Editing Jacobins

{{short description|Political club during the French Revolution}}
{{other uses|Jacobin (disambiguation)}}
{{distinguish|Jacobean (disambiguation)|Jacobite (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox organization
| name                = Jacobin Club
| native_name         = Club des Jacobins
| native_name_lang    = fr
| logo                = Seal of Jacobins of Paris (Republican).svg
| logo_size           = 180px
| logo_caption        = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794)
| successor           = [[Panthéon Club]]
| formation           = 1789
| founding_location   = [[Palace of Versailles]], [[Kingdom of France|France]]
| founder             = Various deputies of the National Convention
| dissolved           = {{end date and age|1794|11|12|df=y}}
| type                = [[Parliamentary group]]
| status              = Inactive
| purpose             = Establishment of a [[Jacobin (politics)|Jacobin society]]
* 1789–1791: abolition of the [[Ancien Régime]], creation of a [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|parliament]], introduction of a [[French Constitution of 1791|Constitution]], and [[separation of powers]]
* 1791–1795: establishment of a [[republic]], [[fusion of powers]] into the [[National Convention]], and establishment of an [[Reign of Terror|authoritarian-democratic state]]
| headquarters        = [[Couvent des Jacobins de la rue Saint-Honoré|Dominican convent]], [[Rue Saint-Honoré]], [[Paris]]
| region              = [[France]]
| methods             = From democratic initiatives to public acts of [[political violence]]
| membership          = Around 500,000<ref name=Brinton1930>{{cite book|last= Brinton|first= Crane|author-link= Crane Brinton|title= The Jacobins: An Essay in the New History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s_ylOcbcAJUC&pg=PR19|date= 2011|orig-year= 1930|page= xix|publisher= [[Transaction Publishers]]|isbn= 9781412848107|access-date= 16 April 2015}}</ref>
| membership_year     = 1793
| language            = [[French language|French]]
| leader_title        = President
| leader_name         = [[Antoine Barnave]] (first)<br />[[Maximilien Robespierre]] (last)
| key_people          = [[Jacques Pierre Brissot|Brissot]], [[Maximilien Robespierre|Robespierre]], [[Adrien Duport|Duport]], [[Jean-Paul Marat|Marat]], [[Camille Desmoulins|Desmoulins]], [[Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau|Mirabeau]], [[Georges Danton|Danton]], [[Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne|Billaud-Varenne]], [[Paul Barras|Barras]], [[Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois|Collot d'Herbois]], [[Louis Antoine de Saint-Just|Saint-Just]]
| subsidiaries        = Newspapers
* ''Journal de la Montagne''<ref>{{Cite web|title=Journal de la Montagne|url=https://data.bnf.fr/fr/32798158/journal_de_la_montagne/|publisher=Bibliothèque nationale de France|date=1 January 2021|location=Paris}} Retrieved 10 May 2021</ref>
* ''[[L'Ami du peuple]]''
* ''[[Le Vieux Cordelier]]''
| affiliations        = All groups in the [[National Convention]]
* [[The Mountain|Montagnards]]
* [[Girondins]]
}}
{{Radicalism sidebar}}
{{Liberalism in France}}
The '''Society of the Friends of the Constitution''' ({{langx|fr|Société des amis de la Constitution}}), renamed the '''Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality''' ({{lang|fr|Société des Jacobins, amis de la liberté et de l'égalité}}) after 1792 and commonly known as the '''Jacobin Club''' ({{lang|fr|Club des Jacobins}}) or simply the '''Jacobins''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|dʒ|æ|k|ə|b|ɪ|n|z}}; {{IPA|fr|ʒakɔbɛ̃|lang}}), was the most influential [[List of political groups in the French Revolution|political club]] during the [[French Revolution]] of 1789. The period of its political ascendancy includes the [[Reign of Terror]], during which well over 10,000 people were put on trial and executed in France, many for "[[political crime]]s".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Salinari |first1=Christy |title=Tyranny Plagued the French Revolution |url=https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1371&context=honors-theses |website=digitalcommons.coastal.edu |publisher=CCU Digital Commons |access-date=4 March 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Maximilien Robespierre and Injustice Narrative |url=https://billofrightsinstitute.org/activities/maximilien-robespierre-and-injustice-narrative |website=billofrightsinstitute.org |publisher=Bill of Rights Institute |access-date=5 March 2025}}</ref>

Initially founded in 1789 by [[Criticism of monarchy|anti-royalist]] deputies from [[Duchy of Brittany|Brittany]], the club grew into a nationwide [[Republicanism|republican]] movement with a membership estimated at a half million or more.<ref name="Brinton1930"/> The Jacobin Club was heterogeneous and included both prominent parliamentary factions of the early 1790s: [[The Mountain]] and the [[Girondins]].<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Montagnard {{!}} French history |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Montagnard-French-history |date=2022 |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica |language=en |access-date=29 March 2022}}</ref> In 1792–93, the Girondins were more prominent in leading France when they [[French Revolutionary Wars|declared war]] on [[Habsburg monarchy|Austria]] and on [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], overthrew King [[Louis XVI]], and set up the [[French First Republic]]. In May 1793, the leaders of the Mountain faction, led by [[Maximilien Robespierre]], succeeded in sidelining the Girondin faction and controlled the government until July 1794. Their time in government featured high levels of political violence, and for this reason the period of the Jacobin/Mountain government is identified as the Reign of Terror. In October 1793, 21 prominent Girondins were [[guillotine]]d. The Mountain-dominated government executed 17,000 opponents nationwide as a way to suppress the [[War in the Vendée|Vendée insurrection]] and the [[Federalist revolts]], and to deter recurrences. In July 1794, the [[National Convention]] pushed the administration of Robespierre and his allies out of power and had [[Fall of Maximilien Robespierre|Robespierre and 21 associates executed]]. In November 1794, the Jacobin Club closed.

In the years and decades after the revolution, the term ''[[Jacobin (politics)#United Kingdom|Jacobin]]'' was used in an extended sense to denote political positions perceived as similar to those of the historical Jacobins and the Mountain in the [[National Convention]]. It was popular among conservative publicists as a pejorative to deride [[Progressivism|progressive politics]], and among [[Anglophone]] progressives likewise as a pejorative denoting the violent excesses of the revolution, whereas they associated its positive features and principles with the [[Girondin]]s.<ref name="brown">{{cite book |first=Charles Brockden |last=Brown |editor1-first=Philip |editor1-last=Barnard |editor2-first=Stephen |editor2-last=Shapiro |title=Ormond; or The Secret Witness: with Related Texts |publisher=Hackett Publishing |location=Indianapolis |year=2009 |orig-year=1799 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=UuD5Vge4mTwC&pg=PA360 360] |isbn=978-1-6038-4126-9}}</ref> In Britain, the term faintly echoed{{fact|date=August 2024}} negative connotations of [[Jacobitism]], the pro-Catholic, monarchist, rarely{{fact|date=August 2024}} [[Battle of Culloden|insurrectional]] political movement that faded out decades earlier tied to deposed King [[James II of England]] and his descendants. The term ''[[Jacobin (politics)|Jacobin]]'' reached obsolescence and supersedence before the [[Russian Revolution]], when the terms (Radical) [[Marxism]], [[anarchism]], [[socialism]], and [[communism]] had overtaken it.{{fact|date=August 2024}}<!--This arguably isn't a case of different ''terms'' (for the same thing) replacing each other, but about actual different ideological currents and programmes becoming relevant at different points in time. Marxism, anarchism, socialism and communism aren't the same thing as Jacobinism, not to mention that they aren't even the same thing as each other - and the main thing that they all have in common is that the reactionary/right-wing/conservative side of the respective period hates them, but that doesn't make them identical. The suggestion to the contrary should be sourced.-->

