French Intervention From A.d. 1860 To A.d. 1870

( Originally Published Early 1900's )

IN this chapter it will be necessary to turn back a few pages in the volume of history, that we may give our readers a consecutive narrative of the causes and results of the intervention of France in behalf of the States of the Church. It is a question upon which the minds of men are greatly divided ; the Catholic community being with great unanimity on one side, the Protestant on the other. The writer will content himself in giving simply the historical facts,—facts which well-informed men of both parties will admit to be true. From these facts, each reader can deduce such conclusions as may be in accordance with his predilections.

The pope, Giovanni Mastai, was the second son of Count Mastai Ferretti. His parents were wealthy, and resided in the ancient town of Sinigallia, on the Adriatic, where Giovanni was born on the 13th of May, 1792. As his elder brother inherited the title and the estate, Giovanni entered the army, and became a member of the Pope's Guard. At Rome he fell in love with a beautiful girl named Chiara Colonna. She refused his addresses. His chagrin was so great, that he renounced the world, and entered the church.

He soon became distinguished for his apostolic virtues, his gentleness, and his unbounded charities.

One of the first acts of the pope, upon the commencement of his reign in 1846, was to issue an act of general amnesty for all political offences. This opened the prison-doors to nearly three thousand captives, many of whom were of distinguished rank. These released captives, in a dense crowd, with their friends, repaired to the Palace of the Quirinal to express their gratitude. The pope appeared upon the balcony to give his blessing to the multitude. Illuminations blazed, and rejoicings were diffused, throughout the whole city. This was on the 18th of July, 1846.

Count Rossi, a man distinguished for his virtues and abilities, was prime-minister of the pope. On the 15th of November, 1848, as he was on his way to the Chamber, a band of assassins, belonging to the Revolutionary party, in broad day, surrounded him, and plunged their daggers into his heart. The papal government was so weak, that this one assassination seems to have annihilated it. The deputies in the Chamber, each thinking that he was marked for assassination, fled in dismay. The triumphant revolutionary clubs in Rome, taking advantage of the consternation, prepared to force a revolutionary government upon the pope.

The pontifical territory then consisted of nineteen States, embracing seventeen thousand square miles, and a population of about three millions. A few hundred adventurers in Rome, armed to the teeth, without consulting these millions, endeavored to force their views of government upon them.

The day after the assassination, several hundred of these desperadoes, followed by an immense crowd, marched to the Palace of the Quirinal with a list of several of their partisans, whom they demanded that the pope should appoint as his ministers. The Swiss Guard, one hundred in number, closed the gates against them. With cannon and musketry the gates were blown open, and a prelate was shot in the ante-chamber of the pope. The delegation broke into the chamber of the pontiff, and, with loud menaces, compelled him to sign their appointments.

The pope was now a prisoner in his palace, and powerless. Through the assistance of the Bavarian minister, Count Spaur, he effected his escape. The count obtained passports for two fictitious personages, —Dr. Kann and lady from Munich. The pope represented the doctor; the countess assumed to be the doctor's wife ; while the count himself mounted the box as a servant. Under this guise, in the carriage of the Bavarian minister, the fugitives reached Gaëta, the first town on the Neapolitan frontier. Rome was thus left in the hands of the revolutionists. These events took place in November, 1848, one month before the election of Louis Napoleon as President of the French Republic. General Cavaignac was at that time dictator of France.

It was manifest to all reflecting men that the revolutionists were acting insanely, even upon the admission that their motives were right, and that the results at which they aimed would be beneficial if accomplished. Count Rossi, whom they had assassinated, was the sincere friend of reform. He knew perfectly well, that, even if there were entire unanimity in the Papal States in favor of reform, Austria would instantly send in an army, and crush out every vestige of revolution. What could three millions do to resist thirty millions? Moreover, it was not improbable that the friends of revolution, even in Italy, were decidedly in the minority, In an earnest appeal to the insurgents, Count Rossi said,

" What do you propose to yourselves by your incessant provocations against Austria? It is not threatening you. It confines itself to the limits which the treaties have as-signed. Is it a war of independence which you would invoke? Let us, then, calculate your forces. You have sixty thousand regular troops in Piedmont, and not a man more. You speak of the enthusiasm of the Italian populations. I know them. Traverse the provinces from end to end : see if a heart beats, if a man moves, if an arm is ready to commence the fight. The Piedmontese once beaten, the Austrians may go from Reggio to Calabria without meeting a single Italian.

