Men who cannot find time once in three months to drop a ballot in the box, will not come three times a week to attend the meetings of a club.

Far from meddling with the government, they abdicate, and as they refuse to elect it, they cannot undertake to control it.
It is, on the other hand, just the opposite with the upstarts and dogmatists who regard their royal privileges seriously.

They not only vote at the elections, but they mean to keep the authority they delegate in their own hands.

In their eyes every official is one of their creatures, and remains accountable to them, for, in point of law, the people may not part with their sovereignty, while, in fact, power has proved so sweet that they are not disposed to part with it.[1213] During six months preceding the regular elections, they have come to know, comprehend, and test each other; they have held secret meetings; a mutual understanding is arrived at, and henceforth, as other associations disappear like fleeting bloom, theirs[1214] rise vigorously on the abandoned soil.

A club is established at Marseilles before the end of 1789; each large town has one within the first six months of 1790, Aix in February, Montpellier in March, Nimes in April, Lyons in May, and Bordeaux in June.[1215] But their greatest increase takes place after the Federation festival.