Oil the Conflict of Parties in the Jacobin Club 21 



you wish to be really great ? Become a simple citizen again, and 

 no longer nourish the just distrust of a large portion of the 

 people."^ 



A strange spectacle followed this attack of Danton. Alex- 

 ander Lameth, whose thundering anathema had on the 28th" of 

 February preceding fallen on Mirabeau and Lafayette alike, now 

 stepped forward in the latter's defense. "I have always re- 

 garded M. Lafayette as one of the firmest supports of the con- 

 stitution," he said, "and although I have often blamed his con- 

 duct and under some circumstances spoken of him perhaps with 

 bitterness, I have told M. Danton himself that if the constitution 

 were in danger Lafayette would die for it sword in hand. . . . 

 It is necessary to abjure all hate, cause ever}^ division to cease, 

 in order to disconcert all the maneuvers of the enemies of liberty 

 and march with a sure and firm step to the completion of the 

 constitution. "- 



After Lameth, the proud Lafayette, whom neither prayers nor 

 denunciations had moved to return to the Jacobins, humiliated 

 himself in attempting a defense before those whom he despised. 

 He spoke but a few very unsatisfactory words. Sieyes was more 

 successful in explaining awa}^ a certain address of his, very 

 obnoxious to the Jacobins, and Barnave succeeded in another 

 "Triomphe d'assaut" in causing an address to the affiliated so- 

 cieties, drawn up by himself, to be adopted, in which it was said 

 that "All divisions are forgotten, all patriots are reunited. The 

 National Assembly is our guide, the constitution our rallying 

 cry."3 



Thrs address, the official attitude of the club only in form, 

 must not be allowed to mislead us. The debates in the club 

 show us that this attempted reunion was a complete failure. The 

 deputies, if they ever returned in any considerable number, re- 

 mained silent and without influence.* Lafayette, whose answer 



'^Revolutions de France et de Brabant, no. 82. Aulard, II, 553. 

 "^Ibid., 11,536. 

 ^Aulard, 11,538. 



*See the debates during the latter part of June and the beginning of July 

 as given in the official journal republished by Aulard, II. A few of the 



249 



