JACOBINS. 



199 



persecution, personal motives had a powerful influence I 

 on the members. The private house in which they : 

 first assembled soon became no longer capable of 

 containing the number of friends of the revolution, as 

 they at first called themselves ; they therefore chose 

 for their place of meeting, at the end of 1789, the 

 church of a suppressed Jacobin monastery, in the 

 street St Honore, in the centre of Paris. This was 

 the origin of the name Jacobins, though they con- 

 tinued for a time to term themselves the friends of 

 the constitution. Their external symbol was a red 

 cap : afterwards, a dirty dress was the token of their 

 sansculottism. The revolution proceeded rapidly, 

 and, in all the large and small towns, and, in 1793, 

 even in some villages, similar societies were formed, 

 which the mother society at Paris rendered dependent 

 on itself; and thus it became enabled to direct the pub- 

 lic opinion of all France. In 1792, the leading club, in 

 which sometimes more than 2500 members convened, 

 kept up a correspondence with more than 400 affiliated 

 societies, and the number of Jacobins in all France 

 was estimated at about 400,000. It is unnecessary to 

 designate the principal members of the mother 

 society, as it is well known that all men of any note, 

 who played, or wished to play, a part in the revolu- 

 tion, were Jacobins. The influence which Paris, 

 more Uian any other European capital, exerts over 

 the country, greatly increased the power of the Jaco- 

 bins there. Whatever they agreed to propose in the 

 national assembly, however daring it might be, they 

 were sure of the assent of the other popular societies, 

 from their connexion with the principal members of 

 the other clubs. This naturally induced ambitious 

 individuals, even of the higher classes, to join it, and 

 to renounce the privileges of their order, with a view 

 of obtaining greater consequence in the new state of 

 tilings. The exaltation of the revolutionary spirit 

 was so rapid, and so much dissension was excited 

 among the revolutionists by the intrigues of the 

 opposite party, aided by foreign influence, that the 

 boldest characters formed a smaller club, which, 

 from its place of meeting, in the church of the 

 Franciscan friars, was called the club of the Cordeliers 

 (q. v.), and which was joined by all the exaltes, as 

 they were denominated. This was the proper field 

 for the daring Danton, and here the monster Marat, 

 from 1789 editor of the Friend of the People, found' 

 credence to his wild and criminal maxim, that the 

 end justifies the means. < Here sansculottism was fully 

 developed in its violence, its hatred of religion, and 

 contempt of morality and law. The circumstances of 

 this agitated period required the boldest measures, 

 and the most unscrupulous men were of course the most 

 daring. The ex-Capuchin Chabot, Anacharsis C loots, 

 Collot d'Herbois and others carried their temerity to 

 the highest pitch in their public speeches. As the 

 Jacobins and the combined Orleanists and Brissotists, 

 who laboured to overthrow the crown, the former for 

 the duke of Orleans, and the latter to establish a 

 republic, took the right side of the apartment of the 

 national assembly ; the members of the other popular 

 societies placed themselves on the left. Fe'w, how- 

 ever, attended the assembly for the purpose of 

 deliberation, their purpose being only to vote for 

 what had already been agreed upon. The Jacobins 

 and other similar clubs therefore adopted the forms 

 of the national assembly. Presidents and secretaries 

 were chosen, the order of the day determined, resolu- 

 tions passed by a majority of votes, and seats or tribunes 

 assigned to the audience. To such popular societies 

 the national assembly gave a legal existence in the 

 constitution which it drew up. From this time the 

 Jacobin club exercised a perfect tyranny over it. 

 Whenever the Jacobins were not sure of the majority 

 in the assembly, their followers filled the tribunes of 



the hall of the deputies, and, by their disorderly con- 

 duct, and frequently by loud threats against indivi- 

 dual members, discouraged all opinions or resolutions 

 which did not coincide with those of their party. 

 This was especially the case with respect to the 

 king, against whom the Jacobins and Cordeliers, 

 particularly since 1791, had circulated the grossest 

 calumnies. The democratic Cordeliers therefore 

 joined with the Orleans party, which laboured un- 

 wittingly for the objects of the republicans, by utter- 

 ing the most slanderous charges against the king and 

 queen, and by having the lowest of the rabble on 

 their side, and partly even in their pay. This was 

 the reason that a popular insurrection opposed with 

 violence, April 18, 1791, the departure of the king 

 to St Cloud, where he wished to spend the Easter 

 holidays. Even the national guard, in disobedience 

 to the order of the commander, La Fayette, refused 

 to escort the king, who was already seated in the car- 

 riage, through the multitude. The party of the king's 

 enemies was the more powerful, as the more mod- 

 erate members had withdrawn from the Jacobin club, 

 and the Cordeliers had again formed a junction with 

 it, June 21. The latter, however, continued their 

 meetings at the Capuchin monastery, in order by being 

 prepared and united, to manage the deliberations of 

 the Jacobin club. After the flight of the king, June, 

 21, 1791, they made use of the popular hatred against 

 him, and loudly demanded the deposition of Louis 

 and the erection of a republic. But the more mod- 

 erate party, who for a long time were called Feuil- 

 lants, from the place of their meeting, opposed their 

 designs, and the insurrection of July 15 17, 1791, 

 failed of its object. But, on the other hand, the re- 

 tired deputies of the constituent assembly failed of 

 dissolving the Jacobin club, before the close of 

 its own session. When the legislative assembly, the 

 new delegates to which had been chosen almost en- 

 tirely under the influence of the Jacobins, had open- 

 ed its session, Oct. 1, 1791, the friends of the king, 

 among whom the Girondists (q. v.) were conspicu- 

 ous for talents, maintained for some time the major- 

 ity against his enemies (the Cordeliers), even in the 

 Jacobin club, so that the leaders of this club Dan- 

 ton, Marat, Robespierre were obliged to disguise 

 their projects. But their influence was agumented 

 by the circumstance that the mayor of Paris, Pethion, 

 and with him the municipal authorities of Paris, 

 composed of Jacobins, espoused their cause. Even 

 the moderate Jacobins, and among them some of the 

 royal ministers, inclined to the party of the enemies 

 of the king. Thus, by the popular insurrection of 

 May 29, 1792, they obtained a resolution of the na- 

 tional assembly, requiring the king to disband tho 

 body guard, decreed to him by the first assembly of 

 the nation ; but they were unable, by the insurrecti on 

 of the suburbs of St Antoineand St Marcell of June 

 20, to compel the king, whom only four Swiss grena- 

 diers protected, against the attacks of the furious 

 multitude, to revoke the veto that he had affixed to 

 two resolutions of the national assembly ; but they 

 gained a majority of the assembly to protect from 

 condign punishment the authors of this tumult 

 Pethion, Manuel and others. Meanwhile, the Jaco- 

 bins, offended by a note of the Austrian minister o 

 state, prince Kaunitz, had effected, against the will 

 of the Cordeliers, a declaration of war against Aus 

 tria, April 20, 1792 ; and Jacobinism soon displayed 

 its influence in the selection of generals, in the pro- 

 Ciamations, and in the disposition of the armies, so 

 that neither La Fayette, in 1792, nor Dumouriez, in 

 1793, could excite the army against the Jacobins, 

 lint all the occurrences subsequent to June 20 the 

 arrival of the confederates from Brest, Marseilles, 

 and other places, July 13 ; the attack of the Tuile 



