This was the original cause of his rupture with the Girondists; their justice was but policy, and war appeared to them politic.

Just or unjust, they wished for it as a means of destruction to the throne, of aggrandisement for themselves.

Posterity must decide, if in this great quarrel the first blame lies on the side of the democrat, or the ambitious Girondists.

This fierce contest, destined to terminate in the death of both parties, began on the 12th of December at a meeting of the Jacobin Club.
V.
"I have meditated during six months, and even from the first day of the Revolution," said Brissot, the leader of the Gironde, "to what party I should give my support.

It is by the force of reason, and by considering facts, that I have come to the conviction that a people, who, after ten centuries of slavery, have re-conquered liberty, have need of war.