by Gerald Therrien
The Unveiling of Canadian History, Volume 3.
The Storming of Hell – the War for the Territory Northwest of the Ohio, 1786 – 1796.
During the American Revolution, when General Washington had asked General Wayne to undertake an extremely perilous enterprise – the storming of Stony Point, Wayne replied : “General, I will storm Hell, if you will only plan it.”
Part 3 – Peace on the Frontier
Chapter 17 – France Declares War on Britain, February 1st 1793
The republican movement in France was taken over by the Jacobins, that resulted in the execution of the king. And the European opposition to the revolution in France would form an alliance that resulted in war.
King Louis XVI
King Louis XVI had convened the Estates General on May 5th 1789, and the Third Estate met separately, calling itself the National Assembly. With the Tennis Court Oath of June 20th, the delegates swore ‘not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established’, and they renamed themselves the National Constituent Assembly.
On August 11th, the Constituent Assembly published the August Decrees, that abolished feudalism and abolished tithes, that abolished the selling of judicial and municipal offices, that abolished privileges in the payment of taxes, and that made all citizens of France eligible for any office in civil and military service.
On August 26th, the Constituent Assembly issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Following these decrees, many nobles and aristocrats would flee the country, with some forming an émigré army that was financed by foreign powers, and that aimed to invade France and restore the monarchy.
Due to a grain shortage caused by the unregulated grain market, on October 5th, a mob of ten thousand people was incited to march to the Hotel de Ville in Paris to demand bread. In a replay of the storming of the Bastille, and led by some of the same agitators, the mob marched to the Versailles Palace and occupied the hall where the Constituent Assembly was meeting, and stormed the King’s residence.
The king agreed to accept the decrees and the declaration, and agreed to move his court and the assembly from the Versailles Palace to the Tuileries Palace in Paris – only blocks from the Palais-Royal of the Duc d’Orleans, the headquarters of those wealthy nobles who had paid to join the Jacobin club!
On the night of June 20th 1791, Louis XVI unsuccessfully tried to escape from the Tuileries Palace. The Constituent Assembly issued a decree on July 15th, that Louis XVI could remain king if he would accept the new constitution (that was then being finalized).
On July 17th, the ‘Cordeliers’ club (of Georges Danton and Jean-Paul Marat) orchestrated a demonstration at the Champs de Mars for the signing of a petition, that opposed the decree and that called for the abdication of the king. When 50,000 people gathered, Jean Sylvain Bailly, the mayor of Paris, declared martial law, and Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the National Guard dispersed the crowd. When the crowd returned later that night, and the National Guard again attempted to disperse them, the crowd then threw rocks at the Guard, causing the Guard to fire warning shots into the air and then into the crowd – killing or wounding an estimated 50 people.
In the aftermath, both Lafayette and Bailly would resign their posts, and the Jacobin club would split into two – a group led by Brissot that had supported the ‘Cordeliers’ petition, and a group led by Barnave that had opposed the petition (called the ‘Feuillants’).
Note: The ‘Society of Friends of the Rights of Man’ met at the former monastery of the Franciscans – called ‘cordeliers’ due to their corded belts. The leaders (Marat, Danton and Desmoulins) lived in the Cordeliers section, and the club became known as the ‘Cordeliers’.
The ‘Society of Friends of the Constitution’ met at the former monastery of the Dominicans – called Jacobins because their original residence had been on Rue de St. Jacques, and the club became known as the Jacobins.
Barnave, and the new group of former Jacobins, met at the former monastery of the Feuillant monks and became known as the ‘Feuillants’. Brissot had lived for a few years in London (1782-84) where he met Jeremy Bentham.
The new constitution was approved by the Constituent Assembly on September 3rd and new elections were to be held for a National Legislative Assembly.
On September 29th, the last day before the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, the Feuillants proposed bills to curb the clubs – ending affiliations between clubs, ending attacks on deputies of the assembly, and to curb the press. The bills passed but were never enforced, and they were later ignored by Jerome Petion, who defeated Lafayette and replaced Bailly as the new mayor of Paris.
The Legislative Assembly was made up of 265 ‘Feuillants’ who sat on the right side of the assembly, 135 ‘Jacobins’ who sat on the left side, and 345 unaffiliated delegates who sat in between in the center of the assembly – forming the left/right designations still used today.
A campaign was launched in the assembly and in the press by the Jacobins, led by Brissot, to claim that the cause of France’s problems was the 1756 treaty of Versailles with the Emperor, and that France’s real enemy was Austria and not Great Britain. Charles-Maurice Talleyrand was sent to London by the Legislative Assembly on a diplomatic mission in January – March 1792, and again in April – July 1792, to attempt to maintain the neutrality of Britain and, if possible, to seek an alliance. Britain issued a declaration of neutrality on May 25th. Talleyrand would travel to London once more in September, before seeking asylum in America in summer 1793.
By December, Louis Duportail (who had been the chief engineer of the Continental army under General Washington) was replaced as Minister of War by someone in favour of war – Narbonne, and the émigré army became the excuse for Brissot’s demands for war against Austria – while Britain sat quietly by, attempting to orchestrate the internal chaos.
Earlier in October 1787, the Austrian army had invaded the United Belgian States to suppress the revolt against Hapsburg rule, and in October 1790 the Prussian army had invaded the Netherlands to crush the Patriots and to restore the House of Orange. And now, on February 7th 1792, Prussia and Austria formed a military alliance threatening to invade France and to overthrow the French constitution.
