Thermidorian Reaction To The 1793 Constitution

The Thermidorian reaction was not an attempt to bring back the 1791 Constitution – rather the 1793 Constitution that had been suspended with the 10 October 1793 “Decree on Revolutionary Government” in response to the crises facing France and the Revolution at the time – the Vendee and Federalist Revolts, the increasing food riots, the war with the First Coalition and the threat of internal enemies. The 1791 Constitution was written for a monarchy that few in the National Convention wanted the return of. Thermidor was primarily a coup against Maximilien Robespierre and the Reign of Terror, particularly the Great Terror implemented by the Law of 22 Prairial. On the 26th of July, Robespierre had appeared at the NatCon to speak, and threatened a list of unnamed deputies in the Convention.

The Thermidorians sought this same end to the Terror. However, Thermidor was also an act of self-preservation; the leaders of Thermidor were men such as Collot d’Herbois, Freron, and Tallien – these were men responsible for the horrors in the Vendee as representatives-on-mission and who, after being recalled by the Committee of Public Safety (notably d’Herbois) for their crimes, feared further retribution. These are men who contemporary historian Eugene Sue called “the Terrorists of the Convention”, “the biggest rogues in the Convention”. Thermidor painted these men as saviours of the Revolution, and they spread the anti-Robespierre propaganda already on the