2 Charles Kuhlmann 



made the inconsistency the more apparent. As matters stood in 

 1789 there seemed to be no immediate danger in the opposition 

 from the small group of radicals because they possessed no means 

 of coercing the majority. At the close of 1790, however, the 

 situation had changed entirely. The agitators now found excel- 

 lent weapons of offense in the Jacobin club and the sections of the 

 city of Paris. The Jacobins at the latter period acted upon public 

 opinion more potently than did the assembly. The large number 

 of deputies among them had for some time menaced the inde- 

 pendence of the legislative body but had now arrived at the point 

 where their own position was threatened by the mass of non- 

 deputies admitted into membership. The conservative Jacobin 

 deputies did not dare oppose in their official capacities views 

 formally approved at the society. Nor was the society an organi- 

 zation with an influence limited to Paris and the assembly. A 

 motion carried at its meetings was usually submitted to hundreds 

 of affiliated societies each of which was in turn a center of revo- 

 lutionary activity. From these latter bodies then issued resolu- 

 tions and addresses to the public and the assembly demanding 

 kjislation in line with the original motion. The Jacobins them- 

 selves were usually given a sort of mandate to see that the demands 

 were complied with. It was a system now well understood by 

 every intelligent Frenchman. 



Robespierre was, therefore, following a well-beaten path when, 

 on the evening of December 6, 1790, he appeared in the Jacobin 

 tribune with a long written discourse upon the organization of the 

 national guards. The assembly had voted against his cherished 

 views that morning but his cause was by no means hopeless if he 

 could prevail upon the Jacobins to stand by him. Many of their 

 members were already dissatisfied with the course of the conserva- 

 tive deputies in the society and were beginning to listen with 

 approval to more radical counsel. He succeeded in carrying 

 almost the whole of the society with him. A storm of applause 

 greeted his speech and it was evident that unless his arguments 

 could be overcome in a conclusive way he would experience no 

 difficulty in passing a motion placing the society on record as 

 formally opposed to a decree of the assembly. Such action on the 



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