French Second Republic
Encyclopedia
The French Second Republic (or simply the Second Republic) was the republican government of France between the 1848 Revolution and the coup by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte
which initiated the Second Empire
. It officially adopted the motto Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
. The Second Republic witnessed the tension between the "Social and Democratic Republic" and a liberal form of Republic, which exploded during the June Days Uprising
of 1848.
On 23 February 1848 Guizot's cabinet resigned, abandoned by the petite bourgeoisie
, on whose support they thought they could depend. The heads of the Left Centre and the dynastic Left, Molé and Thiers
, declined the offered leadership. Odilon Barrot
accepted it, and Bugeaud
, commander-in-chief of the first military division, who had begun to attack the barricades, was recalled. In the face of the insurrection which had now taken possession of the whole capital, Louis-Philippe decided to abdicate in favour of his grandson, Philippe, comte de Paris
.
in the name of the provisional government elected by the Chamber under the pressure of the mob.
This provisional government
with Dupont de l'Eure
as its president, consisted of Lamartine
for foreign affairs, Crémieux
for justice, Ledru-Rollin
for the interior, Carnot
for public instruction, Goudchaux for finance, Arago
for the navy, and Burdeau for war. Garnier-Pagès
was mayor of Paris.
But, as in 1830, the republican-socialist party had set up a rival government at the Hôtel de Ville
(city hall), including Louis Blanc
, Armand Marrast
, Ferdinand Flocon, and the Albert l'Ouvrier
("Albert the Worker"), which bid fair to involve discord and civil war. But this time the Palais Bourbon
was not victorious over the Hôtel de Ville. It had to consent to a fusion of the two bodies, in which, however, the predominating elements were the moderate republicans. It was uncertain what the policy of the new government would be.
One party seeing that in spite of the changes in the last sixty years of all political institutions the position of the people had not been improved, demanded a reform of society itself, the abolition of the privileged position of property, the only obstacle to equality, and as an emblem hoisted the red flag
(the 1791 red flag was, however, the symbol not merely of the French Revolution
, but rather of martial law and of order). The other party wished to maintain society on the basis of its ancient institutions, and rallied round the tricolore. As a concession made by Lamartine to popular aspirations, and in exchange of the maintaining of the tricolor flag, he conceded the Republican triptych of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
, written on the flag, on which a red rosette was also to be added.
The first collision took place as to the form which the 1848 Revolution was to take. Were they to remain faithful to their original principles, as Lamartine wished, and accept the decision of the country as supreme, or were they, as the revolutionaries under Ledru-Rollin claimed, to declare the republic of Paris superior to the universal manhood suffrage
of an insufficiently educated people? On 5 March the government, under the pressure of the Parisian clubs, decided in favour of an immediate reference to the people, and direct universal suffrage, and adjourned it till 26 April. In this fateful and unexpected decision, which instead of adding to the electorate the educated classes, refused by Guizot, admitted to it the unqualified masses, originated the Constituent Assembly
of 4 May 1848. The provisional government having resigned, the republican and anti-socialist majority on the 9 May entrusted the supreme power to an Executive Commission
consisting of five members: Arago, Pierre Marie de Saint-Georges, Garnier-Pagès
, Lamartine and Ledru-Rollin. But the spell was already broken. This revolution which had been peacefully effected with the most generous aspirations, in the hope of abolishing poverty by organizing industry on other bases than those of competition and capitalism, and which had at once aroused the fraternal sympathy of the nations, was doomed to be abortive.
The result of the general election, the return of a constituent assembly predominantly moderate if not monarchical, dashed the hopes of those who had looked for the establishment, by a peaceful revolution, of their ideal socialist state; but they were not prepared to yield without a struggle, and in Paris itself they commanded a formidable force. In spite of the preponderance of the "tricolour" party in the provisional government, so long as the voice of France had not spoken, the socialists, supported by the Parisian proletariat, had exercised an influence on policy out of all proportion to their relative numbers or personal weight. By the decree of 24 February, the provisional government had solemnly accepted the principle of the "right to work," and decided to establish "national workshops
" for the unemployed; at the same time a sort of industrial parliament was established at the Luxembourg Palace
, under the presidency of Louis Blanc
, with the object of preparing a scheme for the organization of labour; and, lastly, by the decree of 8 March, the property qualification for enrolment in the National Guard
had been abolished and the workmen were supplied with arms. The socialists thus formed, in some sort, a state within the state, with a government, an organisation and an armed force.
