Feuillant (political group)

The Feuillants were the members of a political club of the French Revolution, named after its venue, the Monastery of the Feuillants ( Reformed Cistercian ) in Paris. The club was founded on July 16, 1791 by the cleavage of the Jacobins after the exodus of moderates, who adhered to the constitutional monarchy.

The goal of the National Constituent Assembly, the Constituent Assembly, since 1789, drawn up Constitution ( constitution ) was not a democratic republic but a constitutional monarchy. Parties were not provided for by the Constitution, but from 1791 were rapidly parliamentary and extra-parliamentary groupings. The political clubs gained increasing influence as an opinion- forming institutions. The most important of these was the Jacobin Club, which evolved from a group of Breton deputy.

Prehistory

Triumvirate

Antoine Barnave, Adrien Duport and Alexandre de Lameth - the triumvirs and the future leaders of the Feuillants - had met in the National Assembly and discovered their complementary talents: " Duport thought what needed to be done, Barnave said it, and A. de Lameth did there. "

Many Members of the National Assembly of the Constituent Assembly, in the spring of 1791 kept the revolution largely completed; in the constitutional monarchy they wanted to give you a solid grip. This was also the goal of the commitment of Mirabeau. When he died on April 2, 1791, the triumvirs were to his political legacy. They sought the proximity to the farm, but wanted to preserve the spirit of the Revolution of 1789, which they saw threatened by radicalization, the People's agitation and the increasing weight of the extra-parliamentary organs. The program of the triumvirs ". Restore the public authority to make the Democrats silence, revise the Constitution in the sense of strengthening the royal powers and an increase of the electoral census " The parliamentary majority seemed to them sure, but the rest of the patriotic party, the supporters of the Revolution, they began to slip away.

In April 1791, the triumvirs for the exclusion of passive citizens from the National Guard entered, in May they opposed the political emancipation of the blacks, and in the debate on the petition and Plakatierungsrecht they were silent; so they lost their popularity in a few months. Now they were harassed by the patriotic press, denounced by the popular societies and discredited at the Jacobins.

The revolution had destroyed absolutism and aristocratic society, but the question of popular sovereignty was not clear: it was necessary to distinguish between the powers of the elected, alone legislation entitled the National Assembly and those of the revolutionary societies, because the clubs were talking now in the name of the people. The debate on the question of re-eligibility of the members of the Constituent National Assembly for the next legislative session sealed in May 1791 break in the patriotic party. Maximilien de Robespierre, who declined re-eligibility, prevailed in the Assembly and thus prevented the entry of the triumvirs in the Legislative Assembly, the legislative branch.

Cleavage of the Jacobins

On July 16, 1791 four weeks after the failed flight of the king, and on the eve of the massacre on the Champ de Mars, the moderate members left the Jacobin Club. The triumvirate, followed by almost all the club belonging to members of the National Assembly, pulled from the seat of the Jacobins in the rue Saint- Honoré in the Monastery Church of the Feuillants. The members of the newly established club was called after their meeting " Feuillants ". Among the deputies were Le Chapelier, co-founder of the Breton club, as well as followers of Constituionelles, the group led by Lafayette, who had joined after the escape attempt of the king of the policies of the triumvirs.

Four-fifths of the Jacobins had left the "Society of Friends of the Constitution " ( Société des amis de la Constitution ). As a defender of the Constitution, they claimed legality for himself and insisted on the name " Friends of the Constitution ," the name of the club of the Jacobins. But not to the Constitution was based legitimacy, but " the practical ability to make to their spokesperson through political cunning rhetorical acumen, through elections or whatever means. " The most ancient seat remaining Jacobins Robespierre had such means; he had realized that the power of " no longer depends summer of 1791 from legality, but by the revolutionary legitimacy. " in a few weeks, he led most of the dissidents back into the lap of the parent company. The intent on legality Feuillants waived appropriate means and waited idly on the speedy decay of the Jacobin movement.

Political action

The Feuillants " wanted to end the revolution " and demanded compliance with the Constitution. They wanted to bring the moderate right, the monarchists, on their side, to neutralize the uncompromising royalists; and they wanted the Democrats to isolate the deputies Robespierre on the extreme left of the mass of patriotic deputies. The Jacobin influence on the revolutionary societies that threatened the legitimacy and independence of the National Assembly, they wanted to destroy. However, their policy should fail: the monarchists did not follow their calling, and the remaining Jacobins quickly recovered from the shock of the mass exodus from their club.

Triggered by the flight of the King in the National Assembly took advantage of the fears Feuillants to a new start. Despite the calls for a abdication of the king, they managed to keep himself and his prerogatives. In August 1791 Barnave suggested in the National Assembly before the raising of the electoral census, in order to guarantee the safety of the Constitution. To endanger the Constitution does not by political crises, they should also be perfected by a revision procedure. To implement the method, the Jacobins sat for extraordinary, convened at the initiative of the people convents one. The Feuillants however, wanted this right solely reserved for the legislature. In Parliament, the Feuillants prevailed, but on the future course of the revolution, they lost any influence; " They took their leave from the political scene, ... in order to pursue a policy of secret machinations and intrigues behind the scenes ... " Paralyzed from the illusion that the Constitution is a sure bulwark against the revolution, they knew the advantage of their numerical not to use strong position in the legislature. In December 1791 their company was dissolved in March 1792, the republican Girondins came to power and on 10 August, the monarchy was suspended. Posted cold, scattered and demoralized considered this the Feuillants as a spectator. They were the last moderates the revolution.