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III. Gambetta and the Revolution of 4 September 1870
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 December 2011
Extract
The capitulation at Sedan was signed on the morning of 2 September 1870, and the news reached Palikao that same day. But the public as yet knew nothing; the reports received by ministers were conflicting, the details uncertain, and Palikao preferred to delay any announcement of disaster until it was confirmed officially and beyond a doubt. On the morning of the 3rd rumours began to circulate; telegrams arrived from Brussels and passengers from Belgium spread the tidings of a great defeat. At the session of the Corps Législatif in the afternoon Palikao made a statement: the attempted junction with Bazaine had failed, MacMahon had been forced to retreat to Mézières and Sedan and “perhaps even in small numbers on to Belgian territory.” This cautious admission prepared his audience for the worst. Such a statement from the reticent Palikao had an ominous significance, and when the Minister further confessed that no news or instructions had been received from the Emperor, Jules Favre declared that, since the government had in fact ceased to exist, all parties should in order to avoid confusion give place to a soldier who would undertake the defence of the nation. Everyone understood who was the soldier thus referred to by a member of the Left. It was clear that once the news of complete disaster was officially confirmed deposition would be demanded in the streets and formally proposed in the Chamber. That fearful confirmation was soon to come. Not long after the close of the afternoon sitting the Empress, who as yet knew nothing, received a laconic telegram: “The army is defeated and captive; I myself am prisoner. Napoleon.”
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References
1 I.e. Trochu.
2 J. Simon, Souvenirs (du 4 septembre), I, 357.
3 A. Lavertujon, G[ambettd] inconnu, p. 100.
4 P. B. Gheusi, Gambetta par Gambetta, p. 288.
5 [Enquête parlementaire sur les actes du gouvernement de la défense nationals]; Deposition] Guyot-Montpayroux.
6 Enquêe parlementaire, D£p. Ferry, I, 379 and Favre, 1, 320. Cp. [Comte GJ D'Haussonville, Mon journal [pendant la guerre]. From Thiers'account it is clear that the meeting must have been after the news of Sedan had reached and was generally known in Paris.
7 At the full meeting at 9 p.m., 3 September. (Comte E. de) Kératry, Le 4 septembre, p. 28.
8 E. Dréolle, La jour-née du 4 septembre [au Corps Legislatif], pp. 32 seq. Enquête parlementaire, Dép. Lebreton, II, 148. Dréolle's account written shortly after the events is more likely to be accurate. No doubt Gambetta said as much as both report and more besides; but the important point is that neither witness was Republican and both confirm Gambetta's “sagesse.”
9 Dréolle, La journée du 4 septembre, pp. 34, 35.
10 D'Haussonville, Mon Journal, p. 92.
11 Le Siècle, 4 September 1870.
12 A. Ranc, Souvenirs et Correspondances, p. 156.
13 Dréolle, La journée du 4 septembre, pp. 64 seq.
14 Reproduced at the end of Lavertujon's G. inconnu.
15 Dréolle, La journée du 4 septembre, p. 67.
16 Enquête parlementaire, Dép. Jérôme David, I, 155.
17 Enquête parlementaire, Rapport Daru, p. 31.
18 Enquête parlementaire, Dép. Thiers; L. Halévy, le 4 septembre, p. 12.
19 L. Halévy, Le 4 septembre; Le Siècle, 12 January 1871.
20 Comte Fleury, Memoirs of the Empress Eugénie, II, 438.
21 I.e. Drélle's story.
22 Kératry, Le 4 septembre, p. 28.
23 Enquête parlementaire, Dép. Gambetta.
24 Fleury, Memoirs of the Empress Eugénie, II, 437.
25 E. Ollivier, L'Empire libéral, XVII, 469. R. Dreyfus, Monsieur Thiers contre l'empireʿ la guerre, la commune 1869–71, 130 seq. Enquête parlementaire, Dép. J. Ferry, I, 382.
26 Enquête parlementaire, Dép. Picard, 1, 476. Ollivier (L'Empire libéral, XVII, 513) attributes the solution to Ledru-Rollin: however that may be, it was foreshadowed in August when Le Siècle proposed a Defence Committee to consist in the first instance of the Paris deputies.
27 Lord Newton, Life of Lord Lyons, I, 313.
28 Dréblle, La journée du 4 septembre, p. 113.
29 F. F. Steenackers and F. Le Goff, Histoire du gouvernement de la défense nationale en province.
30 Ollivier, L'Empire libéral, XVII, 494.
31 Trochu, Une page d'histoire contemporaine devant l'Assembleé nationale.
32 Enquête parlementaire, Dép. Trochu, I, 281.
33 Favre, Ferry, Rochefort, Étienne Arago, Glais-Bizoin and Pelletan.
34 D'Haussonville, Mon journal, p. 105.
35 Enquête parlementaire, Dép. Picard, I, 476; Ollivier, L'Empire libéral, XVII, 537; E. Lamy in Revue des deux mondes, 15 May 1896.
36 Enquête parlementaire, Dép. Picard, I, 476 seq.; Ollivier, XIII, 463; H. Pessard, Mes petits papiers, p. 337.
37 J. Simon (Souvenirs du 4 septembre, 11, 5) says Gambetta's majority was one; J. Favre (Gouvemement de la défense nationale, I, 90) and Picard (Enguête parlementaire, Dép. I, 477) declare that it was two. This I accept, for surely Picard, if anyone, would know by how much his rival had defeated him.
38 Crémieux, Minister of Justice; Emmanuel Arago, Minister to Berlin; Jules Favre, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs.
39 Lamy, E., Revue des deux mondes, 15 May, June 15, 1896.Google Scholar
40 E. A. Vizetelly, Republican France, p. 9.
41 There were also cross-currents of personal antipathy: for instance little love was lost between Gambetta and Rochefort (A. Daudet, Souvenirs d'un homme de lettres).