In the circumstances, a conflict was inevitable; and on 15 May, an armed mob, headed by Raspail
, Blanqui
and Barbès
, and assisted by the proletariat Guard, attempted to overwhelm the Assembly. They were defeated by the bourgeois battalions of the National Guard; but the situation nonetheless remained highly critical. The national workshops were producing the results that might have been foreseen. It was impossible to provide remunerative work even for the genuine unemployed, and of the thousands who applied the greater number were employed in perfectly useless digging and refilling; soon even this expedient failed, and those for whom work could not be invented were given a half wage of 1 franc
a day. Even this pitiful dole, with no obligation to work, proved attractive, and all over France workmen threw up their jobs and streamed to Paris, where they swelled the ranks of the army under the red flag. It was soon clear that the continuance of this experiment would mean financial ruin; it had been proved by the émeute of 15 May, that it constituted a perpetual menace to the state; and the government decided to end it. The method chosen was scarcely a happy one.
On 21 June, Alfred de Falloux
decided in the name of the parliamentary commission on labour that the workmen should be discharged within three days and such as were able-bodied should be forced to enlist.
The June Days Uprising
broke out at once, during 24—26 June, when the eastern industrial quarter of Paris, led by Pujol
, fought the western quarter, led by Cavaignac, who had been appointed dictator
. The socialist party was vanquished by fighting and afterwards by deportation, but they dragged down the Republic in their ruin. It had already become unpopular with the peasants, exasperated by the newland tax of 45 centimes imposed in order to fill the empty treasury, and with the bourgeois, in terror of the power of the revolutionary clubs and hard hit by the stagnation of business. By the "massacres" of the June Days the working classes were also alienated from it; and abiding fear of the "Reds" did the rest. The Duke of Wellington
wrote at this time, "France needs a Napoleon! I cannot yet see him..." The granting of universal suffrage to a society with Imperialist sympathies, and unfitted to reconcile the principles of order with the consequences of liberty, was indeed bound, now that the political balance in France was so radically changed, to prove a formidable instrument of reaction; and this was proved by the election of the president of the Republic.
, proclaiming a democratic republic, direct universal suffrage and the separation of powers, was promulgated on 4 November. Under the new constitution, there was to be a single permanent assembly of 750 members elected for a term of three years by the scrutin de liste, which was to vote on the laws prepared by a council of state elected by the Assembly for six years; the executive power was delegated to a president elected for four years by direct universal suffrage, i.e. on a broader basis than that of the chamber, and not eligible for re-election. He was to choose his ministers, who, like him, would be responsible to the Assembly. Finally, all revision was made impossible since it involved obtaining three times in succession a majority of three-quarters of the deputies in a special assembly. It was in vain that Jules Grévy, in the name of those who perceived the obvious and inevitable risk of creating, under the name of a president, a monarch and more than a king, proposed that the head of the state should be no more than a removable president of the ministerial council. Lamartine, thinking that he was sure to be the choice of the electors under universal suffrage, won over the support of the Chamber, which did not even take the precaution of rendering ineligible the members of families which had reigned over France. It made the presidency an office dependent upon popular acclamation.
The election was keenly contested; the democratic republicans adopted as their candidate Ledru-Rollin, the "pure republicans" Cavaignac, and the recently reorganized Imperialist party Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte
. Unknown in 1835, and forgotten or despised since 1840, Louis Napoleon had in the last eight years advanced sufficiently in the public estimation to be elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1848 by five departments. He owed this rapid increase of popularity partly to blunders of the government of July, which had unwisely aroused the memory of the country, filled as it was with recollections of the Empire, and partly to Louis Napoléon’s campaign carried on from his prison at Ham by means of pamphlets of socialistic tendencies. Moreover, the monarchists, led by Thiers and the committee of the Rue de Poitiers, were no longer content even with the safe dictatorship of the upright Cavaignac, and joined forces with the Bonapartists. On 10 December the peasants gave over 5,000,000 votes to a name: Napoléon, which stood for order at all costs, against 1,400,000 for Cavaignac.
For three years there went on an indecisive struggle between the heterogeneous Assembly and the president who was silently awaiting his opportunity. He chose as his ministers men with little inclined towards republicanism, with a preference for Orléanist
s, the chief of whom was Odilon Barrot
. In order to strengthen his position, he endeavoured to conciliate the reactionary parties, without committing himself to any of them. The chief instance of this was the expedition to Rome, voted by the Catholics with the object of restoring the papacy, which had flown away from Rome during the night fearing for his life, having not walked his talks of civil reforms and national unification. Garibaldi
and Mazzini
had been elected by a free universal polls for a Constitutional Assembly. The Pope called for an international intervention to restore him in his temporal power and the French president run to establish the power and prestige of France against that of the Austrians, as beginning the work of European renovation and reconstruction which he already looked upon as his mission. General Charles Oudinot
's entry into Rome provoked in Paris a foolish insurrection in favour of the Roman Republic
, that of the Château d'Eau, which was crushed on 13 June 1849. On the other hand, when Pius IX
, though only just restored, began to yield to the general movement of reaction, the president demanded that he should set up a Liberal government. The pope's dilatory reply having been accepted by his ministry, the president replaced it on 1 November, by the Fould
-Rouher cabinet.
