Blood and Iron Part 17

-- The a.s.sertion of kept-historians that there was "political justification" is at once spurious and an insult to common sense.

-- In justice to the better French element it is granted freely that the dreadful September ma.s.sacres did not express the real beliefs of the great decent body of the French people; but the Nation was dragged through the mire and the Nation has for years been endeavoring to explain this political Millennium of riots, murders, midnight a.s.sa.s.sinations, despoilings of land t.i.tles.

-- Bismarck would have drained the poison cup rather than stand for such French Const.i.tutional nonsense in his beloved Germany, the Germany of his dreams, the Germany for which he labored so many years, the Germany which he would save from itself, so to speak.

He purposed to build up German political opinion, not through blatherskite ward-heelers, in Berlin, Frankfort or Hamburg, but by a manly appeal to German common sense and German sense of respect for authority; and if Bismarck overworked his idea of Divine-right of kings, then at least this may be said: that he issued no appeal to the German people "Who Laughs on Friday, Weeps on Sunday!" (The ma.s.sacres had come between!) And as to Danton, who glories in being the immediate instigator of the ma.s.sacres we have these, Danton's own words: "It was I who caused them. Rivers of blood had to flow between me and our enemies!" Finally, after these rivers of blood, the word was pa.s.sed, "That the entire Nation will hasten to adopt this (guillotine) most-necessary means of public salvation."

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Viewing at closer range the work of the legislators of the great republic of liberty and equality; these facts Bismarck well knew, explaining his belief in militarism.

-- After reading five hundred pamphlets on the Revolution (as she testified at her trial) Charlotte Corday struck down Marat with a dagger; and her act has been generally condoned by men with a sense of fair-play. It was indeed a b.l.o.o.d.y murder; but when a mad-dog is running wild, a beast fattening on human blood, one pa.s.sion feeds on another--and Corday is no exception. (Henderson, Symbol and Satire of the French Revolution).

Heroine or monster, take your choice; at least in her time such was the frenzy of the alleged political Millennium that Marat was soon wors.h.i.+pped as a martyr. This atrocious political quack, with all his daggers and his blackjacks, was likened to Jesus Christ; and among the sentiments of the hour we read, "A perfidious hand has s.n.a.t.c.hed him away from his beloved people"; "To the immortal glory of Marat, the people's friend"; "Unable to corrupt me, they have a.s.sa.s.sinated me!"

"Marat, rare and sublime soul, we will imitate thee; we swear it on thy b.l.o.o.d.y corpse."

Such are some of the expressions of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity that followers of French Const.i.tutionalism had years later decreed to re-enact in Germany; but Bismarck stood as a master with a rod of iron to lay over the backs of fanatical German Radicals, who would come on with their drunken calls of "Liberty!"

-- All this, however, is only the mild opening chapter of this much glorified French Const.i.tutionalism. The French prisons soon held about all there was of French intelligence and moderation; the brains, the blood and the beauty. It is not necessary to mention names.

If you wish to become hysterical, read your fill of this drunken era of French Const.i.tutionalism.

At the height of the Terror, there were 8,000 political prisoners in French dungeons; and the mobs still came on with their cries for fresh blood. One day, this expression was made: "The town of Lyons shall be destroyed; the name Lyons shall be effaced," etc. All this meant that Lyons, weary of blood, had decided on raising an army to beat back the sons of spurious liberty.

-- Any man who, in the Terror, dared disagree with the mob-rulers was called a "conspirator." In a letter from Herbois, we find this plain evidence of political lunacy masquerading as inspiration: "There are 60,000 individuals here who will never make good republicans; we must have them sent away. I have new measures in mind, weighty and effectual,* * * Heads, more heads, heads every day! * * * How you would have enjoyed seeing National justice meted out to two hundred and nine rogues. What cement for the Republic! I say fete, yes, citizen president, fete is the right word. The guillotining and fusillading are not going badly!"

-- The Queen, now in her dungeon, was treated with wretched dishonor.

Even the petty expenses of bread and salt were begrudged: 15 francs a day for food; three francs and 18 sous for tr.i.m.m.i.n.g a skirt, 18 sous for a ribbon and shoe-strings; three francs for a tooth wash;--all this was kept track of. Yet in years gone by France had allowed her four million francs of pin money, and the royal allowance was twenty-five millions of francs per annum.

