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2004 Democratic National Convention

2004 Presidential Election
Nominees Kerry and Edwards
Convention
Date(s)	July 26 – July 29
City	Boston, Massachusetts
Venue	FleetCenter
Chair	Bill Richardson (NM)
Keynote Speaker	Barack Obama (IL)
Candidates
Presidential Nominee	Sen. John Kerry (MA)
Vice Presidential Nominee	Sen. John Edwards (NC)
Voting
Total Delegates	4,322
Votes Needed for Nomination	2,164
Results (President)	Kerry (MA): 4,253 (98.40%) Kucinich (OH): 43 (0.99%) Abstaining: 26 (0.60%)
Results (Vice President)	Edwards (NC): 100% (Acclamation)
Ballots	1
‹ 2000  ·  2008 ›
v t e

The 2004 Democratic National Convention convened from July 26 to 29, 2004 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston, Massachusetts, and nominated John Kerry and John Edwards as the official candidates of the Democratic Party for President and Vice President of the United States, respectively, in the 2004 presidential election.

The 2004 Democratic National Convention included the featured keynote speech of Barack Obama, then a candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois, who would later go on to become the 44th President of the United States in 2009. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson served as chairman of the convention, while former presidential advisor to Bill Clinton, Lottie Shackelford, served as vice chairwoman.

The 2004 Democratic National Convention marked the formal end of the active primary election season, although all meaningful primary elections had finished months earlier. After the convention, John Kerry and John Edwards would go on to be defeated by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in the general election.

Convention themes[link]

The 2004 Democratic National Convention featured a theme for each day of the convention. The first night of the meeting focused on the theme "Plan for America's Future" with speeches devoted to building optimism for John Kerry's candidacy. The second night of the meeting focused on the theme "A Lifetime of Strength and Service" devoted to John Kerry's biography and his path to his nomination. The third night of the meeting focused on the theme "A Stronger More Secure America" devoted to issues of homeland security and the global war on terror. The last night of the meeting focused on the theme "Stronger at Home, Respected in the World" devoted to the overall agenda of the party to secure the borders, improving domestic welfare while at the same time promoting international cooperation in world affairs.^[1] The phrase "Help is on the Way" was often repeated by speakers such as John Edwards.^[2][3]

Party platform[link]

The 2004 Democratic National Convention successfully passed an official party platform. A forty-three page document, the party platform was entitled "Strong at Home, Respected in the World" – also the name of the theme conveyed on the last night of the convention. The first part of the platform was called "A Strong, Respected America". The section defined specific goals and actions to defeat terrorism, to keep weapons of mass destruction from the hands of terrorists, to promote world peace and security, to strengthen the military, to achieve energy independence and to strengthen homeland security. The second part of the platform was called, "A Strong, Growing Economy". The section defined specific goals and actions to create what the party called "good jobs" and "standing up for the great American middle class." The third part of the platform was called, "Strong, Healthy Families." The section defined specific goals and actions to reform the healthcare system in the United States, to improve education and to protect the environment. The final part of the platform was called, "A Strong American Community." It stressed the diversity of the nation and the importance of upholding civil rights as a major tenet of the party.

Boston venue[link]

Beacon Hill and Downtown Boston as seen from Cambridge

The 2004 Democratic National Convention was the first held in Boston, one of the few held in the home state of the presidential nominee, and also the first since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.^[4] During the convention, there was a memorial service to honor the victims of the attacks. Halima Salee, who lost her daughter, son-in-law, and unborn grandchild on American Flight 11, spoke.

Site selection[link]

After an initial notice to 34 cities, 10 cities requested the RFP to host the convention: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Miami, New York and Pittsburgh. Of those, five cities (Baltimore, Boston, Detroit, Miami and New York) submitted bids, and four cities (not including Baltimore) were visited by the DNC during the site selection process. Boston was announced as the host of the convention on November 13, 2002.^[5]

Security[link]

During the convention, U.S. Capitol Police, the U.S. Coast Guard, and other governmental organizations took many security measures to protect the participants of the Democratic National Convention.^[6] Security measures included bomb-sniffing dogs, 7-feet high metal barricades, a ban on corporate and private flights at the Logan airport, along with the shutting down of Highway 93.^[6]

