"The Republic is proclaimed!"
watercolor by Pierre-Eugène Lacoste, 1848.
"After the big bang that God has struck, and who upset a powerful state against all expectations, when the advice of a king renowned for his skill and foresight have been suddenly blinded when bloody disaster, while appearing calm and sedate the kingdom, was again an unrelenting struggle, and that in less than twelve hours the royal power was overthrown, it would be foolish for man to prepare claim the future in his mind, and say: This is what will be! God! what are you doing up there, you who by traits so unexpected, so invisible, by this we will only know the effects, reliefs? what seemed most deeply buried in the earth, hunting kings, some men push the crowd to power, and unalterable, leave all the trouble and the wait! My God! we are small, and you're tall!
La France was in the doldrums, the world anxiously wondering. What! themselves as nations, corrupting the government has been so strong that not only he tamed garlic who approached and served, but he shot and sleepy this generous people in whom nothing moves, not a scream, not a breath! The days of France they are finished? But no, suddenly and unexpectedly without anyone, the people down gets up, and it is united. They all look, they cry: Walk! more corruption! more kings! The arms were stolen from the sails to pieces, uprooted paving stones, cut down trees, ripped the iron bars. These people were the same as it was fifty years ago, as spontaneous, as indignant as alive and he was free!
King Louis-Philippe was ousted in three days as King Charles X, but both have not had the same requirement in their departures. One was escorted by deputies who escorted her majesty fell, he went into a unit still royal that was the last act of a great and noble tragedy. The other fled precipitately from his palace, without farewell, without guides, and it was stolen in mid-roaring riot popular: it was the first stage of a drama that began with violent angry, feverish convulsions, and makes us expect unaccustomed adventures.
It is done in half the vow of a worker's Midi: My God! So do drop a powder day and time of fire, and all is said ! All is not said, we're still too close to the shock that we were overwhelmed, just now we will begin to feel the first effects. But today, what we can, what we need is, considering the events from the passions of immortal man, listening to this great popular rumor that envelops us, and requesting the Providence give us good will and faith, is to summon all the spirits of the union, to calm the unrest swept away, talking to governments of their obligations to the peoples of their duties and provide all the advice we dictate our patriotism and our consciousness. We do not deal with pleasure, but to serve. Useful advice, as stated Massillon, councils are rarely pleasant.
In one day, in one evening, royalty was abolished, a provisional government was established, the Republic proclaimed. Men, almost all known and admired nation in various capacities, have been responsible for for the moment, to destroy and to preserve, build and prepare. In a few days, pressed by the demands precipitated and incessant, they have accumulated acts marked with wisdom and moderation, and yet the public, eager, anxious, scatters into a thousand conflicting rumors, the expected things the most contrary: we fear the storm, we hope the sun.
There is only one necessary, there should be only one thought: unity! And that's why we come here to seek what is true in the fears and hopes, assured in advance that the fears are almost all in vain, that their expectations will actually and it will suffice to show the truth so that the weak are strengthened, so that the strengths remain, and all cry the same impulse: we wanted to be free, and we deserve to be shared by our will!
Destroy fears first and we will be more comfortable in expressing our hopes.
There may be three kinds of fears: fears immediately, those that occur gradually, and those who hold the very foundation of our character and our moral situation.
What some people fear, and what is point to fear is lack of money and the distress of trade, the influence of opposite parties, underground communists, the resemblance to 93, the general war, a military despotism, then the abuse of strength of the armed people.
's no shortage of money and will not fail, and a considerable treasure in the hands of the government; unforeseen needs were forced to pay unexpected expenses, but transient, distributions will cease bread as the main work started the mass decrease of the needy. The National Guard is moving dearly paid, it is true, but the reduction Army will establish a compensation, even if it does benefit. By a remarkable wisdom, no significant tax has been abolished, first because the government did not have the right then because he had to cope with expenses. The new Republic did not, as the Consulate, found all disorganized, here, on the contrary, everything is organized. It is not, as the July Monarchy in 1830, without soldiers, without finances, when all Europe seemed to declare war on us, and he was immediately create an army and yet so we do are drawn and people were moved to award a while then everything went its usual course. Today services are provided, government work, no disorder has destroyed a single resource; revolution was never in better conditions.
trade will suffer no more, we have not seen, and in 1830, quickly migrate foreigners, the rich, the nobles, they abandoned the city because they fear the people and hate the new government. Nothing like it in these days. The conduct of the people was so heroic and so calm at the time, far from being afraid, is admired; the Republic was a party hosted by rich with many a favor and cheer as foreigners are not reassured parties: indeed, these nobles and rich have understood the circumstances the duty imposed on them: it is up it must come the example of trust. Already festivals in the Faubourg Saint-Germain are announced; quoting the days selected by large houses with the holidays, movement, purchases, exchanges, trade. It is quiet, we're happy, and we want to prove to everyone.
