Adolphe Thiers
Adolphe Thiers | |
---|---|
Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
In office 1 March 1840 – 29 October 1840 | |
Prime Minister | Himself |
Preceded by | Jean-de-Dieu Soult |
Succeeded by | François Guizot |
In office 22 February 1836 – 6 September 1836 | |
Prime Minister | Himself |
Preceded by | Victor de Broglie |
Succeeded by | Louis-Mathieu Molé |
Personal details | |
Born | Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers 15 April 1797 Moderate Republican (1873–1877) |
Signature | |
Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers (/tiˈɛər/ tee-AIR, French: [maʁi ʒɔzɛf lwi adɔlf tjɛʁ]; 15 April 1797 – 3 September 1877) was a French statesman and historian. He was the second elected President of France and first President of the Third Republic.
Thiers was a key figure in the
Following the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War, which Thiers opposed, he was elected chief executive of the new French government and negotiated the end of the war. When the Paris Commune seized power in March 1871, Thiers gave the orders to the army for its suppression. At the age of seventy-four, he was named President of the Republic by the French National Assembly in August 1871. His chief accomplishment as president was to achieve the departure of German soldiers from most of French territory two years ahead of schedule. Opposed by the monarchists in the French National Assembly and the left wing of the republicans, he resigned on 24 May 1873, and was replaced as president by Patrice de MacMahon. When he died in 1877, his funeral became a major political event; the procession was led by two of the leaders of the republican movement, Victor Hugo and Léon Gambetta, who, at the time of his death, were his allies against the conservative monarchists.
He was also a notable popular historian. He wrote the first large scale history of the French revolution in 10 volumes, published 1823–1827. Historian
Biography
Early life
Adolphe Thiers was born out of wedlock in
His paternal grandfather, Louis-Charles Thiers, was an attorney in Aix-en-Provence, who moved to Marseille to become the guardian of the city archives, as well as secretary-general of the city administration, though he lost that post during the French Revolution.[3]
He was of Greek ancestry on his maternal grandmother's side; his grandfather Claude Amic left Marseille for
His mother, born in Bouc-Bel-Air, had little money, but Thiers was able to receive a good education thanks to financial aid from an aunt and a godmother. He won admission to a lycée of Marseille through a competitive examination, and then, with the help of his relatives, was able to enter the faculty of law in Aix-en-Provence in November 1815. While studying at the faculty of law he began his lifelong friendship with François Mignet. They both were admitted to the bar in 1818; Thiers made a precarious living as a lawyer for three years. Thiers, who showed a strong interest in literature, won an academic prize of five hundred francs for an essay on the Marquis de Vauvenargues. Nonetheless, he was unhappy with his life in Aix-en-Provence. He wrote to his friend Teulon, "I am without fortune, without status, and without any hope of having either here." He decided to move to Paris and to try to make a career as a writer.[4]
Journalism
In 1821, the 24-year-old Thiers moved to Paris with just 100 francs in his pocket. Thanks to his letters of recommendation, he was able to get a position as a secretary to the prominent philanthropist and social reformer, the
He wrote about politics, art, literature, and history. His literary reputation introduced him into the most influential literary and political salons in Paris. He met
Historian
He began his celebrated Histoire de la Révolution française, which founded his literary reputation and boosted his political career. The first two volumes appeared in 1823, the last two (of ten) in 1827. The complete work of ten volumes sold ten thousand sets, an enormous number for the time. It went through four more editions, which earned him 57,000 francs (the equivalent of more than a million 1983 francs). The history of Thiers was particularly popular in liberal circles and among younger Parisians. It praised the principles, leaders and accomplishments of the 1789 Revolution (though not the later Terror), and condemned the monarchy, aristocracy and clergy for their inability to change. The book played a notable role in undermining the legitimacy of the Bourbon regime of Charles X, and bringing about the July Revolution of 1830.[7]
The work was praised by the French authors
The July Revolution (1830)
A new King,
The writer
In August 1829, Charles X had decided to show his authority over the unruly Chamber of Deputies, and named a fervent royalist,
Thiers reacted immediately and forcefully. On the front page of his newspaper, the National, he declared: "The legal regime is over; that of force has begun; in the situation in which we are placed, obedience has ceased to be an obligation." He persuaded the editors of the other major liberal newspapers to publish a joint declaration of opposition, which was published on the morning of 27 July. Later that morning, the prefect of police arrived at the National with orders to put the newspaper out of business. He brought workers who seized key mechanical parts of the printing presses, and locked the building. As soon as the prefect left, the same workers who had locked the building and disabled the presses re-opened it and put the presses back into service. Anti-royalist demonstrations broke out in many parts of Paris. Thiers and his allies briefly left the city to avoid arrest, but soon came back. Thiers noticed that the anti-royalist demonstrators had attacked shops which had signs showing that they were patronized by Charles X, but not those which advertised they were patronized by the King's cousin, Louis-Philippe, the Duke of Orleans, whose family had been sympathetic to the French Revolution. Without consulting with Louis-Philippe, whom he had never met, Thiers immediately had posters printed and put up around Paris declaring that the Duke of Orleans was a friend of the people, and he should take the crown.[10]
With the painter Ary Scheffer, a friend of Louis-Philippe, he rode on horseback immediately to the Duke's residence in Neuilly, but found that the Duke had left and was in hiding at another chateau in Raincy. Thiers talked instead to the Duke's wife, Marie-Amélie, and his sister, Madame Adélaïde. Thiers explained that they wanted a representative monarchy and a new dynasty, and that everyone knew that Louis-Philippe was not ambitious and had not sought the crown for himself. Madame Adelaide agreed to take the proposition to the Duke. The Duke returned to Neuilly at ten in the evening and learned what had happened from his wife. He put on a tricolor ribbon, the symbol of the opposition, and rode to the Palais-Royal, where Thiers, the Marquis de Lafayette and Jacques Laffitte were waiting. Together, they persuaded him to take the throne and discussed how it would be done. That afternoon, they rode to the Hotel de Ville. Louis-Philippe, wrapped in a tricolor flag, was presented to the huge and cheering crowd in front of the Hotel de Ville by LaFayette. King Charles X withdrew his proposed new government and offered to negotiate, but it was too late. He and his son departed the Chateau of Saint-Cloud and left France for exile in England.[11]
Deputy and Minister (1830–1836)
When the new government was formed, Thiers, with no government experience, was given a lesser position, that of undersecretary of state for Finance, under Laffitte, but was also awarded the Legion of Honor and the position of state counselor, which had a substantial salary. He ranked as one of the Radical supporters of the new dynasty, in opposition to the party of which his rival François Guizot was the chief literary man, and Guizot's patron, the duc de Broglie, the main pillar.[6] To have real influence and independence, Thiers knew that he needed a seat in the chamber of deputies, not just a government position. But to be eligible to run, he needed to own property important enough that he paid taxes of at least one thousand francs a year. His intimate friend, Madame Dosne, spoke to her husband, a wealthy businessman. Dosne arranged a loan of one hundred thousand francs to Thiers so that he could buy a lot and build a house in a new real estate development at Place Saint-George. In return, Dosne received the position of Receiver-General in Brest. A seat for Aix-en-Provence in the chamber of deputies was vacant. Now that he was eligible, Thiers ran and was elected on 21 October 1830. Ten years after his arrival in Paris, he began his political career.
He gave his first speech in the Chamber of Deputies, on the financial situation of the country, a month after his election. He had no experience as an orator; because of his small stature, his head barely appeared over the podium, and he spoke with strong Provençal accent, which made the Parisians smile. The long, carefully prepared speech was greeted at the end with silence, though the content was approved. Thiers worked very hard to improve his speaking style, and eventually became a very effective orator.
