrawn. He also traveled from Versailles to Paris on a one-day visit wherein he recognized the Commune as the legitimate government of Paris. In joyous celebration of the king's accommodation with the Revolution, the city of Paris combined its colors, red and blue, with the Bourbon white. France now had a new national flag – the tricolor.

The revolutionary events in Paris caused a disturbing shiver to pass through all ranks of French society. Many of the nobility, sensing the loss of their privileges, urged the king to use force to resist the revolutionary movement. When it became clear that Louis was not going to use his armies to suppress the Revolution, many of the more reactionary nobility packed up their families and left the country. Most of these émigrés (as these refugees became known) fled to the German states but others went to the Austrian Netherlands and Britain. In exile, the émigrés, led by the king's younger brothers, the counts of Provence and Artois, urged the King of Prussia to take up arms against the French revolutionaries and restore Louis to his rightful power. In time the émigrés would number some 100,000 persons. Their opposition-in-exile became a potentially dangerous source of embarrassment to Louis, who, despite his desire to regain full power, publicly proclaimed his duty to his people and the new direction they were taking his nation.

Throughout the French countryside the convulsions of unrest spread out from Paris like ripples on a pond. Seeing the bourgeois challenge to the Old Regime as signaling the end of the old feudal system, peasants rose in armed revolt against their landlords. Manor houses were attacked and the hated records of rents, dues, and services were destroyed. A wave of aimless peasant violence unleashed by the unfounded rumor that brutal gangs of brigands (lawless thieves and murderers) were ravishing the countryside caused considerable death and destruction. This "Great Fear" shuddered though France during the late summer of 1789 but eventually subsided as brigands did not come and peasants turned their attention to the harvest.

In the French cities, the royal mayors and governing councils were replaced by bourgeois-dominated city governments. These new municipal authorities began a well-meaning but largely futile effort to remedy the economic and social problems (inflation, food and fuel shortages, etc.) that had plagued the cities under the Old Regime. By the fall of 1789, the Revolution had spread throughout the country. All elements of the population were now involved. Each group now looked to the National Assembly at Versailles for the revolutionary reconstruction of France that would satisfy its expectations.

The Moderate Phase Begins, 1789-1791

The men who made up the National Assembly at Versailles had a two-fold challenge before them. Not only did they have to create a new legal government for France but they also had to govern France as well. Thus, the National Assembly served both as a constitutional convention and as a de facto national government.

With the formation of the Paris Commune and the peasant uprising, the legal, social, and political structures of the Old Regime had begun to collapse. The bourgeois-dominated National Assembly realized that it would have to act as the guiding force underlying the Revolution or anarchy would be the result. In a remarkable session on the night of August 4th, the National Assembly virtually abolished the traditional privileges of the Old Regime. The resulting Law of the Fourth of August ended the tax exemption privileges of the nobility and clergy, including the Church tithe. All feudal dues and services were abolished as was serfdom.

In order to create a constitution for France, it was necessary for the National Assembly to establish the philosophy upon which constitutional government would be based. The result was the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (August, 1789). This remarkable document became the basic statement of revolutionary principles upon which the new order would be established. As the authors of the Declaration were well-familiar with the principles of the Enlightenment, it reflects the thinking of Locke, Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau. Among its stated principles were the sovereignty of the people, the separation of powers, the rights to freedom of speech and press, protection from arbitrary arrest, and guarantees of one's property. The Declaration was just that: a declaration. It did not explain the means whereby the stated principles and rights would be achieved, but, like the American Declaration of Independence, it embodied a spirit that gave it profound impact.

As deliberations continued at Versailles, conditions in Paris would once again influence the Revolution. In the minds of many Parisians the new government was not acting fast enough to solve the major economic problem facing most of the city's poor -food shortage. On a rainy October morning thousands of angry working class Parisian women marched from Paris to Versailles to demand that the king and the National Assembly provide bread for the city's poor. Units of the National Guard followed them out to Versailles. As a noisy mob the women forced their way into the palace and threatened Queen Marie Antoinette (for years the object of great popular hatred). The intervention of Lafayette saved the Queen, but the crowd demanded that the King and his family return with them to Paris. Louis, on meeting with his advisors and representatives from the National Assembly, agreed.

The royal family was triumphantly escorted back to the city and took up residence in the Tuileries Palace. Soon after, the National Assembly relocated in Paris. Through the women's march Paris had captured the Revolution. From this time on, the king and the National Assembly would be increasingly under the influence and pressures of the Paris mob. It would soon become evident that who controlled the Paris mob would control the Revolution.

The Reforms of the Moderate Revolution

Between the fall of 1789 and the end of 1791 the National Assembly would make significant reforms affecting all areas of French society. The Law of August Fourth has been mentioned and, in abolishing the privilege of upper class tax exemption, represented a major step towards achieving equality of all under the law. Among other significant social and economic reforms were the abolition of all titles of nobility (June 1790) and the creation of a new currency.

