The Uprising of June 20, i'/c)2 37 



1792.-^ While he was an important character on this day he did 

 not play as important a role as did the wealthy brewer of the 

 faubourg Saint Antoine, Antoine Joseph Santerre. This man was 

 king in the faubourgs, rough in his manner but kindly of heart. 

 By royalist writers he has been called ignorant, brutal, debauched 

 and insolent.-" A glimpse of his life will serve to put a dififerent 

 interpretation upon him. His father, also a brewer, and his 

 mother died early, leaving a large family. Antoine Joseph was 

 thrown upon his own resources at eighteen but previous to this 

 time had been in college where he studied especially history, 

 physics and chemistry. At twenty he bought a brewery. He 

 married happily but lost his wife before the close of the year. 

 He married again but domestic unhappiness drove him to spend 

 his leisure hours among the people of the faubourgs. He had a 

 reputation for kindness to his servants, generosity to the poor, 

 and consideration for his employees and so became very popular 

 in the faubourg. He took part in the storming of the Bastille 

 and with his battalion followed Lafayette on the 5th and 6th of 

 October, He often displayed great courage in the face of danger, 

 several times facing a mob to save a man fromhangingor a woman 

 from violence or buildings from being burned. He was one of the 



** Masson, Petites histoires, i. serie, 246-58. Alexandre's business had 

 been that of a stock broker. He gave this up, entered the national guards, 

 took some instructions and was elected captain of cannoneers of the 

 Gobelins, then chief of battalion of the Gobelins, finally provisional chief 

 of the sixth division of the national guard of Paris. Alexandre's own 

 account of his career is found in an extract from his Memoires; the man- 

 uscript of these Memoires is in the possession of M. Frederic Masson of 

 Paris. In September, 1792, Alexandre was allowed an indemnity of 

 12000 francs for valuable services rendered before and after the loth 

 of August. The convention made him minister of war, June 22, 1792, 

 for one day. His name was proposed by the committee of public safety 

 but the idea of making a minister of war of a stockbroker was so 

 inconsistent that the assembly reconsidered its vote next day. (Mon- 

 iteur, XVI, 892.) Alexandre was named commissioner of war which 

 office he held for eight years and then became a member of the tribunate 

 under the consulate. Documents in support of this are found in Ter- 

 naux I, 394. 



^ Varenne, Histoire particulicre, 21. 



233 



