414 



GRfiVY, FRANgOIS JULES P. 



1849, he charged the reactionary party with 

 being the cause of all the disorders with which 

 the nation had been afflicted and of the popu- 

 lar discontent which broke out periodically, be- 

 cause they used all the power they could gain 

 to prevent the people from obtaining that 

 which they were striving for, and which alone 

 would make them contented, liberty, and he 

 said to the ministers: "Always the same con- 

 tempt for the law, for the right, for principle ; 

 still the example of the same retractions. It 

 is the fallen government which has brought 

 France gradually to the condition in which we 

 see it, and you still attach yourselves to its 

 errors. You do not comprehend that at the 

 point which France has now reached it is im- 

 possible to govern it except by liberty. You 

 are applying to it again the system of repres- 

 sion which it has broken over so often ! You 

 are beginning again the task of your predeces- 

 sors ; you are taking your turn to roll up the 

 stone till it falls back and crushes you 1 " An- 

 other speech which he made in this Assembly 

 was in opposition to the law upon the state of 

 siege, of which he declared the operation would 

 be to establish a military dictatorship. 



M. Gr6vy was arrested, with other promi- 

 nent Republicans, on the night of the coup 

 d'etat, December 2, 1851, and was confined for 

 some time in the state prison at Mazas. He 

 afterward returned to the practice of his pro- 

 fession. An election taking place in 1868 to 

 fill a vacancy in the Corps Legislatif from the 

 department of the Jura, his old constituents 

 returned him by a vote of 22,000 against 10,- 

 000 for his Imperialist opponent. A few 

 months later, at the general elections of 1869, 

 he was reflected by a vote which was almost 

 unanimous. His most important effort in this 

 body was an argument against the plebiscite, 

 in which, after having spoken to show that 

 that method of taking a popular vote tended 

 to supplant legitimate legislative authority and 

 to deprive the people of the power of the in- 

 itiative, he closed with the words: "Puerile 

 work ! You believe you can shut up a great 

 people in your little combinations. You be- 

 lieve you can stop the march of progress, and 

 chain a nation to a constitution. Has not the 

 example of those who have preceded you in 

 this impossible attempt instructed you ? The 

 people, in their turn, will break away all your 

 restraints, as they have broken away others, 

 till they arrive at last, through all the revolu- 

 tions of which you reopen the career, at the 

 form of government of modern peoples, the 

 democratic form the only one which is appro- 

 priate to our social state ; the only one which 

 is possible and durable ; the only one, finally, 

 in which it is possible to find the order, the 

 liberty, the repose, and the prosperity of which 

 they have so great need." 



M. Grevy's conduct in the revolution of the 

 4th of September, 1870, was marked by a cau- 

 tious deliberation. Desiring the erection of a 

 genuine republic, he believed that this object 



ought to be accomplished through a regular 

 process and under legal forms, and not through 

 a mere popular manifestation, which he thought 

 would fail to secure to it respect from its crea- 

 tors or consideration abroad. Urgency had been 

 voted upon the proposition of M. Jules Favre and 

 M. Thiers for a decree declaring the empire fall- 

 en, instituting a governmental commission, and 

 ordering the immediate convocation of a legis- 

 lative assembly; and the subject had been re- 

 ferred to a special committee. The committee 

 agreed to report back the propositions in sub- 

 stance but in different form, and sent a depu- 

 tation, of whom. M. Gr6vy was one, to the 

 H6tel de Ville to announce their decision to 

 the Government of the National Defense, 

 which had already established itself there. 

 The deputation did not succeed in inducing 

 this Government to surrender its popular title 

 for one derived from the Assembly, but M. 

 Gr6vy believed that his friends of the Govern- 

 ment had committed a mistake. He returned 

 to the department of the Jura, but came twice 

 to Paris to urge the convocation and election 

 of the Assembly, feeling that in postponing 

 this measure the Government was playing into 

 the hands of the reactionary parties. 



M. Gr6vy was chosen to represent the de- 

 partment of the Jura in the National Assembly 

 which met at Bordeaux, and on the 16th of 

 February, 1871, was chosen President of that 

 body, receiving 519 votes. At the same sitting 

 of the Assembly, he brought forward, with M. 

 Dufaure and five other of his fellow deputies, 

 the proposition for the organization of the ex- 

 ecutive in the following terms : U M. Thiers is 

 appointed chief of the executive power of the 

 French Republic. He will exercise his func- 

 tions under the control of the National Assem- 

 bly, in conjunction with the ministers whom he 

 shall choose and over whom he shall preside." 

 The period of his presidency in the Assembly 

 was marked by continued accessions of strength 

 to the ranks of the reactionists, so that, al- 

 though he was chosen President nine times 

 in succession, he was elected each time by a 

 smaller number of votes. On the 1st of April, 

 1873, a scene occurred in which the Duke de 

 Gramont characterized a remark made by a 

 member of the Republican Left as an imperti- 

 nence. The President called the speaker to 

 order, but the Right protested against his rul- 

 ing, and confusion ensued. The President de- 

 clared the session adjourned and left his seat. 

 At the opening of the next day's session M. 

 Grevy's resignation as President of the Assem- 

 bly was read. A new election was held im- 

 mediately, and M. Grevy was chosen again by 

 a vote of 349 to 231 for M. Buffet. He refused 

 to accept the offer, declaring that the reasons 

 which had induced him to resign his functions 

 would not permit him to resume them. These 

 reasons, privately expressed, were understood 

 to be that the monarchist factions were gain- 

 ing the ascendancy in the Assembly, and he, a 

 Republican, would not consent to cover their 



