PARIS IN DECEUBER, 1851, Oll, THE COUP D'ETAT OF NAPOLEON Ill BY EUGENE TENOT, EDITOll OF THE SIECl,E (PARIS) AND AUTHOR OF "LA PROVL'l'CE EN DECEl1BllE V!.n.'' TRANSLATED FROl'rt THE THIRTEENTH FRENCH EDITION, WITH :MANY ORIGINAL NOTES, BY S. W. ADAMS, AND A.H. BRANDON. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY HURD AND HOUGHTON. l'!C a milt {ll ge, 1.t £1Hts {ll e ;th:tu. 1870. /tJ, ¥19 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by SHBRl!AN W. ADAMS, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. RIVERSIDE, OAllIBBIDGE: FRI!ITED BY H. 0, HOUGHTON AND COllIFANY, CONTENTS. -+­ PAGE TRANSLATORS' PREFACE V AUTHOR'S PREFACE vii ANALYSIS OF CHAPTERS xiii PARIS IN DECEMBER, 1851 1 AUTHOR'S APPENDIX • 2il TRANSLATORS' APPENDIX: 256 ALPHABETICAL INDEX 345 TRANSLATORS' PREFACE. -+­ THE work of which a translation is herewith respect­ fully submitted, was first published in Paris, in July 1868, since which time it has reached its fifteenth French edition. As the object of its author was to sup­ ply a long-needed, correct version of the acts of vio­ lence and unlawfulness whereby Louis Napoleon sup­ planted the Republic of France by the Empire of which he became the head; so the object of the translators has been, to give to the "plain, unvarnished tale'' a form and style which should make it intelligible and popular in the hands of American readers. It is for this rea­ son that they have added a copious appendix of histor­ ical, biographical, and explanatory notes. Some of these may appear trivial and unnecessary, but it seemed more desirable to explain very fully, than to err, possibly, by the omission of anything that might render the text more thoroughly understood. For t,he same reason, they have added an Alphabetical Index. The work has been translated into the Russian, Ger­ man, and Italian languages ; but this is believed to be the first English version thereof. .M. Tenot states that he has not deemed it expedient to comment unfavorably (to the French Government) upon the facts which he has recorded in his work. , Nevertheless, it may not be amiss to remark, that his publishers, in order to avoid the risk of public prosecu­ tion, struck out from the manuscripts of the author, vi TRANSLATORS' PREFACE, certain passages which even he, with all his pains to keep within the French penal enactments relating to the press, had ventured to submit for publication. It seems to the translators, that a political crisis in the Napoleonic regime will soon be reached. All the under-currents of public opinion in France, especially in the great cities, which in that country are the seats of intelligence and education, and are least controlled by the Romish priesthood, all the indications of pop­ ular sentiment, point to the approaching collapse of the dynasty, - .the "Strong Government," heretofore administered by Louis Napoleon, with the assistance of a vast army of soldiers, and another army composed of the clergy, and servile officials appointed by the Emperor, and well paid (many of them for life) from the national treasury. That the intelligent, thinking, and patriotic people of France are Republicans, is shown by the resulti of the elections of 1869. And if the votes of the clergy, and of the underlings ( civil and military) of the government, be deducted from the whole, there remains an Opposition majority. This is notwithstanding the vast power and influence exer­ cised by the government, through its ministers, pre­ fects and police, over those who have the right of suf­ frage. For these reasons, the present seems an opportune moment for offering for perusal, - by the American reader who desires to be informed as to the orio'in of 0 the present imperial rule in France, - a work which shall contain, in a small compass, a true story of the Coup d'Etat of President Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. S.W.A. A.H.B. January, 1870. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. Two and a half years ago, I published the account of the opposition which the Coup d'Etat of the 2d of December met with in the Departments. (See Note 1.) When writing that work upon " The Province in December, 1851," I had in my mind a twofold pur­ pose: ­ 1st. To furnish some useful materials to future his­ torians, by narrating important though contemporary · facts, in danger of being forgotten. 