The free speech zone at the Convention

One of the most controversial "counter-terrorism" measures was the declaration of a designated free speech zone for protesters, limiting where and when protesters could exercise their first amendment rights. Protesters through the American Civil Liberties Union mounted an unsuccessful lawsuit for the right to protest outside of the designated free speech zone, which the group claimed was unconstitutional. FleetCenter access promulgated tight security measures that frustrated even the news media. Credentials enabling reporters to enter and exit the meeting became the subject of strict rules forbidding the act of borrowing and sharing such passes, a common practice for the major media outlets in the past.^{[citation needed]}

Protesters inside the "free speech zone" drew parallels to Guantanamo Bay's Camp X-Ray, and staged a demonstration in which they wore hoods akin to those worn by Abu Ghraib detainees. Many demonstrators simply refused to enter the "free speech zone."^{[citation needed]}

Police union[link]

Other Bostonians took advantage of the meeting as a national stage for specific agendas.^{[citation needed]} The police union, for example, gained attention with threats of picketing of delegates from entering and exiting functions – a dilemma for Democrats as the party has traditionally been an ally of organized labor. Having worked without a contract for two years, the police union struck a deal with Boston mayor Thomas Menino for a new contract, avoiding a major embarrassment for the party.^{[citation needed]}

Barack Obama's keynote address[link]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote address

State Senator Barack Obama delivered the convention's keynote address on Tuesday, July 27, 2004. Obama, who was then a candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois and, prior to the convention, was unknown to much of the public outside his adopted home state, was enthusiastically received by the delegates, who waved blue-and-white campaign signs and chanted his name.

As the keynote speaker, Obama set the tone for the party platform. His speech, proclaiming the unnecessary and artificial divides in American culture and politics, was reminiscent of John Edwards's "Two Americas" stump speech: "There's not a liberal America and a conservative America—there's the United States of America." Obama emphasized the importance of unity, and made veiled jabs at the Bush administration and the news media's perceived oversimplification and diversionary use of wedge issues: "We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the red states. We coach Little League in the blue states, and yes, we've got some gay friends in the red states. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq, and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the Stars and Stripes, all of us defending the United States of America." [1]

Obama noted his interracial and international heritage: he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to a Kenyan immigrant father and a white mother from Kansas. He emphasized the power of education, recounting the privilege of attending the exclusive Punahou School and Harvard Law School despite his family's poverty, and criticized the perception that poor black youths who read books are "acting white." He went on to describe his successful career in law and politics while raising a family in Chicago. "In no other country on Earth is my story even possible," Obama proclaimed. Towards the end of his speech, he emphasized the importance of hope in the American saga, and he illustrated how that hope manifested itself in the lives of John Kerry, John Edwards, and even his own personal life, as "a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him too." According to Obama, the "audacity of hope" is "God's greatest gift" to Americans, allowing him to feel optimistic that the lives of average Americans can be improved with the right governmental policies. [2]

Obama's performance led to much speculation as to his place in the party and the nation's future. After Obama had left the stage, media commentators, panels of historians and political scientists on the major television networks began explicating what many began calling the "Obama phenomenon" – in Illinois and elsewhere in the country. It was pointed out that many in Illinois openly discussed Obama's future as a possible presidential candidate, especially evident in his ability to capture white votes like no other racial minority candidate had ever done in downstate Illinois. Obama would win his own race for a United States Senate seat from Illinois in the fall of 2004, and some say that the resulting fame and publicity from his keynote address allowed Obama to win the Democratic nomination and the Presidency in 2008, just four years later.

Edwards's address[link]

Not yet formally nominated for the Vice Presidency, John Edwards took the stage at the Convention to give the first major national speech of his political career.^{[citation needed]} Delegates raised red-and-white vertical "Edwards" banners and chanted his name. The theme of Edwards's address was the divide between the "two Americas," his populist message throughout the primary campaign and now one embraced by Kerry.^{[citation needed]} He tied the division to his own roots in North Carolina, and introduced his family to the audience. Edwards addressed his parents from the podium: "You taught me the values that I carry in my heart: faith, family, responsibility, opportunity for everyone. You taught me that there's dignity and honor in a hard day's work. You taught me to always look out for our neighbors, to never look down on anybody, and treat everybody with respect."^{[citation needed]} Edwards went on to define the two Americas he claimed to exist, one for the rich and one for the poor, and repeated several times that "It doesn't have to be that way."^[7] He called for one health care system, equal in quality to the coverage received by Senators and other elected officials, and promised to establish a Patients' Bill of Rights.^{[citation needed]} Edwards proposed one public school system for all, arguing that "None of us believe that the quality of a child's education should be controlled by where they live or the affluence of their community."^[7] He appealed for the end of the two economies, "one for people who are set for life, they know their kids and grandkids are going to be just fine, and then one for most Americans, people who live paycheck to paycheck."^[7] Edwards also stated how the Democrats expected to pay for their agenda: "We're going to roll back – we're going to roll back the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. And we're going to close corporate loopholes. We're going to cut government contractors and wasteful spending. We can move this country forward without passing the burden to our children and our grandchildren."^{[citation needed]}

