The first French Republic

by Horace Mann Conaway

THE ORIGIN OF THE REPUBLIC.

Louis XVI., in 1789, was praised by the mass of the French nation as the best of monarchs, and as the restorer of national liberties; his name was coupled with that of Henry IV., a king about whom tradition had thrown a halo of glory. But, on September 21, 1792, the newly-chosen Convention abolished the monarchy. So rapid is the transition from the one phase of the national feeling to the other, that it occasions a surmise either that the professed loyalty to the monarch in 1789 was not sincere, or that the action of the Convention was the work of a coterie of radicals, who misrepresented the popular feeling. A review of the period intervening between 1789 and 1792 shows that both of these suppositions are unwarranted, and confirms the conclusion that there was a progressive development of hostility, first to Louis XVI. and the royal family, and then to the monarchical government.

Previous to 1789, the term Republic is used by French publicists or agitators, but it is either in a sense so qualified as to be consistent with the monarchy, or as a form of government unsuited to France with its actual traditions and conditions.[93] The very nearly unanimous feeling and judgment in 1789 was that the monarchy was the best form of government for France, and that the chief need was to regenerate it. We have said that one hundred and ninety-four cahiers specifically asked for the retention of the monarchy; the silence of the others upon this question must not be construed to mean that their authors were indifferent or opposed to the monarchy, but rather that they believed it unnecessary to ask for what they already had, and against which there was no strong movement. As Paris may rightly be considered the source of the anti-monarchical agitation, the attitude of the third estate in this city at the opening of the Revolution may justly be taken to represent the feeling of the radical element toward the monarchy. In their cahier they said: “In the French monarchy, the legislative power belongs to the nation conjointly with the king; to the king alone belongs the executive power.”[94] The sub-cahiers from the districts of the city expressed the same idea.[95] In truth, in not a single cahier examined do we find a hint of any opposition to the monarchy. Hence, it is to be inferred that, if any individuals had Republican inclinations, these inclinations were not shared by any appreciable part of the nation. A few men of the reform party, Lauragnais, Lally-Tollendal, and Montlosier, ventured to say that the French monarchy had originally been elective and that the elective monarchy would consequently be not an innovation, but a restoration of their early system;[96] but the adherence of these men to the monarchy in the early days of the Constituent Assembly is conclusive that by the elective monarchy they did not mean the Republic of 1792.

The Constituent Assembly, having been formed out of the States General, had to formulate a constitution for the regeneration of France, and was obliged, therefore, to specify the divisions of government, designate the organs and the functions of each division, prescribe their powers, limitations, sources and transmission; hence the debates and decrees of this national body may be taken as indicative of the public sentiment toward the monarch. Here may be traced the changes worked in the public mind, the censure or the eulogy of persons and institutions. As this national assembly itself became transformed by the withdrawal of the more conservative elements, it reflected rather faithfully the change that was taking place in the minds of the radical classes of France.

This Assembly frequently gave expression of its satisfaction with the monarch and with the monarchy. Near the close of the famous session of August 4, 1789, when feudalism had been so enthusiastically renounced by its own favored sons, M. Lally-Tollendal proposed that they should proclaim “Louis XVI. the Restorer of French liberty.” “The proclamation,” we are told, “was made immediately by the deputies, by the people, and by all those who were present, and the National Assembly resounded for a quarter of an hour with the cries ‘Vive le roi; vive Louis XVI., restaurateur de la liberté française.’”[97] As early as July 4, 1789, Gouverneur Morris, a careful observer of the French spirit and movements, wrote: “They wish an American Constitution, with a king in the place of a president.”[98] On August 28, 1789, Mounier presented a project of the monarchical element of the Constitution, and a member made the following statement, the verity of which was not disputed: “Here we should reflect upon the national spirit. For fourteen centuries the French, free to direct themselves by the republican spirit, preferred the peacefulness of the monarchic government to the storms of a republican government.... Louis XVI. is no more upon the throne by the chance of birth, he is there by the choice of the nation; it has raised him there, as formerly our brave ancestors raised Pharamond upon the shield. No one contests the monarchical government. All the cahiers are certainly clear ... we cannot avoid the conclusion, the only government which is suitable to our manners (moeurs), to our climate, to the extent of our provinces, is the monarchical government.”[99] Other speeches made on the same occasion are indicative of the strong monarchical spirit that possessed the Assembly at this stage of its history.

Twenty days later, M. de Baron de Juigne proposed to consecrate the principles of the heredity of the crown and the inviolability of the king’s person. Scarcely were these principles announced, than the Assembly proclaimed them by an unanimous movement.[100] These principles were embodied in the decree of September 17, 1789.[101]

From these citations, we are warranted in the inference that the members of the Constituent Assembly in its earlier period regarded the monarchy as the natural and the most suitable form of government for France. On the question of the division of powers, the number of chambers, the elective or hereditary kingship, the absolute or limited veto, there were differences of opinion; but national tradition and personal attachment to Louis XVI. were of sufficient force to bar any discussion of other possible forms for the executive branch.

The first strong manifestation of personal displeasure toward the king reflected in the Assembly, was aroused by his attempt to escape from the country with the royal family, on June 20 and 21, 1791. Fearing to be held longer as a hostage by the revolutionary party and to be supplanted by the invading émigrés, the king with his family sought to reach the eastern frontier and there to be free to act independently of both factions; but at Varennes he was arrested and brought back to face the enraged Parisians. It is then that words of displeasure were first heard in the Assembly. What shall be done with the royal fugitive? was then the living question. Some contended that he was inviolable and could not be called to account; others, that his inviolability extended only to public actions, not to private; while still others maintained that he had, by his treason, forfeited his inviolability. The agitation which reigned without found some expression within the Assembly. A committee reported, July 13, that the flight of the king was not a constitutional offense, that the principle of inviolability did not permit Louis XVI. to be put on trial. For three days the discussion over the king’s inviolability was carried on. Pétion, Putraink, Vadier, Robespierre, Prieur, Grégoire, Buzot spoke against, and Larochefoucault, Liancourt, Prugnon, Duport, Goupil de Prefeln, Salles and Barnave for the inviolability. Only Condorcet attempted to show the fitness of France for a Republic.[102] The people were astir without; they met on the squares, in the public places, crowded around the Assembly, and urged the dethronement of the king or the reference of the question to the people of the eighty-three departments. Petitions, posters, and ardent declamations were instruments by which the radicals sought to turn public opinion their way.[103] On July 16, 1791, a decree of the Assembly defined the acts whereby the king should be considered as no longer inviolable. Should he, having taken the oath to the Constitution, violate it: or should he put himself at the head of an army against the nation, or should he fail to oppose such an act on the part of his generals, he should be considered to have abdicated, and might be brought to trial like any ordinary citizen. His executive functions, suspended June 25, were not to be restored till the completion of the Constitution.[104]

The Constitution was completed and reviewed, and on September 14, 1791, the king went to the Constituent Assembly, accepted the Constitution, and, amid prolonged applause, subscribed to this new instrument that was to give liberty to France. He was escorted back to the Tuileries by the entire Assembly. The flight of the monarch seemed forgotten or forgiven.[105]