In modern France, the term ''[[Jacobin (politics)#In the French Revolution|Jacobin]]'' generally denotes a position of more equal formal rights, centralization, and moderate [[authoritarianism]].<ref>{{cite book|editor-last= Rey|editor-first= Alain|editor-link= Alain Rey|title= Dictionnaire historique de la langue française|publisher= [[Dictionnaires Le Robert]]|date= 1992|isbn= 978-2321000679|language= fr}}</ref>{{quotation needed|date=August 2024}}<!--Specifically for 'moderate authoritarianism', whatever that means. I doubt that any of the people in question identify as 'moderate authoritarians', so the term should at least be qualified and not presented as a neutral description.--> It can be used to denote supporters of a role of the state in the transformation of society.<ref name="Furet2007P243">{{cite book|last1= Furet|first1= François|author-link= François Furet|last2= Ozouf|first2= Mona|title= Dictionnaire critique de la Révolution française: Idées|date= 2007|series=Champs| volume = 267 | location= Paris|publisher= Flammarion|page= 243|language= fr|isbn= 978-2081202955 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Odm3QgAACAAJ}}</ref> It is, in particular, used as a self-identification by proponents of a state education system that strongly promotes and inculcates civic values. It is more controversially used by or for proponents of a strong [[Nation state|nation-state]] capable of resisting undesirable foreign interference.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Furet|first1=François|author-link1=François Furet|translator1-last=Goldhammer|translator1-first=Arthur|translator-link=Arthur Goldhammer|year=1988|chapter=Jacobinism|editor1-last=Furet|editor1-first=François|editor1-link=François Furet|editor2-last=Ozouf|editor2-first=Mona|title=A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution|trans-title=Dictionnaire critique de la révolution française|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bGxiE6jvzOcC|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|publisher=Harvard University Press|publication-date=1989|page=710|isbn=9780674177284|access-date=17 February 2019|quote=The semantic elasticity of the term in late twentieth-century French politics attests to the work of time. 'Jacobinism' or 'Jacobin' can now refer to a wide range of predilections: indivisible national sovereignty, a state role in the transformation of society, centralization of the government and bureaucracy, equality among citizens guaranteed by uniformity of the law, regeneration through education in republican schools, or simply an anxious concern for national independence. This vague range of meanings is still dominated, however, by the central figure of a sovereign and indivisible public authority with power over civil society [...].}}</ref>

== History ==
=== Foundation ===
When the [[Estates General of 1789 in France]] convened in May–June 1789 at the [[Palace of Versailles]], the Jacobin club, originating as the ''[[Club Breton]]'', comprised exclusively a group of [[Brittany|Breton]] representatives attending those Estates General.<ref name="Phillips 1911, pp. 117–119."/> Deputies from other regions throughout France soon joined. Early members included the dominating [[Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau|comte de Mirabeau]], Parisian deputy [[Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès|Abbé Sieyès]], [[Dauphiné]] deputy [[Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave|Antoine Barnave]], [[Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve|Jérôme Pétion]], the [[Henri Grégoire|Abbé Grégoire]], [[Charles Malo François Lameth|Charles Lameth]], [[Alexandre-Théodore-Victor, comte de Lameth|Alexandre Lameth]], [[Artois]] deputy [[Maximilien Robespierre|Robespierre]], the [[Armand, duc d'Aiguillon|duc d'Aiguillon]], and [[Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux|La Revellière-Lépeaux]]. At this time meetings occurred in secret, and few traces remain concerning what took place or where the meetings convened.<ref name="Phillips 1911, pp. 117–119.">{{EB1911|last= Phillips |first= Walter Alison |author-link= Walter Alison Phillips  |wstitle= Jacobins, The |volume= 15 |pages=117–119 |inline= 1}}</ref>

=== Transfer to Paris ===
By [[the March on Versailles]] in October 1789, the club, still entirely composed of deputies, reverted to being a provincial caucus for [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|National Constituent Assembly]] deputies from Brittany. The club was re-founded in November 1789 as the ''Société de la Révolution'', inspired in part by a letter sent from the [[Revolution Society]] of London to the Assembly congratulating the French on regaining their liberty.<ref>{{cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-96833|first=Rémy|last=Duthille|title=London Revolution Society|date=4 October 2007|pages=239–40|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/96833|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8}}</ref><ref name=Alpaugh2014>{{Cite journal|first=Micah|last=Alpaugh|title=The British Origins of the French Jacobins: Radical Sociability and the Development of Political Club Networks|journal=[[European History Quarterly]]|year=2014|volume=44|page=594|doi=10.1177/0265691414546456|s2cid=144331749|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284402102|publisher=SAGE Publications}}</ref><ref name="Kennedy1979">{{Cite journal|first=Michael L.|last=Kennedy|title=The Foundation of the Jacobin Clubs and the Development of the Jacobin Club Network, 1789-1791|journal=The Journal of Modern History|date=December 1979|volume=51|number=4|pages=701–733|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1877163|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|doi=10.1086/241987|jstor=1877163|s2cid=144831898|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

To accommodate growing membership, the group rented for its meetings the refectory of the [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] [[Couvent des Jacobins de la rue Saint-Honoré|monastery of the “Jacobins” in the Rue Saint-Honoré]], adjacent to the seat of the Assembly.<ref name=Alpaugh2014/><ref name="Kennedy1979"/> They changed their name to ''Société des amis de la Constitution'' in late January, though by this time, their opponents had already concisely dubbed them "Jacobins", a nickname originally given to French Dominicans because their first house in Paris was in the [[Rue Saint-Jacques, Paris|Rue Saint-Jacques]].<ref name="Phillips 1911, pp. 117–119."/><ref name="Kennedy1979"/>

=== Growth ===
[[File:JacobinClubDoor.jpg|thumb|The Jacobin Club was in the Rue Saint-Honoré, Paris.]]
Once in Paris, the club soon extended its membership to others besides deputies. All citizens were allowed to enter, and even foreigners were welcomed: the English writer [[Arthur Young (writer)|Arthur Young]] joined the club in this manner on 18 January 1790. Jacobin Club meetings soon became a place for radical and rousing oratory that pushed for republicanism, widespread education, [[universal suffrage]], separation of church and state, and other reforms.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.worldhistory.abc-clio.com |title=World History: The Modern Era |publisher=Worldhistory.abc-clio.com |access-date=2012-08-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010518223334/http://www.worldhistory.abc-clio.com/ |archive-date=18 May 2001 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

On 8 February 1790, the society became formally constituted on this broader basis by the adoption of the rules drawn up by [[Antoine Barnave|Barnave]], which were issued with the signature of the duc d'Aiguillon, the president.<ref name="Phillips 1911, pp. 117–119."/> The club's objectives were defined as such:
# To discuss in advance questions to be decided by the [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|National Assembly]].
# To work for the establishment and strengthening of [[French Constitution of 1791|the constitution]] in accordance with the spirit of the preamble (that is, of respect for legally constituted authority and the [[Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen]]).
# To correspond with other societies of the same kind which should be formed in the realm.<ref name="Phillips 1911, pp. 117–119."/>