In May 1792, Russia would invade the Republic of Poland to end the new Polish constitution of May 3rd 1791. (Prussia and Russia would later sign a treaty in January 1793 to partition Poland.)
On April 20th France declared war on Austria. At the same time that the alliance invaded France in July, an insurrection (like that at the Champs de Mars) was launched.
On June 16th, Lafayette, who had been appointed one of the three generals of the army to defend France from a foreign invasion, had written a letter to the Assembly to defend the constitution and to warn of the despotism of the Jacobin club.
On June 20th, a crowd of 30,000 armed protesters forced their way into the Assembly and then into the apartments of the King to demand approval of decrees that he had vetoed. On June 28th, Lafayette travelled to Paris and spoke to the Assembly, urging them ‘to destroy a sect which invades the national sovereignty, tyrannizes over citizens and of which the public debates leave no doubt of the atrocity of those who direct it.’
On August 10th, the Insurrectional Commune dissolved the Paris municipal government, took control of the city and launched an attack on the Tuileries palace, killing 600 Swiss Guards, all the courtiers and palace staff, and imprisoned the royal family. Half the Assembly fled and those remaining voted to recognize the Commune, suspend the king and convene a national convention to draft a new constitution.
On August 14th, Danton, the new minister of justice, put out a warrant for Lafayette’s arrest – forcing him to flee France for the Netherlands in hopes of seeking asylum in America. During his escape, he was stopped at Rochefort, an Austrian army outpost, where he was arrested and imprisoned. [President Washington would send 2310 guilders to Amsterdam, for Lafayette’s wife, to assist them.]
Elected to the new National Convention, on September 20th 1792 were the majority of 389 unaffiliated delegates and 360 Jacobins – who had again split into two factions. Brissot and his 160 delegates became known as the ‘Girondins’ – because the original group were 12 deputies from the Gironde district. The other faction of 200 delegates, led by Robespierre, were called the ‘Montagnards’ (the Mountain), because they would sit in the highest rows of the Assembly. The Duc d’Orleans would sit with the Montagnards! The unaffiliated delegates, that sat between the two factions, were called the ‘Marais’ (the Plain). Whoever could sway the Plain’s votes in their favour, could control the government committees.
The Austrian/Prussian army under the Duke of Brunswick began their planned invasion of France and march towards Paris, by first laying siege to Longwy, whose garrison surrendered on August 23rd, and to Verdun that surrendered on September 2nd. When Brunswick’s forces were stopped by France’s Army of the North at Valmy on September 20th, Brunswick retired back across the French border. With the French victory at Jemappes on November 6th, by November 14th the French army had captured Brussels. France would annex the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium) in February 1793.
The French Army of the Rhine, under General Custine, invaded the Palatinate to disperse the émigré army that was gathered there, and after a 3-day siege, captured Mainz on October 21st and the Archbishop and his court fled the territory. After elections from 130 cities to the Rhenish German National Convention, the President, Andreas Hofmann proclaimed the Rhenish-German Free State on March 17th 1793.
The National Convention wished to invade and liberate the United Provinces (Netherlands) from the House of Orange, and needed Great Britain to cease its interference in Dutch affairs. In response, the British government said that they would not see France as sovereign of the Low Countries.
On December 3rd the National Convention voted to try King Louis XVI for treason. On January 15th 1793, 693 deputies voted guilty, while none voted innocent. On January 17th the Convention voted to sentence the king – 394 (including Duc d’Orleans) voted for death and 321 voted for life imprisonment. Louis XVI was executed on January 21st.
After Britain expelled Chauvelin, the French ambassador, on January 24th, the National Convention voted, on February 1st, to declare war on Great Britain and the United Provinces, and on February 16th, the French army crossed the Rhine and invaded the United Provinces.
But, by the end of March, there had begun an anti-republican uprising in the Vendee; General Custine had been forced to evacuate his army and retreat back across the Rhine; and General Dumouriez had been driven out of Belgium and the Dutch Republic. On April 5th, Dumouriez betrayed his army and fled to the Austrians, taking with him Duc d’Orleans’ son (the future Louis-Philippe). And due to the massive printing of money and the laissez-faire policies of the government, the ‘assignat’ had lost 50% of its original value.
All these troubles were to be blamed on the ‘Girondins’ that had controlled the Convention. On June 2nd, 80,000 armed sans-culottes surrounded the National Convention, whose deputies were not allowed to leave until it had voted to arrest 29 leading ‘Girondins’. The ‘Montagnard’ faction now controlled the Convention. Brissot and 20 other ‘Girondins’ would be guillotined on October 31st – beginning the Reign of Terror.
[next week – chapter 18 – The Proclamation of Neutrality, April 22nd 1793]
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For those who may wish to support my continuing work on ‘The Unveiling of Canadian History’, you may purchase my books, that are available as PDFs and Paperback (on Amazon) at the Canadian Patriot Review :
Volume 1 – The Approaching Conflict, 1753 – 1774.
Volume 2 – Forlorn Hope – Quebec and Nova Scotia, and the War for Independence, 1775 – 1785.
And hopefully,
Volume 3 – The Storming of Hell – the War for the Territory Northwest of Ohio, 1786 – 1796, and
Volume 4 – Ireland, Haiti, and Louisiana – the Idea of a Continental Republic, 1797 – 1804,
may also appear in print, in the near future, while I continue to work on :
Volume 5 – On the Trail of the Treasonous, 1804 – 1814.