With their eyes on the spectacular but fundamentally superficial display of national unity that unfolded at the Fête de la Fédération of July 14, 1790, historians have traditionally described Lafayette as being at “the zenith of his influence” during the summer of 1790. However, in direct contrast to January–February 1790, when an intact Fayettist coalition was able to secure a wide range of support for the Favras–Besenval judicial compromise, the summer of 1790 was actually marked by a clear deterioration of the Parisian General's ability to serve as the centerpiece of a broad revolutionary coalition.

As Brissot, in his turn, would discover in 1792–3, it is very difficult to present oneself as a centrist without being solidly anchored by viable political forces on both left and right. With this in mind, the Châtelet's aggressiveness in the October Days affair might be seen as an attempt by the Fayettist regime to prop up and accommodate a Monarchien faction which could not be allowed to continue its relentless slide into political oblivion and counter-revolution. Along the same lines, Lafayette's support for Saint-Priest in the Marseilles affair, which was only one of a series of incidents in spring–summer 1790 in which the Parisian General defended beleaguered royal army officers and officials, can also be regarded as an effort to preserve a viable anchor on the right.