It urges the need of united action under the lead of the Jacobins.

The officer reminds the Marseillais of the great services which their city has rendered to the cause of liberty.

Let Marseilles never disgrace herself by calling in the Spanish fleet as a protection against Frenchmen.

Let her remember that this civil strife was part of a fight to the death between French patriots and the despots of Europe.

That was, indeed, the practical point at issue; the stern logic of facts ranged on the Jacobin side all clear-sighted men who were determined that the Revolution should not be stamped out by the foreign invaders.
On the ground of mere expediency, men must rally to the cause of the Jacobinical Republic.