University of Santa Clara - Redwood Yearbook (Santa Clara, CA)

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THE REDWOOD King, alarmed, retired to Versailles, accompanied by his Swiss Guard and what troops were yet loyal, thus leav- ing the field free for the leaders of the mob. Then followed in quick succession various outbreaks on the dismissal of Neckar, the storming of the Hotel des Invalides to procure arms, and the fall of the Bastile, which marked the open- ing of the Revolution. The defection of nearly all the troops of the King, his Swiss Guard alone excepted, put him in the power of the Assembly. Neckar was recalled, but there was nothing he could do to stem the tide of destruction. The people had had their first taste of power, and no amount of talk could now arrest the torrent. Many suspicions of the fidelity of the King were entertained by the peo- ple. These seemed to crystallize, when the Regiment de Flandre composed mostly of young nobles, drank a toast to the King at Versailles, trampled upon the red cockade of the revolution- ists, and restored the white of the King. This, together with the bread riots of 1789, caused a mob to tramp to Versailles and force the King to re- turn to Paris, and take up his residence in the Tuilleries, practically a prisoner. When the King had removed to Pa- ris, the National Assembly, having fulfilled nearly all that was necessary for it to do, and having made prepara- tions for a new convention, took a sol- emn oath that none of its members would return to the new convention, and dissolved itself. The new convention, the Legislative Assembly of 1791, resulted in a great victory for the Republicans of Paris, the Royalists exercising no influence whatever. The Assembly was thor- oughly democratic. It convened at Paris, October 1, 1791, and was divided into three parties. The Peuillants, or Constitutionalists, then an insignifi- cant party, upheld the constitution and the monarchy. The moderate Republi- cans, called Girondists, because their leading orators were from the Depart- ment of Gironde, comprised the best men in the Assembly, such as Brissot, Roland, Condorcet, Vergniaud, Du- mouriez, and others. This party was opposed to unnecessary bloodshed and in favor of a federal republic like the United States. The violent Republi- cans, or Jacobins, called the Moun- tain because they occupied the high- est seats in the Assembly, were con- trolled by the Jacobin and Corderliers clubs, whose chiefs were Robespierre, Marat, Danton, Camille Desmoulins, St. Just, Couthon, Duke Philip of Orleans, and others. These red Republicans, or blood-thirsty revolutionists, were an- archists, and were the ones upheld by the Paris Commune. The attempted flight of the King which was frustrated at Varennes, oc- curred just before the dissolution of the National Assembly, and resulted in completely stripping him of his power. Henceforth, he was a prisoner. The Paris of 1791 which so enthralled the deputies from the provinces, was quite different from the Paris which

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THE REDWOOD hotbed of reactionary ideas. Journals, pamphlets, and demagogues influenced the people to a great extent. When it is considered that a majority of the people of Paris were uneducated and poor, it is not astonishing how easily their passions were aroused; how easi- ly they were led; and how easily they were bent to the wishes of their un- principled leaders. The infamous Duke of Orleans threw open his Palais Royal to the people, and it soon be- came the news-centre of the city, where the majority of the journals were published, and where Camille Desmou- lins first roused the Paris mob in 1789, on the news of the dismissal of their favorite and friend, Neckar, from the cabinet, to rise and assert their rights. The events leading up to the usurpa- tion of the supreme authority by the Commune in 1792 must be examined. They will throw great light on the feel- ings of the people, and the means made use of by a few unprincipled men for their own benefit. There were three orders in France, the Nobles, the Clergy, and the labor- ing classes. The nobility and clergy were exempt from paying taxes on the basis of old feudal rights and conces- sions made by some of the early French Kings. This left only the laboring classes to furnish the vast amount of money needed to support the court in luxury and pay for the numerous wars. This heavy taxation, double in its char- acter as national taxes and as feudal tithes to their lords, fell most severely on the poorer classes. The wheat crops of the several years preceding the Re- volution were insufficient to meet the needs of the country because of heavy drouths. The lower classes were una- ble to buy bread in the winter time and starvation faced them nearly every year. This fact gave their leaders a decided advantage over the mobs. They used their hunger as a bait to lure the people on. They promised to give them plenty of food, and held out to the rab- ble promises of a time when they would not have to work and everything would be theirs. Such were the direct causes of the Revolution. The people demanded the convoca- tion of the States-General, which had not been called since 1614. Here the Tiers Etat or Third Estate, com- posed of the lower classes, wished the abolition of all exemptions and that the other classes should sit with them. This was refused by the King, and the Third Estate declared themselves the Nation- al Assembly, and again invited the oth- er orders to participate with them in their debates. Paris, on hearing the news, and in- flamed by the licentious journals full of the revolutionary teachings of Rous- seau, Marat, Robespierre, Desmoulins, and others, arose, and constituted a new government, with Bailly, the rep- resentative of Paris at the States-Gen- eral, as Mayor. The Guard of the city deserted the King and joined the Na- tional Guard, a new organization form- ed by the National Assembly. The

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THE REDWOOD had received the news of the States- General. True, there was just as much gaiety, but there was a different air in the salons, where gathered the popular heroes of the times. No longer were the Royalist salons the most popular; they were gone. There remained only the salons of the different factions; they were political in character, and waned or increased in popularity ac- cording as their parties waned or in- creased. The emigrations had deprived Paris of the wittiest and gayest of its frequenters; the new men of the pro- vinces were quite determined to make up for any lack of gaiety. All parties in Paris knew that things had gone too far now for any chance of amelioration. The Feuillants hoped that the Constitution — that collection of everybody ' s impractical ideas — would be maintained, and that the un- practical notions of the Constituent As- sembly would be allowed a fair trial. The Girondins, however, did not wish to overthrow the Constitution, but they wanted to establish a republic of an ideal type upon the basis it afforded. On the other hand, the extreme Jacob- ins, of whom the most typical were Danton and Eobespierre, were too clear-sighted not to see that both of these were unpractical. With a people wild for revolution, a Constitution ut- terly impractical, and with foreign ene- mies threatening from abroad, neither an ideal, but powerless monarchy, nor an ideal republic could by any possibil- ity be maintained. These extreme Ja- cobins knew that no government save that maintained by force and terror, could exist in these troublous times, and they were prepared to shed blood to attain their ends. The elections of 1791, which elected the Legislative Assembly, also changed the Directory of the Seine, the body by which the Commune was supposed to be governed. It remained, however, strongly constitutional, and on Decem- ber 5, 1791, protested against the de- cree of November 29th, forcing priests to take the oath or be deprived of their benefices. The head council, or Coun- cil General, took no notice of this pro- test, and the Directory then humbly announced that they had only protest- ed as individuals, not as a body. But their humility did not save them; they were later denounced to the Assembly by the Sections of Paris, and this pro- test of the Sections cost many of the directors their lives. This serves to illustrate how the power of the King had declined at the close of the year 1791, and how the power of the Sec- tions of Paris, or the Commune, had correspondingly increased, until they were able to dominate the policy of the Assembly. The Girondins, playing upon the peo- ple ' s love of war and adventure, de- cided that war was necessary for the glory of France; and soon, by their eloquence, had roused, not only the people of Paris, but also a large pr©- portion of Prance, to the desire for war. The Jacobins opposed this. Ma-