The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1871-08-05

be felt sure they would rally round the
Government against the rebels. Out Of
200, 900 National Guards, only three hun
dred responded to this summons to rally
round little Theirs against themselves. The
g1nonous working mems revolution OF the
~ 9'O y March took undisputed sway Of Paris.
Cue central Committee was its provisional
"osernhent Europe seemed for a mo
nent, 20 uouot whether its recent sense
tIonal performances Of state and var bsd
any reality in them, Or whether tbev vsrs
tie dreams Of long by-gone past.
From the 8tb Of March to the entrance
OF the Versailles troops into Paris. tbs
proletarlan revolution remained 30 free
from acts Of violence in which the revo-
lutions, and still more the counter-revolu-
tons, Of " the better classes" abound. that
no facts were left to its opponents to cry
out about, but the executions Of Generals
LecOmte and Clement Thomas, and the
affair Of the Place VeDdome.
One Of The Bonapartist officers engaged
IN the nocturnal attempt against Montmar.
ire, General Lecomte, bad four times or
dered the 8lst line regiment to fire At Al
unarmed gathering in Place Pigale, and on
their refusal, fiercely insulted them. In-
stead Of shooting women and children, bis
own men shot him.
The inveterate habits acquired by tho
soldiery under the training Of the enemies
Of the working class are, Of course, not
l.4cly to change the very moment these SOL
diers change sides. The same men exc
cuted Clement Thomas.
General Clement Thomas. a malcon-
tent -quartermaster-serge had, in the
latter time Of Louis Phillippe's . reign, en-
listed at the Office of tie Republican news-
paper, LIE National, there to serve ia the
double capacity Of responsible man ofstra=
(gerGnt respOnsaJle) and of dueling bully
to that very combative journel. After the
revolution Of February, the men Of the
National having got into power, they meta
morphOsed this old quartermaster-s
into a general, on the eve Of the butchery
Of June, Of which be, like Jules Favre,
was one Of the sinister plotters, and became
one Of the most dastardly executioners.
Then be and his gensralship disappeared
for long time, to again rise to the surface
on the first Of November, 1870. The day
before the Government Of Defence, caught
at the Hotel de Vile, bad solemnly pledged
their parole to Blanqui, Flourens, and other
representatives Of the working class, to
abdicate their usurped power into the hands
of a commune to be freely elected By Pa
ris. Instead Of keeping their word, they
let loose on Paris the Bretons of Trochu,
who now replaced the Corsicans Of Bona
parte.
General Tamisier alone, refusing to sully
bis name BY such breach Of faith, resign
ed the commandershiP-in-chief OF The Ma
tional Guard, and in bis place Clement
Thomas for once again, became a general.
During the whole tenure Of Bis command
be made war, not on the Prussians, but
Upon the Paris National Guard. He pre-
vented their general armament, pitted the
bourgeois battaliOns against the working
mems battailous, weeded out the officers
hostile to Trochu's 'plan,' and disbanded
lnder the stigma Of cowardice, the verv
same proletarian battalions whose heroism
has now astonished their most inveterate
enemies.
Clement Thomas felt quite proud Of
lavingre'conqIered Ills June pre-. emineuce
AZ the personal enemy Of the working men
Of Paris. Only few days before the 18th
OF March, be laid before the War Minis or,
Leho, plan Of bis own for " finishing off
"a me VeGr (the cream Of the Paris ca
mdiHe."
After inoy's route, he must needs ap-
pear upon the scene Of action in the char
acter Of an amateur Spy The Central
Committee and The Paris working men
were as responsible for the killing Of Cleul-
ent Thomas and General Lecomte as the
Princess Of Wales was for the fate Or The
people crushed to death on the day Of her
entrance into London.