This looked like a declaration of war against the Catholic and monarchist majority in the Legislative Assembly which had been elected on 28 May in a moment of panic. But the president again pretended to be playing the game of the Orléanists, as he had done in the case of the Constituent-Assembly. The complementary elections of March and April 1850 resulted in an unexpected victory for the republicans which alarmed the conservative leaders, Thiers, Berryer
and Montalembert
. The president and the Assembly co-operated in the passage of the Loi Falloux of 15 March 1850, which again placed the teaching of the university under the direction of the Roman Catholic Church.
A conservative electoral law was passed on 31 May. It required as a proof of Electors three years' domicile the entries in the record of direct taxes, thus cutting down universal suffrage by taking away the vote from the industrial population, which was not as a rule stationary. The law of 16 July aggravated the severity of the press restrictions by re-establishing the "caution money" (cautionnement) deposited by proprietors and editors of papers with the government as a guarantee of good behaviour. Finally, a skilful interpretation of the law on clubs and political societies suppressed about this time all the Republican societies. It was now their turn to be crushed like the socialists.
Louis-Napoléon exploited their projects for a restoration of the monarchy, which he knew to be unpopular in the country, and which gave him the opportunity of furthering his own personal ambitions. From 8 August to 12 November 1850 he went about France stating the case for a revision of the constitution in speeches which he varied according to each place; he held reviews, at which cries of "Vive Napoléon!" showed that the army was with him; he superseded General Changarnier
, on whose arms the parliament relied for the projected monarchical coup d'état; he replaced his Orléanist ministry by obscure men devoted to his own cause, such as Morny
, Fleury
and Persigny
, and gathered round him officers of the African army, broken men like General Saint-Arnaud
; in fact he practically declared open war.
His reply to the votes of censure passed by the Assembly, and their refusal to increase his civil list was to hint at a vast communistic plot in order to scare the bourgeoisie, and to denounce the electoral law of 31 May 1850, in order to gain the support of the mass of the people. The Assembly retaliated by throwing out the proposal for a partial reform of that article of the constitution which prohibited the re-election of the president and the re-establishment of universal suffrage (July). All hope of a peaceful issue was at an end. When the questors called upon the Chamber to have posted up in all barracks the decree of 6 May 1848 concerning the right of the Assembly to demand the support of the troops if attacked, the Mountain
, dreading a restoration of the monarchy, voted with the Bonapartists against the measure, thus disarming the legislative power.
Louis-Napoléon saw his opportunity, and organised the French coup of 1851
. On the night between 1—2 December 1851, the anniversary of the coronation of his illustrious uncle Napoléon I, he dissolved the Chamber, re-established universal suffrage, had all the party leaders arrested, and summoned a new assembly to prolong his term of office for ten years. The deputies who had met under Berryer at the Mairie of the 10th arrondissement to defend the constitution and proclaim the deposition of Louis Napoleon were scattered by the troops at Mazas and Mont Valérien. The resistance organized by the republicans within Paris under Victor Hugo
was soon subdued by the intoxicated soldiers. The more serious resistance in the départements was crushed by declaring a state of siege and by the "mixed commissions." The plebiscite of 20 December, ratified by a huge majority the coup d'état in favour of the prince-president, who alone reaped the benefit of the excesses of the Republicans and the reactionary passions of the monarchists.
Napoleon III of France
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I, christened as Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte...
which initiated the Second Empire
Second French Empire
The Second French Empire or French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.-Rule of Napoleon III:...
. It officially adopted the motto Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
Liberté, égalité, fraternité, French for "Liberty, equality, fraternity ", is the national motto of France, and is a typical example of a tripartite motto. Although it finds its origins in the French Revolution, it was then only one motto among others and was not institutionalized until the Third...
. The Second Republic witnessed the tension between the "Social and Democratic Republic" and a liberal form of Republic, which exploded during the June Days Uprising
June Days Uprising
The June Days Uprising was a revolution staged by the citizens of France, whose only source of income was the National Workshops, from 23 June to 26 June 1848. The Workshops were created by the Second Republic in order to provide work and a source of income for the unemployed, however only...
of 1848.
Revolution of 1848
The industrial population of the faubourgs was welcomed by the National Guard on their way towards the centre of Paris. Barricades were raised after the shooting of protestors outside the Guizot manor by soldiers.On 23 February 1848 Guizot's cabinet resigned, abandoned by the petite bourgeoisie
Petite bourgeoisie
Petit-bourgeois or petty bourgeois is a term that originally referred to the members of the lower middle social classes in the 18th and early 19th centuries...
