Joined by Others from Various Parts of France, Aipong Iti * *1^ |
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JACOBINS, THE, the most famous of the political ciut*# 5 the French Revolution. It originated in the Club Breton, oMAt i lished at Versailles shortly after the opening of the States GcaHtt In 1789. At first composed of deputies from Brittany, it wufM*:„ joined by others from various parts of France, aipong iti *■*1^ | members being Mirabeau and Robespierre. After Oct. 6 Ibt 0lmf followed the National Assembly to Paris, where it rented the nil tory of the monastery of the Jacohins in the Rue St. Honors, near effect the Jacobin'>jQub,rTt9.'r-!j9;,yiP-tribunes he was the oracle ..the seat of the Assembly. The name "Jacobins," given in France of political wisdom, and by his standard all others, were judged.' to the Dominicans, because their first house in Paris was in the With his fall the Jacobins too came to an end. ■ ; -Rue St. Jacques, was first applied to the club in ridicule. The title ^assumed by the club itself, after the promulgation of the constitu- SECRET OF THEIR STRENGTH .fion of 1791, .was SociSti des amis de la constitution siants aux Not the least singular thing about the Jacobins is the slender 'Jacobins i Paris, which was changed on Sept. 21, 1792, after the material basis on which their power rested. France groaned under fall of the monarchy, to Sociiti des Jacohins, amis de la liberti their tyranny: yet it was reckoned by competent observers that, et de l'igalite. at the height of the Terror, the Jacobins could not command a • Once transferred to Paris, the club underwent rapid modifica- force of more than 3,000 men in Paris. The secret of their Upns. The first step was, the admission as members or associates strength was this: in the midst of the. general disorganization, of others besides deputies. On Feb. 8, 1790, the society was they alone were organized. .TilS; Q.V.Pbdi.ti 6°vernment was urged .fonnally constituted by the adoption of the rules drawn up by to meet organization by organization,;focce by force; and it is Bamave. The objects, of the club were defined as (i) to discuss clear from the daily reports of the police agents that even a in advance questions to be decided by the National Assembly; moderate display of energy would have saved the National Con ^(2) to work for the establishment and strengthening of the con- vention from the humiliation of being dpminated by' a club, and : ptitution; (3) to correspond with other societies of.the same the French Revolution from the blot of the Terror. But , the _ kind. The club was to have a president, elected every month, Girondins were too convinced of the ultimate triumph of their fpur secretaries, a treasurer and committees elected to superin own persuasive eloquence, to act. In the session of April 36, 1793 tend the correspondence and the administration of the club's a proposal was made to move the Convention to Versailles out of . affairs. reach of the Jacobins, but the motion was not carried, and the ■ Any member who showed that his principles were contrary to Girondins remained to become the -victims of the Jacobins. he constitution and the rights of man was to be expelled, a rule Tho Jacobin Club was closed after the fall of Robespierre on vhich later on facilitated the "purification" of the society by the the 9th of Thermidor of the year III., and some of its members expulsion of its more moderate elements. The 7th article pro were executed. An attempt was made to re-open the club, vided for the admission of other similar societies as associates. which was joined by many of the enemies of the Thermidorians,' '/'This last provision was of far-reaching importance. By Aug. 10, but on the 21st of Brumaire, year III. (Nov. 11, 1794), it was ^790 there were already one hundred and fifty-two affiliated clubs, definitely closed. Its members and their sympathizers were and at the close of 1791 the Jacobins had a network of branches scattered among the cafes, where a ruthless war of sticks and SI over France. It was this widespread yet highly centralized or chairs was waged against them by the young "aristocrats"^ known ganization that gave to the Jacobin Club its formidable power. as the jeunesse dorie. Nevertheless the "Jacobins" survived, in 7 At the outset the Jacobin Club was not distinguished by ex- a somewhat subterranean fashion, emerging again in the club of trerne political views. The'high subscription confined its member the Pantheon, founded on Nov. 25, 179s, and suppressed in the ship to inen of substance, and to the last the central society in following February (jee Babeuf, Francois Noel). The last at