The new government faced many difficulties. It gradually divided into two informal parties: the so-called Party of Movement, to which Thiers belonged, which wanted the maximum number of reforms as soon as possible; and the conservative Party of Order, who, once the new government was installed, wanted no further turbulence. Louis-Philippe made
The funeral of an anti-government figure,
In 1833, he was nominated for an open seat in the
He returned to the Interior Ministry in 1834–36, and had to deal with discontent of the growing working class in France's large cities. A workers' revolt in Lyon on 9 April 1834, caused by a reduction of salaries, led to riots and the death of 170 workers and 130 police and soldiers. Shortly afterwards, on 13 April, barricades went up in the Marais district in Paris. The army was summoned and launched forty thousand soldiers against the barricades. On rue Transnonain, a sergeant was wounded by a gunshot from a building. The soldiers attacked the building, killing the twelve inhabitants. Thiers was thereafter blamed by republicans and socialists for the "Massacre of rue Transnonain."[14]
Thiers also played an active role in the decoration of Paris; he cleared the space in front of the eastern colonnade of the Louvre, so visitors could have a clear view, and ordered the restoration of the Salon of Apollo, which became the setting for the famous Paris salon art exhibitions.[citation needed] He commissioned the bas-reliefs for the Arc-de-Triomphe, and selected Eugène Delacroix to paint murals for the library of the French Senate and frescoes on the walls of the church of Saint-Sulpice, despite the opposition of Louis-Philippe, who disliked Delacroix's painting.[15]
Prime Minister (1836)
In January 1836, the unpopular government of the
Thiers accepted the position, and chose a government, keeping for himself the position of Foreign Minister. He told the Chamber of Deputies, "Our country is in the middle of the greatest perils, and we must fight the disorder with all of our force. To save a revolution, we must preserve it from its own excesses. Whether these excesses are produced on the streets or in the abusive use of institutions, I will contribute, through force and by the laws, to put them down."[17] He was given the support of the Deputies by a vote of 251 to 99. His new government proposed the construction of the first railroad in France, from Paris to Saint-Germain (though Thiers privately described it as "A toy for the Parisians") and suppressed the national lottery on the grounds of morality.
Violent opposition to Louis-Philippe increased. A gunman named Alibaud attempted to shoot Louis-Philippe, who was saved by the armored walls of his carriage. The police linked Alibaud to a secret revolutionary group called "Les Familles", by
Opposition and Prime Minister again (1837–1840)
Out of office, he traveled in Italy. He went first to Rome, where his friend
Thiers saw his moment and ran for President of the Chamber, but was narrowly defeated by a vote of 213–206. Louis-Philippe, who by this time detested Thiers, said with satisfaction that Thiers "had the effect of a melon striking a stone". but Thiers still had a strong following in the chamber. In offering him the position of head of the government, Louis-Philippe told Thiers, "Here I am obliged to submit to you, and accept my dishonor. You have been forced upon me. You will put my children out onto the streets. But finally I am a constitutional king, and I have no choice but to go through with it."[19]
As President of the council or Prime Minister, Thiers kept for himself the title of Foreign Minister. His most notable accomplishment was to obtain from Britain the return of Napoleon's ashes from Saint Helena. The idea was particularly pleasing to Thiers, because he had just begun writing a history of the Consulate and Empire, in twenty volumes. Rather than making the request public, he wrote to a personal English friend, Lord Clarendon, who was a member of the British government, saying: "to keep a cadaver as a prisoner is not worthy of you, nor is it possible on the part of a government such as yours. The restitution of these remains is the final act of putting behind us the fifty years that have passed, and will be the seal placed on our reconciliation, and our close alliance." The British prime minister, Lord Palmerston, considered and accepted the request. The transfer was opposed by some in the French parliament, including Lamartine, who feared that it would stir republican sentiment in France, but it was welcomed by the population. A warship was dispatched to Saint Helena, and Thiers worked on the details of the design of the tomb and the plan of the parade that would carry it to the tomb, constructed within Les Invalides. The return of the ashes was a huge success, attracting enormous crowds in Paris. But by the time it took place Thiers was no longer in the government.[20]
More unexpected news arrived on 5 August, while the remains of Napoleon were still en route from St. Helena to Paris. Louis-Napoleon, the nephew of the Emperor, had landed at Boulogne with a small force of soldiers, and had tried to spark an uprising by the army to overthrow Louis-Philippe. The soldiers in Boulogne refused to change sides; Louis-Napoleon was captured, taken to the Conciergerie in Paris, and put on trial. He was sentenced to life in prison, and sent to serve his sentence to the fortress of Ham.
The year 1840 also brought a political crisis between France, Russia and Britain because of France's support for the ruler of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, a long-time ally. (In 1829 he had donated the Luxor obelisk, now standing in the Place de la Concorde.) Lord Palmerston was convinced that the French would not fight, and sent a fleet to bombard Beirut and threaten Egypt. The French cabinet was divided, fearing that France was not ready for war; the French army was already engaged in the long, expensive military conquest of Algeria. The King made it clear to Thiers that he wanted peace. Thiers offered to resign, but the King refused his resignation, arguing that he wanted the British to believe that France would fight. When Thiers drafted a note to Britain warning that a British ultimatum to Egypt would upset the global balance of power, and he ordered construction of a new ring of fortresses around Paris. Palmerston did not attack Egypt, and crisis ended. The fortifications begun by Thiers during crisis were eventually finished, and became known as the Thiers wall, which later became (and remain today) the city limits of Paris.[21]
After the end of the crisis, tensions remained between the King and Thiers, who drafted the King's annual address to the Chamber of Deputies, adding the line, "France is strongly attached to peace, but it will not purchase peace at a price unworthy of the nation and its King," and would not sacrifice the "sacred independence and national honor which the French Revolution had put into his hands." Louis-Philippe removed this line from the speech, considering it too provocative to other European rulers. Thiers promptly offered his resignation, and this time it was accepted. A month later, he rose in Parliament to denounce the King's foreign policy, declaring that France had lost its influence in the Middle East, and had a duty to defend Egypt against Britain, and Turkey against Russia.
Opposition (1840–1848)
Once outside of the government, he devoted much of his time to writing Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire, the first volume of which appeared in 1845.
In December 1840, Thiers helped secure the election of
Opposition to the King continued to grow; he was the target of two more unsuccessful assassination attempts in 1846. In the spring of 1846, Louis-Napoleon, disguised as a stonemason, escaped from the prison at Ham and fled to England, where he waited for an opportunity to make a grand return to France. Thiers, the leader of the center-left deputies, began to take a more active part in the Chamber of Deputies. He told a colleague, "The King is easily frightened. He will only call on me when he is in danger. I will only take the ministry if I can be the master of it."[22] A proposal to make a larger number of citizens eligible to vote was rejected by Guizot and his government: Guizot declared to the Chamber, "the day will not come for universal suffrage."[24]
The February Revolution (1848)
The last parliamentary session of the constitutional monarchy began on 28 December 1847 with the announcement of a military success; the resistance to French rule in Algeria had been defeated. But immediately, opposition to the government grew. Since political meetings were forbidden, the left opposition began to organize banquets, large dinners in public places which were really opposition meetings. Thiers declared to the Chamber, "Our country is marching with giant steps toward a catastrophe. There will be a civil war, a revision of the Charter, and perhaps a change of personnel at the highest level. If Napoleon II were alive, he would take the place of the present King."[25]
The left opposition declared that they would hold an enormous banquet on the
Within the Tuileries, the King was uncertain what to do. His prime minister, Guizot, advised him to form a new government under Molé, but Molé declined and suggested Thiers have the job. "The house is burning," Molé told the King. "You have to call on those who can put out the fire."[26] The King reluctantly agreed, and sent for Thiers, but another event that evening changed the course of the Revolution; a unit of the army fired without orders on demonstrators outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Boulevard des Capucines, killing sixteen and wounding dozens.
