The destroyer of the second republic; being Napoleon the Little

Front matter

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NAPOLEON THE LITTLE.

DEPOSED BY THE WISH OF LAW.

Book First.— The Man

I. The 20th of December, 1848. — II. Commission of the Representatives. — III. Forced to silence. — IV. Men will awake. — V. Biography. — VI. Portrait. — VII. To make a sequel to the Panegyrics. . . . ÇS^

Book Second.— The Government

I. The Constitution. — II. The Senate. — III. The Council of State and the Corps Législatif. — IV. The Finances.— V. The Liberty of the Press. — VI. Novelties in point of legality. — VII. The Adherents. — VIII. Mens agitât molem. — IX. Omnipotence. — X. The two Profiles of M. Bonaparte.— XL Recapitulation. . 5^~95

Book Sixth.— The Absolution. First Form: The 7,500,000 Votes

\. The Absolution. — II. The Stage-coach. — III. Sifting of the Vote. The Recalling of Facts.— IV. Who really voted for M. Bonaparte. — V. Concession. — VL The Moral Side of the Question. — VII, Explanation to M. Bonaparte. — VIII. Axioms. — IX. In what M. Bonaparte is deceived. . . . 200-231

Book Seventh.— The Absolution. Second Form : The Oath

I. Upon an oath, an oath and a-half. — II. Difference of prices. — III. The oath of the men of letters and science. — IV. Curiosities of the thing. — V. The 5th of April, 1852. — VI. Oath everywhere. 232-252

Book Eighth.— The Progress Involved In The Coup D'etat

L The quantity of Good which the Evil contained. — II. The Four Institutions which oppose the Future. — III. Slowness of Normal Progress. — IV. What an Assembly ought to have done. — V. What Providence has done. — VI. What the Ministers, the Army, the Magistracy, and Ihe Clergy did. — VII. God's forms of government. ..... 253-269

CONCLUSION.— FIRST PART.

Littleness of the Master, baseness of the Situation. 270-289

SECOND PART.

Mourning and Faith. 290-308

NAPOLEON THE LITTLE.

Chapter I. The 20th Of December, 1 848

On Thursday, the 20th of December, 1848, the Constituent Assembly was in session, surrounded at the moment by an imposing array of troops.

A report of the representative Waldeck Rousseau, made in the name of the committee charged with giving an abstract of the vote for the election to the presidency of the Republic, had just been read. In that report one remarked this phrase, which summed up all its meaning : ''It is the seal of the inviolable power of the nation, that by this perfect execution given to the fundamental law, she plants herself on the Constitution, in order to render it holy and inviolable." Following this, in the midst of the profound silence of nine hundred constituents, assembled in a mass and almost to the entire number of the body, Armand Marrast, the President of the National Constituent Assembly, arose and said : —

" In the name of the French people :

" Seeing that the citizen Charles-Louis-Napoleon-Bonalo Napoleon the Little,

parte, born in Paris, fulfills the conditions of eligibility prescribed by the 44th article of the Constitution ;

"Seeing that in the open ballot held throughout the entire extent of this territory of the Republic, for the election of the President, he has united the absolute majority of suffrages ;

"In virtue of the 47th and 48th articles of the Constitution, the National Assembly proclaims him President of the Republic, from the present day till the second Sunday of May, 1852."

A movement was seen on the benches and in the tribunes, which were full of people. The President of the Constituent Assembly added : —

"According to the terms of the decree, I invite the citizen President of the Republic to be pleased to present himself at the tribune, there to make oath."

The representatives, who were encumbering the lobby, went up to their places and left the passage free. It was about four o'clock in the evening, night was falling, and the vast hall of the Assembly was half plunged in shadow. The lights descended from the ceilings, and the attendants had just placed the lamps upon the tribune.

The President made a sign, and the door at the right opened. A man, still young, dressed in black, having on his coat the badge and the great cord of the Legion of Honor, was then seen to enter the hall and rapidly ascend the tribune. Every face turned toward the man.

