New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1852-03-04
The French Coup d, Etat,

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II is an old and true saying, that his Satanic
q Majesty is not half so black as he is painted /;
neither is every Saint as holy in fact he is in
fame. Both truisms might find an apt illustra-
ton in the comments Of the American press
upon the recent movements of Louis Napoleon.
At first he was signally moderated. A life
of singular adventure, of untiring and I'M
despairing effort, Of the frmest will and the
fightiest ambition. not ungracefully relieved
by literary evidence Of mind and studies, could
not rescue him from being sneered at as mere
ballroom trifer, an elegant fop, seeking only
the indolent luxury Of insecure power. Not Of
the first order Of talent, and meriting largely a
reputation for sensualism, Louis Napoleon has
yet led in a drama which shows the exaggera-
ted prejudice Of the idea previously presented of
him. He has now become despot, betrayer
I of his country's liberties, the political infamy
Of his age
In this view, there seems to us, again, a
strange mixture Of the true and the false.
Louis Napoleon is no Brutus, and does not rise
effulgent from any stroke of fate He has,
with what is certainly rude violence, and at
some cost Of life, mastered the power he holds
He has promulgated a Constitution, in every
line Of which one may read the Sc Moi .je suis
Petat' Of Louis Quatorze. He is more kingly
in his position than any constitutional monarch
of Europe he is the fountain of all honor and
all power in France He is not, however, as
absolute as the Gar Of Russia, nor as cruel in
cold blood as the Emperor of Austria His sud-
den and sweeping assumption of power is his
crime, and hence the eloquent newspaper OBJ
jurgations Of the day.
Certainly he is no model, and his character
has neither depth nor bredth enough for any
warm coloring in eulogy. But the Sc devil is not
as black as he is painted and it may be well
to apply censure intelligently by first carefully
reviewing facts
When Louis Napoleon entered upon the Presi-
dency of France, he found an excitable and i'm
pulsive people, profoundly agitated by recent
revolutionary events The flame of socialistic
principles was spreading rapidly. 1t held CON
troll Of the mob Of Paris, and that mob held
strange Communist theories concerning prop
erty, held that the landlord was n social abom-
nation, that the state should feed and amuse
not tax nor restrain them; and that it had a
prescriptiye right to order the destinies of
France. For centuries the mob of Paris may
be said to have been the law of France-rude
capricious and exacting in its dictation to the
provinces. 1t was to France what the Dragon
is in the fables of early chivalry, rayenous,
consuming, merciless. At the beginning of
Louis Napoleon's Presidency the provinces stood
in the utmost dread Of it, and almost passively
waited upon its caprices. Property was inse,
cure and deprecated in this perpetual dread Of
revolutions, this sleepless apprehension of a vol
canic eruption. There was material, of tile
most pGablei kind, for ambition or discomfort to
work upon. We believe it is beyond dipute that
Louis Napoleon in his coup detat merely anti
cipated q revolution projected by his opponents !;
and, which, if successful, would have owed all
its triumph to the mob Of Paris. That mob is
VIGOROUSLY socialistic and communist; and had
it again realized triumph, we might now have
strange scenes to describe. That it was utterly
at war with the interests and sentiments of the
mass Of citizens Of Paris and of France, seems
plain from the singular unanimity with which
the people have come forward to support Louis
Napoieon-not even first rate man, and en-
circled with no halo of past glory We take it
that the people Of France are willing to submit
to the lesser evil of somewhat arbitrary
power, to escape the greater evils of socialism,
communism, and Partisan mob law.
But even in this view, considering Louis Ma
poleon the useful agent in securing necessary
results--we accord him no special merit Am
bition doubtless moved him; but then, he only
declared himself President for ten years, when
ne might as easily have proclaimed himself
hing for life. Nor is the arbitrary and restrict
I'VE Constitution he has promulgated without its
merits. It introduces a new and valuable fea-
lure into the organization of the Government
tnira power, standing between the President
ana the immediate representatives of the people
"a senate which maintains or annuls all the
acts which may be submitted to it by the Gov
efnment as unconstitutional or denounced for
the same cause IN petitions from the citizens ~
and further, it has the right to propose laws
and suggest notifications The President and
the Senate have a mutual veto upon one ano-
Their. Heretofore, nothing stood between the
President and the immediate representatives of
the people, and the slightest conflict between
them was the signal for revolution or. at
least, for an emeute. Louis Napoleon, in his
Senate has combined the elements of our Supreme
Court and Senate This is an excellent check
upon hasty revolutions, and will largely school
the people Of France to calm deliberation upon
political subjects.
Nor is the Constitution of Louis Napoleon
without other restrictions, though they may be
only a seeming show of moderation For in
stance, if the President prorogues the Legisla-
tive corps, he must summon it to meet again in
six months.
The restrictions of the Constitution are mani
testify provided with a view to suppress excitable
influences upon the mass--to check machina-
tons against the Government--to bar the path
to further revolutions. When we reflect upon
the confessedly unprepared state of the French
people for full enjoyment of such republican
power as ours, the dangerous tendency to social
jsHt The tsrannical sway Of the NAB of Paris,
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