ABSTRACT
The first votes cast in the Revolution were those in the municipal elections of 1790. The start of a series of elections to create new municipal, district, and departmental administrations, they were intended to lay the foundations for France’s regeneration. The new municipalities were the linchpin of national unity. The municipal elections would restore order, promote national unity, and consolidate the gains of the Revolution. But the scope and novelty of the Revolution’s experiment in local government were so great that one could only speculate about the outcome. The American envoy in Paris wrote: “This idea of governing a Kingdom of twenty four millions of inhabitants by municipalities is so new that all opinions respecting it can be only conjectures.” 1 While the Journal patriotique de Grenoble expressed its satisfaction with the electoral results throughout the kingdom, an English diplomat concluded that two-thirds of the mayors elected in the new municipalities were nobles. 2