Many pundits noted that while Edwards's charismatic style was in evidence, he had rushed through the speech, ending several minutes earlier than planned.^{[citation needed]} The delegates in the FleetCenter, however, were enraptured, and Edwards led them several times in a statement-response chant: "Hope is on the way." This, and the general upbeat tone of the address^{[citation needed]}, was a response to attacks by the Bush campaign claiming that Kerry and Edwards were pessimistic and cynical; it was altered and echoed the next day in the more detailed speech of John Kerry: "Help is on the way."

Kerry's address[link]

Prior to his speech, John Kerry's daughter spoke about her father. After this, a video played, showing highlights from Kerry's life, including his birth in Colorado, his childhood in New England, the travels with his diplomat father to post-World War II Germany, and his service in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, interspersed with clips of Kerry speaking and narrated voice overs. After the video's conclusion, former U.S. Senator Max Cleland delivered a speech proclaiming that the global conflict and active wars in Afghanistan and Iraq required a decorated military hero such as Kerry in the White House. This concluded with Kerry's entrance, where he made a military salute and announced, "I'm John Kerry, and I'm reporting for duty!" Kerry then accepted the nomination for President.

Democrats reacted positively to John Kerry's acceptance speech.^[8] With Democrats strongly opposed to the Bush administration, John Kerry spent most of his speech appealing to independent voters and to swing voters.^[8] He promised to train 40,000 new active duty troops,^[9] to implement all the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission,^[9] to cut the national deficit in half within four years,^[9] to cut middle class taxes while repealing the Bush administration's tax cuts for those making more than US$200,000 per year,^[9] to stop privatization of Social Security,^[9] and to expand stem cell research.^[9]

On the day after Kerry's speech, George W. Bush's reelection campaign launched a counterattack on the claims and promises made by Kerry and others at the convention. At a campaign stop in Springfield, Missouri, Bush told a crowd: "My opponent has good intentions, but intentions do not always translate to results," attacking Senator Kerry's record in the Senate.^[10]

Other speakers[link]

In addition to the Obama, Edwards, and Kerry addresses, there were also speeches from former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, former Vice-President and 2000 Presidential nominee Al Gore, New York Senator and former First Lady Hillary Clinton, Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, and former candidate Al Sharpton. Ron Reagan, son of Republican President Ronald Reagan, also spoke at the Convention, blaming Bush's hijacking of his father's legacy for his switch in support to the Democrats.

Results of delegate voting[link]

In the days before the convention started, the other candidates withdrew, freed their delegates and officially endorsed Kerry.^{[citation needed]} All the delegates voted to ratify this decision and vote for Kerry, except those of Kucinich, who attempted to vote for Kucinich anyway. Many states refused to let them do so, and only permitted them to register abstentions.^{[citation needed]} The final tally went thus:

President[link]

Vice president[link]

• John Edwards was chosen by acclamation.

Lack of convention 'bounce'[link]

Polls conducted after Kerry's speech showed no significant increase of support (or "convention bounce") for the Democratic nominee's bid to unseat President Bush.^[12] Democrats ascribed the disappointing numbers to an unusually polarized electorate that year with few undecided voters, though Bush did get a small bounce out of his convention.^[13]

Demonstrations and protests[link]

Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich speaks out against the Iraq War.

Tom Hayden urges anti-war activists to continue efforts to organize.