When we say that Legitimists are happy, it means they are above the overthrow of Louis-Philippe: they rejoice to see a deceiver wrong, yet when they knew that the Republic guarantees order and property, they applauded the first to establish a government wise, strong and moderate: it is not home yet that the Republic would have to watch as his enemies.
Men who do not finish, but that start, they are communists and socialists. It has existed in recent years, a man who believed he had found the word of an unknown civilization and infinite, which gave the principle of universal association, which has established relationships, conditions and consequences. In his wide brain the world was created in great detail and has touched on everything: government, religion, family, everything he has broken into a thousand pieces, and taking the inverse of what was there, he expanded on the the vast universe and complete network of the universal society. There was not distracted, and every man has had its place, each share her moment of the day, each life goal. The company was assembled like a big machine with all the movements are planned, and the man was able to glimpse into the future, set and marked in figures mathematics, invariable, the realization of the eternal existence of mankind.
But foolish pride and blindness! To make this work, which traced the man to his fate in the centuries, the genius of Fourier was forced to ignore half the man he opened a deep route, and the man had to walk to the end, without being able to deflect and was pushed to the point on the rails of iron is in prison he was taken away to happiness. To attempt to do what God does by his own will, Fourier took the toughest iron rod of tyrants, he had taken from man his freedom.
But no Utopia is completely unnecessary, he remained of this great dream a fair and fruitful association, and it is just because it is the first application of the larger principle that has never been proclaimed on earth, the brotherhood, or, say the word of Christ, love, love! Associate, is to practice the Gospel.
Communists are only the exaggeration of the socialist school, they have pushed to the extreme consequences, but also their means, are the most absolute rigor. Here, more freedom, more willpower; all for the town, nothing for himself. It is permitted to remain idle, you are not working, you're punished, you are safe to eat, but you are attached. This is the story of the dog door fat in the footsteps of his neck collar, the wolf prefer to stay lean and free. The people are like the wolf, he wants to remain free. It was a great noise of communism and is less extensive than has been said, there communists, and even in small numbers, as in large cities and Paris. In days of February they had a barricade on eight miles. The province does not know and do not want, assuming they were attempting a movement, thinks that it would remain quiet, all these small towns where the bourgeois master-workers, almost all the artisans, are the owners of a field, a vine or a piece of land? Less you have, the more is its property. "I noticed, Pascal said, that however poor we may be, we always left a legacy." And everyone wants a legacy. The property is the natural right. I understand that we had concerns in England, where twenty-five thousand privileged have the floor, but in France, where we have six million homeowners, there are six million soldiers against the Communists. With such an army of passionate interest, I have no fear of the Communists.
Renewal of Terror is no more to be feared, it would have the power or even people who did, and power, by his actions, proves that he does not want it, the people, their ideas, can not do. The government first declared its noble intentions in abolishing the death penalty for political crimes, and that decision, the National Assembly not only confirm, but complement, it will abolish the death penalty in all cases hopefully, we think. As for the people, the people of 1848 is not that of 93. If we want to match our first revolution, understand it! The people has none of the conditions of the Revolution or the lowering unheard or inequality in any established, nor misery invengées nor a necessary fight against caste mistress absolute nor fury amassed over the centuries. Other ideas, the other needs are growing, and these are new ideas. The opinions of the aged have tendency to assert its domination by the blood of the young ideas are generous, confident, liberal and they do not want violence, born in the morning, they have the future together, but the serene, the blue eyes, smiling and they seem to say: Come unto me, they call love, and we come to them.
We are not asking for war: we know what it entails misery, even happy, we will not attack Europe. "Yesterday we said to Europe, eloquently exclaimed one member of the government, Marrast, leave us in peace, and we will be wise! Today we say: we will remain in peace if you're good!" Yet the war is perhaps inevitable, perhaps for the two nationalities in Poland and Italy, we go down the other side of the Alps and the Rhine. But without speaking here WE shall see later, the role of the beautiful and divine mission that France will then u fill vis-à-vis other nations, as we look, beyond the war should scare us, it will be useful, it might save us! We need movement, human activity requires effort proportional to its energy: or struggles against nature, as the young America continually encroaching on its huge forests and subduing the giant, son of the earth, or battle of man against man. We are not a people to fall into apathy, we are a passionate people, if we stayed home, in the hare which agitates us, unoccupied, perhaps we should descend into the street and we'd wars civilians. No war, if we're not attacked, but it comes from, everyone can find room for his impatience and his flame, and the government will be easy: we glory with freedom!
But if we glory was worth a military despot! No! we are not in Prussia, to believe that a man in uniform is only a man dressed as a bourgeois we had a military despot, that's enough prestige has fallen, it would be strange when we do believes in the crown, they believed in the sword. Today a general is nothing if not that large. Only those who have had a value real, Foy, Lamarque, etc.., had the name of a soldier, the laurel of glory, they did bloom again in the warm atmosphere of public meetings and they were great because they were great citizens!