A wan face, whose thin and bony angles the lamps from the skylight made peculiarly distinct ; a nose thick and long ; mustaches ; a lock of hair curled on a narrow forehead ; the eye small and without clearness ; the attitude timid and ill at ease ; no resemblance to the Emperor. This was the citizen Charles-Louis-Napoleon-Bonaparte.

During the kind of murmur which followed his entrance he remained several minutes with his right hand in his buttoned coat, standing, and motionless, on the tribune, - whose front bore this date, 2 2d, 23d, 24th* of February ; and above that these three words : ." Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. "

Before his election as President of the Republic, Charles- Louis-Napoleon-Bonaparte was a representative of the people. He had sat in the Assembly for several months, and although he rarely remained during entire sessions, he might often be seen sitting in the place which he had chosen on the higher benches of the left, in the fifth row, in that circle commonly called the ''mountain," behind his old preceptor, the representative Vieillard. The man was not a new form to the Assembly, yet his entrance produced deep emotion. For all, for his friends as for his enemies, it was the future which entered, a future unknown. In the kind of immense murmur which was formed by the suppressed voices of all, his name might have been heard accompanied by remarks the most different. His antagonists recounted his adventures ; his attempts ; Strasbourg ; Boulonge ; the tame eagle and the piece of meat stuck in .the litde hat. His friends recalled his exile ; a good book on artillery ; his writings printed at Ham, which were to a certain degree liberal in spirit, democratic and socialistical ; his maturer age ; and to those which repeated his follies, they recalled his misfortunes.

* Days of the abdication of Louis Philippe, and the inauguration of the second Republic.

General Cavaignac, who, not having been named president, had just resigned power into the bosom of the Assembly, with that quiet brevity which becomes republics, seated in his habitual place at the head of the bench of ministers, to the left of the tribune, beside Marie, minister of justice, was assisting, silent, and with arms crossed, at the installation of the new man. At last silence reigned, and the President of the Assembly struck several blows with his gavel on the table. The last sound died away, and the President of the Assembly said : —

*' I am about to read the form of oath."

The moment possessed something of the religious. The Assembly was no longer the Assembly, it was a temple. What added to the immense significance of this oath was that it was the only one which was taken in the whole extent of the Republic.

February had wisely abolished the political oath, and the Constitution, with equal reason, had only preserved the oath of the President. This oath had the double characteristic of necessity and grandeur. It was the executive power, which is a subordinate power, which made oath to the legislative power, which is a superior power. It was still better than that Inverting that fiction of monarchy, according to which it is the people who make oath to the man invested with power, it was the man invested with power who made oath to the people.

The President, an officer and servant, swore fidelity to the sovereign people, bowing before the national majesty visible in the omnipotent Assembly. He received from the Assembly the Constitution, and swore obedience to it. The representatives were inviolable, and he was not. We repeat it : a citizen responsible before all citizens, he was the only man in the nation bound in this manner. On that account there was in the unique and supreme oath a solemnity which took hold of the very heart. He who writes these lines was seated in his place in the Assembly on the day on which this oath was taken. He is one of those who, taken in the presence of the civilized world, received that oath in the name of the people, and who have it yet in their hands. Here it is : — "In the presence of God, and before the French people represented by the National Assembly, I swear to remain faithful to the Democratic Republic, one and indivisible, and to fulfill all the duties which the Constitution imposes upon me."

The President of the Assembly, standing, read this majestic formula ; then, all the Assembly keeping silence and riveting their attention, the citizen Charles- Louis-Napoleon- Bonaparte, raising his right hand, said in a voice high and firm, "I swear it."

The representative Boulay (from Muerthe), since Vicepresident of the Republic, and one who had known Charles- Louis-Napoleon-Bonaparte from childhood, exclaimed : *• He is an honest man ; he will keep his oath."

The President of the Assembly, always standing, replied, and we cite here only the words literally enregistered in the Moniteur, "We take God and men to witness the oath which has just been taken."

