THE JACOBINS. 365 



courage ; the Assembly knew no distinction between 

 black and white ; all men were created free and equal. 

 But soon the planters began to intrigue, the politicians 

 to prevaricate, and to postpone. Oge"s patience was 

 at last worn out ; he declared to Clarkson that he 

 did not care whether their petition was granted them 

 or not. " We can produce," he said, " as good soldiers 

 on our estates as those in France. If we are once 

 forced to desperate measures, it will be in vain to send 

 thousands across the Atlantic to bring us back to our 

 former state." He finally returned to St Domingo, 

 armed his slaves, was defeated and broken on the 

 wheel. Then the slaves rose and massacred the 

 whites, and the cause of abolition was tarnished by 

 their crimes. In England the tide of feeling turned ; 

 a panic fell upon the land. The practical disciples of 

 Rousseau had formed a club in Paris, the members 

 of which met in a Jacobin church, whence they 

 took their name. This club became a kind of 

 Caucus for the arrangement of elections, to decide 

 the measures which should be brought forward in 

 the National Assembly, and to preach unto all men 

 the gospel of liberty, equality, fraternity. It had four 

 hundred daughter societies in France ; it corresponded 

 with thousands of secret societies abroad ; it bad mis- 

 sionaries in the army, spies in foreign lands. It de- 

 sired to create a universal republic ; it grew in power, 

 in ambition, and in bravado ; it cast at the feet of the 

 kings of Europe the head of a king; it offered the 

 friendship and aid of France to all people who would 

 rise against their tyrants. Tom Paine, who used to 

 boast that he had created the American Revolution 

 with his pamphlet, Common Sense, now tried to create 

 an English Revolution with his Rights of Man. In 