At the same time the rules of order of election were settled, and the constitution of the club determined. There was to be a president, elected every month, four secretaries, a treasurer, and committees elected to superintend elections and presentations, the correspondence, and the administration of the club. Any member who by word or action showed that his principles were contrary to the constitution and the rights of man was to be expelled.<ref name="Phillips 1911, pp. 117–119."/>

By the 7th article the club decided to admit as associates similar societies in other parts of France and to maintain with them a regular correspondence. By 10 August 1790 there were already one hundred and fifty-two affiliated clubs; the [[History of France#Curtailment of Church powers (October 1789 – December 1790)|attempts at counter-revolution]] led to a great increase of their number in the spring of 1791, and by the close of the year the Jacobins had a network of branches all over France. At the peak there were at least 7,000 chapters throughout France, with a membership estimated at a half-million or more.  It was this widespread yet highly centralized organization that gave to the Jacobin Club great power.<ref name=Brinton1930/><ref name="Phillips 1911, pp. 117–119."/>

=== Character ===
[[File:JacobinVignette01.jpg|thumb|upright|Seal of the Jacobin Club from 1789 to 1792, during the transition from absolutism to constitutional monarchy]]
By early 1791, clubs like the Jacobins, the ''[[Cordeliers|Club des Cordeliers]]'' and the [[Society of the Friends of Truth|''Cercle Social'']] were increasingly dominating French political life. Numbers of men were members of two or more of such clubs. Women were not accepted as members of the Jacobin Club (nor of most other clubs), but they were allowed to follow the discussions from the balconies.  The rather high subscription of the Jacobin Club confined its membership to well-off men. The Jacobins claimed to speak on behalf of the people but were themselves not of 'the people': contemporaries saw the Jacobins as a club of the [[bourgeoisie]].<ref name=Shus-3>{{in lang|nl}} Noah Shusterman – ''De Franse Revolutie (The French Revolution).'' Veen Media, Amsterdam, 2015. (Translation of: ''The French Revolution. Faith, Desire, and Politics.'' Routledge, London/New York, 2014.) Chapter 3 (p. 95–139) : The Civil Constitution of the Clergy (summer 1790–spring 1791).</ref>

As far as the central society in Paris was concerned, it was composed almost entirely of [[profession]]al men (such as the lawyer [[Maximilien Robespierre|Robespierre]]) and well-to-do [[bourgeoisie]] (like the brewer [[Antoine Joseph Santerre|Santerre]]). From the start, however, other elements were also present. Besides the teenage son of the [[Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans|Duc d'Orléans]], [[Louis Philippe I|Louis Philippe]], a future king of France, aristocrats such as the duc d'Aiguillon, the [[Victor Claude, prince de Broglie|prince de Broglie]], and the [[Louis Marie Antoine, vicomte de Noailles|vicomte de Noailles]], and the bourgeoisie formed the mass of the members. The club further included people like "père" Michel Gérard, a peasant proprietor from Tuel-en-Montgermont, in Brittany, whose rough common sense was admired as the oracle of popular wisdom, and whose countryman's waistcoat and plaited hair were later on to become the model for the Jacobin fashion.<ref name="Phillips 1911, pp. 117–119."/>

The Jacobin Club supported the monarchy up until the very [[History of France#Bloodbath in Paris and the Republic established (September 1792)|Eve of the Republic (20 September 1792)]]. They did not support [[Champ de Mars Massacre#Text of the petition|the petition of 17 July 1791 for the king's dethronement]], but instead published their own petition calling for replacement of King [[Louis XVI]].<ref name=Shus-4>{{in lang|nl}} Noah Shusterman – ''De Franse Revolutie (The French Revolution).'' Veen Media, Amsterdam, 2015. (Translation of: ''The French Revolution. Faith, Desire, and Politics.'' Routledge, London/New York, 2014.) Chapter 4 (p. 141–186): The flight of the king and the decline of the French monarchy (summer 1791–summer 1792).</ref>

The departure of the conservative members of the Jacobin Club to form their own [[Feuillant (political group)|Feuillants Club]] in July 1791 to some extent radicalized the Jacobin Club.<ref name="Phillips 1911, pp. 117–119."/>

=== Polarization between Robespierrists and Girondins ===
{{further|History of France#War and internal uprisings (October 1791–August 1792)}}
Late 1791, a group of Jacobins in the [[Legislative Assembly (France)|Legislative Assembly]] advocated war with Prussia and Austria. Most prominent among them was [[Jacques Pierre Brissot|Brissot]], other members were [[Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud|Pierre Vergniaud]], [[Claude Fauchet (revolutionist)|Fauchet]], [[Maximin Isnard]], [[Jean-Marie Roland, vicomte de la Platière|Jean-Marie Roland]].<ref name=Shus-4/>

[[Maximilien Robespierre]], also a Jacobin, strongly pleaded against war with Prussia and Austria – but in the Jacobin Club, not in the Assembly where he was not seated. Disdainfully, Robespierre addressed those Jacobin war promoters as 'the faction from the Gironde'; some, not all of them, were indeed from department [[Gironde]]. The Jacobins finally rid itself of Feuillants in its midst; the number of clubs increased considerably, convening became a nationwide fad.<ref>Kennedy, Michael L. “The Best and the Worst of Times: The Jacobin Club Network from October 1791 to June 2, 1793.” The Journal of Modern History 56, no. 4 (1984): 640, 644-646, 648. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1880325.</ref> In March 1792, in retaliation for their opposition to war with Austria the Feuillant ministers were forced out by the Girondins. The Assembly in April 1792 finally decided for war, thus following the '[[Girondins|Girondin]]' line on it, but Robespierre's place among the Jacobins had now become much more prominent.<ref name=Shus-4/>  

From then on, a polarization process started among the members of the Jacobin Club, between a group around Robespierre – after September 1792 called '[[The Mountain|Montagnards]]' or 'Montagne', in English 'the Mountain' – and the Girondins. These groups never had any official status, nor official memberships. The Mountain was not even very homogenous in their political views: what united them was their aversion to the Girondins.<ref name=Shus-6>{{in lang|nl}} Noah Shusterman – ''De Franse Revolutie (The French Revolution).'' Veen Media, Amsterdam, 2015. (Translation of: ''The French Revolution. Faith, Desire, and Politics.'' Routledge, London/New York, 2014.) Chapter 6 (p. 223–269) : The new French republic and its enemies (fall 1792–summer 1793).</ref>

The [[Legislative Assembly (France)|Legislative Assembly]], governing France from October 1791 until September 1792, was dominated by men like Brissot, Isnard and Roland: Girondins. But after June 1792, Girondins visited less and less the Jacobin Club, where Robespierre, their fierce opponent, grew more and more dominant.<ref name=Shus-5>{{in lang|nl}} Noah Shusterman – ''De Franse Revolutie (The French Revolution).'' Veen Media, Amsterdam, 2015. (Translation of: ''The French Revolution. Faith, Desire, and Politics.'' Routledge, London/New York, 2014.) Chapter 5 (p. 187–221) : The end of the monarchy and the September Murders (summer–fall 1792).</ref>

