Jacobins

Jacobins, name given to the members of a radical French political club that played a controlling part in the French Revolution. It was founded in 1789 as the Society of Friends of the Constitution; the name Jacobins is derived from the meeting place of the club, a former Jacobin monastery in Paris. The revolutionary leaders Comte de Mirabeau and Maximilien Robespierre were early members of the club, and Robespierre subsequently became its principal figure. Although with only 3000 members in Paris, the club had national scope through its control of 1200 related societies throughout France. Its enormous political power resulted from the close organization of these many affiliated groups and from the skillful hold on public opinion that was exercised by Jacobin leaders.

At its outset the club was in favor of a constitutional monarchy, but after the attempted escape from France of King Louis XVI in 1791, the Jacobins turned against any form of royal rule. Simultaneously, with the formation of the National Convention, the French representative assembly from 1792 to 1795, the club reached the zenith of its power; no important action was undertaken by the National Convention until the matter had first been discussed in the meetings of the Jacobins. Extremist elements of the group took control during this period. Dominating the powerful Committee of Public Safety, they plunged the country into the Reign of Terror, a state policy of suppressing all opposition by violence. The Jacobins insisted on the death of the king, destroyed the moderate Girondins, and sent thousands of opponents to death on the guillotine. The club lost much of its power with the downfall of Robespierre and was banned by the convention on November 11, 1794.