-- "Through a small window in her cell comes the light of day. * * *

She is accused of being a leech, a scourge, a harpy and a free-lover; she is condemned to death."

-- The political a.s.sa.s.sins, known as the Mountain, and that known as the Girondists, now began destroying each other; every patriotic action of the Girondists was set forth as having been instigated by love of vulgar applause. After some days, the Jacobin Club pet.i.tioned for freer trials, less hindered by legal formalities.

-- "Long live the Republic!" was the cry. "Perish all traitors!"

Executions continued, day by day.

-- The poor king was long since dead and gone, yet his memory was detested.

On a certain day of horrors, the tombs of his ancestors were broken open by the mob, and the bones scattered. One corpse (or what remained of it) was stood up against a wall and the beard hacked off by a patriot of the new Regime.

-- All authority was now overthrown; and as one writer adds, "the most daring enterprise of the Revolution remains to be chronicled: the storming of Heaven!" (Henderson.)

-- The leaders decided next to attack G.o.d on His throne; G.o.d was officially declared a superst.i.tious myth.

The altars of France were hurled over; the Christian era was abolished by political decree; the Sabbath day was officially proclaimed done away with; Christ was to be henceforth banished, officially; churches closed, pagan rites subst.i.tuted.

-- Bismarck, the thinker, Bismarck, the builder, with his dream of political responsibility, of vested Authority, stood for no such facts in his protests against the rising tide of Radicalism, in the German states.

He knew his history too well; he knew the satire of the French Revolution, the folly of meeting it in any way except by the sword.

-- Yes, Bismarck believed strongly in what has since been called Militarism; but his idea was that power was needed for the liberation and the unification of his country; and he hated French Const.i.tutionalism and fought by fair means and by foul all efforts to warp upon Germans the political ideals of the French Revolution. So you must here and now make up your mind whether or not Bismarck was a great statesman or a great fool.

-- The French Convention, weary of blood-letting, began maundering in the psychology of religion.

It was officially set forth by one of the Deputies that, after all, the idea was to invent some new form of religion, without which the proposed political Millennium had fallen short.

Marat was turned to, that choice spirit of the height of the era; though in his tomb, he was called upon in this strange language, despite his bringing in the Terror:

-- "O, heart of Jesus, O heart of Marat, you have an equal right to our homage!"

-- A New Era was now decreed, taken in the main from the paganism of early France. The four seasons were symbolized by the hunt of the man for his mate: he is afield in Autumn, on horseback; in Winter, he first finds his new mate; in the Spring, the maid watches her sheep feeding on the hills; and in Summertime, the man is seen leading his mate to a couch, his arms already around her waist.

-- One of the leading symbols was Reason, presented as a lady petting a lion; saints' days were replaced by days for animals, one for the cat, the dog, the sheep, and what you will; but no longer St. John's, St.

James, St. Louis.

Certain other days, dedicated to the "Spirit of the Revolution," were termed "Sans culotte," or without trousers, to wit, the French version of that great idol of the American yellow editor, who cries for justice in behalf of the man with the seat out of his trousers.

-- On a certain day, the Cathedral of Notre Dame was used as a background for the great French political drama; a mountain was erected, a figure known as Truth was present. The G.o.ddess Reason was also carried to the Tuileries; and later as a report written at the time says, "The President of the Convention gave the G.o.ddess a fraternal kiss, whereupon his secretaries asked and obtained a similar privilege."

-- At Rochefort the orator of the hour began, "Citizens, there is no future life!"

-- The images of saints were replaced by men of the stripe of Marat, Brutus and other tyrants.

--Also, an a.s.s was dressed in pontifical robes at a sort of National fete, and a few days later at a public masquerade, the President replying to praises of the New Era explained himself as follows: "In one single instant you make vanish into nothingness the errors of eighteen centuries"; by which he meant to honor the paganism of the new French political Millennium.

-- Now comes that dangerous man, king of political charlatans, Robespierre, who offers a private religion of his own.

-- The queer thing about this Robespierre, the new dictator, is his belief that he and he alone is the fountain of all political virtues.