2d. To refute by a simple and impartial narrative, supported by strong proofs, the tradition of the dema­ gogic "jacquerie" (Note 2) in the provinces in .De- · cember; a tradition which was becoming more and more accepted as an incontrovertible historical fact. This latter part of my task, I ought to say, more particularly demanded my attention. I had been pained by the odious accusations, of murder, pillage, rape, in­ cendiarism, with which it had been sought to blight the Republicans, who in 1852 had made armed resistance in the Departments, to the Coup d'Etat of December 2, and whom the Councils of '\Var and the Mixed Commissions had cast by thousands into Cayenne, into Africa, or into exile. · A Republican myself, - although I was then but a youth, - I experienced, with the lively sensibility of that age, a much deeper grief than I could express, on viii AUTHOR'S PREFACE, seeing that no one responded to these accusations. How many times have I felt humiliated, affiicted, when I saw those very persons who refused to believe in them reduced to the impossibility of responding by some positive proof, to those_:_ and God knows whether they were numerous, -who, in veritable good faith, re­ peated tales of revolting excesses, committed by bands of " Jacques " (Note 2), led to murder and pillage by demagogues, under the pretense of defending the Con­ stitution and the Republic against the Coup d'Etat. When, twelve years later, various favorable circum­ stances had placed me in a condition to search out and establish the truth concerning these events, to abate this heap of calumnies, of shameless inventions, which the majority of the French people had believed to be true, I _thought I should do a useful work by giving to the public the result of my patient and (I have a right to say it) conscientious researches. The reception which a great number of men, as dis­ tinguished for character as for talent, gave to this work, permitted me to believe that I was not mistaken. Since the publication of the "Province in Decem­ b~r, 1851," I have often been importuned to complete that impartial study of the events of December, by the account of the Coup d' Etat in Paris. I hesitated for a long time, being conscious of _my inability in presence of so arduous a task ; one con­ sideration determines me to-day. The years pass away. Almost seventeen have flowed by since the 2d of December. A whole gener­ ation has grown up, that knows not, that cannot know, how was accomplished that celebrated Coup d'Etat, the beginning of the regime under which it lives. AUTHOR'S PREFACE, ix Where sha11 it go in order to draw forth the exact knowledge of the facts? ·where is the book, honestly written, that relates these events? The few accounts published in France on this subject, in the first months of 1852, are frightfully partial. Therein the facts are drowned in a muddy mass of calumnies, falsehoods, disfigured incidents, and mutilated documents. · These recitals can serve those only who have time and means to separate the real from the false ·therein, while care­ fuUy governing each assertion through the application of a sound and severe criticism. [It is in this manner that I have myself proceeded. These recitals, whose perusal often causes nauseas of disgust, have served to establish for me certain facts which I knew from an­ other source, but which it was well to support by the authority of writers who were admirers of the 2d of December, and whose books or pamphlets had appeared in France.J I have resolved then, to relate the Coup d'Etat of December at Paris. I make no pretense of writing a history, in the complete and lofty sense of the term. I relate the facts. I neither appraise nor judge them. I seek not to ascertain whether the Coup d'Etat was rendered necessary by high considerations of public safety, or whether its authors obeyed different mo­ tives. I do not inquire, moreover, whether that act was or was not legitimate ; I no more blame than praise the means made use of to execute it ; nor do I controvert in the matter of the plebiscitum (Note 3) of the 20th December. I show the figures, and give the official speeches pronounced on that occasion. J'IIy method consists then, in searching for the truth of the facts ; in presenting them as far as possible under X AUTHOR'S PREFACE, their true light; in advancing nothing except upon serious proof: in citing only exact documents, without bein(l' in any manner engrossed with the results which the ;eader might deduce therefrom, or with the judg­ ments that he might carry thence. I proved sufficiently, I think, in "The Province in December," that I was not of those who torture facts in order to adapt them to a theory, or to the necessi­ ties of a case. "\Vhen compelled to show the excesses committed by men who formed part of the Repub­ lican bands, not only have I done so conscientiously, but I think I have strengthened the colorings rather than weakened them.