, on whose support they thought they could depend. The heads of the Left Centre and the dynastic Left, Molé and Thiers
Adolphe Thiers
Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers was a French politician and historian. was a prime minister under King Louis-Philippe of France. Following the overthrow of the Second Empire he again came to prominence as the French leader who suppressed the revolutionary Paris Commune of 1871...
, declined the offered leadership. Odilon Barrot
Odilon Barrot
Camille Hyacinthe Odilon Barrot was a French politician.-Early life:Barrot was born at Villefort Lozère. He belonged to a legal family, his father, an advocate of Toulouse, having been a member of the Convention who had voted against the death of Louis XVI. Odilon Barrot's earliest recollections...
accepted it, and Bugeaud
Thomas Robert Bugeaud de la Piconnerie
Thomas Robert Bugeaud, marquis de la Piconnerie, duc d'Isly was a Marshal of France and Governor-General of Algeria.-Early life:...
, commander-in-chief of the first military division, who had begun to attack the barricades, was recalled. In the face of the insurrection which had now taken possession of the whole capital, Louis-Philippe decided to abdicate in favour of his grandson, Philippe, comte de Paris
Philippe, Comte de Paris
Philippe d'Orléans, Count of Paris was the grandson of Louis Philippe I, King of the French. He was a claimant to the French throne from 1848 until his death.-Early life:...
.
Formation
The Republic was then proclaimed by Alphonse de LamartineAlphonse de Lamartine
Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine was a French writer, poet and politician who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic.-Career:...
in the name of the provisional government elected by the Chamber under the pressure of the mob.
This provisional government
Provisional government
A provisional government is an emergency or interim government set up when a political void has been created by the collapse of a very large government. The early provisional governments were created to prepare for the return of royal rule...
with Dupont de l'Eure
Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure
Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure was a French lawyer and statesman.He is best known as the first head of state of the Second Republic, after the collapse of the July Monarchy.-Early career:...
as its president, consisted of Lamartine
Alphonse de Lamartine
Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine was a French writer, poet and politician who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic.-Career:...
for foreign affairs, Crémieux
Adolphe Crémieux
Adolphe Crémieux was a French-Jewish lawyer and statesman, and a staunch defender of the human rights of the Jews of France. - Biography :...
for justice, Ledru-Rollin
Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin
Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin was a French politician.The grandson of Nicolas Philippe Ledru, the celebrated quack doctor known as "Comus" under Louis XV and Louis XVI, Ledru-Rollin was born in a house that had once been Paul Scarron's, at Fontenay-aux-Roses...
for the interior, Carnot
Marie François Sadi Carnot
Marie François Sadi Carnot was a French statesman and the fourth president of the Third French Republic. He served as the President of France from 1887 until his assassination in 1894.-Early life:...
for public instruction, Goudchaux for finance, Arago
François Arago
François Jean Dominique Arago , known simply as François Arago , was a French mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician.-Early life and work:...
for the navy, and Burdeau for war. Garnier-Pagès
Étienne Joseph Louis Garnier-Pagès
Étienne Joseph Louis Garnier-Pagès was a French politician, born at Marseille.Soon after his birth his father Jean Francois Garnier, a naval surgeon, died, and his mother married Simon Pagès, a college professor, by whom she had a son...
was mayor of Paris.
But, as in 1830, the republican-socialist party had set up a rival government at the Hôtel de Ville
Hôtel de Ville, Paris
The Hôtel de Ville |City Hall]]) in :Paris, France, is the building housing the City of Paris's administration. Standing on the place de l'Hôtel de Ville in the city's IVe arrondissement, it has been the location of the municipality of Paris since 1357...
(city hall), including Louis Blanc
Louis Blanc
Louis Jean Joseph Charles Blanc was a French politician and historian. A socialist who favored reforms, he called for the creation of cooperatives in order to guarantee employment for the urban poor....
, Armand Marrast
Armand Marrast
Armand Marrast was a French politician and mayor of Paris.- See also :* List of Presidents of the French National Assembly* List of mayors of Paris...
, Ferdinand Flocon, and the Albert l'Ouvrier
Albert L'Ouvrier
Albert l'Ouvrier , born Alexandre Martin , was a French socialist statesman of the French Second Republic. He was the first member of the industrial working class to be in French government....
("Albert the Worker"), which bid fair to involve discord and civil war. But this time the Palais Bourbon
Palais Bourbon
The Palais Bourbon, , a palace located on the left bank of the Seine, across from the Place de la Concorde, Paris , is the seat of the French National Assembly, the lower legislative chamber of the French government.-History:...
was not victorious over the Hôtel de Ville. It had to consent to a fusion of the two bodies, in which, however, the predominating elements were the moderate republicans. It was uncertain what the policy of the new government would be.
