Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/167

COMMUNE DE PARIS 163 took possession of the place Vend6me and the army headquarters there. Soon after dark they occupied the h6tel de ville without meeting any resistance ; by midnight they were fairly established in it, and the national troops had been withdrawn to Versailles. The morning of the 19th found every attempt at control on the part of the government abandoned, every point in the power of the federate guards, and the central committee the rulers of Paris. Making their headquarters at the h6tel de ville, they immediately issued three proclamations, which appeared early in the day ; and so short had been the conflict for the possession of the city, that a great part of the people in the distant quarters learned for the first time through the placarding of these manifestoes that a revolution had been effected, and that a new power was fairly established over them. The first proclamation announced the "triumph of the people" over those who had wished to destroy the republic, and exhort- ed the people of Paris to assemble for com- munal elections ; the second addressed the na- tional guard, and declared that the central com- mittee, having " fulfilled the mission " intrusted to them by their fellows of defending "Paris and their rights," were now ready to surren- der their trust to those whom the people should elect in their communal districts ; and the third finally fixed the communal elec- tions for the 22d, owing to the urgent ne- cessity for a communal administration. The red flag was hoisted on the hotel de ville, the prefecture of police and the department of finance were taken possession of by prominent insurgents, and the earlier half of the day was spent by the committee in deliberation as to their next action. Strange to say, the general population of the city remained indifferent and passive, though a number of citizens, who rec- ognized Vice Admiral Saisset on the boule- vard, begged him to organize some resistance to the reds; he declared, however, that he would not act without orders from Versailles. But a few representatives of the national au- thority still remained in the city, in the persons of the maires of the various arrondissements. These met at 3 o'clock at one of the mairies, and, consulting with delegates from the committee, agreed during the evening upon a compromise by which the matter was to be submitted to the national assembly, and the hotel de ville was to be given up to the maires. A peaceful solution of the whole conflict seemed for a moment pos- sible ; but when on the morning of the 20th the proper authorities went to take possession of the h6tel, they were told that the committee had retracted its decision, and affairs resumed their old aspect. On that day another proc- lamation was issued, again stating the rights claimed by the national guard, declaring that the committee would faithfully carry out the preliminary agreements made with the Ger- mans, as the revolution was not concerned with any but home politics, and appealing to the provinces to join in the movement for self- governing communes. This appeal was almost entirely without effect, although Blanqui had already left Paris, undoubtedly with the pur- pose of securing aid from the rest of France. Attempts at insurrection were indeed made in Marseilles, Lyons, Rouen, Toulouse, and one or two other cities, but all were soon sup- pressed. Blanqui, so long the head and front of the uprising, was arrested in southern France, and immediately imprisoned. The communal elections were postponed to the 26th. Vice Admiral Saisset, now acting un- der official appointment from Versailles, made one more attempt at negotiation by the issue of a proclamation in which the greatest pos- sible concessions were promised ; but the time had passed, and, beyond conveying the im- pression that the government was frightened, the offer produced no effect. Yet, still de- ceived by the hope of peace, Saisset on the 25th disbanded the defenders of the national government who had organized and rallied around him, and by this step destroyed the last hope of resistance ; the only other attempt to excite it having been made by a few citi- zens who were cut to pieces in the rue de la Paix, March 22. From the 25th no further opposition occurred within the city walls, and Paris was given over to the new regime. In the mean time the committee had taken the most energetic military measures for sustain- ing their power. The federate guards raised complete lines of barricades connecting all the important strategic points of the city ; a strict organization was introduced among the 250 battalions that now formed the committee's army; the great stores of ammunition accu- mulated in Paris during the siege were seized ; the number of cannon in the possession of the insurgents was increased by further seizures to 2,000 ; the defences of the walls were diligent- ly strengthened ; the forts, with the very im- portant exception of Mont Valerien, which was in the government's hands, and such of the eastern and northeastern fortresses as the Germans still held, were taken and occupied by the federate troops; and complete prepara- tions were made for the defence of the city against a siege. On March 26 the elections for 94 members of a communal government occurred in Paris; only 85 were actually chosen, however, owing to the fact that in some cases two sections united upon the same candidate. It was afterward proved that few- er than 200,000 of the people had voted, and thus that the government party would prob- ably have been in the majority if it had been organized and had dared to cast its ballots; but however this may be, the elections were of course overwhelmingly in favor of the lead- ing candidates of the insurgents. Of these, II were members of the central committee, 17 were members of the Internationale, and 20 belonged to what was distinctively known as the Blanqui party. There were also 17 mode-