There were a number of demonstrations during the 2004 Democratic National Convention.^[14] Protesters included members of the Bl(A)ck Tea Society, a group of self-described anarchists, who opposed the war in Iraq.^[14] Approximately 400 members of the Bl(A)ck Tea Society marched through Boston's financial district and headed toward the fleet center, where they set fire to an effigy that showed George Bush on one side and John Kerry on the other.^[14]

That evening a group of peace activists held a peaceful rally a few hundred feet from the FleetCenter. Local Boston politicians were joined by presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich and long-time activist and California state senator Tom Hayden in a call to end the occupation of and to remove U.S. troops from Iraq and to bring in an international peacekeeping force. Also, Hayden and Kucinich called on anti-war Democrats to support John Kerry against George Bush in the general election.^[15]

The largest protest was held on the Sunday evening before the convention was set to start. An estimated 2,000 anti-war members marched at the same time as approximately 1,000 anti-abortion activists, and the two groups crossed paths en route to the convention center.^[14] The following day, this anti-abortion group had its permit revoked to protest outside of the Kerry family home. They challenged the decision, but it was upheld by a federal judge, who sided with the Secret Service in determining that the protest would be too close to Kerry's home, potentially endangering the presidential candidate.^[14][16]

See also[link]

• 2004 Republican National Convention
• U.S. Democratic Party presidential nomination, 2004
• U.S. presidential election, 2004
• John Kerry presidential campaign, 2004

References[link]

External links[link]

• Unofficial Convention Website
• Official Fleet Center Website
• Complete text, audio, video of Barack Obama's DNC Address AmericanRhetoric.com

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Democratic National Committee Secretary Alice Travis Germond opens the roll call of the states during the third day of the 2008 convention.

The Democratic National Convention is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party.^[1] They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 national convention. The primary goal of the Democratic National Convention is to nominate and confirm a candidate for President and Vice President, adopt a comprehensive party platform and unify the party.

Delegates from all fifty U.S. states and from American dependencies and territories such as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands attend the convention and cast their votes to choose the Party's presidential candidate. Like the Republican National Convention, the Democratic National Convention marks the formal end of the primary election period and the start of the general election season.

Nomination[link]

The party's presidential nominee is chosen in a series of individual state caucuses and primary elections. Superdelegates, delegates whose votes are not bound to the outcome of a state's caucus or primary, may also influence the nomination. Due to the scheduling of caucuses and primary elections early in the election year, the party's presidential nominee is usually known months before the Democratic National Convention. Historically, however, the party's choice of the presidential nominee was usually not known until the last evening of the convention. The choice was an often contentious debate that riled the passions of party leaders. Delegates were forced to vote for a nominee repeatedly until someone could capture a minimum number of delegates needed.

Backroom deals by party bosses were normal and often resulted in compromise nominees that became known as dark horse candidates. Dark horse candidates were people who never imagined they would run for President until the last moments of the convention. Dark horse candidates were chosen in order to break deadlocks between more popular and powerful prospective nominees that blocked each other from gaining enough delegates to be nominated. One of the most famous dark horse candidates nominated at a Democratic National Convention was James Knox Polk who was chosen to become the candidate for President only after being added to the eighth and ninth delegate ballot.

History[link]

Illustration of the 1876 Democratic National Convention in St. Louis, Missouri.

By 1824, the congressional nominating caucus had fallen into disrepute and collapsed as a method of nominating presidential and vice presidential candidates. A national convention idea had been brought up but nothing occurred until the next decade. State conventions and state legislatures emerged as the nomination apparatus until they were supplanted by the national convention method of nominating candidates. President Andrew Jackson's "Kitchen Cabinet" privately carried out the plan for the first Democratic National Convention; the public call for the first national convention emanated from Jackson's supporters in New Hampshire in 1831.

The first national convention of the Democratic Party began in Baltimore on May 21, 1832. In that year the infamous 2/3 rule was created, requiring a 2/3 vote to nominate a candidate, in order to show the party's unanimous support of Martin Van Buren for vice president. Although this rule was waived in the 1836 and 1840 conventions, in 1844 it was revived by opponents of former President Van Buren, who had the support of a majority, but not a super-majority, of the delegates, in order to prevent him from receiving the nomination. The rule then remained in place for almost the next hundred years, and often led to Democratic National Conventions which dragged on endlessly, most famously at the 1860 convention, when the convention adjourned in Charleston without making a choice and reconvening in separate groups a short time later, and the 1924 convention, when "Wets" and "Drys" deadlocked between preferred candidates Alfred E. Smith and William G. McAdoo for 103 ballots before finally agreeing on John W. Davis as a compromise candidate. At the 1912 convention, Champ Clark was the first person to receive a majority of the votes who did not go on to achieve a two-thirds vote and the nomination. The 2/3 rule was finally abolished in 1936, when the unanimity in favor of the renomination of President Franklin D. Roosevelt allowed it finally to be put to rest. In the years that followed only one convention (the 1952 Convention) actually went beyond a single ballot, although this may be more attributable to changes in the nominating process itself than to the rules change.