"I understand you : you will apply to France ! A fine result, truly, of the war of independence, — to bring foreign armies upon your soil ! The Austrians and the French fighting on Italian soil ! — is not that your eternal, your lamentable history? You would be independent? France is so already. France is not a corporal in the service of Italy. She makes war when and for whom she pleases. She neither puts her standards nor her battalions at the disposal of any one else."

The impulsive revolutionists did not need this warning. It was alarmingly manifest to General Cavaignac and the dictatorial government in France that Austria would instantly intervene, not to aid the Romans in the establishment of a republic, but to reseat the pope upon his throne, and to surround him with such influences as to render any essential popular reform hereafter impossible. The pope, being thus under supreme obligation to the Austrians, regaining and holding his power under the protection of the Austrian armies, would be the intimate ally of Austria in enforcing absolutist principles throughout Europe, and in frowning down every movement for popular reform.

Thus the papal power, which is decidedly the greatest moral power in the world, controlling the consciences of two hundred millions of people, would be held in entire subservience to Austria. France, struggling to throw off the fetters of the old régimes, could not but regard this immense ascendency of Austria with alarm. It was certain that Austria would thus move. She was already marshalling her armies with that intent. All the Catholics in Rome, friends of the pope, would welcome these troops as deliverers. The result could not be doubtful.

Under these circumstances, General Cavaignac, as dictator, acting in behalf of Catholic France, immediately despatched three steam-frigates to Civita Vecchia to take the holy father under the protection of the French government. It was a political movement, in order that the papal government might be brought under the influence of the liberal policy of France, rather than under the domination of the absolutism of Austria. The commander of the expedition was left much to his own discretion in reference to the detail of operations; while he was authorized to rescue the pope, and to convey him to France if he would accept French hospitality.

Though General Cavaignac was at this time dictator, France was nominally a republic, and measures were in progress for the organization of a new government on the principles of republicanism. Still, in the republican ranks, there were two parties, — the Moderates, and the Radicals, or Reds, — who were bitterly hostile to each other. The Reds hoped that this military expedition would exert all its influence to establish a republic in Rome. The Moderates feared that this decisive action would alarm all the courts in Europe ; that it would be regarded as a proclamation that the French re-public was devoting itself to the propagation of revolutionary principles, seeking the overthrow of every throne ; and that this would array, as in the days of Napoleon I., all the monarchies of Europe against republican France. On a debate upon this question in the French Chambers, M. Barrot said, —

" If we allow Austria time to go to the Eternal City, it will be, in the first place, a very serious injury to French influence in Italy. It will also insure the re-establishment of all solutism at Rome as in the time of Gregory XVI. Let us, then, intervene ourselves, that the cabinet of Vienna may not acquire an undue influence in Italy, and that we may prove a safeguard to Roman liberty."

Protestants generally are not aware of the degree of veneration with which the pope is regarded by members of the Roman-Catholic Church. The Abbé J. H. Mignon writes, —

" There is one name which my lips never pronounce but with profound veneration. It recalls to me in my mature years, as in my more tender youth, the power and the goodness of Christ visibly represented on earth ; and the day in which that name shall fall upon my ear, without awakening in me filial respect, I shall believe that an impious thought has come to succeed in the depths of my soul that pure faith which I have imbibed with my mother's milk. This naine is that of the pope."

It is estimated that the Catholic communion in Europe numbers over two hundred millions. The government of a Catholic country which should ignore a sentiment so pro-found and so widely disseminated would be insane.

Soon after this, France, with great unanimity, elected Louis Napoleon — the grandson of Josephine, and the son of Louis Bonaparte and of Hortense — president of the newly,. formed republic. The difficulties and embarrassments which surrounded the new government were of the most formidable kind.