Early in the morning of 24 February, Thiers arrived at the Tuileries and met with the King, who was in despair. He met also with
The Second Republic
Once the King was gone, Thiers and the other Deputies moved quickly to the Chamber of Deputies to decide what to do next. They had not been there long before an immense crowd invaded the Chamber, shouting "Long live the Republic!" Thiers fled on foot, and made his way back to his house. A new government was quickly formed by the republicans
At the same time, a familiar name reappeared in French politics;
Thiers had been considered a leftist republican in the government of Louis-Philippe, but after the political earthquake of the 1848 revolution and the influx of new deputies, he appeared relatively conservative. While he was out of the Assembly, he published an essay in defense of capitalism and private property which won him the support of the French business community and middle class. Thiers took his seat as the head of the Finance Committee, and leader of the conservative republicans. In the tense and sometimes violent political climate, he took up the habit of always carrying a loaded pistol.[28]
In September Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte returned to Paris and took part in the legislative elections. Though he stayed in London, was a Swiss citizen, and did not campaign, he was overwhelmingly elected in five departments. He took a residence on Place Vendôme. The first appearance of Louis-Napoleon at the Assembly, his Germanic accent and awkward speaking style, persuaded Thiers and other Deputies that he was minus habens; an imbecile. This was also the view of Ledru-Rollin and the socialist deputies. The new Assembly voted to hold elections for a new President of the Republic, the first in which all Frenchmen with residences could vote. Elections were set for 10 December 1848. Thiers considered running, but told Falloux, another Deputy: "If I lost it would be a grave setback for the ideas of order; if I won, I would be obliged to embrace the ideas of the Republic, and, in truth, I am too honest a lad to marry such a bad woman."[29] Instead, he made the major mistake of his political career; he decided to support Louis-Napoleon, certain that he could control him. He believed that Louis-Napoleon's term would be a failure, which would open the way for Thiers to run in 1852. On the eve of the vote, Thiers hosted Louis-Napoleon at his home for dinner. In the December 1848 elections, the moderate republican Lamartine received just 18,000 votes; the socialist Ledru-Rollin received 371,000, and the conservative General Cavaignac received 1,448,000 votes. Louis-Napoleon received 5,345,000 votes, or three-quarters of the votes cast.
On 11 December, shortly after the elections, Louis-Napoleon invited Thiers to his home for dinner, and they discussed the future government. Louis-Napoleon offered the position of President of the Council of Ministers to Thiers, but Thiers refused. He wanted to retain his independence as a deputy. He and his wife dined frequently with Louis-Napoleon in the new presidential residence, the Élysée Palace. Under the new Constitution, new elections for the National Assembly were held on 13 May 1849. The new Assembly had 750 members, of whom 250 were republicans, including 180 radicals or socialists. There were 500 monarchists, divided about equally between Legitimists, who wanted a constitutional monarchy under a Bourbon king, and the Orleanists, who wanted a king from the family of Louis-Philippe. The socialists were impatient with the slow pace of change; led by Ledru-Rollin, they staged an uprising in Paris, which was quickly suppressed by the army. Ledru-Rollin fled to London. In 1849 a cholera epidemic struck Paris; among the victims was Thiers' father-in-law. Thiers and his wife inherited a substantial fortune.[28]
In a speech in the Assembly in 1849 Thiers explained his political philosophy: "Unlimited liberty leads to a barbaric society, where the strong oppress the others, and only the strongest have unlimited liberty... The liberty of one person stops at the liberty of other. Laws are born from this principle, and a civilized society. No one person has it in his power to instantly achieve the happiness of nations."[30] On social issues he became more conservative; formerly a critic of the role of the church in education, he supported the Falloux Laws of 1850, which established a mixture of both Catholic and public schools, and for the first time required that each Commune of over five hundred persons have a school for girls.
The most conservative measure he proposed was a change in the electoral laws, which required that voters have lived in their residences for at least three years, and required a certain minimum income. He declared to the Assembly: "Our goal is not to exclude the poor from voting, but to exclude the vile multitude, those who have handed over the liberty of so many republics to so many tyrants over the years." The law was approved, removing one-third of the voters in France from the voting lists. Thiers did not foresee that Louis-Napoleon, elected by universal suffrage, would later use this law as a weapon against the Assembly to reinforce his own rule. When a friend of Louis-Napoleon asked him if he wasn't afraid of losing power without universal suffrage, he replied, "Not at all. When the Assembly is hanging over the precipice, I will cut the cord."[31]
As 1852 approached, Thiers looked forward to the end of the term of Louis-Napoleon; under the Constitution, he could not run again. Thiers began looking for other candidates to replace Louis-Napoleon, perhaps with the Duke of Joinville, from the Orleans family. Thiers and the other conservative leaders of the Assembly also rebelled against the high cost of Louis-Napoleon's household; he requested 175 new staff for the Palace, and asked funding for an additional twenty grand dinners and twelve grand balls a year. Thiers and the Assembly rejected his request. Louis-Napoleon also sought an amendment to the Constitution to allow him to run for a second term; the vote was held on 21 July 1851. Louis-Napoleon's proposal won a majority of the Assembly, but not the two-thirds required by the Constitution.
Blocked by the National Assembly, Louis-Napoleon decided to take a different route. In public he blamed Thiers and the Assembly for restricting the right to vote and for refusing to alter the Constitution for a second term, and secretly brought loyal army forces to Paris. Early in the morning of 2 December 1851, in what became known as the
The Second Empire
Thiers went to
In 1863, the now Emperor Napoleon III began to loosen some of the restrictions on political opposition. Thiers was encouraged to re-enter political life by his friends, and by a new acquaintance, the Prussian ambassador to Paris, Otto von Bismarck. Thiers decided to run for election to the Assembly. On 31 May 1863, at the age of sixty-six, he was elected as a deputy for Paris. He returned to the Assembly on 6 November 1863 and took his seat, but found that under Napoleon III the protocol had changed. Instead of speaking from the tribune, members were only allowed to speak from their seats. Thiers was uncomfortable with this way of speaking, and his first few speeches were failures, but he soon mastered the form. On 11 January 1864 he delivered a blistering attack on Napoleon's government, and listed the "necessary liberties" he said were lacking in France: "Security of the citizen against violence from individuals or from the arbitrary use of power; liberty, but not impunity, for the press; free elections; freedom of the people's representatives; and public opinion expressed by the majority guiding the steps of the government. These are the liberties that the people are asking for today; tomorrow, in a tone very different, they may be demanding them." The speech made him again a leading figure of the opposition; he was cheered by a crowd outside his house when he returned home.[33]
In the months that followed, Thiers criticized the Emperor's costly and doomed expedition to
On economic policy, he was relentlessly conservative; he called for protectionism to defend French industry, and condemned the high cost of Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann's rebuilding of Paris, which had reached 461 million francs. Under pressure from the Assembly, Napoleon III was forced to dismiss Haussmann. Thiers faced opposition from both the left and right. In the elections of 1869, he was defeated in the election for his seat in Marseille by the republican Gambetta, but, against a candidate backed by Napoleon III, he retained his seat in Paris. A national referendum on Napoleon's policies on 8 May 1870, confirmed the Emperor's popularity in the provinces of France by a vote of 7,386,000 yes, 1,560,000 no, and 1,894,000 abstentions. It also confirmed his unpopularity in Paris, which voted 184,000 no and 138,000 yes. [35]
War and the fall of the Empire
The new Chancellor of Prussia,
Thiers rose to speak and declared: "Do you really mean to say that, for a question of form, you have decided to release torrents of blood?" He demanded proof that Prussia had really insulted France. The members of the right wing parties jeered and hooted Thiers, and one Deputy called out, "you are the anti-patriotic trumpet of disaster!" Thiers responded, "I find this war extremely imprudent. More than anyone else I want to repair the results of Sadowa, but I find the occasion extremely badly chosen." The right wing of the Assembly erupted with insults, calling him a traitor, a fool and worthless old man. After the session, he was insulted in the streets and a crowd gathered to throw stones at his house. The Assembly, confident of success, ignored Thiers and voted on 19 July to declare war. That evening Thiers told a friend, the Deputy Buffet, "I know the state of the military in France and that in Germany. We're lost."[36]
As the Franco-Prussian War progressed, Thiers' warnings proved correct. Due largely to the country's inefficient railroads and a defective plan, the French Army was only able to mobilize 264,000 men in the first weeks of the war, as opposed to 450,000 Germans. The French army, led by Napoleon III in person, had a superb cavalry, but the Germans had superior artillery and leadership. On 1 September the French army was trapped and surrounded at Sedan. To avoid a slaughter, the Emperor surrendered the army on 2 September, and was taken prisoner with his army.
