Girondins

The Girondins were a political faction during the French Revolution from 1791-1795.  The name Girondin or Girondist was applied to a group of representatives from Gironde in southwest France.  They do not represent a political party in the modern sense more a  loose group of individuals who shared a vaguely similar ideology.

Many of the leading Girondins would spend time in Madame Roland’s salon including the perceived leader of the group Jacques Pierre Brissot.  They adopted a republican perspective early in the Revolution way before many moderates who would become radicals did.  The Girondins also pursued a more aggressive foreign policy than most. Brissot saw the opportunity of widening the Revolution to the countries surrounding France.  This would have the dual advantage of creating ideological allies and would unite a divided France.  It was they then who pushed France into war against Austria in 1792.

A gap would emerge between the Mountain and the Girondins.  The Girondins would distance themselves from the excesses of the Revolution such as the September Massacres while some within the Mountain such as Marat commended if not prompted the attacks.  The Girondins would create a draft constitution which was placed before the National Convention in early 1793 however it was never to be adopted with the Mountain claiming it was a time of national emergency so no rights could be guaranteed.

The definitive split came when the Girondins voted for the execution of Louis XVI after his trial.  However they wished to put this to France in the form of some kind of referendum.  They had misunderstood the mood of France.  Increasingly power in Paris lay with the Sections, the Commune and the sans-culottes.  The Girondins seemingly “Royalist” approach did not sit well with these far more radical institutions.  The suspicions of Paris rose when the Girondins called in troops from across France to bring stability to the capital.

Paris reacted by electing the strict anti-Girondin Jean Nicolas Pache mayor.  The Girondins were concerned enough to arrest key opponents and critics Marat and Hébert. They also created the Commission of Twelve to deal with conspiracy to deal with conspiracies against the Convention. With the failure of the convictions of both Marat and Hébert Paris turned on the Girondins.

Sans-culottes and National Guardsmen under the control of  François Hanriot marched on the Convention to demand the removal of the Girondins.  By the 2nd of June 1793 they got their wish and the Girondins were escorted out.  Many Girondins were to escape in the aftermath of this dramatic undermining of French democracy.  Some Girondins sought to rise up a revolt against Paris.  It was at this point that Charlotte Corday chose to assassinate Marat on the 13th July increasing tensions within Paris and increasing the demand for a terminal solution to the Girondin issue.  Twenty one Girondin deputies were accused of treason, they were put on trial on the 24th October and executed on the 31st October.  Most of the other prominent Girondins would be captured and executed or committed suicide.  Notably Roland killed himself hearing the news of his wife’s execution.

Marat on his actions which led to the arrest of the Girondins.  Taken from Jean Paul Marat: The People’s Friend by Ernest Belfort Bax, Grant Richards, London (1901) p279-280

I left the Assembly to deliberate on several important matters with the Committee of General Security, believing that no measures would be carried in the Convention. From there I went to the house of a citizen, to obtain information respecting some aristocratic leaders of the Section Buttes des Moulins. On my return, I discover a great crowd in the Rue Saint Nicaire; I am recognised and followed by the crowd. From all sides resound cries against the Mountain's want of energy. From all sides I hear demanded the arrest of traitor-deputies and intriguers. From all sides shouts of 'Marat, save us!' Arrived at the Carrousel, I observe multitudes of citizens in arms. The crowd increases, always repeating the same cry. I entreat the people not to follow me: I enter the Tuileries and then the pavilion of the Committee of General Security to be quit of them.

Germaine De Staël on the Girondin’s and their fate .  Taken from Considerations on the Principle events of the French Revolution, Germaine De Staël, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis (2008) p359

The last men who at this time are still worthy to occupy a place in history are the Girondists.  They felt without doubt at the bottom of their hearts a keen remorse for the means which they had employed to overturn the throne; and when these very means were directed against themselves, when they recognised their own weapons in the wounds which they received, they must have reflected without doubt on that rapid justice of revolutions which concentrates in a few instants the events of several ages.

The Girondists contended every day and every hour, with an undaunted eloquence, against discourses sharpened like poignards, which carried death in every phrase.  The murderous nets, with which the proscribed were enveloped on all sides, in no respect took away from them that presence of mind which alone can give effect to all the talents of the orator.