The feeling of the nation was clearly shown in the elections. Among
those who had sat in the Convention the anti-Jacobins were generally
preferred. A leader of the old Right was sometimes chosen by many
departments at once. Owing to this circumstance, 104 places reserved to
members of the Convention were left unfilled. When the persons elected
met they had no choice but to co-opt the 104 from the Left of the
Convention. The new one-third were, as a rule, enemies of the Jacobins,
but not of the Revolution. Many had been members of the Constituent or
of the Legislative Assembly. When the new legislature was complete, the
Jacobins had a majority, although a weak one. After the Council of the
Ancients had been chosen by lot, it remained to name the directors. For
its own security the Left resolved that all five must be old members of
the Convention and regicides. The persons chosen were Rewbell, Barras,
La Revelliere Lepeaux, Carnot and Letourneur. Rewbell was an able,
although unscrupulous, man of action, Barras a dissolute and shameless
adventurer, La Revelliere Lepeaux the chief of a new sect, the
Theophilanthropists, and therefore a bitter foe to other religions,
especially the Catholic. Severe integrity and memorable public services
raised Carnot far above his colleagues, but he was not a statesman and
was hampered by his past. Letourneur, a harmless insignificant person,
was his admirer and follower. The division in the legislature was
reproduced in the Directory. Rewbell, Barras and La Revelliere Lepeaux
had a full measure of the Jacobin spirit; Carnot and Letourneur favoured
a more temperate policy.
Character of the Directory.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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