War and the Second Revolution^457
(Left) Georges-Jacques Danton. (Right) Maximilien Robespierre.
The leaders of the Parisian population—Danton, Marat, and Maximilien
Robespierre—were Jacobins who had given up on the idea that a constitu
tional monarchy could adequately guarantee the liberties of the people.
Elections brought to Paris a Legislative Assembly, which met on October 1,
- It replaced the Constituent Assembly, which had dissolved following
the proclamation of the constitution the previous month. Republicans—
now identified with the 'left” as monarchists were with the “right,” due to
the location of the seats each group occupied in the Assembly—became a
majority in March 1792.
In the meantime, French emigres at the Austrian and Prussian courts
were encouraging foreign intervention to restore Louis XVI to full monar
chical authority. The republican followers of Jacques-Pierre Brissot
(1754-1793), former radical pamphleteer and police spy as well as a flam
boyant orator, called for a war to free Europe from the tyranny of monar
chy and nobility. The members of this faction became known as the
Girondins because many were from the district of Gironde, in which the
major Atlantic port of Bordeaux is located. Under Girondin leadership,
the Assembly’s proclamations took on a more aggressive tone. The French
declaration of war against Austria led to the Second Revolution, the for
mation of a republic, and, ultimately, a Jacobin-dominated dictatorship,
which imposed the “Terror.”