The National Assembly took action on it, ordered that it should be transcribed upon the record of proceedings, inserted in the Motitteur, published and posted after the manner of legislative acts.

It seemed as if everything had been done. They waited till the citizen Charles-Louis-Napoleon-Bonaparte, thereafter President of the Republic till the second Sunday of May, should descend from the tribune. He did not descend from it. He felt the noble necessity of binding himself still further, if it was possible, and to add somewhat to the oath which the Constitution exacted of him, in order to sho_w them to what degree this oath was free and spontaneous on his part. He asked the usual permission to speak. **You have it," said the President of the Assembly.

The attention and silence redoubled. The citizen Louis- Napoleon-Bonaparte unfolded a paper and read an address. In it he announced ^nd installed the ministry named by him, and said : —

*'I desire, as you do, citizen representatives, to re-establish society again upon its foundations, reaffirm democratic institutions, and to search out all proper means for comforting the woes of this generous and intelligent people who have just given me so distinguished a proof of their confidence."* He thanked his predecessor in the executive power, the same who could say, later on, these beautiful words, *' I have not fallen from power, I have descended from it," and he extolled him in these terms : "The new administration, in entering upon affairs, must thank that which has preceded it for the efforts which it has made to transmit power intact, and for maintaining public order, f The conduct of the honorable General Cavaignac has been worthy of the loyalty of his character and of that sentiment of duty which is the first quality of the chief of a state. "J

* (Very good ! very good !) — Moniteur. t (Marks of adhesion.) — Moniteur. ;j; (New marks of assent.) — Moniteur.

The Assembly applauded at these words ; but what struck all minds, and what engraved itself deeply on all memories, and had an echo in all loyal consciences, was this entirely spontaneous declaration with which he began. We repeat it : —

** The suffrages of the nation and the oath which I have just taken command my future conduct. My duty is traced. I will fulfill it as a man of honor. I will see enemies of the country in all those who would try to change by illegal means what France entire has established." When he had finished speaking, the Constituent Assembly arose, and, with a single voice, sent forth this grand cry, * * Vive la Republique."

Louis-Napoleon-Bonaparte descended from the tribune, went straight to General Cavaignac, and offered him his hand. The general hesitated several moments before accepting this clasp of the hand. All who had just heard the words of Louis Bonaparte, pronounced in a tone of loyalty so profound, blamed the general.

The Constitution to which Louis-Napoleon-Bonaparte took oath on the 20th of December, 1848, "in the face of God and man," contained, among other articles, these : —

''Art. '^6. The representatives of the people are inviolable.

** Art. ij. They cannot be arrested on a criminal charge, save in the case of flagrant misdemeanor ; nor prosecuted except after the Assembly has permitted the prosecution.

"Art. 68. Every measure by which the President of the Republic dissolves the National Assembly, prorogues it, or places obstacles in the way of the execution of its decrees, is a crime of high treason. By this sole fact the President is suspended from his functions, the citizens are bound to refuse him obedience, the executive power passes in full right to the National Assembly. The judges of the high court shall assemble immediately, on pain of forfeiture. They shall convoke the jury in the place that they appoint, in order to proceed to the trial of the President and his accomplices. They shall declare themselves the magistrates charged with fulfilling the functions of the public ministry."

Less than three years after this memorable day, the 2d of December, 185 1, at break of day, one could read, on all the corners of the streets of Paris, the following notice : —

** In the name of the French people, the President of the Republic decrees —

** Art. 1st. The National Assembly is dissolved.

"Art. 2d. Universal suffrage is re-established. The law of the 3ist of May* is abrogated.

"Art. 3d. The French people are convoked in their communities.

* * Art. 4th. The state of siege is decreed in the entire extent of the first military division.

"Art. 5th. The Council of State is dissolved.

"Art. 6th. The minister of the interior is charged with the execution of the present decree.