=== Opposition between Montagnards and Girondins in the National Convention ===
{{further|History of France#Bloodbath in Paris and the Republic established (September 1792)}}
On 21 September 1792, after [[History of France#Bloodbath in Paris and the Republic established (September 1792)|the fall of the monarchy]] the title assumed by the Jacobin Club after the promulgation of the constitution of 1791 (''Société des amis de la constitution séants aux Jacobins à Paris'') was changed to ''Société des Jacobins, amis de la liberté et de l'égalité''<ref name="Phillips 1911, pp. 117–119."/> (Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality). In the newly elected [[National Convention]], governing France as of 21 September 1792, [[Maximilien Robespierre]] made his comeback in the center of French power.<ref name=Shus-5/> Together with his 25-year-old protégé [[Louis Antoine de Saint-Just]], [[Jean-Paul Marat|Marat]], [[Georges Danton|Danton]] and other associates they took places on the left side on the highest seats of the session room: therefore that group around and led by Robespierre was called [[The Mountain]] (French: ''la Montagne'', ''les Montagnards'').

Some historians prefer to identify a parliamentary group around Robespierre as Jacobins,<ref name=brown/><ref name=guard.>{{cite news |last=Shariatmadari |newspaper=The Guardian |first=David |date=27 January 2015 |title=Is it time to stop using the word 'terrorist'? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global/commentisfree/2015/jan/27/is-it-time-to-stop-using-the-word-terrorist|access-date=8 July 2017}}</ref> which can be confusing because not all Montagnards were Jacobin and their primal enemies, the Girondins, were originally also Jacobins. By September 1792, Robespierre indeed had also become the dominant voice in the Jacobin Club.<ref name=Shus-6/> Since late 1791, the [[Girondins]] became opponents of Robespierre, taking their place on the right side of the session room of the convention. By this time, they stopped visiting the Jacobin Club.<ref name=Shus-6/>

Those parliamentary groups, such as the Montagnards and the Girondins, never had any official status. As a result, historians estimate the Girondins in the Convention at 150 men strong and the Montagnards at 120. The remaining 480 of the 750 deputies of the convention were called [[the Plain]] (French: ''la Plaine'') and managed to keep some speed in the debates while Girondins and Montagnards were mainly occupied with nagging the opposite side.<ref name=Shus-6/> Most Ministries were manned by friends or allies of the Girondins, but while the Girondins were stronger than the Montagnards outside Paris, inside Paris the Montagnards were much more popular, implying that the public galleries of the convention were always loudly cheering for Montagnards, while jeering at Girondins speaking.<ref name=Shus-6/>

On 6 April 1793, the convention established the ''[[Committee of Public Safety|Comité de salut public]]'' (Committee of Public Prosperity, also translated as Committee of Public Safety) as sort of executive government of nine, later twelve members, always accountable to the National Convention. Initially, it counted no Girondins and only one or two Montagnards, but gradually the influence of Montagnards in the Committee grew.<ref name=Shus-6/>

=== Girondins disbarred from the National Convention ===
{{see also|History of France#Showdown in the Convention (May–June 1793)|Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793}}
Early April 1793, Minister of War [[Jean-Nicolas Pache|Pache]] said to the [[National Convention]] that the 22 leaders of the Girondins should be banned. Later that month, the Girondin [[Marguerite-Élie Guadet|Guadet]] accused the Montagnard [[Jean-Paul Marat|Marat]] of 'preaching plunder and murder' and trying 'to destroy the sovereignty of the people'. A majority of the Convention agreed to put Marat on trial, but the court of justice quickly acquitted Marat. This apparent victory of the Montagnards intensified their antipathies of the Girondins, and more proposals were vented to get rid of the Girondins.<ref name=Shus-6/>

On both 18 and 25 May 1793, the acting president of the convention, Isnard, a Girondin, warned that the disturbances and disorder on the galleries and around the convention would finally lead the country to anarchy and civil war, and he threatened on 25 May: "If anything should befall to the representatives of the nation, I declare, in the name of France, that all of Paris will be obliterated". The next day, Robespierre said in the Jacobin Club that the people should "rise up against the corrupted deputies" in the convention. On 27 May, both Girondins and Montagnards accused the other party of propagating civil war.<ref name=Shus-6/>

On 2 June 1793, the convention was besieged in its [[Tuileries Palace]] by a crowd of around 80,000 armed soldiers, clamorously on the hand of the Montagnards. In a chaotic session a decree was adopted that day by the convention, expelling 22 leading Girondins from the convention, including [[Jean Denis, comte Lanjuinais|Lanjuinais]], Isnard and Fauchet.<ref name=Shus-6/><ref name=bbc,2011>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/robespierre_maximilien.shtml |title=Historic Figures: Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 August 2011}}</ref>

=== Montagnard rule and civil war ===
{{further|History of France#Counter-revolution subdued (July 1793–April 1794)|Reign of Terror|Fall of Maximilien Robespierre}}
Around June 1793, [[Maximilien Robespierre]] and some of his associates (Montagnards) gained greater power in France.<ref name=Shus-7>{{in lang|nl}} Noah Shusterman – ''De Franse Revolutie (The French Revolution).'' Veen Media, Amsterdam, 2015. (Translation of: ''The French Revolution. Faith, Desire, and Politics.'' Routledge, London/New York, 2014.) Chapter 7 (p. 271–312) : The federalist revolts, the Vendée and the beginning of the Terror (summer–fall 1793).</ref> Many of them, like Robespierre himself, were Jacobin: [[Joseph Fouché|Fouché]],<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Fouché, Joseph, Duke of Otranto |volume=10 |pages=734–736}}</ref> [[Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois|Collot d'Herbois]],<ref name=Shus-7/> [[Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne|Billaud-Varenne]],<ref name=Billaud>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Billaud-Varenne, Jacques_Nicolas |volume=3 |pages=993–994}}</ref> [[Jean-Paul Marat|Marat]],<ref name=Shus-7/> [[Georges Danton|Danton]],<ref name=encybrit,Danton>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9028728/Georges-Danton|title=Georges Danton profile|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=30 June 2017}}</ref> [[Louis Antoine de Saint-Just|Saint-Just]].<ref>Hampson, Norman (1991). ''Saint-Just''. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, Ltd. Pages 78–79.</ref> Three other powerful Montagnards<ref name=Shus-7/> were not known as Jacobin: [[Bertrand Barère|Barère]],<ref name=Barè>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Barère de Vieuzac, Bertrand |volume=3 |pages=397–398}}</ref> [[Jacques Hébert|Hébert]]<ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Hébert, Jacques René |volume=13 |page=167}}</ref> and [[Georges Couthon|Couthon]].<ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Couthon, Georges |volume=7 |page=337}}</ref> In 'culture wars' and history writing after 1793 however, the group around Robespierre dominating French politics in June 1793–July 1794 was often designated as 'Jacobins'.<ref name=brown/>
Many of these Montagnards (and Jacobins) entered, or were already, in the ''de facto'' executive government of France, the [[Committee of Public Safety|Committee of Public Prosperity (or Public Safety)]]: Barère was in it since April 1793<ref name=Shus-8/> until at least October 1793,<ref name=Shus-7/> Danton served there from April until July 1793,<ref name=encybrit,Danton/> Couthon<ref>Colin Jones, ''The Longman Companion to the French Revolution'' (London: Longman Publishing Group, 1990), 90-91</ref> and Saint-Just<ref>Hampson, Norman (1991). ''Saint-Just''. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, Ltd. Page 111.</ref> had entered the Committee in May, Robespierre entered it in July,<ref name=Shus-7/> Collot d'Herbois<ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Collot d'Herbois, Jean Marie |volume=6 |pages=694}}</ref> in September and Billaud-Varenne<ref name=Billaud/> also around September 1793.
Robespierre for his steadfast adherence to and defence of his views received the nickname and reputation of ''l'Incorruptible'' (The Incorruptible or The Unassailable).{{sfn|Thompson|1988|p=174}}

