"The general opinion ever since the commencement of the revolution, that the most audacious and unreasonable faction would always predominate, was from that moment verified. The Girondists, however, maintained the contest with courage, and very often had majorities in the assembly during all the months of March, April, and May. But the party of the Mountaineers had recourse, in these circumstances, to an expedient which it had constantly employed. On the 31st of May, the fate of the Girondists was decided by an insurrection of the sections of Paris. Twenty-seven were arrested, brought before the revolutionary tribunal, and sentenced to death; seventy-three were thrown into prison, and from that period the triumphant Mountain had no obstacles to encounter in the Convention. Several Girondist deputies took refuge, however, at Caen, and there raised the standard of insurrection. Lyons, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Montpellier, and several towns of Brittany, embraced cause of this party, and also took up arms against the the Convention.
"All these unconnected efforts were of no avail against the capital, and the Mountain remained in tranquil possession of the national tribune. A circumstance altogether singular contributed to confirm the preponderance of Paris. It was the assignats, then the only resource for supplying the treasury; not a single tax was then paid.
"The provinces learnt with considerable emotion the event of the 31st of May, and the death of the most celebrated of the Girondist party. The armies were not agitated by these results; they took no share in the insurrections of some provinces, and remained all attached to the Convention and the dominant party at Paris.
"When the partial insurrection of certain towns in favour of the Girondists was known, all the armies had already taken the oath and testified their adhesion to the Mountain; besides, in the eyes of Frenchmen, Paris was France. Neither did the departments of Alsace, la Moselle, Flanders, Franche Comté, and Dauphiné, where the principal forces of the republic were quartered, sympathize in the feelings of the federalist towns.
“The 31st of May deprived France of men of great talents, zealously attached to liberty, and the principles of the revolution. The catastrophe might afflict the well disposed, but could not surprise them. It was impossible for an assembly, which had extricated France from the critical situation to which she was reduced, to carry on public business with two parties so inveterately and irreconcileably opposed. It was necessary for the safety of the republic that one should extinguish the other, and there can be no doubt that, had the Girondists obtained the victory, they would have consigned their adversaries to the scaffold.”