The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-16
DEFENSE OF THE EMPIRE.


Peace is signed with the conqueror; Paris, the.
grand capital, is in flames, its finest and most
venerable structures are reduced to ashes, blood
flows in streams, your work Is complete The
deep sorrow which weighs down each French
heart must not be allowed to obscure that rea-
son which has the right to require of you a
strict reckoning for the accumulated disasters
you have caused. The 4th September, the
aImistice discussed at Ferrieres. the defense
of Paris, the preliminaries of Versailles,
the 18th March. the peace of Frankfort,
the burning of Paris-behold your mournful
dates! History will call you rhomn,e fatal.
1t win find in your conduct but one motive
for action-the hate for the name of Napo-
leon. The war funeste, commenced the 10Th of
July, 1870, by the empire, is Terminated the
10th of this May, by the government without
name to which you belong. But what is this
government? Is it tfe national defense? No!
for you have done nothing but captulate. Is
it q government OF national restoration? No!
for France Is invaded by anarchy and disorga-
nizaton Is it a monarchy? Nol Is 1t a re-
public? Still less! Is it liberty? MOI Where
was 1t at the elections oppressed by DEGREES of
ostracism, Withdrawn at the last moment after
having fasified the choice of the citizens? 1t is
a collection of every evil, held together by the
absence of order, of security, of liberty, and of
strength. Let us descend the steps by which
you have conducted US to the depths of the
abyss The 4th of September you propose la
dechednce, the riot guided by you drives away
your colleagues, you break your oath, against
universal suffrage you proceed to usurp power
at the Hotel de Vile. The empire had commit
ted great faults, our defeats were great. but
our disasters date from you. Let each bear his
part. Without doubt it was O grievous error to
count too much upon the forces of France, aud
to commit in 1870 the fault which Prussia COM
mtted in 1906; too look to much to our victories
under the great republic and the first empire; to
think too little of the powerful enemy we had
to combat; to contemplate the Crimea In 1854
and Italy IN 1859, instead of calmly looking In
the face the German forces in 1870 headed by
remarkable neither wish to.
nor can +, deny these faults,
for which the Napoleons pay far
more heavily by their heartfelt grief than by
their mere exile; but the Emperor has never
sought to cling to the throne by peace which
might rave bis power by imposing too great
sacrifices on France. Mark! we have one con-
ISOLATION, that of having fallen with the country,
while, on the contrary, your elevation dates
from its misfortunes. You know better than any
one else the conditions which Napoleon III
could have obtaiued from Prussia at Sedan.
Undoubtedly they were hard, but incom-
parably better than those accepted by you.
Our sacrifices would not have borne compare
son with those YOU have subscribed to, with
out reckoning that we should have avoided
the months of disorder brought on by the gov
ernment OF the non-defeuse of Paris, and by the
odious and impotent dictature of those of your
colleagues, emigrants in balloon, pillaging and
expressing our provinces. Up to the fall of the
empire We had submitted to great misfortunes,
but these were reparable, as have been those you
find recorded in the history of many great peo-
Piles; since the 4th September, on the contrary,
there are no longer such misfortunes, but there
are disasters which find NO parallel in history.
The faults belong to the empire, the dis
asters to you and l ask myself IT, amidst the
faults of the empire, its greatest has not been to
have tolerated within itself your criminal at
tempts. The inevitable consequence of your
usurpation Is the revolution of March Is, which
you accuse to-day, and the burning of Paris,
for which you are responsible. | do not Judge
those who under the frightful circumstances have
accepted the perhaps inevitable preliminaries of
Versailles, and still less do judge the Assem-
bly, which ratified them. / do not believe that
have the right. But you; you are inexcusable
for your acts of the 4th September, for having
badly defended Paris, for having pledged
clans phrase, for having kept arms in
the hands of an over-excited population-arms
which were thenceforth useless against the for
eigner, and dangerous to themselves; for having
aggravated the preliminaries by the treaty of
peace; and, alas! in a word by having finished
with the destruction of Paris. You have filed
up the cup to the brim-F France Is indignant,
and posteIity will judge you. In the darkness
in which France is plunged-in face of those
Jfurieu1 who, in their delirium, burn our monu-
ments, oVerturn the column, and break the
glorious bronze of which each fragment makes
a wound in the heart of each of our
soldiers-it is necessary to seek for healthy
light. This is not to be found in the iatrigues
of pretenders, but in the will of the nation it
self otherwise there can be nothing but strug-
gle and confusion. 1t is not in principle which
Is In the negation of modern society; In white
flag which France no longer remembers; In the
negation of universal suffrage; in the white
terror" succeeding the red terror; 10 the fusion
ofpretenders in the return of the French Stuarts;
1t is not thus that France can find the haven
of safety. Mo- for new society, a new
symbol, is required. 1t requires-and modern
rights will 1.-THE abdcation of all before the
will of the people, freely and directly expressed.
Besides this-once more / repeat-there is
nothing but chaos. Faith in monarchy cannot
be imposed. The only base upon which gov
only source from which it can draw legitimacy
and force, is by an appeal to the people, which
we claim, and on which France ought to insist
NAPOLEON (Jerome).