The new currency, based on paper money called assignats, would prove to be a mistake. The government hoped that the assignats would give greater stability to the economy and so paid its employees and purchased its necessities with the new money. People had little faith in the government's assurances that the new money had value and were reluctant to use it in exchange for goods and services. As a result the new currency became inflationary and compounded the already serious economic problems.

In the area of religion the National Assembly made significant changes. The government nationalized all lands held by the Roman Catholic Church (Nov. 1789). The lands (valued at some three billion livres) were divided and sold. Those who benefited most from the land sales were the bourgeoisie and wealthier peasants. In December 1789, the National Assembly declared complete freedom of religion for all French people. In February 1790, all monasteries and convents were dissolved. The city of Avignon, a possession of the papacy for over four centuries, was annexed to France. The major reform affecting the Church was made in July 1790, when the National Assembly brought the Catholic clergy under state control through the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy in effect denied the belief that the Catholic clergy was a divinely ordained holy estate. The new law required that all bishops be elected by the qualified voters of each diocese. Likewise, all parish priests would henceforth be elected by the voters of each parish. Bishops and priests would be paid by the government. The number of dioceses was reduced to conform to the number of civil departments. All Catholic clergy were forbidden to acknowledge the spiritual and temporal supremacy of the pope over French Catholics. Finally, the law required all clergy to take an oath of loyalty to the government and the constitution.

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy had a very negative effect on the future of the Revolution and did a great deal to discredit the National Assembly in the eyes of a great many Frenchmen. Many priests and over half of the bishops refused to take the oath of loyalty to the state. These nonjuring – “refractory” – clergy, as they were called, became outspoken critics of the revolutionary government. French Catholics were for the most part confused and concerned. Which priest had the power to rightfully administer the sacraments and hear confession – the divinely ordained priest or the constitutional clergyman? The pope condemned the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and excommunicated those bishops who took the oath. With the pope opposed to the Revolution and many French Catholics refusing to accept the constitutional clergy, France experienced a major schism (division against itself). The Revolution lost the support of millions of Frenchmen who heretofore had accepted its principles and objectives.

Politically the National Assembly made significant changes. The old administrative system of provinces was abolished and replaced by a new system of some 83 departments. In each department the governing officials (responsible for public order, tax collection, and local legislation) were elected by the qualified voters. This system remains in place today.

The judicial system was reformed through the introduction of a new system of courts. Judges would be elected and salaried; trials were to be public; torture was abolished; the jury system was introduced; and the concept of innocent until proven guilty became the guiding legal principle. While this new legal system appeared admirable, little was done to standardize French laws, and the old legacy of confused and conflicting jurisdictions would continue.

The major political reform was the adoption of a constitution. Work on drafting a constitution had begun immediately once the king ordered the first and second estates to join the third estate as the National Assembly. Over the years pieces of the constitution had been put into operation once approved by the National Assembly and the king. The final document was approved and made the law of the land in September 1791.

The Constitution of 1791 made France a constitutional monarchy based on the separation of powers. The king would be the executive authority and would govern through a cabinet of ministers. The king was the commander of the armed forces and could declare war and make treaties with the prior approval of the legislature. The king had the power to veto laws, but his veto could be overridden through three votes of the legislature. Legislative power was vested in a unicameral (single-house) body called the Legislative Assembly. The Legislative Assembly had full power to make laws for the nation, consent to war and treaties, and to override a royal veto.

The Constitution of 1791 granted the franchise (right to vote) to some 4.3 million "active" citizens. Active citizens were males over 25 years old whose tax payments showed them to hold the minimum amount of land or wealth to qualify to vote. In elections active citizens would cast their ballots for some 50,000 "electors" qualified to be so elected by the amount of wealth they held. The electors would, in turn, cast their ballots to elect the 740 members of the Legislative Assembly. One had to have a substantial amount of wealth to qualify as a candidate. Thus, the legislative power was exercised by men from the wealthiest elements of the French population, the wealthy bourgeoisie. France was to be, therefore, a plutocratic oligarchy similar to Britain. Outside of the political nation of active citizens were some 21 million "passive" citizens, largely peasants and urban workers as well as women, children, and males under 25.

The government created by the National Assembly reflected the moderation of the bourgeois revolutionaries who shaped it. They were men of property with a financial stake in the future well-being of the country. While enlightened in their political thinking, they were not democrats. As was thought in Britain, democracy meant the rule of the uneducated mob and its resulting anarchy. The new France had done away with the injustice of royal absolutism. Among its framers there was idealism and hope for the future. Under the constitutional rule of the king in cooperation with the representatives of his political nation, an enlightened France would experience the realization of equality and justice. Many believed that with the Constitution of 1791 the Revolution was over.