During the time the rule was in force, it virtually assured that no candidate not supported by the South could be nominated. The elimination of the two-thirds rule made in possible for liberal Northern Democrats to gain greater influence in party affairs, leading to the disenchantment of Southern Democrats, and defection of many of the latter to the Republican Party, especially during the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s. Strom Thurmond was one such Democrat who joined the Republican party.

William Jennings Bryan delivered his "Cross of Gold" speech at the 1896 convention. The most historically notable—and tumultuous—convention of recent memory was the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, which was fraught with highly emotional battles between conventioneers and Vietnam war protesters and a notable outburst by Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley. Other confrontations between various groups, such as the Yippies and members of the Students for a Democratic Society, and the Chicago police in city parks, streets and hotels marred this convention. Following the 1968 convention, in which many reformers had been disappointed in the way that Vice President Hubert Humphrey, despite not having competed in a single primary, easily won the nomination over Senators Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern (who announced after the assassination of another candidate, Senator Robert F. Kennedy), a commission headed by Senator McGovern reformed the Democratic Party's nominating process to increase the power of primaries in choosing delegates in order to increase the democracy of the process. Not entirely coincidentally, McGovern himself won the nomination in 1972. The 1972 convention was significant in that the new rules put into place as a result of the McGovern commission also opened the door for quotas mandating that certain percentages of delegates be women or members of minority groups, and subjects that were previously deemed not fit for political debate, such as abortion and lesbian and gay rights, now occupied the forefront of political discussion. That convention itself was one of the most bizarre in American history, with sessions beginning in the early evening and lasting until sunrise the next morning, and outside political activists gaining influence at the expense of elected officials and core Democratic constituencies such as organized labor (thus resulting in a convention far to the left of the rank-and-file of the Democratic Party).

The nature of Democratic (and Republican) conventions has changed considerably since 1972. Every 4 years, the nominees are essentially selected earlier and earlier in the year, so the conventions now officially ratify the nominees instead of choose them. (Even the close race of 2008, which was not decided until early June, did not change the modern function of the convention). The 1980 convention was the last convention for the Democrats that had even a sliver of doubt about who the nominee would be. (Ted Kennedy forced a failing vote to free delegates from their commitment to vote for Jimmy Carter). The 1976 convention was the last where the vice-presidential nominee was announced during the convention, after the presidential nominee was chosen. (Carter choosing Walter Mondale). After the "ugly" conventions of 1968 and 1972, the parties realized it was in their interests to show a unified party to the nation during the convention, and to try to eliminate any dissent. And as the conventions became less interesting, and television ratings have generally declined (as they have on average for all television shows),^[2] the networks have cut back their coverage significantly, which in turn has forced the parties to manage what is televised even more closely.

Mid-term conventions[link]

In addition to the well-known presidential nominating conventions, the Democrats have held three mid-term conventions in recent decades: In 1974 in Kansas City, in 1978 in Memphis, and in 1982 in Philadelphia. The mid-term conventions were held to create enthusiasm and rally the party faithful. The mid-term convention was begun in 1974, after the fiasco of the 1972 Democratic National Convention, which saw the presidential nominee, George S. McGovern, accepting the nomination at 3:00 a.m., and which was followed by an electoral disaster, in which the party's candidates received only the electoral votes of Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, and was intended to reorganize the party structure and get it back on track for future elections. The mid-term convention was held in 1978 and in 1982, but they were discontinued due to the cost, and the over-emphasis of campaigning by potential presidential candidates.

See also[link]

• List of Democratic National Conventions
• History of the United States Democratic Party
• Democratic Party (United States) superdelegates, 2008
• Democratic Party
• Republican National Convention
• 2008 Democratic National Convention

Notes[link]

1. ^ Exceptions are the 1835 national convention, which occurred 3 years after the 1832 national convention, and the 1840 national convention, which occurred 5 years after the 1835 national convention.
2. ^ Wolgamott, L. Kent (2005-11-06). "Mass audiences aren’t very mass anymore". Lincoln Journal Star. http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2005/11/06/sunday_am/doc4367f68466ce4751333244.txt. Retrieved 2008-05-11. 