One party seeing that in spite of the changes in the last sixty years of all political institutions the position of the people had not been improved, demanded a reform of society itself, the abolition of the privileged position of property, the only obstacle to equality, and as an emblem hoisted the red flag
Red flag
In politics, a red flag is a symbol of Socialism, or Communism, or sometimes left-wing politics in general. It has been associated with left-wing politics since the French Revolution. Socialists adopted the symbol during the Revolutions of 1848 and it became a symbol of communism as a result of its...
(the 1791 red flag was, however, the symbol not merely of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, but rather of martial law and of order). The other party wished to maintain society on the basis of its ancient institutions, and rallied round the tricolore. As a concession made by Lamartine to popular aspirations, and in exchange of the maintaining of the tricolor flag, he conceded the Republican triptych of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
Liberté, égalité, fraternité, French for "Liberty, equality, fraternity ", is the national motto of France, and is a typical example of a tripartite motto. Although it finds its origins in the French Revolution, it was then only one motto among others and was not institutionalized until the Third...
, written on the flag, on which a red rosette was also to be added.
The first collision took place as to the form which the 1848 Revolution was to take. Were they to remain faithful to their original principles, as Lamartine wished, and accept the decision of the country as supreme, or were they, as the revolutionaries under Ledru-Rollin claimed, to declare the republic of Paris superior to the universal manhood suffrage
Universal manhood suffrage
Universal manhood suffrage is a form of voting rights in which all adult males within a political system are allowed to vote, regardless of income, property, religion, race, or any other qualification...
of an insufficiently educated people? On 5 March the government, under the pressure of the Parisian clubs, decided in favour of an immediate reference to the people, and direct universal suffrage, and adjourned it till 26 April. In this fateful and unexpected decision, which instead of adding to the electorate the educated classes, refused by Guizot, admitted to it the unqualified masses, originated the Constituent Assembly
Constituent assembly
A constituent assembly is a body composed for the purpose of drafting or adopting a constitution...
of 4 May 1848. The provisional government having resigned, the republican and anti-socialist majority on the 9 May entrusted the supreme power to an Executive Commission
French Executive Commission (1848)
The Executive Commission of the French Republic was a short-lived body and jointly head of state of France during the Second Republic. All members were equal and served together as co-heads of state.The Commission acted as head of state from May 10 to June 24, 1848, between governments of...
consisting of five members: Arago, Pierre Marie de Saint-Georges, Garnier-Pagès
Étienne Joseph Louis Garnier-Pagès
Étienne Joseph Louis Garnier-Pagès was a French politician, born at Marseille.Soon after his birth his father Jean Francois Garnier, a naval surgeon, died, and his mother married Simon Pagès, a college professor, by whom she had a son...
, Lamartine and Ledru-Rollin. But the spell was already broken. This revolution which had been peacefully effected with the most generous aspirations, in the hope of abolishing poverty by organizing industry on other bases than those of competition and capitalism, and which had at once aroused the fraternal sympathy of the nations, was doomed to be abortive.
The result of the general election, the return of a constituent assembly predominantly moderate if not monarchical, dashed the hopes of those who had looked for the establishment, by a peaceful revolution, of their ideal socialist state; but they were not prepared to yield without a struggle, and in Paris itself they commanded a formidable force. In spite of the preponderance of the "tricolour" party in the provisional government, so long as the voice of France had not spoken, the socialists, supported by the Parisian proletariat, had exercised an influence on policy out of all proportion to their relative numbers or personal weight. By the decree of 24 February, the provisional government had solemnly accepted the principle of the "right to work," and decided to establish "national workshops
National Workshops
National Workshops refer to areas of work provided for the unemployed by the French Second Republic after the Revolution of 1848. The political crisis which resulted in the abdication of Louis Philippe caused an acute industrial crisis adding to the general agricultural and commercial distress...
" for the unemployed; at the same time a sort of industrial parliament was established at the Luxembourg Palace
Luxembourg Palace
The Luxembourg Palace in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, north of the Luxembourg Garden , is the seat of the French Senate.The formal Luxembourg Garden presents a 25-hectare green parterre of gravel and lawn populated with statues and provided with large basins of water where children sail model...
, under the presidency of Louis Blanc
Louis Blanc
Louis Jean Joseph Charles Blanc was a French politician and historian. A socialist who favored reforms, he called for the creation of cooperatives in order to guarantee employment for the urban poor....
, with the object of preparing a scheme for the organization of labour; and, lastly, by the decree of 8 March, the property qualification for enrolment in the National Guard
National Guard (France)
The National Guard was the name given at the time of the French Revolution to the militias formed in each city, in imitation of the National Guard created in Paris. It was a military force separate from the regular army...
had been abolished and the workmen were supplied with arms. The socialists thus formed, in some sort, a state within the state, with a government, an organisation and an armed force.
In the circumstances, a conflict was inevitable; and on 15 May, an armed mob, headed by Raspail
François-Vincent Raspail
François-Vincent Raspail was a French chemist, naturalist, physiologist, and socialist politician.-Biography:...
