- Seen as ultra-radical revolutionary group later on

- Founded after 1789 Estates-General in Versailles

- Originally composed solely of deputies from Brittany

- Some of the earliest members: Mirabeau [a renowned orator], Abbé Sieyès [author of What is the Third Estate?, a later member of the Directory, conspirator with Napoleon during the Coup of 18 Brumaire, the original Second Consul during the Consulate,
and then president of the Senate], Antoine Barnave [one of the most influential orators of the Revolution], Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve [president
of the Constituent Assembly, second mayor of Paris, first president of
the Convention for Eure-et-Loir, and member of the first Committee of
Public Safety; later jealousy of Robespierre led him to become a
Girondin], Maximilien Robespierre [see below], Louis de Saint-Just [close friend to Maximilien Robespierre and a member of the Committee of Public Safety], and Joseph Fouché [who would later become Napoleon’s Minister of Police]

- It’s members would eventually include the Louis Philippe, the future king of France

- During the National Constituent Assembly, the club gathered in the Jacobin Church on Rue St. Honoré

o ‘Jacobin’ was a term used to refer to Dominicans, because their first church in Paris was on Rue St. Jacques

o The Jacobin Club was named after the Jacobin Church it gathered in

- After the promulgation of the constitution of 1791, the club was titled Société des amis de la constitution séants aux Jacobins a Paris

- Name changed on 21 September 1792 [after the fall of the monarchy] to Société des Jacobins, amis de la liberté et de l’égalité

- The Club’s objects:

o 1. To discuss in advance questions to be decided by the National Assembly

o 2. To work for the establishment and strengthening of the constitution in accordance with the spirit of the preamble (that is, of respect for
legally constituted authority and the Rights of Man)

o 3. To correspond with other societies of the same kind which should be formed in the realm

- Organization

o President: elected monthly

o 4 Secretaries

o A Treasurer

o Committees elected to superintend elections and presentations, the correspondence, and the administration of the club

- They had a policy of admitting similar societies in France as associates, which quickly gave them branches all across the country

o This gave them a widespread yet highly centralized organization, which lent to their growing power

- Could dismiss members who were seen as acting against the constitution or the Rights of Man

- Maximilien Robespierre: the driving force behind the Jacobin party

o The ‘oracle of political wisdom

o Strict on ‘virtue’; later advocates justice through terror

- Centralized Republic concentrating more on collective rights of man than on personal rights

- Few in number but well organized, unlike the rest of the parties during the time

- Most members were well-to-do for their class

- Lost power after the execution of Robespierre