Several deposed Girondin-Jacobin Convention deputies, among them [[Jean-Marie Roland, vicomte de la Platière|Jean-Marie Roland]], [[Jacques Pierre Brissot|Brissot]], Pétion, [[Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai|Louvet]], [[François Buzot|Buzot]] and [[Marguerite-Élie Guadet|Guadet]], left Paris to help organize [[Federalist revolts|revolts]] in more than 60 of the 83 [[Departments of France|departments]] against the politicians and Parisians, mainly Montagnards, that had seized power over the Republic. The government in Paris called such revolts 'federalist' which was not accurate: most did not strive for regional autonomy but for a different central government.<ref name=Shus-7/>

In October 1793, 21 former Girondin Convention deputies were sentenced to death for supporting an [[Federalist revolts#Normandy and Brittany|insurrection in Caen]].<ref name=Shus-7/> In March 1794, the Montagnard Hébert and some followers were sentenced to death; in April the Montagnard Danton and 13 of his followers were sentenced to death; in both cases after insinuation by Robespierre in the Convention that those "internal enemies" were promoting 'the triumph of tyranny'.<ref name=Shus-8>{{in lang|nl}} Noah Shusterman – ''De Franse Revolutie (The French Revolution).'' Veen Media, Amsterdam, 2015. (Translation of: ''The French Revolution. Faith, Desire, and Politics.'' Routledge, London/New York, 2014.) Chapter 8 (p. 313–356) :The Terror (fall 1793–summer 1794).</ref> Meanwhile, the Montagnard-dominated government resorted also to harsh measures to repress what they considered counter-revolution, conspiracy<ref name=Shus-8/><ref name=Shus-7/> and "[[Law of Suspects|enemies of freedom]]" in the provinces outside Paris, resulting in 17,000 death sentences between September 1793 and July 1794 in all of France.<ref name=EncyBrit>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Reign-of-Terror |title=Reign of Terror |access-date=19 April 2017| encyclopedia= Encyclopædia Britannica|date=2015}}</ref><ref>[https://www.marxists.org/history/france/revolution/timeline.htm 'Principal Dates and Time Line of the French Revolution']. marxists.org. Retrieved 21 April 2017.</ref>

In late June 1794, three colleagues on the [[Committee of Public Safety|Committee of Public Prosperity/Safety]] – Billaud-Varenne, Collot d'Herbois and Carnot – called Robespierre a dictator. On 10 Thermidor, Year II (28 July 1794), at some time in the evening, [[Louis Legendre]] was sent out with troops to arrest leading members of the Montagnards at the [[Hôtel de Ville, Paris|Hôtel de Ville]] and the Jacobin Club itself where members had been gathering every Saturday evening.<ref name="Reglement1791">{{cite book |title=Projet de réglement pour la Société des amis de la Constitution: séante aux Jacobins de Paris |trans-title=Draft regulation for the Society of Friends of the Constitution: meeting at the Jacobins of Paris |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CMMCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR4 |date=1791 |location=Paris |publisher=The French Patriot |language=fr |access-date=10 June 2019}}</ref> Robespierre and 21 associates including the Jacobin Saint-Just and the Montagnard Couthon [[9 Thermidor (Fall of Robespierre)|were sentenced to death by the National Convention and guillotined]].<ref name=Shus-8/>

Probably because of the high level of repressive violence – but also to discredit Robespierre and associates as solely responsible for it{{sfn|Schama|1989|page=851}} – historians have taken up the habit to roughly label the period June 1793–July 1794 as '[[Reign of Terror]]'. Later and modern scholars explain that high level of repressive violence occurred at a time when France was menaced by civil war and by a coalition of foreign hostile powers, requiring the discipline of the Terror to mold France into a united Republic capable of resisting this double peril.<ref name="Phillips 1911, pp. 117–119."/><ref name=Haydon2006>{{cite book |editor1-last=Haydon |editor1-first=Colin |editor2-last=Doyle |editor2-first=William |editor2-link=William Doyle (historian) |title=Robespierre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VM5hh2Ssde0C&pg=PA260 |year=2006 |location=New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=260–61 |isbn=978-0521026055 |access-date=19 April 2015}}</ref>

=== Closure ===
{{See also|Thermidorian Reaction|First White Terror}}
[[File:Clôture de la salle des Jacobins 1794.jpg|thumb|Engraving "Closing of the Jacobin Club, during the night of 27–28 July 1794, or 9–10 Thermidor, year 2 of the Republic"]]

With the execution of Robespierre and other leading Montagnards and Jacobins, began the [[Thermidorian Reaction]]. The Jacobins became targets of Thermidorian and anti-Jacobin papers,<ref name="chapter">{{Cite book|last=Gendron|first=François|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lp2tlV5sHMgC|title=The Gilded Youth of Thermidor|year=1993|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|translator=James Cookson|chapter= 1. The Awakening of Moderate Opinion: The Closure of the Jacobin Club|location=Montreal|isbn=0-7735-0902-X}} Originally in French.</ref> with Jacobins lamenting counterrevolutionary pamphlets "poisoning public opinion".{{sfn|Gendron|1993|page=18}} The Jacobins disavowed the support they gave Robespierre on 9 Thermidor, yet supported an unpopular return to the Terror.{{sfn|Gendron|1993|page=23}} Meanwhile, the society's finances fell into disarray{{sfn|Gendron|1993|page=24}} and membership dipped to 600.{{sfn|Gendron|1993|page=23}} Further, they were linked to ongoing trials of prominent members of the Terror involved in atrocities in [[Nantes]], especially [[Jean-Baptiste Carrier]].{{sfn|Gendron|1993|page=19}}

Organized gangs formed, the ''jeunesse doree'' or [[Muscadins]], who harassed and attacked Jacobin members, even assailing the Jacobin Club hall in Paris.<ref name="chapter"/> On 21 Brumaire, the Convention refused to support enforcement of protection of the club.{{sfn|Gendron|1993|page=26}} The Committee of General Security decided to close the Jacobins' meeting hall late that night, resulting in it being padlocked at four in the morning.{{sfn|Gendron|1993|page=27-8}}

