Editing French Directory (section)

=== Babeuf's Conspiracy of the Equals ===
{{main|Conspiracy of the Equals}}
[[File:François-Noël Babeuf.jpg|thumb|[[François Noël Babeuf]], engraving by François Bonneville, 1794 (BNF, Département des Estampes)]]
[[File:Attaque camp de Grenelle.jpeg|thumb|Attack by the followers of Babeuf on the army camp of Grenelle on 9 and 10 September 1796. Drawing by [[Abraham Girardet]], engraving by Pierre-Gabriel Berthault, 1802. (BNF, Département des Estampes)]]
In 1795, the Directory faced a new threat from the left, from the followers of [[François Noël Babeuf]], a talented political agitator who took the name ''Gracchus'' and was the organizer of what became known as the [[Conspiracy of the Equals]]. Babeuf had, since 1789, been drawn to the Agrarian Law, an agrarian reform preconized by the ancient Roman brothers, [[Gracchi|Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus]], of sharing [[Common ownership|goods in common]], as means of achieving economic equality. By the time of the [[Fall of Maximilien Robespierre|fall of Robespierre]], he had abandoned this as an impractical scheme and was moving towards a more complex plan.<ref>John Hall Stewart, ''A Documentary Survey of the French Revolution'' (1951) pp. 654–657</ref> Babeuf did not call for the abolition of private property, and wrote that peasants should own their own plots of land, but he advocated that all wealth should be shared equally: all citizens who were able would be required to work, and all would receive the same income. Babeuf did not believe that the mass of French citizens was ready for self-government; accordingly, he proposed a dictatorship under his leadership until the people were educated enough to take charge. "People!", Babeuf wrote. "Breathe, see, recognize your guide, your defender.... Your tribune presents himself with confidence."{{sfn|Lefebvre|1977|p=189}}

At first, Babeuf's following was small; the readers of his newspaper, ''Le Tribun du peuple'' ("The Tribune of the People"), were mostly middle-class far-left Jacobins who had been excluded from the new government. However, his popularity increased in the working-class of the capital with the drop in value of the ''assignats'', which rapidly resulted in the decrease of wages and the rise of food prices. Beginning in October 1795, he allied himself with the most radical Jacobins, and on 29 March 1796 formed the ''Directoire secret des Égaux'' ("Secret Directory of Equals"), which proposed to "revolutionize the people" through pamphlets and placards, and eventually to overthrow the government. He formed an alliance of utopian socialists and radical Jacobins, including [[Félix Lepeletier]], [[Pierre-Antoine Antonelle]], [[Sylvain Marechal]], [[Jean-Pierre-André Amar]] and [[Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet]]. The Conspiracy of Equals was organized in a novel way: in the center was Babeuf and the Secret Directory, who hid their identities, and shared information with other members of the Conspiracy only via trusted intermediaries. This conspiratorial structure was later adopted by Marxist movements. Despite his precautions, the Directory infiltrated an agent into the conspiracy, and was fully informed of what he was doing.<ref>R. B. Rose, ''Gracchus Babeuf: The First Revolutionary Communist'' (Stanford University Press, 1978)</ref> Bonaparte, the newly named commander of the [[Army of the Interior]], was ordered to close the [[Panthéon Club]], the major meeting place for the Jacobins in Paris, which he did on 27 February 1796. The Directory took other measures to prevent an uprising; the Legion of Police (''légion de police''), a local police force dominated by Jacobins, was forced to become a part of the Army, and the Army organized a mobile column to patrol the neighborhoods and stop uprisings.{{sfn|Lefebvre|1977|pp=192–194}}

Before Babeuf and his conspiracy could strike, he was betrayed by a police spy and arrested in his hiding place on 10 May 1796. Though he was a talented agitator, he was a very poor conspirator; with him in his hiding place were the complete records of the conspiracy, with all of the names of the conspirators. Despite this setback, the conspiracy went ahead with the [[Grenelle camp affair]]. On the night of 9–10 September 1796, between 400 and 700 Jacobins went to the 21st Regiment of Dragoons (''21e régiment de dragons'') army camp at [[Grenelle]] and tried to incite an armed rebellion against the Directory. At the same time a column of militants was formed in the working-class neighborhoods of Paris to march on the Luxembourg Palace, headquarters of the Directory. Director Carnot had been informed the night before by the commander of the camp, and a unit of dragoons was ready. When the attack began at about ten o'clock, the dragoons appeared suddenly and charged. About twenty Jacobins were killed, and the others arrested. The column of militants, learning what had happened, disbanded in confusion. The widespread arrest of Babeuf's militants and Jacobins followed. The practice of arresting suspects at their homes at night, stopped after the downfall of Robespierre, was resumed on this occasion.

Despite his arrest, Babeuf, in jail, still felt he could negotiate with the government. He wrote to the Directory: "Citizen Directors, why don't you look above yourselves and treat with me as with an equal power? You have seen now the vast confidence of which I am the center... this view makes you tremble."{{sfn|Lefebvre|1977|p=199}} Several attempts were made by Babeuf's followers to free him from prison. He was finally moved to [[Vendôme]] for trial. The Directory did not tremble. The accused Jacobins were tried by military courts between 19 September and 27 October. Thirty Jacobins, including three former deputies of the Convention, were convicted and guillotined. Babeuf and his principal followers were tried in Vendôme between 20 February and 26 May 1797. The two principal leaders, Babeuf and [[Augustin Alexandre Darthé]], were convicted. They both attempted suicide, but failed and were guillotined on 27 May 1797. However, in the following months, the Directory and Councils gradually turned away from the royalist right and tried to find new allies on the left.{{sfn|Lefebvre|1977|p=199}}<ref>Doyle, ''Oxford History,'' pp. 324–326</ref><ref>George Rude, ''The French Revolution: Its Causes, Its History and Its Legacy After 200 Years'' (1991) p. 122</ref>