The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
FRANCE / REVOLUTION
The scarcity of bread begins to lessen in the southern parts of
France, where the harvest has commenced. Here it is still threatening,
because we have yet three weeks to the beginning of harvest, and I
think there has not been three days' provision beforehand in Paris,
for two or three weeks past. Monsieur de Mirabeau, who is very hostile
to Mr. Neckar, wished to find a ground for censuring him,' in a
proposition to have a great quantity of flour furnished from the
United States, which he supposed me to have made to Mr. Neckar, and to
have been, refused by him; and he asked time of the States General to
furnish proofs. The Marquis de La Fayette immediately gave me notice
of this matter, and I wrote him a letter to disavow having ever made
any such proposition to Mr. Neckar, which I desired him to communicate
to the States.
My letter of the 29th of June, brought down the proceedings of the
States and government to the re-union of the orders, which took place
on the 27th. Within the Assembly, matters went on well. But it was
soon observed, that troops, and particularly the foreign troops, were
on their march towards Paris from various quarters, and that this was
against the opinion of Mr. Neckar. The King was probably advised to
this, under pretext of preserving peace in Paris and Versailles, and
saw nothing else in the measure. That his advisers are supposed to
have had in view, when he should be secured and inspirited by the
presence of the troops, to take advantage of some favorable moment,
and surprise him into an act of authority for establishing the
declaration of the 23d of June, and perhaps dispersing the States
General, is probable. The Marshal de Brogho was appointed to command
all the troops within the isle of France, a high flying aristocrat,
cool and capable of everything. Some of the French guards were soon
arrested under other pretexts, but in reality, on account of their
dispositions in favor of the national cause. The people of Paris
forced the prison, released them, and sent a deputation to the States
General, to solicit a pardon. The States, by a most moderate and
prudent Arrete, recommended these prisoners to the King, and peace to
the people of Paris. Addresses came in to them from several of the
great cities, expressing sincere allegiance to the King, but a
determined resolution to support the States General. On the 8th of
July, they voted an address to the King to remove the troops. This
piece of masculine eloquence, written by Monsieur de Mirabeau, is
worth attention on account of the bold matter it expresses and
discovers through the whole. The King refused to remove the troops,
and said they might remove themselves, if they pleased, to Noyons or
Soissons. They proceeded to fix the order in which they will take up
the several branches of their future constitution, from which it
appears, they mean to build it from the bottom, confining themselves
to nothing in their ancient form, but a King. A declaration of rights,
which forms the first chapter of their work, was then proposed by the
Marquis de La Fayette. This was on the 11th.
In the meantime, troops, to the number of about twenty-five or thirty
thousand, had arrived, and were posted in and between Paris and
Versailles The bridges and passes were guarded. At three o'clock in
the afternoon, the Count de La Luzerne was sent to notify Mr. Neckar
of his dismission, and to enjoin hitn to retire instantly, without
saying a word of it to anybody.
This change, however sudden it may have been in the mind of the King,
was, in that of his advisers, only one chapter of a great plan, of
which the bringing together the foreign troops had been the first. He
was now completely in the hands of men, the principal among whom, had
been noted through their lives, for the Turkish despotism of their
characters, and who were associated about the King, as proper
instruments for what was to be executed.
The news of this change began to be known in Paris about one or two
o'clock. In the afternoon, a body of about one hundred German cavalry
were advanced and drawn up in the Place Louis XV. and about two
hundred Swiss posted at a little distance in their rear. This drew the
people to that spot, who naturally formed themselves in front of the
troops, at first merely to look at them. But as their numbers
increased their indignation arose; they retired a few steps, posted
themselves on and behind large piles of loose stone, collected in that
place for a bridge adjacent to it, and attacked the horse with stones.
The horse charged, but the advantageous position of the people, and
the showers of stones, obliged them to retire, and even to quit the
field altogether, leaving one of their number on the ground. The Swiss
in their rear were observed never to stir. This was the signal for
universal insurrection, and this body of cavalry, to avoid being
massacred, retired towards Versailles. The people now armed themselves
with such weapons as they could find in armorers' shops and private
houses, and with bludgeons, and were roaming all night through all
parts of the city, without any decided practicable object.
The next day, the States pressed on the King to send away the troops,
to permit the Bourgeoise of Paris to arm for the preservation of order
in the city, and offered to send a deputation from their body to
tranquillize them. He refused all their propositions. A committee of
magistrates and electors of the city were appointed by their bodies,
to take upon them its government. The mob, now openly joined by the
French guards, forced the prison of St. Lazare, released all the
prisoners, and took a great store of corn, which they carried to the
corn market. Here they got some arms, and the French guards began to
form and train them. The committee determined to raise forty-eight
thousand Bourgeoise, or rather to restrain their numbers to
forty-eight thousand. On the 14th, they sent one of their members
(Monsieur de Corny, whom we knew in America) to the Hotel des
Invalides, to ask arms for their Garde Bourgedise. He was followed by,
or he found there, a great mob. The Governor of the Invalides came
out, and represented the impossibility of his delivering arms, without
the orders of those from whom he received them. De Corny advised the
people then to retire, and retired himself; and the people took
possession of the arms. It was remarkable, that not only the Invalides
themselves made no opposition, but that a body of five thousand
foreign troops, encamped within four hundred yards, never stirred.