External links[link]

• The American Presidency Project, contains the text of the national platforms that were adopted by the conventions (1840–2004)
• http://www.demconvention.com/history/

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Interrogation of Louis XVI in National Convention

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France Portal v t e

During the French Revolution, the National Convention or Convention, in France, comprised the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 (the 4th of Brumaire of the year IV under the French Republican Calendar adopted by the Convention). It held executive power in France during the first years of the French First Republic. It was succeeded by the Directory, commencing 2 November 1795. Prominent members of the original Convention included Maximilien Robespierre of the Jacobin Club, Jean-Paul Marat (affiliated with the Jacobins, though never a formal member), and Georges Danton of the Cordeliers. From 1793 to 1794, executive power was de facto exercised by the Convention's Committee of Public Safety.

France, like the rest of Europe, has never again used an elected constitutional convention to draft its constitutions, instead relying on the executive or legislative branches to draft successive constitutions before usually (but not always) submitting them to the electorate for approval in referendums.

Formation[link]

During the insurrection of 10 August 1792, when the populace of Paris stormed the Tuileries and demanded the abolition of the monarchy, the Legislative Assembly decreed the provisional suspension of King Louis XVI and the convocation of a "national convention" which should draw up a constitution. At the same time it was decided that deputies to that convention should be elected by all Frenchmen 25 years old or more, domiciled for a year and living by the product of their labor. The National Convention was therefore the first French assembly elected by universal male suffrage, without distinctions of class. The age limit of the electors was further lowered to 21, and that of eligibility was fixed at 25 years.

The first session was held 20 September 1792. The following day, the French monarchy was abolished. A little over a year later, 22 September would become the base date of the new French Revolutionary Calendar, the beginning of the Year I of the French Republic.^[1]

Revolutionary government[link]

The Convention lasted for three years and came after the National Assembly and Legislative Assembly. The country was at war, and it seemed best to postpone the implementation of the new constitution until peace should be concluded. At the same time, as the Convention prolonged its powers, it extended them considerably in order to meet the pressing dangers which menaced the Republic.

Although it was a legislative assembly, it took over the executive power, entrusting it to its own members. This "confusion of powers", contrary to the philosophical theories – those of Montesquieu especially – which had inspired the Revolution at first, was one of the essential characteristics of the Convention. The series of exceptional measures by which that confusion of powers was created constitutes the "Revolutionary government" in the strict sense of the word, a government which was principally in vigour during the period called the "Reign of Terror". There is thus a distinction to be made, discussing the Convention, between these temporary expedients and those measures intended to be permanent.

The first years of the Convention were the height of the importance of the revolutionary political clubs such as the Jacobins and Cordeliers; the informally constituted Girondists, although past the peak of their power, were also an important factor. By the end of the Convention, most prominent members of all of these groups were dead, the bulk of them victims either of the Terror or of the Thermidorian Reaction that brought the Terror to an end.^[2]

Structure and membership[link]

The Convention held its first session in a hall of the Tuileries, then it sat in the Salle du Manège, and finally from 10 May 1793 in that of the Spectacles (or Machine), an immense hall in which the deputies were but loosely scattered. This last hall had tribunes for the public, who often influenced the debate by interruptions or by applause.^[3]

The members of the Convention came from all classes of society, but the most numerous were lawyers. Seventy-five members had sat in the National Constituent Assembly, 183 in the Legislative Assembly. The full number of deputies was 749, not counting 33 from the colonies, of whom only some arrived in Paris. Besides these, however, the newly formed départements annexed to France from 1792 to 1795 were allowed to send deputations. Many of the original deputies died or were exiled during the Convention, but not all their places were filled by suppléants. Some members proscribed during the Terror returned after the legislative coup of 9 Thermidor began the Thermidorian Reaction. Finally, many members were sent away, either to the départments or to the armies, on missions which lasted sometimes for a considerable length of time. For all these reasons it is difficult to find out the number of deputies present at any given date, for votes by roll-call were rare. During the Terror the number of those voting averaged only 250.

According to its own ruling, the Convention elected its president every fortnight. He was eligible for re-election after the lapse of a fortnight. Ordinarily the sessions were held in the morning, but evening sessions also occurred frequently, often extending late into the night. Sometimes in exceptional circumstances the Convention declared itself in permanent session and sat for several days without interruption. For both legislative and administrative the Convention used committees, with powers more or less widely extended and regulated by successive laws. The most famous of these committees included the Committee of Public Safety (Comité de salut public), the Committee of General Security (Comité de sûreté générale), and the Committee of Education (Comité de l’instruction).