Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution

by R.R. Palmer

Dantonism had in it the seed of a parliamentary opposition, by which members of the Convention, without being treasonable to the Republic, might discuss and criticize the work of the government. That it never developed in this way was not entirely the fault of individuals. Organized parties were frowned upon by eighteenth century liberals, including the American Founding Fathers. The Jacobins in particular saw no need for political opposition. Criticism was often a cloak for intrigue. Discussion of policy almost always passed into denunciation of motives. The ablest men in the Convention were busy with executive work; the hall was usually filled with second-raters, vain in their majesty as Representatives of the People, restless under the leadership of their colleagues on the committees, inclined to magnify trifles because important decisions were no longer made on the floor of the house. In the Convention still survived the old claim of legislators to be more important than the executive, the old suspicion of liberals toward the power of government, the old dislike of revolutionists for persons in authority.