The Uprising of June 20, I'/gs 17 



Servan's proposition was put in the form of a motion by 

 Merlin, and after a discussion of two days it was passed, June 6.^^ 

 It provided in seven articles for the formation of a camp of 

 20,000 fcderes, recruited from all France in the ratio of five men 

 per canton, to be assembled near Paris, July 14, while all the 

 troops of the line now in the capital should immediately be sent 

 to the frontiers. ^- 



On June 7, it was voted that the twenty thousand should be 

 armed and equipped by the nation. Then followed a discussion 

 upon the manner of choosing the required number of men, should 

 the number enrolled exceed that allowed for each canton.^^ On 

 June 8, it was decided by article seven that the choice should be 

 made by the entire number enrolled, in the presence of the 

 municipality.^* 



Servan's decree met with strong opposition. In the Jacobin 

 club, Robespierre opposed it as useless and dangerous. He asked 

 why the army was to be brought to Paris and not directed to the 

 frontiers. He feared the enemies of equality would become 

 masters of the capital. He believed, too, that article seven would 

 become a source of trouble, that it would prove ruinous to the 

 Girondins.^^ Dumouriez violently reproached Servan in the coun- 

 cil meeting for not having presented the decree to the council 



nationale au dcpartement des B onches-du-Rhone) writing to his constitu- 

 ents, June 21, 1792, asserted that Servan's proposition was meant to stir 

 up the people; that it was not his own invention but was suggested to 

 him by republican conspirators; that only on this supposition could one 

 explain the letters w'ritten from Paris to Toulon and Marseilles early in 

 May announcing the coming federation and asking the people to prepare 

 their arms. Then he added that all this indicated a plan to massacre a 

 number of functionaries of the nation and the royal family. 



^^Moniteur, XII, 571, 592. 



^^ Ibid., XII, 607, gives the final wording of the decree; Mortimer-Ter- 

 naux, Histoire de la Terreur, I, iiS; Louis Blanc, Histoire de la revolu- 

 tion frangaise, VIII, 26. 



^Moniteur, XII, 604. 



^Ibid., XII, 607. 



^Aulard, La societe des Jacobins, III, 668. 



213 



