Cordeliers

Cordeliers Club
Club des Cordeliers
PresidentsGeorges Danton
(1790–1791)
Pierre-François-Joseph Robert
(1791–1792)
Jacques Hébert
(1792–1794)
FoundersGeorges Danton
Camille Desmoulins
Founded27 April 1790; 234 years ago (1790-04-27)
Dissolved20 February 1795; 229 years ago (1795-02-20)
HeadquartersCordeliers Convent, Paris
NewspaperLe Vieux Cordelier (Dantonists)
Le Père Duchesne (Hébertists)
IdeologyJacobinism
Populism[1]
Direct democracy
Radicalism
Political positionLeft-wing to far-left
National affiliationThe Mountain (1792–1794)
Colours 
SloganLiberté, égalité, fraternité
("Liberty, equality, fraternity")
Party flag
Flag of the Cordeliers Battalion (1790)

The Society of the Friends of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (French: Société des Amis des droits de l'homme et du citoyen [sɔsjete dez‿ami de dʁwa lɔm e dy sitwajɛ̃]), mainly known as Cordeliers Club (French: Club des Cordeliers [klœb de kɔʁdəlje]), was a populist political club during the French Revolution from 1790 to 1794, when the Reign of Terror ended and the Thermidorian Reaction began.

The club campaigned for universal male suffrage and direct democracy, including the referendum. It energetically served as a watchdog looking for signs of abuse of power by the men in power. By 1793, it was challenging the centralization of power by Robespierre and his Committee of Public Safety. They responded by arresting the leadership, charging them with conspiring to overthrow the Convention. The leaders were guillotined, and the club disappeared.

  1. ^ Ian Davidson, ed. (2016). The French Revolution: From Enlightenment to Tyranny. Profile Books. p. XIV. ISBN 9781847659361. He was a sometime cabin boy and medical apprentice who had acquired a certain celebrity as an ultra-revolutionary speaker in the populist Cordeliers Club and had established his Revolutionary credentials as an enthusiastic participant in the preparations for the demonstrations of June 20 and August 10, 1792.