"It was true that Louis Napoleon had many a stormy element to encounter; had to pass all the quicksands and shoals of Parisian capriciousness; to set upon and subdue the boisterous, bloody mountain ; to bring order out of the chaos of revolution; to quiet the minds of the people of France, and re-assure them that there was sufficient stability, conservatism, and virtue in society to preserve it. He man-aged this so steadily as to elicit confidence, excite hope, and rally around himself those who desired domestic peace, the preservation of property, and the protection of life. His naine, amid all the wild tumults of his two-years' presidency, loomed up as a landmark of safety, Breakwater against the angry waves of discord, a symbol of future solidity and rest."

At the time that Louis Napoleon was elected president, the pope was still a fugitive at Gaeta, and the French steamers had accomplished nothing. The pope had transferred his court from Rome to Gaëta. The pontifical government was still recognized by all Europe, and the ambassadors of all the foreign courts had followed the pontiff to his retreat. The leaders of the insurrection in Rome were generally avowed unbelievers in Christianity, revilers of all religion. As such, they were very obnoxious to the Catholics throughout Europe. It was denied that they represented the opinions of the Roman people, but that they and their followers were desperate men, who from all parts of Europe had flocked to Rome, allured by the attractions of that license and plunder which revolutions ever afford. Austria had already gathered a powerful army, which was just ready to move to replace the pope upon his throne in the Vatican.

The president of the French republic immediately sent General Oudinot, with a detachment of three thousand five hundred men, to Civita Vecchia. The expedition sailed from Toulon, and entered the harbor of Civita Vecchia on the 25th of April, 1849. As the troops disembarked, General Oudinot issued the following proclamation : —

"Inhabitants of the Roman States! a French army corps has landed upon your territory. It is not its object to exercise an oppressive influence, or to impose upon you a government not conformed to your wishes. The corps comes only to preserve you from the greatest misfortunes, and to facilitate, if it can, the establishment of a régime equally separated from the abuses forever destroyed by the illustrious Pius IX., and from the anarchy of these last times."

The revolutionary assembly at Rome feared that the expedition imperilled the revolutionary government which it had adopted, and that the restoration of the pope would prove the overthrow of the republic. It called that government a republic which was established without any appeal to the suffrages of the people of the Roman States, and probabay in opposition to their wishes. The revolutionary government accordingly closed the gates of Rome, manned the forts and ramparts, and opened fire upon the approaching columns of Oudinot. After a pretty severe battle, the French were driven back with considerable loss. Reenforcements were immediately despatched to General Oudinot; and in a letter to him, dated the 8th of May, 1849, the president wrote, —

" The intelligence announcing the unforeseen resistance you have met under the walls of Rome has given me much pain. I had expected that the inhabitants of Rome, opening their eyes to evident reason, would receive with joy an army that came amongst them to accomplish a benevolent and disinterested mission."

In the first message of the president of the French republic to the Corps Législatif we find the following statement of the motives which led to the intervention : —

"At Rome, a revolution has been effected which deeply moved the Catholic and the liberal world. During the last two years, we have seen in the Holy See a pontiff who has taken the initiative in useful reforms, and whose name, repeated in hymns of gratitude from one end of Italy to an-other, was the symbol of liberty, and the pledge of all hopes; when suddenly it was heard with astonishment, that that sovereign, lately the idol of his people, had been constrained to fly furtively from his capitol.

"The acts of aggression which compelled Pius IX. to leave Rome, appear, in the eyes of Europe, to be the work of a conspiracy, rather than the spontaneous movement of a people who could not, in a moment, have passed from the most lively enthusiasm to the most afflictive ingratitude. The Catholic powers sent ambassadors to Gaëta to deliberate upon the important interests of the papacy. France was represented there. She listened to all parties without taking sides. Austria, in concert with Naples, responding to an appeal from the Holy Father, notified the French government that these two powers had decided to march upon Rome, to re-establish there unconditionally the authority of the pope.

"Being thus obliged to take some action, there were but three courses which we could pursue, — either to oppose by arms all intervention (and in that case we should break with all Catholic Europe) for the sole interest of the Roman republic, which we have not recognized; or to leave the three coalesced powers * to re-establish at their pleasure, and unconditionally, the papal authority; or to exercise, of our own accord, direct and independent action.

