The Uprising of June 20, iy(j2 31 



pervaded all Paris and had ^rown out of the actual condition of 

 affairs. The leaders took advantage of its existence and turned 

 it to account. 



The greatest demonstration on this day came from the fau- 

 bourgs and the reason for this is readily seen. The sections in 

 the center of Paris were dominated by the royalist faction and 

 had not the spirit for organized protest, but those of the fau- 

 bourgs Saint-Antoine and Saint-Marcel harl conserved all their 

 vigorous sense of justice and of their rights and it was there that 

 the great questions of the interests of the country and the means 

 of saving it were discussed.* 



It can not, however, be said that the 20th of June was solely 

 the work of the sections even though some of them took part in it. 

 Ever since the declaration of war in April, the sections, under 

 the influence of the double danger from the enemy without and 

 the court within had considered the question of organized resist- 

 ance. Efforts were made to reestablish their state of permanence 

 which had been suppressed by the law of May 21, 1790. In May 

 and June seven sections demanded from the legislative assembly 

 the authorization to constitute themselves in a state of permanent 

 surveillance.^ It was in this state of affairs that the king vetoed 

 the decree against the priests and that for the formation of the 

 camp. His action was freely discussed in the sections. The 

 dismissal of the Girondist ministry intensified the excitement. A 

 plan had already been formed to celebrate the anniversary of the 

 oath of the tennis court and these circumstances gave the plan a 

 revolutionary significance. The sections, Quinze-Vingts, Pop- 

 incourt. Gobelins and others decided to go around to present 

 petitions to the king and to the national assembly and at the same 

 time to plant a tree of liberty upon the terrace of the Feuillants.® 



* Chaumette, Memoires, 12. 



* Mellie, Les sections de Paris pendant la revolution frangaise, 104-05. 

 The names of these sections are: Theatre-Frangais, Croix Rouge, Fon- 

 taine-de-Grenelle, Lombards, Luxembourg, Meauconseil, und Louvre. 



'Mellie, Les sections de Paris pendant la revolution frangaise, 104-05; 

 Deliberations of the section Quinze-Vingts of June 19, in Journal des 

 dcbats et decrets, No. 273, p. 359. 



227 



