In 1830, Andrew Jackson rejoiced along with the American
people at the latest revolution in France that brought Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans to the throne. It was not the success of King Philippe that Jackson and the people rejoiced at, but the will of the people. In "Three Glorious Days" the people overthrew the crown of King Charles X and ushered in a
constitutional monarchy.
Charles X first inherited the throne in 1824, but within
months the mood of the capital had sharply tuned on the new King because of new
laws such as the Anti-Sacrilege Act that imposed the death penalty on anyone
profaning the Eucharist and others that gave indemnity payments to
"enemies of the [1789] revolution".
Both were seen as efforts to subjugate and destroy the La Charte
constitutionnelle demanded by the Congress of Vienna. As the years progressed, the popularity of
the King and his ministry continued to drop even among the nobility, meanwhile
the popularity of parliamentary bodies such as the Chamber of Deputies
skyrocketed. When the newspapers chided
and humiliated the government of Charles X, the pushed a proposal to tighten
censorship of the paper, but the Chamber of Deputies soundly rejected it, and
the proposal was withdrawn. On March
17, 1830 the majority in the Chamber of Deputies passed a motion of no
confidence in King Charles. In response,
Charles dissolved the parliament and delayed elections for two months. Then, on April 30th, he dissolved the
National Guard of Paris, a group of volunteer citizens that provided a conduit between
the monarchy and the people. Finally, on
July 25th, Charles X signed and ordinance to suspend the freedom of the press,
dissolve the Chamber of Deputies, and exclude the commercial middle class from
voting in elections. The stage was set
for the revolution.
Day One (Tuesday, July 27)
Despite the ordinance, about 50 journalists from a dozen
Paris newspapers met the next day and signed a vow to defy the ordinance and
continue running the news. The police
raided the news presses and seized the contraband newspapers. They were met with a small angry mob but
reported that the night remained peaceful and tranquil. The next day, the Le Moniteur, the leading
conservative newspaper in Paris published the events and word spread like a wildfire. Throughout the day, crowds grew in Paris and
military patrols were established to keep the peace. The gathering remained peaceful until
nightfall, when bystanders began to throw stones, roof tiles and flowerpots
from the upper windows. By the end of
day one, twenty-one civilians were killed as the soldier struggled to maintain
the peace.
Day Two (Wednesday, July 28)
The next morning, King Charles X ordered this Dukes and
Generals to subdue the protests and protect the important buildings of
Paris. Meanwhile, a committee of the
opposition composed of leading business men drew up a petition for the King's
ordinances to be withdrawn. The members
pleaded with Auguste Marmont, Duke of Ragusa, the on-duty Major-General of the
Garde Royale to end the bloodshed and become a mediator on their behalf. At 4 pm, Mamont sent a message to King
Charles that the riot had escalated into a revolution and requested the King's further
orders.
Day Three (Thursday, July 29)
By the third day of the Revolution, the people were well
organized and very well armed. They put
up 4,000 barricades throughout the city and flew the "people's flag"
over many important buildings. Mamont,
still waiting for the King's orders did very little to stop the resistance or
call for additional troops. At 1:30 pm,
the revolutionaries sacked the Tuileries Palace where the Swiss guards ran
away. At mid-afternoon they captured
the greatest prize, the Hôtel de Ville where the city's local administration
was housed. And by day's end, they set
about establishing a provisional government, and the revolution was for all
intents and purposes over.
All this was done in only three glorious days. On August 2nd, Charles X and his son the
Dauphin abdicated their rights to the throne and left France. The men chosen to compose a provisional
government placed Louis Philippe a distance cousin of Charles to rule as a
constitutional monarch. When news of the
revolution reached America, it was received with a "universal burst of
applause". It was a moment of pride
for President Jackson of his country, but not one of surprise. Jackson knew the spirit of America and the
voice of his country when it came to self-government and freedoms. In his 1830
State of the Union Address, President Jackson described King Philippe as a man
"we so sincerely love and justly admire" and a man of high character. He would go on to serve France for 18 years,
and as Jackson predicted, would secure for himself "the proud appellation
of Patriot King". But it was not
the success of King Philippe that made the American people, rejoice, it was
the three glorious days that demonstrated "the paramount authority of the
public will".
"The important modifications of their Government, effected with so much courage and wisdom by the people of France, afford a happy presage of their future course, and have naturally elicited from the kindred feelings of this nation that spontaneous and universal burst of applause in which you have participated. In congratulating you, my fellow citizens, upon an event so auspicious to the dearest interests of man- kind I do no more than respond to the voice of my country, without transcending in the slightest degree that salutary maxim of the illustrious Washington which enjoins an abstinence from all interference with the internal affairs of other nations. From a people exercising in the most unlimited degree the right of self-government, and enjoying, as derived from this proud characteristic, under the favor of Heaven, much of the happiness with which they are blessed; a people who can point in triumph to their free institutions and challenge comparison with the fruits they bear, as well as with the moderation, intelligence, and energy with which they are administered -- from such a people the deepest sympathy was to be expected in a struggle for the sacred principles of liberty, conducted in a spirit every way worthy of the cause, and crowned by a heroic moderation which has disarmed revolution of its terrors. Not withstanding the strong assurances which the man whom we so sincerely love and justly admire has given to the world of the high character of the present King of the French, and which if sustained to the end will secure to him the proud appellation of Patriot King, it is not in his success, but in that of the great principle which has borne him to the throne -- the paramount authority of the public will -- that the American people rejoice."
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2019). Second Annual Message | The
American Presidency Project. [online] Available at:
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/second-annual-message-3 [Accessed 3
Jan. 2019].
En.wikipedia.org. (2019). July Revolution. [online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Revolution [Accessed 3 Jan.
2019].
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