410 Chapter XVII
identified and socially classified by Soboul. Of those in the section committees,
that is the leaders, over half were shopkeepers, another tenth were of liberal pro-
fessions, and still another tenth lived from property or small incomes of their
own. Of ordinary sectionnaires, not members of committees, over half were shop-
keepers, and a fifth were wage- employees.
They burned with a new sense of equality, which Soboul finds to be their main
characteristic. They wanted respect and recognition. They “no longer accepted a sub-
ordinate position in social relations.” On holidays they flocked to the fashionable
boulevards which in the past they had avoided. “Citizens of poor outward appear-
ance,” in the words of an approving contemporary, “who in former times would not
have dared to show themselves in these places reserved for more elegant company,
were going for walks along with the rich, and holding their heads as high.”^7
They could not bear arrogance and disdain. Irony and elaborate speech aroused
their hostility. All above their own level they came to regard as “aristocrats.” “Gen-
tlemen” (les honnêtes gens) became a term to be used with sarcasm. A certain gold-
smith said he wished people with lace cuffs and hair- powder were dead. They made
a virtue of their long trousers, and a vice of breeches, and at the height of excitement
they advertised a few other peculiarities of dress, such as the red or “Phrygian” cap.
Since the difference between vous and tu was a genteel affectation, used to connote
class relations, they favored honest tutoiment by all persons—like the Quakers in the
use of English a century before. Their mood was one of tense expectation of better
things. The world would be better after the war, if the enemy were defeated. The
Revolution opened a new era for the common man. The imminent possibility of this
new era made strenuous exertion urgently necessary and worth while. Those who
opposed it were selfish and evil. Their tricks must be exposed. The hour for the ven-
geance of ages had arrived. In the popular outlook there was much that was naive
and credulously suspicious. It was easy to believe in any plot or in prison conspira-
cies, or that the common people might be betrayed by seeming friends among poli-
ticians. It was easy to be sarcastic about religion, or rough with priests, especially
those who became nervous at the thought of equality, or refused civic oaths, or
talked too much about social order and rewards in an afterlife.
These popular democrats had no developed economic ideas, but they took a
negative attitude toward the wealthy, and while not objecting to private property
believed that a more equal division of it was desirable. It is notable also, and more
new, that Soboul finds in the documents repeated demands for public schools,
more education for all, and vocational training. In general, in economic ideas, the
popular democrats looked backward rather than forward. They came to demand
more “equality of enjoyments,” but never thought in terms of higher production or
rising material standard of living. Though perhaps as much as half the Paris work-
ing class were wage- earners, attitudes were shaped by the artisan- shopkeeping
outlook. The sans- culottes favored small property, small business, small employers,
small workshops. They objected to business men, big merchants, financiers, com-
mercial capital, and stock companies. They wished to preserve an older economic
system against new forces by which they felt threatened.
7 Soboul, op.cit., 408, 660.