1 6 Charles Kuhlmann 



contained as dangerous to the revolution.^ Gorsas seconded 

 Brissot and asked, "When will M, Barnave have done with these 

 attempts to carry measures by storm?" referring to the manner 

 in which the address was carried in the society and the decree 

 of March 8 in the assembly.^ 



Despite the reassuring character of the decrees of the assem- 

 bly the colonists had remained discontented, and Barnave and 

 his supporters now urged that the declaration of non-interfer- 

 ence be incorporated in the constitution in order that the status 

 of the individual, the all-important question, might no longer be 

 subject to regulation by mere legislative decree.^ The debate, 

 extremely violent, was carried on simultaneously in the National 

 Assembly and the Jacobin Club. Brissot, aided by Petion, on 

 May II found the courage to attack Barnave in the club but 

 sustained a defeat.'* Two days later Robespierre and a certain 

 mulatto continued the attack, this time with success.^ Charles 

 Lameth, who tried to defend his party, was driven from the trib- 

 une with shouts of hostility.^ The next day they were defeated 

 in the National Assembly also.' On May 29, the conservative 

 committee on correspondence, of which Barnave and the two 

 Lameths were the most prominent members, was changed.^ 



With the fall of the "Triumvirate," the Jacobin Club lost the 

 only element which could still have directed it along moderate 

 lines and preserved it from the excesses which were later to give 



lAulard, 11,189-92. Address given on pp. 185-89. Aulard does not 

 assign any definite date to the address, but the Feuille diijour, no. 76, states 

 that it was adopted on March 11. 



^ Court'ier de Paris, XXII, no. 13. 



^MoJiUenr, VII, no. 128. 



^Tliis fact is given in the Lendemain, May 13, 1791, and Feuille dujonr, 

 May 14, 1791, both opposition papers, but there seems no good reason for re- 

 jecting the evidence in this case, especially since both journals seem never 

 to have invented the bare facts although they frequently distorted them. 

 It should be added that from the similarity of their accounts it is clear that 

 these two journals used a common source in nearly everything they pub- 

 lished relative to the Jacobin meetings: 



2 Aulard, II, 412-15. Accounts taken from Journal dc la revolution, 

 May 15, 1791, and Le Lendeinain of the same date. 



'^Le Lendemain, May 15, 1791. 



''Point dujonr, XXII, no. 673. 



^ Courrier de Paris, by Gorsas, XXIV, no. 31. 



244 



