REPUBLICS— THE LADDER TO LIBERTY 



251 



diated the Crown and the Parliament. 

 Thirteen little republics had been created 

 and federated. They possessed written 

 constitutions which Franklin had trans- 

 lated, distributed, and expounded in 

 France. The French armies that had 

 aided in the War for Independence had 

 returned to France full of enthusiasm. 

 The Constitution of the United States 

 had just been adopted. Lafayette was 

 demanding the convocation of the long- 

 forgotten States General, in order that 

 France also might have a constitution. 



The innovation in government intro- 

 duced by the United States of America, 

 an invention as essentially American as 

 the telegraph and the telephone, was to 

 revolutionize the governments of the 

 world as completely as the telegraph and 

 the telephone have changed our methods 

 of communication. 



It is not necessary here to follow in 

 detail the development of the French 

 Revolution. The circumstances of the 

 time demanded a change, and the specu- 

 lations of the philosophers had justified 

 it, but it was the American example that 

 marked out a pathway to effective action 



THE REASONS FOR THE COEEAPSE OE THE 

 EIRST FRENCH REPUBLIC 



Unfortunately, however, it was not the 

 guarantees of the American constitu- 

 tions, but the unrestrained democracy ad- 

 vocated by Rousseau that took possession 

 of the French mind. The Constitution 

 of the United States, as finally adopted, 

 unlike any other that had ever existed, 

 while securing the rights of the citizens, 

 placed limits on the powers of govern- 

 ment. The French Constitution, on the 

 contrary, simply transferred absolute 

 power from one government to another. 

 What was most original in the unique 

 American invention was entirely over- 

 looked. 



The Revolution, which in its early 

 stages promised to be a new organization 

 of liberty, soon became a new form of 

 despotism. 



Then began the titanic struggle of ab- 

 solute popular sovereignty with the es- 

 tablished power of royal absolutism — 

 the general war of French democracy 

 upon all kings — which brought a young 



Corsican officer to the surface, and at 

 last carried him, in the guise of an apos- 

 tle and protagonist of liberty, to the im- 

 perial throne of France. Unbridled de- 

 mocracy demanded and found, first, a 

 servant and then a master. 



It is not difficult to comprehend how 

 the conservative eighteenth century re- 

 publics were swept off their feet by the 

 flood-tide of a larger liberty. They were 

 not entirely unwilling victims of con- 

 quest. Everywhere the doctrines of the 

 Revolution preceded its armies and pre- 

 pared the way for them. The Declara- 

 tion of the Rights of Man and the Citizen 

 announced the approach of a liberator. 

 Even in the republics, the people had 

 their grievances, which the new order of 

 things that the French Directory pro- 

 claimed promised to abolish. Republics 

 sprang up like mushrooms under the pro- 

 tection of the French armies. 



As a result of the obstinacy and trea- 

 son of Louis XVI, the French Republic 

 had come into being on September 21, 

 1792. By the end of January, 1795, the 

 United Provinces were in the possession 

 of the French army, and the Batavian 

 Republic was proclaimed on the model of 

 the French Republic. In the meantime 

 the Polish patriots, under the leadership 

 of Kosciuszko, who had received a wel- 

 come in France, endeavored to restore 

 the Polish Republic, but without success, 

 and the final partition was arranged by 

 Prussia, Austria, and Russia in 1795. 



Bonaparte was sent to Italy as a con- 

 queror, but his conquests were made in 

 the name of liberty. Outwardly the obe- 

 dient servant of the Directory, even then 

 he meant to be in due time the master of 

 France and of all that the Republic might 

 acquire. 



First of all, however, there was neces- 

 sary the conquest of men's minds, which 

 could only be made in the name of free- 

 dom ; and freedom was, therefore, Bona- 

 parte's constant watchword. 



But his vision of his goal was from the 

 first perfectly clear. Speaking to Miot, 

 the French ambassador at Florence, he 

 said in 1797 of the destinies of France: 

 "What is needed is a chief illustrious by 

 glory and not by theories of govern- 

 ment — the mere phrases and discourses 