The next meeting day, 22 Brumaire (12 November 1794), without debate the National Convention passed a decree permanently closing the Jacobin Club by a nearly unanimous vote.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Archives Parlementaires de 1787 à 1860 – Première série (1787-1799)|journal=Archives Parlementaires de la Révolution Française|volume=101|pages=167–8|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/arcpa_0000-0000_2005_num_101_1_18097_t1_0167_0000_2|location=Lyon, France|publisher=Persée|language=fr|editor1=Marie-Claude Baron|editor2=Corinne Gomez-Le Chevanton|editor3=Françoise Brunel|year=2005|issue=1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TOBBAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP4|title=Convention Nationale: Séance du 22 Brumaire|last=de La Touche|first=Méhée|journal=L'Ami des Citoyens: Journal du Commerce et des Arts|publisher=Tallien and a Societe de Patriotes|location=Paris|date=13 November 1794|number=23|page=8}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first1=Corinne |last1=Gomez-Le Chevanton |first2=Françoise |last2=Brunel |translator-last=Johnson |translator-first=Joan |title=The National Convention as Reflected in the Parliamentary Archives |url=https://www.cairn-int.info/article-E_AHRF_381_0011--the-national-convention-as-reflected-in.htm |date=July 2015 |journal=Annales historiques de la Révolution française |volume=381 |number=3 |page=24 |publisher=Armand Colin |access-date=29 March 2022}}</ref>{{sfn|Gendron|1993|page=28}}  Within a year 93% of the Jacobin clubs were closed throughout the country.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O2PwoKacYyYC&q=toulon&pg=PA25|title=The Jacobin Clubs in the French Revolution, 1793-1795|first=Michael L.|last=Kennedy|date=2 May 2000|publisher=Berghahn Books|isbn=978-1-57181-186-8 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Durant|first1=Will|first2=Ariel|last2=Durant|chapter=Chapter IV. The Convention|title=The Age of Napoleon – A History of European Civilization from 1789-1815|url=https://archive.org/details/TheStoryOfCivilizationcomplete/Durant_Will_-_The_story_of_civilization_11/page/n7/mode/2up|series=The Story of Civilization Part XI|location=New York|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=1975|page=83}}</ref>

=== Reunion of Jacobin adherents ===
An attempt to reorganize Jacobin adherents was the foundation of the ''Réunion d'amis de l'égalité et de la liberté'', in July 1799, which had its headquarters in the ''[[Salle du Manège]]'' of the [[Tuileries]], and was thus known as the ''Club du Manège''. It was patronized by [[Paul François Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras|Barras]], and some two hundred and fifty members of [[French Directory|the two councils of the legislature]] were enrolled as members, including many notable ex-Jacobins. It published a newspaper called the ''Journal des Libres'', proclaimed the apotheosis of Robespierre and [[François-Noël Babeuf|Babeuf]], and attacked the [[French Directory|Directory]] as a ''royauté pentarchique''. But public opinion was now preponderantly moderate or royalist, and the club was violently attacked in the press and in the streets. The suspicions of the government were aroused; it had to change its meeting-place from the Tuileries to the church of the Jacobins (Temple of Peace) in the Rue du Bac, and in August it was suppressed, after barely a month's existence. Its members avenged themselves on the Directory by supporting [[Napoleon]] Bonaparte.<ref name="Phillips 1911, pp. 117–119."/><ref name="Maximilien Robespierre">{{cite web|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/robespierre-terror.html |title=Modern History Sourcebook: Maximilien Robespierre: Justification of the Use of Terror |publisher=Internet Modern History Sourcebook. |access-date=2012-07-25}}</ref>

== Influence ==
=== Political influence ===
{{main|Jacobin (politics)}}
The Jacobin movement encouraged sentiments of patriotism and liberty amongst the populace. The movement's contemporaries, such as the King [[Louis XVI]], located the effectiveness of the revolutionary movement not "in the force and 1789
bayonets of soldiers, guns, cannons and shells but by the marks of political power".{{sfn|Schama|1989|page=279}} Ultimately, the Jacobins were to control several key political bodies, in particular the [[Committee of Public Safety]] and, through it, the National Convention, which was not only a [[legislature]] but also took upon itself [[executive (government)|executive]] and [[judiciary|judicial]] functions. The Jacobins as a political force were seen as "less selfish, more patriotic, and more sympathetic to the Paris Populace."<ref name=Bosher1989>{{cite book |last=Bosher |first=John F. |title=The French Revolution |date=1989 |publisher=W. W. Norton |page=186 |isbn=978-0393959970}}</ref>

The Jacobin Club developed into a bureau for French [[Republicanism in France|republicanism]] and [[revolution]], rejecting its original ''[[laissez-faire]]'' economic policy and [[economic liberal]] approach in favour of [[economic interventionism]].<ref>{{cite conference |last=Martin |first=Claire |title=Friend of the People, Enemy to the Cause: Jean Paul Marat, Charlotte Corday, and the Consolidation of Jacobin Power in Revolutionary France |url=https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1016&context=younghistorians |date=2 May 2013 |conference=Young Historians Conference 2013 |access-date=29 March 2022}}</ref> In power, they completed the [[abolition of feudalism in France]] that had been formally decided 4 August 1789 but had been held in check by a clause requiring compensation for the abrogation of the [[feudal]] privileges.<ref>{{cite report |last1=Acemoglu |first1=Daron |display-authors=etal |title=The Consequences of Radical Reform: the French Revolution |url=https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/jrobinson/files/jr_consequeces_frenchrev.pdf |date=April 2009 |series=NBER Working Paper Series |publisher=[[National Bureau of Economic Research]] |access-date=12 March 2022}}</ref>

Robespierre entered the political arena at the very beginning of the Revolution, having been elected to represent [[Artois]] at the [[Estates-General of 1789|Estates General]]. Robespierre was viewed{{by whom|date=January 2023}} as the quintessential political force of the Jacobin Movement, thrusting ever deeper the dagger of liberty within the despotism of the Monarchy. As a disciple of Rousseau, Robespierre's political views were rooted in Rousseau's notion of the [[social contract]], which promoted "the rights of man".{{sfn|Schama|1989|page=475}} Robespierre particularly favored the rights of the broader population to eat, for example, over the rights of individual merchants. "I denounce the assassins of the people to you and you respond, 'let them act as they will.' In such a system, all is against society; all favors the grain merchants."  Robespierre famously elaborated this conception in his speech on 2 December 1792: "What is the first goal of society? To maintain the imprescribable rights of man. What is the first of these rights? The right to exist."<ref>"Robespierre," by Mazauric, C., in "Dictionnaire historique de la Revolution francaise," ed. Albert Soboul. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris: 1989.</ref>

The ultimate political vehicle for the Jacobin movement was the Reign of Terror overseen by the Committee of Public Safety, who were given executive powers to purify and unify the Republic.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JnnXDQAAQBAJ&q=Society+of+the+Jacobins%2C+Friends+of+Freedom+and+Equality&pg=PT255|title=Secret Societies: The Complete Guide to Histories, Rites, and Rituals|last=Redfern|first=Nick|date=2017-03-14|publisher=Visible Ink Press|isbn=9781578596461|language=en}}</ref> The Committee instituted [[Eminent domain|requisitioning]], [[rationing]], and [[conscription]] to consolidate new citizen armies. They instituted the Terror as a means of combating those they perceived as enemies within: Robespierre declared, "the first maxim of your policy ought to be to lead the people by reason and the people's enemies by terror."<ref name="Maximilien Robespierre"/>

