 At first , the revolutionaries used the constitutional machinery of the old confederal republic . They resumed where they had left off after the purge in 1787 of Patriot regents , taking over the offices of the Orangist regents that were now purged in their turn . Though the political make @-@ up of the States @-@ General changed appreciably because of this change in personnel , it retained a number of defenders of the old particularist interests . The first order of business of the revolutionaries therefore was to strive for the reform of the confederal state , with its discrimination of the Generality Lands , and of particular minorities ( Catholics , Jews ) , in the direction of a unitary state , in which the minorities would be emancipated , and the old entrenched interests superseded by a more democratic political order . As a first step the representatives of Brabant were admitted to the States @-@ General . 