, Blanqui
Louis Auguste Blanqui
Louis Auguste Blanqui was a French political activist, notable for the revolutionary theory of Blanquism, attributed to him....
and Barbès
Armand Barbès
Armand Barbès , was a French Republican revolutionary and a fierce and steadfast opponent of the July monarchy . He is remembered as a man whose life centers on two days:...
, and assisted by the proletariat Guard, attempted to overwhelm the Assembly. They were defeated by the bourgeois battalions of the National Guard; but the situation nonetheless remained highly critical. The national workshops were producing the results that might have been foreseen. It was impossible to provide remunerative work even for the genuine unemployed, and of the thousands who applied the greater number were employed in perfectly useless digging and refilling; soon even this expedient failed, and those for whom work could not be invented were given a half wage of 1 franc
Franc
The franc is the name of several currency units, most notably the Swiss franc, still a major world currency today due to the prominence of Swiss financial institutions and the former currency of France, the French franc until the Euro was adopted in 1999...
a day. Even this pitiful dole, with no obligation to work, proved attractive, and all over France workmen threw up their jobs and streamed to Paris, where they swelled the ranks of the army under the red flag. It was soon clear that the continuance of this experiment would mean financial ruin; it had been proved by the émeute of 15 May, that it constituted a perpetual menace to the state; and the government decided to end it. The method chosen was scarcely a happy one.
On 21 June, Alfred de Falloux
Frédéric Alfred Pierre, comte de Falloux
Frédéric-Alfred-Pierre, comte de Falloux was a French politician and author, famous for having given his name to two laws on education, favorizing private Catholic teaching.-Life:He was born at Angers, Maine-et-Loire...
decided in the name of the parliamentary commission on labour that the workmen should be discharged within three days and such as were able-bodied should be forced to enlist.
The June Days Uprising
June Days Uprising
The June Days Uprising was a revolution staged by the citizens of France, whose only source of income was the National Workshops, from 23 June to 26 June 1848. The Workshops were created by the Second Republic in order to provide work and a source of income for the unemployed, however only...
broke out at once, during 24—26 June, when the eastern industrial quarter of Paris, led by Pujol
Pujol
-People:* Antonio Pujol , Mexican painter*Emilio Pujol Vilarrubi - composer, musicologist and classical guitar teacher.*Jordi Pujol - president of the Generalitat de Catalunya 1980-2003...
, fought the western quarter, led by Cavaignac, who had been appointed dictator
Dictator
A dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
. The socialist party was vanquished by fighting and afterwards by deportation, but they dragged down the Republic in their ruin. It had already become unpopular with the peasants, exasperated by the newland tax of 45 centimes imposed in order to fill the empty treasury, and with the bourgeois, in terror of the power of the revolutionary clubs and hard hit by the stagnation of business. By the "massacres" of the June Days the working classes were also alienated from it; and abiding fear of the "Reds" did the rest. The Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
wrote at this time, "France needs a Napoleon! I cannot yet see him..." The granting of universal suffrage to a society with Imperialist sympathies, and unfitted to reconcile the principles of order with the consequences of liberty, was indeed bound, now that the political balance in France was so radically changed, to prove a formidable instrument of reaction; and this was proved by the election of the president of the Republic.
Constitution
The new constitutionFrench Constitution of 1848
The Constitution of 1848 is the constitution passed in France on November 4, 1848 by the National Assembly, the constituent body of the Second French Republic...
, proclaiming a democratic republic, direct universal suffrage and the separation of powers, was promulgated on 4 November. Under the new constitution, there was to be a single permanent assembly of 750 members elected for a term of three years by the scrutin de liste, which was to vote on the laws prepared by a council of state elected by the Assembly for six years; the executive power was delegated to a president elected for four years by direct universal suffrage, i.e. on a broader basis than that of the chamber, and not eligible for re-election. He was to choose his ministers, who, like him, would be responsible to the Assembly. Finally, all revision was made impossible since it involved obtaining three times in succession a majority of three-quarters of the deputies in a special assembly. It was in vain that Jules Grévy, in the name of those who perceived the obvious and inevitable risk of creating, under the name of a president, a monarch and more than a king, proposed that the head of the state should be no more than a removable president of the ministerial council. Lamartine, thinking that he was sure to be the choice of the electors under universal suffrage, won over the support of the Chamber, which did not even take the precaution of rendering ineligible the members of families which had reigned over France. It made the presidency an office dependent upon popular acclamation.
Napoleon III of France
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I, christened as Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte...
