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Fear
> The Convention of 1792
> A
Summary of what happened...
The 1792 elections were held during the harvest and at
the height of a crisis in the war with Austria. The introduction of
manhood suffrage - men over 21 now had the right to vote - did not result
in a massive turnout, but voters were enthusiastic, and there was certainly
no royalist backlash as some had feared. Supporters of the King were
allowed to vote, except in Paris, but they had little effect: the Convention
was solidly republican.
Less than ten per cent of the deputies were new
to public life. The fact that the Legislative Assembly was widely credited
with the overthrow of the King attracted many votes to members of that
assembly who had sat on the left: most were returned to the Convention.
Pétion, mayor of Paris, and Robespierre were among 83 who had
been members of the Constituent Assembly.
Parisian voters rejected Brissot, Condorcet and
Kersaint in favour of a delegation in which 20 out of 24 deputies, including
Robespierre, Danton and Marat, were linked with the Commune and Parisian
radical politics.
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