The Enragés, though not a cohesive body, offered the working poor a platform to express their dissent. Their dissent was often conveyed through riots, public demonstrations and passionate oratory. Jacques Roux and Jean-Francois Varlet emboldened the Parisian working poor to approach the Jacobin Club on 22 February 1793 and persuade them to place price controls on necessary goods. The Enragés appointed two women to represent the movement and their agenda to the National Convention. However, the National Convention refused to grant them an audience. This provoked outrage and criticism throughout Paris and some went as far as to accuse the National Convention of protecting the merchant elite's interests at the expense of the sans-culottes. Further attempts for the Enragés to communicate their position were denied by the National Convention. Determined to be heard, they responded with revolt. They plundered the homes and businesses of the merchant elite, employing direct action to meet their needs. The Enragés were noted for using legal and extra legal means to achieve their ends. The Enragés were composed of members within the National Convention and the sans-culottes. They illuminated the internal and external war waged by the sans-culottes. They complained that the National Convention ordered men to fight on the battlefield without providing for the widows and orphans remaining in France. They emphasized the unavailability of basic necessities, particularly bread. In his Manifesto of the Enragés, Jacques Roux colorfully expressed this sentiment to the National Convention, stating: "Is it necessary that the widows of those who died for the cause of freedom pay, at the price of gold, for the cotton they need to wipe away their tears, for the milk and the honey that serves for their children?". They accused the merchant aristocracy of withholding access to goods and supplies to intentionally drive up prices. Roux demanded that the National Convention impose capital punishment upon unethical merchants who used speculation, monopolies and hoarding to increase their personal profits at the expense of the poor. The Enragés labeled price gouging as counter-revolutionary and treason. This sentiment extended to those who sympathized with the recently executed King Louis XVI. They felt that those who sympathized with the monarchy would also sympathize with those who hoarded goods. It is not surprising that many within the Enragés actively worked against the Girondin faction and indeed they contributed to the demise of the moderate Girondins, who had fought to