The government of National Defence (1870–1871)
The news of the disaster reached Paris on 2 September, and was confirmed the next day. Two hundred twenty Deputies of the Assembly gathered on the 4th and, following Thiers' formula, declared that, "due to circumstances", there was a vacancy of power. At the same time, a group of republican deputies, including
On 9 September,
Thiers continued his long voyage in search of allies. He travelled to Vienna and met with the Chancellor of Austria, then to Saint Petersburg, where he met with the Czar and the Russian prime minister, but he received no support. He returned to Vienna to meet Emperor
The French forces inside Paris made unsuccessful efforts to break the German siege, while the German army advanced through the Loire Valley, and the Government of National Defense, along with Thiers, was forced to move to Bordeaux. On 6 February 1871, Gambetta resigned from the government. and new
While Paris still wanted to resist, most of France wanted an end to the war as soon as possible. Thiers was a candidate in the elections, and won in twenty-six different departments, with a total of two million votes. He chose to represent a seat in Paris. The majority of the two hundred newly elected deputies favored a constitutional monarchy, though it is also included a substantial group of republicans, including Victor Hugo. At the first session, Jules Grévy, a republican sympathetic to Thiers, was elected president of the assembly, with 519 votes of the 536 voting. On 14 February the Assembly voted to pass the powers of the Government of National Defense to the new Assembly. On 17 February, on a proposition by Grévy, Thiers was elected the Chef du pouvoir executif, or Chief Executive of the government. He asked the Assembly that the words "Of the French Republic" be added to his title. "I have great admiration for cooks," he told the Assembly. "They call them Chefs. You have named me the Chef of the Executive Power. Do you take me for a cook? Do you take France for a kitchen?" The deputies laughed and agreed to the addition. The new government was promptly recognized by Britain, Italy, Austria, and Russia. For the first time since 1852, France was once again officially a republic.[39]
Chief Executive and the end of the fighting
On 19 February, Thiers announced the formation of a new government with nine ministers, a majority of republicans, including Jules Favre and Jules Simon. The first task assigned by the Assembly was to negotiate an end to the War. Thiers traveled with a delegation of five members of the Assembly to Versailles, where Bismarck was waiting. When he arrived at the hotel, he met the Prussian Field Marshal Moltke, who told him, "You are lucky to be negotiating with Bismarck. If it were me, I would occupy your country for thirty years and in that time there would be no more France." At the first meeting, Bismarck demanded the province of Alsace and eight billion francs. Thiers insisted that France could pay no more than five billion francs, and Bismarck reduced the payment, but insisted that Germany must have part of Lorraine and Metz as well. The talks were long and stressful; at one point Thiers, exhausted, broke down and wept. Bismarck helped him to a sofa, covered him with his overcoat, and told him, "Ah, my poor Monsieur Thiers, there is no one but you and I who really love France." The negotiations resumed, and Thiers conceded Alsace and part of Lorraine, in exchange for a reduction in the payment. He told the other French delegates, "If we lose one or two provinces it is not of great importance. There will be another war when France will be victorious, and we will get them back. But the billions we give to Germany now we will never recover." Thiers insisted, however, that France keep the fortress town of Belfort. Bismarck conceded the town, on the condition that, when the armistice was signed, the Prussian army could hold a brief victory parade on the Champs-Élysées, and could remain until the treaty was ratified. Thiers felt he had little choice but to accept.[40]
Thiers and his delegation returned to Bordeaux, and on 28 February, Thiers, sometimes breaking down in tears, read the terms to the Assembly. In the debate that followed, fifty members spoke for and against the peace. The members from Alsace and Lorraine strongly objected, and member Victor Hugo demanded, in the interest of history and posterity, to continue the war. The Deputy Louis Blanc declared that ten million Frenchmen wanted to keep fighting. "But where are they?" Thiers asked. "In this Assembly, elected by universal suffrage, three-quarters of the members want peace." As Thiers predicted, the Assembly voted on 1 March by 546 votes to 107 to accept Bismarck's terms. On 2 March the Germans held their parade on the Champs-Élysées. All the shops were closed and there were no Parisians on the street.[41]
The Paris Commune
Once the armistice was finished, the National Assembly held its first session in Versailles, and Thiers traveled to Paris on 15 March with the intention of reopening the government ministries there. He found the city in a state of revolutionary fever. At the time of the armistice, the National Guard in Paris had grown to 380,000. Predominantly working class, most members depended on the 1.5 francs a day they were paid. The Guard had become deeply radicalized by several revolutionary and socialist movements. With the war over, the National Assembly proposed ending their salary. The Guard had also been outraged by the Prussian victory march on the Champs Élysées; they demanded that the war continue. One attempt to overthrow the city government had already taken place, and had been put down with great difficulty. There were just thirty thousand regular army soldiers in the Paris garrison; a large part of the French regular army was still held in German prison camps.[42]
Army depots in the city held 450,000 rifles and two thousand cannons. On 18 March, Thiers sent army units to move the cannons out of Paris. Many cannons were removed without difficulty, but on Montmartre, where the largest park of cannons was located, the army encountered crowds of armed and hostile guardsmen. Fighting broke out, and two army generals were seized and killed by the Guardsman. A general uprising began, and the revolutionaries seized the major government buildings. The guardsmen did not know that Thiers was still in Paris, at the new foreign ministry on the Quai d'Orsay; if they had known he certainly would have been captured and probably killed. Instead, he escaped the city via the Bois de Boulogne and made his way to Versailles. Thiers then followed the same plan that he had proposed to Louis-Philippe during the 1848 Revolution, but which the King had rejected; Instead of fighting the insurrection immediately in Paris with the troops he had, he ordered regular army to withdraw to Versailles, to gather its forces, and then, when it was ready, to recapture the city.
