Page "Jacobin" Paragraph 19

The Jacobin movement encouraged sentiments of patriotism and liberty amongst the populace.

The movement's contemporaries, such as the King Louis XVI, located the effectiveness of the revolutionary movement not " in the force and bayonets of soldiers, guns, cannons and shells but by the marks of political power " ( Schama ; 1989 ; 279 ).

Ultimately, the Jacobins were to control several key political bodies, in particular the Committee of Public Safety and, through it, the National Convention, which was not only a legislature but also took upon itself executive and judicial functions.

The Jacobins as a political force were seen as " less selfish, more patriotic, and more sympathetic to the Paris Populace " ( Bosher ; 1989 ; 186 ).

This gave them a position of charismatic authority that was effective in generating and harnessing public pressure, generating and satisfying sans-culotte pleas for personal freedom and social progress.