" The government of the republic adopted the latter course. It seemed to us easy to satisfy the Romans; that, pressed on all sides, they had no chance of safety but from us; that, if our presence had for its result the return of Pius IX., that sovereign, faithful to himself, would take back with him reconciliation and liberty ; that we, being once at Rome, would guarantee the integrity of the territory by taking away from Austria all pretext for entering Romagna. We even hoped that our flag, planted without resistance in the centre of Italy, would have extended its protective influence over the whole of the peninsula, to none of whose griefs can we ever be indifferent.

" Our expeditionary corps, small in numbers, since serious resistance had not been anticipated, disembarked at Civita Vecchia; and the government is instructed, that if, on the same day, it could have arrived at Rome, the gates would have been thrown open with joy. But, while General Oudinot was notifying the government at Rome of his arrival, Garibaldi entered there at the head of troops formed of refugees from all parts of Italy, and even from the rest of Europe. His presence, as may be imagined, increased suddenly the force of the party of resistance.

On the 30th of April, six thousand of our soldiers presented themselves before the walls of Rome. They were received with cannon-shot. Some even, drawn into a snare, were taken prisoners. We all must mourn over the blood shed on that sad day. That unexpected conflict, without changing the final accomplishment of our enterprise, has paralyzed our kind intentions, and rendered vain the efforts of our negotiators.

General Oudinot repaired to Palos to await re-enforcements. Soon eight regiments of infantry, one of cavalry, and a train of artillery, reached him. In the mean time, a united army of Austrians, Neapolitans, and Spaniards, fifteen thousand in number, were advancing upon Rome. General Oudinot declining any co-operation with these forces, and being then at the head of twenty-eight thousand men with ninety pieces of artillery, marched to Rome, and, on the 2d of June, commenced the siege of the city. The assault was conducted in such a way as not to imperil the inestimable treasures of art with which the city abounded. In the instructions sent to General Oudinot, there was written, —

" The President wishes that the monuments of Rome, which are the admiration of all civilized people, should be honored and protected. Act so that art and history may not have occasion to deplore the ravages inseparable from a siege. If you are forced to carry the city by assault, remind your soldiers that they are not at war with the inhabitants of Rome, but with their oppressors and their enemies. Burn more powder if necessary. Put off the capture of the city a day or two to spare the blood of our brave soldiers."

The executive government at Rome consisted essentially of three men, — Mazzini, Annelini, and Saffi. Before commencing the siege, the French government sent a commission to the triumvirate, stating that, should France withdraw, Austria would inevitably and immediately occupy Rome; that French protection would secure equal rights for all; and that Austrian domination would inevitably doom Italy to civil and ecclesiastical absolutism.

These representations produced no apparent effect upon the revolutionary party at Rome. They strengthened the fortifications, mounted heavy pieces of artillery, and pre-pared for a vigorous defence. There were twenty thousand armed men within the walls, with two hundred pieces of artillery and an ample supply of ammunition. It was hoped, that, by prolonging the defence until fall, the malaria of the Campagna would prove more fatal than bullet or sword, and would either destroy the besiegers, or put them to flight.

Early in June, General Oudinot, at the head of twenty-eight thousand men, and with ninety pieces of artillery, again approached the walls of Rome. The siege and the defence were conducted alike with great energy. The French were embarrassed in their operations by their great desire to avoid injuring any of the monuments of antiquity with which the city abounded. The siege commenced on the 2d of June. On the 2d of July, a practical breach was made. At three o'clock in the morning an advance bastion was carried by assault, and the French were in possession of the city. They immediately proclaimed the re-establishment of the papal authority under the protection of France. The triumvirate, with five thousand men, fled from the city at mid-night, after having issued the following proclamation:

"Romans ! in the darkness of the night, by means of treason, the enemy has set foot on the breach. Arise, ye people, in your might! Destroy him! Fill the breach with his carcasses ! Blast the enemy, the accursed of God, who dare touch the sacred walls of Rome ! While Oudinot resorts to this infamous act, France rises up, and recalls its troops from this work of invasion. One more effort, Romans, and your country is saved forever. Rome, by its constancy, regenerates all Europe. In the name of your fathers, in the name of your future hopes, arise, and give battle ! Arise, and conquer ! One prayer to the God of battles, one thought to your faithful brethren, one hand to your arms! Every man becomes a hero. This day decides the fate of Rome and of the republic. MAZZINI, ANNELINI, SAFFI"

It will be noticed, that in this spirited proclamation, scarcely appropriate, indeed, for men under full flight, there was the declaration that "France rises up, and recalls her troops from this invasion." Though the republic was established in France, there was a class, more radically democratic, who were violently opposed to its moderate measures ; who insisted upon a government more thoroughly democratic; and that France, with her armies, should immediately proclaim war against every throne, and engage in the propagandism of revolutionary principles throughout all Europe. In the preamble to the French constitution which the Assembly had drawn up, it was declared, —

"The republic respects all foreign nationalities in the same manner as she expects her own to be respected. She undertakes no war with the idea of personal aggrandizement, and will never employ her strength against the liberty of any nation."