The Failure of the Moderate Revolution, 1791-1792

The hope that the Revolution had been fulfilled with the Constitution of 1791 was undermined before the Constitution even became law. The king had shown his opposition to the constitution even before its final drafting was completed. In June 1791 Louis and the royal family attempted to flee from France.

Disillusioned with the erosion of royal power and the Revolution's religious settlement and encouraged by the royalist émigrés, Louis planned to escape to the Austrian Netherlands. There he would enlist the support of an Austrian army and return to restore France to royal absolutism. In disguise and with false passports and aided by royalist conspirators, the king, queen, and their children fled by coach seeking to reach the Austrian Netherlands. At the little town of Varennes they were recognized and arrested. An embarrassed National Assembly ordered their return under armed escort to Paris.

The "Flight to Varennes" greatly discredited the king and the more moderate members of the National Assembly who sought his support for the constitution. More radical politicians began to call for an end to the monarchy and creation of a republic. The moderates, however, remained the majority and did not want to throw out some two years of work. With the king's promise to support the constitution, the moderates were content to let pass the unpleasant matter of the attempted escape.

The rise of radical opposition to the moderate revolution also served to undermine the new government. The most effective source of that opposition was a Parisian political club officially known as the Friends of the Constitution. Because they met in an old Jacobin monastery, they became known simply as the Jacobins.

Throughout the Revolution the Jacobins remained a tiny minority of no more than several thousand members, mostly from the bourgeoisie. Yet they would get control of the Revolution and profoundly influence its direction. Under the Constitution of 1791, they believed, the Revolution remained unfulfilled. The Jacobins sought a republic based on a democratic franchise. Their goals were to seize political power and use their control of government to abolish the monarchy and make France a republic. Once in power they would create a new constitutional government based on universal male suffrage (right to vote) and enact economic and social reforms that would benefit all people.

In spite of their small numbers, the Jacobins would become a powerful political force because of the success of their methods. Like a modern political party, the Jacobins had an effective system of organization. They formed a nationwide network of Jacobin clubs with likeminded republicans in other cities. The Paris Jacobin Club exercised a centralized leadership over the other clubs. Through speakers, posters, and simple pamphlets, the Jacobins made effective use of propaganda to win popular support for their cause. Abandoning the Enlightenment's stress on logic and reason, the Jacobins appealed to human emotions, arousing popular hatred against their opponents – those who would through their policies and practices betray the people. The Jacobin success also lay largely in their effective use of the Parisian sansculottes, whom they saw as a valuable political weapon. The Jacobins realized that if they could control the Paris mob, they could control the Revolution.

Key to the Jacobin success were the sansculottes, the Parisian working class. These were the Paris poor. They suffered greatly under the economic hardships of unemployment, inflation, and food and fuel shortages. The bourgeois revolution had done little to relieve their situation and they remained a revolutionary class. Their militant and active involvement in the events of the Revolution (fall of the Bastille, the women's march) revealed their frustration and anger. They demanded real equality and meaningful economic and social reforms such as price controls, employment, and guaranteed wages. They favored direct democracy and were suspicious of the revolution's bourgeois leadership. They were vehement in their hatred of the king, the royal family, and the enemies of France. As an agitated and angry mob under Jacobin leadership the sansculottes were a most effective weapon of force and intimidation. It was to these people that the Jacobins directed their propaganda and promise of continued revolution.

Before it went out of existence, the National Assembly decreed that none of its members could qualify for election to the new legislature. Thus, the men most experienced in the conduct of national government removed themselves and their expertise from the new government. They believed that, ideally, the new government should have new men. Elections for the new Legislative Assembly were held over the summer of 1791. Surprisingly, only some 20% of the active citizens bothered to cast ballots.

The political makeup of the Legislative Assembly reflected the growing divisions within the political nation. (These divisions gave rise to the use of the terms right, center, and left to designate differing political views.) Some 260 deputies were royalists who took a conservative view of the revolution and hoped that the king's constitutional authority might be strengthened. The royalists sat on the right of the assembly hall. (Right has come to designate a conservative point of view.)

In the center sat some 350 deputies of no extreme political position. These independents or moderates would vote as they saw fit according to their views on the issues. They were generally satisfied with the constitutional system of which they were a part. (Center has come to designate a moderate position.)

On the left of the assembly hall sat the 150 republicans. Their election reflected dissatisfaction with the constitution. The political views of the republicans differed. Those republicans who wanted constitutional changes based on a limited franchise grouped around the deputies from the Gironde region and were known as Girondins. Those extremists who wanted a republic under a democratic system identified with the tiny group of Jacobin deputies known as the "Mountain" because their seats were in the higher tiers of the hall. (Left has come to designate a liberal or radical point of view.)

