The Feuillants were the
constitutionalists, inclined, while in general consistently championing
the settlement of 1791, to strengthen the royal power,--they were the
conservatives of the Assembly. The Jacobins, on the other hand,
deriving their common name from the famous club in Paris, were the
radicals: many of them secretly cherished republican sentiments, and
all of them desired a further diminution of the constitutional powers
of Louis XVI. The Jacobins, however, were divided into two groups on
the question of how the royal power should be reduced. The larger
number, whose most conspicuous members came from the department of the
Gironde and were, therefore, collectively designated as Girondists,
entertained the idea that the existing government should be clearly
proved futile before proceeding to the next stage in the Revolution:
they clamored for foreign war as the most effective means of disgracing
the existing monarchy. The smaller number of Jacobins, drawn largely
from Paris, desired to take no chances on the outcome of war but
advocated the radical reformation of monarchical institutions by direct
and immediate popular action: subsequently this small group was dubbed
the Mountain [Footnote: This name did not come into general use until
1793.
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