. Unknown in 1835, and forgotten or despised since 1840, Louis Napoleon had in the last eight years advanced sufficiently in the public estimation to be elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1848 by five departments. He owed this rapid increase of popularity partly to blunders of the government of July, which had unwisely aroused the memory of the country, filled as it was with recollections of the Empire, and partly to Louis Napoléon’s campaign carried on from his prison at Ham by means of pamphlets of socialistic tendencies. Moreover, the monarchists, led by Thiers and the committee of the Rue de Poitiers, were no longer content even with the safe dictatorship of the upright Cavaignac, and joined forces with the Bonapartists. On 10 December the peasants gave over 5,000,000 votes to a name: Napoléon, which stood for order at all costs, against 1,400,000 for Cavaignac.
For three years there went on an indecisive struggle between the heterogeneous Assembly and the president who was silently awaiting his opportunity. He chose as his ministers men with little inclined towards republicanism, with a preference for Orléanist
Orléanist
The Orléanists were a French right-wing/center-right party which arose out of the French Revolution. It governed France 1830-1848 in the "July Monarchy" of king Louis Philippe. It is generally seen as a transitional period dominated by the bourgeoisie and the conservative Orleanist doctrine in...
s, the chief of whom was Odilon Barrot
Odilon Barrot
Camille Hyacinthe Odilon Barrot was a French politician.-Early life:Barrot was born at Villefort Lozère. He belonged to a legal family, his father, an advocate of Toulouse, having been a member of the Convention who had voted against the death of Louis XVI. Odilon Barrot's earliest recollections...
. In order to strengthen his position, he endeavoured to conciliate the reactionary parties, without committing himself to any of them. The chief instance of this was the expedition to Rome, voted by the Catholics with the object of restoring the papacy, which had flown away from Rome during the night fearing for his life, having not walked his talks of civil reforms and national unification. Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...
and Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini , nicknamed Soul of Italy, was an Italian politician, journalist and activist for the unification of Italy. His efforts helped bring about the independent and unified Italy in place of the several separate states, many dominated by foreign powers, that existed until the 19th century...
had been elected by a free universal polls for a Constitutional Assembly. The Pope called for an international intervention to restore him in his temporal power and the French president run to establish the power and prestige of France against that of the Austrians, as beginning the work of European renovation and reconstruction which he already looked upon as his mission. General Charles Oudinot
Charles Oudinot
Lieutenant-General Charles Nicolas Victor Oudinot, 2nd Duc de Reggio , the eldest son of Napoleon I's marshal Nicolas Oudinot of his first marriage with Charlotte Derlin, also made a military career....
's entry into Rome provoked in Paris a foolish insurrection in favour of the Roman Republic
Roman Republic (19th century)
The Roman Republic was a state declared on February 9, 1849, when the government of Papal States was temporarily substituted by a republican government due to Pope Pius IX's flight to Gaeta. The republic was led by Carlo Armellini, Giuseppe Mazzini and Aurelio Saffi...
, that of the Château d'Eau, which was crushed on 13 June 1849. On the other hand, when Pius IX
Pope Pius IX
Blessed Pope Pius IX , born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, a period of nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal...
, though only just restored, began to yield to the general movement of reaction, the president demanded that he should set up a Liberal government. The pope's dilatory reply having been accepted by his ministry, the president replaced it on 1 November, by the Fould
Achille Fould
Achille Fould was a French financier and politician.Born in Paris, the son of a successful Jewish banker, he was associated with and afterwards succeeded his father in the management of the business. As early as 1842 he entered political life, having been elected in that year as a deputy for the...
-Rouher cabinet.
This looked like a declaration of war against the Catholic and monarchist majority in the Legislative Assembly which had been elected on 28 May in a moment of panic. But the president again pretended to be playing the game of the Orléanists, as he had done in the case of the Constituent-Assembly. The complementary elections of March and April 1850 resulted in an unexpected victory for the republicans which alarmed the conservative leaders, Thiers, Berryer
Antoine Pierre Berryer
Antoine Pierre Berryer was a French advocate and parliamentary orator. He was the twelfth member elected to occupy seat 4 of the Académie française in 1852.-Early years:...
and Montalembert
Charles Forbes René de Montalembert
Charles Forbes René de Montalembert was a French publicist and historian.-Family history:He belonged to a family of Angoumois, which could trace its descent back to the 13th century. Charters carry the history of the house two centuries further...
. The president and the Assembly co-operated in the passage of the Loi Falloux of 15 March 1850, which again placed the teaching of the university under the direction of the Roman Catholic Church.
A conservative electoral law was passed on 31 May. It required as a proof of Electors three years' domicile the entries in the record of direct taxes, thus cutting down universal suffrage by taking away the vote from the industrial population, which was not as a rule stationary. The law of 16 July aggravated the severity of the press restrictions by re-establishing the "caution money" (cautionnement) deposited by proprietors and editors of papers with the government as a guarantee of good behaviour. Finally, a skilful interpretation of the law on clubs and political societies suppressed about this time all the Republican societies. It was now their turn to be crushed like the socialists.
