Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1872-03-20
The Paris Commune Defended.

The extraordinary state Of things which
prevailed 10 Paris during the nine weeks
from the 18th Of March to the oath Of May
in 1871, has found defender in Wendell
Phillips. In his recent lecture on Europe,
delivered in this place, be interpolates in the
midst Of his Characteristic stories of the Con.
tinent as it was two centuries ago, a defense
Of that atrocious anomaly and hideous trag-
edy, the Paris Commune. His defense was
not wanting in those peculiar qualities which
have made bis oratory the sorcery Of a silver
tongue. 1t is given with such apparent ju.
dicial spirit, with so great calmness and mod
GRAFTON, with so credulous and sincere vio-
lation Of facts, that an ignorant listener
might have been led to look upon the Com
mune as the sorrowiul ayenger of the ancient
communal rights Of Paris and the assertor Of
the liberty Of the people against the tyranny
Of class. Mr.. Phillips said two things
about the Commune which we think have
never been spid before, and will probably new.
er be said by any one else. The Commune
was based, he says, upon the idea Of mum.
cipal independence and right and not upon
modern theories Of socialists and proletaires.
The declaration Of their principles would not
sustain this statement. They declared the
municipal sovereignty of Paris the oblitcr-
atiou of all class distinctions the right Of
-lasf TO capital the dests,;;ss.. .he -
cient tenure Of property community Of
goods overthrow Of marriage and promis-
cuous intercourse Of the sexes the govern
ment to assume the paternity and care Of all
the children and the denial Of the Christian
religion. These we're the announced doc
trines Of the Commune, and in the name Of
such rights and liberties as these, they resist
ed the action Of the French Government,
fought against the State, and gave Paris up
to the unbridled passions of the mob aud the
torch of the incendiary
Mr.. Phillips also said that the leaders Of
the Commune were men Of great excellence
and purity Of character. There, doubtless,
must have been many men Of this sort, swept
against their will into the ranks Of the CON.
munists some even, who to save themselves
or to modify the rage and atrocity of their
associates, became officers and leaders in the
movement But with few such exceptions
Of men who neither inaugurated or gave char
acter to the Commune, we have all connected
with it who might deserve Mr.. Phillips com.
mendation. The leading spirits of those days
were repetitions Of the demons who figured
in the great Revolution. They had the taste
for blood, the merciless cruelty which dis
tinguished Robespierre Danton and Barerc.
They were close imitators of the former era.
both in their principles and their actions.
They were cold-blooded murderers and had
an instinct and thirst for blood, like the tigers.
Their treatment Of the hostages of the
venerable Able Dcguerry, the vicar of the
Madeleine; of President Bonjean; of the
Archbishop of Paris of the Able Alard
and their sixty humber associates, shows
such rabid thirst for cruelty and suffering
and blood, as can hardly be paralleled in the
history Of the world Ferre and Rgault
presided at their execution, when they were
turned out into the court of the prison and
shot down like wild beasts. There were com.
panies Of the hostages, composed of men of
the greatest genius and learning and elo.
quence, distinguished for the excellence and
purity of their lives, and for the llustrious
quality Of their deeds, driven out by the sol.
diers Of the Commune into the mob of mad
dened men and women, and shot and torn in
pieces by them. An eminent priest in trying
to escape, was caught by shriekiug woman,
crying, Let me have the priest !" and as
he exclaimed, Mercy, Mademoiselle; have
mercy" she shot him through the head.
Women, children, helpless old men appealed
in vain for mercy from the frantic mob whom
the leaders of the Commune summoned as the
executioners Of their behests. And when
those weeks Of agony were about over, and
the soldiers of Versailles had forced their
way into the terror ridden-city and were met
on all sides by the weeping crowds whose JOY
at safety could find no suitable expression but
in sobs and tears the leaders of the Commune
distributed oil and torches and babe their wild
followers give the Paris they could not save
to their own orgies, to the destroying flames
Such were the leaders and the doctrines of
the Commune, and one might as justly, nay
more justly defend the bloody history of
Phillip the Second, or the Duke of Alva, or
the German Walloons, or the memory of
Claverhouse, as lend his voice in mitigation
OF crimes to which no earthly penalties can
give IN adequate retribution. If Ferre and
Rigault and Wurtz and Virgg and LeFran.
eais and Cerisier were noble and pure men,
aud the ideas they advocated and the actions
they inspired we're commendable, then it were
as well 10 make no distinction at all between
nobility and meanness, between what is hon.
orable and what is deyilish. We do not know
that Mr.. Phillips means to make men think
that tue greatest crimes are to be respected,
and the most infamous doctrines are to be
honored, aud the most bloody criminals are
to be commended any more than he means
intelligent men who have had some observa.
tion Of Europe should believe all he said
about its distinguishing characteristics; but il
he does not wish to produce such an effect he
will not hereafter attempt to sustain the only
peculiarities Of European life and history
which TIRE ipdefeusible, and cnricature those
which are really meritorious.
The Hartford Couraat makes the pre-.
dietion that Judge Davis will never write
letter Of acceptance approving the resolutions
of the Labor Reform convention which nom.
mated him for the Presidency and that this