Paris was composed almost entirely of professional men, such as tempt to reorganize them was the foundation of the R&union Robespierre, or well-to-do bourgeois, like Santerre. Other ele d'amis de I'egalitS et de la liberti, in July 1799, which had its ments, however, were present. Besides Louis Philippe, due de headquarters in the Salle du Manhge of the "Tuileries, and was Chartres (afterwards king of the French), liberal aristocrats of thus known as the Club du Manhge. It was patronized by Barras, the type of the due d'Alguillon, and the bourgeois who formed the and some two hundred and fifty members of the two councils of tass of the members, the club contained such figures as "Pere" the legislature were enrolled as members, including many notable Mchel G.drard, a peasant proprietor from Brittany, whose rough ex-Jacobins. But public opinion was now. preponderatingly dommori sense was admired as the oracle of popular wisdom, moderate or royalist, and the club was violently attacked. It was iiid whose countryman's waistcoat and plaited hair were to be- suppressed in August, after barely a month's existence. Its mein- t'dme the model for the Jacobin fashion. The provincial branches, bers revenged themselves on the Directory by supporting Na flthough more democratic, were usually led by members of the poleon Bonaparte. middle classes. The club took no official part in the insurrections Long before the suppression of the Jacobin Club the name of ff'June 20 and Aug. 10, 1792, and only formally recognized the "Jacobins" had been popularly applied to aU promulgators of jepublic on Sept. 21. But the character and extent of its in extreme revolutionary opinions. In this sense the -word passed fluence cannot be gauged by its official acts alone, and long be- beyond the borders of France and long survived the Revolution. fgre it emerged as the principal focus of the Terror, its character Canning's paper. The Anti-Jacobin, directed against the English had been profoundly changed by the secessions of its more Radicals, consecrated its use in England; and in the corre moderate elements, some to found the Club of 1789, some in 1791 spondence of Metternich and other leaders of the repressive policy to found the club of the Feuillants scoffed at by their former which followed the second fall of Napoleon, "Jacobin" is the fcends as the club monarchique. term commonly applied to anyone with Liberal tendencies, not iT'From the date of the admission of the general public to its sit- excepting the emperor Alexander I. of Russia. fings (Oct. 14, 1791), the constituency to which the club was See F. A. Aulard, La sociili des Jacobins, Recueil de documents {1889, etc.), where a critical bibliography will be found. This collec Itsponsible, and from which it derived its power, was the Paris tion does not contain all the printed sources—notably the official mob; the sans-culottes—decayed lackeys, cosmopolitan ne'er- Journal of the Club is omitted—but these sources, when not included, dp-weels and starving workpeople—who crowded its tribunes. are indicated. The documents published are furnished with valuable this audience, and not primarily to the members of the club, explanatory notes. See also W. A. Schmidt, Tableaux de la rivolulion jrancaise (Leipzig, 1867-70), notably for the reports of the secret the speeches of the orators were addressed and by its verdict they police, which throw much light on the actual working of the Jacobin 'fere judged. As the chaos in the body politic grew, and with it propaganda, and Albert Mathiez, Ptudes robespierrstes and other .(lie appalling material misery, the mob, no longer satisfied with works. (W. A. P.) 7'e platitudes of the philosophes, began to clamour for the blood JACOBITE CHURCH. The name of "Jacobites" is first (..the "traitors" in oflSce by whose corrupt machinations the found in a synodal decree of Nicaea a.d. 787, and was invented ■ennium was delayed, and only those orators were listened to by hostile Greeks for the Syrian monophysite Church as founded, •l;o, pandered to its suspicions. Hence the elimination of the or rather restored, by Jacob or James Baradaeus, who was ordained loderate elements from the club; hence the ascendancy of its bishop A.D. 541 or S43. James was born a little before a.d. 500 brat, and finally of Robespierre, the secret of whose power was 'In the published reports only the speeches of members are given mt they really shared the suspicions of the populace, to which not the interruptions from the tribunes. But see the report (May ig' y gave a voice and which they did not shrink from translating 1793) of Dutard to Garat on a meeting of the Jacobins (Schmidt^.