" Done at the palace of the Elysée, the 2d of December, 1851.'^

At the same time Paris learned that fifteen of the inviolable representatives of the people had been arrested in their homes during the night by order of Louis-Napoleon-Bonaparte.

* A law by which suffrage was restricted to those who had resided in a canton or precinct for three years, abrogating the old law which said six months. It practically disfranchised a million. — Ta.

Chapter II. Commission Of The Representatives

Those who received, in deposit for the people as representatives of the people, the oath of the 20th o" December, 1848 ; those, above all, who twice invested with the confidence of the people, saw it sworn as constituents and saw it violated as legislators, had assumed at the same time with their commission two duties.

The first was, on the day on which the oath should be violated, to arise, offer their breasts ; to calculate neither the number nor force of the enemy ; to cover with their bodies the sovereignty of the people, and to seize, in order to do battle with and cast down the usurper, all arms, from the law which they found in the code to the paving-stone that you pick up in the street.

The second duty was, after having accepted the struggle and all its chances, to accept the proscription and all its misery ; to stand eternally upright before the traitor, with his oath in their hand ; to forget their individual sufferings, their private griefs, their families distressed and crippled, their fortunes destroyed, their affections wounded, their hearts bleeding ; to forget themselves. To have thereafter but one trouble, the wound of France ; to cry justice ! never to allow themselves to be appeased or bent ; to be implacable ; to seize the abominable crowned perjurer, if not with the hand of the law, at least with the pincers of the truth ; to make all the letters of his oath red at the fire of history, and to brand them on his face.

He who writes these lines is of those who recoiled before nothing on the 2d of December to accomplish the first of these two great duties.

In publishing this book he fulfills the second.

Chapter III. Forced To Silence

It is time that the human conscience should awake. Since the 2d of December, 1 851, an ambush has succeeded a crime odious and repulsive, infamous and unheard of, if we consider the century in which it has been committed. It triumphs and domineers ; erects itself in actual theory ; blooms in the face of the sun ; makes laws, enacts decrees, takes society, religion, and the family under its protection ; offers its hand to the kings of Europe (who accept it), and says to them, "My brother, or my cousin." This crime no one disputes, not even those who profit by it and live on it — they say only that it was necessary ; nor does he who committed it dispute it — he says only that to him, the criminal, it has been absolved!

This crime contains all crimes ; treason in the conception, perjift-y in the execution, murder and assassination in the struggle, spoliation, swindling, and theft in the triumph. This crime draws after it, as integral parts of itself, the suppression of laws, the violation of things made inviolable by the Constitution, arbitrary sequestration, the confiscation of goods, nocturnal massacres, shots fired in secret, commissions taking the place of the tribunals, ten thousand citizens exiled, forty thousand proscribed, sixty thousand families ruined and desperate ! These things are patent. Well, this is the bitter truth. Silence is kept over this crime. It is there ; one touches it ; one sees it ; one passes on and goes to one's affairs ; the shop opens ; the exchange jobs in stocks. Conscience sits down on its ballot; rubs its hands ; and we also desire the moment when one is going to consider it all natural. He who measures the stuff with the ell-stick does not hear that the measure which he has in his hand speaks to him and says, ** It is a false measure which governs." He who weighs a commodity does not understand that his balance lifts up its voice and says to him, '* It is a false weight that reigns." Strange order that, which has for its foundation supreme u^ilrerder. The denial of all right ! Equilibrium founded on iniquity ! Let us add that which nevertheless is selfevident) that the author of this crime is a malefactor of the most cynical and base species.

At the hour which is now passing, let all those who wear a robe, a scarf, or a uniform — let all those who serve this man, know it — if they believe themselves the agents of a power, let them undeceive themselves. They are the comrades of a pirate.

Since the 2d of December there have been no more functionaries in France ; there have been only accomplices. The moment has come when each man should render himself a good account of what he has done, and of what he continues to do. The gendarme who arrested those whom the man of Strasbourg and of Boulogne called insurgents has arrested the guardians of the Constitution. The judge who judged the combatants of Paris or the provinces has put on the stool the support of the law. The. officer who has kept the condemned in the hold of the ship has detained the defenders of the Republic and the State.