The meeting place of the [[Fraternal Society of Patriots of Both Sexes]] was an old library room of the convent which hosted the Jacobins, and it was suggested that the Fraternal Society grew out of the regular occupants of a special gallery allotted to women at the Jacobin Club.<ref name=Alger1894>{{cite book|last=Alger|first=John Goldworth|author-link=John Goldworth Alger|title=Glimpses of the French Revolution: Myths, Ideals, and Realities|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZUdEAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA144|date=1894|publisher=[[Sampson Low|Sampson Low, Marston & Company]]|page=144|access-date=23 April 2015}}</ref>

[[Georges Valois]], founder of the first non-Italian fascist party [[Faisceau]],<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sternhell|first=Zeev|year=1976|title=Anatomie d'un mouvement fasciste en France : le faisceau de Georges Valois|journal=Revue française de science politique|volume=26|issue=1|pages=5–40|doi=10.3406/rfsp.1976.393652}}</ref> claimed the roots of [[fascism]] stemmed from the [[Jacobin (politics)|Jacobin]] movement.<ref name="Camus">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_j5YDgAAQBAJ|title=Far-Right Politics in Europe|last1=Camus|first1=Jean-Yves|last2=Lebourg|first2=Nicolas|date=2017-03-20|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674971530|pages=20|language=en|access-date=9 May 2020|archive-date=9 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200609024851/https://books.google.com/books?id=_j5YDgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> This is disputed as the Jacobin's were socially and politically [[Liberalism|liberal]], against conservatism, and advocated for [[republicanism]]. The Jacobin movement is considered to be [[left-wing]].<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/379357|title=Liberal Jacobinism|first=Jacob T.|last=Levy|date=2 January 2004|journal=Ethics|volume=114|issue=2|pages=318–336|via=CrossRef|doi=10.1086/379357|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

==== Left-wing politics ====
The political [[rhetoric]] and [[populist]] ideas espoused by the Jacobins would lead to the development of the modern [[leftist]] movements throughout the 19th and 20th century, with Jacobinism being the political foundation of almost all leftist schools of thought including [[anarchism]], [[communism]] and [[socialism]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cutler |first=Robert M. |title=Bakunin's Anti-Jacobinism: 'Secret Societies' For Self-Emancipating Collectivist Social Revolution |url=https://www.lwbooks.co.uk/sites/default/files/as22.2_02cutler_0.pdf |year=2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200808130850/https://www.lwbooks.co.uk/sites/default/files/as22.2_02cutler_0.pdf |archive-date=8 August 2020 |url-status=dead |journal=[[Anarchist Studies]] |volume=22 |number=2 |issn=0967-3393 |access-date=29 March 2022}}</ref><ref name="Gluckstein 2011">{{Cite book|last=Gluckstein|first=Donny|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ArfbAgAAQBAJ&pg=PR9|title=The Paris Commune: A Revolution in Democracy|date=2011|publisher=Haymarket Books|isbn=978-1-60846-118-9|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Loubère|first=Leo A.|date=December 1959|title=The Intellectual Origins of French Jacobin Socialism|journal=International Review of Social History|language=en|volume=4|issue=3|pages=415–431|doi=10.1017/S0020859000001437|issn=1469-512X|doi-access=free}}</ref> The [[Paris Commune]] was seen as the revolutionary successor to the Jacobins.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2638185|jstor = 2638185|title = Ideology and Motivation in the Paris Commune of 1871|last1 = Price|first1 = R. D.|journal = The Historical Journal|year = 1972|volume = 15|issue = 1|pages = 75–86|doi = 10.1017/S0018246X00001850| s2cid=144481414 |url-access = subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/michail-bakunin-the-paris-commune-and-the-idea-of-the-state|title=The Paris Commune and the Idea of the State|website=The Anarchist Library}}</ref> The undercurrent of radical and populist tendencies espoused and enacted by the Jacobins would create a complete cultural and societal shock within the traditional and conservative governments of Europe, leading to new political ideas of society emerging. Jacobin rhetoric would lead to increasing secularization and skepticism towards the governments of Europe throughout the 1800s.<ref name="Keefe 1986">{{Cite journal|last=Keefe|first=Thomas M.|year=1986|title=Review of The Jacobin Republic 1792-1794, ; The Thermidorean Regime and the Directory 1794-1799|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/493198|journal=The History Teacher|volume=20|issue=1|pages=131–133|doi=10.2307/493198|jstor=493198|issn=0018-2745|url-access=subscription}}</ref> This complex and complete revolution in political, societal and cultural structure, caused in part by the Jacobins, had lasting impact throughout Europe, with such societal revolutions throughout the 1800s culminating in the [[Revolutions of 1848]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hanson |first=Paul R. |title=From Jacobin to Liberal |url=https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1497&context=facsch_papers |date=Winter 2011 |journal=[[Historical Reflections]] |volume=37 |number=3 |pages=86–100 |access-date=29 March 2022}}</ref><ref name="Jullien 1993">{{Cite book|last=Jullien|first=Marc-Antoine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ofunquh71LoC&pg=PP1|title=From Jacobin to Liberal: Marc-Antoine Jullien, 1775-1848|date=1993-10-04|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-2101-3|language=en}}</ref>

Jacobin populism and complete structural destruction of the old order led to an increasingly revolutionary spirit throughout Europe and such changes would contribute to new political foundations. Leftist organizations would take different elements from Jacobin's core foundation. [[Anarchists]] took influence from the Jacobins use of [[mass movement (politics)|mass movement]]s, [[direct democracy]] and [[left-wing populism]]. The Jacobin philosophy of a complete dismantling of an old system, with completely radical and new structures, is historically seen as one of the most revolutionary and important movements throughout modern history.<ref name="Gluckstein 2011"/><ref name="Keefe 1986"/><ref name="Jullien 1993"/>

=== Cultural influence ===
The cultural influence of the Jacobin movement during the French Revolution revolved around the creation of the Citizen. As commented in [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]]'s 1762 book ''[[The Social Contract]]'', "Citizenship is the expression of a sublime reciprocity between individual and [[General will]]."{{sfn|Schama|1989|page=354}} This view of citizenship and the General Will, once empowered, could simultaneously embrace the [[Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen]] and adopt the [[French Constitution of 1793]], then immediately suspend that constitution and all ordinary legality and institute [[Revolutionary Tribunal]]s that did not grant a [[presumption of innocence]].<ref>{{cite book|editor=Peter McPhee|title=A Companion to the French Revolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hj9dY-JAzw0C&pg=PA385|date=28 September 2012|publisher=Wiley|page=385|isbn=9781118316412}}</ref>

The Jacobins saw themselves as constitutionalists, dedicated to the Rights of Man and in particular, to the declaration's principle of "preservation of the natural rights of liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression" (Article II of the Declaration). The constitution reassured the protection of personal freedom and social progress within French society. The cultural influence of the Jacobin movement was effective in reinforcing these rudiments, developing a milieu for revolution. The Constitution was admired by most Jacobins as the foundation of the emerging republic and of the rise of citizenship.<ref name=Brinton1930P212>{{cite book|last=Brinton|first=Crane|author-link=Crane Brinton|title=The Jacobins: An Essay in the New History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s_ylOcbcAJUC&pg=PA212|date=2011|orig-year=1930|pages=212–213|publisher=[[Transaction Publishers]]|isbn=9781412848107|access-date=16 April 2015}}</ref>