This declaration was exceedingly offensive to the " Red Republicans," as they were called. They endeavored in every way to promote insurrection in Paris., hoping to over-throw the republic, to establish the reign of radical democracy in France, and then to aid vigorously in establishing a similar government in Rome and in all the capitals of Europe. These radical democrats were divided into many antagonistic parties, but all united in a common sentiment of hostility to the existing republic. The clubs and the opposition newspapers in Paris were loud in their condemnation of French intervention in favor of the reigning pontiff.

"The minister," exclaimed Ledru Rollin in the Assembly, "who ordered an expedition to Rome, and who did not direct it to act for the interest of the Roman republic, shall henceforth bear a mark of blood on his forehead."

While the leaders of the clubs were striving to excite insurrection in the streets of Paris, M. Ledru Rollin presented in the Assembly, on the 10th of June, an act of accusation against the president and the ministry. But this very Assembly had voted to send the expedition to Rome, and to furnish the supplies. The act was promptly rejected by a large majority. The conspirators then resorted to the terrors of insurrection.

On the morning of the 13th of June, 1849, an immense concourse, composed of the lowest classes and the most desperate characters in Paris, began to gather on the boulevard near the Château d'Eau. The throng soon assumed so menacing an aspect, that all Paris was thrown into a state of alarm. It was observed that the whole body of the socialists, marching from their various clubs, were In the ranks. As in a tumultuous throng, armed with all sorts of weapons, they advanced towards the Chamber cf Deputies, they shouted, " We are going to finish with Bonaparte and the National Assembly ! " The following placard was posted throughout the streets : —

" The president of the republic, and the ministers, are without the pale of the constitution. That part of the Assembly which, by voting, has rendered itself their accomplice, is also without the pale of the constitution. National Guards, arise ! Let the workshops be closed ! Our brethren of the army remember that you are citizens, and, as such, that your first duty is to defend the constitution. Let the entire people rise ! "

General Changarnier, who was in command of the military force of Paris, quietly took his station with five regiments of infantry and cavalry in the Rue de Richelieu. When about one-half of the column of the insurgents had passed along the boulevards, he issued from his retreat, and, falling upon the flank of the struggling mass, easily cut it in two. Then wheeling to the right and left, with his troops rapidly coming up from the rear, he advanced in both directions at the pas de charge. The insurgents, terror-stricken, fled in all directions. Not a bullet was fired ; not a sabre was crimsoned with blood. In a few moments, the streets were cleared. It was so adroitly done, that shouts of derisive laughter echoed through the streets of Paris at the expense of the discomfited insurgents.

The conspirators were so sure that they should succeed in dispersing the Assembly, and in overthrowing the govern. ment, that their leaders had met, twenty-five in number, with Ledru Rollin at their head, in the Conservatoire des Arts et des Métiers, in the Rue St. Martin, to organize a provisional government. When they learned that the mob was dispersed, and that the troops were near the door, they leaped from the windows, and fled in all directions. Ledru Rollin succeeded in escaping to England.

At four o'clock in the afternoon no vestiges of the émeute could anywhere be found. The president, with his staff; rode along the whole length of the boulevards, loudly cheered by the people, who were rejoiced in being thus easily rescued from the horrors of insurrection.