The general of Africa who imprisons at Lambessa the transported, who are bowed down under the sun, shivering with fever, digging in the burning earth ditches which shall be their graves — ^this general sequesters, tortures, and assassinates the champions of right. All guards, officers, gendarmes, judges, are in full forfeiture. They have before them more than innocent heroes, more than victims — martyrs ! Let them know it, then, and let them hate themselves ; and as the least amends, let them break the chains. Let them draw the bolts, let them empty the hulks, let them open the gaols, since they have no longer the courage to seize the sword. Then, conscience, arise, awake, it is time. If law, right, duty, reason, equity, justice do not suffice, let them consider the future. If remorse is silent, let responsibility speak.

And let all those who, if landlords, shake hands with a magistrate ; if bankers, fête a general ; if peasants, salute a gendarme. Let all those who do not withdraw from the nobleman's house, where the minister is, and from the dwelling where the prefect resides, as from a lazar-house ; let all those who — simple citizens, not functionaries — go to the balls and banquets of Louis Bonaparte, and do not- see that the black flag is on the Elysée — let all those know it well ; this kind of infamy I'S, contagious ! If they escape material complicity, they do not escape that which is moral. The crime of the 2d of December soils them. The present situation, which seems calm to him who does not think, is violent. Let no one be deceived on this point. When public morality is eclipsed, a shadow which affrights one is created in the social order. All guarantees depart, all props for support vanish.

Therefore, from that time forth there is no longer any tribunal in France ; no court, no judge who can render justice and pronounce a penalty in relation to anything of any character, against any one, in the name of anything. Let them bring before the assizes any malefactor whomsoever : the thief will say to the judges, *'The chief of the State has stolen twenty-five millions of francs from the bank."* The false witness will say, "The chief of State has made an oath in the face of God and man, and that oath he has violated." The man guilty of arbitrary sequestration will say, **The chief of State has arrested and detained, against all laws, the representatives of the sovereign people." The swindler will say, "The chief of State has swindled his command, swindled power, and swindled the Tuileries." The forger will say, "The chief of State has falsified a ballot." The bandit of the corner of the wood will say, "The chief of State has picked the pockets of the princes of Orleans." The murderer will say, "The chief of State has musketed, shot with grape-shot, sabred, and cut the throats of passers-by in the streets ;" and all together — swindler, forger, false witness, bandit, thief, assassin, will add, "But you judges, you want to salute this man, you want to praise him for having perjured himself, to compliment him for having done a wrong, to glorify him for having swindled, to felicitate his having stolen, and to thank him for having assassinated ! What do you want with us .?

Assuredly, such a state of things is grave. Togo to sleep over such a situation is one disgrace additional. It is time, let us repeat it, that this monstrous sleep of conscience

* A witness saw it carted awav.

should end. It is not necessary that, after this startling scandal, the triumph of crime — a scandal more startling yet should be given to men — ^viz., the indifference of the civilized world ! If that should come to pass, history would appear one day as an avenger.* And from this moment, as lions when wounded bury themselves in solitudes, the just man veiling his face in presence of this universal abasement, would take refuge in the immensity of his contempt.

* Has it not to-day !

Chapter IV. Men Will Awake

But that will not be ; men will awake.

This book has no other object than to shake those sleeping in this sleep.

France is not to adhere to this government, even by the consent of lethargy. At certain moments, in certain places, in certain shades, to sleep is to die.

Let us add, that at the present moment, France, strange to say, and yet it is the truth, knows nothing of what passed on the 2d of December and since, or knows it imperfectly, and it is that which affords an excuse.

However, thanks to several generous and courageous publications, the facts begin to transpire.

This book is destined to bring some of them to light, and, if it please God, to place all of them in clear day.

