Society of the Rights of Man
Society of the Rights of Man Société des droits de l'homme | |
---|---|
Leader | Various |
Founded | 1830 |
Dissolved | 1840 |
Headquarters | Paris and Lyon |
Newspaper | La Tribune des départements |
Membership (1830) | 4,000 (Paris) |
Ideology |
|
Political position | Left-wing |
Slogan | Liberté, égalité, fraternité |
The Society of the Rights of Man (
Origins
The origins of the Society had its foundations on a previous organization, The Friends of the People (French: Société des Amis du Peuple)'. This organization was founded in a meeting which took place on July 30.[1] It created the first draft of the societies' Manifesto and coincided with the publication of the famous Proclamation du duc d'Orléans by Adolphe Thiers.[2] After a failed attempt to discuss their grievances with their municipality, the Society of Friends of the People published their manifesto in the republican newspaper The Tribune of the Departments (French: La Tribune des departments).
Following the publication of their manifesto they continued their activity; protesting the crowning of Louis Philippe I. Originally 120 members the Society began to gain traction, eventually reaching more than 300. Admission relied on either notoriety or on declarations of patriotism. Speeches given would draw in a reasonable crowd; Claude cites around 1500. However, mirroring the events of the French Revolution it lacked working-class men.[3] It was officially dissolved in December 1832.[4]
Most of the big names like Blanqui, Ulysse Trélat (politician)[5] and other known politicians were all acquitted.
Organization
The SDH was modelled on another French secret Society, the Charbonnerie, organised in small groups of less than twenty members, each given names that evoked Jacobin tradition: 'Robespierre', 'Marat', 'Babeuf', 'Louvel', 'Blackjack January', 'War with the castles', 'Washington', etc. They were a nationwide organisation, consisting of group sizes of between 10 and less than 20 members, this allowed them to circumvent the law which required a permit for groups of more than 20 members (this law was amended in February 1834). They were the first organisation to extend its educational activities to the working class.[6]
In Paris, there were 170 groups with a total of approximately 3 000 members. Its network extended into the province and would account, according to then police reports, approximately 4 000 members.
The official publication of the organisation was
Members and principles
The management committee of the SDH was made up of representatives of the extreme-left like
But soon the radical elements gained the upper hand and published a manifesto on "Société des droits de l'homme" in the journal
In 1834, Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure a lawyer and member of the Society associated the three famous terms "Liberté, égalité, fraternité" together and published it in the Revue Républicaine which he edited: "Any man aspires to liberty, to equality, but he can not achieve it without the assistance of other men, without fraternity."[8]
Activities and history
During the funeral of
This event was "caricatured" by the journal La Caricature under its editor Charles Philipon, specifically in a lithograph by its prized satirical draughtsman Honoré Daumier, entitled Rue Transnonain, le 15 Avril 1834.[11] According to a slightly different account, the lithograph was designed for the subscription publication L'Association Mensuelle. The profits were to promote freedom of the press and defrayed legal costs of a lawsuit against the satirical, politically progressive journal Le Charivari to which Daumier contributed regularly. The police discovered the print hanging in the window of printseller Ernest Jean Aubert in the Galerie Véro-Dodat (a passageway in 1st arrondissement) and subsequently tracked down and confiscated as many of the prints they could find, along with the original lithographic stone on which the image was drawn. Existing prints of are survivors of this effort.[12]
On July 28, 1835, a Corsican member of the Society Giuseppe Marco Fieschi, together with two compatriots, attempted to assassinate King Louis Philippe I using an "infernal machine" consisting of 20 gun-barrels bound and detonated together. Although 17 people died, the King survived. Fieschi himself was injured, captured, then nursed back to health only to be sentenced and subsequently guillotined.[13]
Notable members
- Antoine Richard du Cantal
- Audry de Puyraveau
- Voyer d' Argenson
- Godefroy Cavaignac
- Joseph Sobrier
- Joseph Guinard
- Antoine Richard du Cantal
- Georg Büchner
See also
- Friends of the ABC, fictional representation of the Society in the 1862 Victor Hugo novel Les Misérables
- Secret society
Further reading
- Biosoc.univ-paris1.fr, (2014). Maitron.org, site d’histoire sociale - Chronologie . [online] Available at: http://biosoc.univ-paris1.fr/spip.php?rubrique5 [Accessed 7 Oct. 2014]. In French. Translation at
- Harsin, Jill, Barricades: The War of the Streets in Revolutionary Paris, 1830-1848, Basingstoke, Palgrave, 2002, ISBN 978-0-312-29479-3
- Sirot, S. (2014). Chronology of the French Workers' Movement 1802-1838. [online] Marxists.org. Available at: https://www.marxists.org/history/france/1802-1838.htm [Accessed 7 Oct. 2014].
References
- doi:10.3406/roman.1980.5349 – via Persée (web portal).
- doi:10.3406/roman.1980.5349 – via Persee.
- doi:10.3406/roman.1980.5349 – via Persee.
- ISBN 1349387851.
- ^ "Ulysse Trélat". Le Maitron (in French). 2009-02-20. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
- ISBN 978-1-4128-1401-0.
- ^ "Georg Buchner - Penguin Classics Authors - Penguin Classics". Retrieved 2014-10-07.
- ^ Ozouf, Mona (1997), "Liberté, égalité, fraternité stands for peace country and war", in Nora, Pierre (ed.), Lieux de Mémoire [Places of memory] (in French), vol. tome III, Quarto Gallimard, pp. 4353–4389 (abridged translation, Realms of Memory, Columbia University Press, 1996–1998).
- ISBN 978-2-87747-563-1.
- ^ "Catalan biography". Retrieved 2014-10-07.
- ^ "British Museum - Highlight image". Retrieved 2014-10-07.
- ^ "Rue Transnonain, 15 April 1834". An Introduction to 19th Century Art. Retrieved 2014-10-07.
- ISBN 978-1-317-86819-4.