This division of the legislature portended difficult times ahead for the government. The majority of deputies were royalists and republicans, both groups opposed to the constitution. The ability of the Legislative Assembly to conduct effective government was severely hampered. The major problems that needed legislative attention (the huge national debt, the inflationary assignats, etc.) remained unsolved. Popular dissatisfaction continued, heightened by the fiery rhetoric of the Jacobins and other extremists opposed to the constitution. In the spring of 1792 the nation seemed to come together. France declared war on Austria and Prussia.

The émigrés in the Austrian Netherlands and Prussia, led by Louis XVI's brothers, the counts of Provence and Artois, had been pressuring the Austrian emperor and Prussian king to take up arms against the Revolution and restore the Old Regime in France. In August, 1791, the Austrian and Prussian rulers issued the Pillnitz Declaration, a public declaration of their willingness to go to war against France if the other European states would join them. The Revolution had alarmed the ruling establishments in almost every other European nation, but with the establishment of the Constitution of 1791 foreign anxiety subsided. The Pillnitz Declaration remained only empty words.

Nonetheless there were those in France who saw war as a means of achieving their goals for the Revolution. Conservatives saw a future war as the means of restoring Louis to greater authority. Moderates saw war as a means of diverting popular attention from internal problems and unifying the French people behind the constitution. Led by the Girondins, the radicals saw war against foreign monarchy as a means of discrediting monarchy at home and building popular support for a republic. The Girondins also believed that it was France’s duty to spread its Revolution to other countries. In April 1792, the Legislative Assembly voted for war against Austria when the new Austrian emperor, Francis II, rejected a French demand that he order the expulsion of émigrés from one of his German territories. Louis obliged and issued a formal declaration of war. In early May war was also declared on Prussia.

The summer of 1792 saw the war go badly for France. The Austrians defeated the French forces that attempted to invade the Austrian Netherlands. At home the king struggled to create a cabinet that could meet the crisis, but the tensions and suspicions of the rival political factions prevented effective cooperation. The radicals, seeing the political confusion to their advantage, took to the streets agitating the sansculottes to arm against a possible enemy attack on Paris.

In June 1792, the republicans chillingly demonstrated their ability to use the Paris mob. A Jacobin-led crowd of some 20,000 marched on the Legislative Assembly and invaded its floor cheering the radical deputies and insulting the conservatives. The mob then moved on to the Tuileries Palace where it trapped the king and forced him to put on a liberty cap and drink a toast to the nation. Against threats and insults the terrified Louis behaved with dignity. The king was eventually rescued by the mayor of Paris who complimented the crowd on its patriotism and urged them to leave the palace.

In late July 1792, the Duke of Brunswick, commander of the allied Prussian and Austrian forces preparing to invade France, issued a statement that doomed the monarchy. The "Brunswick Manifesto," drafted by émigrés, stated that the allies came to restore the king to his rightful power and bring order to France. If any harm were to come to the king or his family, the Manifesto continued, the city of Paris would be destroyed. The Brunswick Manifesto outraged the people of Paris. The Jacobins were quick to see its propaganda value and used it to arouse mob anger and action.

The Jacobins had been planning a coup d'état through which they would seize control of the city of Paris and control the Revolution. Through disciplined dedication to their goals and skillful organizing ability, Jacobins had in previous weeks secured positions of leadership in almost all of the city's electoral districts. On the evening of August 9, 1792, the leadership of the Paris Jacobin Club issued orders to seize the city. The coup of August 9-10, 1792, became known as the second revolution.

Calling the mob to the streets, the radicals overthrew the city government and formed the Jacobin-controlled Insurrectional Commune. The city's new revolutionary government demanded the end of the monarchy and the angry mob, supported by units of the National Guard, converged on the Tuileries Palace. The forces assigned to the king's defense lacked morale and effective leadership. Only the King's personal bodyguard of Swiss Guards proved loyal and some 600 of them were slaughtered by the attacking mob. In terror Louis and his family fled to the protection of the Legislative Assembly. There the pursuing mob surrounded the building while the deputies inside debated the king's fate. The Jacobins demanded that Louis be deposed and arrested and that a new constitutional convention be called. Less than 300 of the 740 deputies were in the hall. The others, fearing for their lives, had stayed away or fled the building.

The Legislative Assembly, intimidated by the Commune and threatened by the angry mob outside, voted to suspend the monarchy. The king and his family were ordered arrested and imprisoned. A temporary radical-dominated executive council was created to administer France until a new government was formed. Orders were issued for elections to a new constitutional convention. Through this act the Legislative Assembly, having been the legitimate government for only ten months, put itself out of existence. With it went the Constitution of 1791. The Revolution was about to enter its radical phase.

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The illustration of the Fall of the Bastille is from the UK National Archives.

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The list of sources for the French Revolution is at the end of the “Conservative Phase” section.