It is of importance that we know a little what M. Bonaparte is. At the present time, thanks to the suppression of the Tribune, thanks to the suppression of the press, of free speech, of liberty and truth (a suppression which has for its results to allow all liberty to M. Bonaparte, but which, at the same time, has the effect of nullifying all his acts without exception, the indescribable ballot of the 2d of December included) ; thanks, let us say, to this smothering of complaint and all information — no circumstance, no man, no fact, wears its own shape or carries its true name. The crime of M. Bonaparte is not crime, its name is necessity. The ambush of M. Bonaparte is not an ambush, it is called the defense of order. The thefts of M. Bonaparte are not thefts, they are termed measures of State. The murders of M. Bonaparte are not murders, they are called public safety. The accomplices of M. Bonaparte are not malefactors, they are called magistrates, senators, and counsellors of state. The adversaries of M. Bonaparte are not the soldiers of law and right, they are called jaques,* demagogues, factionists. In the eyes of France, in the eyes of Europe, the 2d of December still wears a mask.

This book is nothing else than a hand, which goes out from the shadow, which tears away the mask.

We are going to expose this triumph of order, and paint this government, so vigorous, so square and strong ; this government having in its favor a crowd of young people who have more ambition than boots ; which is sustained on the exchange by Fould the Jew, and in the Church by Montalembert the Catholic ; esteemed by women who wish to be mistresses, and by men who wish to be prefects ; propped up by a coalition of prostitutions ; giving -fêtes ; making cardinals ; wearing a white cravat, with its folding hat under its arm ; gloved fresh-butter-colored, like Morney ; varnished anew, like Manpas ; fresh brushed, like Persigny ; rich, elegant, neat, gilded, joyous — born in a pool of blood !

Yes : there will be a rewakening ! Yes : men will come

* Insurgent peasants. 2 out of this stupor which, for such a people, is shame ! And "when France shall awake — when she shall open her eyes, and distinguish objects — when she shall see that which is before her and at her side, she will recoil — this France will — with trembling terror before this monstrous oifense which has dared to espouse her in the darkness, and whose bed she has shared.

Then the supreme hour will tell. The skeptics will smile and maintain their view. They will say: "They say, hope for nothing. This reign, according to you, is the shame of France. So be it. This shame is quoted at the Bourse — hope for nothing. You are poets and dreamers if you hope. Look then at the Tribune^ the press, intelligence, speech, thought, all which was liberty, has disappeared. Yesterday these moved, were quieted; lived ; to-day they were petrified.

"Well, one is content; one accommodates himself to the petrifaction. One makes use of it ; one does business with it. One sees how much as usual society continues upon it ; and plenty of honest people find things go well.

"Why do you desire that the situation should change.^ Why do you wish that it should end } Do not delude yourself; this thing is solid; it is the present and the future!!"

We are in Russia. The Neva is frozen. They build houses on it ; heavy carriages roll on its surface. It is no longer water, it is rock. The passers-by go and come on this marble which has been a river ; they improvise a city; they trace out the streets ; they open the shops ; they sell, they buy, they drink ; they eat, they sleep, they light fires on this water. They can permit themselves anything. Fear nothing ; do what you please ; laugh, dance — it is more solid than dry land. It actually sounds under the foot like granite. Long live winter ! long live ice ! There is ice, and it shall stand forever. And look at the heavens. Is it day ? is it night ? A gleam wan and pale crawls over the snow. One would say that the sun is dead.

No ; thou art not dead, Liberty. On a day, and at the moment when they least expect it ; at the hour when they had most profoundly forgotten thee, thou shalt arise. O dazzling sight ! One will see thy star-like face suddenly come out from the earth and shine on the horizon. On all this snow, this ice, this hard, white plain ; on this water become block, thou shalt dart thy golden arrow, thy bright and burning ray, thy light, thy heat, thy life. And then ! do you hear that dull sound ? Do you hear that cracking deep and dreadful ? It is the breaking of the ice ! It is the Neva which is tearing loose 1 It is the river which retakes its course !