While Thiers assembled his forces, including French soldiers just released from the German prison camps, Parisians elected a radical republican and socialist city government on 26 March: the
Thiers summoned the Assembly in Versailles on 27 March and declared, "There are some enemies of order who claim that we are trying to overthrow the Republic. I give them a formal denial; they are lying to France ... We have accepted this mission, to defend order and to re-organize the country. When order has been re-established, the country will have the liberty to choose as it wishes whatever will be its future destiny." Thiers declared that the country needed to unite behind the Republic; he stated his famous formula, "The Republic is the form of government that divides us the least."[43]
Thiers named Marshal
On 21 May, the French army, with 120,000 soldiers, entered the city through an undefended gate. By the end of the 22nd the Army had captured the west of the city and Montmartre, and on the 23rd, they captured most of the center. The Commune soldiers were outnumbered four or five to one, had no single military leader, no plan of defense, and no possibility of aid from the outside. As they retreated, they set fire to the government buildings, including the Tuileries Palace, the State Council at the Palais Royal, the Ministry of Finance, the Prefecture of Police, the Palace of Justice, and the Hôtel de Ville, destroying the city archives. On 24 May the Archbishop of Paris and many of the hostage priests were taken out and shot. The Commune soldiers set up a new defensive line on 25 May and the fighting intensified. Thiers and MacMahon set up their headquarters at the Quai d'Orsay. Despite orders from Thiers and MacMahon, many army units systematically shot the Communard prisoners they had captured. On 26 May, the fighting was centered in Belleville and around the Place du Trône (now Place de la Nation). That day the Commune ordered the execution of thirty-six policemen and ten priests on Rue Haxo. The fighting continued through 28 May, until the capture of Père Lachaise cemetery and the city hall of the 11th arrondissement. On the 29th the last bastion of the Commune, the fort of Vincennes, surrendered.[44]
The army casualties numbered 873 dead and 6,424 wounded. 6,562 Commune fighters were buried in common graves, and later transferred to city cemeteries. 43,522 alleged Communards and Commune supporters, including 819 women, were captured and taken to Versailles for trial by military courts. Most were released immediately, but after trials by military tribunals, ninety-three were sentenced to death (of whom 23 were executed; the others were sent outside of France), and about ten thousand more sentenced to deportation or prison. Thousands more Commune participants, including a majority of the members of the Commune council, escaped to exile. All were given amnesty in 1879 and 1880, and allowed to return home. Some, including the famous anarchist Louise Michel, quickly returned to political agitation.[45]
Making peace
During the dramatic events of the Commune, France was still officially at war with Prussia and then with the new German Empire. The fighting had stopped, but German soldiers occupied about half the territory of France. Bismarck and the German government were concerned by the Paris uprising, and feared that France would resume fighting the war. Bismarck declared that Germany would not remove its soldiers from France until the French government was solidly established, and twice offered Thiers German soldiers to help suppress it, but Thiers refused.[46]
Once the Commune had fallen to the French Army, Thiers turned his attention to liberating French soil from German occupation. He had lost Alsace and part of Lorraine, with a total population of 1.6 million of the 36.1 million inhabitants of France; the government had a deficit of nearly three billion francs, France owed Germany five billion francs under the terms of peace, which had to be paid largely in gold; and the destruction during the Paris Commune required 232 million francs to repair. Thiers used his considerable financial skills to find the money. He borrowed money from the Bank of France and the
President of the Republic (1871–1873)
Despite his success with the national finances, Thiers was in a precarious political position. France was predominantly rural, religious and conservative, and the National Assembly reflected this. A majority of the Assembly members supported some form of constitutional monarchy, though they were about equally divided between those who wanted a king from the former Bourbon monarchy, and the Orleanists, who wanted a descendant of Louis-Philippe. There were even a few deputies who wanted a descendant of Napoleon III on the throne.
In June 1871, against the wishes of Thiers, the Assembly voted by 472 to 97 to allow exiled members of the Bourbons and Orleans families to return to France. They were led by Henri, Count of Chambord, the heir to the Bourbon throne, who declared his willingness to rule France as Henry V. He received considerable support in the beginning, but lost much of it when he declared that he would replace the French tricolor with the white flag of the Bourbons. Thiers protested that it was not possible to have constitutional monarchy with three different royal dynasties, the Bourbons, the Orleans, and the Bonapartes, all claiming the throne. The republicans in the Assembly, including Léon Gambetta, rallied around Thiers as a defender of the republic.
The appearance of the Count of Chambord provoked a political crisis, which worked to the advantage of Thiers. He persuaded the republicans that he was the least monarchist of the monarchists, and persuaded the monarchists that he was the least republican of the republicans. On 30 August 1871, the Assembly voted 494 to 94 to change the title of Thiers from Chief of the Executive Power to President of the Republic, under the authority of the National Assembly. It was a remarkable political achievement; the Third Republic had been created with the votes of the anti-republican monarchists. In private, he was not very kind to the assembly; he told a friend that "I have an Assembly of 150 insurgents [the republicans] and four hundred poltrons (chicken-hearts). One could say that the real founder of the Republic is the Count of Chambord."[48]
Thiers moved quickly to set up a strong and conservative republic. The Assembly and government remained in Versailles, until the government buildings in Paris could be repaired. Thiers lived in the Prefecture building of Versailles. He considered moving into the official presidential residence in Paris, the Élysée Palace, but his wife rejected the idea, declaring that "we would be in Paris fifteen days before Monsieur Thiers would be assassinated." He did hold receptions and events in the Élysee, travelling back and forth to Paris with a large escort of police. The Assembly voted funds to rebuild his house on Place Saint-Georges in Paris, which had been burned by the Communards, and gave him money to replace his belongings, art collection, and library, which had been looted.
His first priority was to rid the country entirely of the German occupation of the east and north of France. By the end of September 1871, after the payment of 1.5 billion francs, six more departments were liberated, but twelve were still occupied, until the debt could entirely be paid off. The sum amounted to one sixth of the entire budget of the Republic.
Within the Assembly, the republicans were gaining at the expense of the constitutional monarchists, but they were also divided into several factions, with Thiers usually among the moderate republicans while Léon Gambetta led the far left. The right was also divided into factions, some wishing a constitutional monarchy under the Orleanist Count of Paris, others under the Bourbon Count of Chambord. It was a very unstable mixture. Early in his presidency, Thiers declared, "In general, the country is wise, but the political parties are not. It is these, and only these, that we have to fear. It is only these which we have to guard against." Thiers wrote late in his memoirs that he would have preferred a constitutional monarchy, but he knew it was impossible at that moment, given the strong majority of republicans, and supporting a monarchy would have been "a violation of my duties toward France; I had as my mission to pacify and to prevent the conflicts of parties." [49]
In January 1872, in partial elections for the National Assembly, Victor Hugo ran for a seat in the National Assembly for Paris as a radical republican against a moderate republican backed by Thiers. Hugo was defeated by 121,000 to 93,000 votes. Of sixteen seats up for election, republicans won eleven and only four were won by monarchists. Thiers wrote, "The great majority of the middle class, businessmen, and country people, without saying expressly that they were for the republic, said "we are for the government of Thiers". Thiers further won the support of the middle class and businessmen by opposing a proposed income tax, which he declared was entirely arbitrary, "inspired by political hatreds and passions." The tax was rejected.[50]
He was a convinced
The primary goal of Thiers in 1873 was to pay off the debt to Germany, to liberate the last French territory occupied by the Germans. France still owed three billion francs, more than the national budget, with final payment due in August 1875. He made agreements with the major fifty-five banks of Europe, and issued bonds which, based on the good credit of France, brought in more than the amount required. Thiers signed a new convention with Germany on 15 March 1873, calling for the Germans to leave the last four French departments they held, Ardennes, Vosges, Meurthe-et-Moselle and Meuse by July 1873, two years ahead of schedule. Germany retained only the fortress of Verdun, and the territory of a radius of three kilometers around it. The National Assembly voted a special resolution to thank Thiers for liberating French territory ahead of schedule. The right wing deputies abstained, but it passed with the full support of the republicans. After the resolution passed, Thiers was congratulated by his longtime friend and ally, Jules Simon: "Now you just have to name a successor." Thiers responded, "but there's no one!" Simon replied, "They have Marshal MacMahon." "Oh, about that," Thiers responded, "Don't worry, he would never accept."[51]
Downfall (1873)
The Duke de Broglie was carefully preparing a way to bring down Thiers. He modified the rules of the Assembly so that the President had the power to veto laws passed by the Assembly, but also requiring that the President ask permission from the head of the Assembly before he spoke to the body. On 2 April, the moderate republican president of the Assembly, Jules Grévy, was forced to resign by a personal scandal and was replaced by a deputy of the center-right, Buffet, who supported a constitutional monarchy. Soon afterwards, on 27 April, an election was held in Paris to fill a vacant seat in the Assembly. Both the candidate of the monarchists and the moderate republican candidate supported by Thiers was defeated by a more radical republican named Barodet, who was supported by Léon Gambetta and the left wing of the republicans. Further elections were held on 11 May: five of the six open seats were won by republicans. The right wing of the Assembly became alarmed that the country was moving too far to the left and decided it was time to get rid of Thiers.