This utter failure of the socialistic and radical democratic factions to overthrow the government greatly strengthened the arm of legitimate power. Though the success of the French army at Rome re-established the authority of Pius IX., he did not immediately return to the city, but intrusted the government to three cardinals. These ecclesiastics were all strong advocates of the old civil and religious despotism. With their passions roused by the outrages committed by the insurgents, they immediately introduced measures of antagonism to all those reforms which the pope had inaugurated. When the president of the French republic was informed of this, he sent the following despatch to Colonel Ney, his orderly-officer at Rome : —

" The French republic has not sent an army to Rome to smother Italian liberty, but, on the contrary, to regulate it by defending it from its own excesses, and to give it a solid basis by restoring to the pontifical throne the prince who had boldly placed himself at the head of all useful reform. I learn with pain that the intentions of the holy father, and our own action, remain sterile in the presence of hostile passions and influences. As a basis for the pope's return, there are those who wish for proscription and tyranny, Say to General Rostolan from me, that he is to allow no action to be performed, under the shadow of the tricolor, that could distort the nature of our intervention. I thus sum up the re-establishment of the temporal power of the pope, --general amnesty, secularization of the administration, Code Napoléon, and liberal government."

The pope, Pius IX., exasperated by the rude treatment he had received from the Revolutionary party, many of whom were the open revilers of all religion, had thoroughly renounced the liberal opinions which he had formerly advocated, and was turning to Austrian despotism for sympathy and support.

The pontiff was, by universal admission, naturally a sincere, kind-hearted man, honestly seeking to promote the welfare of his realms. "Mild and affectionate in disposition, averse to violence, having a horror of blood, he aspired only to make himself loved; and he thought that all the objects of social reform might be attained by this blessed influence.

" His information, both in regard to his own and neighboring countries, was considerable ; and he was animated with a sincere desire to bring up Italy, by pacific means, to a level with those countries which had recently so much outstripped it in liberty, literature, and social progress. Unfortunately, he wanted one quality which rendered all the rest of no avail, or rather rendered them the instruments of evil : he was destitute of firmness, and, like most ecclesiastics, had no acquaintance with mankind.

"He thought he would succeed in ruling men, and directing the social movement which he saw was inevitable, by appealing only to the humane and generous feeling; forgetting that the violent and selfish are incessantly acting, and that, unless they are firmly restrained, the movement will soon be perverted to objects of rapine and spoliation. Experience soon taught him this; and, in consequence, he was forced into the hands of the other party, became the opponent of progress, and acquired the character of vacilation and inconsistency. Kind and benevolent, but weak and inexperienced, he was the man of all others best fitted to inaugurate, and least to direct or restrain, a revolution."

The emperor of the French, having rescued the pope from revolutionary violence, and replaced him upon his throne, was much disappointed to find him turning against those reforms for the promotion of which France had interposed in his favor. The emperor wrote to the pope, urging him to grant those reforms which the welfare of his States so imperiously demanded.

"I entreat your holiness," wrote the emperor, "to listen to the voice of a devoted son of the church, but who comprehends the necessities of his epoch, and who perceives that brutal force is not sufficient to resolve questions and to re-move difficulties. I see in the decisions of your holiness either the germ of a future of glory and of tranquillity, or the sure continuance of violence and calamity."

The priestly court of Rome was not at all disposed to co-operate with the emperor of the French in his endeavors to popularize the papal government, It opposed all reform. The Austrian princes, whom the treaties of 1815 had imposed upon the people of the dismembered Italian States, had fled before the uprising of the people. The question of Italian confederacy, or of Italian unity, was everywhere agitated. The pope still retained his throne. He was maintained there by French troops. .All the Catholic powers, and apparently all the leading Catholic laymen, in Europe, like Thiers, were agreed in the opinion, that it would not be consistent with the interests of Europe that Victor Emanuel, or Francis Joseph, or any other sovereign, should be permitted to annex the papal territory to his dominions, and thus compel the holy father to become his subject.

" The only possible security for the independence of the pope," said M. Thiers, "is the temporal sovereignty."

A very able writer, in a pamphlet entitled " Le Pape et le Congrès," says, "In a political point of view, it is necessary that the chief of two hundred millions of Catholics should not belong to any person ; that he should not be subordinate to any power; and that the august hand which governs souls, not being bound by any dependence, should be able to raise itself above all human passions.

" If the pope were not an independent sovereign, he would be a Frenchman, an Austrian, a Spaniard, an Italian ; and the title of his nationality would take from him his character of universal pontiff. The Holy See would be nothing but the support of a throne at Paris, at Vienna, at Madrid."