Jacobinism, as a belief in a nationally uniform and centralised government, hostile to the division of parcellization of sovereignty remains in current political usage, especially in France. Robespierre's Jacobins established a revolutionary dictatorship when France was at war with and encircled by the reactionary European powers. Their conduct of government, through the Committee of Public Safety, gave rise to a different meaning of Jacobinism in which the Reign of Terror from 1793 to 1794 was seen as the logical end- product. In this sense Jacobinism is understood as a form of elitist insurrectionary politics, in which an elite possessed of true social and political knowledge, believes itself entitled to seize and hold political power in the name of the people. Thus Jacobinism is used pejoratively to describe groups which advocate the overthrow of the state or regime without regard to the will of the people or the majority and in this sense,
Jacobinism is often seen as a forerunner of Bolshevism. Jacobinism is also sometimes used to describe the practice of those who engage in nation- building, forging national homogeneity out of diverse peoples, without much regard to their consent. Research Jacobinism
The Jacobins were a radical French political group. The Jacobins stood for the establishment of a single, uniform, rational and centralised nation- state, which would be a democratic republic, expressing the sovereignty of the people. Jacobins were entirely hostile to aristocratic privileges and to all feudal forms of government. They were originally called the Club Breton when they were formed in Versailles, but on moving to Paris in 1789 were renamed the Jacobins. After successive purges they became the instrument of the Reign of Terror under Robespierre's dictatorship. See Jacobinism Research Jacobins
Charles Francois Dupperier Dumouriez was a French soldier. He was was born in 1739 at Cambrai of a noble family of Provence and died in 1823. He served as an officer in the Seven Years' war. In 1768 he went to Corsica as quartermaster-general of the small army which was sent for the conquest of that island, and was afterwards made colonel. In 1778 he was appointed governor of Cherbourg.
At the revolution he joined the Jacobins, and subsequently the Girondists, and in 1792 he was minister of foreign affairs. War breaking out between France and Austria he resigned in order to take command of the army; invaded Flanders, and defeated the Austrians at Jemappes and conquered Belgium. Instead of prosecuting the war vigorously he now entered upon measures for the overthrow of the revolutionary government, issued a proclamation, in which he promised the restoration of the constitutional monarchy in the person of the heir to the crown, but was attacked by the Versailles volunteers, and compelled to flee on April the 4th, 1793. The convention set a price of 300,000 livres upon his head. At first he retired to Brussels, and after various wanderings found a final refuge in England. His Memoirs, written by himself, appeared in 1794; an enlarged edition in 1822. He was also the author of a large number of political pamphlets. Research Charles Dumouriez
The cordeliers were originally a branch of the order of Franciscan monks who wore as part of their dress a girdle of knotted cords. Afterwards the name was given to a club or society of Jacobins, including Marat, George Danton, and Camille Des-moulins. The club lasted from 1792 to 1794, and took its name from the place of meeting. Research Cordeliers
Francois Chabot was one of the leading Jacobins of the French revolution. He was born in 1759 and died in 1794. Being chosen deputy to the national convention, he displayed the greatest zeal in the propagation of revolutionary ideas, and in denouncing the court. The conversion of the cathedral of Notre Dame into the Temple of Reason is said to have originated with Francois Chabot. He at last became suspected by his party, appealed in vain to Robespierre, and attempted to poison himself, but was guillotined in 1794. Research Francois Chabot
Lazare Hoche was a French soldier. He was born in 1768 and died in 1797. He took service in the French guards when sixteen years old, and at the outbreak of the French Revolution joined the popular party. He greatly distinguished himself at the siege of Thionviile and the defence of Dunkirk, and shortly afterwards, when scarcely twenty-five years old, received the command of the army on the Moselle.
In 1793 he drove the Austrians out of Alsace, and soon after was arrested by the Jacobins and imprisoned at Paris. In 1794 he was released, and appointed commander of the army destined to quell the rising in the west, and afterwards to that in La Vendee. In 1796 he conceived the plan of attacking Britain, by making a descent on Ireland. He accordingly set sail in December from Brest, but the expedition utterly failed, and he was obliged to return without having even effected a landing. After his return he received the command of the army of the Sambre and Meuse. He opened the campaign of 1797 by a bold passage over the Rhine, and had defeated the Austrians in several engagements, when he was stopped in the path of victory by the news of the armistice concluded in Italy. Research Lazare Hoche
The Marquis de Lafayette (Marie Jean Paul Joseph Roche Yves Gilbert du Motier) was a French soldier. He was born in 1757 at Auvergne and died in 1834. A general, he was born of a noble family distinguished in the service of the State. As a boy he was a page to the queen. He was still a mere youth when the outbreak of the American War of Independence excited the sympathy of many high-spirited young Frenchmen, Lafayette among others. Having equipped a ship at his own expense he sailed from Bordeaux, with the nominal disapproval of the French Government, in April, 1777. Landing in South Carolina he proceeded northward, and was in July appointed a major-general, and soon became a fast friend of George Washington. He was wounded at Brandywine, served at Monmouth and in the Rhode Islandcampaign, and sailed for France in 1779, returning in time to sit on the board of judges against Andre.
In 1781 he commanded in Virginia against Arnold and then against Charles Cornwallis, and earned distinction by his conduct of affairs against the able British general. After the war he returned to France, paid in 1784 a short visit to America, and on the breaking out of the French Revolution he was for a time one of the foremost figures. He commanded the National Guard, but by 1792 the Jacobins removed him, as a moderate, from the eastern department; escaping to Belgium he fell into the hands of the Prussians and Austrians and was imprisoned, chiefly at Olmutz, until 1797. He did not accept office during the Napoleonic regime, but was a member of the Chamber of Deputies in the Restoration period. In 1824-25 he visited the United States and was received with the utmost enthusiasm. His last conspicuous service was as commander of the National Guard in the revolutionary days of 1830. Research Marquis de Lafayette
Sebastian Roch Nicolas Chamfort was a French writer and revolutionist. He was born in 1741 and died in 1794. By his success as dramatist, critic, and conversationalist he obtained a place in the French Academy, a pension, and a post at court. An intimate friend of Mirabeau, he threw himself heartily into the revolution, was secretary to the club of the Jacobins, was one of the first of the storming party in the attack on the Bastille, and having been employed by Roland in the Bibliotheque Nationale published the first twenty-six Tableaux Historiques de la Revolution. His cynical wit could not, however, restrain itself, and he was denounced and threatened with imprisonment. Rather than undergo it he inflicted fatal injuries upon himself, dying in 1794. He is seen at his best in the collection of bon mots published under the title of Chamfortiana. Research Sebastian Chamfort
Thomas Paine (Tom Paine) was an English writer on politics and religion. He was born in 1737 in Norfolk and died in 1809. He passed his early years there as an exciseman, political writer, and ardent republican. He went to America in 1774 and edited the 'Pennsylvania Magazine'. In 1776 he published a pamphlet, 'Common Sense', advocating independence, which was widely circulated and created a profound impression. At intervals through the American War of Independence he published the 'Crisis', and was secretary to the Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs. His services in the American Revolution were of undoubted value to the Americans. Subsequently he was clerk to the Pennsylvania Legislature. He was in France at the opening of the French Revolution, and in England where in 1791 he published his 'Rights of Man', and was outlawed in consequence. Escaping to France he was elected to the Convention, was imprisoned by the Jacobins, and wrote his 'Age of Reason'. He returned to the United States, and died in New York. Research Thomas Paine
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
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