The Duke de Broglie turned to Marshal MacMahon, a veteran soldier who had defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Magenta, had been wounded fighting the Germans and had defeated the Commune. MacMahon declined at first, but as Broglie persisted, he said that he had no political ambitions, but that if Thiers retired, he did not want to leave France without a government. In the parliamentary debate that soon followed, Thiers declared: "Of course I am for a republic...outside of a republic, there is nothing but chaos." Thiers was immediately supported by Gambetta, leader of the left republicans, who said, "Thiers is the best shield against the monarchists in the Assembly." His ally Jules Simon warned him: "You irritate the left but you don't appease the right", but Thiers was confident of victory; he told Simon, "I have the popularity; the country is with me."[52]
Thiers proposed a new cabinet, but de Broglie and the right wing objected that the new government was not conservative enough. A debate and vote of confidence in his government was scheduled for 23 May. The diplomatic corps was in the audience, along with the Thiers family, and Marshal MacMahon, in civilian clothes. De Broglie began the debate, warning that the country needed a firm government of the right because without it the radical party, which had never repudiated the Commune, would win. "Posterity is merciless", he said, "to governments and ministers who by weakness surrender to the enemy the laws and societies they are charged to defend." Under the new rules of the Assembly, Thiers, as president, was not allowed to respond directly on the floor of the Assembly. However, he demanded and received the right to reply. He spoke emotionally at length, explaining that he, a longtime supporter of the monarchy, had decided that, "considering the way of things today in the civilized world, for you and me, in practice a monarchy is absolutely impossible." He described accomplishments and policies, and concluded, "What I am describing is a policy of conservatism; the path of our policy is the policy between two extremes." The Assembly then voted, resulting in a declaration of no confidence in the Thiers government by a vote of 362 to 348. The next day, on 24 May, Thiers submitted his resignation as president. The same day, the Assembly voted to replace Thiers with Marshal MacMahon. De Broglie became the head of the new President's council of ministers. De Broglie proclaimed that the new government's priorities would be "to prevent the invasion of the radical element", and "to strengthen the base of the social order."[53]
Last years
Thiers continued to sit in the Assembly as a deputy from Paris after his fall, though he spoke only once, on 27 March 1874, against a proposal to build more forts around Paris. Rather than making Paris a battlefield again, Thiers preferred using the money to add more soldiers to the army. Despite his opposition, the measure was passed by the conservative government.
Thiers did have the satisfaction of seeing de Broglie fail in his effort to make France a constitutional monarchy; the monarch proposed by de Broglie, the Count of Chambord, once again refused to accept the tricolor flag and certain limits on his reign. The restoration plan was defeated in the Assembly, and de Broglie resigned on 16 May 1874. Count Chambord went back into exile and never returned to France. New elections were held on 20 February 1876. Thiers was re-elected to his seat in Paris, and the republicans triumphed. The new Assembly had 360 republicans, 120 royalists, and 80 supporters of a new Bonaparte regime.
Thiers, seventy-six years old at the time of leaving the government, was in declining health. He came less frequently to the Assembly, and spent his time supervising the reconstruction of his house, and traveling in Switzerland and Italy. He was elected to the new French Senate as the representative of the city of
In his last parliament session, he found himself on the side of the republicans against the monarchist government. A right-wing journal referred to Thiers as a "sinister old man". During one debate a member of the government claimed that the Assembly, not Thiers, was responsible for liberating French territory from the Germans. Thiers was present when the republican leader, Léon Gambetta, rose to speak. He pointed out to Thiers and said: "I will not take away from the illustrious man of state who is before me, whom no one honors more than me, the honor and glory which belongs to him, but which he does not want to claim for himself alone. That which he cannot do, history will do." The Chamber gave a long ovation to Thiers, and the old man wept with emotion.[54]
On 15 April 1877, Thiers celebrated his 80th birthday; he received telegrams of congratulations from all over Europe, including a friendly message from Bismarck. President MacMahon, a political novice, was having difficulties forming a government. He recalled de Broglie to be his prime minister. On 16 May 1877, Thiers was one of 363 deputies voted no confidence in de Broglie. The government fell and new elections were scheduled, but Thiers did not live to see them. He succumbed to a fatal stroke on 3 September at
The funeral of Thiers on 8 September was both a state and a political event. President MacMahon wanted to organize a state funeral, and to personally follow the casket, but Madame Thiers refused; she wanted no monarchists to take part in the ceremony. Instead, Thiers was buried with full military honors; the cortège was accompanied by three battalions of infantry, a squadron of cavalry and a battery of artillery. Shops in Paris were closed, buildings were covered with black crepe. The cortege to
The historian Jules Ferry described the funeral procession: "From rue Le Pelletier to Père Lachaise, a million people were packed in masses along the route of the cortege, standing up, hats off, saluting the casket, which was covered with mountains of flowers carried from all of France. The crowd gave one single rolling cry, grave, resolute, formidable, from both sides of the boulevards: Vive la Republique!"[56]
Family and personal life
The father of Adolphe, Louis Thiers, had an extremely turbulent career; he was confined to a monastery by his father for a year after running up unpaid debts; he was arrested and imprisoned several times, but protected by a connection with
Louis Thiers was married to Marie-Claire Fougasse in 1785, and had a son, but spent most of his time with his mistresses. Marie-Claire Fougasse died on 3 March 1797. Six weeks later, on 15 April 1797, Marie-Joseph-Louis-Adolphe Thiers was born to Marie-Madeleine Amic, one of his father's mistresses. Four weeks later, on 13 May 1797, Pierre-Louis married Marie-Madeleine Amic, making Adolphe legitimate. A few days later, Pierre-Louis disappeared, without leaving an address.
