Bastille Day

Greetings,

      Tomorrow is Bastille Day, the French national holiday, which, like the American Independence Day, commemorates the beginning of a national revolution. 

      For our young people, a little history.  On 5 May 1789, France’s King Louis XVI (who, by the way, had supported the American Revolutionary government against the King of England) convened the Estates General to hear their complaints: but the assembly of the Third Estate, representing the citizens of the town of Paris, soon broke away and formed the Constituent National Assembly. On 20 June, 1789, the deputies of the Third Estate took the oath of the Jeu de Paume "to not separate until the Constitution had been established." The Deputies opposition was echoed by public opinion. The people of Paris rose up and decided to march on the Bastille, a state prison that symbolized the absolutism and arbitrariness of the Ancient Regime.

      On 14 July 1789, the storming of the Bastille immediately became a symbol of historical dimension; it was proof that power no longer resided in the King as God's representative, but in the people, in accordance with the theories developed by their philosophers of the eighteenth century. On July 16th, the Revolution had succeeded. The storming of the Bastille symbolizes, for all citizens of France, liberty, democracy and the struggle against all forms of oppression. 

      There are several contributing factors that led to this Revolution. France had the largest population in Europe and not enough food to fed it. The wealthy and growing bourgeoisie (the middle-class, merchants and businessmen) was allowed no political input or power. The poor were in a bad situation and it was getting worse. By the late 1780s the people of France were fed up and began speaking out. When King Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette tried to quiet the unrest, the people rebelled. On 14 July 1789 the masses banned together and stormed the Bastille prison, a symbol of the corrupt political system. This was the start of the Revolution.

      The King's vacillation, his flight to Varennes and the appeal to foreign forces to intervene against the nation led to the downfall of the constitutional monarchy and, after the attack on the Tuileries Palace on 10 August 1792, the First Republic was proclaimed on 22 September 1792.

However, after Louis XVI's execution on 21 January 1793 the Republic did not break completely with its monarchic heritage. It rejected the idea of federalism and never applied the egalitarian principles of the 1793 Constitution. Instead, in keeping with the Jacobin spirit, a highly centralized and dictatorial policy was enforced during the Reign of Terror under the authority of the Committee of Public Safety, dominated by Maximilien Robespierre.  The leaders of this republic held mass executions by guillotine, closed churches, and repressed religious freedoms among other things. In the end, in an ironic twist of fate the leaders found themselves under the blade of the guillotine.  Supporters claimed the policy was justified by the aggression of the coalition of European monarchies outside France's borders and by the uprisings within. The coup d'état of 18 Brumaire VIII (9 November 1799) put an end to the period of instability which had persisted under the Directory after Robespierre's assassination.

      Once freedom was won it had to be codified. Jurists, inspired both by the philosophy of the Enlightenment and by a long-standing French legalist tradition, dominated the Estates-General. This body, which became the National Constituent Assembly after the Tennis Court Oath of 20 June 1789, gave France its first constitution in 1791. Fifteen other constitutions were to follow, leading to the 1958 Constitution which is in effect today.

      Another outgrowth of this concept of a nation open to all who define themselves as free men was the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (26 August 1789), which claimed to be eternal and universal in application.

      So much for history.

      I would make just a few observations.  First, I found it interesting to learn that there were only a few political prisoners in the Bastille at the time of its overthrow, I seem to remember the number eight, and that they were of the upper class rather than the Third Estate, or the common people who led the charge against the fortress.

      Second, while it is certainly a simplification, I think the difference in outcome of the American and French revolutions is in the persons who assumed positions of power in the respective governments.  The U. S. had George Washington, the French had Maximilien Robespierre.  The U. S. had George Washington, the French had the Committee of Public Safety.  The U. S. had George Washington, the French had Napoléon Bonaparte.  The U. S. had John Adams, the French had Louis XVIII.  The U. S. had Thomas Jefferson, the French had King Louis-Philippe.  The U. S. had James Madison, the French had Napoléon III.  And overall, the U. S. had Benjamin Franklin.

      Finally, the entrenched religious leadership of France was completely out of touch with the people, and their self-interest support of the King reflected their greed and lack of understanding of and commitment to the principles of Jesus Christ.  The U. S., on the other hand, while moving away from the establishment Church of England, was really empowered by the faith of people as demonstrated in various Christian movements such as the Methodists.

      Anyway, today we share with the French in their celebration of Bastille Day.  Unfortunately, I am no longer able to celebrate in our traditional method of going with my parents and Toots and Bernie to have steamed crabs at Pope's Creek.  So I will content myself with La Maxim's French Tea, and a Napoléon libation.

Yours & His,

DED