12 Charles Kuhlmann 



The deputies were now greatly in the minority and ignorance 

 had taken the place of enlightenment. The group of men who 

 were to attack and displace the Jacobin leaders was largely com- 

 posed of republicans, Brissot, Petion, Robespierre, Robert, and a 

 number of others who adhered to them. Camille Desmoulins, 

 who was a special friend of Robespierre, belonged to the same 

 group, but for a long time defended the Lameths because of their 

 services to the revolution.^ Of these, Brissot was the most dan- 

 gerous opponent. He was the founder of the Societc des amis 

 des noirs,- and as editor of the Patriate frangaise represented it 

 in the press. To this society belonged such men as Mirabeau, 

 Petion, Condorcet; Sieyes, Lafayette, Abbe Gregoire, and La- 

 rochefoucauld. It Avas a combination of the Amis des noirs 

 with the radicals and the right of the assembly which struck the 

 decisive blow against the Jacobin leaders, enabled to do so 

 through the long campaign of enlightenment waged by Brissot 

 and the Amis des noirs. Brissot, whose enmity dated from the 

 decree of March 8, 1790, relative to the colonies, allowed no op- 

 portunity of annoying them to pass.^ 



Through the agitation of the abolitionists and the principles 

 announced in the declaration of the rights of man, grave troubles 

 had arisen in the colonies between the planters, their slaves, and 

 the free mulattos not possessed of political rights. It was a sub- 

 ject which called for delicate treatment by the National Assem- 

 bly and which furnished its enemies a good occasion for embar- 

 rassing it. A great deal of hidden maneuvering seems to have 

 been indulged in by both parties, the Amis des noirs and their 

 supporters and the colonial deputies, the deputies of commerce, 

 aided by a strong group in the Jacobin Club.* Mosneron de 

 I'Aunay read a paper at the society on February 26, 1790, in 

 which he strove to answer the Amis des noir's upon the question 

 of the abolition of the slave trade by admitting that it was wrong 



^Patriate frangaise. No. 656, May 26, 1791. 



^ Founded in 1787, a kind of French abolition society. 



■^Pairiote frangaise, Nos. 515, .543, 545, 546, 55.3, 566, 582, 598, 609, and 

 many others in 1790 and 1791. All those cited are in the first three months 

 of 1791. 



■•The leaders of the Jacobins, especially Barnave and the Lameths. 



240 