After leaving his wife and child, Louis Thiers continued to have a career of ups and downs. He was appointed by Lucien Napoleon as a providers of rations for Napoleon's Army of Italy, which brought him a large fortune. He brought back two mistresses from Italy, obtained another lucrative government post, from which he seems to have embezzled a large sum; he was chased down, arrested, but again released through the influence of Lucien Bonaparte. He had several children from his mistresses, but had no contact with Adolphe, who was raised entirely by his mother. In 1825, when Adolphe was becoming famous, his father wrote to him, asking for money. Thiers responded coldly that Pierre-Louis had never been a father to him, and that his only loyalty was to his mother, who had raised him. Nonetheless, he later provided financial support to both his father and to his half-brothers.[57]
Adolphe's mother belonged to the family of the poet André Chénier. Adolphe's maternal grandfather was a merchant from Marseille and his maternal grandmother was from Greece.[58][59]
While he was a student in Aix-en-Provence, Thiers probably became engaged to a young woman, Emilie Bonnefaux, from a prosperous Aix family. He left her behind when he moved to Paris, but her brother pursued Thiers to Paris, and fought a duel with him. Thiers was not hit and refused to fire on his opponent, and the matter was considered settled. Emilie married another man two years later.[60]
Not long after he arrived in Paris, Thiers met Eurydice Dosne, the wife of a wealthy businessman and real estate speculator. When she met Thiers, she had been married fifteen years and had two children. She was just three years older than Thiers. They became very close and it is very probable that she became his mistress. Her husband provided important financial support to Thiers throughout his political career. On 7 November 1833, Thiers married her daughter, Elise Dosne, who was sixteen years old, twenty years younger than Thiers. The wedding allowed Thiers to pay off his debts, and to buy the house on Place Saint-Georges. His enemies claimed that his new wife was his own daughter, but Elise was born while Thiers was still a law student in Aix-en-Provence. Thiers attended all official events accompanied by both his wife and his mother-in-law, whom he called "My ladies" (Mes Dames). This offended the aristocratic society of Paris, who considered Thiers, even as a government minister, a social-climber and parvenu.[61]
In the earlier part of his life in Paris, Thiers, like other political and literary figures of the time, had several mistresses. He was involved in one minor scandal in the summer of 1835, when he was married, Minister of the Interior and member of the Academie Française. He and several ministers of government officials had a very rowdy party at the Chateau of Grandvaux, outside Paris. One group of ministers, intoxicated, formed a chorus and serenaded Thiers outside his window. He opened the window and showed them his rear end. Reports of the event soon appeared in the press in France and across Europe, and did not improve Thiers' reputation with the Paris aristocracy.
In appearance, Thiers was very short, barely appearing over the tribune in the Assembly. It was lowered slightly when he became president to make him more visible. His voice was harsh, and he spoke with a pronounced Provençal accent. Despite this, after a great deal of practice, he developed a conversational, direct style, and became a very effective public speaker. His opponents tried every way they could to prevent him from speaking, with little success.[62]
Literary career
Thiers was just one example of 19th century French writers who also had prominent political careers. Others were Victor Hugo,
The first work, on the French Revolution, published between 1823 and 1827, was highly praised by French critics. It was the first major history in French of the Revolution, and won Thiers a seat as the second-youngest elected member of the Académie Française, and in addition was a major commercial success. It condemned the violence of the Terror and the most radical leaders, including Marat, Robespierre, and Saint-Just, and glorified the ideals and the more moderate leaders of the French Revolution, including Mirabeau, Bailly and Lafayette, though at the time the book was published France was still a monarchy, and the singing of the Marseillaise was still forbidden. The books did much to undermine public support for the last Bourbon king, overthrown in the Revolution of 1830.
His second major work was his enormous History of the Consulate and the Empire, in twenty volumes, published between 1845 and 1862. Like the history of the Revolution, it was a critical and popular success in France, published at a time when the French public was looking for heroes. It sold 50,000 complete sets of the book. An American professor of French literature, O.B. Super, wrote a foreword to an American edition of the volume of Thiers' book on the Battle of Waterloo, published in 1902. He wrote: "Thiers' style is characterized by brilliant and dramatic descriptions and a liberal and tolerant spirit, but he is at times deficient in rigorous historical accuracy, and owing to the intense national feeling of the writer, his admiration for Napoleon sometimes gets the better of his judgement. Thiers did more than any other Frenchman to keep alive in France "la légende napoléonienne", which made possible the second empire with all its disastrous consequences for France."[63] Thiers' account of the French invasion of Russia was sharply criticized by Leo Tolstoy for its factual inaccuracies and "general high-flown, pompous style, devoid of any direct meaning."[64]
Thiers also wrote a history of the 1830 Revolution, in which he played an important part, and a memoir, called Souvenirs. His speeches were collected by his widow and published after his death.[62]
Place in history
Contemporary judgements about the place of Thiers in history depended largely upon the politics of those doing the judging. The most virulent critic of Thiers was certainly Karl Marx, who had been forced to leave Paris when Thiers was head of the French government. In 1871 he described Thiers as follows: "Thiers, that monstrous gnome, has charmed the French bourgeoisie for almost half a century, because he is the most consummate intellectual expression of their own class corruption. ... Thiers was consistent only in his greed for wealth and his hatred of the men that produce it."[65]
Victor Hugo lavishly praised Thiers when Thiers supported him in gaining a seat in the Académie Française, but later, when a candidate backed by Thiers defeated Hugo for a seat in the Assembly, Hugo wrote: "I have always felt for that celebrated statesman, eminent orator, that mediocre writer, that man with a narrow and small heart, an undefinable sentiment of admiration, aversion and disdain."[66] Nonetheless, Hugo, along with Léon Gambetta, led the procession of mourners at Thiers' funeral.
Thiers achieved a place in French literature as the model for Eugène de Rastignac, one of the main characters in the La Comédie humaine of Honoré de Balzac. The character appears in twenty-eight of Balzac's novels. Rastignac's rapid rise from poverty to success in finance and politics, and his unusual family life, parallel those of Thiers.[67]
Following the death of Thiers, Gustave Flaubert wrote about the massive crowds that appeared at his funeral. "This truly national demonstration greatly struck me. I did not like this king of the bourgeois, but it doesn't matter. Compared with the others who surrounded him, he was a giant, and in addition he had one great virtue; patriotism. No one better summed up France better than he did. That was the reason for the huge effect of his death."[68]
Another historian,
The historian George Saintsbury gave this assessment of Thiers: "His constant tendency to inflame the aggressive and chauvinistic spirit of his country was not based on any sound estimate of the relative power and interests of France, and led his country more than once to the verge of a great calamity. In opposition, both under Louis Philippe and under the empire, and even to some extent in the last four years of his life, his worst qualities were always evident. But with all these drawbacks he conquered and will retain a place in what is perhaps the highest, as it is certainly the smallest, class of statesmen: the class of those to whom their country has had recourse in a great disaster, who have shown in bringing her through that disaster with constancy, courage, devotion and skill and have been rewarded by as much success as the occasion permitted."[62]
After the
In 1983 the historian René de La Croix de Castries summarized the career of Thiers this way: "Thiers was essentially an ambitious man and an egoist. He never thought of anything except his own career, and he imagined reaching the highest level. He wanted to be at the top, which from the very beginning led him naturally to desire one day to be head of state; a dream that for a long time was not practical, because there was a monarchy or an empire. When he did have a chance to try in 1848, he thought it was more judicious to support Louis-Napoleon. It was thus an extraordinary circumstance that he could actually achieve his dream in 1871, at the age of seventy-four, an age which considerably passed the average life expectancy of that time... The work of Thiers did not include a single social law. On this point, he was truly a bourgeois of the 19th century, insensible to the miseries of the working class and not hesitant to open fire on the masses when the public order was threatened. To him belongs the glory of having brought an end to the German occupation, and to have given to a humiliated France the desire to live again. But if he earned admiration, he did not inspire much sympathy. Thiers was nothing less than the summary of French politics in the 19th century."[70]
The historian Pierre Guiral wrote in: "Adolphe Thiers, ou, De la nécessite en politique" in 1986: "He was a founder, the Washington of France, a man full of weaknesses but an uncontested patriot. He expelled the Prussians from France (in the Franco-Prussian War). From the July Revolution, when he founded the journal called "The National", to 1871, when he defended the nation against divisions which threatened to destroy it, he was national."[71]
Legacy
The reconstructed Hôtel Thiers on Place Saint-Georges in Paris became, after his death, the headquarters of the
Thiers was responsible for the construction of Napoleon's tomb at Les Invalides, and for the completion of the column on Place Vendôme and the Arc de Triomphe, both of which he dedicated.