Monsieur de Corny and five others were then sent to ask arms of
Monsieur de Launai, Governor of the Bastile. They found a great
collection of people already before the place, and they immediately
planted a flag of truce, which was answered by a like flag hoisted on
the parapet. The deputation prevailed on the people to fall back a
little, advanced themselves to make their demand of the Governor, and
in that instant a discharge from the Bastile killed four people of
those nearest to the deputies. The deputies retired; the people rushed
against the place, and almost in an instant were in possession of a
fortification, defended by one hundred men, of infinite strength,
which in other times had stood several regular sieges, and had never
been taken. How they got in, has, as yet, been impossible to discover.
Those who pretend to have been of the party tell so many different
stories, as to destroy the credit of them all. They took all the arms,
discharged the prisoners, and such of the garrison as were not killed
in the first moment of fury, carried the Governor and Lieutenant
Governor to the Gr6ve, (the place of public execution,) cut off their
heads, and sent them through the city in triumph to the Palais Royal.
About the same instant, a treacherous correspondence having been
discovered in Monsieur de Flesselles, Prevost des Marchands, they
seized him in the Hotel de Vilie, where he was in the exercise of his
office, and cut off his head.
These events, carried imperfectly to Versailles, were the subject of
two successive deputations from the States to the King, to both of
which he gave dry and hard answers; for it has transpired, that it had
been proposed and agitated in Council, to seize on the principal
members of the States General, to march the whole army down upon
Paris, and to suppress its tumults by the sword. But at night, the
Duke de Liancourt forced his way into the King's bed chamber, and
obliged him to hear a full and animated detail of the disasters of the
day in Paris. He went to bed deeply impressed. The decapitation of de
Launai worked powerfully through the night on the whole aristocratical
party, insomuch, that in the morning, those of the greatest influence
on the Count d'Artois, represented to him the absolute necessity that
the King should give up everything to the States. This according well
enough with the dispositions of the King, he went about eleven
o'clock, accompanied only by his brothers, to the States General, and
there read to them a speech, in which he asked their interposition to
re-establish order. Though this be couched in terms of some caution,
yet the manner in which it was delivered, made it evident that it was
meant as a surrender at discretion.
He returned to the chateau a foot, accompanied by the States. They
sent off a deputation, the Marquis de La Fayette at their head, to
quiet Paris. He had, the same morning, been named Commandant-in-Chief
of the Milice Bourgeoise, and Monsieur Bailly, former President of the
States General, was called for as Prevost des Marchands. The
demolition of the Bastile was now ordered, and begun. A body of the
Swiss guards of the regiment of Ventimille, and the city horse guards,
joined the people. The alarm at Versailles increased instead of
abating. They believed that the aristocrats of Paris were under
pillage and carnage, that one hundred and fifty thousand men were in
arms, coming to Versailles to massacre the royal family, the court,
the ministers, and all c6nnected with them.
The king came to Paris, leaving the Queen in consternation for his
return. Omitting the less important figures of the procession, I will
only observe, that the King's carriage was in the centre, on each side
of it the States General, in two ranks, a foot, and at their head the
Marquis de La Fayette, as Commander4n-Chief, on horseback, and
Bourgeoise guards before and behind. About sixty thousand citizens of
all forms and colors, armed with the muskets of the Bastile and
Invalides, as far as they would go, the rest with pistols, swords;
pikes, pruning hooks, scythes, etc., lined all the streets through
which the procession passed, and, with the crowds of people in the
streets, doors and windows, saluted them everywhere with cries of "
vive la nation;" but not a single "vive le roy"
was heard. The King stopped at the Hotel de Ville. There Monsieur
Bailly presented and put into his hat the popular cockade, and
addressed him. The King being unprepared and unable to answer, Bailly
went to him, gathered from him some scraps of sentences, and made out
an answer, which he delivered to the audience as from the King. On
their return, the popular cries were "vive le roy et Ia
nation." He was conducted by a Garde Bourgeoise to his palace
at Versailles, and thus concluded such an amende honorable, as
no sovereign ever made, and no people ever received. Letters written
with his own hand to the Marquis de La Fayette, remove the scruples of
his position.
Tranquillity is now restored to the capital: the shops are again
opened; the people resuming their labors, and if the want of bread
does not disturb our peace, we may hope a continuance of it. The
demolition of the Bastile is going on, and the Milice Bourgeoise
organizing and training. The ancient police of the city is abolished
by the authority df the people, the introduction of the King's troops
will probably be proscribed, and a watch or city guards substituted,
which shall depend on the city alone. But we cannot suppose this
paroxysm confined to Paris alone. The whole country must pass
successfully through it, and happy if they get through it as soon and
as well as Paris has done.
I went yesterday to Versailles, to satisfy myself what had passed
there; for nothing can be believed but what one sees, or has from an
eye witness. They believe there still, that three thousand people have
fallen victims to the tumults of Paris. Mr. Short and myself have been
every day among them, in order to be sure what was passing. We cannot
find, with certainty, that anybody has been killed but the three
before mentioned, and those who fell in the assault or defence of the
Bastile. How many of the garrison were killed, nobody pretends to have
ever heard. Of the assailants, accounts vary from six to six hundred.
The most general belief is, that there fell about thirty. There have
been many reports of instantaneous executions by the mob, on such of
their body as they caught in acts of theft or robbery. Some of these
may perhaps be true. There was a severity of honesty observed, of
which no example has been known. Bags of money offered on various
occasions through fear or guilt, have been uniformly refused by the
mobs. The churches are now occupied in singing "De profundis"
and "Requiems" "for the repose of the souls of
the brave and valiant citizens who have sealed with their blood the
liberty of the nation.
to John Jay, 19 July 1789
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