The Convention Divided
The National Convention, sat as it was in Paris, was still very much at the whim of the Paris Commune and the Parisian sanculottes, who had already demonstrated the power they could wield if organised effectively. The National Convention itself had originally been an idea of the Paris Commune and the first few months were dominated by argument between the Montagnards, the Parisian faction in the Convention, and the Girondins, who largely came from the provinces.
These sat to the left and right of the Convention and everyone in the middle, not affiliated with either faction, became known as the Plain. The Girondins railed against the perpetrators of the September massacres and believed the Montagnards wanted to use the people of Paris to gain further powers, while some Montagnards, in particular Marat, openly called for a dictator to lead France. There were suspicions he meant Robespierre. Soon every issue in the Convention was coloured by their clashes.
As the wars began to turn once again against France groups in Paris began to agitate for the creation of a tribunal to try traitors, and by traitors they meant Girondins. One was created by the Convention, who in the same session agreed to send deputies on mission to all departments to 'explain' and organise emergencies measures for war. This was followed by attacks on Girondin printers and an attempt at a full scale uprising aimed at persuading the Convention to arrest general, ministers and deputies of dubious reputation and again they meant largely Girondins. While the commune and National Convention refused to take part in the purge and it failed, it created both a precedent and a clear method for cleansing the Convention.
The Provinces Rebel
On February 24th the Convention ordered a levy of 300,000 men to help with the wars. This was to be raised through volunteers primarily and conscription if needed. Recruitment went well in the southeast, east and near Paris, near the armies of France's enemies, but it caused violent resistance in several areas, especially the Vendée.
Here locals were angered by their men going away to fight for a war they hadn’t supported on the command of a revolutionary government with which they were increasingly growing at odds, especially when it came to refractory priests and the bourgeois buying church land. They were also angry that the bourgeois office holders were exempt because of those offices and that the National Guard, all bourgeois, didn’t have to go as they formed the local defences. Resentment which had built up over the years exploded.
Other areas rose, but these were at first initially put down. In the Vendée however, peasant mobs stormed towns, resisted armies and began to organise. By March 13th there were 10,000, many involved in a guerrilla war. The king became a rallying point, royal symbols were adopted and rebels soon proudly proclaimed themselves as catholic and royalist. As the rebels took town after town their numbers swelled to perhaps 45,000. An entire region inside France was now at war.
Marseilles was the first city to rebel. Local Jacobins had formed their own Revolutionary Tribunal, pushed through forced loans, disarmament and generally alienated the majority. When a Montagnard deputy arrived and supported the local Jacobins sections of Marseille copied the Paris example, formed a commune and expelled the Jacobins. Lyons followed, as did other citied. Unlike the mainly peasant rebels of the Vendée, these cities had their Montagnard leaders overthrow by a mixture of bourgeois and urbanites, rebelling against the dictatorial and radical elements now ruling the revolution in Paris.
The Committee of Public Safety
As 1793 progressed the Montagnards pushed more and more of their proposals through the convention, many emergency measures dealing with the wars. This included the creation of a new committee to provide quicker and more effective legislative control. The old system, a series of ministers each backed up by a committee was considered too unwieldy. On January 25th 1793 a twenty-five man Committee of Public Safety was created, although when it first met on April 7th it had been cut down to nine men, each having to renew their appointment each month. Danton was a member, but Robespierre turned down an invitation. The Committee aimed "to implement the laws and controls necessary to strike 'Terror' into the hearts of counter-revolutionaries." (Peter McPhee, The French Revolution, Oxford, 2002, p. 117-8)
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