Thiers also built the ring of fortifications around Paris known as the
A small street and square in the 16th arrondissement in Paris are named for Thiers. There are streets and squares named for Thiers in Bordeaux, Nancy, Tours, Fontainebleau, Melun, Meudon, Chaumont, Graion, and his native Aix-en-Provence, and there is a Lycée Thiers in Marseille. There were formerly statues of Thiers in a number of French towns, including Nancy and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, but some were removed in the 1970s and 1980s.
Honors
- Legion of Honour (under Louis-Philippe):
- Knight: 1831
- Officer: 1833
- Commander: 1835
- Grand Officer: 1837
- Legion of Honour (Third Republic):
- Grand Cross: 1871, upon becoming president.
- Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece of Spain (1871)[72]
- Member of the Academie Française (1834)
- Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1875)[73]
References
- ^ Robert Tombs, "Making the Revolution History: Adolphe Thiers, 1823–73," in Historicizing the French Revolution (2008): 79–95 at p. 80.
- ^ Malo, Henri (1932). Thiers. Payot. p. 199.
- ^ ISBN 9782821828261. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
- ^ René De la Croix de Castries, Monsieur Thiers (1983) p. 27.
- ^ a b Castries 1983, pp. 36–37.
- ^ a b c d Saintsbury 1911, p. 848.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 44–45.
- ^ Guiral 1986, p. 41.
- ^ Castries 1983, p. 57.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 67–68.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 69–74.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 79–83.
- ISBN 0-582-49314-5.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 98–101.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 102–103.
- ^ Castries 1983, p. 117.
- ^ Castries 1983, p. 118.
- ^ Castries 1983, p. 120.
- ^ Castries 1983, p. 142.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 148–152.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 160–164.
- ^ a b Castries 1983, p. 178.
- ^ Castries 1983, p. 167.
- ^ a b Castries 1983, p. 184.
- ^ Castries 1983, p. 190.
- ^ Castries 1983, p. 201.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 212–213.
- ^ a b Castries 1983, p. 226.
- ^ Castries 1983, p. 229.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 238–239.
- ^ Castries 1983, p. 241.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 256–273.
- ^ Castries 1983, p. 284.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 287–292.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 298–305.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 311–313.
- ^ Castries 1983, p. 320.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 320–333.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 334–336.
- ^ Castries 1983, p. 337.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 340–343.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 344–346.
- ^ Castries 1983, p. 350.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 353–355.
- ^ Rougerie 2014, pp. 257–259.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 360–362.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 362–365.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 374–375.
- ^ Castries 1983, p. 386.
- ^ Castries 1983, p. 389.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 420–421.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 422–429.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 432–434.
- ^ Valance 2007, p. 398.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 422–461.
- ^ Guiral 1986, p. 366.
- ^ a b Castries 1983, pp. 13–18.
- OCLC 1082937.
Louis Adolphe Thiers was born at Marseille in 1797. His maternal grandmother was of Greek origin. After studying law at Aix (where he began his friendship with Mignet), Thiers came to Paris (1821).
- OCLC 3424838.
On his mother's side, Thiers was of eastern origin, His grandfather was a merchant of Marseille, but his grandmother, named Santi-Lomaica, was a Greek. They were as familiar with the Greek language as with the Provencal; were courageous, impressionable, quick to anger and not less prompt to reconciliation.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 50–51.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 13–18, 96–99.
- ^ a b c Saintsbury 1911, p. 849.
- ^ Thiers, Adolphe, Thiers' La Campagne de Waterloo, (1902), edited by O.B. Super, Dickinson College. (Full text of the introduction in English and the book in French in French is available on the Internet Archive. See external links).
- ^ Tolstoy, Leo (2014). War and Peace: With bonus material from Give War and Peace A Chance by Andrew D. Kaufman.
- ^ Karl Marx. "The Civil War in France". marxists.org. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
- ^ Castries 1983, p. 56.
- ^ Castries 1983, p. 463.
- ^ Valance 2007, p. 399.
- ^ Valance 2007, pp. 397–398.
- ^ Castries 1983, pp. 462–466.
- ^ Guiral 1986, p. 360.
- ^ From the French Wikipedia
- ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter T" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
Works cited
- De la Croix de Castries, René (1983). Monsieur Thiers (in French). Librarie Académique Perrin. ISBN 2-262-00299-1.
- Guiral, Pierre (1986). Adolphe Thiers ou De la nécessité en politique (in French). Paris: Fayard. ISBN 2213018251.
- Rougerie, Jacques (2014). La Commune de 1871 (in French). Paris: Presses universitaires de France. ISBN 978-2-13-062078-5.
- Saintsbury, George (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). pp. 848–849.
- Valance, Georges (2007). Thiers – bourgeois et revolutionaire (in French). Flammarion. ISBN 978-2-0821-0046-5.
Further reading
- Allison, John M. S. (1921). "Thiers and the July Days". Sewanee Review. 29 (3): 300–313. JSTOR 27533444.
- Bezbakh, Pierre (2004). Petit Larousse de l'histoire de France des origines à nos jours (in French). Paris: Larousse. ISBN 2-03-505369-2.
- Bury, J.P.T. and R. P. Tombs. Thiers, 1797–1877: A Political Life (1986) 307p; the standard scholarly biography
- Le Goff, François J. The Life of Louis Adolphe Thiers (1879) online
- Milza, Pierre (2009a). L'année terrible: La Commune (mars–juin 1871) (in French). Paris: Perrin. ISBN 978-2-262-03073-5.
- Milza, Pierre (2009b). L'année terrible: La guerre franco-prussienne (septembre 1870 – mars 1871) (in French). Paris: Perrin. ISBN 978-2-262-03073-5.
- Mitchell, Allan. "Thiers, MacMahon, and the Conseil supérieur de la Guerre," French Historical Studies, Fall 1969, 6#2 pp. 232–52 in JSTOR
- Rémusat, Paul de. Thiers (1889) online in English translation
- Schaffer, Aaron (1916). "Louis Adolphe Thiers". The Sewanee Review. 24 (2): 201–213. JSTOR 27532899.
- Tombs, Robert. "The Thiers Government and the Outbreak of Civil War in France, February–April 1871," Historical Journal, Dec 1980, 23#4, pp. 813–831 in JSTOR
- Tombs, Robert. "Making the Revolution History: Adolphe Thiers, 1823–73," in Historicizing the French Revolution (2008): 79–95.
- Valode, Philippe (2012). Les 24 présidents de la République française (in French). Paris: L'Archipel. ISBN 978-2-8098-0821-6.
External links
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Louis-Adolphe Thiers". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- Site listing links to the Third Republic
- Page on history of French flags with brief outline of formation of the Third Republic
- Works by Adolphe Thiers at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Adolphe Thiers at Internet Archive
- "The Reds' Last Stand" – about the Paris Commune on metropoleparis.com
- Timeline of The Civil War in France (including the Paris Commune)