314 



GAMBETTA, LEON MICHEL. 



"Le ReVeil" was to some extent overlooked, 

 doubtless by design; but the authors of De- 

 cember 2d were lushed unsparingly in a tor- 

 rent of eloquence unparalleled for impetuosity 

 and daring since the days of Mirabeau : 



Why talk here of plebiscites and ratifying clauses? 

 A specious argument, in sooth, to draw from article 

 1333 of the civil code, and drag to this gloomy do- 

 main where it was little expected ! Ah ! you are not 

 content with five million votes ! After a reign of 

 sevenUvii years, you perceive that it would be well to 

 prohibit the discussion of your deeds by means of a 

 posthumous ratification emanating from a criminal 

 court i No ; it shall not be. No ; you shall not, you 

 can not have that satisfaction. For such a cause there 

 exists no court of appeals. It has been judged al- 

 ready, yesterday ; it will be judged to-morrow, and 

 the day alter, and for ever, until justice shall nave 

 received her supreme satisfaction. The cause of De- 

 cember 2d, do what you may, will survive indelible 

 in Paris, in London, in Berlin, in New York, and the 

 verdict of the human conscience everywhere will be 

 the same. But our adversaries have, besides, another 

 accuser. Hearken : For seventeen years you have 

 been the absolute masters of France. We would not 

 ask what use you have made of her treasures, her 

 blood, her honor, her glory ; nor speak of her in- 

 tegrity jeopardized, or of what has become of the 

 fruits oi her industry : for no one needs to be told of 

 the financial catastrophes now, at this very moment, 

 springing as mines beneath our feet. Your most re- 

 lentless accuser, because it is the attestation of your 

 own remorse, is the fact that you have never dared to 

 say, " We will celebrate, we will add to the list of 

 solemnities in France, the 2d of December, as a na- 

 tional anniversary ! " Yet each successive regime in 

 our country has so honored the day of its birth. July 

 14th and August 10th have had their fetes ; and the 

 days of July, 1830, and February 24th, in like man- 

 ner. Two anniversaries only the 18th Brumaire and 

 2d of December have never been included among 

 the solemnities of accession ; for you know that the 

 nation could not in conscience sanction them. Hear, 

 then ! that anniversary, which you have neglected, we 

 will take for ourselves ; we will celebrate it year after 

 year ; and it shall be the anniversary of our dead, 

 until the day when the nation, once more in posses- 

 sion of her sovereignty, shall visit upon you the great 

 national expiation" in the name of Liberty, Equality, 

 and Fraternity. 



Rather than a defense of Delescluze, there 

 was here an indictment of Cassarism, and the 

 knell of the second empire; for the structure, 

 still so brilliant without, must be decayed with- 

 in and tottering to ruin, when the very judges 

 whose first duty it was to silence the seditious 

 orator, heard him, as if spell-bound, to the 

 end. Unanimous acclamations of the Liberals 

 throughout France signified the adhesion of 

 that party to the young advocate, thencefor- 

 ward one of its chieftains. During the ensuing 

 six months he won new laurels, in the defense 

 of the " Progres du Nord," at Lille, and of the 

 " Emancipation," at Toulouse. In the general 

 elections of 1869, M. Gambetta was pre- 

 sented as a Republican candidate to the Legis- 

 lative Assembly for Belleville (first electoral 

 district of Paris) and Marseilles, he announc- 

 ing that he would accept no mission but that 

 of an opposition irreconciliable. He was elect- 

 ed in both districts by an immense majority, 

 the rival candidate for the first being M. Car- 

 not, one of the favorite names of the democ- 



racy, but twice the age of Gambetta ; and those 

 for the second, such men as Thiers, the civil 

 engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps, and the Mar- 

 quis de Barth61emy. He chose to sit for Mar- 

 seilles, and took his place on the Extreme 

 Left. After an absence of several months, 

 occasioned by a severe throat affection brought 

 on by the fatigues of an arduous electoral cam- 

 paign, he returned to the Corps Legislatif and 

 made a series of remarkable speeches, especially 

 one in which he protested (February 7, 1870) 

 with indignation against the arrest of his col- 

 league Henri de Rochefort, deputy-elect for 

 Belleville in the place of Gambetta ; and more 

 particularly the memorable one in which (April 

 5th) he denounced the plebiscitum as uncon- 

 stitutional; juridically reviewed the value, es- 

 sence, and economy of the various political 

 systems ; and, pointing out why the republican 

 system ought to be preferred, seemed to invite 

 that avowed anti-republican assembly to make 

 the trial. It was no small triumph to be heard 

 on such a theme for the space of three hours, 

 with admiration and almost without interrup- 

 tion, by a House notoriously hostile no less to 

 the person than to the ideas of the speaker. 

 He could charm, but not persuade. But events 

 already in preparation would soon place him 

 in a sphere of action with the difficulties of 

 which only abilities of a superior order, united 

 to an indomitable energy and marvelous ac- 

 tivity, could cope. 



M. Gambetta's opposition to the war with 

 Prussia was at first more measured than that 

 of many of his colleagues ; so much so, that he 

 refused to seek, in the embarrassments to the 

 Government consequent upon the early disas- 

 ters of the campaign, a favorable opportunity 

 for revolutionary movements. After the ca- 

 pitulation at Sedan, however, hesitancy gave 

 place to decision : the republic was now to be 

 established, and he joined the ranks of its zeal- 

 ous promoters. On September 3d he signed, 

 as member of the Provisional Government of 

 the National Defense, Jules Favre's proposition 

 declaring the Napoleonic dynasty deposed ; the 

 next day saw him in possession of the portfolio 

 of the Interior ; and on the 7th he signed the 

 convocation of the electoral colleges for the 

 18th * of October, for the purpose of appointing 

 a Constituent Assembly. The new Minister of 

 the Interior remained but a short time at Paris. 

 His colleagues counting, and with reason, upon 

 his energy and the magic power of his elo- 

 quence to rouse the inhabitants of the prov- 

 inces against the invader, and meet the cruel 

 necessities of the hour, he was attached, by 

 decree of October 7th, to the delegation (Cr6- 

 mieux, Glais-Bizoin, and Fourichon) already 

 sent to Tours, and whose tardiness in the or- 

 ganization of the national defense in that region 

 was a source of anxiety to the Central Govern 1 

 ment. He set out from the capital in a balloon 

 on the 8th of October, and, reaching Tours on 



* On the 16th, an earlier date, October 2d, was fixed upon ; 

 but the elections were in the event postponed indefinitely. 



