Insurrectionism
The ruling spirit of this new revolution was Georges Jacques Danton, a barrister only thirty-two years old, who had not sat in either Assembly, although he had been the leader of the republican Cordeliers (Society of the Friends of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen), which was popular in Paris. Danton and his friends and allies—Maximilien Robespierre, Camille Desmoulins, Fabre d'Églantine, Jean-Paul Marat, etc.—were assisted in their work by the fear of invasion.
Volunteers and fédérés were constantly arriving in Paris, and, although most went on to join the army, the Jacobin clubs enlisted those who were suitable for their purpose, especially some 500 whom Charles Jean Marie Barbaroux, a Girondin, had summoned from Marseilles. François Mignet writes, "Their enterprise had been projected and suspended several times. On 26 July, an insurrection was to break out; but it was badly contrived, and Pétion prevented it. When the federates from Marseilles arrived, on their way to the camp at Soissons, the faubourgs were to meet them, and then repair, unexpectedly, to the château. This insurrection also failed." It was resolved to strike the decisive blow on 10 August.
The political clubs openly discussed the dethronement of the king, and on 3 August Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve spoke to the Assembly, soliciting an end to the monarchy in the name of the commune and of the sections. On 8 August, the accusation of Lafayette was discussed; he was acquitted; but (again quoting Mignet), "all who had voted for him were hissed, pursued, and ill treated by the people at the breaking up of the sitting"., as for example the comte de Vaublanc or Quatremère de Quincy. This harassment extended to death threats and invasions of their homes. Hector de Joly, the minister of justice wrote to the president of the Assembly, "I have denounced these attacks in the criminal court; but law is powerless; and I am impelled by honour and probity to inform you, that without the promptest assistance of the legislative body, the government can no longer be responsible."
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