Coup
However, the president had only joined in Montalembert's cry of "Down with the Republicans!" in the hope of effecting a revision of the constitution without having recourse to a coup d'état. His concessions only increased the boldness of the monarchists, while they had only accepted Louis-Napoléon as president in opposition to the Republic and as a step in the direction of the monarchy. A conflict was now inevitable between his personal policy and the majority of the Chamber, who were moreover divided into legitimists and Orléanists, in spite of the death of Louis-Philippe in August 1850.Louis-Napoléon exploited their projects for a restoration of the monarchy, which he knew to be unpopular in the country, and which gave him the opportunity of furthering his own personal ambitions. From 8 August to 12 November 1850 he went about France stating the case for a revision of the constitution in speeches which he varied according to each place; he held reviews, at which cries of "Vive Napoléon!" showed that the army was with him; he superseded General Changarnier
Nicolas Anne Théodule Changarnier
Nicolas Anne Theodule Changarnier , French general, was born at Autun, Saône-et-Loire.Educated at St Cyr, he served for a short time in the bodyguard of Louis XVIII, and entered the line as a lieutenant in January 1815. He achieved distinction in the Spanish campaign of 1823, and became captain in...
, on whose arms the parliament relied for the projected monarchical coup d'état; he replaced his Orléanist ministry by obscure men devoted to his own cause, such as Morny
Charles Auguste Louis Joseph, duc de Morny
Charles Auguste Louis Joseph Demorny/de Morny, 1st Duc de Morny was a French statesman...
, Fleury
Fleury
Fleury can refer to:* Abbo of Fleury abbot of the monastery of Fleury* Andrew of Fleury, historian from the monstery of Fleury* Cardinal André-Hercule de Fleury, Bishop of Fréjus , chief minister of Louis XV of France...
and Persigny
Jean Gilbert Victor Fialin, duc de Persigny
Jean Gilbert Victor Fialin, duc de Persigny was a French statesman of the Second French Empire.Fialin was born at Saint-Germain-Lespinasse , the son of a receiver of taxes, and was educated at Limoges. He entered the cavalry school at Saumur in 1826, becoming maréchal des logis in the 4th Hussars...
, and gathered round him officers of the African army, broken men like General Saint-Arnaud
Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud
Armand-Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud was a French soldier and Marshal of France during the 19th century...
; in fact he practically declared open war.
His reply to the votes of censure passed by the Assembly, and their refusal to increase his civil list was to hint at a vast communistic plot in order to scare the bourgeoisie, and to denounce the electoral law of 31 May 1850, in order to gain the support of the mass of the people. The Assembly retaliated by throwing out the proposal for a partial reform of that article of the constitution which prohibited the re-election of the president and the re-establishment of universal suffrage (July). All hope of a peaceful issue was at an end. When the questors called upon the Chamber to have posted up in all barracks the decree of 6 May 1848 concerning the right of the Assembly to demand the support of the troops if attacked, the Mountain
The Mountain (1849)
The Mountain was a political grouping in the French legislative election, 1849. It drew its name from The Mountain, a group active in the early period of the French Revolution...
, dreading a restoration of the monarchy, voted with the Bonapartists against the measure, thus disarming the legislative power.
Louis-Napoléon saw his opportunity, and organised the French coup of 1851
French coup of 1851
The French coup d'état on 2 December 1851, staged by Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte , ended in the successful dissolution of the French National Assembly, as well as the subsequent re-establishment of the French Empire the next year...
. On the night between 1—2 December 1851, the anniversary of the coronation of his illustrious uncle Napoléon I, he dissolved the Chamber, re-established universal suffrage, had all the party leaders arrested, and summoned a new assembly to prolong his term of office for ten years. The deputies who had met under Berryer at the Mairie of the 10th arrondissement to defend the constitution and proclaim the deposition of Louis Napoleon were scattered by the troops at Mazas and Mont Valérien. The resistance organized by the republicans within Paris under Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
was soon subdued by the intoxicated soldiers. The more serious resistance in the départements was crushed by declaring a state of siege and by the "mixed commissions." The plebiscite of 20 December, ratified by a huge majority the coup d'état in favour of the prince-president, who alone reaped the benefit of the excesses of the Republicans and the reactionary passions of the monarchists.
Further reading
- Maurice Agulhon, 1848 ou l'apprentissage de la République. 1848–1852, 328 p. Paris: Seuil, 2002
- Sylvie Aprile, La Deuxième République et le Second Empire, Pygmalion, 2000
- Arnaud Coutant, 1848, Quand la République combattait la Démocratie, Mare et Martin, 2009
- Inès Murat, La Deuxième République, Paris: Fayard, 1987
- Philippe Vigier, La Seconde République, (collection Que Sais-Je?) Paris: Presses Universitaires françaises, 1967