On the Conflict of Parties in the Jacobin Club 15 



credited to Barnave alone, and one which his enemies never 

 pardoned. 



Barnave says in his Memoir es that his decrees upon the col- 

 onies gave him his popularity as well as robbed him of it.^ With 

 the more sane men, still dominant in the Jacobin Club, and at 

 large his practical measures may well have w^on him support. 

 Certain it is that he and the Lameths from this time on gained 

 greatly in popularity and prominence and became the recognized 

 leaders of the Jacobins from whom the formerly influential mem- 

 bers were beginning to withdraw. A fresh discuss;on of the 

 colonial difficulties found the Jacobin "Triumvirate" approach- 

 ing the crisis of their career. If at the close of 1790 they had 

 found it necessary to inaugurate a campaign of denunciation in 

 order to sustain themselves, how much more was this necessary 

 now when all appeals to moderation and prudence were regarded 

 as evidence of perfidy or reaction. It was therefore extremely 

 unfortunate for them that, at the very moment when they were 

 attempting to retrace their steps, they should have been con- 

 fronted with the necessity pf defending a colonial policy which 

 had now become unpopular. Thanks to Brissot, to Mirabeau, 

 to the Amis des noirs, the affiliated societies and France gener- 

 ally had been enlightened upon the maneuvers that had resulted 

 in the decree of March 8, and upon the inconsistencies of which 

 the assembly had been guilty in passing it.- Some of the affili- 

 ated societies protested in addresses which Brissot printed with 

 the intention of destroying his enemies.^ Then the society on 

 March 11 adopted an address to the affiliated societies urging 

 moderation, Brissot attacked Barnave, who had drawn up the 

 address, ridiculing his language and condemning the advice it 



^ Oeuvi'es de Barnave, mises en ordre et ptkckdees d'ltne notice historiqne 

 sur Barnave par 31. Berens^er de la Drome (Paris, 1843), II, 366. 



^ After the decree of March 8, a part of no. CCXLVII of the Courrierde 

 Provence was devoted to enh'ghtening its readers upon this subject and the 

 manner in wliich it liad been disposed of. The Amis des noirs even ad- 

 dressed some of their literature to the societies affiHated to the Jacobins 

 {Patriote fra)i(aise, nos. 607, 6171. 



3 See Patriotefrajigaise, nos. 598, 602, 604. 



243 



