Cordeliers Club Club des Cordeliers | |
|---|---|
 "Open-eye" logo used in some Cordelier publications | |
| Presidents | Georges Danton (1790–1791) Pierre-François-Joseph Robert (1791–1792) Jacques Hébert (1792–1794) |
| Founders | Georges Danton Camille Desmoulins |
| Founded | 27 April 1790; 235 years ago (1790-04-27) |
| Dissolved | 20 February 1795; 230 years ago (1795-02-20) |
| Headquarters | Cordeliers Convent, Paris |
| Newspaper | Le Vieux Cordelier (Dantonists) Le Père Duchesne (Hébertists) |
| Ideology | Jacobinism Populism[1] Direct democracy Radicalism |
| Political position | Left-wing tofar-left |
| National affiliation | The Mountain (1792–1794) |
| Colours | |
| Slogan | Liberté, égalité, fraternité ("Liberty, equality, fraternity") |
| Party flag | |
 | |
TheSociety of the Friends of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (French:Société des Amis des droits de l'homme et du citoyen[sɔsjetedez‿amidedʁwadəlɔmedysitwajɛ̃]), mainly known asCordeliers Club (French:Club des Cordeliers[klœbdekɔʁdəlje]), was apopulistpolitical club during theFrench Revolution from 1790 to 1794, when theReign of Terror ended and theThermidorian Reaction began.
The club campaigned foruniversal male suffrage anddirect democracy, including the referendum. It energetically served as a watchdog looking for signs of abuse of power by the men in power. By 1793, it was challenging the centralization of power byRobespierre and hisCommittee of Public Safety. They responded by arresting the leadership, charging them with conspiring to overthrow the Convention. The leaders were guillotined, and the club disappeared.
The club had its origins in the Cordeliers district, a famously radical area ofParis called, byCamille Desmoulins, "the only sanctuary where liberty has not been violated".[2] Under the leadership ofGeorges Danton, this district had played a significant role in theStorming of the Bastille and was home to several notable figures of the Revolution, including Danton himself, Desmoulins andJean-Paul Marat—on whose behalf the district placed itself in a state of civil rebellion, when in January 1790 it refused to allow the execution of a warrant for his arrest that had been issued by theChâtelet.
Having issued in November 1789 a declaration affirming its intent to "oppose, as much as we are able, all that the representatives of theCommune may undertake that is harmful to the general rights of our constituents",[3] the Cordeliers district remained in conflict with the Parisian government throughout the winter and spring of 1790. In May and June 1790, the previous division of Paris into 60 districts was by decree of theNational Assembly replaced by the creation of 48sections. This restructuring abolished the Cordeliers district.[4]
Anticipating this dissolution, the leaders of the Cordeliers district founded in April 1790 theSociété des Amis des droits de l’homme et du citoyen, a popular society which would serve as an alternative means of pursuing the goals and interests of the district. This society held its meetings in theCordeliers Convent and quickly became known as theClub des Cordeliers. It took as its motto the phraseLiberté, égalité, fraternité, and because its aim was to keep an eye on the government its emblem was an open eye.[4]
The membership fees of this society were fixed low and thus affordable to a more diverse range of citizens than those of many other political clubs at the time, including theJacobin Club. There were no other restrictions on membership. The Cordeliers presented themselves as exceptionally populist and they prided themselves on counting working men and women among their members. A contemporary account describes one meeting:
About three hundred persons of both sexes filled the place; their dress was so unkempt and so filthy that one would have taken them for a gathering of beggars. TheDeclaration of the Rights of Man was stuck on the wall, crowned by crossed daggers. Plaster busts ofBrutus andWilliam Tell were placed on each side, as if expressly to guard the Declaration. Facing, behind the tribune, as supporters, there appeared busts ofMirabeau andHelvétius, withRousseau in the middle.[5]
However, the preponderance of Cordeliers were members of the bourgeoisie and its leadership was largely drawn from the educated middle classes.[6]
From 1791 the Cordeliers met in a hall in theRue Dauphine.[4] On 21 June of that year, following an attempt by the royal family toflee Paris, the Cordeliers moved to draft a petition which offered the National Assembly a choice between the immediate deposition ofLouis XVI or a national referendum on the future of the monarchy. The Cordeliers actively moved against the majority interests in this case. Large demonstrations in support of this and similar petitions led to civil unrest, and culminated in theChamp de Mars massacre on 17 July. The National Guard, led by theMarquis de Lafayette, fired on the protestors, resulting in the deaths of at least dozen of them.[7] Subsequent action taken against the Cordeliers included the closing of the Cordeliers Convent to them and the issuing of arrest warrants for Danton and Desmoulins. Despite these measures, the society remained a highly influential force in Parisian politics.
The Cordeliers participated significantly in the planning and execution of the10 August 1792 insurrection. Danton, at this time perhaps the most powerful figure within the Cordeliers Club, acted—inHilaire Belloc's words—as "the organizer and chief of the insurrection"[8] and was appointed Minister of Justice in the government that resulted, with Desmoulins andFabre d'Églantine—both prominent members of the Cordeliers Club—as his secretaries.
Subsequent to this insurrection and to theSeptember Massacres that followed closely on its heels, the Cordeliers Club became increasingly the province of ultra-revolutionary factions, particularly theHébertists, who advocated extreme measures to intensify theTerror.[citation needed]
In December 1793, Desmoulins began publishing a journal entitledLe Vieux Cordelier or "The Old Cordelier", which attempted to reclaim the title of the society from those who had associated it with extremism. In the seven numbers of the journal, Desmoulins attacked the Hébertists and called for an end to the Terror, comparing revolutionary Paris to Rome under thetyrants. The Hébertists were arrested and, on 24 March 1794, executed, but the less extreme Desmoulins, Danton and the "Old Cordeliers" of the Dantonist faction quickly followed them to the guillotine. Their execution took place on April 5. The Cordeliers Club, deprived of its most important members, initially played no role in the further course of the revolution. After the Jacobin Club closed in November 1794, its most vehement representatives (so-calledcrêtois) joined the Cordeliers. In response, the Thermidorians arranged for its final closure on the 20th of Pluviose III (February 20, 1795).[citation needed]
The papers emanating from the Cordeliers are enumerated inJean Maurice Tourneux,Bibliographie de l'histoire de Paris pendant la Révolution (1894), i. (on the trial of the Hébertists) Nos. 4204–4210, ii. Nos. 9795–9834 and 11,813. See also A. BougeartLes Cordeliers, documents pour servir a l'histoire de la Révolution (Caen, 1891);G. Lenotre,Paris révolutionnaire (Paris, 1895); G. Tridon,Les Hébertistes, plainte contre une calomnie de l'histoire (Paris, 1864). The last-named author was condemned to four months' prison; his work was reprinted in 1871. The inventory of the pictures found in 1790 in theCordeliers Convent was published by J. Guiffrey inNouvelles archives de l’art français, viii., 2nd series, iii. (1880).[4]
He was a sometime cabin boy and medical apprentice who had acquired a certain celebrity as an ultra-revolutionary speaker in the populist Cordeliers Club and had established his Revolutionary credentials as an enthusiastic participant in the preparations for the demonstrations of June 20 and August 10, 1792.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Anchel, Robert (1911). "Cordeliers, Club of the". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 138.| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