Finally, some would have us present the armed people as a scarecrow, and these men in overalls wearing a gun, the crowd that has a sword or a bayonet removed in battle, the guns of the Hotel de Ville kept by children frighten the timid. Their fear stems from their ignorance, they do not know the people, they have probably seen or at the barricades, or the day after the victory. Barricades to the people were impatient eagerness, ready to brave a thousand deaths, and at the same time, generous, confident, and he called for advice, he chose to head any man who seemed to combine and think. He did not deceive himself, he had the candor, the virtue of children. All forces were seething in his soul, and he knew how to use them, he felt his arm, he asked the head.
After the fight, when the blood was still smoking and that the rumor of his anger rumbled in the air, he's suddenly changed, he is master, he is strong: he wants the order, once it own it makes the police, he stopped the looting, he took the thieves and makes justice as it is no longer armed people, he is as guardian of national ownership and peace.
A crucifix is removed from the Tuileries, and these men, drunk with battle, discover their forehead and make the Lord of all a grand procession and gathered, and they probably felt that it was not they who had conquered that nothing had been done after a plan and a human will. This revolution so sudden, so unexpected, almost impossible, she had been conducted as the upheaval of the earth. A crack had sounds: some were thrown to the right, others left, the Kings pushed to a distant shore, the people made such a flow to the foot of the throne. It was a deluge; the whereabouts of the land stretched the ocean, and the great hand of God was hovering over the world.
It must be said, we will discuss later faults of the people, here it is only his virtues to all parts of the French nation, the people is where the religious sentiment is most alive. The upper classes were religious or political in memory, a few by a major science. Power and those who conducted the review, speakers, advertisers, teachers, defended the religion in their speeches because they knew in principle that it was necessary. They foresaw what would result from the freedom without counterweight, and they put forward the religion so that the spirits were struck by the prestige of a power which is above man, but it was an assignment . We were talking about Christianity in Parliament and in the newspapers at the time of Louis XIV, because, under Louis XIV, the rulers were engaged in worship, and the disdain than ours. As for the middle class, not the direction of the upper classes, ideas irreligion of the eighteenth century had passed her home state of prejudice, she had felt the need to rise to God nor gratitude, nor suffering, it is regulated by a moral easy that was neither life nor virtue, and, sitting in a trust ignorant, invigorating in its isolation and selfishness, she laughed at the law of charity and brotherhood, without foreseeing that this law is the only force that prevents the company from collapse and disperse into a thousand fragments.
But the people are religious by instinct, because he suffers, because they expect because he hopes, he invokes God, he talks to God, he believes in God, as he sucks the air as it warms in the sun. The feeling of religion is the sense of human dignity, a slave can be superstitious, only a free people is religious. Also, when he was called upon to act, the people have shown what was naturally imbued with the instinct of order and majesty of the meetings. When his delegates convened to address the most pressing interests, we saw these workers, handlers of rough wood and iron, to sit quietly on the chairs occupied yesterday by the leaders the aristocracy of France, and moderate in power occurred without preparation, strongly present their claims, listen in silence responses and challenges, discuss without passion, propose and adopt conciliatory measures, arrangements for the medium term which one might have thought that the people were unable to appreciate the delicate foresight. Almost simultaneously with the writers and artists gathered for poor issues and committee chair, and the assembly workers outweighed these heralds of intelligence, in reserve, propriety, wisdom and dignity. We called to honor the people, and it was right. Whenever we have confidence in him, he will be capable of anything.
The immediate fears are false and there may be some doubt as to inspire those events that are going to succeed.
could fear that the government, not persisting in the conservative way it held, was not driven to violent measures, and that the National Assembly will not be influenced by passions excessive shyness fear, anger or interest.
So far the government has been supported by public opinion was especially faith in some men of eminent talent and a lovely character, the measures the government has taken have been marked with a firmness moderate and restrained. He has not destroyed, he has pushed public functions that a small number of men. He skillfully arranged, without boasting or weakness, parties and classes, a single decree, the abolition of titles of nobility excited claims: that act is insignificant elsewhere, and the enlightened patriotism of government, dedication tireless in public affairs, language high calm and everything together, this moderation that came to impetuous men once they had learned the difficulties of power, are quite reassuring brand of good faith of its intentions and its persistent efforts, this does depend on the future. "
Eugene Loudun (pseudonym of Eugene Balleyguier , 1818-1898) ,
" From the present and the future of the revolution. " Correspondent , t. XXI, March 10, 1848.
The following article by Eugene Loudun is found by clicking the following link:
http://aimable-faubourien.blogspot.com/2011/01/on-murit-vite-par-les-revolutions-e.html
http://aimable-faubourien.blogspot.com/2011/01/on-murit-vite-par-les-revolutions-e.html
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