The Jacobins rejected both the church and atheism. They set up new religious cults, the [[Cult of Reason]] and later [[Cult of the Supreme Being]], to replace Catholicism.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gottschalk|first=Louis R.|author-link=Louis R. Gottschalk|title=The Era of the French Revolution (1715–1815)|url=https://archive.org/details/eraoffrenchrevol00gott|url-access=registration|date=1929|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|Houghton Mifflin Company]]|pages=[https://archive.org/details/eraoffrenchrevol00gott/page/258 258–259]}}</ref> They advocated deliberate government-organized religion as a substitute for both the rule of law and a replacement of mob violence as inheritors of a [[French Revolutionary Wars#War of the First Coalition|war]] that at the time of their rise to power threatened the very existence of the Revolution. Once in power, the Jacobins completed the overthrow of the [[Ancien Régime]] and successfully defended the Revolution from military defeat. They consolidated republicanism in France and contributed greatly to the [[secularism]] and the sense of nationhood that have marked all French republican regimes to this day. However, their ruthless and unjudicial methods discredited the Revolution in the eyes of many. The resulting [[Thermidorian Reaction]] shuttered all of the Jacobin clubs, removed all Jacobins from power and condemned many, well beyond the ranks of the Mountain, to death or exile.<ref name=Bosher1988>{{cite book|last=Bosher|first=John F.|title=The French Revolution|date=1988|publisher=W. W. Norton|pages=191–208|isbn=9780393025880}}</ref>

== List of presidents of the Jacobin Club ==
In the beginning every two months, later every two weeks a new president was chosen:<ref name="Reglement1791"/>
* 1789 – [[Jacques-François Menou]], [[Isaac René Guy le Chapelier]]
* 1790 – [[Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau]], [[Dubois-Crancé]]; [[Maximilien Robespierre]], end of March-3 June 1790<ref>[https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k116857x/f1n814.pdf?download=1 A. Aulard (1897) La Société des Jacobins p. 714]</ref>
* 1791 – [[Pierre-Antoine Antonelle]];
* 1792 – [[Jean-Paul Marat]]
* 1793 – [[Antoine Barnave]], 3 June-23 July; [[Maximilien Robespierre]], 7–28 August 1793<ref>[https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k116857x/f1n814.pdf?download=1 A. Aulard (1897) La Société des Jacobins p. 717 ]</ref>
* 1794 – [[Joseph Fouché]], 11 July; Nicolas Francois Vivier, 27 July; abolished in November

== Electoral results ==
{|class=wikitable
|-
!Election year
!No. of<br />overall votes
!% of<br />overall vote
!No. of<br />overall seats won
!+/–
!Leader
|-
![[1791 French legislative election|1791]]<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kennedy|first=Michael L.|year=1984|title=The Best and the Worst of Times: The Jacobin Club Network from October 1791 to June 2, 1793|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1880325|journal=The Journal of Modern History|volume=56|issue=4|pages=635–666|doi=10.1086/242735|jstor=1880325|s2cid=144683857|issn=0022-2801|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
|774,000 (3rd)
|18.3
|{{composition bar|136|745|hex={{party color|Jacobin Club}}}}
|{{center|New}}
|{{center|[[Jacques Pierre Brissot]]}}
|-
|colspan=6|[[National Convention]]
|-
![[1792 French National Convention election|1792]]
|907,200 (2nd)
|26.7
|{{composition bar|200|749|hex={{party color|The Mountain}}}}
|{{center|{{increase}} 64}}
|{{center|[[Maximilien Robespierre]]}}
|-
|colspan=6|[[Corps législatif|Legislative Body]]
|-
![[1795 French Directory election|1795]]
|Did not participate
|Did not participate
|{{composition bar|64|750|hex={{party color|The Mountain}}}}
|{{center|{{decrease}} 136}}
|
|}

== See also ==
* [[Jacobin Club of Mysore]]
* [[Jeanne Odo]]
* [[Maximilien de Robespierre]]
* [[Pierre-Antoine Antonelle]]
* [[Jacobins Convent, Nantes]]

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book|last=Schama|first=Simon|author-link=Simon Schama|title=[[Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution]]|date=1989|publisher=Knopf|isbn=0-394-55948-7}}
* Shusterman, Noah (2014). ''The French Revolution. Faith, Desire, and Politics''. Routledge: London/New York.
* {{cite book|last1=Thompson|first1=J.M.|title=Robespierre|date=1988|publisher=B. Blackwell|location=New York|isbn=978-0631155041}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book|last=Brinton|first=Crane|title=The Jacobins: An Essay in the New History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s_ylOcbcAJUC&pg=PR7|date=1930|publication-date=2011|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=9781412848107}}
* [[Suzanne Desan|Desan, Suzanne]]. "'Constitutional Amazons': Jacobin Women's Clubs in the French Revolution." in ''Re-creating Authority in Revolutionary France'' ed. Bryant T. Ragan, Jr., and Elizabeth Williams. (Rutgers UP, 1992).
* Harrison, Paul R. ''The Jacobin Republic Under Fire: The Federalist Revolt in the French Revolution'' (2012) [https://www.amazon.com/Jacobin-Republic-Under-Fire-Federalist/dp/0271058447/ excerpt and text search].
* Higonnet, Patrice L.-R. ''Goodness beyond Virtue: Jacobins during the French Revolution'' (1998) [https://www.amazon.com/Goodness-beyond-Virtue-Jacobins-Revolution/dp/0674470621/ excerpt and text search].
* Kennedy, Michael A. ''The Jacobin Clubs in the French Revolution, 1793–1795'' (2000) .
* Lefebvre, Georges. ''The French Revolution: From 1793 to 1799'' (Vol. 2. Columbia University Press, 1964).
* Marisa Linton, ''Choosing Terror: Virtue, Friendship and Authenticity in the French Revolution'' (Oxford University Press, 2013).
* McPhee, Peter. ''Robespierre: A Revolutionary Life'' (Yale University Press, 2012) [https://www.amazon.com/Robespierre-Revolutionary-Life-Peter-McPhee/dp/0300118112/ excerpt and text search]
* Palmer, Robert Roswell. ''Twelve who ruled: the year of the Terror in the French Revolution'' (1941).
* Soboul, Albert. ''The French revolution: 1787–1799'' (1975) pp.&nbsp;313–416.
* Bernhard Valentinitsch: Friedrich Heer (1916–1983) und der Taurien-Mythos der Krim – Humanismus, Barock und Aufklärung,von Heer wie unter einem Brennglas zusammengefasst gesehen. In: Jahrbuch für mitteleuropäische Studien 2023. Budapest 2025, 295-323 (about [[antisemitism]] among the Jacobins and about the view on it by historians like Arthur Hertzberg, Jacob Talmon and Friedrich Heer).

=== Primary sources ===
* {{cite book|editor1-last=Stewart|editor1-first=John Hall|title=A documentary survey of the French Revolution|url=https://archive.org/details/documentarysurve0000stew|url-access=registration|date=1951|location=New York|publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers (United States)|Macmillan]]|pages=[https://archive.org/details/documentarysurve0000stew/page/454 454]–538|access-date=16 April 2015}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist255/kat_anna/jacobins.html The Jacobins] – Mount Holyoke college course site. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127014842/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist255/kat_anna/jacobins.html |date=27 November 2020 }}.

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